What economic resources for the computer industry, if any, are
available on the Internet?

Dear mojito74,

The preponderance of economic resources on the computer industry,
including those mentioned previously, are available online, whether gratis
or after payment of per-use or subscription fees. The reasons for this are
several. First, by virtue of the new and dynamic nature of the industry,
most studies and analyses of any importance are the fresh ones issued
in periodical publications.

The swiftly changing nature of information technology, one governed
by Moore's Law, holding that data capacity and processing power
double every eighteen months, as well as by the commensurately rapid
commercial-cultural shifts, decree that the traditional book-publishing
process has sharply limited utility as a way of documenting this field. By
the time a book has been approved, edited, proofread, printed, bound,
and distributed to libraries or bookstores, much of what it has to say
is out of date. Economic news or commentary that wants to be relevant
tends to make it into print quickly, by way of digital processing tools
that mean the information is almost inevitably disseminated to the web.

So the printed matter on computer-related economics is consistently
available online in this self-referential medium. However, some
information available on the web has no counterpart in the traditional
publishing world. Sometimes this is because the content is deliberately
made unique to the web for strategic reasons of the publisher's, but
in other cases, the nature of the information and the way in which we
access it are inseparable from the web interface.

As an example of the first category of resource, which could be printed
but happens not to be, there is the Wall Street Journal's Startup Journal
for technology entrepreneurs. While the content of the Journal proper
is shielded behind a subscription wall, its publishers have seen fit to
delegate their most specialized tech-specific coverage to a subsidiary
website open to all at no charge.

WSJ Startup Journal: Technology
http://www.startupjournal.com/technology/

Another good resource is the Wired News website, an adjunct to
Wired magazine proper featuring content that doesn't make it to the
newsstand. Whereas the magazine is notorious for breathlessly purveying
industry hype, Wired News take a more factual view of personalities and
events that matter in IT. Recent stories include a study of the economic
realities behind spam, a report on fast new wireless technology that
promises to crowd the airwaves further yet, and a comparative review of
the new music-download service with which Microsoft hopes to grab market
share from Apple's successful venture in the field.

Wired News: Business Stories
http://wired.com/news/business

Other sites have no counterpart in the real world at all, even though
they hypothetically could. News.com, for instance, is a valuable source
of hard economic analysis that chooses to compete in online media rather
than the printed variety. Recent pieces include a skeptical look at the
ostensible tech rebound and a study that examines lessons of old-economy
industries from which the tech world could benefit.

News.com: Strategy & Insight
http://news.com.com/2030-1069_3-1000661.html?tag=nefd.ac

News.com: Perspectives
http://news.com.com/2016-1071_3-0.html?tag=nefd.ac

And then we have sources of economic news and analysis that could exist
only on the Internet. In particular, the various search engines provide
high-powered methods to search for information that simply have no
parallel among printed publications. The popular search engines Google,
Altavista, and Yahoo Search are surely known to all, but what may be
news to some is that so-called meta-search engines exist which aggregate
results from all of the above. A search for "broadband economic outlook"
on Metacrawler, for instance, yields a panoply of pertinent articles,
essays, and statistics hailing from New Zealand, Canada, Asia, the OECD,
and Hollywood that were indexed by multiple search engines.

Metacrawler: broadband economic outlook
http://www.metacrawler.com/info.metac/search/web/broadband%2Beconomic%2Boutlook

Another unique way to find economic news is to use one of the search
engine components specializing in news searches. Thus, queries on Google
News Search and Yahoo News Search for "microprocessor market 2005"
result in dozens of forecasts from a multitude of sources.

Google News Search: microprocessor market 2005
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=microprocessor+market+2005

Yahoo News Search
http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/search?fr=sfp&ei=UTF-8&p=microprocessor+market+2005

If you feel that my answer is incomplete or inaccurate in any way, please
post a clarification request so that I have a chance to meet your needs
before you assign a rating.

Regards,

leapinglizard

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Request for Answer Clarification by mojito74-ga on 08 Sep 2004 21:49 PDT

Hi leapinglizard

 Well, I think that we are done, I mean, you. Thank you for all your
help and for having everything ready before thursday. It was a
pleasure to interact with you and I hope that if in the future I need
again your services, I hope to find you again. You are very
professional.

 Thanks again for your hard work and good luck with your project.

                                                      Regards, my friend.

                                                                 Mojito74.

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Clarification of Answer by leapinglizard-ga on 08 Sep 2004 21:58 PDT

Thank you for the kind words and the generous tips. Best of luck with your studies.

Cheers,

leapinglizard

Very professional, great answers, exceptional work, Thank you!!!