Internet has a bright future, but cyberspace is still cramped

By Lawrence Pintak

JAKARTA (JP): It's' time for an Asian cyberspace reality check.

"Log on to the future." "Getting the most from the Internet." "Commuting through your computer." It's tough to open a business publication these days and not get wound up about the World Wide Web.

So why is it I can't actually get much business done electronically?

I may not be able to hack my way into the National Security Agency's Crays, but computers and I have had a love-hate relationship since that first IBM 286 I bought back in 1982. And if 15 years wandering around the developing world as a TV correspondent taught me anything, it was that I didn't want to pay the phone bills myself.

So, when I came out here a few years ago, e-mail was a pretty obvious choice. I quickly learned how Alexander Graham Bell must have felt: Neat technology, but nobody to call.

Don't get me wrong. I have had some nice electronic exchanges with old friends I reconnected with, thanks to CompuServe's members directory. But business? Well, let's review.

One of the world's largest telecommunications companies was a client. Naturally they use e-mail, right? So why did I get stuck spending a Saturday morning installing e-mail software on the local managing director's computer? (He never used it).

Or then there was the time we and our affiliate in Hong Kong were rushing to finish a major proposal that would be presented in Jakarta the following morning. My Hong Kong colleague e-mailed me the document for comment as he ran for the plane. It was in my electronic mailbox minutes later, in gibberish. His computer spoke Internet. Mine spoke CompuServe. The salutation was crystal clear. It said that if I had any problem reading the content, I should contact an e-mail address in the U.S. for instructions. I did. The response came eight hours after he arrived in Jakarta with a hard copy.

Another major company we deal with was recently electronically crippled. It seems one of their employees quit. He was the one with the CompuServe account.

Even the cyber-savvy can end up cyber-boobs. Up in Scotland, where they are serious about saving money, one far-thinking firm set up a company-wide e-mail system linking its three offices. A certain money-saver, until they got the phone bill. It seems the computers were ringing each other up to say "hi" every three minutes, 24 hours a day, for an entire month.

One publication in the U.S. to which I contribute is forever full of articles about the new electronic world and it's impact on business. The last time I e-mailed them an article, they e- mailed it right back, asking me to fax it.

And that's when I can get access to cyberspace.

Half the time, the local CompuServe connection here in Jakarta is not interested in an interface. And when it is, at 9600 baud and a hefty local surcharge, one might be tempted to question the boasts of electronic cost-efficiency.

The local Internet provider is marginally better. But I'm thinking of having a redial button surgically implanted. Once on- line, we Jakartans are treated to the Information Age equivalent of watching paint dry as some designer's idea of a graphic experience battles its way through the local, rain-drenched, copper wires.

Still, it is an improvement over CompuServe. If I wanted my electronic fix bad enough -- or feared I might actually have some (perish the thought) important e-mail -- there was no choice but an overseas call. With it came the joy of watching the minutes tick by as the server uploaded the really unnecessary images that constitute the "user-friendly" environment, at three bucks a minute.

I tried Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia. I finally settled on a server in California. A few weeks ago, a colleague in Singapore -- much to my shock -- announced that instead of faxing, he was going to e-mail me a document later in the day. Over the next day and a half, I checked my mailbox four times, via California. On my phone bill. And he was going to fax it to me. Free. What was it I was saying about saving money?

We're talking CompuServe here. I tried for six months, and it was only recently that I actually got on the Internet itself. I tried through CompuServe, but it didn't work. So I bought a computer magazine (US$12) which said the old version of CompuServe's software made it difficult. So, I dutifully dialed up CompuServe (via California) and ordered the new version. No dice. Electronic roadblocks at every click.

The heck with CompuServe, I decided. I'll go direct. So I spent 25 minutes on-line clocking up long distance charges -- while enduring the Information Age version of placing an order with an imbecile -- and downloaded a copy of Netscape Navigator.

No more messing around. It was all there. Or so I thought. But the sucker wouldn't even install. It wanted a "winsock." And I left mine on the sailboat I used to own.

Where are the carrier pigeons when you need them?

Still, as someone in the corporate communications business, I have to admire the hype. One recent advertising section entitled Asian Cyberspace left me proud to live on the cutting edge:

"While some industrialized Western nations struggle with the financial hurdles of how to integrate and upgrade their existing copper-wire networks," it intoned, "nations such as China, Singapore and Indonesia can transform a community almost overnight from just a few old, shared telephone lines to high- tech broadband connections for everyone."

A friend faxed the article to me. He couldn't access his e- mail.

Lawrence Pintak is senior advisor to Pintak Corporate Communications, a full service corporate communications firm in Jakarta.