Value of the Internet...

In 1992, the total number of users, for all the combined services was less than 2 million (less than 1% of the U. S. population). Total users of early forms of the WWW were about 4 million at the end of 1993, a hearty increase of 100% in a single year. However, less than a million users trafficked the superhighway and those still predominantly the elite. The years 1994 and 1995 would see tremendous expansion among users. By mid 1995, there were 6-8 million customers from the major commercial services, In 1995, the predictions were that over 5 million users would be on line, a figure which was supposed to grow to 20-25 million by the year 2000. Once again, the estimates proved far too cautious. By mid 1996, according to one report, there were 23.5 million WWW users (nearly 10% of the U. S. population - a ten-fold increase in four years). The number of home pages had grown from 8 million in May, 1995 to 35 million in May, 1996 - an increase of approximately 450% - enough to make even the most frothy growth projectors envious.

The Internet had become affordable. For less than a quarter (price of one phone call, a third of a Coke, one photocopy, or two pieces of gum), one can e-mail hundreds of thousands of customers, FTP thousands of pages, download software that only a decade ago was available only to the highest levels of diplomats, search sophisticated data bases for obscure theological material, or post hundreds of pages of text.

Link it.....and they will come!

Build It....and they will come!

Keep it up....So that they will come back!

Make it Exciting...So that they will SPEND money!

The Internet is also the wave of the future with a definite generational dynamic. Very few users were born prior to 1940 (92% of users are under 40). Like it or not, it is largely a baby-boom tool.

The Internet explosion happened almost overnight and will not slow until virtually every computer in the world has net access. This is causing a culture revolution with enormous impact on almost every aspect of our lives. Historians will look back on the birth, and growth of the Internet as being significant to society as the invention of the car, telephone or the TV. Eventually the way we learn, shop even pay our bill will change, and we need to learn how to change with the times.

There are many people who say they've got a site on the Web, while, in actuality, all they have is a static on-line prescience with little to do for there business and most have not the knowledge it takes to keep it up, and nothing will be changed the next time you log in, so most people will not come back again.

The glory of the WWW, like e-mail, is immediacy of communication. Your donors can access web pages in seconds, at their convenience any time day or night. Web pages can and should be updated often, using regular newsletters, along with information on your staff and programs. Most importantly, you can provide your special donors with weekly (or even daily) reports on important dates and events, fund raising drives, and other activities you want them to know about. The best pages make good use of text, graphics, and photos, so a visit is an exciting visual experience as well as being informative.

The Internet today can potentially:

• reach millions of people cost effectively
• provide up-to-date information including publishing immediate calls-to-action
• provide cost-effective fund-raising and resource fulfillment service
• allow efficient communication among millions of geographically diverse people who do not know each other but who do share a common interest

No, it's just ahead of us in the tools right now. But we'll catch up. In closing there are four compelling reasons to begin Internet ministries.

1. The WWW offers an inexpensive and timely mass-communication tool;
2. The WWW offers high quality and quantity research data;
3. The WWW can drastically reduce the price of quality/quantity publishing;
4. The WWW will be second nature to the next generations. Those not conversant may be left behind.