Subject: Profit and credibility From: "Curt A. Monash" <0006058685@mcimail.com> Date: Fri, 7 Jul 95 02:18 EST

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Michael wrote a post pointing out that the Web was forbiddingly
time-consuming, not just w.r.t. graphics/modem speed and other technology
issues, but also w.r.t. the issue of finding information once you're logged
on.

Right on.

He then suggested that automated agents were a big part of the solution.

That, I have a problem with.  The problem is (I think I've raised this
before):

How can one evaluate the quality and reliability of the "information" found?


One way is to simply go through ALL of it, consider the sources, content,
presentation, etc., and form a judgment.

But there's got to be a faster way.

The traditional faster way is to pick a journalistic source and trust it. 

What source?  Many on this list hope and believe that the trusted sources
will be the online versions of today's print and other media.  There's a lot
of justification for that viewpoint.

But I hope to create an exception, a startup which elbows its way into the
forefront of the media industry.  My entry wedge will be this:

I'm ready and willing to blow the standard story "formulas" straight to
hell.  I doubt many of you are ready to do that.  

I'm also at least as ready as you are to mix news, reference materials,
newsgroups, and opinions, much more closely than is common in reputable
print media (The American Spectator is not a reputable print medium).  

The big challenge (other than financing, and I once raised $7 million for a
venture less promising-seeming than this), is writing style:

If there isn't time in this impatient world to develop a story (and if it is
to be laden with hyperlinks), how can the whole shebang be made INTERESTING?
I have some ideas for how to make content especially interesting (no, I'm
not prepared to spill EVERYTHING here), but I'd really, really appreciate
helpful comments  pertaining to sheer wordsmithing.

Curt Monash
President, Monash Information Services
cmonash@mcimail.com

He either fears his fate too much, or his desserts are small,
who dares not put it to the touch, to win or lose it all.


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