"Ad agencies have been a party to the biggest one-night stand in business history. [Dot-coms’ massive media advertising] felt good, but the next morning [they had] a huge hangover and a ton of regret. Building a brand is no faster or slower than ever before."
—Scott Galloway, chief executive officer, Brand Farm

"A lot of people think that the New Economy is all about the Internet. I think that it’s being fueled by the Internet—as well as by cell phones, digital assistants, and the like—but that it’s really about customers."
—Patricia Seybold, author and consultant

HAVE PDA, WILL TRAVEL

Keeping track of all the electronic devices that connect you to the Internet may soon become as tedious as keeping track of your remote controls. (You know: Which one works with the television? Which with the VCR? Which with the CD player?) According to Forrester Research, by 2003, 45% of online users will connect to the Internet via more than one electronic device. About 30% of households will have more than one connected device. The researchers estimate that 22% of online time will be spent using devices other than personal computers.

TOO FAR GONE

You suspect that your wired lifestyle has, well, fried you a bit. But you don’t know how much. See how many statements you agree with in the quiz below—which someone e-mailed us, of course. Then decide whether you need professional help.

You just tried to enter your password on the microwave.

You haven’t played solitaire with a real deck of cards in years.

You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of three.

You call your son’s pager to let him know it’s time to eat. He e-mails you back from his bedroom, "What’s for dinner?"

Your daughter sells Girl Scout Cookies via her Web site.

You chat several times a day with a stranger from South Africa, but you haven’t spoken with your next-door neighbor yet this year.

You pull up in your driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home.

Your reason for not staying in touch with family is that they don’t have e-mail addresses.

WISHFUL THINKING

It could be a case of not wanting to face up to reality. A mere 4% of chief executive officers interviewed by management-consulting firm A.T. Kearney said e-business is their main challenge. Just 1% of the executives whose companies are pursuing an e-business initiative indicated that it is currently a critical success factor for their companies, and only 5% said it would be critical within three years. Fewer than half (44%) expected to participate in a business-to-business exchange.

About three-quarters of the CEOs did say that their firms are pursuing e-business strategies, and almost 60% say e-commerce has changed the way they do business.

GETTING TO KNOW YOU...

Legislation being developed in the House Commerce Committee would allow patients online access to a national database containing the malpractice and disciplinary histories for U.S. physicians. The repository, the National Practitioner Data Bank, has been around since 1990 but has been available only to hospitals and state governments. Just a handful of states currently publish this type of information online.

SOUND OFF

Some punny definitions making the rounds:

Bernadette: the act of torching your bills.

Cartoonist: what you call your mechanic.

Crestfallen: dropped toothpaste.

Eyebrows: what I do when I go shopping.

Foreclose: why teenagers go to the mall.

Primate: removing your spouse from the computer.

SPIES LIKE US

Long before Larry Ellison’s Oracle sent people raking through the trash at Microsoft, Francis Cabot Lowell did his own "investigating." On a visit to England in 1811, Lowell toured a textile factory, memorized the specifics of the Cartwright loom, and created his own version in Massachusetts. He made out like a bandit.

Even if there is nothing new under the sun, though, there are new ways of doing old things—and the Internet is making corporations leakier than they’ve ever been. To learn the tricks of the trade, both for gathering intelligence and for keeping secrets safe, Context turned to Marc Barry. Barry is the co-author, with journalist Adam Penenberg, of Spooked: Espionage in Corporate America. Barry is also the founder of an investigative firm called C3I Analytics and is at work with Raytheon to develop a state-of-the-art intelligence center.

Some of his recommendations may not fit in many corporate cultures, but Barry warns that those who don’t act will leave themselves vulnerable. Here’s what he says:

CONTEXT: What is involved in an intelligence operation?

MARC BARRY: Despite Hollywood’s vision of slinking, trenchcoat-clad spies, I rarely go anywhere near the subject of an investigation. I do secondary literature searches to pull up everything that has been written about a company, and I do patent searches to identify the people who invented specific products. That way, I get the names of people to approach. That’s the clean way to do it.

CONTEXT: And what’s the dirtier way to do it?

BARRY: Posing as a venture capitalist and debriefing an inventor on his invention. Most venture capitalists won’t sign nondisclosure and noncompete agreements, so the inventor wouldn’t necessarily be suspicious, and nothing would keep the interviewer from using the information.

CONTEXT: What can become the Achilles’ heel for corporations?

BARRY: A disgruntled employee. I search for them on Internet employment databases, where people have posted their resumes.

One individual felt so slighted by his corporation that he sent me information that told my client how much his company was going to be bidding on projects and how much it had bid on projects it was awarded. The guy broke out for my client, a competitor, how much it cost to install all sorts of products. He was so devastating I eventually had to tell him to stop because I was getting nervous.

CONTEXT: How can companies protect themselves?

BARRY: First, the I/T department should monitor Internet traffic in and out of the company at all times. Employees should be told they are being monitored. Second, companies should check headhunter boards for employees’ names. Third, all suppliers and employees should be required to sign nondisclosure agreements that cite the Economic Espionage Act [under which people can be imprisoned for trafficking in corporate secrets] so people know the penalties.