| Steven Carlson on Wed, 16 May 2001 17:56:52 +0200 (CEST) |
[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]
| <nettime> City by City: London, UK |
Dear Nettime,
Geert Lovink suggested I post this newsletter to the list.
It's a story of fear, loathing and innovation in post-bubble London.
Hope you find it entertaining and informative ...
Steven Carlson
nowEurope moderator
---
nowEurope: City by City
A city-by-city look at who's building the European Internet
Tuesday, May 15 2001
http://nowEurope.com
FIRST GLANCE
Dealing with disaster
BIRD'S EYE VIEW
Europe's 800-pound gorilla
ON THE GROUND
Netimperative -- Making sense, maybe even money
wcities -- Shifting gears
Lastminute.com -- A test of nerves
Boo.com -- Embracing the village leper
WHERE'S THE MONEY?
Moving the goalposts
AD VALUE
Well read and in the red
THE GURU
Mike Butcher -- Guru for hire
CONFERENCE BEAT
Upcoming Events in Europe
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We value reader tips and contacts
__________________________________________________________________
FIRST GLANCE
Dealing with disaster
This issue is a different type of City by City. It's about
post-crash London, about surviving when reality has conspired
against your dot-com dreams.
London is just too big for City by City's normal approach. No
handful of company profiles can even come close to taking the
pulse of the internet and new technology sectors here. So, we
chose this more selective angle.
London is also a city of extremes. Because it is Europe's
financial capital, and partly because of its extravagant
media, nowhere on the Continent did the internet boom roar
loader. And nowhere has the bust hit harder. While other
European markets are starting to regroup and move on
cautiously, London is still searching for the bottom.
Thus, it seemed natural to concentrate in this edition of
City by City on four companies that have taken a serious hit
and to examine how they managed to survive--in one form or
another. One saw it coming and abandoned its original
strategy (wcities). Another was rescued by a new investor
(Netimperative). A third is racing against time to escape a
share price collapse that might yet kill it (Lastminute.com).
And one completely collapsed (Boo.com), only to have its name
salvaged.
Each (excepting Boo) has so far endured through a combination
of good timing, good planning and iron resolve. But they will
need more of the same to continue surviving.
__________________________________________________________________
BIRD's EYE VIEW
Europe's 800-pound gorilla
London is the center of nearly everything in the UK. It's home
to 9 million people. It is one of the world's great financial
capitals in a country with high GDP, an entrepreneurial
culture, and a liberalized and competitive telecoms market. Its
language is the language of the internet.
All that fosters massive technological development and a
healthy embrace of the internet by individuals and business.
According to eMarketer, 44% of UK homes have a personal
computer. EMarketer also reports that 32.2% of adult UK
residents are active internet users (more than one hour per
week), compared to 25.5% in France and 19.4% in Germany. A more
liberal standard applied by Angus Reid Group (use in the last
30 days) identifies 41% as internet users.
Thus, the UK lags only Europe's Nordic countries in terms of
percentages online, but, with a population of 60 million, more
than makes up for it in real numbers.
The high rate of access is aided by its relatively low cost.
The average monthly cost is USD 32, according to Boston
Consulting Group, compared to USD 34 in France and USD 40 in
Germany. Most of the advantage comes from low average internet
provider charges. Indeed, a KPMG survey found 55% of home
internet users in the U.K. use free internet service deals.
On the business side, 34% of UK companies are connected,
according to Datamonitor, against a European average of 27%.
Andersen Consulting reports that 62% of UK businesses view
e-commerce as a real competitive threat, compared to the
European average of 40%.
E-commerce turnover, meanwhile, was USD 3.93 billion in 1999,
according to eMarketer, which also expects 2003 turnover to
reach USD 101 billion, second only to their projection for USD
119 billion in Germany.
Mobile phone penetration in the UK, on the other hand, is
merely mediocre, but typical for a country with a
well-established and reliable fixed-line system. According to a
European Commission study, 32.2% of UK residents had mobile
phones by 1999, well behind the Nordic countries and poorer
countries with inferior fixed-line systems.
<http://www.emarketer.com>
<http://www.angusreidinteractive.com/flash/index.htm>
<http://www.bcg.com> (Boston Consulting Group)
<http://www.kpmg.com>
<http://www.ac.com> (Andersen Consulting)
<http://europa.eu.int/> (European Commission)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
eMarketer -- the world's leading provider of Internet statistics
- makes sense of all the numbers and provides a realistic
overview of the Internet marketplace. <http://www.emarketer.com>
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
__________________________________________________________________
ON THE GROUND
Netimperative -- Making sense, maybe even money
Felicia Jackson will never forget that Monday morning one year
ago. At 9:30 am she called the staff together and broke the
news: Netimperative had been placed into liquidation.
Just days before, the company's main backer, investment and
research firm Durlacher, had pulled out of a commitment to pump
USD 7.2 million into the company. Worse, Jackson had already
launched the expansion that was to be funded by Durlacher.
There were no reserves. No time. The company had hit the wall
before it even knew it. "We were shell shocked." Jackson
remembers.
Netimperative went online in 1999, providing a portal of news
and services for the internet professional. It proved
successful in attracting its targeted audience. But the plan
was, like so many others, painfully over-optimistic in terms of
attracting advertising. The company had also spent heavily
moving offices and recruiting internationally.
But Jackson didn't give up. "We still had a sensible model:
Create a community and then serve it."
So, she frantically phoned investor after potential investor.
Incredibly, Jackson found her white knight by the end of the
week and before the staff disintegrated. On Friday evening
Internet Business Group (IBG), a marketing, consulting and
investment venture, agreed to pay about USD 1.5 million to
acquire the company from liquidators Kroll Buchler Phillips.
Crucial to the deal, says Jackson, was IBG's recognition that
Netimperative's largest expenditures had been one-off charges.
And, she admits, "Anyone who says there's no luck involved in
finding investment is lying."
Netimperative did not, however, then just skip merrily on its
way. The staff of 35 has been cut to 17. Overall spending has
been slashed by more than 80%. And the company may still not be
out of the woods.
Jackson, 32, has just announced the site will switch to paid
membership. Six-month subscriptions will run USD 72 (Ł50), with
an introductory offer of two years for the same fee. She won't
say how many of her 8,000 members will have to sign up for her
to break even.
The move has London dot-comers aflutter. For, now that most
purely online ventures have abandoned the hope that advertising
will butter their bread, many are staring straight at the need
to charge their audience. Netimperative will, in effect, be
their guinea pig.
Jackson accepts the role bravely. "If not enough people are
willing to pay for it, then why are we doing it?"
With hindsight, it seems crazy this question wasn't asked
earlier, and not just at Netimperative. But to be fair, a year
ago every web-based business was under pressure to do one
thing: gather market share. Charging for content within a sea
of free content seemed suicidal.
Obviously, things have changed. And, despite the dot-com pain,
things do seem to make more sense now.
<http://www.netimperative.com>
<http://www.durlacher.com>
<http://www.ibg.com>
wcities -- Shifting gears
As disaster looms for many free content providers, some have
decided to to start charging their audience. If they like it,
need it, want it, they’ll pay for it. Maybe.
But what to do when, like city guide web site wcities, you're
just not specialized enough? After all, even if the content is
great, few surfers will pay for it when there's so much free
travel and destination information out there. Answer: Switch
customers.
Tan Rasab, 33, funded the launch of wcities in 1999 with his
own money and modest investments from family and friends. He
raised USD 8m in venture capital later the same year, building
a solid audience and quickly adding cities and location-based
services to the site.
But, as with NetImperative, his expectations for advertising
revenues proved grossly unrealistic. Though his staff won't
admit the company ever reached a crisis point, it was surely
headed there.
So, the company shifted gears. Instead of marketing the product
directly to a mass audience--with all the attendant costs--and
figuring out how to make money doing so, wcities decided to
concentrate on creating content and, in effect, to let someone
with an existing audience sell it.
Now wcities licenses the use of its more than 300 city guides
and location based services to web and WAP portals, wireless
telecom operators and travel industry players. It was a clean
shift from B2C to B2B. (Seems New Economy manufacturers still
need high volume retailers.)
And it worked. The company has signed a number of high profile
deals, beginning with an investment and distribution pact with
BT Openworld. BT got 17% of wcities for USD 15 million and also
agreed to purchase wcities content for its web portal,
Btinternet, and mobile portal, Genie.
A web, WAP and iTV distribution deal with, Freeserve, the UK's
largest free internet service provider, was followed by a web
deal with Italia OnLine. And on April 11, the company announced
an agreement to plug its content into AOL's Digital City, the
leading destination information service in the U.S., as well as
AOL's MapQuest and other destination services.
Meanwhile, wcities no longer need worry about advertising and
promotions or bite their nails over their own website's traffic
figures. It can concentrate on creating solid content and
backing it with a platform that can deliver to any online
device.
According to Nigel Couzens, wcities’ head of marketing, the
company hopes to close another financing round within the next
couple months, raising USD 25-30 million. He says the money
will likely come from a new strategic investor.
At that news, nowEurope's antennae were raised. wcities has
just been doing a lot of talking with AOL over a distribution
deal and may soon have a new strategic investor. Will it be
AOL?
After an awkward moment of silence, Couzens said he could not
disclose that kind of information.
With or without an AOL investment, wcities has escaped dot-com
oblivion with a nifty shift of gears.
<http://www.wcities.com>
<http://www.freeserve.com>
<http://www.iol.it> (Italia OnLine)
<http://www.aol.com>
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Europemedia.net - The information hub for Europe's new media
http://www.europemedia.net
Europemedia.net provides new media, telecoms and technology news from
across all Europe, as well as a personalised newsletter. You can find
event listings, features, searchable archives and industry & country
factfiles. Europemedia also produces personalised news and content
solutions for clients.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Lastminute.com -- A test of nerves
It's the company that listed at the (what else?) last minute.
On March 14 2000, Lastminute.com floated 26% of its shares on
New York's NASDAQ and the London Stock Exchange, raising a
whopping USD 150 million for the website that sells last minute
travel services, tickets and gifts.
Investors eagerly bought up shares, pushing the share price to
nearly USD 45. But then the floor fell out of the NASDAQ, and
what might have been a price correction after a hyped IPO
turned into a bloodbath. Within days, the share price dropped
below USD 10. The stock bottomed out in March of this year at
USD 2.38 per share and now huddles just below USD 4.
Of course, Lastminute got its cash, but it won't last forever.
There are few signs the NASDAQ will rebound any time this year,
and Lastminute is still losing money. Its reserves should (and
must) hold out at least until mid-2002, when the company hopes
to start turning a profit.
In the meantime, the share price looms over management as an
annoyance and a threat.
An overvalued share price for a company in a rapid growth stage
is a cushion against mistakes. It offers an assurance of cheap
funds, if needed. Conversely, a share price in the toilet means
there is no room for error.
Shareholders will scream over any deviation from projected
performance, aware that disaster waits should the company run
out of money before profits are realized or the share price
rebounds enough to allow raising more cash. It makes for a very
high stakes test of nerves.
"It certainly forces you to focus." says Lastminute's head of
global marketing Sep Riahi. "I wouldn't say it makes it a
pressure cooker, because it already is a pressure cooker." he
adds with a laugh.
But Lastminute is hitting its projected numbers. It is the most
recognized e-commerce brand in the UK, and it's one of the most
popular European-based e-commerce sites. In fiscal year 2000
(ends September 30), the site generated USD 49 million in
revenues, up from USD 3.7 million in fiscal 1999. Most
recently, second quarter results for fiscal 2001 showed
transactions worth USD 45 million, up 47% over the previous
quarter and nearly four and a half times the total transaction
value in the same period of 2000.
The other risk from a share price collapse in this day of stock
options, is that key employees will lose enthusiasm and may
even jump ship. The antidote for this, according to Riahi, has
to be given long beforehand. "It's very important to get the
right people on board early on. From the beginning, we've
stressed this is a long-term thing and we didn't want anyone
looking for an early exit."
Easier said than done, but the original team gathered by Martha
Lane-Fox and Brent Hoberman is, to their credit, still in place
at Lastminute.
Ironically, Lastminute may be getting some benefit from the
share-price plunge. After greed, fear may be the next best
motivatorand control on spending. "We've definitely been more
careful with our money." says Riahi.
And, with much less dot-com clutter fighting for attention,
advertising spacefrom outdoor to onlineis cheaper and delivers
more impact.
But will Lastminute reach profitability by 2002? The company
lost a mind-boggling USD 51.4 million in fiscal 2000. It lost
another USD 29.9 million, mostly in operating losses, in the
first half of fiscal 2001. On top of that, the company spent an
additional USD 30.8 million acquiring France's most popular
travel website, Degriftour. Cash reserves are down to USD 89
million.
Sometime, and soon, Lastminute will have to start not only
generating more revenues, but reducing losses if it hopes to
break even by next year. Otherwise, that lousy share price
will, indeed, mean the end of Lastminute.
<http://www.lastminute.com>
Boo.com -- Embracing the village leper
If there is a poster child for dot-com hubris, it is Boo.com.
Its birth was extravagant, its death spectacular. But,
ironically, the name that attracts so much scorn across the
internet industry is still alive.
Last September, Boo.com was relaunched by New York-based
fashionmall.com, which purchased the Boo name, it's magazine
Boom and other branded content for an undisclosed amount.
But even if Boo came cheap, what on earth, you might ask,
were Fashionmall thinking?
As a corporate entity Boo was founded in London at the end of
1998 by two 30-year-old Swedes, Ernst Malmsten and Kajsa
Leander. They raised USD 135 million from such blue chip
investors as the Benetton family and French billionaire
Bernard Arnault, as well as US investment banks Goldman Sachs
and JP Morgan.
The pair then proceeded to spend with reckless abandon on
everything from marketing and promotions, to recruitment and
technology. It took a year to actually launch the website,
and, only six months after that, Boo was out of cash. By
then, the market had begun to sour on online retailers.
Appalled by Boo's burn rate, and probably embarrassed by
their own lack of supervision, investors declined to produce
the USD 30 million Malmsten and Leander said they needed to
keep Boo afloat.
And it only got uglier.
The 300 staffers (who survived earlier job cuts) each got a
mere USD 1,200 in severance. In liquidation, according to
CNET, the company's customer information, including names,
telephone and credit card numbers, addresses and shopping
habits--gathered with promises of protecting privacy--were
sold to the highest bidder.
Adding one final insult to injury, the Guardian reported that
Malmsten and Leander held an auction among London publishers
for the "warts and all" story of Boo's rise and fall. The
pair reportedly signed with Random House for nearly USD
200,000.
After all that, Fashionmall stepped in and embraced the
village leper. Why?
Fashionmall's rather gruff New York public relations folks
wouldn't answer. (Nor would they comment on Boo's current
performance.) But there is one simple answer: The vast
majority of Boo's potential customers don't give a fig about
the company's history. Thanks to Boo's gargantuan branding
efforts, the name is widely known and, among the masses,
still says "chic" and "trendy."
Fashionmall still believes in online retail, and by running
Boo from New York (Boo has no London presence whatsoever,
despite the site's Euro-Brit flavor), the company can
administer it relatively cheaply.
Now, about online retail ...
<http://www.boo.com>
<http://www.fashionmall.com>
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The VEO European Internet Newsletter is designed to keep
professionals interested in the Internet up-to-date with the
progress of the rapidly converging new economy of the Internet,
Interactive TV, telecoms and mobile applications across Europe.
This twice-monthly newsletter is a service to clients and
partners of VEO (http://www.veo.net), a business development firm
that accelerates the expansion of Internet related companies in
the digital world. Read the archives and sign up for free at
http://www.veo.net/pages/news/news.html.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
__________________________________________________________________
WHERE's THE MONEY?
Moving the goalposts
The week City by City visited London, News Corporation's USD
650 million venture capital fund Epartners decided to give back
USD 520 million--80% of the fund's money--to investors. "There
is a lot of capital still chasing a rapidly dwindling number of
great opportunities. We just don't think we can put that much
money to work effectively." Epartner's managing director Mark
Booth told the Financial Times.
What's wrong with this picture? Do innovators and entrepreneurs
suddenly stop appearing during a market slump? nowEurope thinks
not. But Booth is blaming them for failing to come up with the
goods. And that is a foolish notion.
The explanation lies not with entrepreneurs but with investors.
Let's face it, many of them invested imprudently in the frenzy
of 1999-2000 and got burned. Now, they have moved the goalposts
back to where they should have been in the first place and, in
many cases, even further back.
Suddenly, from big VCs to independent angels, investors are
stressing the value of aggressive and methodical due diligence,
as if blessed by some new level of wisdom.
Despite the pullback, most agree there is money ready to be
invested, and from every level. "Entrepreneurs are suffering.
But there's still a lot money out there. It takes a lot longer
to close a deal, though." says Adam Valkin from Arts Alliance.
As if to provide evidence that money is, indeed, still out
there, Venture Capital Report, an association of more than 200
business angels, recently hosted an event at London's Cavendish
Hotel, where a handful of screened entrepreneurs gave their
best pitch. About 50 angels were in attendance.
Even in the worst of times it seems London has a depth of
equity investors with which no other European city can even
pretend to compete.
<http://www.epartners.com>
<http://www.artsalliance.com>
<http://www.vcr1978.com>
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
NEED A HIGH-QUALITY WEB APPLICATION?
Nextra provides custom web solutions for clients such as
GE, the Four Seasons Hotel Group, and Citibank.
Check our portfolio - http://www.nextra.hu/english/portfolio.html -
Web applications for e-commerce, corporate Intranets
or Extranets, HR systems, client management, banking, publishing
portals and many other areas
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
__________________________________________________________________
AD VALUE
News sites and red ink
The British do love their newspapers. Ten national dailies
combine to print more than 13 million copies. Nine national
Sundays add another 15 million copies. About 55% of the adult
population reads at least one daily newspaper.
Combine that with the industry's reputation for aggressive,
even eccentric, behavior, and it is no surprise the newspapers’
race to embrace the web--joined by everyone from the BBC and
The Economist, to Ananova the virtual newscaster and the Anorak
Press Review--has been frenetic. But the results have been less
than impressive.
News sites seem to be bleeding no end of cash, ad rates have
plunged and the wreckage is starting to pile up. The Financial
Times, which can boast one of the best news sites in the UK
(especially for business and finance, of course), has just laid
off 40 employees from its online division. Express Newspapers,
publishers of the fourth widest circulated daily in Britain,
has abandoned its online version completely.
It wasn't supposed to be this way. The news media already had
the content and working relationships with advertisers. A new
way to significantly widen their audience without having to
print more copies, obtain more licenses or buy satellite time
was supposed to be a boon.
But, as everyone knows, the advertising pay-off never happened.
A year ago, banner ads were selling for as much as USD 40 per
1,000 unique visits per month, but have plunged to as low as
USD 3, according to Sam Michel, who runs Chinwag, a publisher
of online mailing lists and newsletters, including
UK-Netmarketing and MarketingSherpa.
Though he may be biased (as might nowEurope), Michel says
advertising agencies in London are continuing to push online
spending, but are showing a preference for smaller, even more
targeted content, like online newsletters. Email marketing also
continues to gobble up more and more online marketing budgets.
"It's not that banner advertising doesn't work. It's just that
it was too expensive." he says.
Who still likes banner ads? Financial services, travel industry
players and technical equipment makers, says Michel. But there
just aren't enough to go around to meet the spending at all
those news sites, never mind the whole universe of online
ventures.
So, while few observers expect any more big outlets to abandon
their online operations altogether, expect more layoffs and
cuts.
<http://news.ft.com/home/rw/>
<http://www.express.co.uk>
<http://www.chinwag.com>
Top 10 web properties in the UK, April 2001
Property Unique Audience Time/visit
(millions)
1. MSN 5.1 31:48
2. Yahoo! 4.5 40:32
3. AOL Time Warner 3.8 17:48
4. British Telecom 3.1 24:21
5. Freeserve 3.1 12:40
6. Microsoft 3.1 6:15
7. Lycos Network 2.9 13:22
8. BBC 2.1 13:57
9. Excite@Home 2.0 12:41
10. Ask Jeeves 1.9 10:18
Source: Nielsen-Netratings
Top 10 online advertisers in the UK, April 2001
Advertiser Impressions
(millions)
1. TRUSTe 95.9
2. MSN 77.7
3. Amazon 39.7
4. Yahoo! 38.5
5. Jobsite 26.4
6. Excite 23.6
7. Freeserve 22.3
8. Marbles 21.5
9. Compaq 20.4
10. Lycos 19.3
Source: Nielsen-Netratings
<http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/>
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
nowEurope is now selling sponsorships
Upcoming issues include: Paris, Budapest and Tallin
For rates and availability, please contact:
Buba Dolovac
<buba@noweurope.com>
+36.20.377.1711
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
__________________________________________________________________
THE GURU
Guru for hire
A guru among gurus, Mike Butcher was, until recently, news
editor at the European edition of The Industry Standard. He had
left the top editor's job at a smaller publication, New Media
Age, only eight months previous.
Now he's freelancing.
After just 23 editions, the weekly's US parent suddenly pulled
the plug, dumping the London-based magazine and nearly all its
65 staffers.
Such a short run in the publishing business means its owners
never even gave the title a chance. Butcher wasn't eager to
trash his former employers, but he didn't disagree. "It was
because of the very fast slowdown in America where the economy
looks like a car crash." he says. "It had nothing to do with
our performance."
In other words, the parent company lost the will to follow
through on a project it had already launched, but well before
it could have begun to pay off.
The London magazine's management were given a week to find an
investor willing to keep the title alive. They hired Credit
Suisse First Boston. But a Netimperative-like miracle didn't
happen.
The magazine's closure had a particular impact in London. This
was not another e-zine. It was good old-fashioned print on
paper covering the new economy for a well-placed readership
that had already reached 30,000. Its sudden fall was surprising
and a symbolic blow to Europe's new economy apostles. "In terms
of perception of the new economy, it certainly was a big deal."
says Butcher.
Despite his personal experience, Butcher believes Britain's
dot-com picture is bright. "I don't know if we've bottomed out,
but it's a good time to invest in tech start-ups." he says.
"The web isn't going away. The number of people online is still
going through the roof. Wireless is not going away."
And money is being invested, Butcher insists, though "they're
not the huge deals, and there aren't many IPOs." He also
doesn't see the wider implications from the tech slump being as
bad as in the US. "The tech sector here is a smaller part of
the overall economy. I’m not saying it hasn't been difficult,
but there's still a lot more tech growth ahead in Europe."
Hopefully some of that will benefit an unemployed journalist,
or two.
__________________________________________________________________
CONFERENCE BEAT
We welcome reader recommendations
for upcoming European conferences
mailto:conferences@noweurope.com
May 22-23: MforMobile Content & Entertainment, Cannes, FR
Partnerships, strategies and revenues for mobile content and
entertainment. Contact Jonathan Gardner at +44 20 7375 7563.
http://www.mformobile.com/ents
Jun 9-12: East-West Collaboration Conference; Budapest, HU.
To bring together companies and organizations from Central
and Eastern Europe, the CIS and the 15 member states of the
European Union with the purpose of helping them find
potential business partners. Contact Viktoria Levai at
+36.1.327.3100 http://www.osi.hu/ep/im2001
Jun 25-26: 14th Bled Electronic Commerce Conference; Bled, SI
This year's theme is e-Everything: e-Commerce, e-Government,
e-Household, e-Democracy. Contact Joze Gricar at
+386.4.237.4291 http://ecom.fov.uni-mb.si/
__________________________________________________________________
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
nowEurope would like to thank the following people for their
help in preparing this issue:
Peterjon Creswell
John Browning
__________________________________________________________________
MASTHEAD
Copyright 2000 nowEurope Publications
Published by Steven Carlson <steve@noweurope.com>
Edited by Christopher Condon <chris@noweurope.com>
Sponsorship enquires: Buba Dolovac <buba@noweurope.com>
Please forward this newsletter in its entirety.
nowEurope: City by City is a sister publication of the nowEurope
discussion forum, serving European Internet professionals since
1995. The nowEurope archives are located at:
<http://www.topica.com/noweurope-digest/read>
For your FREE subscription, send a blank email to:
<mailto:noweurope-digest-subscribe@topica.com>
To unsubscribe: <mailto:noweurope-digest-unsubscribe@topica.com>.
Be aware that if you're subscribed under an old email address
that is forwarding to your present address, the above address
won't work. In dire need, please contact Steven Carlson at
<mailto:steve@noweurope.com>.
# distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
# <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
# collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
# more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
# archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net