Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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9 ^? CATHERINE MCINTOSH Staff Writer The USC chapter of Golden Key Nai Honor Society will be hosting the Southeastern Regional Conference March The Southeast is the largest of all regi Golden Key. It includes chapters in South Ca North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Puerfc and the U.S. Virgin Islands," said Sam; Montgomery, treasurer and conference coorc for Golden Key. "We have 17 out of 28 chapters attendi conference, including five delegates from th Online ser How many America Online disks can one person need? AOL must think if s a lot, as it's not unusual for me to accumulate four or five in a month's time. They come with magazines, with other software, in the mail, you name it. Sometimes, 1 feel. guilty about throwing them away. I feel like I should be using the disks for something more constructive. In fact, I had considered tiling my pool with them, as Martha Stewart did with all of her unwanted credit cards. Then, I remembered I don't have a pool and decided it might he more interesting to examine the problems AOL and the other proprietary online services are facing. * If the availability of their disks was any indication, you would think the major online services' future is bright. Actually, that may not be the case. There was a time when the Internet was in its infancy, and online services reigned as the undisputed kings of cyberspace. They were easy to access, easy to use and WTT /?V \ J I W U M cn j ( 1 . CZL (&w "I'm really excited. I think bionai one of the largest honor s 1996 think is a great honor." 22-24. ons in TTjinfl Virgin Islands," Montgomery sai o Rico The theme of the conference antha Stage for Success." Events will t Hnatnr on campus as well as at the Clari Hotel. The program includes ng the workshops in the areas of leade e U.S. and career development. The c< vices are c provided content you couldn't get anywhere else. But, all good things must end, as the saying goes, and for the major online services, the future isn't as bright as it used to be: Sears, Roebuck and Co. has announced its 50 percent stake in Prodigy is for sale. IBM, which owns the other half of the service, is considering whether to buy Sears' stake or to sell off its share as well. Apple has announced its online service, eWorld, will completely close down March 31. H&R Block is turning CompuServe into a publicly traded company, perhaps showing a need for the service to generate more capital. Microsoft has decided Microsoft Network will no longer be a proprietary service and plans to move its content onto the world wide web. GEnie and Delphi no longer seem to be major online players. A study released last month by EN'S 7) ^ampus org; women and at t R Women's Stude: Departmei Golden K for Succe Golden Key National Hoi 1996 Southeastern Regi conference, which will those in attendance to \ ; it's a great opportunity for the Un Dcieties on campus and to be able d. provides Golden Key meml is "Setting the students with similar g >e taking place Southeast, on Townhouse Tm really excited," sai 5 informative of the USC chapter of Go rship training a great opportunity for th inference also Carolina and also for our nminrr tn f WAJLJLLJL CW U Forrester Research predicts the popularity of commercial online services will peak by 1998 with a total of 16 million subscribers. According to the study, that number will drop to about 15 million in 1999 and will continue to fall as more businesses move to the Internet. The fact that online services are falling on hard Kr times isn't an unexpected A phenomenon. In fact, it's HPSG^fjjj quite logical. Recently, the dominance of online services in all three of these areas rgnmnm has waned because of the rise of the Internet and Marc LaFc Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Before the Internet's surge in popularity, the only on ramp to cyberspace was a CompuServe or an America Online. You either joined an online service, or you didn't communicate on a global scale. That's all changed with the growth of ISPs. Netizens can now choose from H I S T 0 be W, MM ?Ft mizations ai their uniqui his carnival Marr WIMI * ussell Ho 11 a.m. nt Services and t! it of Student Life ey will be ss' at weel nor Society chapters froi ional Conference, hosted take place on campus ai train Inadershin traininn iversity of South Carolina and also to host chapters from across the S Todd Jack, president of the ?rs the chance to meet the largest honor s oals from across the able to host chapte and abroad 1 think d Todd Jack, president -Registration wi lden Key. "I think it's workshops startin le University of South Compton, chair of t chapter. We're one of will be the keynote s he end of t a wide array of local, regional and national uf companies to provide them with custom of Internet-access packages. And, these hi packages cost the same or less than those 01 offered by the big online services. In in addition, many schools and ?? businesses now provide sc a students and employees with gi free or reduced-fee Internet c( access, further eroding the ol market for the services. s( In the early days of a] telecommunication, users 01 had to memorize arcane line oi commands and know the ins and outs of modem dial n >untain strings. Commercial services h offered attractive and easy- ir to-use interfaces that allowed It customers to be online without all of that r< knowledge. tl Since then, consumers have seen b advances in software interfaces for si connecting to and using the Internet. As anyone who uses Netscape Navigator s< can tell you, things are a lot easier to a R Y M ( omei W? id local agei e needs will r r or lnrormaiK :h 25 mse Lobb -3 p.m. he Women Stude: /r\ _ r o 1 /uivision or srua 'Setting t tend con] n the Southeast and at I by the USC chapter, I ltd off, will serve as an and career developmei for our chapter. We're There wi ioutheast and abroad I Satfurda; conferent Theft USC chapter of Golden Key to organi ocieties on campus and to be ^e USC rs from across the Southeast . .J ?,1 at that tr is a great honor. ? commem 11 begin Friday evening with ?you g Saturday morning. Thorn you just h he USC theatre department, setting th peaker at a Saturday luncheon, at the coi :he cybersj se than they used to be. This new era c ' easy-to-use software means you don't j ive to shell out money to a commercial lline service just to have an elegant iterface. The major online services still enjoy ime dominance here, but they're losing i ound. In the early days of cyberspace, y jmmercial services were unique in ^ fering online newspapers, magazines, )ftware areas, chat rooms, etc. Now, 11 of these things are widely available * i the Internet, and often they're free I r at very reasonable prices. 1 As the Forrester Research study } otes, more business are choosing to ave their own sites on the Internet istead of having areas on online services. i ; makes sense because businesses can ( jach more people on a global network i lan on a proprietary service. As more j usinesses move away from the services, ] j will more customers. I am often asked for advice from users seking to go online and have noticed n interesting change in the kind of i )NTH i'S? icies serving be on hanc Jll. ly nts Association ent Affairs he Stage ference iroad will attend the March 22-24. The I opportunity for it. .11 be an awards program and dance f night in the Golden Spur after the :e dinner at the Top of Carolina, rst of several boardrooms to be dedicated zations on campus will be dedicated to chapter of Golden Key on Saturday 1. A regional photograph will be taken me and refreshments will be served to orate the occasion. can be successful in anything you do; ave to put your mind to it You can start e stage now with some of the workshops lference," Montgomery said. 3ace road luestions Fm getting. Where users once isked, "Which online service should I oin?," they now ask, "Should I join an mline service?" And, for more and more of them, my mswer is no. Too often an online service vill cost them more money while providing them with little content that an't be found on the Internet Tm inclined jo think online services are only better ;han ISPs for novice and basic users or for those who travel often and need wideranging access. Where I once saw the plethora of AOL disks in the world as an example af America Online's dominance, I now see them as an act of desperation. AOL is blanketing us with disks because it finds itself in an increasingly competitive market with a user base that may very well start shrinking. For the online services, it mav be the end of the line. 19 9 6 J D I V / I