This, he says, is how web affects ALL businesses. No longer do you need to call for verification of funds at a bank (it's online or ATM) and no longer does it matter that bank is closed or that you are not at your own branch. The central server for any and all businesses, large and small, will be open 24/7 and always accessible to any customer to track their orders, check inventory for availability of any product they wish to buy and make instant buying decisions at 3am. If not yet, then soon.

This sweeping change hass come in banking and commerce, in government, philanthropy, academia and even many personal interactions. While I commend Mr. Conway for his speaking ability, I still see a place for helping world to understand how this change affects broad majority of public, small business and vast middle ground -- rest of us. Conway talks about how BIG business, BIG finance and BIG government is moving toward total web adoption, but this affects rest of world too. Because business, government and finance is "moving online" it means that instant access to every aspect of our world will be available to everyone via web.

It hasn't happened yet, but I believe web will soon make it possible to do previously unimaginable (even mudane) things like lock your front door via web from your car or office if you forgot to do it when you left home. I think we'll be able to do a long list of things undreamt currently within a very short time. But my question is . . . must it always be top down?

Does BIG business, BIG money and BIG eGovernment need to make sweeping, worldwide changes before John Doe learns about those changes or is it possible that something simple John Doe does will soon affect BIG business just as profoundly? I submit that web-enabling of our world will have a reverse profound effect on BIG business. They will know instantly how public perceives their company, it's products and it's business philosophy because that feedback will be available in real-time via web. If start-ups had that power, they might fail less often than they do now.

I now routinely check web for weather information, maps for upcoming travel destinations and local public transportation routes in cities I'll soon be visiting. I make hotel and car reservations, book airline tickets and I even found free parking and airport shuttle online for my most recent flight.

Admittedly, this stuff is all travel related, but you can look up recipes online and find lawn care tips just as easily and instantly. Our expectations are moving this direction for every human activity. The web is pervasive, always on and mostly accessible for most people. It's magic for me, how is it for you?

An example of this type of central presentation server was demonstrated by Mark Jarvis, Chief Marketing Officer for Oracle Corporation. He prominently featured it in his keynote speech for Streaming Media West in Los Angeles. Although display technology in this case was poster-sized kiosks which Jarvis said replaced $40k of spending on posters each and every year for giant company across their enterprise. The benefit, he said was in having central servers streaming appropriate content worldwide. On returning from airport, I drove by an Oracle Corporation building aside freeway in Silicon Valley with a billboard sized version on display.

Clearly this type of technology requires large up-front investment and development costs, but it will become more affordable and accessible to public in approachable and realistic form on a human scale. The question is not so much how, but when? Adding functionality and choice to those public web terminals to make them interactive is remaining hurdle.

There are few cases where public web access can be provided free without significant filtering of content or absolute control of web destinations on publicly accessible kiosks. One can imagine good reasons for limiting access and limiting user time on kiosk computers, but I'm still convinced that it's first way that those without web access will gain a view of this world that has been entirely denied to them before now. The first use of public web kiosk computers that does become poppular enough to succeed will be dramatic for any organization, including government in public places. I don't know when, but I predict that it will arrive in some dramatic form, somewhere within next five years.

This sweeping change is coming in banking and commerce, in government, philanthropy, academia and even many personal interactions. I see a place for helping world to understand how this change affects broad majority of public, small business and vast middle ground -- rest of us. The industry talks about how BIG business, BIG finance and BIG government is moving toward total web adoption, but this affects rest of world too. Because business, government and finance is "moving online" it means that instant access to every aspect of our will be available to everyone via web.