Commentary by Steve Aranoff & Robert FitzPatrick, The EAGLE

As our readers know, The EAGLE has been writing about topics of interest to our readers, many times before others take notice.  Because one of us was located in Silicon Valley, we became early proponents of the use of the internet in the printing marketplace.  In our consulting business and our writing, we were among the first to recognize how important the nascent internet was going to become.  An early White Paper of ours published by Nagasa in 1996 gently began to suggest that print market companies should begin to develop web sites, and to put their web address on all of their correspondence.  Looking back, you wouldn't think this was necessary.  After all, today, who in this industry doesn't have a web site?  For many of us, our web strategy, whether it's to show customers what we have, to provide data to outside sales personnel, to converse with our customers, or to provide worldwide support information, in a prominent part of our marketing mix.  There is no longer any question about the importance of a good web site to growth and customer satisfaction.

Flash forward another decade to 2007.  We are about to make the same point, this time with respect to something less tangible, but potentially just as explosive.  Many of you may not know what we're introducing.  It is called SecondLife!  Don't go away thinking that this doesn't have a business connotation.  It is important to note from the start, that some well known large businesses, banks, and governments have already begun to buy into this concept. Specifically with respect to the printing community, you should recognize some of these companies: