By editorial@silicon.com, 21 October 2001 10:00
COMMENT Our final two in-depth personal reviews feature two big issues close to our own silicon.com heart - the fate of several dot-coms and the likelihood that publishers can start to charge for web-based material. Our editor-in-chief Jon Bernstein asks what lessons companies including Beenz, WebVan FriendsReunited and Tesco.com can teach us. The web isn't unique in its mix of good and bad business ideas but it too seems a much more mature place than in the giddy days of 1998-99 (http://www.silicon.com/a50098 ). And finally Sally Watson focuses on a pet subject of ours (http://www.silicon.com/wcttp) - are online readers, listeners and viewers ready to pay for content? We wish we had the answers. (At least we have a firmer grasp than those angry surfers who write to us upset about the upcoming curtailment of 'freedom of information'!) This isn't a question that an infant industry would ask - growing pains aren't easy here either (http://www.silicon.com/a50103 ). Post-11 September, post-tech bubble, few of the areas we've mentioned above seem the same, and nor should they. If we've all grown a little - a lot, in many ways - this year, then that's not a bad thing, and may well mean a more responsible, more successful, more fun sector in 2002. Here's hoping. silicon.com will return on 2 January. Until then have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. See you in 2002.
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