This has been a year when business went from a recession to a recovery mentality. In the two prior years, the down-turn gave markets many reasons to doubt the sustainability and growth of the Networked Society.

Despite the negative rhetoric, the growth figures continued. Yes, they were slower, but the real build-out and attachment rate didn't go negative. These facts highlight the underlying strength of the shift from analog to digital and the belief that this trend will continue to grow rapidly through-out the decade.

We've listed a number of factors that our clients have felt are significant. We've state them as a brief list for your review as you put the final touches on this year's performance figures and submit budgets and forecasts for the next year.

1. Easy, quick and convenient and "Thank you for shopping with us" - The basic reasons plus thanks, for shopping on-line and the design criteria for selling on websites. These factors need to be developed, customer tested, and revised often. Because your site is an automated sales machine, small errors can be multiplied over the number of visitors. There is no substitute for getting these areas right and keeping them right.

2. Superior Customer Experience - Achieving this level of customer contact is a significant differentiator and should be high in your objectives. This is not a one-time activity; test, get feed-back, and correct as a process. Make someone accountable.

3. DSCV's - Distinctively Superior Customer Value - This is the gold standard against which all products and services should be compared. Digital Markets are far too competitive to launch products that do not have DSCV's.

4. Utilize blog and Chat Room Intelligence - There are reported to be over 10 million blogs. Many blogs are written by interested, net-savvy authors who can do you a lot of good and supply you with invaluable intelligence. If there are a 10 million blogs, what does that say about the number of readers?

Too many businesses shy away from running Chat Rooms. This is "head in the sand" behavior. Learn how your customers think first hand with both Product Manager-authored blogs and customer chat rooms. Be real. Be open and honest. Don’t put yourself out there under false pretenses.

5. Personalize ads and approaches - Perhaps it is because we operate computers in what we consider our private space, but the fact remains, the Digital Customer wants to be addressed as an individual. "Dear Current Resident" doesn’t cut it.

6. Change organization structures with emphasis on the quality of customer contacts - Organization structures are changing. Shorter product cycles, Outsourcing, Call Centers and Automated Customer Service are changes designed to meet perceived customer needs. Running around the same track faster won't do it. Make-overs and retreads are ineffective. First, clearly state the organization's objectives. Then design the organization to meet those objectives.

In the Networked Society, an effective organization probably moves toward a pure Internet model - like Ebay - and away from the classical pyramid.

7. Trust and Privacy - We do business with people we trust. Trust is proportional to the risks involved. Customer loyalty rests on familiarity and trust. In Digital Markets, how you protect customer information and gain trust must be explicit - written. Don't make your customers guess. Written and explicit policies grow trust.

Tech Watch
Over the next year you may want to put these subjects on your radar screen because an increase in their use could provide you with a competitive edge.

GPS
This technology may contribute to "time & place" ads and selling.
Knowing precisely where your customer is has real possibilities.

Mobile Telephone
Time and place data, buddy list physical proximity, and a host information services are under consideration from many sources.

Voice over IP
A few pioneering companies are testing Voice over IP internal to their personnel. It is not clear whether vendors will provide products that are practical for wider use. In either case, this is a low cost method of communication.

Video over IP
A lot of infrastructure work (reads faster pipes and switches) are necessary, not to mention the FCC getting out of the way, before this promising capability is in wide use.

Video On Demand & the TiVo effect
These are technologies that appear immanent or are in the "early adopter" phase. They appear frequently in press releases from Microsoft and Comcast and others. TiVo is very highly touted by those who use it. However, TiVo itself will probably enjoy a short run because installing this logic in TV cabinets is such a simple step.

Japan & Helsinki
If you want to know about advanced telephony and how it is changing society, watch for articles about these two cities. This is where it's all happening - 3G and interactive video telephony and a host of other services. Howard Rheingold, author of Smart Mobs, is an excellent commentator on the subject.