Old man story time, so sit down and get a load of this; I remember when the internet was born. Yeap, I guess I am that old. Ever since the day the first few packets flowed across the “world wide web”, we have been completely focused on giving individuals access to information from anywere on the planet. I am not going to lie, this has certainly done wonders for business and globalization has never been so readily available.

I challenge you though to thank about the money making aspect of the internet from the opposite perspective of globalization and reaching the farthest corners of the planet. Think about how you can use the internet to bring smaller geographical regions in closer to one another. There are so many opportunities yet to be filled by thinking this way simply because everyone is focused on the bigger side of things.

Think about what interests individuals when you talk about a confined geographical location. Now also think about what information users want to come to them instead of spending time seeking the information out. A few things come to my mind:

1. Safety first and foremost. How useful would it be to have instant access to police reports and user generated safety warnings. I want to know if there have been any more car fires in my neighborhood, or what that gang sign spray painted on a wall relates too.
2. Where am I going to get the best service. When was the last time you surveyed 700 of your closest neighbors to find out the best service station to take your car. Admit it, you haven’t, but that would be darn nice to have.
3. Why can’t I be notified of deals once I walk over to the town center. I am married, and therefore, I am cheap. My wife and my purchasing decision is 100% always affected by the existance of a discount coupon.

Change your thoughts from thinking of the internet as the perfect place to reach billions world wide, and start thinking of it as the perfect place to reach thousands locally. Interesting business models might start to show that could be valued pretty high.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 21st, 2007 at 1:02 am and is filed under Technology, Entrepreneurship. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.