Ignore the Internet revolution and perish

The Electronic B@zaar By Robin Bloor, Nicholas Brealey Publishing, £19.99 (UK)

The electronic b@zaar is the rapidly developing global market where traders sell everything from silk stockings to timeshares with haggling, auctions, illicit trading, entertainment, political agitation and everything you would expect in a busy bazaar of old.

The Silk Road was the world's principal trade route for 18 centuries which ran from China to Asia Minor - its fate was sealed when Magellan rounded the Horn 500 years ago and the European powers opened a trade route by sea.

In The Electronic B@zaar Robin Bloor explains how the world is undergoing another transformation.

This time we are moving from an economy driven by paper-based information founded on paper money to one where the market, money and information systems are electronic.

Bloor stresses that ignoring this upheaval is like rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic and warns that the widespread complacency is lethal. His message is: get real, get online.

The Electronic B@zaar provides a fascinating account of milestones in economic history such as the invention of printing and the development of the railroads.

It is an excellent introduction to the Internet, taking us through the history of the Web and explaining Net-related terms and concepts.

However, Bloor goes further than this and charts the construction of an electronic enterprise (something he has done himself), covering issues such as staff education, branding, site design, user registration, customer service and advertising.

If there is a flaw in this entertaining and accessible book, it is Bloor's boundless enthusiasm which layers everything with a simplistic gloss.

He is a prophet and as such is supremely confident about the gospel he preaches. Getting to grips with the Net is not just good for business and customers, he believes the powerless majority have been empowered.

What he calls "push media" favoured the rich for centuries. But now we have a publish-subscribe mass medium which can level the playing pitch between those with something to sell and those who might want to buy - "whether the goods in question be dreams, ideas or Coca-Cola".

jmulqueen@irish-times.ie