ABSTRACT
In his witty novel Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson suggests that Americans will soon excel in only two activities: writing software and delivering pizza in less than thirty minutes. His tongue-in-cheek satire touched reality in 1994 when pizza delivery and software converged on the Meganet. Electronic marketing on Meganet is changing the way America shops. The smudging of old distinctions between manufacturing and the information-based service industries is part of the story of Meganet's growth in the United States. Traditional office routines are going by the boards as more Americans work at home or in satellite work centers, linked to corporate headquarters by telephones and computers. Virtual companies may be the ultimate form of electronic commerce—business done through computer-driven machines over Meganet circuits. Corporate America weighed in on the side of the administration's information highway plans. Economic reforms by Asian and Latin American countries have often been hesitant and stumbling.
