Internship Report, 9/16/95

During the past two weeks in work I have spent most of my time laboring to complete my WWW kaisha annai (home page and all other company information pages). It has really evolved into a completely different monster than it was when I first began, and I am very proud of it. Of course, I was encouraged to worry more about form than content, since the main purpose behind my creation was to present an impressive demonstration for other companies, so I was able to build some really extravagant pieces of WWW art.

Though a ringi suggesting that the company should finally become somewhat modern by connecting to the Internet has made the rounds and collected all the signature support necessary, it still awaits the big boss' OK. And it seems to have been waiting a long time.

This is one of the reasons why I was asked to write the kaisha annai -- to get the kanbu (upper management) interested in what the Internet could do for the company image. Two weeks ago my kaisha annai was used in a demonstration presented for the kanbu. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to attend, probably because they were too "upper" for me.

However, I did insist that I be allowed to attend the demonstration given the following week to other companies. The purpose in this demonstration was to get enough other companies interested in the Internet so that they would be willing to share both the costs and benefits of installing a connection. In other words, SIS cannot afford, or at least does not want to bear, the costs of an Internet connection in Japan.

In my Society Report for this two week interval I will report some interesting details on what might be classified as a typical meeting between company representatives trying to sell each other something.