Word: accessibility
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...ideas and entertainment. Five centuries ago, Gutenberg's advances in printing helped lead to the Reformation (by permitting people to own their own Bibles and religious tracts), the Renaissance (by permitting ideas to travel from village to village) and the rise of individual liberty (by allowing ordinary folks direct access to information). Likewise, the 20th century was transformed by a string of inventions that, building on the telegraph and telephone of the 19th century, led to a new information...
...still nascent Internet. Living in Silicon Valley, where companies were going public daily, he was troubled by how imperfectly the financial markets seemed to be operating. "Institutions and large investors had all the inside information," he says. "What I wanted to do was create a marketplace where everyone had access to the same information." Out of this democratic impulse, the clunky website that would eventually grow into eBay was born...
...momentum. Traditional merchants have taken heart from, of all places, Charles Schwab, which has broken down the walls between its off-line brokerage business (with 335 retail locations) and Schwab.com its online business. Schwab had to be spry enough to devise cross-channel pricing for stock trades; allow account access via the Web, telephone and in person; and create advertising that speaks to the Web savvy as well as the Net illiterate. The result: over the past two years, Schwab has emerged as the best-positioned retail brokerage, with more than $628 billion in customer assets ($264 billion of which...
Separately, some advocates pursued this issue in the Michigan political arena earlier this year. Some Republicans, including popular Governor John Engler, supported them. Engler called for home-schooler access to public teams in his state of the state address. But proponents of a bill forcing the change were no match for John Roberts, head of the Michigan High School Athletic Association, the nonprofit that writes the rules for athletic eligibility, rules adopted by almost every school. Now in his 14th year as executive director, Roberts wields enormous influence over high school sports in a state that takes them seriously...
...keeping the status quo could have risky consequences. Leaving e-commerce untaxed amounts to a bonanza for Web entrepreneurs and Americans who own computers with Internet access. Within a few years, low-income customers could end up paying a disproportionate share of state and local taxes at stores like Waldeck's Office Supplies. That's if they still exist. Clifford Waldeck says he now makes 7% of his sales through his company's newest feature, its website...