'Net Buzz

Attention all you would-be do-gooders: The World Links for Development Program (WorLD) is looking for a few good network men and women - also gear and cash - to help bring the Internet into the lives of students in developing countries.

(Look, I promise this won't be preachy, but this genuinely is a worthy cause . . . and I'll try to make fun of someone so you'll know you're still reading Buzz.)

A philanthropic venture of the World Bank, WorLD's mission is to link students in developed countries that have Internet access coming out their ears with students in places such as Uganda, South Africa, Brazil and Chile. Most students in developing countries haven't a prayer of getting wired without divine intervention. Once connected, students and teachers from both groups collaborate on educational projects that are designed to benefit all, according to Linda McGinnis, co-manager of the program.

McGinnis says WorLD has garnered support from a number of U.S. technology companies - Sun, in particular - but not at levels one might expect from some of the wealthiest corporations on the planet. McGinnis says supporting a program such as WorLD makes good business sense for the tech giants, given that those countries benefiting foremost will be the hot IT markets of tomorrow.

"In altruistic terms, this is just complete apple pie," she adds.

Take it from one teacher who knows. Lawrence Ssenkubuge, who teaches math and physics in Uganda, says WorLD-provided Internet access has overcome his primary professional frustration: static, rote, even boring interaction with students.

"Now it is the students who have a chance to discover on their own, and the teachers are just guides," Ssenkubuge says.

The young people have been positively transformed, he adds.

"The students who hated learning are now pressuring us to give them a chance to learn," Ssenkubuge says.

Want to help? Check out WorLD's Web site at www.worldbank.org/worldlinks/.

(Read more on McGinnis in Network World's upcoming You Issue, which will be published July 26.)

In an online world in which mind share rules and attention spans are measured in nanoseconds, you've got to like this 'Net start-up's brand-new name: Bigstep.com. The moniker passes my litmus test in that I could actually remember the dang thing 20 minutes after first hearing it from company founder Andrew Beebe.

Known as The Springfield Project before last week, Bigstep.com sees big bucks to be made by helping smaller companies make the leap onto the Web (get the name now?). U.S. Venture Partners and the Mayfield Fund just doled out $10 million to back Beebe's brainchild.

Of course, targeting the small fry is by no stretch a Big Idea these days because virtually every IT vendor has a line in that pond. Beebe claims Bigstep will stand out by being "a one-stop shop" for site building and hosting, customer communication tools, transaction services, marketing assistance and, sometime after this summer's launch, visitor tracking and traffic reports. The package - price unannounced - will be largely self-service and browser-based.

"All those things embodied in one platform will be unique," he contends.

Which isn't necessarily the same as being in demand or profitable.

In preparing Bigstep.com's business plan, Beebe's team talked to 250 small-business people about what keeps their kind off the Web.

"Again and again they tell us, 'We don't know where to begin' or 'We don't have the time or the money for any of this,' " he says.

That's not likely to change, either, unless Beebe's new service is kindergarten easy-to-use and downright dirt-cheap.

You, too, can take that big step as a Buzz reader by sending McNamara your Internet gossip and news tips. Contact him at (508) 820-7471 or pmcnamara@nww.com.