E-commerce here takes giant leap forward

The last week was a quietly momentous one for electronic commerce in the Republic, as we got both an E-commerce Bill and the promise of first steps to deregulate the last remaining bit of the telephone network. The E-commerce Bill was particularly important both in immediate practical terms and as an international statement of the Republic's readiness for e-business.

After a bit of a cliff-hanger, in which it appeared unlikely that the Government's E-commerce and Electronic Signature Bill would make it through the Dail this term, politicians from all parties pulled together, gave the Bill the time it needed to pass through its remaining stages, and, at last, passed this crucial piece of legislation.

Next Monday, the Bill will be signed into law by the President, Mrs McAleese, using a digital signature. The President is apparently a bit of a technophile so perhaps she'll find it particularly intriguing to sign the Bill in this new way, thus opening the door for the wide adoption of signatures in business.

The one certainty is that the use of signatures in this way will get plenty of global publicity, thanks to the Government using home-grown electronic signature software from Dublin's Baltimore Technologies. The company never misses a good PR opportunity and made plenty of hay out of the electronic signing of an agreement by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern and US President, Bill Clinton, almost two years ago.

For a year afterwards, I could track Baltimore's presence at any given technology conference around the globe by whether or not a picture of the signing was propped up in the press room, usually surrounded by press releases and little Baltimore-logoed boxes of chocolates for the tech hacks.

Deregulating the "local loop", or the last bit of copper phone line connecting homes and businesses to the nearest exchange, is also extremely important. The Government, in promising to begin this procedure by the end of this year, will now meet the suggested European Union timetable for this process.

All the analysts I've spoken to are excited about this development and what it means for the State. They argue that unbundling will quickly force prices down both for phone calls and for Internet access because it will introduce competition.

Even better from the point of view of regular Net users and small to medium-sized businesses, unbundling should encourage competitors - and presumably Eircom as well - to start offering new access technologies like ADSL, which can provide very high speed Internet connections using existing phone lines - no fibreoptic cable necessary. ail this term, politicians from all parties pulled together, gave the Bill the time it needed to pass through its remaining stages, and, at last, passed this crucial piece of crucial legislation. On Monday next, July 10, the Bill will be signed into law by the President, Mrs McAleese, using a digital signature. The President is apparently a bit of a technophile so perhaps she'll find it particularly intriguing to sign the Bill in this new way, and in thus opening the door for the wide adoption of signatures in business.

The one certainty is that the use of signatures in this way will get plenty of global publicity, thanks to the fact that the Government will again be using home-grown electronic signature software from Dublin's Baltimore Technologies. The company never misses a good PR opportunity and made plenty of hay out of the electronic signing of an agreement by the Taoiseach Mr Ahern and US President Bill Clinton almost two years ago.

For a year afterwards, I could track Baltimore's presence at any given technology conference around the globe by whether or not a picture of the signing was propped up in the press room, usually surrounded by press releases and little Baltimore-logoed boxes of chocolates for the tech hacks.

Deregulating the "local loop", or the last bit of copper phone line that directly connects to connecting homes and businesses to the nearest exchange, is also extremely important. The Government, in promising to begin this procedure by the end of this year, will now meet the suggested European Union timetable for this process.

All the analysts I've spoken to are excited about this development and what it means for the State. They argue that unbundling will quickly force prices down both for phone calls and for Internet access because it will introduce competition.

Even better from the point of view of regular Net users and small to medium-sized businesses, unbundling should encourage competitors - and presumably, Eircom as well - to start offering new access technologies like ADSL, which can provide very high speed Internet connections using existing phone lines - no fibreoptic cable necessary.

Civil servants who have been writing the legislation in these two areas and working quietly in the background were celebrating last week after achieving these twin goals.

The ministers make the announcements and drive the policy, of course, and strong ministerial commitment to these unsexy but crucial areas is essential. However, a huge amount of credit is due to those whose names few people know but who have stayed on top of these incredibly complex areas and worked hard to seek informed advice, and draft and redraft legislation (in a way, I might add, that puts many public representatives to shame). They are a small group but some of the work they have done is, by international standards, quite extraordinary, as is their commitment. They're widely admired by US technology industry and government figures in particular, as well as by many of the same in Europe.

I hear comments along these lines over and over, with the Americans in turn wondering how the Government retains such people and why they aren't all being enticed into private companies with large salaries and hefty share options.

Given the week we've just had, I thought it might be time to give this anonymous crew some overdue recognition.

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble . . . the latest tech stock news from the United States, courtesy of research firm, Morningstar, is that technology share funds crashed in the second quarter. Given that such funds hold shares in a broad slice of companies, the results speak volumes about what's happening out in the trenches. Of 145 funds tracked, only two reported profits in the second quarter - two! - and these were measly 3.5 per cent and 2.5 per cent gains. Most funds lost 12 per cent during that quarter. The Nasdaq composite index lost 13 per cent of its value between March 31st and June 30th.

So, are we in a bubble? Maybe, or maybe not. On average, tech stocks are back up 25 per cent on May lows. Still, reports in the tech press over the past week suggest that we might have reached the turning point in the new economy or, as the News.com website put it rather nicely, "the end of the beginning".

Last Sunday, RTE Radio One's Sunday Show presenter, the usually excellent Mr Ryan Tubridy, brought in two "e-people" for the usual rambling group-chat format.

Ms Maeve Harrington, chief operating officer for auction site E-bid, and Mr Barry O'Neill, director of Eircom's multimedia arm Rondomondo, were an interesting contrast to everyone else, who proclaimed not only a general ignorance of things technical, but in several cases, downright scepticism and fear. Curiously, there seemed to be no particular point for the Internet people to be there. Even though we'd had the E-commerce Bill and the promise of unbundling legislation that week, and even though Mr O'Neill is employed by Eircom - a vociferous opponent of the unbundling proposal - none of this was mentioned.

What a lost opportunity for some meaty discussion and a few sparks. Conversation was blandly pleasant and Mr Tubridy seemed willing mostly to let them plug their own businesses.

What struck me particularly was the general lack of connection between the two groups, a situation which wasn't helped at all by the e-people routinely going into tech and marketing jargon and further befuddling the others.

If the industry can only communicate in such an alienating way - and not even realise it is doing so - then the so-called digital divide, the split between those who make use of technology and those who can't, don't or won't, is unlikely to close.

Karlin Lillington is at klillington@irish-times.ie