from the Chicago sun Times

North suburbs lead computer wave

   December 7, 1998

   BY MARK SKERTIC SUBURBAN REPORTER

   Digitally speaking, the northern suburbs and Chicago's North Side are
   the area's most popular places for surfing, as Internet use here
   continues to grow with no slowdown in sight.

   A new study ranks Lincoln Park as the most wired city neighborhood and
   Evanston as the suburb with that distinction. Both were helped by the
   presence of universities that provide easy Internet access to students
   and faculty.

   A new study by Internet provider InterAccess found that almost without
   exception, the areas with the most Internet connections are north. The
   western suburbs of Oak Brook and Wheaton were the only non-northern
   communities to crack the top 10.

   About half of Chicago area homes have computers, and 24.7 percent of
   the population is online at home, work or school, according to
   analysis by Forrester Research Inc.

   InterAccess attempted to measure where the greatest growth is. It's
   being fueled by people such as Lincoln Park resident Adam Sichol, a
   financial analyst whose work depends on data he pulls off the Web. At
   home, the Net helps the native New Yorker keep in touch with friends
   and read local newspapers back home.

   ``I realize how much of a time-saver and a lifesaver it can be,'' he
   said. ``I can picture life without the Internet, but I know how much
   simpler it is with it.''

   Signing on to the Internet for information or communicating via e-mail
   has gone from a novelty to a part of life for many, said Hoyt Hudson,
   InterAccess vice president of technology. ``Things have changed; we
   don't have to sell people on the Internet,'' he said.

   His company ranked neighborhood and suburban Internet use by combining
   its own subscriber lists with what it knew about its competitors,
   information gathered from its Web site and demographic data the
   company purchased. ``We merged them into a composite rating so we can
   attach a rank to each,'' Hudson said.

   Suburban leader Evanston is the first community locally to announce
   plans to become a ``wired city.'' City leaders envision a day when
   residents, businesses and government all are plugged into the same
   network. Applying for permits or calling up a child's homework
   assignment would take just a few mouse clicks.

   ``We believe the future of commerce is not in building factories or
   even as many office buildings,'' City Manager Roger Crum said. ``This
   is not making room for an industrial base--it's making room for an
   intellectual base.'' Ultimately, jumping onto the Internet would be as
   natural for residents as picking up the telephone.

   In many households, that move already is taking place. In Tanya
   Aynessazian's Grayslake home, that glowing box she's in front of in
   the evening isn't her television. Net surfing has replaced ``Must See
   TV.''

   Her 4-year-old daughter likes to visit places for kids, such as the
   Nickelodeon site. Her husband tracks statistics for his fantasy
   football team. This year, Aynessazian will do holiday shopping with
   major retailers without leaving home.

   ``You get to look at everything they have, but you don't have people
   saying, `Buy this! Buy this!' '' she said.

   Aynessazian, 30, uses the Internet in her job in marketing research.
   But it was when she was home on maternity leave that she took up
   surfing. ``It was the only link I had to people,'' she said. ``Then
   when the baby was born, we e-mailed his 2-day-old pictures across the
   country.''

   National estimates of how many people are using the Internet vary. A
   study this summer estimated that 70.5 million--about a third of the
   nation's population--are online. Almost half of those ages 16 to 34
   were using the Internet, the study by Nielsen Media Research
   estimated.

   Earlier this year, Yahoo! Internet Life magazine ranked Chicago ninth
   among wired big cities--based in part on the number of households and
   businesses online.

   Chicago was among the nation's leaders in national ``backbone''
   traffic, trailing only Washington, D.C., in the measure of raw data
   passing through a location. The reason is the same one that made
   Chicago a major transportation hub--its central location means
   billions of bits of data pass through here daily en route from one
   part of the country to another.

   Yahoo! cited a study that showed about 17.7 percent of Chicago's
   population is using the Internet. San Francisco was the leader, with
   26.3 percent online.

   ``Smack in the middle of the nation, Chicago is a vital way station
   for Net data but lags when it comes to Net businesses,'' Yahoo!
   concluded.

   InterAccess' Hudson doesn't see Internet growth leveling off anytime
   soon. Efforts to boost the speed of Internet connections will continue
   to fuel growth, he said.


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