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Ridge plan for state Web site draws flak from cyber types
Sunday, February 27, 2000 By Michael Race, www.capitolwire.com/p
HARRISBURG -- When Wayne Kessler and Brett Freedman heard Gov. Ridge wanted to set up a state-run Web site that would offer everything from weather reports to hometown news, they got upset.
Then they had an idea.
Three days after Ridge unveiled his proposal for "PA PowerPort," the Internet entrepreneurs bought the rights to the Web domain name "papowerport.net." The two are co-owners of Kessler Freedman Inc., a Mechanicsburg-based Web site design company.
They didn't purchase the name with the notion of selling it to the state for big bucks. Instead, they bought it to send a protest message to Ridge: Back off.
They say Ridge's planned foray into the cyber world amounts to the state using taxpayer money to offer services that privately owned Web sites already provide, oftentimes for free.
"Everything that they proposed, at least generically, is available already," Kessler said. "It doesn't really make any sense."
The state's Web plans probably won't hurt Kessler's business initially, he said, but he has concerns about the long-term impact of PA PowerPort.
"I don't see this competing with my development business in the first year. But where do they stop as far as what they will offer?" he said.
Ridge touts PA PowerPort as a "one-stop shop for the information we all need." The state's Internet portal would be developed under a partnership with Washington state-based software giant Microsoft.
Kessler questions whether the state even bothered to find out what Web-based services already exist in Pennsylvania before they cobbled together a deal with Microsoft.
He also sees the administration's failure to register the domain name as a sign of poor planning, raising questions about whether the Ridge administration has the savvy to make it in the online world.
"If the government does not have the foresight to register a name before announcing it, then they should really not be in the business at all," Kessler said.
Ridge spokesman Steve Aaron said the state never made a move to buy Web sites named for PA PowerPort because the state intends to use its existing site --www.state.pa.us.
"The initiative has been called PA PowerPort, but the plan all along was to use our existing site," Aaron said, noting that the state has advertised its home page extensively, even listing it on the latest license plates.
But in the Internet industry, Kessler said, it's common practice to buy up any sound-alike domain names when starting an online venture.
Such a move prevents any competitors or pranksters from undermining your business plans.
In fact, when Kessler plopped down $70 to buy papowerport.net, he also inquired about purchasing a similar Web name --papowerport.com.
But the latter domain already had been snagged by another cyber protester.
Rodger Dourte, co-owner of a company called PA Visitors Network, bought the name just a day before Kessler tried to buy it.
Dourte called the governor's plan "very bizarre."
"It sounds like many of the services being provided by private companies the state intends to provide free," he said. "I don't know if they're blowing smoke, if the governor's talking about this because he wants to be vice president, or if they're serious."
Dourte runs a Web site that lists tourism information for people planning a visit to Pennsylvania. The state has similar services on its official Web site, but Dourte notes his site doesn't cost taxpayers a dime. Rather, it's supported by advertising.
He predicts PA PowerPort will "kill private enterprise" and entrepreneurial initiative.
"There's so much creativity there on the Internet, and a state-controlled site will kill the creativity," he said.
Administration officials don't see it that way. The state will not develop any Web pages, but will help provide access to Pennsylvania-based companies in that business --among others.
"Again, what we would like to do is provide listings of Web developers and try to focus this toward Pennsylvania-based companies, so that we can help drive business within this area," said George White, a point man on the project.
White, who has heard some of the criticisms of the effort, said the administration does not want to get into its own online business.
"Our intent is to provide a multitude of services to businesses, the goal being: We want to make Pennsylvania the easiest place to start an e-business, to maintain an e-business and grow an e-business. And, really, the best way of doing that is to give our business community very easy-to-use options for doing that," White said.
But Dourte isn't buying it.
"The only reason I know of for government to be involved in private business is if they're communists," he said.
Dourte and Kessler say Ridge's plan is causing rumblings of discontent among other small business people who make a living off the Web.
Though they are not actively organized into a lobbying force, Dourte said PA PowerPort could be the catalyst for an Internet business lobby.
"If the state's going to give away free what we're trying to make a profit on, there's going to be some organized effort at some point," Dourte said.
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