My Internet Initiative Scholarship Essay

When I finish college, I will assemble a team of the brightest new computer programmers, analysts, and scientists that I met during my academic years. We will take computer consulting and project management to a new level—virtual reality for business applications. We will begin with an interactive web site that allows customers to view first-hand what we have done for others, and provides them a free assessment of what we can do for them.

First contact between my team and potential clients will be face-to-face in their offices, where we will study their business and find out what they believe they need most from a data processing company. We will introduce each member of our team to the members of our customer’s staff, and show them who they will be working with. Our initial visit to each client will be the only traveling involved in this endeavor. After that, every negotiation, demonstration, initiative, and training session will be conducted over the Internet.

Customer contact will occur in virtual reality through a live Internet feed via a customized headset, and touch screen. My team will be in the war room of our office—a conference room whose four walls will be interactive screens. This is where the magic will happen. The synergy created in this environment will streamline the consulting process. Clients will be able to get immediate answers to their questions, bypassing formerly necessary steps such as telephone calls, e-mail and instant messaging. Progress reports will be seen on the virtual bulletin board in our office. Customers will know in real time when their project’s goals are reached. Subsequently, my team will be only a touch away.

Perhaps this sounds like science fiction, such as worm hole and light speed travel. The human race may not yet navigate subspace in ships (think Star Trek), but holodeck technology is not so far off (see http://www.projectholodeck.com/).

AT&T used to have a slogan “Reach Out and Touch Someone.” That touch was by voice and emotion, and it could bring a smile to the face and warmth to the heart of a loved one. Skype has taken it a step further with video calling and conferencing. I can visit my nephew in Afghanistan with a few clicks of a button and a Skype connection. I may not be able to hug him, but he can see the hug in my eyes as well as hear it in my voice. He sees in my body language how much I care and in my face how much I miss him.

Video conferencing and telecommuting may not be so new to the boardroom, but virtual reality and holo-imaging will be the business communication wave of the future. It will be a shock-wave felt round the world, and the Internet will be the vehicle. Rather, it will be the driving force.

My dream of becoming a computer programmer began years ago in a small Ohio town in a vocational school where big things were going on: a mainframe computer with keypunch machines and reverse 10-key data entry, sorters, collators, and RPG II programming. Big dreams often have humble beginnings. With the World Wide Web at our fingertips, they can become big realities. I plan on going there.