March 23–30, 2000

on media

A Snort Over PowerPort

When Gov. Tom Ridge announced plans last month for the commonwealth to partner with Microsoft to create a major Internet portal, Pennsylvania’s Internet business community began crying foul.

The joint venture, called PA PowerPort, would "put Pennsylvania on the frontline of the Internet revolution" and expand the state’s Web presence to provide traditional portal services like news, weather, traffic, stock reports and a powerful search engine. In a press release, Ridge predicted that PA PowerPort "will become part of our everyday lives. A one-stop shop for the information we all need. Think about it. Road maps and weather. Your own e-mail account. Local hometown news. Online Yellow Pages… " All via a "friction-free" e-government that streamlines state agencies’ interactive Web pages, transforming the Pennsylvania state Web site, www.state.pa.us, into a big-time data gateway.

Here’s the glitch: "Through the PA PowerPort, [businesses will] be able to take their businesses online in one week — when it takes their competitors months."

The prospect of Microsoft and the state offering free Web site-building software and hosting space for Pennsylvania businesses has some wondering if the state is setting itself up as competition to the very people it purports to want to help — the state’s own Internet entrepreneurs.

"It doesn’t make sense to take taxpayers’ money to provide free services that are presently supplied by PA businesses," says Rodger Dourte, who co-owns PA Visitors Network, an Internet tourism company. "It would go against the idea of our government helping PA businesses, if they’re going to take that business away from them."

Dourte compares PA PowerPort to "building a shopping center with state money and allowing stores to use the space free of charge."

Wayne Kessler, a Mechanicsburg Internet developer, thinks the plan is an "unwarranted extension of government into the activities of the free marketplace."

"Is it a fundamental role of government to help businesses market themselves?" he asks rhetorically. "I’ve never heard of government providing a service to help companies make billboard signs or newsletters or advertisements in television or newspapers — so why do we need them now?"

Dourte’s partner, Bill Hall, is even more outraged. "The government has no business being in business," he snorts. "There was no discussion about this in the general assembly or the state senate; it was tucked away in the governor’s executive budget. This is too important an issue to be shoved through without debate."

Scott Elliott, a governor’s office spokesperson, says the cost to taxpayers for PA PowerPort will be minimal, considering that Microsoft is donating at least $100,000 in consulting services to prepare the portal. "We would have been foolish not to accept their proposal," he gloats.

"This is the beginning of a very slippery slope," warns Kessler. "What is Microsoft’s strategic goal in doing this? They offer free software to build low-end Web sites and hosting services for small businesses, but when those companies want something a little more robust — MS is not going to let them go. And when you click on news, it’s not going to take you to a local paper, it’s MSNBC."

Hall foresees other problems that the state will face.

"When government goes into the business of e-commerce, what businesses will get free Web sites? How about adult bookstores? What about a Christian bookstore? Or the local Methodist Church? Then what about the Jews? Muslims? Wiccans? Or the KKK? Who’s gonna make those decisions?"

Elliott says that there will be "an approval process and filters to screen out certain businesses," but that those decisions have not been worked out yet. The state will be holding a series of three invitation-only "stakeholder" meetings with business organizations and associations to discuss the ideas in the coming weeks.

Although details of the Microsoft deal have not been finalized or made public, PA PowerPort is expected to come online by the end of next month, with full services implemented within a year.

In the meantime, Hall and Dourte bought the Internet domain name www.papowerport.com and have linked it to their site, www.pavisnet.com. Kessler purchased the address www.papowerport.net and linked it to his site, www.aboutpennsylvania.com. The link to Kessler’s Web page about PA PowerPort is www.aboutpennsylvania.com/powerport/ and the message board is www.aboutpennsylvania.com/powerport/messageboard.html.

The governor’s press release is available at http://www.state.pa.us/PA_Exec/Governor/Press_Releases/000208-3.html.

The owner of a Carlisle, PA, Internet Service Provider, www.pa.net, registered the domain name www.papowerport.org.

"We did this independently within days of each other, but then, we’re all Internet savvy," chuckles Hall. "That’s doing business online, not like the state has done it — back-asswards."

—Deborah Scoblionkov