Information Distribution

Information wants to be free... [1]

I divide this "launching pad" into three admittedly overlapping segments....

Having culled these sites from the vast noise level of the Web, I provide only a brief synopsis of each, since most of these links do a fine job of explaining themselves immediately upon your arrival.

Government

In 1995, the popular press is alive with the mantra of the "information superhighway," and it seems that almost every government agency is online. The government has made a serious commitment to the electronic provision of information. The White House has a celebrated Web site, with the ever-popular meowing of Socks the cat now readily available to the properly-configured, and even the ostensibly user-unfriendly IRS is online, freely providing useful information and tax forms.

Unfortunately, perhaps due to the SEC's role as an "information regulator," there has been very little presence by the SEC on the Web. The two significant links that the SEC provides to the outside world via the Web are both in dissemination of information from the EDGAR project. Even in this case, the information is distributed by outside sources. The first, the "Internet Town Hall," is an electronic grass-roots organization that provides a basic interface. The Town Hall is currently cooperating with NYU's Stern School of Business in order to bring more resources to bear on the EDGAR project, and provide a more usable interface. While neither of these interfaces are remarkably friendly at this time, they are quite powerful, and very reasonably priced.

I had originally intended to provide a short laundry list of governmental services available, but the list is so long, I instead offer pointers to the top level of governmental hierarchies.

Fedworld
The official online presence of the federal government, and it is doing a surprisingly good job in providing a unified interface to the many branches, services and agencies.

House of Representatives
One half of the bicameral Congress of the United States.
Senate
The other half, as presented by Yahoo (since the Senate does not yet have an official Web site.
Thomas
A service of the Library of Congress, providing information about legislation, the Congressional Record, and a wealth of other resources.

Law

There are quite a number of legal resources available, so in an attempt to rationalize the amount of information, I have restricted myself to sources that deal primarily with securities-related issues.
The RR Donnelly Library
RR Donnelly, the printer, with the help of NYU, has dedicated to the public a comprehensive online guide to filing EDGAR documents. I expect that additional documents will come online in the future.
The Securities Acts of 33 and 34
Includes many of the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder, and is provided by the Center for Corporate Law at the University of Cincinnati College of Law.
EDGAR
Via the Internet Town Hall
Or the Stern School of Business at NYU
Cornell's Legal Information Institute
Provides excellent sources and links to most of the law-related information currently available online.
United State Codes
Cornell's Hypertext Versions of the US Codes.
Supreme Court Opinions
Hypertext Supreme Court Opinions, provided by Cornell's LII.

Finance

Quote Com
Is a quality source for market information, provided on both a free and subscription basis (depending on services desired). Not surprisingly, one of their headquarters in on W. Bayshore Road in Palo Alto.
Security APL
Their quote server allows ticker lookup, and is a powerful interface to useful stock market information. I provide a "fruitful" link to Apple Computer, leading to 10-K's, 10-Q's, and graphical price and volume data.
Banking and Finance in Electronic Media
From Institut für Betriebswirtschaftliche Geldwirtschaft is an excellent resource of its kind, and an example of how global the digital financial information marketplace has become.
trib.com
A service of the Casper, Wyoming Star-Tribune also provides a comprehensive financial guide to the Internet, with stock info, etc. There is a free service where stock charts and market indices (supplied by SecAPL) are updated every three minutes.
JP Morgan
Morgan has a very pretty site on the Web, but it's more style than substance. One of the ostensibly valuable services it offers to the world is its RiskMetrics data, though I am not able to comment on their significance.

MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been providing some experimental services in stock market data and analysis, and it is telling to see how unreliable and infrequently updated this site is. Something about incentives....

Fidelity Investments
Fidelity is on the other end of the spectrum from MIT, and is highly professional in its appearance, and provides a wealth of data on its funds and services.
Net Worth
A rich trove of market data and analysis, by Galt Technologies.
University of Texas FINWeb Server
An assemblage of financial information, academic papers, and random links.
NASDAQ Financial Executive Journal
Exactly what it says.
The Journal of Finance
The Journal of the American Finance Association, with abstracts of articles, information about the organization, and links to other financial sites in the Web.

And now over to...

the next "linear" topic,

or the table of contents?

© 1995 Alex H. Benn