On September 15, 1999, as part of his Internet Shopping 24/7 Project, Professor Bruce D. Weinberg set out on a one year mission to do all of his retail shopping online (and to stay out of retail bricks & mortar) in order to gain greater insight into the online consumer experience, to identify potential benefits and pitfalls in the experience, and to develop a better understanding as to why relatively little consumer shopping and spending was done online.  On September 26, 2000, he entered a bricks & mortar retail store, marking the end of phase I of the Internet Shopping 24/7 Project.  His immersion in the online shopping experience has lead him to believe that 1) online shopping offers great potential benefits for both consumers and retailers, however, there is still much more work to be done to realize them and 2) the Internet has the potential to help one discover, pursue and better enjoy one’s passions.

Shop Online Week is a continuation of Professor Weinberg’s quest to understand the nature of online buying and selling and to share his observations and findings with the world.  Shop Online Week is also an invitation to consumers and retailers to join him online, to share in an insightful experience, to share those experiences with others, to discover further the potential of the Internet and to have a positive impact on the evolving role of the Internet in our lives.

Bruce -- aka, Dr. Weinberg to his students, after all, he is a computer scientist who earned his PhD at the MIT Sloan School -- maintains an online shopping diary of his experiences online at www.InternetShopping247.com.  His Internet Shopping 24/7 Project, shopping experiences, and awards -- Brucies for great service and Noosies for poor service -- have drawn notable attention from the media, industry and academia.  He is featured in the October, 2000 issue of Inc. Magazine in the article “The Netty Professor” by Senior Editor Joshua Hyatt.  His ecommerce research and teaching have been featured in and he has been quoted in a number of leading publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Boston.com’s DigitalMass, The Industry Standard, Inc. Magazine, Inc.com, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Business 2.0, Associated Press, and Alta Vista Tech Channel.  In addition, Professor Weinberg has been an invited participant in exclusive business forums with Internet industry experts such as World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, iVillage.com Chairman of the Board Candice Carpenter, Forrester Chairman of the Board and CEO George Colony, Broadview International Chairman and CEO Paul Deninger, EDventure Holdings Chairman Esther Dyson, Nasdaq-Amex International Chairman and CEO John Hilley, Steve Jurvetson, Liberate Technologies President and CEO Mitchell Kertzman, Kurzweil Technologies Founder, Chairman and CEO Ray Kurzweil, Veritas Chairman and CEO Mark Leslie, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Managing Director Mary Meeker, and The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg.  Professor Weinberg recently presented some of his findings at Internet Research 1.0 and he will be joined by some of the leading consumer researchers in the world to discuss his online shopping experiences at the Association of Consumer Research Conference to be held on October 19-22, 2000.

He invites you to join him in shopping online and posting about your online shopping experiences during the week of October 15-21 at www.ShopOnlineWeek.com -- to be going live on Friday the 13th (of October) -- the most wonderful day of the year.

If you would like email notification of when  www.ShopOnlineWeek.com goes live, then send an email to Bruce
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