Stories by: Daintry Duffy

Let's face it, plenty of Internet business models have us scratching our heads. Here's a look at how companies are attempting to overcome the limitations of the digital world.

Tensions were high at the Jan. 19 executive committee meeting. Brad Cvetovich, CEO of AquaTek, had arrived at a tough decision and worried that Brian Heyamoto, vice president of the shipboard communications division, would not take it well.

Sharon Jordan-Evans, coauthor of Love 'Em or Lose 'Em: Getting Good People to Stay (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, October 1999) and president of the Jordan Evans Group, a Los Angeles-based retention strategy company, answered readers' questions on CIO.com about her area of expertise, IT staffing and how to be a good boss

When it comes to launching an Internet company, the wackier the name, the better

Anne Martinez, author of Get Certified and Get Ahead (Osborne/McGraw-Hill, 2000) and founder and editor in chief of GoCertify.com, a computer professional certification site, answered readers' questions on CIO.com about the value of IT professional certification

He's the unconventional Independent governor who confounded the pundits by emerging victorious in his first bid for public office. Whizzing around the state capital on his motorcycle, he presents an incongruous, and surprisingly approachable, image for a politician. In fact, folks around the state just refer to him by his first name. Although this description also fits a particularly illustrious veteran of the WWF, we're not talking Jesse here. We mean Angus King--the full-follicled, 71st governor of Maine--and the lesser known of the nation's two Independent governors.

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX Doug Hall, founder of Richard Saunders International's Eureka Ranch, a Newtown, Ohio-based company that specializes in new business development, training and consulting, answered readers' questions on CIO.com about his area of expertise, encouraging radical thinking and effective brainstorming within a company. Here's what he had to say.

Lisa S. Dean is vice president for technology policy of the Free Congress Foundation (FCF), a conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. We talked to her recently about FCF's views on threats to privacy in America.

All the hackers had to go on were five innocuous e-mail messages. Within four hours, they had taken control of their target's bank account, changed his password and locked him out. They had also acquired his credit card numbers, the details of his driving record and his salary to the penny. For the coup de grce, they infiltrated his office and left a puckish note on his desk: "Hi Matt, from your friends at Jaws."

It's 6a.m. on the outskirts of Buffalo Grove, Illinois, where the houses are a bit older and the lots a bit bigger. The sun rises slowly over the tree line, casting a warm glow on freshly tilled fields and a faded red farmhouse. A well-worn pickup idles by a porch, awaiting the dusty tread of heavy boots and the leisurely 10-minute drive into town.

Your company knows all there is to know about your customers' preferences and patterns, but do your customers want you to be looking over their shoulders?