.NET is Microsoft's name for a suite of web-based services. The .NET tools are designed to be "building blocks" for advanced services that will be delivered via the Internet. For example, one .NET service, Passport, allows users to access and use their personal information (including financial information, such as credit cards, or calendar information) anywhere, anytime.

Microsoft hopes that third-party developers will use .NET tools to develop even more advanced network-based services, placing Microsoft in the "center" (or at least in the background) of much online activity.

As should be easily apparent, such a strategy would raise questions even absent a corporate history like Microsoft's. At the forefront of the issues raised is whether competition and innovation will suffer if .NET proceeds as planned. Because most of the .NET tools are still in development, this inquiry presents both challenges and opportunities: while we cannot really know what the impact of .NET will be -- because it hasn't appeared yet -- we may have a window of time to act now, before any competition effects are felt.