If you have at least a little bit Internet experience and want to keep up with the latest changes, statistics or acronyms, I'll give you a peek at the list of sites I consult on a regular basis.

To keep up with the technology, I subscribe to a few free e-mail lists.

I get my daily technology-related information through Digital Dispatch. From the C-NET, Digital Dispatch shows briefs of the top stories and has links to the full articles. After reading the brief, I just click on the abstract title that I want and am taken to the complete article at www.news.com.

I also subscribe to The Internet Index from Open Market Software Products. This list is updated sporadically throughout the year. 1997 saw four updates, but not quarterly. Each index is a list of statistics related to the Internet from just about any source. While I see most of these statistics elsewhere, there are some unusual ones.

The last of the free subscriptions that I get is from Jupiter Communications. Jupiter is one of the industry leaders in analyzing and predicting the Internet future. To get their free e-mail newsletter go to Jup.Com and select "Join our List."

While Jupiter is one of my favorites, I use many other sources to get a balanced view.

Forrester Research, claiming "helping business thrive on technology change" covers a wider spectrum of technologies than just the Internet and also tends to be more conservative in their estimates of the Internet and the future. Forrester gives out very little in the way of free information, reserving most for "paying" customers.

CommerceNet is always good for some charts or graphs about what is happening on the Internet. A spin-off of A.C. Neilsen, the famous television ratings and polling company, CommerceNet seeks to bring Internet polling data to the forefront.

Dataquest, one of my long-time favorite statistic-generating companies merged with the Gartner Group to create the biggest and most dominant technology analyst company. As with most other sites like this, I like to peruse the press releases sections for good information.

Another hot consulting company is The Yankee Group. Considered the most credible by a small margin over Gartner/Dataquest, Jupiter and Forrester, this company gives some nice free online statistics and information.

Finally, International Data Corporation (IDC) and ActivMedia round out my top list of reference sites.

If you ever need to know what some of the terms and acronyms mean, check Pcwebopaedia where everything from SDRAM to ISDN is defined, explained in detail and cross-referenced to plenty of related articles.

If you are ready to know more about what is happening in the Internet world or where it is going, these are the sites that will let you know.