Ashland International Market has been successful in bringing buyers and sellers together since its creation in 1990. Let me introduce myself. My name is Jim Ashbaugh owner, operator, and developer of Ashland International Market. As an individual involved in different sectors of agriculture for the past forty years I've seen a need for a public auction like Ashland International Market. The last seventeen years of my experience before the development of an on-line market was with the traditional way of livestock marketing. I began working with computers in 1986. A lack of experience created difficulties, but I forged ahead. As time went along, the understanding of how practical they could be, became more apparent. I decided to apply this technology to marketing livestock to reduce costs, stress, and allow buyers and sellers more control. Our focus was on agriculture to begin with. We've expanded to include other areas to accommodate and trim costs of marketing by public auction.

Ashland International Market was conceived in the fall of 1990 and went on-line April 1, 1991 to be the first and only secured on-line public auction. The construction has been a very rewarding process. One must be able to accept changes willingly. In the novice stages, we were transferring information at a unhurried 300 baud. By the time we went on-line 6 months later (April 1, 1991) we were receiving calls at a thrifty 2400 baud. This was a great improvement over the 300 baud. Three years later the speed accelerate to 14,400 baud. Receiving modems installed at the present time are V90 standard 56,000 baud with X2 technology. These modems transfer information at speeds 187 times faster than the 300 baud modems. Most of the information is transferred in the HTML format. We still have ASCII format available in Sales Ring one.

This area hasn't been update for sometime. We're now 12 years into a new century and lot's of changes have taken place. The major feature improvement has been the speed increase in the internet. Also the computers of today are much better, and the software we use to create programs is quite advance. High speed can now be received by farmers an ranchers in the country. With this being said, one shouldn't think the learning experience is over, there still more come during this technology revolution.

The modems aren't the only part of the market that have been updated in the past. The software operating system has gone from a simple DOS to the more secured Windows NT environment. Getting to this point, we did some 123 updates improving the market for our user convenience. The software that operates the auction has also had minor and major updated on a regular basis. We think that its very important to be current and up to date on all software that operates Ashlands.

The hardware (modems, monitors, speakers, printers, tape backup drives, floppy drives, CD drives, mother boards, etc.) which is used to run the software is improved at Ashlands on a planned and regular basis. In this area there's been great progress. As software, we look for greater improvements in the future. Updating will be an on going process for years to come. You could compare the computer with an automobile. One hundred years ago when the automobile made it's tribute to the industrial revolution, updates were made on a regular basis to reach the level at which they perform today. Of course, like the computer they were also hard to drive down that super highway.

Ashlands was constructed with the traditional public auction method understanding. When driving down the information superhighway you are able to stop at Ashland International Market and see the items or commodities up for public auction. (By the way don't worry about being late for a parking place or sitting. When you enter Ashlands you're always in the front row.) Once you've entered the market, you can access any Sales Ring, Lot, and Video/Photograph with the click of the mouse. The only time you need to pull out the key board is when you place a bid. There are many features to explore and use for your personal convenience after entering the market. So we recommend a few tours to become familiar with the surroundings and option available.

This area hasn't been update for sometime. We're now 12 years into a new century and lot's of changes have taken place. The major feature improvement has been the speed increase in the internet. Also the computers of today are much better, and the software we use to create programs is quite advance. Ashland's has become more secure an is now PCI compliant. We now have help screen throughout, plus it's more of a click an go, when manoeuvre the sales rings. High speed can now be received by farmers an ranchers in the country. With this being said, one should not think the learning experience is over, there still more come during this technology revolution.

As you can see we've had considerable advancements since our beginning but we know there are many more to follow. With this in mind we will run one of the most accommodating, secure,and aggressive on-line public auctions known to mankind.