As analogies go, it's a doozy. ?Imagine The Muppet Show devolving from a manically plotted variety show with its signature characters and anarchic sense of humor to a guy hamming it up in his front yard with a sock on his hand,? says Samir Butt, a New Yorker at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. ?That's what you're seeing right here at Internet World this year.?

Butt, a 30-year-old actor, producer and former dot-com drone, waves an arm dismissively at the smallish exhibit space dedicated to the trade show. ?A few years ago, this place would have been absolutely stuffed to the gills with people,? Butt says in the clipped, precise tone of someone covering a golf match. ?Now it looks like people just came in to get out of the rain.?

Although there's not a cloud in the sky on this Thursday morning, Butt's point is well taken. In the mid-90s, the Internet World show would host well over 50,000 people; today, it appears that less than 500 have decided to make the trip over to the West side. Depending on who you talk to, the expected turnout for the week is from 10,000 to 15,000, down approximately 30% from last year's show.

The vast majority of those who are in attendance today are here to see America Online chairman and chief executive Jonathan Miller make his first presentation before the general public since being named to his post in September. Those who cock an ear in the hope that Miller will reflect on the company's recent woes may come away disappointed. The balance of Miller's comments are in aid of promoting AOL's latest upgrade, version 8.0, set to launch Oct. 15.

Straight out of the gate, Miller mines the community angle, stressing that AOL has been touched by ?a spirit of taking back this company, taking it back for our members?. Members rule; that's the new spirit of the company.?

Although he was less than forthcoming about the kind of new features AOL members can expect with 8.0, Miller's comments about aggressively developing high-speed services contradict predecessor Bob Pittman's stance that AOL would stick to focusing on its dominant dial-up product. ?Our commitment to broadband is clear and unwavering,? Miller says.

Back on the floor, the commitment to booth space is wavering all over the place. The number of companies on hand to show off their wares has dwindled to 126 from more than 700 a few years ago. Big players such as AOL and Microsoft loom like icebergs in a sea of tiny firms ? the likes of X3D Technologies, a developer of software that converts standard two-dimensional TV pictures and computer games into 3-D. In fact, the X3D booth is the biggest draw of the show as attendees jostle ? politely ? for space at the terminals. It's the only hint of the fun and energy of the Internet days of old, a whiff of possibility in a room that's percolating in its own free-floating despair.

Even the people closest to the event can't seem to put a happy face on things. Jack Powers, who chaired the Internet World conference from 1996 to 2001, volunteers three reasons for why the show is faring so poorly. ?A, business sucks. B, business sucks. And C, nobody's got any money,? he says.

As for Butt, his reasons for attending the show are mired in the realm of the personal. He'd labored for an Internet startup for two years and was laid off, along with 360 other employees, before the site had properly launched.

?This is like the funeral of an estranged wife,? he says. ?You couldn't stand her, and she took you for everything you had, yet you still have to show up. Not out of any sense of obligation but to be sure she's never coming back.?

THE NEXT QUESTION:

• Is AOL's new broadband strategy simply a matter of too little, too late?
• Will anyone ever be able to devise a scheme to squeeze money out of the Internet?

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