UKNM: Re: UKNM ATTENTION: New Business People

[Dorian Spackman]

In regards to Clay's comments about the state of UK New Media industry.

They seem to provoke feelings in me that I want to share:


Some of you may know me, most of you won't, nearly all of you won't give a

damn but I have to say that I agree with his sentiments somewhat.

I believe that the internet is potentially the saving grace for certain

regions of the world in their dealings on a business level both internally

and internationally, against nations such as the US who are incredibly

powerful in their trade and influence. An old adage is that there are no big

or small companies on the web, just good and bad.


This list and a variety of it's members seem to be preoccupied with minutiae

of the most facile type in some cases, I for one would relish the

opportunity of having meaningful discussions in regards to things that

really matter, not whether my site with its latest graphical niceties is

going to attract more attention. If you want graphics look at www.eye4u.de

they leave a lot of you for dead anyway. If you want to get on, why don't we

start to discuss more important issues.


I'll start, why don't we try something progressive - The future of

electronic commerce, is it business to consumer or business to business?


It's not revolutionary but a point where the answer changes constantly and

has done for the 5 years I've been involved in e-commerce. It should also

provoke some of you into trying to actually sell the concept of doing

BUSINESS over the web to your clients. I've got my own client base who have

realised this and more are coming on board every week. I know that there are

others out there who are in the same space, Entranet is a name that I have

seen here recently for one. Don't you feel the same way?


Then try looking at some of the things that have been discussed here in the

last week, such as Broadband Multimedia and Interactive TV. They are being

discussed because they are coming. Some of you don't even know how to

integrate a database into the web, let alone how to put multi-delivery media

business strategies together.


I could have used this list over the last couple of years to just look at

you guys, research your client base and your weaknesses and attacked it from

there. I haven't done this but it makes me wonder looking on sometimes if

others may already be doing so.


We as a nation have some of the most talented IT (Yes, IT not just design)

people in the world (wasn't the idea of computing formulated here?) and I

could scream as more and more US and European companies move in and take all

the glory. We should be proud of our development and thought process

abilities and out pushing ourselves, not sitting around bitching. I recently

saw someone "laughingly" auction off the UK New Media industry on e-bay for

about $28. I smiled for a few moments and then thought a bit more. It dawned

on me that we have now reached the stage where we have become nothing more

than a bunch of whinging poms, to coin a phrase. What a crock of s**t.

Isn't it about time that we stood up and took note of what is going on? The

web is for business, believe this or you might as well call it a day now. If

you are involved in the "traditional" web development arena, it's about time

that you started to realise that the reason the Yanks are moving in and

buying you or squashing you is not because companies like WebMedia (sorry

Sam) and the like were poorly funded and Razorfish was simply swallowed by

someone larger. It is because you need to adapt to survive and we as an

industry don't do this.


If you don't have the in-house expertise to cope with PROPER e-business then

you best get some. If you can't bring this in-house, then talk to a company

that you can buddy up with. BUT make sure that they actually know what they

are talking about. A convincing salesman doesn't necessarily mean that what

backs it up is relevant. Yes, I am willing to help people. No, this is not a

lame sales pitch. It doesn't matter if it's me, or Entranet, or any other

British e-business solution provider, just help yourselves by speaking to

one of us.


SORT IT OUT. We deserve to be amongst the best in the world in electronic

business.


BE WARNED. If you don't, I'm coming for you and so is Chuck from US WEB

(remember Xplora?)


Be Seeing you.

Dorian Spackman

Business Development Director

Terra Nova Media Ltd.

doriansterranovamedia [dot] com

+44 (0)1784 410035

+44 (0)802 796468

www.terranovamedia.com


Terra Nova Media - The Digital Frontier


> Date: Thu, 1 Jul 1999 06:23:13 -0400 (EDT)

>

From: Clay Shirky <clayshirky [dot] com>

> Subject: UKNM: ATTENTION: New Business People

>

> So here I am, getting ready to look for UK-based design agencies and

> making a list of same to contact, and I have found on more than one

> occaision that people are putting their contact information in GIF or

> Flash format.

>

> If you want my business, or the business of any large firm, be

> prepared for a client's judgement of you to hinge on how well you take

> care of the details of your own site. In particular, be prepared for

> your potential client to want your contact info in their database.

>

> This means we, the clients, want to be able to *cut and paste* your

> contact info. Remember cut-and-paste? Xerox PARC? 1979? Like that? We

> are not paid as well as we are to be typists, and if you think I am

> going to appreciate your intro flash movie and then copy down your

> name, address, email, mobile, ICQ number, postcode, and cat's maiden

> name by hand because you are so in love with the look of your font

> that you forgot to make your site useful for getting new business, you

> are fucking daft.

>

> I am making a list of web agencies to evaluate for site design

> proposals. No site that does not have a link that says something like

> "Contact Us" on the home page linked to a text version of the contact

> info will be on this list. If you have this much contempt for your

> potential clients, I shudder to think about your attitude towards

> actual users.

>

> - -clay

> ********************


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