:: don't blame - Build

by Carole Guevin

Read the results + insights of the mini-survey *Pay for content?* on netdiver.

It's time... time to think about the real issues. Time to face the real challenges. Time to talk about what we are truly facing in order to build the next WWW (What the Web Will be).

:: There are 3 areas where we impact directly as content producers:

Two (2) positively:

+> academia: students and teachers using online resources for free - yet students pay for curriculum, teachers get paid to teach curriculum scooped out of our web community. I know for a fact that either links to netdiver or articles I've written are part of such curriculum.

+> web community valuation: our community is an alternate educational system, that educates mostly in *real time*. Corporations benefit from those resources and in turn, charge clients for acquiring that expertise. Students will have a profession. Studio and freelancers learn the trade and better serve their clients. Thereof, these prove without a shadow of a doubt that our trade and content has *value* and should be paid for.

One (1) negatively:

-> media attention: the past recession was shouldered by our community and blame for the dotbombing was hyper mediatized by all media (TV, Radio, Newspapers/Magazines) - and a lot of books were written on this as well. BTW did you know that on 50 jobs lost last year - only 1 was IT related? there are numerous indications that

a) wall street inflated the *valuation* of what a successful web site was by use of unproved models.

b) our potential clients believe wall street.

c) our potential clients acquire information mainly from traditional sources (industry magazines, business newspapers and books).

We NEED to generate a new awareness, buzz, whereas success stories would lever our industry so that OUR potential clients be clued in that we are actually building the web and that, NO we are not a fantasy poor add-on marketing feature for their yearly spending on getting their company somewhere. Also I know from media folks directly - that they are idle right now and looking for stories.

:: First we had web as miracle...

Media folks write about what is fed to them - finding a culprit for the recession - the *web* industry proved to be one of choice.

Recently attended a panel on *How to get media coverage for a new media project*. It dawn on me during the course of that panel - that *they* were in a position of playing god on what would or not be fed to their audience. While Wall Street sold vaporware which our clients bought, the Media are (still) feeding the clients *bad news* because, by their own admission, they have no *success stories* to talk about.

They bragged and laughed about being all *cynical*, that we should not kiss their a... but build a relationship (?) mostly by trying to feed them information on what they usually have written about (meaning better have read what they did write about) - and they didn't believe anything *new* was possible. If you keep in mind that our potential clients read their news from *traditional* sources and trust these, then you can understand how alarming this is and why my level of adrenaline is shooting so high.

Upon my return - one thing that struck me - was that we, as a community - need to unite, to have a *voice* feeding the media success stories. There are success stories - just not the kind that until now - have ever grabbed media attention. Is it lack of efforts or resources that prevent us from landing on their desks?

If we want our industry to reach its second wind - we have to DO something. Organizing, is a sign of giving value to *who* we are and *what* we do - which in fact - is building this *new* media from scratch. The fact that we don't mediatize the *value* of our work, efforts and community, the media continues to feed in the negative perception that we're a bunch of ex-hackers, lacking total business sense and playing with the net, while the big corps are doing all their best efforts to grab it for themselves.

We need a wide base consultation and a willingness to set aside whatever is hindering the process of becoming an *industry*.

Do we need an organization to speak out on issues that matter to us?

I have been a member of numerous internet related associations for many years. This is a summary of my experience:

a) I've given *free* time to all of these - yet most fail to take into account that the web is mostly composed of individuals and the search for money to support the infrastructure always tend to give a *bigger* voice to corps who pay a bigger membership fee.

reason: individual membership fee is too low to cover the org expenses

b) I've helped build from grounds up another association (which is still active so I won't mention who it is) - and I fought to keep a democratic process cause in fact the people who were feeding the SIG (Special Interest Groups) activities were mostly individuals - same thing happened - it became a lobbying group for those able to pay the most money. The big agencies had an *official* rep board to launch even more contracts.

reason: hidden agenda of organizers wanting to push themselves in the limelight

c) The need to organize takes time and money - and to do concerted efforts demand leadership. There seem to be a festering and inherent internal power struggle, and factions rally around their fav leaders. The objectives of the *organization* are lost because of these.

reason: lost of sight of the ultimate goal

Most organizations have failed yet we NEED to organize. How can we generate this *voice*?

Mobilization is the key word here - and organizing as such, takes more than generosity from a few.

:: Money cardinal web sin or when was the internet EVER free?

1) access costs (pc, hardware, connection, software) are not free.

2) site costs (DNS fees, hosting space, bandwidth consumption, backend requirements) are not free.

3) content costs (editors time, collaborators time, info acquisition time, review of content/submissions time, graphic work time, content management time, feedback time, support time, interactivity time, future dev time) are not free.

Costs for above points 2) + 3) split between all beneficiaries would be a sensible solution to ensure:

i) survival of independent resources which are in fact *building* the web so that they DON'T systematically disappear - eradicated by their increasing financial burdens.

ii) a position of strength by sending the big corps a statement that we are NOT going to let them become sole proprietor of the web.

iii) maintaining everyone's level of expertise to it's present pace and having resources to fund projects which will venture further into what the web needs to become (independently from traditional sources or outside pressures: such as corporate ownership, sponsorship, advertising, etc.)

iv) a fair retribution from the community for the community whereas first hand beneficiaries become firsthand supporters.

:: Conclusion

Our community needs to organize around 3 main areas, in order to move on:

1) Task group aimed at generating positive MEDIA attention - hence turning around our potential clients negative perceptions

2) Task group aimed at organizing + describing what this new media is about and create a knowledge *repository* where clients can search for talent

3) Task group aimed at training + validating our profession through e-learning

I've been doing research online for close to 7 years and I am quite sure that it is now time to organize and structure - this is a societal activity and usually means - we want to build a legacy, you know, outlive the odds.

To want to *organize* our trade seriously doesn't mean we are surrendering to some backward way of surviving - survival - demands organization. Reaching consensus is not a disease - but a mature gesture that shows we want the web to find its second wind.

I firmly believe that we have the power to turn this around - aren't we all still here as a proof of the power of the people? Yet, we need to move on to the next stage - the next Web.

Then, will the internet stay FREE to BE!

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