John Linton
.....acknowledging Roy and HG's contribution to gonzo sports journalism. Too much sport watching on TV may never satiate the needs of those who crave no other stimulation and it's becoming apparent that there are similarly addictive screen based 'drugs of choice' that are beginning to rival those produced by non-registered pharmaceutical enterprises.
Some years ago I drew my wife's attention to a program on SBS that was covering the 'finals' of (I think it was 'Half Life" but if not, some similar first person shoot and destroy game) being held in Korea. She was horrified at the way the contestants, when they could be torn away from 'practising', spoke about how their lives were spent, up to 18 hours a day, practising and playing with their 'clans' to perfect their abilities to kill electronically projected human beings.
I made the comment at the time that she could now see that such computer games represented greater health risks to the current younger generations of Australians than 'hard drugs' ever did - not only physical health but mental health. Having teenage sons at the time who did spend an inordinate amount of time on such games, several steps down from complete addiction but at worrying levels, she got the point very quickly.
Has there ever been another consumer product like ADSL that involves such a large percentage of its users spending so much of their time talking about every last tiny aspect of its past, current and possible future performance, cost and availability?
Probably not...and the reason is, of course, that the service/product itself is the ability to relate to thousands of other people instantly and anywhere on the planet.
This should be, and largely is, a massively good thing. However like so many other major technology advances it's also too often a very bad thing and has generated whole new areas of crime and allowed some depravities to reach horrendous growth levels. Perhaps it was ever thus.
I've taken a great interest in how the internet can be used in marketing for a little over ten years now and have learned a great deal in that time. Exetel is an example of a commercial company that has been built from zero to a turnover of over $A3 million a month in less than four years almost purely based on the internet and the related automation that's made possible using web based services.
One of the massive advantages of the internet over the past ten years (for those senior managers who wished to involve themselves in it) has been the ability to operate chat rooms and forums that provide the facilities for end users of a service to 'talk' directly to the providers of the service and make their feelings, across the whole spectrum from highly satisfied to highly dissatisfied, clear to the highest decision making levels of a company in ways that have never been possible before such tools became available.
Of course there is no 'filtering' possible using the internet media of forums and chat rooms so there is an 'empty vessels make the most sound' aspect that needs to be understood and allowed for - there aren't many instances in the commercial past where a 12 year old can abuse the CEO of the company providing the service concerning his/her experiences with using the service. However this instant interaction is the most powerful 'market analysis' that has ever been available to any commercial planner/decision maker - should they care to use it.
Which is why, I suppose, that several of the suppliers with whom Exetel does business don't avail themselves of such mechanisms preferring to exist in their 'denying world' where if they refuse to listen to complaints of inadequate services then they can proceed with their working day without being disturbed at the thought that they are doing a less than acceptable job.
Perhaps if some of the CEOs in this industry availed themselves of the use of their own forum then the massively expensive deniability layers of junior management they insulate themselves from the inadequate services they are providing wouldn't be necessary. They would understand as soon as a problem occurred exactly what the impacts were and would be able to get something done about it before it became serious.
Then again.....that would assume they gave a damn about the quality of service they were providing and were not prepared to tolerate employing incompetent liars whom they would quickly realise were simply both incompetent and untruthful.
Maybe my boxed trifecta of Purple Moon, Mahler and Zipping will pay so much money I can retire? Though I think I'll add Tungsten Strike in for a quadrella.