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December 24, 2004
The Digital Divide Among Websites
Today during some cheap TV advertisement, i heard a website address being trumpeted by the announcer, as if that would somehow make the product seem better or the company more professional. And that made me think of how some companies or organizations (many in fact) are just beginning their foray into having an online represenation of themselves, and many others have none at all (the hardware store i worked for as a teenager doesn't have one, no offense tho ;) ).
Contrast this to the endlessly iterative refining that other companies such as Amazon or Microsoft or eBay do to their websites. These places have dedicated budgets just for the website; they have a team of talented designers, usability experts, coders, and architects; some even conduct their entire business online.
So, this made me realize that there is an ever widening gap (or 'digital divide') between these companies and the places that are first defining themselves on the Web. Just as there is a 'digital divide' among countries that have the latest in technology (like the U.S. and Japan) and the ones that are struggling to get any type of IP telephony (like parts of Africa), there is a similar condition among organizations. Coming from a school that is training a host of web designers, usability experts, and overall information professionals, my colleagues and i will have an increasing range of website 'maturity' to choose from. Some may want to work for an Amazon or a Google, doing cutting edge and stressful work. Others may want to work in the mainstream, doing major corporate sites but not where the company's business is 'down the tubes' if the website is not perfect. And still others may want the challenge of bringing websites to beginners, where simply having their Word documents translated to HTML is amazing to them.
All of these levels have their rewards, and i think it is interesting to see that even tho you can't just slap some HTML together and compete with Amazon, you can make some simple usable webpages for someone's small business and benefit their organization in ways they never imagined.
Posted by MaTT at December 24, 2004 02:39 AM
Comments
Hmmmm... now that you mention it, the underdog is most appealing to me!
Posted by: srah at December 24, 2004 10:06 AM