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Dan Bricklin: Democratizing the Web
securitas writes "This NY Times story featuring Dan Bricklin discusses the social impact of the Web on small businesses (Mom and Pop shops) and how the Web is leaving some behind. Bricklin wants to change that and make creating Web sites as easy (*cough*) as using a PC."
The small shops are usually the places the high school and college students get their first HTML gigs in. Granted, the sites come out looking less-than-beautiful, but there's no reason to get left entirely behind. With the advent of PayPal just about anyone can set up shop online with minimal barrier to entry.
*shrug*
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
I disagree. What makes the web so good is that people can create websites about anything, with minimal skill. This is how some people get started on greater things, and makes it a universal resource.
In addition to this, some people out there may think that your cute pet is really interesting.
There may be a time when you need some information on say, goldfish juggling, and the guy who knows loads about this was only able to put up his site because of these easy to use tools. Could be great content behind that naf design, but you'd never know if he couldn't publish it.
"Those who cast the votes decide nothing; those who count the votes decide everything." (attrib. Joseph Stalin)
I propose that installing central heating be as easy as turning my heating on, making my own car be as easy as driving.
Poor analogies perhaps...anyway...my main point is this, you *can* do it yourself, but it'll never be as good as having a specialist do it.
I know I'd rather pay a plumber to install my heating than end up with a leaky botch job that I put in myself.
There is no excuse for any business to not have a web presence. Minimally, every business, no matter how small, should have appropriate contact information and business description.
As added features, they should also have free samples. And attractive customer representatives. Plus, snacks.
But at least a website.
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I would have to disagree slightly. In a mom+pop shop in the high street it is possible for them to see how customers shop and rearrange stock accordingly. Making web pages however is a not as easy. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder and sometimes less than intuative. This is good example of how not to do things
Rus
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Creating a website has always been easy. Although, creating a scalable ecommerce website with all the wiz bang features is not. I know of a software package called Weblisket created by AllBinary that will allow anyone to create an ecommerce site with seven easy steps. Although, if you don't like the visual styles it provides through the Weblisket Store Wizard you still need to know JSP, XSLT, and the client ML you wish to modify like DHTML or WML. Plus, whenever a new client ML is needed you must change the XSLT to include the new client agent. To sum things up if you need a professional website you will always need professionals.
I think it is more about someone who has recognized the money to made in the small businesses rather than someone trying to "Democratize the web". And there is nothing novel about it as the article wishes to potray. The big guns are fairly well established on the web after dot com boom (as in explosion) and the next obvious target for the web development industry would be small business. Has anyone seen Microsoft ads lately on TV ?
Interland intends to lower that barrier by offering Web site hosting to small businesses for as little as $23 a month.
Hey, there are many more good hosts which offer hosting for price far lesser than that.
Siggy Say, Siggy Do
We're building the Open Source TownPortal application for just this.
The idea with TownPortal is that a local community (say, town or county) can easily build and maintain their web site.
In addition, the TownPortal will also enable local small businesses, clubs and schools to run their web sites with simple but efficient CMS tools.
By default the sites of these organizations are hosted under the main TownPortal site, but they can also be easily shown under their own domains with their own layout. In this case the operator of the portal would probably provide this as an additional service.
Midgard Project - Open Source CMS
"I see some touting the ease of HTML -- "They can make their own site, it's easy!" Well, no, HTML may be easy for us, but for someone who views computers as mysterious boxes the very idea of general programming concepts is beyond them. "I never was very good at math," they mumble when you suggest they learn HTML. "
My wife manages to cope fine as a finance director, too, but I don't hear people suggesting that everyone should be able to do that without paying a professional.
If these small business people mumble "I never was very good at math" to the IRS they will get told to pay someone who is good to do it, rather than just not bother. I suggest they do the same when it comes to web design if they can't do it themselves.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
There's a lot wrong here, but also a larger problem.
Larger problem:
If by Mom & Pop stores we mean small, privately owned retailers with single-digit locations, then the problem presented to them by the internet is that they have to compete with the national chains *at all*. Before, the national chains weren't in their area. Now the area's overlap, and for some Mom & Pop's that's a very bad thing. Before they existed just because they didn't have to compete with the chains, or, more precisely, because they were able to win the competition with their location. Now they both have an opportunity to move in on each other's customers. The reason the chains will often win is not that it's hard for Mom & Pop to build a website, but that it's hard (read: impossible) for Mom & Pop to match the supply chain and advertising budget of the larger stores. It costs nothing for the chains to start serving Mom & Pop customers via the Internet; It costs a fortune to start serving the rest of the world when you are used to serving only one or two locations. And merely maintaining their present customer base is not an option. Not many people want to order online from the store around the corner. They'll either walk to the store, or else buy from whomever has the lowest online price.
A lot wrong:
That said, it really isn't the expense or difficulty of a website that is hurting Mom & Pop stores. Things are actually skewed wildly in their favor here. It takes very little time, money, or expertise to get a website going that does the job well for the kind of customer base that a Mom & Pop store needs to serve. It takes a lot more resources to get one going that will serve the entire nation (in real, not just potential buyers). Thus the Mom & Pop can get something up and grow as fast as they gain the money to. It took years longer for Kmart, Walmart etc. to get online, because it was such a large undertaking. The fact that, unless you're a niche retailer, the big boys will still kick your ass once they show up, is not a feature unique to the internet. It's also important to note that, if you *are* a niche retailer, most of the good things apply and few of the bad. Walmart is not so big as to want to go into antique bedframes. So you get your chance to server a much larger audience, but without the new nation-wide competition. At worst you will only be competing with other Mom & Pop stores.
also, on the subject of web design, i grit my teeth when i hear such uninformed comments as 'i'll hire a college student to do it,' would you hire a law student to be your lawyer? would you hire a CS student to be your MIS manager? while there may be an example out there somewhere, 99% of the time when somebody hires a student to do their website, they end up with a half-baked piece of s#t that they eventually have to hire a professional to fix--here's a clue, if it looks easy, it ain't...finally, on the subject of template designs, again, this has been around for years, it's never worked, and never will--it just looks good when said company goes looking for investors--i wish dan bricklin well, however, i wouldn't touch his venture with a 10-foot pole...
my.02
-mojo