--- Michael Randazzo <randazzm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Digital Media: The Big Ideas w/Jeff Dachis This is a very timely topic, just yesterday I discovered an old issue of the Silicon Alley Reporter and it was hard not to laugh when reading it. It was full of profiles of rising stars like Jeff for whom the spotlight has gone out. Silicon Alley in the 90s was very much a place where style was more important than substance, and Jeff lead the pack. This wouldn't have been so bad if we were in an industry that created fashion where style is all important, but folks like Jeff were selling the idea of a "business revolution". What that revolution was we will never know because unlike those silly Marxists they never quite spelled out what the revolution was other than to say "I was into the web before you and I GET IT". As a mailing list which is focused on project management it's important that we discourage people like Jeff from acting nostalgic. The problem with that entire era was that folks like Jeff used buzzwords and hype to sell things to clients that they just didn't need. What was even more sad were the clients themselves who acting out of fear (or a following a heard mindset) followed Jeff off the cliff with their budgets. As a project manager I think the one thing that I've learned from folks like Jeff is that it's so very important to keep away from the buzz. In fact if I find a client using a techie term as "something our project needs" I always make it a point to review what the buzzword in question means and what it's really used for, or if it has any use. Even if your selling creative work and not technology, while it's alright to be sexy you have to have something to back it up with. The other core lesson that was learned from Jeff is that having a bigger company isn't as important as having a profitable one. At the time Razorfish was one of the firms that would keep adding employees in some sort of strange arms race - it didn't seem to matter that the company wasn't making money, but look 1000 people work here! Of course the painful side of this was when so many of the folks lost their jobs, and also for the folks that lost so much value in their IRA or 401k plan. Now that the new century is under way and it's time to think about rebuilding NYC, my hopes for this industry is that we build something that has some value to our clients. So while I'm not going to go and see Jeff talk about his "big ideas", I hope that the people who go to see him speak won't let him get away with acting like he is some sort of visionary. I hope he gets asked some very hard questions, and I also hope for his sake that he has the honesty not to do a spin job and admit to the public that he in fact didn't get it. It would be very sad if he was allowed to go on stage and continue his masquerade as if the bubble never burst. Jeff was right, the internet and the web aren't a fad, however his business and creative approach to it were very much a passing phase. I can see by the subject line of the lecture that Jeff hasn't learned much from the crash; yes he may have had "big ideas" but very little to back them up with. While it's unfair to blame the sins of an entire decade on him, it wouldn't hurt if he had a bit more modesty and perhaps titled the lecture "a few things we all learned the hard way". Michael ===== Michael James Pinto | http://www.vm.com Join my mailing list on the arts and technology: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EIA_list "I wish my life was a DVR so I could fast foward through the sucky parts and replay the cool bits." MJP __________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe send a blank message with unsubscribe in the subject to webproducers-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To access our webform to subscribe, unsubscribe, and manage your subscription (digest and vacation) visit www.WebProducers.org. The WPO list is a public discussion forum with a public archive at www.WebProducers.org. Be sure to trim your posts and delete personal information such as telephone numbers if you do not want them as part of the archive.