Internet has grown into the world's largest garbage bin and more people are wondering what the hell to do with this thing called web. As an oldtimer, yes I started back in 1995, I have witnessed this strange process of connecting to total strangers, anywhere in the world, and found them even listening to me.

We are using things, and spednd time on getting accustomed to them that nobody ever asked for. We accept anoying advertising in places where it only causes confusion and slows down web sites because we are told advertising is the holy grail that allows internet to be free of charge. Have you ever checked your phone bill (if you'r not on a flatrate connection). If we need help we buy books for dummies, and accept the writers to address us like that.

Personaly I prefer to be taken serious, but what's more anoying about all the so called internet revolution is the fact that nobody ever asked the average user anything. Nobody asked for on-line shopping in stores that havn't finished. Nobody asked to be able to communicate to milllions of people in a yahoogroup, or any other system. The consequence of this is that ended up with an incrowd meeting eachother on-line in various groups where they discuss the same issues they also discussed days weeks or months ago. If we continue in this fashion we might aswell close down straight away. I hope the issues addressed in this e-book will help finding more userfriendly ways to continue the search for the holy grail of internet the next generation...

-- ben koot (ben@travelcompass.zzn.com), February 23, 2001

Answers

To: cluetrain@topica.com Subject: Re: [cluetrain] Calm before the storm - Right Side Up - not BtoC but CtoB andy From: Kevin Jamieson Add to Contacts Date: Fri, Feb 23 2001 10:34:37 AM -0800

> No maybe that's wrong way round thinking. > > Its up to consumers to use it (and to do so by moving agents (human ones) > into businesses that start round buyers not round sellers.

Well, I guess I can agree with this, but kind of from a different perspective.

I have been using technology such as the internet to empower myself as a consumer. But that's not why I use it. I didn't get online to say "How can I get good deals on airline tickets?" or anything else. I got online to get in contact with people and to trade ideas. To be informed, so to speak..

So here I am, circa 1996-97, cruisin along nicely on my various dialup connections, trading files, sending email, reading usenet, drawing pictures, and anything else that pops into my head that would be fun. I'm having conversations with all sorts of people, and then the spam _really_ begins to hit. My ISP takes measures to block it, but it's still pretty bad at times. It's like I'm talking with friends in a circle and all of a sudden a big man in a crazy looking suit starts shouting next to me about FREE TICKETS TO ARUBA or some such.

Now, I'm not saying that the spam was _that_ annoying - it could be deleted fairly easily, etc. (this isn't to say spam is ok..) But the point being is that in cases like that it's been quite clear that companies want to TELL me things but they do not want to talk to me. And based on these experiences, I want to avoid conversation with entities like that.

> Also, I eg to differ -we ain't seen anything yet in terms of proper (new > economy) connectivity uses of the internet either by businesses or > cosnumers - but then most of us are toddlers at this - and human beings take > a few years of making mistakes before they learn anything real ....perhaps > that's why my dad (1984)predicted in The 2024 Report that an internet would > arrive now but its wealth-revolutionary capabilities would take some time to > grow up

I'm not really sure what they can come up with based on what we have now. People still seem to think there is something golden about the idea of making money on the Internet - _most_ of those people I find uninteresting. In fact, the only group of people who I've felt relate to the 'business' side of the whole Internet discussion are the people on this list. I'm usually more interested in the people that are interested in giving things away for free. They usually have more to say and answer questions with the truth rather than brochure talk.

Back to sneezing,

Kevin

-- ben koot (ben@travelcompass.zzn.com), February 23, 2001.