Techophilia and Social Progress

This site really pushes the envelope of design and functionality. Homestatic.net – is it an experiment? A portfolio site? You decide. I love it’s moody oddity. They claim to be a “web design firm with a radical new approach” and I guess the radical approach is not explaining what they are doing! Still, it’s q wonderful experience.

There is such a difference between the european sensibility – but the principals of this firm were all from the States. Love to know more about what these guys are up to!

Word of mouth marketing is probably the biggest way in which I get clients. I rarely do any advertising and I’ve come to understand that my relationship with clients is very very important. I’ve always believed that by being straightforward and ethical, clients will come my way. I haven’t been proven wrong yet.

Reading this article, I’m struck how it’s so important to consider this. Word of mouth marketing is really customers talking about you. Positively, negatively, or whatever. It’s about building trust with your customers, which that encourages their future business.

I think that online aspects give a great opportunity for this to take place, but as the article points out, it can be difficult. For example, one of my clients is trying to encourage discussion around a concert series. They have to consider what happens if someone says, “it sucks” or something as pithy.

For me, it’s being proactive and focussed on the discussion. Following the forum, reading comments, writing blogs… these are the key ways to keep abreast of what is going on.

More about developing countries, this article outlines a key point I strongly believe – that advanced technology needs to happen with a broad context of education and support. The social infrastructure must be in place as much as the technology. Without understanding how to use it, or more importantly, how to fix it, the $100 laptop will be as useless as any tractor without the gas to run it.

One excellent point that author Bill Thompson made about the disconnect between our urban reality and the “disconnected poor” was “Perhaps we need to point out that a home media console that stays turned on all the time, requires a fast broadband connection to be of any use to anyone, and powers multiple screens that go largely unwatched is the technology equivalent of taking a gas-guzzling SUV on a short trip to the mail.”