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Forget working the Web; have fun instead

Note: the following column did not appear in Fast Forward on Oct 23/97

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© Copyright, Myles White, 1997

Is anyone else as annoyed as I have become by the recent commercials from Lotus Development on the theme of "Work the Web?"

The commercials feature a sneering, supercilious character who demeans the general public's use of the Internet. Instead, the message uppermost in these commercials for the Lotus Domino web server and Lotus Notes products is that the only worthwhile use of the Internet is for highly commercial enterprises - and that the only worthwhile people who should be using it are corporate executives.

The first in the series was bad enough, but the most recent ad just about takes the cake. According to Lotus, any kids who try to set up a web page or explore what they can do with their computers are "chuckleheads." Any elderly granny who takes delight in sending her first e-mail message is greeted with a heavily sarcastic, "That's nice," while being lumped into the "chucklehead" category along with anyone who uses Internet Relay Chat.

In fact, according to Lotus, the only legitimate use of the Web is represented by a Chrysler executive who prattles on about the millions the company has supposedly saved by using Lotus's products.

Something is deeply wrong here and it underlines a corporate philosophy that appears to have been embedded in Lotus for some time. We've seen instances of it before. There was, for example, the famous quote from a now-departed Lotus CEO at about the time Windows took off and began to dominate the PC marketplace. Referring to the DOS version of its spreadsheet product, the CEO sneered, "There's 1-2-3 for Windows and there's 1-2-3 for money."

The CEO is gone, Lotus is now owned by IBM and its SmartSuite office product languishes as a result of this lack of vision to the point where IBM has to give it away on some of its computers in order to move it all.

For years, until I stopped going to their press conferences altogether, I've nagged Lotus representatives to make their Windows products more approachable to small businesses with peer-to-peer network setups - something that continues to fall on deaf ears. I can only assume the reason is that the corporate culture there dismisses any computer customer that doesn't run a full client/server local area network with hundreds of workstations.

In short, the company has consistently failed to realize that home and small business consumers make up a respectable portion of the computer marketplace. Heck, home users are the force that drives multimedia hardware development and the enthusiasm of individual users is more than just a little responsible for the flowering of the Web.

The company's current attack on individual Internet users, their sneering attitude at the younger generation that is learning what can be done with it -- and the computers on which it runs -- while pushing back its frontiers, and its assumption that the elderly shouldn't be using it at all is bewildering at best. At worst it's an attempt at intimidation of the most blatant kind.

And, I can't help wondering why Chrysler allowed itself to be associated with a commercial that sets out deliberately to insult the average computer user - the same people who might be expected to buy the company's products. Did the car company think its way through a decision to tell people that if they don't use the Internet the way Lotus thinks it should be used that they are chuckleheads? Surf the net, be a chucklehead; buy a Dodge?

Depending on your own personal point of view, computers and the Internet are either instruments of personal empowerment, simple working tools with no social implications, or the work of the Devil. Whatever your particular take is on this discussion, it's hard to argue that they have no impact at all or that they won't continue to be with us and having that impact for some time to come.

I come down on the side of personal empowerment because I've seen the results. I know elderly people who have had their horizons expanded through the use of their computer and I've delighted in their delight as they've accomplished each new task with what started out for them as a bewildering tool. I've seen the first hesitant steps taken by a nine year-old faced with her first computer turn into pleasure, delight and personal confidence when she learned just what could be done with a computer-based paint program. I've written about the gardening centre operator who first had to be shown how to switch his computer on and then learned enough about desktop publishing to produce his own newsletter. I've also written about the community centre that teaches unemployed street people, new immigrants, ex-addicts and others down the economic scale the skills they need to compete in the modern technological world. I've explored Websites set up by ordinary people that add something special to the body of the world's knowledge of itself. The last thing any of these people need is to have some bitter multimillion-dollar corporation buy television time to tell them they're chuckleheads.

As our children reach maturity, there will be few jobs open to them that don't involve at least a rudimentary understanding of what can be done with computers. As convergence continues - the melding of communications and entertainment media through a single delivery system - computers and the Internet will have a growing influence on our lives. To demean even the least effort people of any age put into working with these tools is detrimental to both the mental and economic health of our future.

Frankly, whether I use my computer and the Internet to research an article, sell a product or help me to while away some recreational time is none of Lotus's damned business. To me, if you fiddle with a Web page, design a virtual pet, or hold a long distance Web conversation about purple rabbits that's perfectly okay. If it helps you learn about and to cope with the ocean of technology in which we're all swimming, so much the better. If it does none of these things and simply makes you feel good, that's okay too.

However, the next time I get to choose among product offerings - or cars for that matter - I'll remember who rained on my parade, who sneered at my efforts and who called me a chucklehead because I had a different idea of how to use my time and technology.

This document is protected by international copyright. That means you can read it, download it, set a link to it and even print it. However, you must not make copies for your friends, make copies for your class, post it at your Website, send it to someone else's Website, or quote all or any part of it in any other medium for any reason whatsoever unless you ask me first. Okay?

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