re: Interesting navigational metaphors?

Rob Raisch (raisch@internet.com)
Thu, 15 Dec 1994 10:06:14 -0800

>From: bauer@tig.com (Mike Bauer)
>Never thought the user was the wrong side of any equation.

When it comes to the protection of intellectual property, I'm afraid the user
is very much on the wrong side of the equation! Users demand complete freedom
to use information in any manner they see fit. Publishers cannot accept this
view because "publishing" (L to make available to the public) is the exercise
of control over the content, its distribution and presentation. Making the
product available to the public without "limitations on its further use" does
not allow its owner to maintain control over it.

(And I feel this is very appropriate for discussion on this list because it
directly
affects all forms of publishing, of which marketing is one.)

In the sense of marketing, it is as if we all had televisions which allowed us
to arbitrarily edit the characteristics of the commercials we viewed. Would
television advertising be as effective, do you think, if we could mute or
completely remove the commercial from the experience of the program?
Or magazine advertising, if we could strip out the solicitation and only
consume the content?

Advertising in its traditional guise is made far less effective if the
consumer controls the experience. This is one of the strongest reasons why
the Internet is a very poor advertising medium. The tools that make up the
Internet are tools developed from the perspective of the user, not the
publisher. "The hayfork is only judged useful if it lifts the hay, but no one
asks the hay how it wishes to be lifted."

Now, it was well before my time, but I am sure some of us remember the early
days of television, before it became an "advertising" vehicle. In those days,
companies would sponsor the content of programs. In fact, advertisers of a
television program are still called sponsors.

"Texaco proudly presents Your Show of Shows!"

And the sponsored program would have a testamonial from its celebrity of
choice touting the value of the sponsor and its products.

Until we completely understood how to leverage the medium to maximum effect,
this was a very effective method of informing the public of the value of a
product.

Perhaps George Santayana was correct?

</rr>
</rr> -- Rob Raisch, The Internet Company