The Scandal of Web Site Development

CBC is First in North Bay with DSL Capability

How E-Mag Idea "Orchestrates" Web Site Visits

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Scandal is a strong word.

But we use it deliberately. Because far too many companies these days are signing large contracts with web site developers and getting little for their money. Yes, the web sites’ graphics are dazzling, the colors are coordinated and bold, and the copy makes ringing Mission Statements. Why, a visitor can even leave a name and address to request some snail mail literature.

But that’s about all a web site like that can do: Sit there and look pretty.

There is more to a web site than good looks. Modern web sites can be built to function as marvelous gateways to new forms of commerce and customer satisfaction, and as a new focus of internal company organization. Blended rationally with marketing, financing, administrative and managerial goals, a fully developed web site actively engages all of a company’s strengths and talents – not just a vague desire to have an Internet "nameplate."

In future issues of Provocateur, CBC Communications Corp. will continue to advocate the conscious construction of web sites as part of a new marketing and organizational model for small businesses. See: When You Hear It called "Cutting Edge. . ."

CBC Is First in North Bay With DSL

CBC Communications Corp. has become the first IT (information technology) systems provider in North Bay to acquire DSL (digital subscriber line) capability, through an alliance with major DSL providers Pacific Bell, Concentric Network and Covad Communications Co.

DSL is a recent technology that allows huge "packets" of information to run over standard phone lines. Its cost, compared to frame relay and ATM, is much cheaper. Unlike regular modem and ISDN access, DSL is "always on" and allows users to download files and view graphic-intensive web pages at speeds up to 10 times faster than ISDN and up to 25 times faster than conventional 56.6 Kbps modems.

"Installing DSL has given us two crucial capabilities," says Tony Valente, CBC’s CEO. "First, the ability to upload and download data at high speeds without depending on expensive technologies. Second, and even more important, we know where to go and what to do to get maximum service and response from DSL providers. We can turn now around and offer our clients the advantage of the insights and shortcuts we’ve learned as they begin to develop sophisticated web sites."

Valente considers DSL a "breakthrough technology." "It’s a pure example of where people have been casting about for a simple solution to a complex problem," he says. "People have been gnashing their teeth at how slow data movement over the Internet can be unless, of course, you have a lot of money and can afford expensive high-speed data transmission technologies.

"What DSL does is take already existing phone lines and move information over them on unused frequencies. It’s almost as though they’ve been sitting there the whole time waiting for somebody very smart to come along and say, ‘Hey, here’s a big, wide, high-speed highway that nobody’s using!’"

DSL’s benefits to businesses, especially small ones, will be immediate, says Valente. "First, the cost of high-speed data transmission will drop radically. You are looking at $150 to $200 a month for a 24-hour capability of moving data at seven times the speeds you can move them now on a high-speed modem. With that speed you can build far more sophisticated, information-rich web sites, and offer users much less frustration over the speed at which they can download items."

Beyond that, as the use of DSL technology spreads to households and consumers, electronic commerce sites will be able to show visitors far more information in the form of graphics, illustrations, 3-D views and interactive text.

See CBC's: DSL Services Page

See also: CBC White Papers: What Cavalry Is Riding to Rescue Bandwidth? and Electronic Commerce, Not If But When.

CBC’s E Mag Concept
"Orchestrates" Web Site Visits

The online newspaper you are reading, Provocateur, is what CBC Communications Corp. calls an "E Mag." A E Mag performs a combination of functions that help web site visitors find their way around smoothly. Think of a E Mag as a host, newscaster, symphony conductor, librarian

"E Mag is a concept that can be applied to any web site," says Patrick Totty, CBC Editorial Director, "because it not only performs the functions described above, it performs another service that is a life-and-death matter for any web site: It keeps it new.

"Once people come to your web site, unless there is something to draw them back again, they’ll visit only once or twice. But most of what you put on a web site is static - you don’t constantly change your address or product mix or message. How do you get around the fact that most things on your site aren’t new? You need some ‘dynamic thing,’ some element that’s always changing. That element is an E Mag, which can greet visitors with updates, analyses, commentaries and introductions that show what’s new with your company."

Totty says an E Mag can be as a company wants. "You can have your clients set up a private channel to your web site and send them alerts whenever there are new items or topics on your site. You can use an E Mag as a newsletter that goes out over the Internet rather than through the mail. You can include almost anything you want in an E Mag, from hokey items like employee birth announcements to serious position papers on your company or its industry."

A good E Mag is like a newspaper or news magazine. It not only delivers current news, it has a sort of "institutional memory" that lets it refer to past events and tell readers where to go find those sources. Its compartmentalized organization of topics and news helps people easily navigate the information it offers.

"We’re happy to show any of our clients how to set up and run an E Mag," says Totty. "We think they’ll find that it is not only a wonderful way to keep a web site lively, it also taps energies and talents within a company that may not have been apparent before."

See: CBC White Papers: E-Mags Concept Energizes Web Sites

The Provocateur Pledge: We may not hear it first, but we'll hear it before Al Gore.

Or even Tom Brokaw. Or your local newspaper business columnist. This is the place to come to when you want to learn not only what the latest networking trends are, but what they mean.  Our take on things will always be upfront, sassy, provocative, wide-ranging, honest and current. You won't need to subscribe to a dozen specialty publications to track the things you need to know to make sense of where networking is headed.

.Patrick Totty, Editor

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