A Really Cool Panacea

Sometimes things work exactly right without any particular reason that they should. When this happens, I try not to complain, but instead to be happy with it and go on to the next thing. However, on the other hand, counting on this happening is a tricky thing. Computers, and technology in general, have a capricious nature, and it seems they pleasure in making things go wrong. In fact, most of my job as a computer guy was fixing or preventing problems. When things went well, I mostly spent time preventing problems -- when they went well.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand.

There are two opinions about technology which can occasionally cause difficulty with planning. Both answer the question "And why should we do this?" The two answers are

• "Because it's really cool." This occasionally combined with the comment that everyone is doing it. As a reason this is weak. It is also not helpful from a computer person's perspective. Occasionally the "coolness" is from an exceptionally well done thing, but generally not. Lots of Internet technologies (each in turn, I think) have had their day in the sun being the next cool thing. This doesn't mean that you avoid the cool stuff. What it means is that you need to be careful to do what is useful and reasonable, and it needs to be something that you'll enjoy and keep up with.
• "Because it will solve all of our ___ problems." New technologies do occasionally solve problems. Generally that is how new technologies come about. However, generally the problems they solve are the ones they were designed to solve. I'm leary of cure-all solutions, especially ones that require no work. I'm also not one that believes in deus ex machina. I've looked inside a computer. I know better.

So anyway, my opinion is generally the minority opinion in these matters, but I'm in favor of planning. Design a system to do something intentional, and preferably something important. If you do it well, it will solve the problem that you set out to solve. If you do the job particularly well, it might even be cool. If not, oh well.

With a web site of any size, shape or description the key is to have something to say. Start there. If you don't have anything to say, write, inform, tell, preach or otherwise communicate, a web site isn't the solution that you're looking for. In that you're looking for a message or a purpose. That is an entirely different process. (It is a process which I would liken to pulling one's heart out and setting it on the table before you that you might watch it work. But that's a different story.)