| R. A. Hettinga on 23 Jan 2001 17:44:18 -0000 |
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| [Nettime-bold] Re: <nettime> The End of an Era: the Internet Hits Ground |
--- begin forwarded text Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 23:54:33 -0800 From: Somebody To: "R. A. Hettinga" <[email protected]> Subject: Re: <nettime> The End of an Era: the Internet Hits Ground What a crock. The "dotcom madness" was a Madison Avenue phenom. It was using graphic arts and kewl scripts to make websites "sticky", then renting ad space on those sites, then developing banner blipverts, counting clickthroughs, producing multimillion dollar superbowl TV ad campaigns, breathlessly promoting companies and feeding the hype to the "news" media, dealing the investment bankers in to monetize the whole thing. It was a truly amazing engine to see -- more like a tornado or a tropical storm which kinda sucks energy out of the environment and builds in strength. Everything was working together, and I've got to believe a bunch of advertising executives have beautiful new yachts on Long Island Sound. Then the music stopped. As part of the Madison Avenue circus, it was necessary to repeal a few basic laws of economics -- or should I say engage in a willing suspension of disbelief. But when the houselights came back up, it was clear that the sets were painted flats, not Camelot. Revenue, cashflow, margins...all came back into focus. But let us not throw out the revolution with the broken down dotcom ad campaign. Toysrus, Barnes&Noble, Schwab, and WalMart may be showing that clicks and mortar is effective, but it is likewise in- conceivable that they could ignore eToys, Amazon, Etrade or Buy.com. The ecommerce revolution is in full swing. And don't mistake all the stupid internet laws (ban gambling site access, DMCA, the Hague Convention, kiddie filters) for a resurgence of the Nation State. It is simply the incoherent babbling of increasingly irrelevant legislative and executive bodies. The internet is still different. The scent of upheaval is still in the air. You can hear Yankee Doodle playing somewhere close to hand. "R. A. Hettinga" wrote: > --- begin forwarded text > > Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 17:19:33 -0500 > To: [email protected] > From: Felix Stalder <[email protected]> > Subject: <nettime> The End of an Era: the Internet Hits Ground > Sender: [email protected] > Reply-To: Felix Stalder <[email protected]> > > [A slightly different version was published on Telepolis > (http://www.heise.de/tp) a few days ago. Posted here with friendly > permission.] > > The End of an Era: the Internet Hits Ground <Snip of Death...> --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: [email protected]> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' _______________________________________________ Nettime-bold mailing list [email protected] http://www.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold