Act global, think local

Believe it or not, generating interest from the web is not about doing business worldwide. It's actually more about doing business next door.
Remember that IBM e-business advert in which the small guy and the fat cat find each other over the internet and decide to go into business together? It is quite humourous- at the end of it they are so happy about their future propects that they simultaneously walk out of their offices to punch the sky and let out an almighty cheer only to find themsleves standing infront of each other.
Basically the advertising agency got it absolutely right- these kinds of scenarios happen all the time. In fact the almost the same thing happened to me today: a friend invited me to a meeting with a company whom he had met and arranged the meeting with over the internet. I waited with baited breath for the call detailing where the meeting was going to be held, ready to mobilise for the long haul at any time, only to find that it was within spitting distance of my office. Their office was literally round the corner from mine.
The only difference between what the ads suggest and what does happen in reality, is that there is nothing ironic about these kinds of coincidences. Although the internet delivers worldwide communication at the touch of a button our transport system does not. We can send our goods worldwide if we use a courier yet at the same time there needs to be a courier at the other end. Much to my frustration it is just not worth me sending goods back and forth from Sri lanka because it is highly likely to get lost on the way. These kind of factors also effect internet based businesses. We're all where the broadband pipe is. We're all around the big advertising companies because that's where our clients are.

The point I am making is this: The internet is a network which mirrors the network of our own lives. It is not a network that particularly enhances our quality of life. You can't sit on a beach and run your business while the waves lap your feet. They lied to you.

t would seem like this should be just one big joke because global and local are antithetical but in fact there is almost a double edged lack of irony at play busting out and confirming the way we work. Firstly, there is no irony in the fact that people use a vast global network to track down suppliers round the corner, and secondly, there is no irony in the fact that a vast global network tends to deliver local answers. These are fairly given- we are all used to using the yellow pages to find our nearest supplier and we have always been able to use these directories to drill down to the specific answers we want.




One might say that "in cyberspace no one can hear you be ironic". If this is the case, why is this the case?