INTERNET World is next week and I am inundated with the requisite press releases, invitations and announcements for the mega trade show of the cyberspace industry.
What shocks me though is the mixed messages the industry is giving. I do not know how many costly, expensive and wasteful invitations and announcements I have received by fax, mail or even telephone when, the reality is, most of the journalists covering the event have E-mail and are likely on-line.
After all, how does one write about the Internet without being on-line! It seems odd that the so-called Internet industry should be using such traditional means of promotion when it is touting the adoption of cyberspace as the newest (and most of them think best) means of conducting business, promoting companies and generally doing everything companies used to do with paper, fax and other means of communication.
This seems a sad comment on the adoption of the medium which is supposed to revolutionise all aspects of life from the way we do business to the way we socialise to perhaps, the way we worship.
After all, if the industry itself, those companies developing the tools and technologies to enable widespread adoption of the Internet and other on-line communication systems, fail to use the medium for their work when they are able to.
How can a company which produces tyres, or a bank or even a restaurant be convinced they have something to gain by going on-line.
If the Internet industry's press relations people still use faxes and postal mail and often do not even have E-mail addresses, then why should anyone assume the Internet can replace these more traditional communications technologies? Perhaps as the Internet is getting more attention, an E-mail address has to become more than just a trendy thing to have on a business card.