thewebstory.com - Tomorrow (BBC Documentary Review)

BBC produces some of the best documentaries, worldwide. Throughout September 2000, BBC World (BBCW) broadcasted a series of programmes under a common "Digital Planet" title, ranging from interviews with people related to the Computers Industry, to thematic episodes on the Internet.

The interviews were exhibited in regular shows, like "Hard Talk", and the thematic productions were organized in series of great inspiration. One of the series is "thewebstory.com", completely dedicated to the Internet (not just the www): its past, its present... and its future.

The episode "Tomorrow" starts and ends with Wendy, the girl behind the "made-in-sheffield.com" website. The "Tomorrow" title might suggest that there will be some investigation about what we should expect from the big Net, in a few years time, but instead goes around today's e-commerce...

Everyone is saying that the "dot coms" haven't been profitable, but everyone is also building his own "dot com", probably expecting it to be the first one to do big money, from online businesses. This is strange, even somewhat irrational (very high risk investment, with just "regular" income, at best), but is one of those few things that makes some people - like myself - to still believe in a society fueled by faith, by information, by anything, other than money...

Oh, but I'd better get back to the money issue, because everyone on the documentary is living for it...

Wendy presents a virtual Sheffield (England), on a website that allows the e-commerce of products, like the famous Sheffield Knives. Wendy is after the green, but starting from a discomfortable grid position: she had the idea, she finances the project... and she is not at Silicon Valley, "where people with ideas meet people with money", in the words of Kevin Whately, the documentary's narrator.

Silicon Valley, San Jose, California, USA, is where the documentary picks up, minutes after of showing a bit of South Yorkshire, and Wendy driving her Peugeot, talking about her (cool) attitude.

Brad Templeton, Internet Consultant, retired and on his early 30s, is the person that follows, and that introduces the "mumble" word, referring to the many "new projects", that pop everywhere in the Valley, but that aren't disclosed until complete. "Mumble" means "to speak something quietly"...

Brad doesn't tell much to the viewers, but David Filo and Jerry Yang, from Yahoo, are in for a bright conversation on the birth of their web directory and their thoughts about making money on the web - they pay their website, though advertising.

The most interesting ideas on "Tomorrow" are Bill Thompson's. Bill is a computer journalist, that I didn't find particularly surprising in the previous documentaries of the series, but here he is top notch, on the subject of advertising.

Bill explains that the current advertising model (banners + banners) is winning, not because it is the best, but because the technology doesn't currently deliver a better alternative, which would be the transparent payment for the use of the service: imagine there was a way to pay 0.001 USD to Yahoo, for each search service the site provided; and imagine that doing the payment was a easy as typing the URL... yes, you probably wouldn't mind paying and NOT having to eat publicity.

And that is the luck on Kevin O'Connor, co-founder & CEO of DoubleClick Inc., who sells "advert targetising", ie, he tries to display appropriate publicity, and not random banners, when you are surfing. For example, you might be interested in computer science books, but not in buying a new car, so you'll probably feel OK with a CS banner, but indifferent to others.

A very interesting part of the documentary, is about the ThrustSSC project (Thrust Supersonic Car Project), which managed to get £300000 from the Internet, in 15 days, just for selling "certificates of participation" on the breaking of the world record of speed on ground.

After the ThrustSSC website's first hit (from Portugal), the entrepreneurs managed to rise the popularity of the site to half a million hits per day; then it was a matter of convincing people to help finance a last try to rev the monster car past the sound barrier (they were needing money for the fuel...). And they did! This was nearly three years ago (15 October 1997).

Today, Wendy, from Sheffield is still trying hard to make profit from made-in-sheffield.com. Why does she keep trying?

"Because I can", she answered. A brilliant answer.

"Tomorrow" is a great documentary!, available for exchange, from the Trade Center.