Alternative communities: September 21, 1998 issue of New Thinking

September 21, 1998 New Thinking:
Alternative communities

Website content management

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September 21, 1998

Alternative communities

By Gerry McGovern

The Internet is the world’s greatest grapevine.

When I searched AltaVista from 1st January 1994 to 31st December 1994 with the word “Pentium” (Intel’s popular chip), the first 10 ten responses I got all had to do with a bug in the original Intel Pentium chip. Information on the Pentium bug arose first on the Internet towards the end of 1994. A hefty debate developed and before long the offline press picked it up. The rest, as they say, is history.

The Pentium Bug was rare, and in the larger scale of things, relatively minor. However, the huge press coverage and debate which arose from it was as much a reaction to Intel’s poor record of public relations and customer interactivity as to the actual design fault.

On December 12th 1994, Andy Grove, then president and chief executive officer of Intel was quoted as saying with regard to the Pentium Bug that, "You can always contrive situations that force this error. In other words, if you know where a meteor will land, you can go there and get hit.”

Consumers who had bought Pentiums were not impressed and the Intel defensive stance became the real bug in the ointment. Within weeks, Andy Grove released a new statement offering a “Pentium Replacement Policy.” Interestingly, very few people replaced their Pentiums.

The Internet is a tremendously cheap and flexible networking tool. Such a tool can be the glue that holds together all sorts of groups and communities. I know that within my own company there are mailing lists that staff have established and that management are not welcome on.

In an industrial age environment, management would react quickly and crush such dissent, perhaps firing the organizers. If you accept the principles of a network – openness, transparency and accountability – that cannot be the case today.

From talking to other companies I have been made aware that these ‘underground’ networks are common. I talked to a former member of Quarterdeck, who pointed me to a website where former staff were carrying out animated conversations. Some of these conversations were with respect to helping people find work. Others included rumors and gossip about the company.

When I logged into this website today (Sunday) I came across the following conversation.

Contributor 1: “I just heard from someone on the inside that the Dublin site was outsourced today. More cuts...”
Contributor 2: “I tried emailing folks and oh - how they bounced. Thus, yes - tech support and customer service in Dublin has been outsourced and the "redundant" employees were let go. And I thought we stopped the bleeding... Sick of it all.”

Living in Dublin myself I know that Quarterdeck has not shut down. However, nobody from the company was replying. The damage was being done, and this rumor and innuendo, staff and former staff dissatisfaction, is surely contributing to an alternative atmosphere and environment for Quarterdeck.

There are lessons to be learned here. If companies do not work at informing their staff and trying to establish communication, loyalty and trust, then in the vacuum and on the Internet, ‘alternative’ communities will rapidly evolve which will attack the company, and rightly so.

Gerry McGovern

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The Internet is a tremendously cheap and flexible networking tool.