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RE: [GWL]: Gardening Info In Big Boxes


>   ANd look to the next batch of
>kids to mature. They know how to look things up on the internet. They know
>the best search engines (didn't some kid tell YOU about google).
>The trick will be to get them interested in serious yardening and gardening
>while they are young instead of having to wait until they get into their mid
>thirty's like Ball and me!

I wrote a column for Grower Talks a while back that pretty much said 
exactly that. We "old guys" may use the computer as a tool but our kids 
have grown up with it and their Net is our Yellow Pages.  My son just went 
off to university to major in basketball playing (he tells me he will be 
studying as well) :-) but our computer shopping was quite clear.  He set up 
his new system to act as a tv, a dvd player, a music centre with cdrom and 
a speaker system better than what I have in the living room,  a 17 inch 
monitor to see the thing on (multiple imaging - he can watch tv, surf the 
net and do work at the same time) and an ethernet card to download his 
movies/music and emails from a jealous dad.  (And the online stuff from the 
library he tells me)   My daughters - now finished grad school and finally 
working for a living - suck up information and use the Net to do a major 
amount of their information processing as well as commercial 
interactions.  I just received an email from my eldest from Tanzania 
apologizing for being out of touch for the next two weeks while she climbs 
Mt. Kilamanjero.  This is part of their life as it is not for me - even 
though I am the most wired of any of my friends.

Having said that - what does it mean for gardenwriters?  Who the hell 
knows! :-)  The interesting thing about a wave of innovation like this is 
what we think will happen or indeed is happening at any given moment is 
usually out of touch.  You only have to look at studies of innovation and 
research to figure out that what you think will happen is usually 180 
degrees away from what really does happen.  The overwhelming thing that 
these tell us is that the most profound changes that happen as a result of 
technological innovation are those that develop from the new technology 
itself. Not the changes on the old technology or the old paragdigms. So the 
development of the transistor brought us the space age (many people think 
it was the opposite) and this space research has brought us other materials 
and developments that were not predicted by the development and useage of 
the this small bit of wiring.  Were it not for that original transistor, 
the Net would not exist and we would not be communicating in this way. But 
who would have connected those old chunky transistor radios from the 50's 
and 60's with what we're doing today on the Internet.

To be sure, we use the new technology on the old paradigms. We'll use print 
on demand (POD) books and those systems are coming on-line now. We'll be 
able to communicate faster (not necessarily better) with our editors and 
exchange entire files/books over the wires.  The technology will improve 
parts of our working lives. However....

The hard reality is that the hort trade is a late adopter of technology.  I 
have done several stories in the past year and have talked to many 
different hort/tech companies and the story is uniform: hort guys don't 
adopt quickly nor do they change quickly once they've adopted. The trick 
for companies (and writers) is to find the edge of the technology that 
*their* customers or readers want to use and then provide those 
services.  For example, it is one thing as Jeff suggests to put your email 
on the end of your column so that readers can contact you.  It is entirely 
another thing to do so when your column goes out to more than one paper 
(mine goes out to 60 at the moment and the reader feedback can be deafening 
when I hit a hot button.) :-)

I don't get paid enough by the papers to answer reader questions which is 
why I started a paid-subscription newsletter.  I used to do it for free but 
when the number of subscribers passed the 5000 mark, I didn't have enought 
time in the week to answer all the questions.  So, using the technology 
that my readers would use and that I would be paid for - I set up a 
bulletin board and a weekly question/answer newsletter that goes directly 
to their mailbox.  They don't have to use the bb but can email me directly 
with their question. The subscription fee ensures I get paid for my 
content/work and they get an answer that works for them.  This technology 
works and it uses the Net.  The majority of my free newsletter subscribers 
decided not to pay to get their questions answered (or transferred to my 
free non-question-answering newsletter at gardenbrew.com) but that was fine 
with me.  The cost is not in the distribution of the content like in 
magazines - the cost is in the development of that content.

Companies will be well advised to ask their customers what they would use 
before they go blindly out to provide services.  My sense is also that I 
would hold my money rather tightly to my chest in any development of a 
content provider that is Net based and not email based. In other words, 
companies that might be backing off providing content as part of their 
website have a pretty good rationale for doing so.  Companies that are 
considering providing content as part of a business strategy would be well 
advised to start small and not invest the retirement savings.

Remember - providing content is a business in and by itself.  There is a 
line that any company or writer walks between providing free content in the 
pursuit of paying business and and spending too many resources providing 
content that does not provide a return.

In any case, this is sounding suspiciously like a rant and a long one at 
that. I'm outta here.  I have to go help somebody say something on the Net 
and make both of us money doing it. :-)

Doug
Douglas Green,
Freelance writing: You've got a story to tell - I can write it.
http://www.simplegiftsfarm.com/clips/clipmaster.htm

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