So Christmas is now over, the January sales are in full swing, the twelve drummers are drumming and we’re all left to contemplate our expanded waistlines (or is that just me?). Even more significantly, 2010 marks the end of the first decade of the Millennium. It was a big one historically (how many wars can you cram in a decade?) and particularly for the Internet.
The question on our minds is whether the next decade can possibly be as significant for the Internet as the last one?
Sure, there’s plenty of life left in the old dog, but it’s amazing how many of the things we consider part of everyday life now weren’t even a twinkle on a programmer’s keyboard 10 years ago.
Where were we in 2000?
The turn of the Millennium saw the “dotcom crash” – even that seems like an archaic term now! The naysayers were convinced this was the end of the Internet. The rest of us were just wondering how anyone ever thought a company like Boo.com could ever be valued skywards of $100m+. A lot of corporate fingers got burnt badly. Thankfully, for most, reality soon dawned. People realised that the Internet could indeed be exploited for commercial gain – providing traditional business rules and models were applied.
Things you’d never heard of in 2000
Here’s a list of things that have only come into being in the last decade. Feel free to comment on any I’ve missed out…
- Facebook
- Twitter
- YouTube
- LinkedIn
- Social networking
- iPhones / iPods
- Wi-Fi
- BBC iPlayer / on demand TV
- Mozilla Firefox
- Google (OK, you might just have heard of them by 2000)
- 7dots
If you’ve got a stopwatch, start it now.
We were at a client’s recently when the subject of project planning came up. We were explaining how we go about it and it reminded me of a meeting I was involved in a while ago.
A group of account and project managers were sat around a table discussing a recent project. The project had been a success – launched on time and a happy client. However, a lot of the design and development work had come in over the original time budgets. There was a bit of a witch hunt going on to try to get to the bottom of the situation and I sensed momentum starting to build behind the argument that “these pesky developers have underquoted…again!”.
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So the festive season is upon us already. Let the usual array of activities commence…
Christmas parties are booked in; “celebrities” are being rallied to every small town in the country for the light switching on ceremony; consumption of cheap chocolates begins next week when the first door of the advent calendar is prised open; everyone becomes a part-time electrician with the inevitable failure of the tree lights; lists are compiled whilst the tat from last year is cleared out; offices are decorated (7dots HQ, The Kopshop is already bedecked – check out the 7dots Flikr gallery); websites take on a festive theme…
…or do they?!? We’ve spotted a few “Xmasized” sites already and suspect a load more will appear next week:
So the big question – should we Xmasize the 7dots website?!?
Let us know what you think using the poll on the right. We’ll go with the consensus!
Naturally, lots of people ask us where the name 7dots came from and what it means. Well, here’s the story…
The inspiration
I’m sure many of you have been lucky enough to attend a management training session. One of the exercises they often roll out is where they ask you to draw nine dots in a grid. You’re then asked to try and connect the dots using four connected straight lines. Usually only a handful of people manage, because the only way to complete the task is by the lines going beyond the grid and back in again:
Confession time. I play poker whilst I brush my teeth.
On my phone you understand. On my own. It’s not like I whip out a green cloth and some chips. I’m not even worried about wearing sunglasses to hide my tells.
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Welcome to our new website and indeed our new company, 7dots. Having worked in a number of digital agencies over the past few years, we’re now using our experience to bring a whole new concept to the marketplace.
It’s one we hope will resonate with you if you’ve had any experience getting projects online. Have a dig around the site and see what you think – you might want to start here.
Please drop by, have a coffee and say hello!
Look forward to speaking with you soon,
Sam and Ed.
