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Jeffery Veen on Seeing Web Sites as Formal Publications

Jeffery VeenJeffery Veen is going to help me with a problem I picked up during childhood. When I speak to people, I do not expect to be engaged and understood. Since I was the baby of the family, I was the cute one who was marveled at for just being able to talk and I served an entertainment purpose for comedy relief. I am not trying to “blame” my family I am just recounting the facts.

So I depend on guys like Jeffery Veen who may serve to get my point across. Veen preaches the same message I have been preaching since before 1998. This is the message: Web sites are not for Web masters. Many of my potential business clients are my family members (or they look like members of my family) and they often sit back and wait for me build their web site because they are not listening to my instruction (because—I guess—I am the baby of the family). Jeffery Veen in “Why Content Management Fails” clearly states that:

Your public-facing Web site is a publication. Treat it like one… If you’re not in the business of producing publications, you won’t be able to do better by plugging in a technology and crossing your fingers. Rather, solve the problem with people.

The “plugging in a technology and crossing your fingers” bit comes from a slavery mentality where we often slip into a trance of thinking we can get something for nothing—at least this is the case with members of my family.

The official list of Songhay System web sites can be found at SonghaySystem.com. I am still working with my uncle Azuka Ojini on CityTaxiInstitute.com. My other uncle, the internationally known blues musician, Roy Gaines is trying to learn how to build a web site himself—and RoyGaines.com appears to be underway after my uncle was robbed by people he thought were professionals because his little nephew was saying some stuff but, well… that nephew is kind of weird you know…

We all need to evaluate Mambo, as the time of writing HTML by hand is looking more and more like writing PostScript by hand… Do you understand what I am saying or am I distracting you with my clownish vibe?

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