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The more you share the more you kno... Taking the gap leaves big hole... Service that is more than just pretty p... Ready to tap Internet's potential... All set to become a major force... Get in the swing with Ernie ... Hired guns taking aim at business target... Vital role for information provider... Turning couch potatoes into mouse potato... Interim plan, lasting succes... Downsizing not always up to the require... Taking the guesswork out of productio... The firm which took Toco's bull by the h... Fads dropped in favour of fact... Companies still keen to consul... |
Building your home in the M-Zone
medium combines all the other media - print, radio and television - into a seamless multimedia stream, but it is also more than that. It's interactive, and that opens up whole new vistas." Cohen's approach to the Internet underscores the difference between M-Web and its competitors. "They are all primarily technology companies, but at M-Web we see ourselves as a media company." Cohen was instrumental in setting up the Electronic Mail and Guardian Web site, bought by M-Web last year. It was a pioneering site in that it was one of the first (back in 1993), but also because it had a level of content that is still unmatched by many Web sites. Cohen says the fourth medium is digital, borderless, convergent and interactive and this is starting to alter the media landscape. "Internet users are not mouse potatoes. Surfing the Web is a different experience to passively reading a newspaper or watching TV. It's an active, interactive relationship in which the customer, not the information provider, is really in control." The Internet, says Cohen, is also the most fragmented, promiscuous media environment ever devised. "Millions of people are just a click away from hundreds of thousands of Web sites, so you've got to be good to hold on to the most precious commodity of all - the attention span of visitors. "This means we have to move away from being opinion-shapers and gatekeepers and, instead, become choreographers who organise compelling content environments surrounded by immersive virtual communities. And any serious online information provider will want to give its customers the power tools of interactivity and community, for these are the tools that really unleash the potential of the fourth medium," he says. "Interactive television - whether on the TV or PC, live network game-playing, virtual realities, self-generating communities, online shopping and multimedia news, sports and entertainment services - are just some of the opportunities this new medium presents us," says Cohen. He says M-Web's virtual city project, called the M-Zone, is about to go live. "The M-Zone allows our customers to build their own virtual homes on the Net and thus become true citizens of cyberspace. It is at the centre of our philosophy that M-Web will do much more than simply help people get on to the Internet: we want to help them get into the Internet and become active participants, enjoying the full benefits of an increasingly inter-connected world." Members will be able to create their own sites inside a range of communities without needing any knowledge of the techniques required to create Web pages. "It's entirely point-and-click," says Cohen. "We are making it easy for people to build their own sites, but at the same time Web experts will also be able to upload their own sophisticated creations to the M-Zone." The M-Zone will launch initially with four "neighbourhoods" - sport, stars, school and family, but new zones will be added all the time. "If you don't like the suburb you can move home with the click of a mouse," says Cohen. The M-Zone has been designed as an animated "toon-town", using the latest graphic technologies that do not soak up precious bandwidth. "We looked at a number of these services around the world, but I believe we have come up with something truly world-class," he says. With a customer base of more than 30 000 subscribers, M-Web is ideally positioned to identify specific subscriber profiles and "knit together" these targeted communities. "We'll be holding elections for zone mayors, running competitions for the best-designed homes and will launch our own daily 'newspaper' for the community," says Cohen.
No virtual city would be complete without a shopping centre, and hot on the heels of the M-Zone will be the launch of the M-Web Mall. Cohen says the mall will be the premier online shopping environment on the SA Web.
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