The Media Hype Over Technology

The replies to the question

"How's business?" vary from people to people these days. If some say,

"I told you not to get into the Internet business. Now you can see how the

dotcoms have crashed!"; others respond, "All the dotcom guys are being

thrown out of business, what about you?" Some even tell me, "You must

be having little or no work these days, so how about doing my work for

rock-bottom rates?"

The list can go on. I can almost

read the expressions on people’s faces when they ask, "How's

business?" There are thousands of people who believe that the Internet as a

business model is useless. They believe that the Web has lost all its powers and

Java and e-commerce are as extinct as the dinosaurs!

Who let dotcoms out?

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In this very column, I have

always stressed the importance of the Internet as a powerful medium of

communication. Most people who have utilized the Net for their business purposes

are serious users of this medium. So their business never boomed with the dotcom

boom, neither did it crash with the dotcom bust. But it still funny when people

think that everything related to the Internet is now useless.

Yesterday's kings of the

e-business world are being made to look like fools. The so-called Indian IT

professional who was supposed to rule the world and make India an IT Superpower,

is now the subject of cheap jokes and ridicule. But who is responsible for all

this mess?

In my opinion it is the media,

which created the unprecedented hype and people who believed in all that hype. I

still remember the media buildup that surrounded the Indiaworld deal and I also

remember the lonely voice of P S Deodhar questioning the logic behind the dotcom

valuations.

Journalists who were shouting

from rooftops about Azim Premji's status as the ‘Tech Billionaire” are now

churning out headlines like "Tech Czars crash to earth". I think Azim

Premji never thought of himself as the Tech Czar and neither has he crashed to

earth in the real sense. The Forbes list of billionaires arouses more of a media

frenzy in India than perhaps anywhere in the world. Indian media go crazy over

the list because it is easier to report such stuff with sensationalism.

Jesting with Java

And this disparagement is not

isolated to just personalities from the technological world. Even technology

itself has not been spared. Journalists who proclaimed Java to be the greatest

thing since the invention of microprocessors are today publishing exaggerated

reports about Java programmers being thrown out of the US.

To add insult to injury, they

illustrate their reports with photographs of war refugees riding on trucks and

buses in hundreds. The caption says - "Second batch of Java programmers

returning from the US". It is not funny. It is a cheap display of

irresponsible journalism.

High on hype

One wonders if media has taken

over technology. Sometime back 3D animation was the in thing, with newspapers

and magazines heralding its future. Training institutes started mushrooming all

over the place and everyone wanted to be a 3D animator, by joining the courses

charging tens of thousands of rupees. Like the training institutes, Animation

Studios came up everywhere - all experts in 3D Animation and Special Effects.

But there was not enough work to be found locally and the quality of work at

these half-baked studios was not good enough for the overseas projects.

Then something bigger and better

broke on the scene. When the first bubble burst, another bubble called the World

Wide Web kept business going. The media worked overtime to build up the 'Next

Big Hype'. Institutes came up with Web design courses of all sizes and costs.

Everyone dreamt about becoming a web designer! They were soon living in the

dotcom dreamland. Welcome to the land of the New Age Yuppies. The media (and

their partners like the analysts, the VCs, the entrepreneurs and others) had

created the Next Big Thing!

But what went wrong here was

that the focus and valuations shifted to eyeballs. The indices went sky high.

Then suddenly the bubble burst and idols that the media had raised on the

pedestal suddenly developed clay feet. Once again, instead of concentrating on

the power of the Internet technologies that developed during this period, the

media barons started hammering everything that they had themselves created.

Be all and end all

The way things are going, one

gets the feeling that the media has finally taken over technology. No technology

can be a great technology unless certified by the media! The people who go by

the media hype on technology are equally to be blamed for their misfortunes. A

little homework can keep you out of trouble.

If you think there won’t be

any 'Next Big Thing' after the Internet, you are wrong. This time it may be the

Biotech. I can already imagine the headlines splashing all over the national

dailies and business journals. 'Infotech is Out, Biotech is In!'

Just a week ago, a friend told

me about a seminar on Biotech conducted by a company that is launching short

term Biotech training courses with fees running in tens of thousands. They claim

great job prospects all over the world. A large crowd of hopeful students and

parents attended the seminar. I was told that even some IT professionals were

there thinking of unlearning Infotech and learning Biotech. A bank is willing to

finance the training. Just enroll for the course, apply for loan and you are on

your way to the world's most lucrative job opportunities.

Well, now the bell has started

tolling for Biotech!

Ashok Dongre is an advertising

and marketing professional, specializing in website design. You can contact him

via e-mail at dongre@usa.net