What are the challenges of managing internet / e-marketing/ e-commerce / e-anything in a big corporate environment? The glory and certainly the press tend to follow those of us in the flashy world of startups, but most internet managers will have spent a portion of their careers in established companies (what used to be called “bricks-and-morter” around the height of the dotcom boom). Today, even the most change-resistent corporations have acknowledged that the internet is more than a passing fad and integrated some degree of internet strategy into their business. Listed public corporations regularly boast to potential investors about their internet operations and even the local home furnishings chain is likely to have some sort of web manager on staff. One could almost be forgiven for thinking that bricks-and-morter business has transitioned into the internet age without the major internal strife and backlash that normally accompanies significant organizational change. The truth, as any corporate internet strategist will tell you, is actually all about internal strife and backlash, as internal hierachies and structures resist the change wraught upon them by new media and technologies.

Just as I was considering drawing up my own list of challenges, I came across an enlightening study from the folks over at the Internet Strategy Forum. The complete results from the 2006 Corporate Internet Strategist Survey are available for purchase, but the research brief already reveals a fascinating story:

Let’s be honest — the first and second results could apply to anyone in just about any function (rare would be the manager in a big company who would not complain about headcount and budget). It gets really interesting starting with point three and moving down the list. For today’s internet managers, its all about being effective, understood, and recognized. In established businesses, internet managers are essentially change agents, brought in the organization to revise existing ways of conducting business. If you are given this responsibilty, but not granted the authority or provided the resources to enact change, you are going to struggle and occassionally yearn for the flexibility of a startup company or consultancy. Of course, this is great news for Web 2.0 companies, which compete for the same talent and can benefit from managers with real experience in the world of big business.

The way we experience and use the web is changing dramatically. That much is obvious to regular users of the internet. Less visible are the many technologies in development which will shape the (very near) future. What insiders (and increasingly the general public) refer to as “Web 2.0″ is only the beginning of the story, the proverbial tip of the iceberg. A more dramatic evolution (revolution?) is just around the corner, as information moves out of the confines of a web browser application into realms previously considered outside of cyberspace. Your coffee table, for example.

In this video, Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos Photosynth and one of the underlying technologies, Seadragon. Photosynth is reality today. Seadragon, with its amazing visualization of data, has the potential to change the web in ways we have yet to imagine.

Another development project, Microsoft Surface, re-invents the computing platform (or the coffee table, depending on your perspective). Surface not only brings the web out of the PC, but also links previously disparate tools such as your mobile phone.

The astute reader will have noted that both of these technologies are coming from Microsoft labs. This is coincidence. The point is not to promote Microsoft, but to illustrate the coming innovations which may soon change the world.

If the Google spider could speak, it would certainly have a mouthful of explicatives for this website. I’ve used and abused this domain and the website as a playground for countless pet projects and experiments, with no particular rhyme or reason except my own personal whim. In turns, this website has been a blog (with all of one entry), a testing ground for WordPress features, and a convenient location to practice web programming skills. Now, experimentation can be a good thing, but certainly not for search engine positioning. Google and co. will have had trouble finding keywords from the website, as content has been so fleeting and directionless in the past.

That may change, now that I have an idea for this website. I’m giving this website another shot at glory and, at the same time, going back to the origins of blogging circa 1999 (remember Opendiary and Livejournal?). From now on, I’ll be posting in unrefined/unpolished form my thoughts and observations about marketing (in the internet age). It will be like a diary of a marketer, hopefully without the banality of most blogs (e.g. what my dog did this morning posts). Perhaps interesting for you, as a reader. Perhaps not. In any case, search engines seem to give extra love to blogs and blog postings. Here’s to you, dear Google spider. Hope you like what you see next time around.

Editor’s note: I’m leaving this ancient posting as a tribute to my first attempt at making something of this website. Check out the date of this posting and that of the following posting. Yes, übermarketer went on a little sabbatical.

Can’t keep my eyes from the circling sky. Tongue-tied and twisted Just an earthbound misfit, I.
Pink Floyd, Learning to Fly

We have liftoff, in the form of this first posting. For a while it seemed that this blog would never start, as I became overly intrigued by all the bells and whistles of WordPress and its accompanying plugins. At some point in the midst of tweaking the software, it occurred to me that my original goals had been neglected and the circling sky was still far, far above me. This blog is about the often overlooked little pearls of marketing and business wisdom which are found scattered throughout the internet in the form of postings, quotes, lyrics, and commentary. Not sure what I mean by pearls of wisdom? They are best not described, but simply read, pondered, and enjoyed.