This seems to be my ‘theme de mois’ at present. Perhaps it has come from a realisation that it is very easy in web development to include a few extras and people miss the actual value of them.
A challenge while managing and building web applications, and sites, is to ensure everything is in the specification upfront so there are no extra charges, or included freebies (gold plating). So far, in the last 12 years of this, I have found that to be near impossible to be 100% correct, if the project is large and complex.
I am starting to use the above phrase more and more in presentations, and during developments, to make sure that everyone realises, time still equals money even on the web. Also many people don’t realise the physical cost of hosting and bandwidth in Australia (don’t get me start on that one or Sol). There is a feeling that because open source exists, and you can access freeware and many code snippets, that everything on the web can be done for nothing.
Our most recent inquiry was “for a site just like Myspace” etc.. with the obvious missing budget understanding. This inquiry was okay, as the inquirer stated their lack of any knowledge of the web right at the start. (Yes they nearly choked when I gave them some indication of what they might be up for).
The same issue raises itself with anyone involved in the web that does not want to do it themselves. There is an assumption it can just be done easily, and thus is of little or no value. Of course we don’t follow that theory and charge, but have noted, it does require stating even for experienced users of the web.
Whether you do it yourself or engage someone else to do it, whether it be working on a web site or installing your water tank (oh yeah I have to do that too – it’s only been a year) there is an actual cost.
Be prepared to pay for what you need doing and realise that on the web everything has some cost; software, imagery, bandwidth / hosting, advice. All of it.
Spend up folks it’s your best way to help us all stay out of that supposed global recession.
[maybe this post should have been called how to beat the global recession ;O) ]
gee mate…it does not take much to do a myspace clone:
http://www.barnraiser.org/aroundme
http://www.phpfox.com/
http://www.shoutem.com/
http://buddypress.org/
http://www.crowdvine.com
http://www.ning.com/
5 minute job ireckon…just got to do the lick of paint.
Here here. Everyone wants something for nothing.
I’ve had at least half a dozen friends/family ask me seriously if I could do up a quick Google alternative so that they could “get in on the business”. My personal favourite response when I tell them costs of even a basic search engine: “Surely a search engine like Google isn’t that complicated.” LOL. The perception seems to be that companies like Google/Facebook just had a good idea and got ahead of everyone else just by timing *shakes head*.
The look on people’s faces when I actually break down what a site like Facebook is actually doing just in hardware on the backend (just to manage photos), let alone the programming to manage it, or the countless hours their company has put into design considerations and testing.
Anyway, all good points. I hope this helps those looking at the web realize the real costs involved for everyone. What was the saying? Pay peanuts, get monkeys. Sounds about right to me. You get what you pay for people!