Being Digital
I was writing earlier about the tech situation in Ireland getting not bright at the moment.
And tonight, as a pure coincidence, I just finish reading an article in the Irish Times from a journalist name Karlin Lillington.
First time that I read clearly mentioned on an Irish newspapers the weblog address of a journalist !
Her blog is really interesting, full of personal and professional comments, and it's quite an exciting experience, from a journmalistic point of view, it give some flesh and blood to a paper character.
To come back to my story, she wrote about the new adaptation of the digital media firms in Ireland.
To be sure to respect her article, I will just repeat some parts.
"If you want two signs of how much the digital media business has metamorphosed in the past three years: consider its size and the terminology it uses".
"Four years ago, at the height of the tech and internet boom, the term 'Web design company' was the catch-all term. The Republic was full of them, some with growing international reputations. the Government was making noises about this sector being perhaps a growth area for the State.
Now nobody seems to want to be called a Web design company. In the directory, the term doesn't feature at all as a category, clearly being a bit too dotcom tainted.
Instead, such firms seems to fall into what the guide calls 'consultancy', 'digital design' and 'Web services'"
"A grimmer sign of the tough times we've seen in the past three years is the shrinkage in size of the companies that would once have fallen into the Web design company catchment area"
"At the end of 1999, Ireland boasted around a dozen firms with employees numbering close to, or more than, 100 people."
"Now, I see that most of the companies doing Web work are really, really small - back to the three- to 12 person range."
"Now we need to see more real action"
"No one I know in the industry has any idea what the State's intentions- or even broad ideas- are in relation to the Liberties Digital hub. If there are real intentions behind the State's talk, the Government needs to open the information flow with the digital media industry"
I would like to know the situation elsewhere, in US for example. Is this shrinkage happen over there.