Melbourne Herald Sun, 11th September 2010
You want broadband fibre to the node? Then pick up a shovel and start digging a trench.
This is what the Norwegians are doing to cut down the cost of their broadband network. It's true. An Internet TV provider called Altibox gives customers nearly $500 rebate if they lay the fibre between their house and the node at the end of the street. And four out of five of them have accepted.
Is it because Scandinavians have a relatively small population that they have co-opted the customers into supplying the donkey work?
A few weeks ago I wrote about Ikea. Now there's a company that conquered the world with low-cost products - by getting the customer to do the assembly work. As we all know, when you buy at Ikea you don't get a cupboard or a table - you get a large cardboard box, a packet of screws and a Sunday of fiddling and swearing.
The Internet has given all of us enormous do-it-yourself power. Or headaches, depending on your level of competence. But we do like that feeling of being in control.
Like your next holiday. Are you just going to hand the destination over to your travel agent? Or are you going to spend a week or two rummaging the ether looking for that extra-special discount fare or a hotel that throws in free breakfast and an extra bed for a child?
Fortunately for travel agents, enough customers have tried this system and ended up poorer and sorry, that they come running back to the experts. The agents themselves, meanwhile, are constantly dreaming up new types of group or packaged holidays and marketing innovations to keep the customers flowing in.
Like everyone in today's business, they have had to quickly adapt or perish.
We like to feel in control of our money. How else can you explain the queue of clients waiting at the ATM while inside the bank is nearly empty? Between the cash machines and internet banking, our financial institutions have made themselves even richer by trimming out the middle-man - the teller.
Another industry to feel the pain of DIY is music. The record stores are fast shrinking and disappearing out of our high streets, with the decline of the packaged CD. Flicking through the thousands of records in the shop racks has been replaced by clicking through the millions of music tracks on iTunes.
You compile your own record and burn it to CD or onto your iPod. The company has saved itself the major costs of record production: manufacture, packaging, distribution and retail margin. Good for everyone, except the retailer.
A huge business is self-publishing. Think you have produced the great Australian novel, or that the world should know your family's history? Well after the first few dozen rejection slips very many authors do it themselves. There's an abundance of companies that will publish your book - so long as you pay for it. Be careful when you select one. Some are good and reputable, but many are not - be sure to investigate them closely before making any decision.
You can create anything yourself, even yourself. Since 2003 the Second Life virtual-world game has grown vastly and even non-players are familiar with the term Avatar - a self outside of your body yet part of you. The hugely successful movie of that name spread the term even further and many people are creating their own avatar. They can design whatever person they want, to be their alter ego in the mythical world. And they'll often use the character as their Facebook or email photo.
So the mild-mannered bookkeeper becomes a superhero with the power of flight, a slinky sexy model, or maybe Cartman from South Park. Do it yourself, dude.
ray@ebeatty.com
