From: Audrie Krause <[log in to unmask]>

NetAction Notes
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Published by NetAction          Issue No. 41              September 9, 1998


Let's "Optimize" Access, Not Profits

Internet activists who are committed to promoting universal access to
technology should take note of Intel's "Optimized Content" campaign.  As
NetAction discusses in our Virtual Activist training, the way to "optimize"
web sites is to keep the graphics to a minimum so the sites are accessible
to people using older, less powerful computers.  The point is to "optimize"
access to the content.

But at Intel, the point of the "Optimized Content" campaign is to "optimize"
the company's profits.  Intel is subsidizing some of the advertising costs
for companies that create complicated web sites, because as web sites become
more complex, the demand increases for more powerful computers.

Companies participating in the Intel campaign put an "Optimized Content"
logo on their sites, which links to a message telling users that the site
would work better if they were using a Pentium II.  According to a recent
report in the San Francisco Examiner, participating sites include Wired
Digital, C/Net, Ziff-Davis, and CMP Media.

"Intel's 'Optimized Content' campaign makes a mockery of the word
'optimized,'" explains NetAction Advisory Board member Jeff Johnson.  "The
term usually refers to software that has been tuned to run *quickly*.  Intel
is using 'optimized' to mean web-software that runs annoyingly *slowly*, to
encourage users to buy faster computers."

What Intel is encouraging web-designers to do runs counter to what they
know: web users have no patience with web sites that download or execute
slowly.

"If your web site doesn't give users the information they want in a few
seconds, they hit the Stop or Back button and are out of there," Jeff
explained.  "There are so many web sites that there is no reason why anyone
needs to hang around yours if it makes them wait.  So Intel's advice is bad
advice: web developers who follow it will lose many potential
visitors."

This is especially important for Internet activists using the web for
outreach, organizing, and advocacy, since widespread accessibility is the
best way to get information to the people you want it to reach.  And
widespread accessibility is best achieved by keeping web sites simple.  Easy
access is also important in promoting universal access, because there are a
lot of people who can only afford access by using older, less powerful
computers connecting to the Internet with older, slower modems.

While the Intel "Optimized Content" program may be in Intel's short-term
interest, Jeff believes it is strategically bad for the computer industry.
"Maybe technology freaks like to keep up with the latest technology and
constantly upgrade their computers, but most people hesitate to buy a
computer they know will be obsolete within two years," he explained.  "A
much larger market awaits the computer company that can develop information
appliances that retain their value over a period of five to ten years, like
TVs, microwave ovens, and stereos."

Again, this is even more important in terms of promoting universal access.

Jeff noted that Microsoft Executive Nathan Myhrvold once said "Software is a
gas.  It expands to fill the size of its container."

As Jeff sees it, "This is already an annoyance, but Intel is taking it one
step further:  They are using software as an explosive to blow up our
computers so we'll have to buy new ones, which they happen to make."
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About NetAction Notes

NetAction Notes is a free electronic newsletter, published by NetAction to
promote effective grassroots organizing on the Internet.  NetAction is a
national, non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public, policy
makers, and the media about technology-based social and political issues,
and to teaching activists how to use the Internet for organizing, outreach,
and advocacy.

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