Browser compatability, was: Bituah Leumi site: call them!

[Amos Shapira]

2010/4/17 Gadi Cohen <dragon at wastelands.net>:
> I think ultimately what Gilboa is suggesting (below) is the way to go
> (especially with government agencies and subsidaries); however in the
> meantime I'd like to suggest something in the middle.  This is where I think
> we've gone wrong until now and how to change it:
>
> 1) Problem:  We usually complain to tech support, who are usually
> incompetent.  If they forward our complaints on to anyone, it will be to the
> site developers, who use and know nothing but IE, and have no motivation to
> do otherwise.
>
> Solution:  We must target the company directors, with strong arguments
> (below) that will convince them to take action, and ORDER the developers to
> get their act together (pay them, make them uphold their contract, or change
> companies).
>
> 2) Problem: Sometime we try get support for Linux, which is harder.
> Solution: All we need is support for W3C, or at least non-IE specific code.
>
> 3) Problem: We accept the perception that we are a minority.
> Solution: We're not!  As of March 2010, IE has only a 52% market share!!
> [1]
>
> And here lies our compelling arguments:
>
> a) If they're targeting people outside of Israel (including investors!),
> they're excluding 900 million people :)  [2]
> b) They're missing out on mobile phones, netbooks, tablets, tvs, etc which
> are all emerging markets.
> c) If they're only targetting Israel (where IE has higher use) they are
> still falling behind their competitors.
> d) Basically, the whole world (even Israel) is moving forwards, and they're
> stuck in the past, losing current customers and not in a position to attract
> new ones.
>
> Analogies are great too.  Here's one I just thought of now.
>
> "It's like telling your customers they can only do business with you if they
> call you from a Nokia cell phone"
>
> That's something anyone can understand.  Nokia was dominant.  They're not
> anymore.  Everyone knows of the Iphone, Blackberry, etc and you can remind
> them that none of these devices can access his/her website.
>
> So, do they really not care that their entire business image (and business
> potential) is affected simply because they have chosen to overpay
> incompetent site developers?
>
> etc, etc.
>
> Comments welcome :)
>
> References:
> [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers
> [2] http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
>
> Gadi

Here here to that!!

That's what I've been telling at each and every such argument for the
last few years - "Linux" and "none-Windows" is not a strong enough
case in the Israeli context. But mobile phones, Mac's disabled people
(standard sites allowing them to use standard accessbility
enhancements) are much larger target audiences and maybe the law
requires to address them (e.g. disabled people).

About directors - another argument to reach them is that any customer
picking up the phone or visiting their office instead of self-serving
using their site costs them the price of having an employee/contractor
serving that customer (and customer dissatisfaction), which over time
is much higher than the investment in a proper web site.

--Amos

(PS It's funny how in the equivalent Australian government agencies of
Bituach Leumi, Mas Hachnasa, Misrad Rishui etc., the people who use
their service are referred to as "customers". I don't remember seeing
Bituach Leumi referring to anyone as "Lakoach" :).

>
> On 16/04/2010 14:06, Gilboa Davara wrote:
>
> We're long past the talking stage.
>
> IMHO, we (as in non-Window-using-community) need the following:
> - Someone with (a lot? of) free time to galvanize the efforts.
> - A hub. (Site, facebook, linked-in, etc)
> - Money. (I'm willing to pledge 1K nis for the effort)
> - A good attorney that handles supreme court cases.
>
> In theory, (and sadly enough, without the man power to push it forward,
> it'll remain a theory) the following steps should be taken:
>
> - Setup a site that will be used as a hub to collect funds and
> volunteers.
> - Locate a good attorney.
> - Select several high profile targets (gov.il comes to mind) and sue
> them for say, price of Windows * 5% of all computers in IL. This should
> get their attention.
> - Speaking of attention, make a lot of noise about it in the press. News
> papers usually dig under-dog-vs-government type of wars.
>
> I'd do it myself, but I'm over-worked as it is :(
>
> - Gilboa
>
>
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>
> --
>
> Gadi Cohen aka Kinslayer <dragon at wastelands.net> www.wastelands.net
> Freelance admin/coding/design HABONIM DROR linux/fantasy enthusiast
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