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

[Stan Goodman]

At 00:46:13 on Saturday Saturday 17 April 2010, Amos Shapira 
<amos.shapira at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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" :).

Of course not. There is not a government employee in Israel that would 
tolerate being referred to as a "public servant".

> > 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
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Linux-il mailing list
> > Linux-il at cs.huji.ac.il
> > http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> >
> > Gadi Cohen aka Kinslayer <dragon at wastelands.net> www.wastelands.net
> > Freelance admin/coding/design HABONIM DROR linux/fantasy enthusiast
> > KeyID 0x93F26EF5: 256A 1FC7 AA2B 6A8F 1D9B 6A5A 4403 F34B 93F2 6EF5
> >
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-- 
Stan Goodman
Qiryat Tiv'on
Israel