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Gerry McGovern
Content Critical
Gaining competitive advantage through high-quality web content
The Web
Content
Style Guide
The essential guide
for online writers, editors and managers
May 12, 2003
A parable about a knowledge worker called George
By Gerry McGovern
The Web is a city. Half of it is derelict. There are countless abandoned building projects. People are constantly stuck in lifts. The street signs are poor. There's rubbish everywhere. Some of it spews from overturned bins. Some of it is packed in neat meaningless piles. Blame people like George.
George got a new job recently. CleanSweep supplies all sorts of cleaning equipment and has been in business for eighty years. George is a second cousin, twice-removed of the founder, Natty Wolcrow. They’ve given him a job in knowledge management.
It's Friday evening. George is sitting in the foyer. He's thinking about technology. George just loves technology. He always has the latest gadget. It's raining. George zips back to his office on his Segway; he can't bear getting wet.
George feels restless. There's something wrong with the foyer, and he just can't figure it. So he zips back through the now empty building.
As he reaches the comfortable chairs, an ocean of inspiration floods him. It's so obvious. Behind the chairs is a small shelf. On it is a selection of brochures for CleanSweep's best-selling products. George smiles. He then shakes his head solemnly.
George works the entire weekend. On Saturday, he goes to a hardware store and buys lots of shelving and a ladder. It's a really tall, long foyer wall. It takes him ages to cover every single bit of it with shelves.
Once done, George scours the building. He finds every brochure and every manual he can and takes them back to the foyer. There begins an effort of extraordinary classification. He places all the blue brochures and manuals together, all the green brochures and manuals together, etc. etc.
It's hard work. But George is dedicated. He can see the beaming smile of the CEO, Tob Wolcrow, on Monday morning as he shows him what he has done. George remembers the reception he got when he launched the new intranet. The CEO invited him up to his office for coffee. They were on first name terms.
But there is a problem. The shelves are very high. Too high for anyone to reach. This requires a solution. George gives a mad laugh. Isn't he a genius. He'd combine the Segway and the ladder. He'd call it the Extensible Moving Ladder. (It was a pun on XML; an Internet thing—he knew people would get it.)
Monday morning arrives. George sits slouched, half-sleeping, in one of the comfortable chairs. George dreams of promotion, of world domination. Then he hears this strange sound. Through his fluttering eyelids he thinks he can see Tob's beaming smile.
"What have you done to my foyer!?" Tob Wolcrow screams. George jumps up, backs away, falling over the chair. With his back to his wonderful shelves, George stands glued, as Tob hails abuse at him.
"So, what have you got to say for yourself?" Tob finally rasps, hoarse from his tirade. George's eyes blink like a bunny in front of a bulldozer.
"But I did the exact same thing for the intranet and you thought it was great," he whispered.
"The intranet," Tob snarls. "Nobody gives a damn about the intranet!"
Gerry McGovern
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