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internetworkers - Re: Personalization -- opinions?

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  • From: jcuthrell AT ixl.com
  • To: internetworkers AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: Personalization -- opinions?
  • Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2000 17:04:29 -0500


Allow me to use an analogy to deal with the bloatware issue:

This is no more bloated than buying a Swiss army knife [1]
when all you needed for the task is a good understanding
of what you will be asked to cut and a proper steak knife.
If you know you need something that can /do it all/ then you
should get a Swiss army knife. Just check your credit card
balance before you go to the store.

With most personalization platforms is isn't bloatware you deal
with really. Rather, it is poor prior planning.

Going back to Steve's comments... I agree that scope dictates
the direction and ultimately a choice in your personalization
platform. The matrix of features, support, and the very
harsh reality of what it runs on (NT, Linux, Solaris) will
give you the bang to compare to the bucks you will spend.

What you don't ever want to do is buy something you think you
can grow into when you know that there is no budget to grow
with it. The same is true for app servers, db server, web
servers, or just the work flow of an organization that would
ultimately have to support all these parts.

I expect that once you generate a proper matrix you can
approach those that understand the funding of a project and
manage their expectations a bit better. Throwing out names
of personalization platforms is pretty silly unless you
weight them with financial and timeline requirements.

This goes for BV, Blue Martini, Spectra, home grown, etc...

-Jay

[1] yes, I have worked on BV builds before

Disclaimer: I work for a place that is a BV alliance partner.
TIMOANNTOME and any similarity to free thought is heavily implied.

-----Original Message-----
From: mdthomas AT mindspring.com [mailto:mdthomas AT mindspring.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 27, 2000 4:31 PM
To: InterNetWorkers
Subject: [internetworkers] Re: Personalization -- opinions?

>But beyond that knee-jerk reaction to BV,
>I'd be curious as to how the "someone"
>envisions "personalization" fitting into
>their site - what is the scope of their
>requirements, in other words? And why would
>you consider paying money for generalized
>bloatware in the first place?

Per Personalization: the idea is simple. "Match
content to the web user." The problem is complex.
"Users" must exist as unique entities, and they
must be represented as composites of various
pre-defined data points. "Content" must be similarly
atomic and all the individual entities of "content"
must be sortable on a best-fit/worst-fit axis
for each possible "User." Both "Users" and
"Content" sets must be overridingly complete to
be effective. Oh, and then your matrix must
be represented in a realworld presentation
layer, and the whole experience must be pleasing
enough so that the "Users" come back and gain value
from having the site personalized in the first
place.

Per buying bloatware:

If people didn't buy bloatware, what would
happen to the bloatware training & consulting
market? That's a major part of the GDP! You
want us to have a high GDP, right??




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