Culture

Culture are needed when keeping Web Services perfectly running and interacting with users purposefully, tells the Web Communications Theory.

Even a clear Vision and wonderful potatoes (product) doesn’t guaranteed the success for our fictive character farmer. Ed can’t live without working together with his clients and staff.

Clients must be promoted / advertised / advised how they can purchase his potatoes. On the other hand, without the workforce and the working guidelines — established Culture — Ed’s wonderful potatoes can’t be delivered.

Ed knows how making of good interacting with both parties is an important necessity for doing business. Therefore, he sees this as an important as his Vision.

1. He has a reputation of being available to assist his customers in every turn.
2. All his staff has been guided to provide soundable services and work correctly to deliver product on time.
3. Customers are informed what to expect and get.

Two dimensional Culture

As the example above demonstrates, the third factor in the Web Communications Theory is important. There are always the cultural factors in Web Services.

The culture emerges itself in the interaction between providers and target groups. It states how vision has been decided to works in reality.

By dividing Culture into two dimension — the external and internal elements — the theory avoids neglecting the internal part.

External cultural element

Web Services are always targeted for external groups. People must be guided and helped to use Web Services.

It is act of Culture when promoting services and offering user-friendly systems that tend to prevent them making mistakes. Minimalism and simplicity are essentials.

Internal cultural element

The services must be administrable and maintainable easily. Therefore, there is an internal element of Culture.

There must always be somebody (webmaster or the other content specialist), who taking responsibility of the Web Service, e.g. monitoring and responding to customers.

Like Paul Boag has said that Web is a conversation — Customers want to be contact with real peoples.

This is important because underesourcing and lack of guiding leads to several problems, e.g. underperforming,  in the end.

Therefore a good internal culture must be established.