The Veech Innovation Model is a general tool developed originally to help high school classes understand the success and failure of people in history. I think it sheds light on what people must do for success in the present.
(1) Personal Effort |
(4) Best Information |
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(5) RESULTS |
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(2) Community Support |
(3) Resources |
The model illustrates the idea that any persons success is never solely the result of that person's effort. The vision of heroic solo achievement is a myth. In the text below the numbers of the quadrants in the model are used to help relate each point to the model. Any feature of the model may influence the outcome in a positive or negative manner. Every project is subject to external events which I call the "hiding hand". The "hiding hand" can be positive (serendipity), but the negative events are the one's we remember because they hurt the most. When we are forced out of our comfort zone it's the pain of failure that drives us.
Each project has a personal and community context and combines readiness, courage (fear) and chance. Let us look at the development of the New Zealand Dances World Wide Web site as an example.
I have a background in computing that goes back 25 years, but little formal training.
I have a background in dancing that's even longer, and in the years since 1986 dancing has been a major recreation.
I have a degree in business studies and expertise in new business start-ups.
Employment has been problematic since 1990. There is plentiful work but getting paid was always a problem.
In my mind NZ Dances (1995-96) was a business venture. I'd open a web site, the maintenance of which would be sponsored by a major NZ Company. I would after a couple of years be able to focus on developing the infrastructure of the dance industry, training the executives of dancing clubs and establishing dance councils and working with dance bands. In my mind then, the venture would be self funding after 6-12 months. (I knew nothing.)
In 1993 I started and later closed a group called "Christchurch Dances". This idea has been re-developed and is now what I call a "pan-dance council".
Since 1991 I have been developing notes about dancing for dance bands, and sharing them with bands and with venue organisers in Christchurch.
Funds from my father's estate made it possible to abandon a computer that was 6 years old and get a machine that had greater capability. That permitted an internet connection and the opportunity to learn about the WWW, hypertext and HTML programming.
I am familiar with the Veech Innovation Model , so from the outset I've sort help and I've attempted to communicate what I'm trying to do. I've also met with polite interest, but little understanding of what I might be attempting.
I've had many a crisis of confidence during the development of NZ Dances. Particularly in the beginning. I so badly needed good advice, a mentor, a partner who understood. That person was never found. Did I have the confidence, the energy and drive to commit to this project?
I worked for three months to develop the basis of the NZ Dances web site. Then I showed my internet supplier what I was doing and about two months later the site first came on line.
I've had many moments when what I wanted to do exceeded my skills and present knowledge. There were many times when I sat at the computer afraid to take the next step.
From the beginning I've was developing the capacity of the site to have a business connection, like Adapt to Experience, which does offer some potential to generate income.
I've have also been working on another idea to develop ATE Limited as a WWW consultancy.
I've committed funds from ATE Limited, and my own personal funds to the maintenance of the NZ Dances site. There is potential to earn small amounts of money by charging dance clubs and dance teachers for advertising in NZ Dances. The fees one can earn are so small it's hardly worth bothering with. NZ Dances doesn't earn income, and will never earn income if it's to do it's community work well.
The reality of the previous paragraph shocks even me. When I began this venture the intention was for the site to completely self funding and to provide me with an income. I didn't understand the WWW, nor did I understand the dance industry. With hindsight it's easy to see the mistakes I've made. If following the money was important, NZ Dances wouldn't exist.
Before NZ Dances opened, I was told. "Oh you don't need to do that, it's already being done." The remark itself was unimportant, it was not backed by knowledge, but in my fragile state it caused great concern. I worried for weeks that someone else with funding and support would wipe my little effort out with a huff and a puff.
Once the site was developed critical comment began to flow. Some of it very strong, very pointed and very negative. The basic message was "go away", and "you have no right to be here" or this is "our patch; keep off". That was unexpected. In the long run it was nothing at all, but when you've committed everything you have, and quite a bit you don't have, and you've taken off, but you're still in mid-air it's not good to know someone's shooting at you.
There are several relevant communities:
My wife Carolyn, who's always been supportive, even when she didn't understand what I was doing.
My internet supplier, who said "yes" at critical times. Thanks to Mark Stevens at Cyberexpress (Christchurch). In those days everyone assumed that the WWW would be paid for by advertising and sponsorship. There was great optimism.
To Peter Hatherly who gave me some advice on lay-out, and to James McNeil who spent an hour looking at my work and who was helpfully critical.
The dance community has been neutral rather than supportive. They are not computer people. Moreover, they have their own informal social connections within the dance community. They tend to go to the same places week to week, and to inform each other by word of mouth what's going on.
Dance teachers are on balance a bit frightened of the idea. This is a strong negative. Not a single dance teacher has ever written to NZ Dances with a suggestion in response to a readers question.
Sponsors: I wrote to 168 firms and got 168 negative replies.
Other internet connected people, Raewyn White, Dave Blyth, David Miniffe were all helpful, just by offering encouragement at critical times.
I made 45 copies of the original site on disk and gave them to people asking for feedback. Three people replied. All of them had favourable comments. That was misleading. The blind were leading the equally blind. In fact there were major problems with the site. I remained unaware of those problems until after the site was published.
One young man who deserves special mention. Stuart Yeates, a student at Canterbury University, first wrote to me about "raves" and later took the time to point out several problems with my site. That must have cost him at least 2-3 hours of his voluntary time, and it was very useful to me.
Generally, community support was weak until after the main work had been done. It was only when people could see the result that user support began to accumulate.
User support for the site is international. Read the letters to NZ Dances and you will see that.
I realise now, after almost four years, that the people who need NZ Dances most are people who are outside the dancing community in NZ. They may also be outside the dancing community in their own country too. People who are motivated to write to NZ Dances tend to be asking questions, not providing solutions.
I was thrilled to get several long letters from Bob January in New York where we could talk about dance music and dance bands.
Keith Lindsay, a dance teacher in Auckland offered some support by e-mail at a time when I wondered if anyone in Auckland had an internet connection. My lack of resources badly affected my ability to get any traction in Auckland and Wellington.
I imagined that dance teachers and dance clubs would encourage people to use NZ Dances. Silly idea. Some see NZ Dances as a threat. Most however, don't understand what the Internet is, and don't care. They have far more important "real things" to do.
The finance for the site development came entirely from personal funds.
Requests to 168 companies for help as sponsors of the site returned 159 negative replies. (9 Didn't reply at all.)
There was no help available when the idea was just an idea. I worked hard to make connections, to develop links with people both in the dance industry and in the internet community. The return would have been about one minute of help for each hour I did. Nobody was interested in my idea. The only thing keeping it going was my commitment.
When I was borrowing money from my wife Carolyn to keep going, I applied to Creative NZ for minimal funding. If they would just pay the $1500 cash outlay needed to keep the site open for a year, I'd make it. My application was refused. It was a moment of despair.
There is now minimal funding, but indirectly through Adapt to Experience and Adapt to Experience Limited. This causes problems of priority for me, as manager of all three ventures.
In February 1997 a second approach was made to 154 businesses seeking sponsorship for the dance site. The response was once again 100% negative.
There is the opportunity to bill clubs and dance teachers for entries in the site. But the possible fees are tiny. Clubs debate if they should send NZ Dances $25.00 they want an account, and a letter. Then 70% of them decide they don't really understand it, so "if it's free we will; but if we have to pay we won't".
Frankly collecting a dollar cost two dollars. For the future it needs to be done, clubs and dance teachers should pay. Educating them about that is something NZ Dances can't afford to do. That might cost $300+ a club. It won't get done. So in time slowly the message will get through. It's a ten year process without a big injection of money that would put people on the ground to carry the message to the dance community. That job can't be done on-line. The critical mass of people in dancing are not yet Internet literate.
Who can tell when the information they have is good or bad? Not I.
Yet we have to act with the information we have. The WWW does make a great deal of technical information available. It's free, provided you can find it, provided you can understand it, and provided you are able to access it.
The hype about the Internet in the news media is mostly driven by ignorance. Journalists and those involved on building the web conspired to dream big dreams and to spread unreality widely. We ride on the tail of some wild creature. None of us knows what the future holds. All the available information about the Internet tends to be misleading. "Facts" turn out to be "estimates" and are proven to be wild guesses. Even if the numbers were right, we have no idea what they mean, too much of our Internet knowledge is merely myth.
There has been a considerable development of WWW sites about dancing. There were only about 60 four years ago, most of those 3-4 pages. The number of dancing web sites now runs at something like 4000. Most of these are only sites that point to other sites with a little content. The sites with content have been growing in number and quality. They are diverse in style. There is a lot of sharing and openness. One is able to see what other people are doing. There is nothing like NZ Dances anywhere else on the WWW. DanceScape tried to introduce letters are one stage, but gave the idea up.
I began with a very bad idea that the newsgroups would be a good source of expertise for the web site. I spent hours trying to make newsgroup material readable and seeking permission to re-publish it. I've since concluded that material needs to be written especially for the WWW and that newsgroup articles are seldom useful.
On the other hand some of the people who have written to newsgroups are experts, and I've found they are very obliging and helpful if you ask them for help.
My internet supplier and several web designers have been sometimes reluctant to help. The problem is commercial. We all have to survive, and we do so be charging fees for our time and expertise. Sometimes the best ideas may not have been used because I can't access them unless NZ Dances can pay the fee.
There is strong demand for information on how to dance, and for dance scripts, particularly sequence dance scripts. About once a month I get a letter asking me for advice about "Break Dancing".
I've worked hard to develop my own expertise which is displayed (or not displayed) on these pages. I see all around me young people who have more technical knowledge than myself but who lack understanding of markets and people and how opportunities develop.
A key source of interest and the motivation that has kept me going is the flow of public letters to NZ Dances. The quality of those letters is more than pleasing. My inability to answer many of the questions asked, and the failure of anyone else to step up and answer the questions says a lot about the state of the dancing industry.
Certain ideas have grown out of my experience with NZ Dances. New Zealand Festival of Dance, local Pan-Dance Councils, a Federation of NZ Dancing Clubs, the Kemnitz Dancing Club. All more or less stillborn because or the lack of funds, the lack of committed supporters, or just a failure to have a critical mass of enthusiastic people to push the idea through.
I leave you to judge the results.
The best measure is in the many letters to the web site. Where in the world do they come from? What are the people writing about? Are they getting help and support? Are these people dance teachers, dance club executives, dancers, beginners, parents of dancers, or musicians? Take all the letters in any three month period and you'll find it's quite interesting.
The strength of NZ Dances is the wide approach. That's partly caused by the small size of the NZ Dance community. It's also driven by my disapproval of the inter-tribal warfare between dance styles and among dance clubs.
The fact that the key users of NZ Dances are not the professional dancing community I had imagined I would be serving, but some of their customers, and even more so people who are new to dancing or at least new to dancing in NZ. People who are "in the loop" don't need the web site for weekly purposes.
Financially the site is not a profit centre of course, but it is attracting visitors, I've stopped worrying about how many. (Something like 10,000 a month.) Far more important is question who are these visitors? What role do they play in the world dance industry? What contribution are they making to dancing in New Zealand? Quality is more important than raw numbers.
228 people are getting the weekly update for the site be e-mail. Of those 65 are resident overseas. They may be New Zealanders who are on OE experiences, but most of them are dance club executives, keen dancers or musicians impressed by what NZ Dances is doing.
That update list is improving in quality. Once the list had 145 addresses, but 108 were people who lived outside of NZ. There was a time when there were no NZ dance teachers getting the weekly update. That number is still far to small, but it's growing. There are now several dance bands that get the weekly update. Sadly to my knowledge there are no schools showing any interest.
ATE is growing as an Internet Consultancy. That has given me a source of income but it takes me out of dancing. Last December with the pressure of web site work, NZ Dances didn't get updated for five weeks. That was very nearly the end of the site. Only the spare time created by the holidays and the fact that my cash flow was secure for a month enabled the update to be done.
The business side of the site "Adapt to Experience" is not developing.
It's impossible even now to produce a sensible cash flow statement. The continued development of the site is being driven by faith not cash.
What needs to be done can't be done on the Internet alone. The critical mass of people who we need to be in contact with are not part of the Internet.
Many people overseas think that NZ Dances, employs professional dancers, organises the NZ Amateur and Professional Ballroom Dancing Championships, and runs the Royal Academy of Dancing in NZ. Children in NZ write to NZ Dances seeking employment as dancers.
There must be a team of people on the ground spreading the dance community message. Dance clubs and dance teachers tend to say, "we just do our own thing." They don't have a vision of themselves as part of a large and progressive dance industry. They operate out of a garage, they work hard, and struggle to get any money for what they do. They feel like the dancing world is a battle field. Ideas from NZ Dances about working together are about as popular as a pile of rocks. Personal contact, training and support and the development of an effective "useful common" for dance teachers and for dancing clubs is necessary.
Above is an outline that reveals a great deal about any new venture. There must be a "champion", who carries the idea forward as a project capable of completion. The driving force for the idea cannot be just "to make money" but should be rooted in doing something useful. The community support needed to make the project possible need not come from a great number of people. A few critical people are always more important than a faceless expression of support. The resources needed for any project are only partly financial. If a project lacks financial power, to some extent hours, co-operation and innovation can be substituted. The best ideas are important both when they are used and when they are denied. Finally, it's easier to get support when the hard work is done and the future risk minimal. Of course at that stage the help is not really needed.
Opportunity exists in parallel with uncertainty. If you must wait until the risk is zero or close to zero the opportunity will no longer exist.
I hope that the information presented here is useful. If I sound doubtful it's because I'm close to this project. I've tried to expose the project to view. I trust that in this raw form the data might reveal something to you that's important to whatever you are doing. Feel free to write to me about your own project.
John Veitch
Copyright John
Stephen Veitch, 1996-2000
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