| What are we doing?
September 29th, 2000 We made it. The new Track went online today at noon. This was utmostly important, since it happened only just before Toine Verheul took his leave as Business Unit Manager of Track, at the end of today. This proves that this site is an effort of the Track Team as it existed up to now, and now no longer exists. Not that we won't carry on, but we will do so under changed leadership, with a changing team, and with changing output.  before What has changed? The new Track is not, like the previous one, a portal with news and bacground info (I always said that was a bad idea, since portals had already started to lose their appeal in the US by the time we started one - and I was vindicated by the dwindling views, and the lack of them on the pages containing the editorial and news content, which, nonetheless, was excellent in itself, but so we opted for change) but a dressed down affair, in which functionality has been toned down to its core: the search engine, the site directory and links to the remaining Wegener content.  after Also, this site, to the Track Team, is a liberation from technical repression. You see, despite all the respect I most certainly still have for individual persons at NetCast: before this we had a site that ran on Windows NT, Netscape Webserver and StoryServer, that was very slow where both transfer times and maintenance were concerned and could not quickly be changed or updated. Now, the whole shebang runs under Linux, Apache and PHP, and we can change things with a flick of the wrist. Moreover, this site represents a personal victory for both Willem Pieter Barentz and myself. The layout, namely, is his, and the HTML is a direct result of the method of coding we have devised between the two of us, based on both our experiences. And it works. This site is not only fast, but also reversely compatible backwards to Lynx (and Netscape 3, yes, honestly). Zoektrends, Rubrieken and Zoekmee are the product of WiseGuys. WiseGuys, by the way, is the company to which Toine Verheul has moved, to take up the post of commercial manager. And about his leaving Track (this text appeared in Dutch on the farewell site Willem Pieter Barentz rammed together in a day): Life wif Tonie. When I left the post of webmaster at GlobalXS after a big (glassshattering, to be exact) row and became freelancer for a while, the rest of my working life still looked like it would play out in Lelystad. This impression was enhanced when I became builder and webmaster of Gironet's website, at MultiAccess (now become Freeler), which held office a yard or so from GlobalXS. Things did, however, turn out quite differently, since after half a year MultiAccess turned out not to be the right place either (although we parted in mutual respect). So I thought: "right, back to freelancing". But I hadn't yet finished my application by email when I received a phonecall from Adrianus Warmenhoven at the DMSA convention in Maastricht. "Listen, I'm standing here next to Toine, remember him?". "Certainly". Toine was the guy who, in 1996, carrying the Track Search engine under his arm, walked into the GlobalXS offices looking for a partner. Had GlobalXS then become that, Toine would have worked for me. See, I was head of the Web Division, and a search engine would have ressorted under that. It was not to be, as Toine couldn't reach financial agreement with Gelderloos, Paul. This did not surprise me, because Paul was a crook. This being the chief reason why I left later on. At the DMSA Toine approached Aad, whom he had met then as well, and said: "I'm looking for someone like Michiel". Upon which Aad replied: "Wait, I can do better than that: here's Michiel", and handed him his mobile phone on which he had just punched in my number. Five minutes later I was working for Toine (january 1998 if I remember well). This turned out to be Wegener, disguised as NetCast. Toine has liberated me since then. By that I mean this: I have been striving for years towards building a company (or finding one and helping to build it), in which there is no backstabbing, no keeping information from colleagues to improve one's own chances (I look upon all similar activity as being counterproductive to a company, in which people should after all be helping eachother beat the competitor), open communication, and active use of the means of communication available thanks to Internet (and in which, therefore, it does not matter from which spot you are working, barring some meetings). Pfff. The Business Unit Track is that company, so far, and WeM looks a lot like it, partly thanks to Harold Rimmelzwaan. This is a good thing since, when the rest of the silliness has gone (some still remains, but things are improving), WeM will be a fast, quick-witted, solidary and hopefully succesful company. This ends the intermezzo. The point is that Toine, in spite of his shortcomings (paranoid like hell, disturbingly absent at times, excessively commercial in his thinking and, just like I am, urgently in need of a secretary because of his chaotic and distracted nature), has tried to build a human, effective, pleasurable but quick-witted and succesful company, and has given this attempt his all. Whatever happened between him and the MT of WeM I am unaware of okay? Do read my top 10 (available in Dutch only) to see what else I think of him. Sorry to see you go. All the best, motherfucker. Grtz, Michiel Previous episodes:
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