Wisps of vapour from the coffee
Let us imagine a typical day in the office, seated, face washed in the glow of a computer monitor, wisps of vapour from the coffee in the mug on your desk, tracking vertically across your monitor screen. Code… refresh browser… code… damn IE [ad infinitum]. Phone rings… an enquiry? No its someone from the east offering to do complete web sites for less than a fiver! Now, is this an attractive proposition, you get a project, for “X” and they, our friends in the east, and I don’t mean Norfolk, do it for “next to nothing”. You get paid “X” send them the “next to nothing” and retain the difference, easy isn’t it!

You have to Project Manage
Well no! You have to Project Manage them, by wire, or through the ether to that land in the east. Ah! I hear you say, “They have an office in Droitwich” [No offence intended] with full support. Well actually they have a satellite service, you comment, they précis your comment and bundle it up off to the east. Eventually it gets done, you have grey hair, the client does not know of your treachery and all is quiet.

This time it is an enquiry
Then the telephone rings and this time it is an enquiry, well actually its that client, he needs a few revisions. Hmm! Who does them, who has got the original layered graphics, how did that bit of code work? Suddenly you realise you don’t have the role of Project Manager, you are stuck without your friends in the east. How will the price be this time?

Imaginary scenario
The foregoing is one imaginary scenario, it may be completely correct or it may be partially so. However, one thing is absolutely true, if you don’t use the software, be it Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash or some other application, you will loose it. Remember how you could manipulate channels in Photoshop 3, which by CS3 was unnecessary. Its gone, only vague recollections of how to manipulate channels will remain, it might take you hours to work out how to do it again. So giving your work to sub-contractors in some far off country is a recipe for loosing the use of your legs, metaphorically speaking.

Middle People
We are a country awash with middle people, let’s not loose our creative talents in this new domain of the web due to short term greed. Remember we used to have a manufacturing industry, we allowed it to disappear because we did not keep up with the best.