Failure of the web design community in Mauritius?
Understanding and mis-understanding form part of our daily life. Mauritians have a particularity though. The “outside” view is really important in our society. Showing-off. Along with that we hold on to concepts that everybody rejects publicly but doing all the time. I would put it as it is sometimes the case of “doing better than the Joneses”. How many tuned cars do you find in Mauritius? How many “competition lacaze” have you seen? All in all, in our society it is a “I’m [better/smarter/richer/...insert adjective here] than you” race.
Coming to this, I thought that by launching the Web Design Bureau of Mauritius, I would be able to join a real community of Mauritian web designers. I was dreaming of networking and exchanging passionate findings with other web designers from Mauritius. I was longing to help them in understanding SEO and web design to its core with an objective of bettering the whole system. I hoped for a strong social media driven network where all Mauritian web designers would be exchanging and showing with pride what we could accomplish from our small island. How wrong was I in believing this! There is no community in Mauritius and will not be for a long time.
There’s no “I’m better than you” in my endeavour but a real want for networking and sharing. The problem is that the Mauritian ego is what pervades and that ends up in people not accepting positive criticism. For them only the word “criticism” comes out and they forget the “positive”. Everybody in Mauritius is best at what it does (irony!). Others are even declaring themselves guard dogs of the Internet in Mauritius. You can’t be all. Either you’re a web designer and can at least discourse on Zeldman’s “Web Designing with Web Standards” or you’re a jack of all trades and master of none.
Working in a specific field means that you have to know what is going on in the office next to you where UI designers or web marketeers are working. You have to listen and learn from them all while explaining your job to them. You have to know what is the use of community management as well as that of server redirects through a .htaccess file. You have to see what are the advantages of deploying a website through a CMS than building from scratch. You have to understand why such type of code is incompatible with SEO… Where the magic happens is when new techniques are uncovered, great ROI is achieved or just simple genius is created from the mixed research of all these teams.
Networking seems to work right with all people in other fields gravitating around web designing: SEO, expert web management, content building, copywriting or programming but never with web designers. Problem: ego again. You can have a point of view and stand behind it but you also have to accept that others’ ideas can be different. You can discuss about the pros and cons without adding a “g*g*t” or a “f*l**r m*m*”. Sadly though, I’ve seen too many of these around. Few web designers are in for community building and sharing. Many treasure their misconceptions as gold because in the world of the blinds the one-eyed are kings. This goes for companies too.
The web is not mature enough in Mauritius and the cultural tissue very strong. The Internet is an online society that recreates part of our common culture. This is what is happening, the Mauritian culture is seeping through on the online community and recreating what they usually do in everyday life. This is where the Mauritian web design community is failing!
Let’s talk about this.
All this might look like I’m trying to do “better than the Joneses” but it is not the case. It is a real plea to have a strong network in Mauritius.
Now, let’s see what’s really happening: most of the companies and web designers would say that others will steal their work and clients if they enter a community. None actually thinks the other way round. Imagine the impact on a client when you say that you are active in the Mauritian web design community, that you are working hand in hand with others to give better results for that client, to make the web a better place. This would imply that you are not only after your client’s money, this would also imply that state of the art techniques will be used for that client’s site thus reassuring it, this would imply that all the buzz around web communities would also shine on your own business!
Do you think that the industry would get better if a real web design community is built? Do you think that Mauritian web design companies could be real engines of such communities? Would Mauritian web designers gain from having an online community? Does this really imply a change in the way of thinking (I might be getting it all wrong)?
About the Author:
Sachin D. Brojmohun has extensive experience in terms of graphic design, CSS integration, usability and accessibility as well as in SEO. More about him and the Web Design Bureau of Mauritius here: Web Design Mauritius.
Twitter: girishmungra
says:
Hi Sachin,
Am not in Web Design but I agree with your views on the Mauritian Ego. We’r first at criticizing, thats so true. You just have to tune to any radio station here you’ll understand what am talking about.
However there’s a suggestion I would like to make w.r.t the purpose of WDBM. I refer to the paragraph ’I thought that by launching the Web Design Bureau of Mauritius, I would be able to…’.
The platform you are using here i.e a blog, does not align with the list of features you stated above. The main purpose of a blog being to publish your contents and interact with your readers through comments is successfully achieved here – if you stick to that. However this website does not engage designers to take the step forward and seek for help. Nor does it provide a structure to ‘exchange passionate findings’.
Forming a community is one thing. Having a community of active participants where everybody gains in terms of knowledge and competence is another. I refer to your colophon this time where you say that WDBM ‘is the hub for Mauritian web designers interested in getting their design skills to the next level.’
Visitors here can only turn into consumers of your contents and can only satisfy those looking for some passive learning. What you need is a structure of participation where you encourage designers in Mauritius interact, network and share their knowledge.
I don’t think the web design community in Mauritius is a failure. It deserves a second chance. Experts like yourself coupled with a proper platform will sure make wonders. My advice is you set up a Ning platform and achieve your endeavor of creating a ‘a real community of Mauritian web designers’.
Twitter: sachindb
says:
Thanks for the great input Girish. I didn’t see things that way. An external point of view is always objective. At the beginning I was publishing miniposts as resources for web designers but this didn’t seem to catch on. So it is true that I now am publishing web design and web management articles only.
By networking I was thinking of the use of social media and upcoming trends of building networks of blogs and sites all gravitating around web design. It really started this year with Artover. Others are clearly cold on the track.
Your comment is also nourishing the thoughts I have been having on the editorial line of the Bureau. I published some tutorials before. Maybe I should publish some more even if they are not those posts that are really read. The Ning solution might also be a good direction to take.
Twitter: yashvin
says:
Hi ! ;-)
You are right to some extent. I would like to add the following to your post. It is a reality in Mauritius : Many people are in the IT field only for the sake of a job. Once it is time to leave the office, they forget everything and only think about their work the next morning. And discussing about work outside office hours will be a sin for them. That will be one reason why I think there isn’t any constructive debate among the ‘real web designers’.
Second, not all Mauritians are plugged into the blogosphere. If they are, then they only read a few articles occasionally, without feeling the need to participate. And not all of them would like to get into a debate to learn something. On the other side, I believe that there are some people whose sole aim is to critize others in a negative way. No matter what, they will never accept others’ work.
Girish’s comment is interesting too. Perhaps we need real excitement around this ‘web design’ words to get people interested in sharing… something like a google-like day, just as one organised last year in Mauritius. That was one of the best things I experienced for programmers in Mauritius…
Twitter: sachindb
says:
Hi Yashvin,
True enough, I haven’t worked in a Mauritian company with the 9 to 5 work mentality where you don’t think about your job after work hours, at least, last time I did that was 15 years ago. So, if I get your point, very few people do the job out of passion and for the beauty of the code…
?
Being plugged into the blogosphere is one thing but if you need to keep up with what is going on over the web including trends. I discussed it once in an article web designers = web consumers. The G-day seems to be a great thing. I mean you get the top notch seminars in the field but many go thinking they might get a diploma for attending (§weird story heard over the G-day) but my point is that we should stop the “spoon feeding” culture that’s been prevailing in Mauritius since long.
Mind you, there’s nothing against G-day here but in terms of web design, there’s no set rules so it is better to experiment than to just learn and copy.
Twitter: 7php
says:
Hi Sachin,
You just caught my attention on Twitter and I finally bumped on this article.
I agree with your point of view as well, concerning the Mauritian Ego. I recently had another glaring example. I give you the example:
Some 1months back, I just launched my blog and just like you, I like to share and entangle myself with like-minded people to promote knowledge about X. So, I share this launch with friends and colleagues at work and on facebook. I have approached them in a very humble way while the fb one is just updates and sharing my link. The purpose and idea was that in return they do share their opinion and blogs/or whatever platform they are on so that we could network online.
At work, I was surprised that only 1 or 2 actually said “ah pa mal, seryer. [full stop]“. But till now none actually made a comment or suggestion, except 1,2 good friends outside work. Most of them simply ignored it with Ego. On fb I have like 125 friends that I personally know, none of them responded, not even a single word.
Mauritian are so selfish and self-centered that at times that I just don’t care to network with them. Some colleagues are even so selfish that when we start sharing and talking about a topic, e.g PHP and web 2.0, some are even afraid to say yes I do PHP and could contribute as well. No they just listen from distance (passive, silent learning and awareness of what he/she is doing/knowing). On the other hand, behind our back, they do very much proclaim themselves to be Expert in this and that blatantly.
What the heck is this kind of attitude? I’m sick seeing all that.
@Girish Mungra:
I completely agree with the “choice of a more easy-to-interact platform” idea. May be a forum or the Ning style is a good one.
@Yashvin:
Another true aspect of how things are in Mauritius; the observation “Once it is time to leave the office, they forget everything and only think about their work the next morning” is 101% correct!
I think Mauritians, specially those tied up with IT, whether developers or designers, have to change attitude and get into the habit of sharing, contributing and moving as a group, not just for self-gain.
Else, there do exist a small handful of people who are very much co-operative, like to make constructive steps. But unfortunately, these guys are like 5 out of 25.
Closing out, I was very much pleased to know all 3 mauritians in here with a good sense of sharing and constructive thoughts. Meet you guys around the network.
Best regards,
K_Wasseem
(7php.com)
Twitter: sachindb
says:
Hi Wasseem,
great to know that there’s a Mauritian PHP ressource over at 7 PHP. I will be adding you to the link love list. Coming back to your comment, I understand that the Mauritian educational culture is one where you do a lot of passive learning. One where you have to gulp down large chunks of information, preferably before the others to be better than them.
This blog, the Web Design Bureau of Mauritius, is nearly 2 years old and has received great support from the Mauritian blogging community as it has been running against all odds all this time. One peculiarity of this is being one blog that goes against the system stating loud that web design education in Mauritius has to be improved and personal investment from web designers is really important. It has caused quite some upheaval and I’ve even received threats by some people. This is our education framework.
Sharing and stating the truth does not form part of this framework. Doing better than the other is what is taught and if you can do it by demeaning that contender that’s better. Well, I just don’t agree with that.
Keep it up with your blog and thanks for commenting.
Cheers.
Web Design Mauritius recently wrote: Round up of the best posts of April 2010 on the Bureau.