In the old days, recalls Nova Spivack, "anyone and their grandmother could learn to program in HTML."
If you wanted to create a Web site, you just went out and did it. All it took was some gumption, a few ideas, and maybe, just maybe, a computer.
But the Web isn't for rookies anymore.
"At this point," says Spivack, co-founder and director of marketing for EarthWeb, a New York City-based Web production house, "to compete you need multimillion-dollar investment backing. You've got to be able to do digital imaging, you've got to code in Java and CGI. You need to know how to work with Oracle databases, and you need access to high bandwidth. Even a T1 isn't enough."
Spivack, along with brothers Jack and Murray Hidary, founded EarthWeb in 1994. Perhaps the most prominent of the new high-end Web production studios, EarthWeb has created sites for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Stock Exchange, while also striking a Net nerve with the September 1995 unveiling of www.gamelan.com, a Java showcase co-produced with Sun Microsystems. EarthWeb's own page boasts of capabilities that include "3-D rendering, real-time animation, online multimedia presentations, custom interactive games and user interfaces, as well as genetic algorithms and intelligent agent systems."
A little more than a year ago, Spivack and Jack Hidary were just a couple of HTML hackers with day jobs in different cities. Murray Hidary, EarthWeb's creative director, was dabbling in Japanese music and fashion. Today, the company has more than 30 employees, banks of Sun SPARCstations, graphics-rendering arrays, and a 38th-floor office overlooking Park Avenue. EarthWeb now charges up to US$3 million for a state-of-the-art Web site, and is beginning to negotiate even higher fees.
Spivack sees a shakeout coming as the Web evolves from a playground for hacker hobbyists into a marketplace for the rich and famous. By staying well ahead of the new technology curve, he believes EarthWeb will survive in good shape.
"The big sites that make the most money will be A-level sites, like television channels - giant projects created by studios, major publishers, entertainment companies, and information service providers that are supported by national and international advertising campaigns," says Spivack. "The global players are getting involved, and they'll spend as much money as necessary to keep up with the competition."
SCANS
Highbrow HTML House
