Home

About Us

Why Use Us

Bottom Line

Southern Yellow Pine

Canadian S.P.F.

Western Lumber

OSB & Plywood

The Pine Page

Lumber Prices

Friday Forecast

Lumber Futures

Another Dimension

Past Issues

EDP's Historical

Click here to see sample page

Page 9: Another Dimension: This is the editorial page, where I get to express my opinion on various subjects...some love it and swear by it...others just swear at it.  Sometimes it is industry related, sometimes it is not, but it is always thought provoking.

The following is an example of what you can expect to see on this page.

What E:Commerce Cannot Do...and Perhaps Never Will!

    What is our purpose on this earth?  That is the perhaps the ultimate question for all eternity.  Whether it is the soul's search to reunite with its Creator, or whether we are simply the result of billions of years of evolution, one thing we all have in common during our stay here is the need for communion.  Some of us are satisfied with a communion of solitude whereby we draw our necessary life energy from nature or from the universe.
     However, most of humans require a communion through personal relationships. Those personal relationships can be a significant other, a spouse, children, other family members, occupation, recreation, a religious or spiritual entity or organization...and so on.
    Nevertheless, we humans need and desire personal relationships.  The most gratifying aspect of a well established personal relationship is the touch.  Even Barney Rubble and Fred Flintstone often shook hands and engaged in an arm around the shoulder or pat on the back.
    We have become a society whereby exchanging an embrace is limited to very close relationships (especially man to man) but certainly the handshake or pat on the back goes far to satisfy our need for personal contact in personal relationships.
    After the touch, personal relationships are maintained by verbal communication.  Letters are nice, emails are convenient, but nothing says " I value this relationship" like a phone call or a personal visit.
    It is my conclusion that e:commerce and B2B internet transactions are not as successful as hoped because they eliminate the lifeline of human satisfaction...personal relationships.     Life is about relationships.  Not just our personal lives but our business lives as well.  There is a common phrase these days being passed around; "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."
    To expand, people don't care what you have to sell, or care how much money or time you can save them, or care how much easier you can make their lives unless they have some hope there is the potential for a personal relationship to develop.  Without that relationship, the potential for honesty and trust to erode is compounded.  Without the development of a personal relationship, the implementation of "change" simply isn't worth the effort.
    So, what about B2B e:commerce?  Will it ever be a rousing success?
Sure...if it ultimately creates or strengthens a personal relationship.  The problem with it today is that potential users see it as an interference in personal  relationships.
    Either new technology will adapt to include and enhance personal relationships...perhaps via video communications or the like, or we will become a cold and hardened people...seeking only to serve ourselves...becoming recluse...losing our compassion and feeling...having our passion for life, as we know it in its already deteriorated state today, blunted.
    We can already see the latter taking place, but underneath, we are using the robotic, computerized life enhancements to satisfy and seek out new expressions of personal relationships.
    Therefore, I believe, ultimately, technology will have to address the human side of man.  After all, deep down inside, we are all still searching. The tangibles of this world cannot satisfy that internal need.  No matter what we invent, nothing can satisfy our need to be touched or spoken to or cared about.
    A parting thought.  Why must a good deed or kind gesture or act of compassion be done in the "name" of something or someone or some cause?  Is it not enough just to offer it without acknowledgment?
    Happy Trading!  ML