22nd June 07 Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll.

The inside diary of a web company

www.thelocalchannel.co.uk/theinsiders

comments to plilley1@googlemail.co.uk

At the end of every day, for 30 minutes exactly - no more, no less - I'm going to write about my life in the web company I work for.

It'll be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth ... apart from those odd occasions when discretion is the better part of valour.

And along the way, I'll introduce you to characters that may very well be based on the people who work here; they and I will know what's accurate - I hope that you just enjoy the diary.

So why am I doing this? Well - several reasons. I'm away from home a lot, so it's a way for my family to know what happens to me each day. And I've always fancied writing a diary but never "found the time" (or to tell the truth I've probably never made the time).

But then there's the reason that I'm making time to write it now. You see, the web company I work for wants more audience (and show me a web company that doesn't!).  We've got a number of plans to get us there, but one idea the team came up on Wednesday was for everyone in the company to write their own pages. A competition, with a small prize for the person who gets the most page views on their pages. Cool idea - and of course we should be using our own product, seeing what it is like every day to be our own customer. And so the team got together and picked the subjects they're going to write about (without me being there ... so guess who got all the easy "most searched on the web" topics, huh? ). Let me introduce you to the team; Xav (a man whose glass is always half-full) took Jokes, film and TV reviews. Dani (joined a year ago... all bright and enthusiastic) got Sport, Food and drink. Emma (just rejoined us after globe-trotting solo to New Zealand) went for "all things green" and fashion. Keith took Politics, smoking and drinking (guess it's good to write about things where you have expertise). Brad took Motors (which seems like a safe way to indulge one of his passions), Sarah (who's been a company stalwart from just about day one, about five years ago) went with travel.  Charles (a real tech whiz who wanders around the office in his bare feet in between his Uni studies) is going to do technical tips ... and Mike took Music. I don't have a problem with that ... he's at a gig every weekend ... but Mike is the reason for the title of this page.

I don't feel qualified to write about sex and drugs on the web when there are clearly so many experts "out there". And anyway, Fiona (my wife) would put her foot down hard and in an uncomfortable place if I suggested doing the research needed to gain the expertise. And Mike's taken music, as I said. So, "sex, drugs and rock and roll" - is not what this diary is going to be about. It's going to be about what it's really like, day in and day out trying to help build a web company. Where you've got a vision of what you want to build ... but then life happens. People don't do what you want, technology doesn't work the way you thought it would, and money you thought you could count on isn't there. But then just sometimes the people who aren't doing what you want ... do better than you'd asked. And the technology guys give you something that's faster, easier and cheaper than you'd dared imagine (and on schedule as well!). And someone comes along and says "I like what you're doing, how can I help you". Some days there'll be a lot to write, some days there won't... but my 30 minutes is up for today.