What’s a progressive when it comes to Internet marketing companies?

I was struck by the two entries Amy Ridenour pulled from the top ten in Campaign for America’s Future’s ‘what is a progressive?’ contest.

From Julie P. of Hastings, NY:

A progressive is someone who believes in the common good — in a fair shake for every person –and is willing to fight for it.

And Lawrence F. of San Francisco:

A progressive is someone who cares about the other guy. It’s as simple as that!!

Not all bad Julie and Lawrence.

Do the traditional publishing companies – LexisNexis or Thomson FindLaw, casting themselves as leaders in Internet marketing, believe in the common good or care about the other guy? Not.

The big players when it comes to the Internet today started with the common good in mind. Yahoo, started by Stanford graduate students David Filo and Jerry Yang as “Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web”, a web site featuring a directory of other sites. Google began as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Ph.D. students at Stanford University. They hypothesized that a search engine that analyzed the relationships between websites would produce better results than existing techniques.

Look at 37signals, founded in 1999 and presently employing only 7, which produces web based project management and time management tools used by hundreds of thousands. Total focus on ease of use and caring for the customer.

Progressive does not mean the focus is not on revenues. Just means revenues flow from being progressive.

Where’s LexBlog? We’re trying. The focus is giving folks a fair shake. And I’ve been in the trenches in a professional services firm, practicing law for 17 years. I care for you guys out there.

Why just trying and not all the way there yet? There are times when you’ve got to put your money where your mouth is. In any good start up business the need for top notch employees exceeds the rate of growth (in the post dotcom VC gone wild days). And top notch employees cost significant money.

LexBlog’s going to step up to the plate and bring in top notch employees, especially in the web production management area. We’ll be progressive, even if it kills me. If you think we’re failing, drop me an email.