Dotcoza project takes strain

By Basheera Khan, UK correspondent, ITWeb

Johannesburg, 08 May 2000

There are just over four weeks left in the Andersen Consulting e-commerce project which revolves around Dotcoza, the man living completely off e-commerce, but the strain is showing. Dogcoza, one of two household pets, attacked a deliveryman, who emerged unhurt but shaken, on Friday.

"Dogcoza is normally the most quiet and placid dog, but yesterday he barked at some delivery guys - it was probably the second time he`d barked - and now this. It seems as though he`s nervous with the amount of people around the house," Dotcoza says.

The number of people working on the grounds surrounding the cyberhouse is due mainly to the prodigious radio and television coverage the project has received in recent weeks. But it`s not only mainstream sources that are picking up on the excitement generated by the Dotcoza phenomenon.

gAL.co.za, the student site that launched the online games "Squirt Diesel at Robert Mugabe" and "Get Hansie out of a Jail in India" have come up with a new game that involves Dotcoza.

"Free Dotcoza from Internet Hell" is a game where people can free the man imprisoned in a house by firing lightning bolts at a modem that floats around the screen. In the background of the game, one sees a house with Dotcoza behind one of the windows.

"Should you hit the modem enough times it explodes and Dotcoza is freed, but leaves the house without any shoes," explains John Kuhn, spokesman for gAL.co.za, adding, "Dotcoza didn`t have too much success buying shoes over the Internet." Players who are unable to break the modem will have to watch Dotcoza waste away into a skeleton behind the window.

Dotcoza`s response? "This is brilliant! I didn`t know about it at all, but I`m keen to play the game and try and free myself.

"My only concern is that people aren`t fully aware of what`s going on here," Dotcoza added in response to a gAL.co.za student survey, which found that a great majority thought the project`s concept was unrealistic.

The concept`s main research theme last week was travel and tourism - a topic that has almost completely escaped Dotcoza`s attention as he instead devoted his attention to dealing with the copious amounts of e-mail resulting from his appearances on radio and television.

Although the Andersen Consulting research team has put together extensive background information to aid his experiences, Dotcoza admitted that he hadn`t done much in the way of practical research on the Internet, but was planning to research it during the weekend.

Alan Quinn, senior manager, Andersen Consulting, says the sheer volume of e-mails generated by people interested in the project did take the company by surprise. "We`ve had to hire extra staff to handle the backlog, which began shortly after the airing of the first Carte Blanche show featuring the project."

Quinn adds that the Dotcoza team is currently a couple of days behind on processing the admin, but is viewing it as a learning experience in a project process that he admits was not rigorously thought out. "Of course, the project is supposed to emulate real life experiences, and in all fairness, a real person wouldn`t have to spend so much time talking to the media."

Despite this hectic schedule of interviews, Dotcoza did eventually get to test drive two 4x4s - all the way down the driveway to the front gate, and back again.