Name: Joerg Witzsch
Web Addresses:
http://www.triumphoflove.de/
http://www.witzsch.de/

Why did you get on the web?
As a journalist, the web is one of the best research resources available. When I was finishing the book for my first musical (I confess, I am a performer and writer as well), I wanted to see it published, but not only in printed form. That's when I sat down to explore the possibilities of web design. Count Dracula - The Musical was the result and it is still is online. The launch of this website led me quite deep into the matter. My profession being research, I tried to find out as much as possible about search engines, html, javascript, cgi, image editing and all it takes not only to design, but also promote a site, and make it interactive and attractive. All over sudden, I found myself on "the other side" - I was not only using the web, I was part of it. It was an amazing experience and still is. For example the latest project, the website for "Triumph of Love", had a great start even before it was officially launched. Word-of-mouth spread so fast, that the producers and the creative team of the original Broadway production of this musical, who did not know about the European Premiere, signed the guestbook before search engines had listed the site.

What services do you offer?
I am still in the process of building a company. Right now, I offer web design, graphic design and a "turn-key-website" solution, which includes design, hosting and promotion. Content managment and press-promotion are options that I am about to integrate. Through my contacts to filmmakers / composers / graphic designers, I am also able to offer full multimedia-integration. I am convinced, that the future of web design is what I'd call "audiovisual corporate identity" - better bandwidth will allow us to incorporate all forms of audiovisual content much more than today.

What you like most about the web?
The fact that it is "open source". It allows people to share information across borders, provide any information to anyone at any time. Well, this is the journalist speaking.

What you like least about the web?
Tendencies to make the web a "closed source" by scanning emails, creating "electronic borders" and suppressing information.

What for you is the most useful web technology?
Still the basic system itself. There are tons of applications that make the web more useful, and there is much more yet to come, but they would not all work without the "basics".

Why do you use Fusion?
As I mentioned, I started as a newbie with a website for my first musical. Back then, the only web editor I knew was Composer, the one integrated in Netscape. Having a very visual approach to web design, I just did not want to live with the limitation that I could not put an element on a page exactly at the position where I wanted it to appear. After much research, reading articles and reviews, NetObjects Fusion seemed to be the solution for my needs. No hassle with HTML (though I found out later it is good to know), pixel-exact alignment, easy to create navigation, etc... I started with Fusion version 3 and find that NOF is still THE tool for me, even after having taken a closer look on Dreamweaver and Golive.

Your five favorite web site?
1) Always the one I am currently working on, because I     am dedicated to it.

2) The search engines I use most:
    metager.de
    metacrawler.com
    altavista.com

3) elisabeth-das-musical.de
    I think that, currently, this is one of the most     technically up-to-date and well designed homepages     for a musical.

4) my main "on the internet" info resources, besides the     huge number of press agencies I am connected to
    at my office
    cnn.com
    abc.com
    msnbc.com

5) broadway.com
    As a performer in musicals, do I have to comment on     this choice?

Do you think the web will change the world?
It already has!

What do you do for fun?
Sing, dance and act. Cook. Travel. Translate musicals into German. Direct.

Anything you want to add?
Having worked with NOF for a long time now, I just recently discovered coolmaps. The components made my "handcoding-to-enhance-a-website" much easier. But most of all I value the support that this company offers to their customers. Not only that they actually DO post answers in their newsgroups right away, they also DO take the questions, issues and suggestions of their customers seriously. I do not know how many people had the same suggestion before, but only one month after I suggested a picture pop-up component, ThumbsUp was there. Two weeks later they added some more options that I and others had suggested. In my opinion, this is "role-model" support.

Thanks Joerg.

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