Who are Draftlight anyway?

Draftlight™ Networks began in 1989 as a collaboration between a group of university researchers in the UK and US, when the 'Internet' was listable on a lineprinter. We saw the potential and set up home, with the intention to tame this beast before it tamed us. We believe that virtual life is important - and as the years roll by, it's starting to look more important than reality. When we started, computers ran programs, did math and sent emails. Few would have understood that a generation of society would grow up seeing computers as core to their social lives, relationships, leisure and work. Everything imaginable is happening online, from commerce and politics to love, life, crime and punishment. You may like it, you may not, but it cannot be stopped. Virtuality is ephemeral; software spread on billions of machines and affecting the lives of everyone. It will never stop moving, it will never leave us alone. At Draftlight, we see the potential for making our lives richer, simpler and happier - but we also see the potential for darker forces. Our work exploits and expands the good and tries to control the rest, so that as your life spreads, it remains safe.

Civil Engineering

We have been involved in core concepts since we started, in fact our first project was to tinker with the SMTP email protocol. The Internet is a place with no boundaries, and almost no law. The best we have are standards and protocols, and we work hard to improve and secure both. From CSS3 to emerging platforms, Flash, encryption and IP layer systems, we try to ensure the world works like you expect, and doesn't fall over.

The Internet is far more than 'the Web', and a lot of what we do is off-Web, in areas such as corporate security, routing and interfacing. Your virtual world is the same as your real one - the Web is what you see and use; your homes, stores, streets and parks. It only runs smoothly because of all the stuff you don't see - gas pipes, phone lines, air traffic control. We try to make sure your virtual home is comfortable, the mall is within walking distance and an airliner doesn't fly through your bathroom.

Social Engineering

The Internet is the world's greatest marketing tool. It can be used by anyone, to promote or destroy. A major part of what we do is connected to this trillion dollar publicity machine, but we're not a SEO, web-marketer, mass-emailer or forum injector. Our work, through divisions such as BandFoundry, includes cutting-edge online presence management for the music, motion picture and new media industries. Sure, we can throw out a website and drop articles into the news, but what we're renowned for is our integrated presence and security program, protecting clients from online piracy, tracking and controlling rumors, helping fans and the press find what they want to know as fast as possible, and enabling clients to work securely across the planet. From robot crawling for copyright fraud to secure links from the studio to an artist on tour, we create a virtual workplace of the same quality you demand from the real world.

Yes, for some people that makes us 'the big bad policemen'. People pay their mortgages and buy food because of commerce and trade on the Internet, and being a lone trader on eBay or a global record label makes no difference to the hardships if people steal your stuff. We always try to take a reasonable attitude to enforcement, and rarely execute people without at least a verbal warning. Remember though, like every good cop we enjoy two things more than all others:- squishing the stupid and shooting if they run.

Our Offices

Draftlight is a globally distributed organization. We exist as a flexible and dynamic group of programmers and industry experts, drawn from diverse fields both inside IT and beyond. We live where we feel we should - on the Web - our home is where your data lives and that makes us houseproud. If you ask 'where' we are, then it's hard to say - Draftlight is a trillion silicon junctions working in unison, across the globe and above it. Our offices are software, our company transport is TCP. It means that our staff are free to work wherever they choose to live, and without the pressures of interstate commuting or an 8am subway ride. They may be laying on a beach or hiking across glaciers, but with our global network linking them together, they are always in the office. We find, for some strange reason, people program better with a nice view. Not necessarily a Mountain view, but so long as we never see a cubicle beyond reruns of Dilbert, we're happy.

The other advantage in having staff who IP themselves to work is we can use people who maybe want to stay in the shadows. BandFoundry has several people lazing about that would count as 'celebrities', but we use them because they're damn good at what they do. Our clients mostly have no clue if their graphic designer is a platinum-selling artist or not, but they like the fact we understand the way they think. Admittedly though, some of our staff stay at home simply because being outdoors is like a poor man's version of Counterstrike.

This approach helped us survive the dot.com bubble unlike thousands of others with equally good ideas. We have permanent network footprints in the USA, UK, Europe, Asia and Australasia, operating 24/7/365 to keep our clients ahead of the crowd.

Our Ego

We're famous for having huge egos. Biblically huge. We're not only convinced the sun shines out of our digestive tract, we're pretty sure it was put there by angels.

Seriously though, we know we're good. Our clients know we're good, and we won't waste their money or our time telling them a terrible idea is salvageable if it's not. Straight talking, regular arguments and one or two rude drawings on IM whiteboards are normal for us, and there's a simple reason for it. Clients could easily do a lot of what we do in house. Interns, designers, programmers, all easy to find and cheap to pay if you promise them a pension, or keys to the 12th floor washrooms. The problem is, all these people will think telling you the truth is bad. Save the job. Make the boss smile. Screw the project.

We don't frankly give a damn about who you are, we care about the job being done as well as possible. Our satisfaction is not a happy manager, it's a million-selling CD, a 20% decrease in counterfeit transactions, or a kid in Iowa saying randomly "hey, have you heard about....". If that means we sit a millionaire down and tell her she sucks at marketing, then fine by us. Maybe that's why we have a 90% repeat business rate.