Was looking for a way to respond to Claw's "why is now NOT the time?" comment regarding pressing legal issues (e.g. no SHM). Claw is right: No SHM seems such a foolish transgression and citing "no money for a SHM" as a reason is downright insulting to shareholders.
But yet, I kept wanting to tell Claw that now is not the time to deal with this because our society is on the verge of something huge that NEOM is certainly a part of.
Your post, Hangdog, has helped me reconcile the contradiction of why NEOM is making such a stupid corporate decision and angering shareholders when there's so much at stake. I can only net out that NEOM as it exists now will not be around much longer (merger or acquisition likely) and therefore they don't really care if they follow the rules. They are busy preparing for the tsunami.
Hangdog, you are so right in stating that a new industry is being birthed. You, as a small businessman, are trying to unravel how to use all these new technologies.
I'm one of the "experts" who clients are paying to figure out how to do all this. My marketing/advertising business of 30 years is being turned on its ear by social networks, requests for mobile ad creation and tracking, the disappearance of traditional media and communication vehicles, the clogged Internet, do-it-yourselfers with a Mac (no offense, Hangman),and clients whose budgets have been slashed so much by this economy that they have idolized "cheap" phone/Internet-based delivery systems as their only salvation.
But no one really knows how to measure, monetize or use half of these things yet. Those who understand how it works don't understand how to market (anyone can "make an ad"--skill only enters the picture if you want the ad to work). Then there's pricing and infrastructure decisions, just as you have discovered Hangdog.
So your post, in combination with Claw's, has enabled me give this thing another 3 months to see what develops. How foolish, though, for NEOM not to set a date in the future for a SHM, even if it never will take place.
Just the ramblings of someone with unusual time on my hands today since the market is closed. All MHO.
M