Boston Globe on PodCasting
The Boston Globe writes an insightful article about Podcsating (note: the link will turn stale tomorrow, but I will try and update it if I can find the article elsewhere on the web.)
"If Internet-based weblogs turned everyone into a potential newspaper columnist, and digital cameras let them become photojournalists, podcasting is promising to let everyone with a microphone and a computer become a radio commentator."
Coding as Writing
If you read this blog at all, you know that I've been working on a piece of software (BlogBridge) which at this point I am pretty excited about, even though I don't know where it will go or end up.
I was recently interviewed about my work by Scott Kirsner (of the Boston Globe) who writes the @Large Column. I don't know whether or when he will write an article, but the questions he asked made me think a bit about what I was doing, and particularlyy the way I have chosen to go about it.
I have purposely decided not to try and raise capital to fund this project, but rather pursue a small-scale, cottage industry, do-it-yourself approach. As a practicall matter, I am pretty sure that the project in its current form wouldn't be venture backable anyway. But still I can rephrase the point by saying that I have purposely decided not to limit myself to projects which are venture backable.
Why?
I sometimes liken my personal approach or motivations towards the BlogBridge project, to why one might decide to try and write a book. One might have a burning desire to tell this story, and is willing to forsake a conventional job to do it.
While I don't know if I will be able to find a publisher or if the book will sell, and I can be fairly sure, statistically, that it's not going to make anyone rich. It's a labor of love, as it were.
Beyond the psychic and creative payoff of doing this work, there are indirect benefits. I am getting experience in important new areas for me, such as blogging, but also working with talented developers in other countries, learning about open source development, and of course hard-core java engineering.) Each of these in one way or antoerh might lead to other business opportunities or somehow help my consulting business.
This is in stark contrast of course to raising $5M, hiring 20 people and racing to a profitable growth business and a liquidity event.
Who knows whether BlogBridge will actually make any money: that's not the only or first reason I am doing this work. Different motivations, different likely outcomes, and each approach applicable to some projects and not others.
In this case, for me and for this project, this is the path that I've chosen.
Lightbulb about Podcasting (“Some stuff I just figured out”)
I attended a Podcasting meeting at Berkman a couple of days ago (see "The Berkman Choir" for some silliness) and came back, as often happens, with a new insight. Here it is, and if it seems obvious to you, that would be my failing. (And if you have no idea what I am talking about, well, just move on!) You will see some themes that I've mentioned before, but elaborated in some new ways.
The technology for blogging and Podcasting isn't that complicated or new. It's really stuff that's been around put together in new ways, but really, to an engineer, you'd get a " is that all there is to it?."
But focusing on that misses something important - the accessibility or simplicity to the user (both creator and consumer.) This key characteristic has been crucial to the success of blogging and the eventual success of Podcasting and video blogging, in this sense.
By making 'publishing' (in the most general sense of the word) available to anyone, this technology is exactly what has lowered the barriers and allowed all kinds of people with something to say actually be able to say it and publish it.
Let me elaborate. Publishing in the most general sense includes publishing of written content (newspapers, journals, magazines and books become blogs), but also audio content (radio shows become podcasts) and video content (tv programming become video blogs.)
The technology is key in that development, on three fronts:
ease of use (allowing a anyone to write and article or produce a radio show)
distribution (allowing this stuff to be consumed by anyone, instantly, around the globe)
And ease of discovery (allowing someone who is interested to locate this content.)
With that ease, the theory goes, and the practice shows , an amazing multiitude of people suddenly decide that they have something to say to the other multitude of people who decide they want to follow what is being said. Synergy!
Great Movie: Osama
No it's not about Osama Bin Laden (UBL) but about a little girl called Osama, living in Taliban Kabul. I didn't see it in the theatres but got the DVD out. Highly recommended.Review.
Heard of GMail?
There are many interesting things about GMail, so this is either going to be a long post or one of a series. First things first: GMail is now my primary email provider. Yes, you heard that right. It's free, does a great job with spam and I can continue to use Outlook. Life is good.
First of all, what is GMail (for those of you who have been living under a rock!) GMail is Google's free, web based, email service. Its major claim to fame, at least initially, was the 1 Gig of free Mail storage they provide. Kind of amazing isn't it? When it first came out, that got all the attention. In fact it seems to have forced Hotmail and Yahoo mail to increase the amount of free storage they provide. I don't believe that they are up to 1 Gig though.
But that's not what attracted me. My issue was spam. I was running on a private mail server which didn't have a spam filter. Instead, I ran Matador's Mail Front, which is a very effective client solution. But what you really want is a server side solution. In my case, the reason was that I also download email to my Treo phone, directly from the server, and hence, no spam filter: phone is flooded with junk mail.
So as an experiment, I redirected all my email to my GMail account, and then used GMail's new free POP service, to pull that email into Outlook as well as into the phone. Sweet!
GMail, with no training, was catching spam with what feels like 99% accuracy. Other than that, my Outlook experience is unchanged, and my Treo phone based email is much much better (no spam.)I recommend it.
Interesting questions to ponder: How can they afford to give me all this service for free? What might their long term stragegy be? Whats the story with the GMail invites and how do you get one?
How Seinfeld as shaped popular culture
In this morning's Blog reading, I saw two references to Seinfeld episodes, in each case the reference was just thrown into a headline without further comment. Shows how Seinfeld has shaped how we think and speak!
"No WinFS For You" referering to the totally famous Soup Nazi episode.
"A Festivus for the rest of us", from the little less well known Festivus episode.
My social theory of blogging
We all love reading blogs (right?), and some of us even use their valuable time writing blogs. In my evangelism of blogging, a common question is " Why?." Why would you spend your time writing, for a small (for most of us) mostly anonymous audience, for free?
Well I have a (lower-case "t") theory that many bloggers (like me) work alone, at home, or as a consultant, or perhaps wor in a company but not among like minded people.
In this scenario, the blog becomes an outlet for casual little thoughts, insights and discoveries (like this one), which usually would be shared around the office coffee machine, by popping into someone else's office, or when running into them at lunch or on the elevator. When none of these outlets are available, a solo worker becomes a blogger and shares those nuggets with "the world."
I don't know if this rings true to other bloggers, but it does to me.
I’m in good company
A week or so ago I posted an amusing picture, supposedly from Popular Mechanics. Well it was quickly debunked as a hoax. This morning, this, showing that I am in good company!
BlogBridge interview
Yesterday I was interviewed about BlogBridge by ClientJava.com, a very useful Web site for us Java desktop developers. Check it out..
In the comment section I was asked to elaborate on my provocative statements about Java Web Start. Here's what I said.
[GEEK] Java Web Start
You might think it's a bad idea for me to complain about Java Web Start. Well the truth is that I really like it and so am really frustrated by it's failures. In my own small way I am hoping to wake up someone at Sun to see the importance of this little bit of technology to their grand Java strategy.
In my interview with ClientJava I again made some pointed comments about Java Web Start, and in the comment thread some annonymous person (coward) asked me to elaborate. Here is what I said.
"Why has WebStart been such a disappointment? I've written about this in my blog, here and here.
Basically, the promise of WebStart is great: a cross platform way to deploy, install and update Java based desktop apps. The disappointment is that it comes close to working but then fails in so many different ways. It's a tease.
There is no reliable cross platform way to check and then install a java environment. And then to add insult to injury, there's no user friendly URL to send users to that does it for them. Try looking at www.java.com. It's so sad. Lots of useless and confusing marketing and a little link in the corner to install Java.
Java Web Start is the very first experience my users get with BlogBridge. And it is the #1 cause for problems. I would say about 10% attempts don't work. People will only give an app like BlogBridge one chance so those are all lost sales. If you are really technical, you might be able to fight your way through and figure out how to install the jre or re-install it because it was corrupted.
Even when it works it does absurd things like telling the user that installation is strongly discouraged if there is no digital signature. This might sound like it makes sense but if you really think about it, a digital signature from BlogBridge Inc. would add no confidence whatsoever to the user that bad things wouldn't happen. All I need is $300 for a certificate and a postal address.
And there are lots more reasons. The thing that is hard to understand is why Sun doesn't see that if you want Java to take hold on the desktop, solving this problem, really solving it, is more important than probably any of the improvements in 1.5. And the only way to solve it is to have hard-core experts in each platform (Windows in all its flavors, Mac in all its flavors, Unix in all its flavors) building the solution. Becuase a working solution will be very difficult to build. But it is the keys to the kingdom IMHO. "