Reality Check

Lauren v. Mr. Meter Man

Ah, the meter men of lovely San Francisco. They're all over the place, all the time...

This morning, I was running late getting out of a meeting and therefore, running late for my Chiropractor appointment in downtown SF. I finally got downtown, and was circling the block for parking when I found a perfect spot for my car in the alley right by the doctor's office - except for the fact that the curb was painted a nice, bright yellow, which evidently means it's not meant for parking. I was late though, so I just figured that I'd risk it and park there - after all, the worst that could happen would be that I'd get a ticket. Plus, I knew that the guys that check the cars and meters don't come around that area every hour, so I took what I would call a "calculated risk."

So I head into the doctor, get my back fixed up, and head out. As I'm walking down the alley (which is a long, one way alley, btw), I see the meter man in his little truck, about 50 feet ahead of me, marking up the tires of cars parked in the alley. For a second I thought, "hey, screw it, I probably have a ticket already," and then, it hit me... "but... what if I don't?" And at that moment, it was ON.

I looked at the meter truck, and took off in a full speed sprint down the street to try to beat the meter man to my car (luckily for me, I was in my workout clothes and sneaks, or else...well, I run pretty well in stilettos too, but that's another story for another day). As I closed in on him, I realized he was speeding up - he must have seen me in his rearview mirror (dammit). No joke. And I'm a pretty fast runner, but those little trucks that those guys drive around can go pretty quickly as well. So I'm sprinting faster, and he's stepping on the gas, trying to mark up as many cars as he can along the way with his "chalker stick" (or whatever that thing is called). Because you know, he's gotta do his job too. Have to give him credit for that.

Next thing I know, I hear cheering. No, I am not kidding. The guys that work in the building in the alley are out on a smoke break, and they are cheering for me, while I'm running, trying to beat the meter man to my car (hey, at least I had supporters). FABULOUS.

Finally, the meter man slows down, and starts to write the ticket. I catch up to him, and hear him laughing under his breath. And meanwhile, I'm thinking, "Damn, am I lucky." Because... he got the wrong car! He ended up giving a ticket to the car 4 cars behind mine - I ran by him, jumped in my car, and on the way out, rolled down my window to give him a little wave. And at that point I saw him busting up laughing. He must have gotten a kick out of it - I mean, those jobs aren't the most exciting jobs, so I'm glad I gave someone their excitement for the day. Plus, he knows he'll pry nail me at some point. After all, they always do.... welcome to SF.

So there - that's your funny for the day. Hope it's a good one! /LC

PS: Found this photo on Flickr Creative Commons for you folks who don't know what a meter maid truck looks like - see? It's a speedy little thing! 

Links for today: Myth of the Killer App, The Power of Developer Adoption, An Excuse to Party in SF

Links for today:

• Cedric Beust has a great post today on "The Myth of the Killer App." He argues that there really isn't one standalone killer app for an area of technology (say, Web 2.0 or Java) but rather a series of killer apps that bring these areas of technology to mainstream success. Almost like a long-tail of killer apps, no? (ok, ok, let's stop using that term already). Check it out. I tend to agree with him.

• With all the acquisitions last week (do I even have to mention who bought what anymore? Oracle+BEA/Sun+MySQL), folks seem to have lots to say. I like Rod Johnson's posting on developers, "The Power of Adoption: Why No Company is Big Enough to Deny Developers What They Want." Does this mean that folks that develop on WLS won't incur ridiculous support costs from Oracle once the acquisition is final? Or that Sun won't eventually change* the MySQL business model?  Welcome to the game folks. We all saw this with JBoss + RedHat (hello Fedora model - and I called that one early). I liked it when we were all independent :)

• An excuse to party it up? Wait, could this be a REDMONK PARTY? Why yes! Evidently it's been 5 years in the making... so suit up and show up. Well, jeans will do just fine. San Francisco. February 6th. I'm bringing my digital to capture the RedMonkians in all their glory. Well, on second thought, *definitely* not all. Yes, I will post the "approved" pics here. I'm not quite sure what my bar for "approved" will be however... only the night will determine that one :)

/LC

*Funny, when I first typed "change" here it came out typed "charge." Slip of the tongue? Switch around the words. You tell me :) 

Web 2.0 in 2008 - My Predictions

JackBe's CTO, John Crupi, wrote up an article for Java Developers' Journal outlining what was "In" and "Out" in 2008 for knowledge workers. It's a pretty interesting article.

I borrowed this format to put together a few of my own guesses for what's in for Web/Enterprise 2.0 for 2008. Here goes:

(1) OUT: IT as the gatekeeper to all information. IN: IT as the enabler of good, secure information to the masses. IT is currently seen as the gatekeeper of all information for enterprise organizations; in 2008 I think we're going to see more IT organizations putting infrastructure and process into place in order to provide business users (and mashup creators) with this information (or data) that they need to create enterprise mashups. IT will turn from the gatekeeper of all information to the enabler or provider of good, secure information to business users. I've been blogging about this for a few months since I saw this as a major forcing function of Web 2.0 at Mashup Camp last spring.

(2) OUT: The business user as an observer. IN: The business user as a active player/participant. As mashups products become easier to use, we're going to see more business users actively taking part in building mashup apps they might need, whether it be for sales and marketing purposes, inventory processes, etc. The business users are going to be actively participating and developing the apps that they need to be successful.

(3) OUT: Vendor struggles to own the entire Enterprise/Web 2.0 market. IN:  Vendor products and ecosystems working together. Right now I'm not really seeing a lot of vendors partnering up if they are each offering mashup or Web 2.0 platforms to users. What I think we're going to see more of in 2008 is partnerships starting to evolve in these areas, based on which user types vendors are targeting as well as what features are being offered. I see vendors starting to take steps to do this (including IBM), but the user community will also be a major player here encouraging this to happen at a faster rate. This also could easily play into our current thoughts about Open Innovation.

(4) OUT: Heavy, expensive integration platforms. IN: Lightweight, inexpensive Enterprise/Web 2.0 types of applications. Bottom line: Integration platforms are heavy, expensive, and pretty damn difficult to implement. Enterprise 2.0/Web 2.0 isn't the answer to all of the problems that a full integration platform can solve, but is sure does alleviate certain pain points in this area.

(5) OUT: "Web" mashups. IN: Data-driven mashups. We keep talking about Web 2.0. But what is really being mashed up is data - and data is where the core value of the mashup really is. Google, for example, isn't a web/search company, it's a data company. Companies/users that find ways to utilize this data in ways that cut costs, save time, give them a competitive edge, etc is where we'll see value in the mashup ecosystem in 2008. This is also where Info 2.0 and IBM Mashup Starter Kit come into play (as you'll be seeing lots more of in 2008 as well) :)

/LC

Long Live Closed-Source Software?

My friend Nils Gilman posted a link to my FB page today from Discover Magazine, titled, "Long Live Closed-Source Software!" In the article, Jaron Lanier compares the the techniques and process of science to that of open source software. Lanier's argument is that because of the vast amounts of information that groups provide to an open source product, that often schedules and features get pushed to the wayside, and he feels that closed-source software projects tend to produce better results in the long run, as described here:

The open-source software community is simply too turbulent to focus its tests and maintain its criteria over an extended duration, and that is a prerequisite to evolving highly original things. There is only one iPhone, but there are hundreds of Linux releases. A closed-software team is a human construction that can tie down enough variables so that software becomes just a little more like a hardware chip—and note that chips, the most encapsulated objects made by humans, get better and better following an exponential pattern of improvement known as Moore’s law.

I do agree with some of this article and his statement to a certain extent, but what Lanier fails to discuss are the organizations around Open Source software that help to provide the infrastructure and the needs to actually deliver the software, such as the ASF. Eclipse is another example; although I find that Eclipse tends to be more vendor driven than Apache, which is the best example (IMHO) of a true community organization dedicated to delivering quality OSS.

Moreover, as the software products (and projects) become more popular, the demand for new releases and features increases, as does the requirement for better software (developed at a faster rate) from the open source development teams. That said, the projects that tend to be less popular will fall to the wayside - and that's where Lanier's point is clear - if a product/project isn't being accepted and used by the masses, then of course development won't be as structured or delivered on a timely basis as folks lose interest and developers decide to leave the project.

That's just my 2 cents. Bottom line, an interesting read. Check it out. /LC

Links for Today: Google grabs Yahoo talent, Petition to stop the Web 2.0 questions, What I'm waiting to see

• Google v. Yahoo: Google nabs Yahoo's Chief Performance guy. I'd like to see Yahoo start a comeback here, but with talent drifting to Google, it's hard to say what's next for these guys. Yahoo has a great core team though with some guys I worked with at BEA (well, come to think of it so does Google), but I think Yahoo has a few tricks up its sleeve. We'll leave this at TBD.

• Will it ever end? I don't think I can read *another* article titled "Will Web 2.0 Survive 2008?" or "Is 2008 the year of Web 3.0?" Or even better... this one. I think I need to start a petition to stop these so-called articles (more like short rants with no substance). I'd like to hear about how companies/individuals/schools/students will be using Web 2.0 in 2008. This is an open call for reporters to get out there and do some legwork... How do you see folks working with Web 2.0 in 2008?

• This is what I'm waiting to see. It's in limited release I believe, but I'm going to try to find a theater near me that is playing it this week... you know, while I'm TAKING THE WEEK OFF (kinda). :) /LC