Reality Check

Links for Today: Anant and Tim on the Network Effect (or, Pushing Software v. Accumulating Data), Info 2.0 Demo, and How I Roll...

Links for Today:

• Anant, Tim, and the Network Effect: As many of you (I'm sure) saw, Tim O'Reilly had a pretty strong statement about MSFT Popfly and the network effect of data in this weekend's NYTimes. He commented that, "“Popfly shows me that Microsoft still thinks this is all about software, rather than about accumulating data via network effects, which to me is the core of Web 2.0. They are using Popfly to push Silverlight, rather than really trying to get into the mashup game.” Anant blogged about this yesterday, debating that not all network data will make it to the "great cloud of the internet," so therefore software vendors like IBM and MSFT have to build software that supports the network effect of this data within an enterprise as well. Pretty interesting entry. I think it's a great point, which I will talk about a bit later on. I can tell you that quite a few of our customers are requiring this to be within their enterprise, and that is exactly where the challenge sits. Thoughts? I think we all know where Google sits on this one :)...

• Info 2.0 Demo: We did a test-run today of our Webcast tomorrow on Info 2.0, and figured out that one of our demos wouldn't run on the software that the webcast team uses... so I figured I'd post it here. Check it out. And be sure to view our webcast tomorrow!     Download DEMO_info20.exe

• This is how I roll: I was putting the finishing touches on a few presentation decks tonight, and figured I'd give you guys a snapshot of "how I roll" when I'm out of the office and doing work (wait, that doesn't sound right...). Or, how cats seem to know just the right place to sit to prevent you from doing anything useful.                                       

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 :) 

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

Links for Today: Mashup Evolution, BIG party, Web 2.0 and Process, and Hannah's New Trick

• Andreas Krohn, one of Kapow's product managers, has a great blog posting about the evolution of mashups, from "Hacking to Assembling." He talks about several mashup products and gives Mashup Hub a plug here as well. We're going to have a lot more to talk about in 2008 around Mashup Hub and Info 2.0, so stay tuned... can't give away anything this time guys, sorry :)

• For those of you who live in San Francisco, The Bay Area Interactive Group is co-sponsoring (with Yahoo) a community party that benefits "One Laptop per Child" this Thursday, Dec. 20th. They also plan to have a panel discussion around community and how to build a network of influencers to support your product. It looks interesting; I am hoping to attend and meet some folks. So if you're in town, come on out. It's $20/head, but for a good cause. Plus 200+ cool folks look to be attending.

• Andrew Gent has an interesting blog post addressing the lack of process in Web 2.0. His argument is that Web 2.0 is about people, and that it involved technology, but there is a huge gap in the area of "process." I've been thinking a lot about this, and talking to my team about creating some sort of blueprint for success around how to implement/use/benefit from Web 2.0 in your company. We've already implemented a bunch of Web 2.0 products internally, and hopefully you'll be seeing this blueprint in Q1. We're talking to more customers though first, so if you have thoughts about what should be in here, let me know. Ideally I'd like to see this as a Web 2.0 Community effort - not just a vendor driven one.

• Last, but certainly not least, here's a pic of my kitten Hannah from a few nights ago. She doesn't like it when I work too much and ignore her (I think she's co-dependent), so she snags my blackberry in an attempt to get attention. I snapped this pic right after she tired herself out and fell asleep on top of the device. Enjoy!             

Links for Today: Become Famous, Influential Analysts, Zuckerberg's Bodyguards

Links for today:

• For you folks that don't know, we have an Info 2.0 Blog out there. It's hidden though, I have to admit. I've been syndicating my posts there on Info 2.0 or anything Mashup, so check it out. Other folks, such as Anant Jhingran, have postings there as well. If you're interested in writing for this blog, let me know. We're looking for guest authors. We'll kick over some cool stuff to you too, if you're up for it. Just let me know. And yes, I am sure you'll have some celebrity moments if you want to become part of the blogosphere. I'll definitely pimp you here if you do.
• Stephen O'Grady has an interesting link on his blog regarding how Analyst firms are ranking with regards to influence. Check it out. I am sure he's not biased at all... but after all, that's why we like the guy. :)
• Evidently there's a rumor going around the "valley" that Mark Zuckerberg has bodyguards. I'm not quite sure I believe this one, but if I ran Facebook, I sure as hell would. Look at what happened earlier this year.

Links for Today - Oil Spill, Forrester Comments, and New Movies

Sucky: Swim Portion of San Francisco Treasure Island Triathlon Cancelled: Due to the 58,000 gallon oil spill from a cargo ship that hit the San Francisco Bay Bridge earlier this week. There's massive damage to the wildlife in the Bay Area, and the coast guard is being questioned for their delay in responding to the accident. Not good.

What I'll be responding to on Monday: Forrester is talking about how smaller firms are moving faster than larger firms (namely, MSFT, IBM, and SAP) with Web 2.0, and there is a preference for these smaller firms developing new technologies in the marketplace.

New Movie: I am heading to go see "No Country for Old Men" tonight... should be good. Plus I'm getting popcorn from someone who owes me. Excellent, excellent reviews. Will update with my rating on Monday.