SMBmeta and rapid adoption
February 12, 2003 | Science
At the Harvard event I mentioned that I thought geographic search was still a hot topic, and how Dan Bricklin's SMBmeta proposal was a good approach. Here's what I wrote when I first heard about it. My main point got sidetracked into a discussion of how Vindigo delivers much value, but what I was coming around to was how Dan's approach could lead to rapid adoption a la Really Simple Discovery.
Dan's got a tools page with a file crator and a registration utility both implemented as web forms, but also allow you to download the code and modify it for your application. There's a weblog with current information. The idea is straightforward enough to build it quickly, and the idea makes sense. This may be another good case study for rapid evolution of a product.
Bob Frankston
February 12, 2003 | Science
After the webloggers roundtable 14 of us went to dinner at Bombay Cafe on Mass Ave. I ended up sitting next to Bob Frankston, who, with Dan Bricklin (also in attendance) invented VisiCalc, setting fire to the personal computer revolution and effectively defining the very essence of "killer app."
I have a lot of respect for Bob. He talked a mile a minute, so fast that words slurred, especially while eating, and he's full of ideas. We talked about abstraction, .NET, shipping prototypes, "datoids", innovation, the tension of "management", writing, essays and editing. It was an honor, in a way. Not hero worship - enough time backstage at rock conerts will get you over that - but more along the lines of "what a learning experience!"
He gesticulated wildly - more than a dozen times he came within an inch of hitting me in the face while swinging his arms. After a while it became normal, and I stopped flinching, but I also noticed that sub-conciously I was leaning into my plate of food only when he was eating.
At one point he said, I paraphrase, "All these ideas, I don't have any time to create them. I'm just trying to leave a trail so other people can run with them. They're all opportunities, some big ones, for someone else. I can only define them." Having just turned forty, this comment struck me. Bob's not got enough time _in this _life__ to realize all his ideas. Neither do I. He's solved the puzzle in one way. I'm still young enough to solve it in another way, potentially, for now.
At the very end, several of us were commenting that only two women came to the roundtable, and only one came to dinner. And Betsy, at dinner, was the one who coordinated ordering, paying, etc. Bob said, with all ernest intent and goodwill, "You know the real value of women?" - a couple of us exchanged glances and rolled eyes, this was dangerous territory and we'd never go here - "The real value of women is that they hate dirt more than we do!" After the stunned laughter and awkward silence, Dave said, "That'll never get you laid Bob." Betsy said, "So true."
I should also note that on the other side of me at dinner was Mike Rogers who is also a great guy. We had lots of run talking about how 4D hits a nasty scaling wall when your app gets too big or has too many users. Mike's really into software project management and development team coaching, and I get the sense he's good at it.
Rapid product development
February 12, 2003 | Science
These are rough thoughts and I'd be interested in your comments. Some of the discussion last night got me thinking (again) about product development and why sometimes it works really well and sometimes it doesn't.
For me, the key question is: When developing products, how might users specify what they want? It's well-known that users don't actually know what they want, and if you build what they say they want it won't sell. Innovation doesn't come from focus groups, though optimiztion might. So, when developing a fast-changing product like anything built in software, how can the developers figure out what to do?
One example of a technology that was designed, built and integrated quickly was Really Simple Discovery, by Daniel Berlinger. This is a scheme to make it easier for client software correctly configure itself for server-side apps. It was designed with consideration, a demo was built quickly, and then other people integrated it into their apps. Dave Winer built it into Radio. Ben Hammersley made a module for Moveable Type. Jake Savin added it to Manilla. Brent put it in NewNewsWire.
Why did this happen so fast?
One reason is that in the world of weblogs both client-side and server-side product companies are small and can move quickly. The owners of the companies involved are engineers (or perhaps designers) - they _get_ the web, weblogs, and know a good idea when they see one. Further, the idea was easy to implement so it was a no-brainer to build. They weren't building a space shuttle.
In this example, the users are the developers. That's the key. The users can specify what they want by building a prototype and showing it to colleagues. The idea is then improved until it's "good enough" and it ships.
Regular users can't build anything themselves. All they can really do is complain about why Word does something in a stupid way. Even if you could write a specification for an improvement, where would you send it? "comments@microsoft.com"? I don't think so. Even when there are feedback forms or email links it's hard to know whether it's worth the time. Will anybody really read it? Will the Right Person read it? Will I just get another corporate thank you note? What's the point, let's move on.
For developers, it's often faster to write code than to write a spec. Users can relate to the screen, and developers get feedback. It's especially cool with weblogs because the community is building the publishing tools (Radio, Moveable Type, etc) the syndication technologies (RSS, RSD) and the news aggregators (Radio, NetNewsWire, Synderella). Developers can advance each piece together and rapidly make progress in an entire realm. This is _a lot_ different than traditional packaged software applications. The "killer app" becomes a "killer set" or "killer platform."
This places a burden, perhaps even a responsibility, on the developer to help regular users along the curve. I know this is sometimes controversial, but for the sake of argument let's say that in at least some cases, developers want users to use their products. Maybe even buy them so they can build more products.
I propose that well-designed, well-documented and well-supported applications do better than apps that have no sense of design, are poorly documented, and are not supported. This is a base level of user support. Going further, a community may develop around a product providing user-to-user support. This is a developers dream because it lighten's their load while providing better support. You still have to have the basics though, to jump-start the community.
The next level, pioneered by Novell and perfected (like all 2.0 implementations) by Microsoft: The certification program. This creates classes of people with credentials that regular users can call on with a better sense of knowing what they are getting from their support visit. It's a branding thing, good for both the vendor and the customer. But it's especially good for the vendor becuase it can be a profit center. Customer support is hard to turn into a profit center, but this is one way.
I'm interested in your ideas about how users can be better involved in requesting and designing software, and products in general.
Weblogs at Harvard
February 12, 2003 | Science
Brett and I went down to the Dave Winer's Harvard weblog roundtable last night and had good fun. A great group of creative people.
Donna wrote a live blog of the event. And Dan Bricklin took a lot of great photos. I had nice conversations with Henry Copeland and Betsy Devine. Other good reports by Frank Field, Derek Slater, Dan Cederholm, Aaron Johnson, Adam Medros.
Very striking was Peter Rukavina's comment that he blogs for his two-year old son, "so he can know me as I am now, as his father." That's a very beautiful thought.
Overriden
February 10, 2003 | Business & Commerce
I just re-discovered this great collection of contract riders for touring performers. Touring is hard work, and the last thing you want after a long day on the bus is a cheapshit wine supplied by the low-budget promoter. But it's pretty funny reading when it's listed contractually. If my domestic arrangements were spelled out this way people would make fun of me too.
A play I guess
February 9, 2003 | Arts & Culture
For two days I've had an idea for a performance that I can't get out of my mind. Tonight I worked on it for a few hours and decided it's probably a play, though one where music plays a central role. So maybe it's more like an opera? Not sure if there will be singing.
There's a lot of dialog and only a few characters. The four sets are a dining room table, a psychotherapist office, a cafe, and a business office. These sets are built on a turntable that rotates around the musicians, who are in the center of the action. The primary set can appear to the left or right of the stage centerline, creating two perspectives for each set. I don't know if it will be effective or not to have filler scenes happening on the three background sets. It might be too distracting.
Downstage left is a male performer practicing the internal arts of Tai Chi, yoga and meditation. Downstage right is a female performer who comes out of the shower and 'gets ready to go out' by shaving, trimming nails, combing hair, putting on makeup, etc. Each of these two performs continuously throughout the play, somewhat independent of the action.
The play is about our Work, and how we represent this to ourselves and to each other. Music acts as a central organizing principle; a soundtrack to our lives.
Lack of context-shifting
February 9, 2003 | Life
Today, and Friday, I did quite a bit of Unix hacking. Mostly system administration-type stuff like upgrading two installations of WebEvent (in the same folder structure on the same machine), figuring out the multiple path names for each old installation then mapping that to each of two new installations, then merging the data together to have one integrated installation. It took about 6 hours on Friday and about 2 hours today.
One thing I noticed in doing this was that the required level of focus did not allow for context-switching. Answering the phone, email, going to the bathroom, quick surf over to Scripting News or rc3.org, taking a walk - forget about it. I sat there and cranked for hours. And, in doing so, drilled in and learned the necessary bits to finish the task. There was a lot of bit by bit learning, and a lot of it built on the last bit, and most of the time there were a lot of items "on the stack" in my brain. Losing focus would have meant "starting over" from somewhere - not the beginning, but somewhere back before where I was.
Contrast this with sales, for instance. Sales is constant context-switching and mostly complete lack of focus. Juggling the phone, emails, lunch dates, a million deals all in different stages of the pipeline - any one of which could pop up at any minute - you get the idea. I'm actually pretty good that this juggle, which is why the lack of it was so interesting.
Another mode I enjoy is improvising, like presenting to a group of people or leading/facilitating a meeting. Improvising requires a lot of "fast-on-your-feet" thinking and responding, like thinking ahead and creating the next thought while you're speaking the current thought. In some ways, perhaps improvising is the combination of focus and context-switching.
I certainly enjoyed my two days of focus. I did notice however that it was hard to relate to anyone on Friday night. I just wanted to think and relax. It seemed like focusing that deeply took some of the energy I needed to relate outward. I didn't have much social energy at all. I wonder if that's common or just my experience that one night. I can see why alcohol would "help" - at least the first few dozen times.
Meanwhile, I need more exercise. All this sitting still thinking and typing is bad for the body.
Matisse Picasso
February 9, 2003 | Arts & Culture
I need to make plans for this exhibition at MoMA QNS in New York. February 13 - May 19, 2003. Entrance via $20 timed ticket. Or, groups of 10 or more can tour the Museum during nonpublic hours by arranging a one-hour private guided tour conducted by a Museum lecturer for $40 per. Sure seems like doing both is worthwhile.
Low costs or high quality: pick one
February 8, 2003 | Business & Commerce
Allan Karl checks in with a sickening story about how Clear Channel, the radio broadcasting megamonolith, has developed a database-driven "DJ" that can be programmed to deliver different song sequences to different geographic regions, reducing costs and satisfying FCC "local audience" requirements. They digitized a bunch of words and phonemes and can create sentences on the fly. Allan's got some other good background essays posted on the topic of radio today.
A Reverie of Will
February 8, 2003 | Arts & Culture
While Lynne was testing her remote viewing capabilities this afternoon, I scanned engravings from the book "Paysages" by Albert Flocon and Gaston Bachelard. Flocon did the engravings (in copper) and Bachelard wrote phenomenological essays about them. You can read English translations of the French in The Right To Dream, a collection of assorted essays on the arts and literature.
Here's one of my favorite images from the series:
Bachelard: "But everyone who labors dreams a cosmic dream: the engraver of the plain is about to discover a great dream of the labor of the earth. Indeed, beneath his hard, monotonous toil we find the field becoming belly, breast, torso, body. The soil begins to take on the relief of a wooed and courted form. [...] It makes this plate a veritable Rorschach test for the analysis of the proprietary instincts. Its two great expanses evoke the ambivalence of all possession: earth or woman? Or rather: earth and woman. The great dreamers do not choose."
I scanned these images because I have in mind to make a short movie with Bachelard's text voice-over'ed Flocon's images. The idea is that I want to create a soundtrack, including vocal performance, music and psychoacoustic effects, to support the visual and poetic imagery. I want to take a textual and visual artifact from 1950 and create a temporal and auditory experience suitable for 2003.
Real Hollywood blockbuster material, eh?
Update, March 14: To the visitor who wrote, "I would like more information on your project as I am Flocon's daughter." Please email me: michaelj@notio.com.
Homelife
February 8, 2003 | Life
Lynne: "Before I left this morning I did some remote viewing. I didn't get her looks quite right, but I nailed her personality, her essence."
Train kept a'rollin'
February 8, 2003 | Science
One thing I love about Mac OS X is how reliable it is under heavy use. Yesterday, all day, I just pounded on it. Six or more Terminal windows ssh'ing to various computers; Internet Explorer; Safari; Mailsmith - I love Mailsmith; Acrobat; Word; Excel; Photoshop; GoLive; BBEdit - I love BBEdit; NetNewsWire scanning RSS feeds every half hour; multiple Fetch and Transmit FTP windows; Palm desktop; iTunes playing in the background, getting music from another server across the room. The machine never hiccupped. I just love it.
Contrast that to a day on OS 9, and you know why we're all excited about X. Now, if only the Quark situation would resolve (not linked for a reason), or if everyone just moved to InDesign, the platform would be happy.
The power of power laws
February 8, 2003 | Science
Clay Shirky has an interesting article on power laws. Most people know about power laws because of the "80/20" rule, or Pareto's law. It turns out that power laws accurately describe any social system "where many people are free to choose between many options" - his example is the popularity of webloggers, but the theory can be applied to many other important aspects of social life. I immedately think of income and wealth distribution, hit products (crossing over the tipping point), and media stars.
Dave rebutts that weblogs are not like BBSs or The Well. Key quote: "How many of the weblogs he mentions have you heard of? I found that most of them were strange to me. So if we're hitting a scaling wall, why are these blogs becoming popular, even dominant, without any of us knowing about them?" Good point.
