Alex Barnett blog

Federated Apps on the Intuit Partner Platform

alexbarnett — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 13:52:00 GMT

So what have I been working on since joining Intuit? A bunch of stuff, but something I wanted to shout about is the release of “Federated Applications” on the Intuit Partner Platform.

Working closely with five new developers to Intuit's Platform as a Service (PaaS), VerticalResponse, DimDim, Rypple, Setster, and ExpenseWare, we've got some kick-ass apps federated into the platform.

Some nice coverage so far this morning, including:

Ben Kepes, CloudAve Intuit Launches the IPP Version 2

"After the briefing I have to say that it looks to me like IPP is finally offering to fulfil the promise of the end-to-end integrated small business software platform that I’ve been evangelising for a few years now – my catch cry of late has been that application integration should only be seen as the very first step in building a SaaS ecosystem. Much more important is the aggregation of applications. This may be data aggregation, UI aggregation, sign-on integration or billing integration – and ideally users and vendors would determine what parts of the integration they bought into."

Leena Rao at TechCrunch - Intuit’s Partner Platform Goes Multilingual With Federated Apps

“The “Federated Applications” functionality lets developers who have existing SaaS applications that are built with any programming language, database or cloud computing platform publish their apps on Intuit Marketplace. Applications won’t have to be rewritten to conform to QuickBooks but will instead go through a minor configuration process.”

Phil Wainewright, ZDNet: Intuit makes two-pronged PaaS and SaaS push

“The significant element of Intuit’s PaaS announcement is that it is a land-grab to capture mindshare among developers on other cloud platforms, who can take their AppEngine, Amazon Web Services or self-hosted applications and make them available using Intuit’s single sign-on, billing and QuickBooks integration infrastructure. Market reach being one of the key attributes developers look for in a new platform, perhaps the most appealing factor is that applications will be showcased within the Intuit Marketplace, with a potential reach to the four-million-strong installed base of QuickBooks accounting software customers and their estimated 25 million employees.”

What I've found very cool about this new Federated Apps capability for IPP is that fact that these different SaaS apps are developed on a variety of stacks and hosted outside of the IPP platform.. One of the apps is built on Java. Another is built enirely on .NET. Another is a mix of RoR and LAMP. Another built of Flex (on their own hosting environment - not IPP). If an app was running on EC2, that would work too, as would an app built on Google's AppEngine. It doen't matter - the integration points for Federated Apps are just that and pretty lightweight (one of the partners was able to turnaround the work with 1 developer in less than two weeks, including time for the technical review of the app). We made a deliberate decision to make IPP agnostic to the technology that developers want to use. Yes, we have a "native" stack also, but the options we are providing developers now means there is no technology lock-in to speak of.

Here is some more information on the details of federation and how you as a developer can get started.

Oh, and a quick plug on the talk I'll be giving on how to federate applications to IPP at the Startups and the Cloud event next week in the Boston area.

Startups and the Cloud: free event in Waltham, MA, sponsored by Intuit

alexbarnett — Thu, 28 May 2009 10:41:00 GMT

This is an event I'm helping to organize...hope you can join! From the App Gap blog:

"On June 11th we’re organizing a gathering in Waltham, MA called Startups and the Cloud to talk about how starting a successful software business has changed now that cloud computing/ platforms have become highly viable, and in some cases, essential components of a startup’s strategy.

We’re keeping it compact at about four hours and we’ve been able to pack a ton of great content in. The agenda is here, but there’s a talk with Scott Cook, the founder of Intuit, a panel of local Venture Capitalists, and a panel of local CEOs. In addition, we’ll be hosting a social event where you’ll get a chance to meet some of the top thought leaders in this new wave of innovation. It’s a great group of tech leaders and, even better, it’s free!"

See: agenda and how to register.

I should have probably blogged this earlier...

alexbarnett — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 20:27:00 GMT

I should have probably blogged this earlier...now twittering @alexbarnett

7 Tips to a Successful Landing at a Large Company

alexbarnett — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 02:13:00 GMT

Last week Tara Hunt shared the news of her joining Intuit Partner Platform team. Very cool...what talent!

In her blog post, Tara mentioned the opportunity to work in a large corporate context as one of her motivations in joining the team.

I was reflecting on this yesterday morning and recalled a similar decision I made a few years ago. Up to that time I had worked at small companies and start-ups. Although I thoroughly enjoyed those scrappy, fast-paced environments, I had wondered what it would be like in the "corporate world" and if I could cut it there. So when the opportunity to join Microsoft turned up, this similar motivation was one of the reasons I took the plunge.

What's the point of this post? Well, I was going to email the following advice to Tara, from one person who is on the journey in the second large corporate adventure (me) to another who is about to begin their first (Tara). And I thought, hey - that could make a pretty nice blog post...

Before I shoot, I do want to make clear that this advice is not specifically aimed at Tara at all, nor should this advice be intepreted as some kind of snide commentary about our team or my current employer (Intuit) as whole. It is simply advice that I could have used myself a few years ago, learned the hard way and want to share.

Without further ado, here are my...

7 Tips to a Successful Landing at a Large Company

1. Drink the right water through the firehose

Don't be like this little kid who didn't see what was coming. Large companies are complex beasts and in the first few weeks the sheer amount of information you think you need to absorb and the often critical decisions you need to make can easily overwhelm you. A good manager should help you filter what is important and what is not and help you navigate the info-storm, but...you need get used to the fact that for some time to come a lot of things just aren't going to make sense to you that you really feel you should have a good grasp on. It's OK. Don't panic.

Do avoid as much as possible the gazillions of meetings you'll be invited to...people love to meet the new peeps and influence early...and that's ok to a degree, but be very selective about the meetings you accept and don't be afraid to turn a lot of them down. For those you do accept, insist on understanding clear goals up-front before hitting "Accept". Failing on good filtering here means less time on the things you absolutely should be focusing on in the first few weeks (e.g. the right water).

2. Don't try to figure it all out yourself

Large companies cannot avoid process. And along with process goes the array of tools/apps you need navigate and use to get stuff done. Self-help is fine (praise the Google intranet search appliance!!) but at some point the effort to find out and learn for yourself (due to lack of obviousness) reaches the point of diminishing returns, fast. So save your sanity, swallow your pride, and ask a peer or your manager or your HR bod for the right pointers. You don't know what you don't know and that's OK.

3. Your first impressions count, so Ask Those Dumb Questions!

Help break Groupthink. This is applicable when joining almost all new companies and teams, but this point is maybe even more pertinent in a large company and large teams. The wikipedia definition article is a great description of what I mean here:

"Groupthink is a type of thought exhibited by group members who try to minimize conflict and reach consensus without critically testing, analyzing, and evaluating ideas. Individual creativity, uniqueness, and independent thinking are lost in the pursuit of group cohesiveness, as are the advantages of reasonable balance in choice and thought that might normally be obtained by making decisions as a group. During groupthink, members of the group avoid promoting viewpoints outside the comfort zone of consensus thinking."

Being new to team, your first impressions are critical and are likely to be "right" more often than not. If something doesn't make sense to you, then do as children do so naturally, and ask "why?"...it can be an incredibly powerful word.

4. Get down and dirty, fast. Identify and pick the high impact and low hanging fruit

The essence of this tip is not to lose the small company / start-up fire.

Effective teams and individuals at large companies often suffer from the analysis paralysis syndrome that can be caused by working in complex environments. Complexity and big companies go together (like Wallace and Gromit), so it can become too easy to a) fall into the trap of overly accounting for all the long term implications of short term action to immediate problems, and b) thinking that the current "way" of getting things done presents too many obstacles to getting those short-term things done that have high-impact. If you at are least aware of these two potential traps, you are less likely to fall down the traps and therefore more likely to achieve early wins. And early wins does wonders for your own self-confidence (countering "Imposter Syndrome").

The second point on this one is to make sure you create opportunities for you to get your hands dirty and therefore really understand the issues you are being paid to become an expert and lead on, as well as getting to grips with the practical mechanics of how to get things done at your new working home. I'm sure different folks may have a different point of view on this one but I've always found that some good old fashioned "DIY" under the belt makes one a better architect.

In the context of showing up as the new manager of a team, I received two bits of very useful advice provided by one of my mentors: 1. Find out where the high priority pressure is within your existing team, then take some this work on yourself and off their plate. They will appreciate your help and speeds up your own ramping up on how to get things done...and 2. When doing this, don't take on the high profile / star-status stuff, let them keep that - you should take on the grunge / unglamorous tasks.

5. Read and understand the last annual report

It sounds obvious (and really should be done as part of the process when prepp'ing for interviews), but the content of an annual report is an absolute treasure trove in speeding up your understanding of the nature and operations of the company and your place in it: overall performance; cash-cows; strategies; priorities; risks; relevant markets; trends and a whole bunch of other stuff that could take years to try and find out through sheer "organic" means.

6. Research and use the benefits

Most large companies (especially in the tech sector) usually have a some great employee benefits (Intuit is amongst the leaders here). Learn about them, use them and don't feel guilty in doing so!

7. Find a Mentor

Find a mentor (and I don't mean your manager). Find someone who has a few years under their belt at the company (and ideally not too close to your own team in terms of the company org) who can advise you on how to navigate the wilderness, give your a historical perspective on why things are the way they are, tell you about some of the characters you'll be dealing with and give you objective advice generally.

There you have it. Just my 2 cents here. I'm sure many of the above tips / lessons are likely to be applicable when joining a new company of any size, but these are the ones that came to mind for me.

What do you think? Have you got tips to share with others? I'd love to hear other ideas and learnings on this topic.

Joining Intuit

alexbarnett — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 22:02:00 GMT

Firstly - thanks to everyone who has reached out to me in the last three weeks via email, phone calls and comments since I shared the news of my pursuit for the next adventure - I have really appreciated everyone's support and interest in my next steps.

The great news is I'll be joining Intuit as a Group Manager working in a fast growing start-up team responsible for leading the Intuit Partner Platform. Below is a snippet and some links to blog posts and articles that should give you a fairly good idea about where my focus will be a week from now.

Although I'll be working from the Orem office (Utah) to start off with, the plan is to ultimately move to the greater Boston area - another new adventure. I've visited Boston three times in the last year or so and have loved it more and more with each visit, so watch out Boston!

This is a fantastic opportunity for me personally - the team has ambitious goals and an amazing set of existing assets to leverage (see some of the numbers below) in becoming a significant player in the cloud computing space. I look forward to sharing stories of my new journey with you.

Intuit Partner Platform Opens to Developers (Sept 15 2008)

"The Intuit Partner Platform not only gives developers the opportunity to build Web-based applications, but successful SaaS businesses by taking the complexity out of managing infrastructure, hosting, user management, integration and billing. Now developers can focus on developing innovative on-demand software solutions that solve unique and important problems for the four million small and mid-market businesses across the U.S. that use QuickBooks and the 25 million employees that work in those companies.

The platform-as-a-service offering allows developers to combine the powerful open source Flex framework and Adobe Flex Builder and the proven database of Intuit QuickBase to build rich Internet applications that work with QuickBooks data. They can also leverage Adobe AIR to provide additional desktop-like functionality in their applications, such as pop-up notifications, local file system access, local data storage, and the ability to create a fully branded user experience.

"We have now accepted more than 1,000 developers into the program and it is exciting to hear their ideas and energy about what they want to build," said Alex Chriss, business leader for the Intuit Partner Platform. "Customers will benefit greatly from the imagination and expertise that developers use to solve problems facing their specific industries." "

Web 2.0 Expo NYC - Intuit Connected Services (Sept 19 2008)
Intuit Makes SaaS Play Guns For Salesforce (Sept 18 2008)
Intuit’s flexy PaaS (Aug 14 2008)
Intuit enters the PaaS wars (April 28 2008)
Intuit’s Radical New Flex + QuickBase Cloud Platform (April 16 2008)

The Great Bungee Jump

alexbarnett — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:21:00 GMT

Well, the great Bungee Jump has come. Martin Plaehn, CEO of Bungee Labs has shared the news of the company the letting go of 15 regular employees and contractors. Unfortunately, I am among this set of affected Bungee Labs employees.

A Voyage of Discovery

As Martin explained in today's post, Bungee Labs has been on a voyage of discovery. There are many lessons for me and the company to take away from the whole experience of the last year or so, but the bottom line is that we were overly optimistic about what it takes to achieve the rate and scale of developer adoption - real traction - and therefore the development of killer apps by the developer community that would drive the platform and the business forward at the velocity that makes a VC-backed venture "interesting".

So where does Bungee Labs go from here? Well, I think Martin eluded to the key clue:

"Over the next several months, Bungee Labs will lay out the course for a business object solution framework for user configurable enterprise-class applications that demonstrate these principles"

It'll be very interesting to see how this manifests and the impetus it will provide to the platform's adoption.

No Regrets

No regrets, none at all. When I considered the opportunity of joining Bungee Labs (and by doing so leave a relatively safe harbor in order to do so) I knew of the risks involved. Bungee Labs' mission was - and still is - of the kind that aims to "change the world". To have been a member of the team tasked with realizing the company's hugely ambitious mission has been nothing short of an entirely worthwhile and educational pursuit.

In my mind at least, Bungee Labs has made its mark in the brave new world of cloud computing. It has opened the eyes to many in the industry about what might be and can be. It has made cloudy ideas and visions more concrete and helped to define the concepts a (Platform as a Service, or PaaS) and memes that are contributing to the next generation of cloud computing platforms.

I've learned a great deal in the past 16 months working closely with a very talented, smart and creative set of teammates. And although it is probably unfair to call out individuals - for it implies those not mentioned weren't of similar caliber (which is not the case) - I do want to thank Martin Plaehn, Bungee Labs' CEO in particular for his mentorship during my tenure at Bungee Labs' and from whom I've learned an enormous amount management and leadership. I'll also miss the inane banter with Ted in those podcasts we put together (and the "Shushee" lunches).

What Next?

And so...on to my next adventure. What will that be exactly? Frankly, I have no idea yet...but whatever it is, I need to know I'll be trying to change the world :-)

I'm open to ideas...so if you have some, please get in touch.

How ADO.NET Data Services came to be (formerly known as Project Astoria)

alexbarnett — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 02:16:00 GMT

Pablo Castro has recounted some of his timelined memories about how "Project Astoria" evolved from a lunch time conversation to bits in .NET 3.5 SP1 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1 now known as ADO.NET Data Services Framework). Nice write up.

Three memories of my own to add to the story:

1. I was reading up on the whole REST thing in the summer of 2006 - its origins, philosophy and design patterns. I knew there was something interesting going on and some potential dots to join, but I wasn't sure which dots...So I collated and circulated a bunch of research / links to the team, then blogged the links (I liked How I explained REST to my wife. More recently see Explaining REST to Damien Katz). I got a few proverbial (and some literal) blank stares as I shared my enthusiasm for REST, asking how we could apply the ideas to the various projects we were working on. It was Pablo, and (as Pablo attests) Britt Johnston (now a PUM for SQL Business) who were able to develop the initial conceptual leaps into something more concrete like a Think Week Paper and a prototype demo.

2. When it came to brainstorming the code name, the team agreed on a "cloud" theme. A number of proposals were floated around along with their rationales, including "cumulus" and "cirrus". We were then advised that city and town code names were legal-safe. So there we were, struggling to agree on some city or town name we all liked (or at least not hate nor be confused by..."how about Nameless?"...), and then Mike Pizzo's proposal came in: "Astoria - hey, it's the cloudiest city in the USA!" (at least it was in 2006). Sold.

3. I think my favorite memory of all is the reaction Gary Flake provided (of Microsoft's Live Labs) to the prototype Pablo demo'd at one of the pitch meetings: "As God himself would have designed it!" Dr Flake exclaimed..."Cool", I thought to myself - "but does that mean no REST for the wicked?"

I Am a Strange Loop

alexbarnett — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:45:00 GMT

About 10 years ago a friend gave to me a book as gift. We were sitting on the deck of a canal boat on a Friday late afternoon set for a weekend of lazy meandering with friends and family along the Thames, when he handed me his own copy of Godel, Escher, Bach. "You'll love this" he said.

Willem was was right. Godel, Escher, Bach not only tickled my penchant for self-referentialism and recursion ("It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take Hofstadter's Law into account"), it also reinforced an odd conviction I've held that "magic" happens where these oddities exist (all around and within us).

Last week, (thanks to Nick Carr), I was alerted to Douglas R. Hofstadter's latest mind-bender, I Am a Strange Loop. The book arrived today, unpacked and on the table when I got back from work this evening...inviting me to another voyage with this great mind:

"Deep down, your brain is a chaotic seething soup of particles. On a higher level it is a jungle of neurons, and on a yet higher level it is a network of abstractions that we call "symbols." The most central and complex symbol is the one you call "I". An "I" is a strange loop where the brain's symbolic and physical levels feed back into each other and flip causality upside down so that symbols seem to have gained the paradoxical ability to push particles around, rather than the reverse.

For each human being, this "I" seems to be the realest thing in the world. But how can such a mysterious abstraction be real--or is our "I" merely a convenient fiction? Does an "I" exert genuine power over the particles in our brain, or is it helplessly pushed around by the all-powerful laws of physics? These are the mysteries tackled in I Am a Strange Loop, Douglas R. Hofstadter's first book-length journey into philosophy since Godel, Escher, Bach. Compulsively readable and endlessly thought-provoking, this is the book Hofstadter's many readers have long been waiting for."

Join me at Web 2.0 Expo New York - Building in the Clouds: Scaling Web 2.0

alexbarnett — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:06:00 GMT

I'll be taking part in one of the Cloud computing panels at Web 2.0 Expo New York this September, details below. If you want to meet up, let me know.

Building in the Clouds: Scaling Web 2.0

Jason Hoffman (Joyent, Inc.), Alistair Croll (Bitcurrent), Alex Barnett, Dwight Merriman (10gen), Jinesh Varia (Amazon Web Services)

10:30am - 11:20am Thursday, 09/18/2008

Performance & Scaling
Location: 1A23 & 24

Cloud computing is self-serve outsourcing for web companies. Clouds give even the smallest startup access to world-class infrastructure that can grow as needed. And developers build apps faster because they start with the building blocks of online applications: authentication, storage, messaging, and the social graph.

But the range of Cloud offerings is daunting. From self-contained development tools to virtual “bare metal,” selecting the right layer of Cloud offerings fundamentally changes how you run your business, what tools you can use, and ultimately how much control you have over your future.

Join this panel of Cloud computing innovators for the silver linings—and dark sides—of the Cloud.

Project Management as SaaS, Programmable Wikis and more

alexbarnett — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:52:00 GMT

Two new interview podcasts to share (recorded by me and Ted) for the Bungee Line:

Nate Bowler, CTO of @Task

@task (or AtTask) is a Utah-based tech company providing a comprehensive, web-based project and portfolio-management package delivered in both a SaaS and on-premise model with a very rich web API set. We talked with Nate about the evolution of their web services design and @task's future product plans in light of the market opportunities presented by the availability of the increasing number of 3rd party programmable web services.

Steve Bjorg, Founder and CTO of MindTouch

Prior to founding MindTouch Steve worked in advanced strategies at Microsoft focusing on distributed systems and web services. We talked with Steve about the MindTouch platform, its rich set of web APIs and the implications of a programmable wiki. MindTouch goes beyond providing open source wiki collaboration and content management - it's delivering a leading edge application integration and development platform called MindTouch Deki. Michael Coté, an industry analyst with RedMonk (analyst firm) picked up on both the podcast interview and news of the latest release of MinTouch Deki.

(About The Bungee Line: The audio podcast for web developers, covering web API's, software development, and the creation of (extremely) interactive web applications.)

Stroke UX, Synthetic Life and BMW: Geometry and Functions In N Adaptions

alexbarnett — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:40:00 GMT

Three videos that made me think:

How it feels to have a stroke (TED Talks)

Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.

Craig Venter: On the verge of creating synthetic life (TED Talks)

"Can we create new life out of our digital universe?" asks Craig Venter. And his answer is, yes, and pretty soon. He walks the TED2008 audience through his latest research into "fourth-generation fuels" -- biologically created fuels with CO2 as their feedstock. His talk covers the details of creating brand-new chromosomes using digital technology, the reasons why we would want to do this, and the bioethics of synthetic life. A fascinating Q&A with TED's Chris Anderson follows (two words: suicide genes)

BMW GINA Light Visionary Model: Premiere

With the development of the BMW GINA Light Visionary Model the BMW Group presents trendsetting solutions. Chris Bangle gives us a first impression of the ideas behind the process of sculpturing an experimental study. This is the story behind this innovation!

Open Source in a SaaS World

alexbarnett — Fri, 16 May 2008 03:01:00 GMT

About a year ago, I took part in a meeting where the question: "What does open source "mean" in a SaaS world?" came up in conversation.

A year later, that same question is becoming increasingly pertinent as the IT industry's move to Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and cloud-based computing accelerates.

For Bungee Labs (I work there), where

we provide an entire platform-as-a-service (PaaS)
developers create, share and re-use code and deploy apps in the cloud
developers "consume" and program against third party web apis and will create their own

...the "meaning" of FOSS is central within these different contexts and has many possible answers with many non-trivial implications...Three dimensional chess as it were.

(pic source: Memory Alpha, the Star Trek wiki)

For this post, I want to share some of the considerations relating to # 1) above: the context of open sourcing Bungee Labs' own system (Bungee Connect). Last month we stated that:

"Bungee Labs is evaluating several Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) licenses for the software components that comprise the complete Bungee Connect system. However, the task of reviewing the various FOSS licenses, and then identifying which of them best aligns with the software components and subsystems created by Bungee Labs–as well as ensuring compatibility with third-party components upon which Bungee Connect relies–requires considerable review and source code preparation. And we want to do this right, with the community’s involvement."

Since and before that announcement, Ted Haeger (who runs the Bungee Connect Developer Network) has been discussing some of the issues at hand and some of the options we see before us with some very "FOSS savvy" communities at events such as Socal Linux Expo, LugRadio Live USA and LinuxFest Northwest and of course with Bungee Connect's own growing developer community.

Today there's an interesting conversation going on between Ted and Simon Wardley, ex-COO of Zimki / Fotago who resigned last year over the company's decision not to open source their platform (the video of his announcement at a OSCON 2007 talk he gave "Commoditisation of IT and What the Future Holds" makes for entertaining and informative viewing all of its own...Simon discusses open source in a SaaS context. Update: Simon let me know of this video which also includes the slides

Anyway, back to the thread:

Simon wrote a post this morning providing his thoughts on the some the FOSS options available to Bungee Labs
Ted wrote back responding to Simon sharing his point of view
Then Simon responded to Ted

All three posts (and more to come no doubt) make an informative and interesting read, but I want to highlight one of the key issues in discussion.

The SaaS Loophole

The issue goes back to the question: "What does open source "mean" in a SaaS world?" and specifically the licensing issues. I'm going to quote and edit from Ted's post somewhat liberally (Ted owes me a Sushi, so we're quits now :P ) and isolate an (if not "the") open source licensing issue in the context of SaaS (my emphasis):

"Personally, I think that GPLv3 is the wrong license for freeing any SaaS or PaaS offering. The Free Software Foundation has a better license for this purpose.

GPLv3 is inadequate because it does not mandate that modifications that others make be opened. Originally, GPLv3 was planned to close up the “SaaS Loophole” (a.k.a. the “ASP Loophole”) in GPLv2. However, as I understand it, several large companies pressured the FSF to remove the key clause that would have closed the loophole.

What is the loophole? It’s this: if you take free software and offer it as a hosted service, then you are not conveying the software, and are therefore not obligated to reciprocate your modifications to the original code. In the context of service providers, GPLv3 is effectively the same as the BSD license. Many companies, Google among them, live inside this loophole. (For now, Bungee Labs is also in that camp.) Some remain there deliberately. Others are in it simply as a matter of course…that is, where they are in their business development process."

So that's the "SaaS loophole". Where's the loophole now? Ted explains:

"Perhaps the argument could have been made in the age of GPLv2 that the SaaS Loophole was an oversight, but now that GPLv3 has the loophole by design, it’s really no longer a loophole. The latest version of the license supports the practice. (And just to be clear, I am not advocating this for Bungee Connect.)

...Say Bungee Labs opens Bungee Connect under GPLv3. Is there a danger that small companies could replicate our offering? I don’t think that’s the case. But could a well-funded company do the same, fork the code, and then fund an engineering team to outpace the original inventors?

...The Free Software Foundation also provides the GNU Affero General Public License version 3, or AGPLv3. AGPLv3 specifically closes the SaaS loophole. Instead of being triggered by conveying the software, AGPLv3 is triggered by accessing the service. This helps to reduce the risk that a company could not branch the code and then out-engineer the originators, as the vulture company would be obligated to share-alike terms with their derivations."

So, is the AGPLv3 the right license for Bungee Labs to pursue? Is it the right license for SaaS providers? Is it enough on its own? (back to Simon Wardley's point in his post). Each company has their own unique circumstances and they each need to think through the 3D chess game. We're still working it out at Bungee Labs.

For us at least, I think some of the potential answers are becoming clearer, and others not yet. But it is the kinds of discussions that Ted is having with Simon that are a critical part of Bungee Labs' decision making process around FOSS. It cannot be an insular process.

The Third Order of Order

alexbarnett — Fri, 09 May 2008 11:45:00 GMT

I'm thoroughly enjoying David Weinberger's Everything Is Miscellaneous (The Power of the New Digital Disorder).

Weinberger has a canny knack for taking a subject matter I feel I'm already familiar with and yet illuminating and expressing facets of it in such a way as to greatly further and deepen my understanding of it. I'm storing the following quote from the chapters "Lumps and Splits" as I'm sure I'll want to reference it again - a great description of how knowledge and information is being transformed in its organization and interface:

"In the third order of order, a leaf can hang on many branches, it can hang on different branches for different people, and it can change branches for the same person if she decides to look at the subject differently. It's not that our knowledge of the world is taking some shape other than a tree or becoming some impossible-to-envision four-dimensional tree. In the third order of order, knowledge doesn't have a shape. There are just too many useful, powerful, and beautiful ways to make sense of our world."

If you haven't already done so, I recommend reading Weinberger's two other books, Small Pieces Loosely Joined and (co-authored) The Cluetrain Manifesto. And that reminds me, I need to update my LibraryThing.

Classic Raymond Chen

alexbarnett — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:44:00 GMT

Here's some classic Raymond Chen:

"Apparently I've been promoted by mistake all these years".

Chris Anderson: Charlie Rose interview discussing FREE

alexbarnett — Sat, 03 May 2008 16:51:00 GMT

I spent some time this morning watching the Charlie Rose interview with Wired's editor, Chris Anderson, discussing FREE.

The interview covers the economics and ideas driving the Internet's current (and future) state: the Gift Economy; the Attention Economy; and the Reputation Economy. Rose leads the conversation into topics such as covering the Freemium business model and consumer perceptions about the value of privacy (or lack of thereof).

The interview also moves to the topic of the Yahoo! and Microsoft merger. Rose asks: "Why is it that Yahoo! can't recruit the people at Google - through some extraordinary salary offers - that would let Yahoo! replicate what Google has?"

Anderson's answer (paraphrased): "There is a basic philosophical difference between Google and Yahoo! Google is a Machine company. Google believes that data, machines and the Algorithms will drive the company's growth. Yahoo! is a people company - it believes content created by people and the conections made between them with its drive growth."

"And what about Microsoft?", Rose asks. Anderson responds (again, paraphrasing) - "Microsoft is a pre-web software company that philosophically wants to be somewhere in between Google and Yahoo!" An oversimplified analysis, surely (hey, it's a TV interview answer), but I think the Anderson's conclusion is pretty accurate at its heart.