« September 2009 | Main | November 2009 »
October 30, 2009
It's My Browser and I'll Auto-Click if I Want To!
Image via Wikipedia
A month ago, I posted a piece claiming my right to a purpose-centric web. In it, I stated:
I claim the right to mash-up, remix, annotate, augment, and otherwise modify Web content for my purposes in my browser using any tool I choose and I extend to everyone else that same privilege.
Not surprisingly, the EFF agrees with me. Not on this exact issue, but in the spirit of the user having the right to control the experience on their own machine. They say:
Free file hosting provider MediaFire seems to think that, when you follow a link to download a file from its service, it has the right to control your browser. This is yet another example of a web site owner forgetting that it's your computer, and it's none of their business how you choose to experience their web pages.From It's My Browser, and I'll Auto-Click if I Want To | Electronic Frontier Foundation
Referenced Fri Oct 30 2009 14:58:05 GMT-0600 (MST)
And then later:
Fortunately, there's nothing in the law that says that by simply visiting a website, I give up the right to control my desktop.From It's My Browser, and I'll Auto-Click if I Want To
Referenced Fri Oct 30 2009 14:57:26 GMT-0600 (MST)
Read the article for the particulars, but the bottom line is that users should control their experience and choose their browser--not Web site owners.
3:02 PM | Comments () | Recommend This | Print This
October 29, 2009
Starting a High Tech Business: No Cold Hires
Image via Wikipedia
I'm starting a new business called Kynetx. As I go through some of the things I do, I'm planning to blog them. The whole series will be here. This is the twenty-first installment. You may find my efforts instructive. Or you may know a better way--if so, please let me know!
In the past two weeks Kynetx has doubled in size. There's lots to do and the resources to make it happen, so getting more people became a priority. Getting the right people became the most important thing Steve and I could do for the long term health of the company.
I've been in lots of hiring situations before--at iMall we grew from three people to over 125 in a little over 16 months. I've learned a few things. The most important being that mistakes in hiring can cause untold grief later on down the road. You definitely want to get this right the first time--iterating to a solution is too expensive.
I'm in firm agreement with Joel Spolsky on what constitutes getting it right: hire people who are "smart and get things done". That's not easy; the good people aren't usually out looking for jobs. They've already got jobs where they're respected and well compensated because they're "smart and get things done."
One good rule of thumb for getting good employees is "no cold hires." Four out of the five people we hired this past week are good friends who Steve and I have worked with in multiple ventures in the past. The fifth was someone who had worked closely with another key member of the team in mutliple ventures. We know these people well: we know their personality, we know their strengths, and we know their weaknesses. And...they know ours. Most importantly, we know they're "smart and get things done."
Clearly, the more you grow, the harder it is to only hire people you personally know, but, as was the case in our fifth hire, you can tap other members of the team you trust for referrals. And regardless of the source, the owners of a small business ought to be involved in every hiring decision and involve the rest of the team in the decision. The wrong person can be organizational poison and the smaller you are the less tolerance you have to weather bad hiring decisions.
Your personal network of people may not be very deep. That's a place where being older and having worked at more places gives an entrepreneur a definite advantage. Still, you can work on your network and get to know good people. There's an old saying that goes: the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago; the second best time is right now.
One of the most valuable aspects of warm hires is that you can hit the ground running and get up to speed much more quickly because you have less of the "storming and norming" phases team building. These folks come predisposed to fit in your culture. At iMall, we did a lot of cold hires and the results were mixed. Most of them were pretty good people from a technical point of view, but some didn't fit the culture and that caused a lot of problems.
I'm sure there will reach a point where we are forced to make hiring decisions about people we have little background with, but I will forestall that day as long as possible. Good hiring is easier when you follow the simple rule: no cold hires.
8:28 AM | Comments () | Recommend This | Print This
October 21, 2009
Doing the Wave Using a Site-Specific Browser
Image via Wikipedia
Over the last several days, we've started experimenting with using Wave to track project communications at Kynetx. We have three waves now with project information in it and have invited the folks who work on those projects to each. I'm not far enough into it yet, to state any thing conclusive, but so far, I'm liking what I see.
Wave's ability to natively host a collaboratively edited document and tack conversations on any part of them makes it a nice tool for coordinating action and getting reaction to things. I'm not claiming it's a substitute for traditional project management tools--nothing could be that opaque--but it's a good way to collaborate.
One thing I found as I started using Wave more frequently each day is that I wanted an app, not a Web site in my browser. My style is to have lots of windows open and a stand alone app just suits that style better.
My immediate thought was the use the excellent Fluid site-specific browser tool to create one. That worked great. You get a complaint that it's not a supported browser from Wave, but in truth since it's Webkit-based, it works fine. Devthought has instructions that even include a high-res icon and scripts for placing the new message count on the icon.
Someone mentioned Waveboard, a Google Wave app for OS X on Twitter. As far as I can see, it too is a site-specific browser. That is, it's using Google's Web UI, not a native Cocoa UI. Still it seems to work fine.
I'm sure we'll see other Wave applications spring up over the next while, but for now, this is a perfectly acceptable solution.
8:53 AM | Comments () | Recommend This | Print This
October 13, 2009
Kynetx Impact Agenda: Register Now!
We've finalized the agenda for Kynetx Impact on Nov 18-19 in Provo, UT (register here). I'm pretty excited at the agenda we've managed to put together and the keynote speakers who will be there: Doc Searls and Kim Cameron. I hope you can come.
Wednesday Nov. 18
8:30 AM Breakfast & Registration9:00 AM Keynote Address:
"The Intention Economy: What Happens When Customers Get Real Power," by Doc Searls, Sr. Editor of Linux Journal & author of "The Cluetrain Manifesto."
10:00 AM Keynote Address:
"The Forgotten Edge: Building a Purpose-Centric Web," by Dr. Phil Windley, Kynetx Founder & author of the book, "Digital Identity."
11:00 AM Workshop:
"Building Purpose-Centric Apps with KRL -- Basic," Sam Curren, Kynetx Lead Developer
12:00 PM Lunch
1:00 PM Workshop:
"Client-Side Endpoints and Context Automation," by Dave McName, Kynetx VP Client Engagement
Will discuss endpoint philosophy, practical selection process, as well as instruction on how to link apps to a variety of endpoints (iPhone, proxy server, iCards, etc.)
2:00 PM Workshop:
"Using Information Cards," by Paul Trevithick, Azigo CTO
The history, use and vision of iCards. Also covering action cards, r-cards and why they are important.
3:00 PM Workshop:
"Using Data to Enhance Contextual Experiences," by Phil Windley, Kynetx CTO (and selected guests).
Linking datasets to Kynetx Apps. Include ETL/DW and how kynetx handles large volumes of data. Also information on data feeds and reporting.
4:00 PM Workshop:
"Purpose-Centric App Showcase," Hosted by Steve Fulling, CEO Kynetx
Learn about a variety of example Apps that are leveraging the idea of the Purpose-based web using KRL, Information Cards, end points and/or some combination of the above.
5:00 PM Break
6:30 PM Dinner
Thursday Nov. 19
8:30 am Breakfast9:00 am Keynote Address:
"Identity's New Rules," by Kim Cameron, Chief Identity Officer Microsoft
10:00 am Keynote Address:
"Leveraging the Purpose-centric Web, New Tools & Technologies to Change Your Business," TBA Kynetx Partner
11:00 am Workshop:
"Building Purpose-Centric Apps with KRL -- Advanced," Sam Curren, Kynetx Lead Developer
12:00 pm Lunch:
Includes Impact App Award Announcement, Hosted by Steve Fulling, Kynetx CEO
1:00 pm Workshop:
"Show Me the Money!" by Kristen Knight, Kynetx VP Product Management
Monetizing cross-site, context-sensitive apps, revenue models, VAR & Implementor business opportunities.
2:00 pm Panel Discussion:
"The Contextual Future," with Phil Windley, Kim Cameron, Paul Trevethick, Doc Searls, Craig Burton
How context and client-side focus changes the future of the Web.
3:00 pm End Note:
"So, What Does This All Mean?" by Craig Burton, Novell co-founder & Industry Guru
What a Purpose-centric, contextual Future means for you.
10:31 AM | Comments () | Recommend This | Print This
October 12, 2009
UTOSC: Open Source and Utah
Last week was the Utah Open Source Conference. This annual event has grown to be a conference that is every bit as enjoyable and informative as and conference I travel to see. There were easily 400 people there. I can't name all the people involed and their "about" page doesn't list their names--it should. These people are performing a great service to the tech community in Utah and we owe them a huge thank you!
Kynetx had a table in the exhibitor area and there was a steady stream of visitors. Sam spent much of the day at the table, pulling more than his share of duty because the rest of us were working on closing a big (really, HUGE) deal that I'll write more about later. Having Sam there was OK, though since he's passionate and knowlegable--two good traits that go well together. We were really anxious to get people to our conference in November, Kynetx Impact. Sign up now, if you haven't.
I spoke twice. On Thursday, I spoke on the purpose-centric web. The slide are online (PDF), but you'd do better to read my detailed blog post on the purpose-centric web here since my slides aren't heavy on text. Better yet, just come to Kynetx Impact. We'll be focusing on the purpose-centric Web and have guest speakers like Doc Searls and Kim Cameron there.
My second talk was on using Puppet and Cobbler to create an automated infrastructure. The slides for that talk (PDF) are also online. Again, lots of pictures and short phrases, so not as useful for reading. I hope the audio is available soon. The most memorable quote from that talk, I owe to Wade Billings: "as system administrators, we're often the arsonist and the firefighter."
In all, a great event and a great experience for Kynetx to be part of it. I woke up this morning sad that it would be another year before the next one!
9:47 AM | Comments () | Recommend This | Print This
October 9, 2009
Unsubscribing from Everything
Image via Wikipedia
This week, I decided to unsubscribe from (nearly) every maketing email list. I'm shocked at how many I was on. A few observations:
- In general most of the email marketing systems work pretty well and no one was especially onerous to get off of. Many, however, did make the unsubscribe process unnecessarily confusing. "If you want to unsubscribe, uncheck these three boxes, check the two odd boxes in the next section, and hold your nose while pushing submit."
- Also, I found that I was on multiple lists from the same organization and usually unsubscribing from one didn't unsubscribe me from the others. Organizations create new lists, copy you in from other lists, and then treat them as silos.
In all, I've probably unsubscribed from over 100 lists this week. I've been too long in the habit of just deleting them, even though I wasn't going to ever read them again. What brought this to my attention was setting up my iPhone to see my email accounts (IMAP). Once I started having to process email on a smaller, less productive interface, I felt the pain more accutely. Now, hopefully, I'll have a little less work to do.
5:53 PM | Comments () | Recommend This | Print This
October 5, 2009
CTO Breakfast at Utah Open Source Conference
We'll be holding the CTO Breakfast this Thursday at 8am at the Miller Campus of Salt Lake Community College in conjunction with the Utah Open Source Conference. We'll be meeting in the Cullinary Arts building. I'm told it has a cafeteria and we'll also have bagels and juice courtesy of Kynetx.
You don't have to be registered for UTOSC to come to the breakfast, but you should register and go just because it will be an awesome event. We'll be stopping at 9:20 so that people can make their way over to the opening keynote: "Leveraging the Collective Intelligence of Online Communities for Public Good" by Daren Brabham. But whether you come to UTOSC or not, whether your a CTO or not, if you're interested in high-tech products, then we'd love to have you.
Here's the schedule for future breakfasts:
- Oct 30, 2009
- Dec 3, 2009 (combined November and December meeting)
- Jan 29, 2010
Please put these on your calendar or just subscribe to the Google calendar to get them automatically.
11:24 AM | Comments () | Recommend This | Print This
October 2, 2009
Gillmor Gang on SideWiki: Building Audience
I was on Gillmor Gang yesterday talking with Craig Burton, Robert Scoble, Kevin Marks, and, of course, Steve Gillmor.
The video is up now. The discussion was on SideWiki. I'm afraid Robert was a little outnumbered, but it was a lively discussion and a lot of fun.
Robert kept saying that it was unfair for Google to ride on top of his distribution. Steve Fulling had made a comment regarding SideWiki and the piece I posted this week about new media platforms that was relevant to that argument that I repeated on the vidcast: it's not Robert's audience that Google is using, it's Google's. The only people who see SideWiki are the people who have the Google Toolbar installed. Google worked to create that platform and get distribution for it. Consequently, it's their audience who sees the SideWiki comments, not Robert's. Robert's audience see's Robert's blog. Where those two audiences overlap, they see SideWiki comments and Robert's blog together.
This is an important point because it reinforces that this isn't about freeloading. Both Google and Robert have spent money to build an audience and their respective succcess is based on those audiences. Is Google allowing people to talk about Robert's blog? Sure, but that's nothing new--people talk about things all the time. What people are up in arms about is that the Web allows you to see my comments and the thing I'm commenting on simultaneously. Arguing against that is no different than arguing against any other technology that removes old, traditional barriers and friction from transactions. You can argue against it all you want, but you can't stop it. Just ask the RIAA and MPAA.
As an aside, @tinagillmor shared a picture of Steve producing and directing the show while we were on. He's got quite the set up. He's using a Tricaster to edit five video streams (four from Skype) live as the show happen. Amazing what you can do these days.