On a 12 hour flight back from Hong Kong I realized we don't spend enough time just thinking. So I sat there thinking about technology. Not specific things like how I need to migrate 60 users off of outsourced Exchange or the Xen hypervisor, but what are the technology issues that really need to be addressed, what are some of the startup possibilities and how do we as open source advocates fight the FUD.
If you are reading this website you have some interest in keeping up with technology news and happenings. The assumption is that readers come to websites and blogs because they rely on the authors to deliver the news and add perspective. We trust the individuals who are honest about their viewpoints. That's why blogs like Scoble and Doc Searls get so much traffic and guys like Jon Udell and Dan Farber stay so relevant.
I consider writing a blog to generally be easier than what might be considered "traditional" journalism, which I also engage in. But, it's becoming increasingly difficult to find new trusted sources of information for discussion. The huge success of RSS is based on the blogosphere's need for more information, delivered easily, I believe in part because the majority of what's out there is redundant, trite or not well thought out. I am a big supporter of citizen journalism (call it what you want) but I am also a bit of a literary snob and extremely well-informed. It's getting harder and harder to find relevance through the haze.
While I was in Asia I only had intermittent email access and my Treo didn't work (damn you Sprint.) Fortunately I was still able to get my daily dose of news from Freshnews.org and all of the sites I have RSS feeds for in NetNewsWire. Matt and I were IM'ing one night in Bangkok and he asked me where else to look for news and I realized I didn't really know. He and I both had the same list of sources and the list is finite. In the blog world we're either creating original content or pulling from the same pool of sources for commentary. I consider myself lucky not only to be affiliated with InfoWorld, which provides credibility, but to have experience in journalism, editing, and analysis-which in theory should make my stuff readable, if not a little bit interesting.
In terms of open source, the realization I came up with-and Neil McAllister hit on in Open Source Could Use A Face-Lift is that there are not enough people out there thinking about open source (this stands with many other technologies as well) in a big way. Or maybe there are and we just don't know it yet. Partly, it's because to be taken seriously as a big thinker it's hard to be from a vendor. That's why analyst firms are always quoted and magazines always want end-user comments. Maybe we can start a list of open source thinkers in the comments of this post and I will publish a ranking. I'll give you a few to start: Tim O'Reilly, Matt Asay, Marten Mickos, Jonathan Schwartz, Jason Matusow.
In general, we as the technology population are not spending enough time thinking. We make all sorts of excuses: too busy with work, kids, dog, writing code etc. But, what we really need to do is think at the macro level and figure out ways to legitimize the technologies of the future for the rest of the population. It might be open source, virtualization or maybe AJAX (ok, probably not AJAX :>) but if we are not spending at least a few minutes contemplating the tech world we are doing ourselves a disservice.
Probably the best example of a general publication that is thinking both macro and micro is The Economist. I'm not sure that there is a market need for a tech magazine that carries that same ethos but I tend to think there is. With each issue I find myself thinking not only about the content, but what it means to my own world. While there clearly is not a direct correlation between OpenOffice.org and flu pandemic both have impact on us, economically and socially-just like open source. It could just be the jet-lag talking but I feel like we all need to take a few minutes and just think-it clears the cobwebs and may present the next big opportunity.
Extra-Special thanks to Matt for filling in. His fury and vitriol makes me happy to be his friend. Look for more from him here on this blog and on his site at http://asay.blogspot.com.
Congrats to Weblogs Inc. and Sourcefire on being acquired---I think.
Posted by Dave Rosenberg on October 9, 2005 09:50 AM
