Distinctly personal reflections on 2007

Stilgherrian — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 10:32:59 +0000

As the sun sets on 2007 — literally, as I took the photo just before I sat down to write — it’s time to reflect on an astounding year. The Snarky Platypus will join ’Pong and me later, and (perhaps) help us put together some predictions for 2008.

This was a watershed year for me, for my household and business, and for Australia. Many of the changes happened late in the year, so we haven’t noticed the effects yet. But as 2008 unfolds I think we’ll look back and see that, yes, 2007 marked a change of direction.

Personally, my understanding of how I fit into my world (and yours) became much clearer.

Almost a year ago I reflected upon the nature of my village, and then like so many I was moved by the ceremonies on the Sydney Harbour Bridge’s 75th birthday. That started a psychological journey which culminated in my trip to Thailand. That triggered many thoughts. They’re still rattling around; more will emerge. Meanwhile Facebook started re-connecting me with many old friends.

But the two most intense personal changes were meetings: one business, one social.

At a strategic planning session mid-year, Zern Liew helped me develop The Plan for returning to doing more media work. That’s languished for various reasons, but I did write stories for Crikey and put passion into some of the articles here. The business name Skank Media is registered and ready to unroll in 2008.

The social meeting was that dinner with Joe Wilson and Nick Hodge from Microsoft. The redoubtable Laurel Papworth was there — that’s her in the photo, with Rupert Murdoch keeping a watchful eye — and I met the witty Ajay Ranipeta, and Lachlan and Lisa who created Webjam. All good. But the highlight for me was meeting Mark Pesce.

I’ve wanted to meet Mark for ages. No, I’m not some starry-eyed fan-boy, but I did grok some of the stuff he wrote way back and figured he’d be an interesting bloke. He is.

Mark has lived in Sydney for 4 years now. We have many acquaintances in common, yet we only met this month. Even he said:

I’m amazed that we haven’t met before this. Have you been out of the country or something? For the last FOUR YEARS??? It’s. Just. Weird.

Mark is 100% right: it is weird. Then it hit me. I haven’t been out of the country for 4 years. But I have been living under a rock.

Instead of using my skills and knowledge in media and the Internet, I’ve been a mechanic — fixing other people’s tools through my little IT business. And I’ve been frustrated the whole time.

That dinner was an important trigger. It reminded me who my peers are in this “industry” and what sort of level I should be playing at. Roll on 2008!

Actually, there was a third major meeting. PodCamp in Perth and my presentation there. This reminded me, once more, that presentation and “explaining things” is a personal forte. Thank you, Crispin.

I also put on a bit of weight. We’ll deal with that later.

Looking more widely, yes, Kevin Rudd is now Prime Minister.

The Golden Age of the Iced Vovo has not yet emerged, and today there was news of severe fuckwittedness regarding Internet filtering. But on the whole I’m happy that John Howard’s Reign of (the War on) Terror has ended. I’m hoping this translates into some intelligent leadership from Chairman Rudd.

I haven’t said much about ’Pong, but he’s everywhere through this blog. Phom rak khun krub! And the Snarky Platypus has made so much possible too, in his own, um, endurable fashion. I tend not to blog about all that because, well, it’s personal personal stuff. Thank you.

I’ll stop the thank-yous there, or I’ll end up sounding like John Cleese’s BAFTA acceptance speech.

And now, gin and tonic! See you next year.

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How can Microsoft stop us hating them?

Stilgherrian — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 01:47:40 +0000

So what do you think of Microsoft, eh? No, really. I want to know.

I have to admit I’m not exactly a fan. I’ll explain why momentarily. But Microsoft is changing, or at least wants to change, and I’m finding it hard to shed old impressions.

The Blue Monster cartoon is part of this changing Microsoft. Its creator, Hugh MacLeod, intended it as a conversation-starter — what he calls a social object. Steve Clayton from Microsoft UK says they use it to help Microsoft start talking about its own process of re-birth.

I’m cynical when software companies claim grand goals like “changing the world”. That over-the-top rhetoric was central to the first dot-com bubble. Usually, the bigger the rhetoric the crappier the product. Still, I’m willing to listen.

Another sign of a changing Microsoft is my friend Nick Hodge, who sold me my first Mac back in 1985. Nick now works for the Blue Monster as an “enthusiast evangelist”, and represents how Microsoft is embracing blogging and a new culture of openness — and actually having conversations with people instead of talking at them.

But can Microsoft really change and, more importantly, convince us to believe them?

Openness and transparency are important to me. As an old-school geek, I absorbed the principles of openness that built the early Internet. Bill Gates’ infamous 1976 letter to computer hobbyists expressed a commercial attitude that was at odds with that openness.

It irked me that Gates went on to become the richest man in the world by selling what I considered to be second-rate software using questionable business tactics.

I reckon the best, truly innovative software is created by awesomely-intelligent individuals or small, focussed teams like 37signals. Microsoft’s industrial-scale development process, with armies of cubicle droids, seems incapable of producing anything other than bloated, overly-complicated and buggy software.

Certainly my business clients running Windows generate far more support calls than those using Macs. Now that Apple has added what for me was the one missing feature, I intend returning to Apple’s productivity software rather than using Microsoft Office for Mac.

But, as I say, these are existing or old impressions. A young Microsoft employee told Hugh MacLeod that a lot of the culture shift inside Microsoft is generational.

The old guard is highly competitive, the new guard is more collaborative. The old guard sees Open Source as a threat, the new guard sees Open Source as an opportunity. He was confident the new guard will prevail because, of course, being young, they’ll be around for much longer. He reckoned it’ll be at least another decade before the outside world starts recognizing the change that’s currently happening internally.

Now I’m writing about this today for a reason.

Nick Hodge has invited me and a few other geeks to dinner tomorrow with Joe Wilson, Worldwide Director of Microsoft’s Academic and Enthusiast Evangelists (of which he is one). So, I know what I feel about Microsoft, and I’m interested to hear what he’s got to say — over a nice wine or two at Macchiavelli.

What do you think about Microsoft, and how would you like to see them change? Can you think they can do it?

Stilgherrian » joe wilson

Distinctly personal reflections on 2007

5 Random Semi-Related Posts

How can Microsoft stop us hating them?

5 Random Semi-Related Posts