Donny Mack

Evolution of Blogs

Blogging and RSS is a relatively new and emerging technology. It’s simple, easy to use, and for the most part a grass roots, open effort to propagate information freely over the internet. I just read eWeek’s review on DEMO 2004, a conference for emerging technology, where speakers such as Robert Scoble, John Patrick and many companies spoke about blogging, where it’s going, and new products that are coming out.

A couple of the new technologies they demo’d there were quite interesting and coupled with each other they create an awesome resource, not just for spreading information but for getting information. They spoke about and demonstrated MoBlogging (posting from cell phones via an email address), WaveBlog (similar to warchalking where people put markers up where there are free wireless access points, Manhattan has a million of them), and alerting via cell phone when posts are made.

All this tied put together I came up with idea for a company/service. Let me know if you would use this. Imagine if you will a MoBlogging type service where you can make and receive posts from your cell phone in a real-time manor and you set up a Manhattan based restaurant and bar type blog where you, and others, write about restaurants and bars (what they like, don’t like, food recommendations, etc, etc) and you’re out and about and are looking for a place to eat on 57th and Lexington. You could post a question to your blog from your cell phone, and anyone subscribed to the feed instantly gets alerted wherever they are (work or home computer, phone, or other mobile device) that you have made a post. They read it and go to work for you, either recommending someplace or using their resources to find a place for you. They then respond to your post and you get alerted where to go eat, drink, whatever possibly with reviews. I think that would be great myself, you?

Article: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1528254,00.asp

Yukon and Whidbey Delayed - Mad or Happy?

I'm sure that most of you have read or heard by now that the release date of both Yukon and Whidbey has been delayed. Most of those I've spoken to at Microsoft, Microsoft Partners, and in the Community have told me that while being disappointed with the news of a new timeframe, that they are more than happy to wait a little longer for the release. Why? Because they want the quality, the features, and the revolutionary technology these two extraordinary products are promising to deliver to be done right, or as close to right as possible, the first time.

 So instead of the old adage, get the product out on time (even though it may have bugs, or features had to be slashed) to get it into the customers hands and then deliver service pack after service pack until all the features are finally there – most times breaking older features that users have already implemented. They’ve decided to say screw that, let’s just push back the release, do the thing right the first time, and if need be “Add” features later. And sure, they’ll probably get scrutinized by competitors like Oracle (who still uses a date driven model) for not delivering the products on time, but I think in the end they’ll be better off.

 So I guess my question is what do you prefer?

 A: A date driven model where the corporation delivers on time but not always the best product

 B: A feature/application model where the corporation delivers a rock solid product sometimes in a modified time frame.

 I know that there are many other issues here, but I’m just wondering about the above.