Monthly Archives: June 2005

The New York Times on Craigslist

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What eBay Could Learn From Craigslist – New York Times:

…triple-digit annual growth rates are rare among major Web sites. Meet that rarity: Craigslist.

Exceptional, too, is the ability to draw 10 million unique visitors each month without ever relying on venture capital and equity markets. Or the ability to attain fourth place among general-interest portals without ever spending a penny on marketing.

Signal accomplishments, to be sure, fit for boasting in an annual report. But Craigslist is a privately held company that has no such reports, and no burning interest in the competitive fray. It does far more shrugging than boasting. Its management regards profits, which it has earned consistently since 1999, as merely the means to remain in control of its own destiny. Free of debt, it can do as it wishes to maximize what it calls its service mission without having to maximize profits. This is good news for its customers – that is, community members – and bad news for competitors whose shareholders are unlikely to regard community service as their own companies’ raison d’être.

…Craigslist initially provided online listings of local events in the San Francisco Bay Area, the kind that could be found in an alternative newspaper. Visitors were encouraged to contribute, and they added the online equivalent of the mainstream newspaper’s classified section. Software handled e-mail forwarding.

Unlike eBay, which is dedicated to removing geographic obstacles to trading and defines “community” along national boundaries, Craigslist thinks and acts locally, organizing listings city by city for merchandise, jobs, real estate, personals, events, volunteer opportunities and discussion forums.

..Late last month, Knight Ridder Digital announced its plan to finesse the challenge of free classifieds: it dropped fees for ads for merchandise posted on the Web sites of 22 of its newspapers.

..Data collected by Nielsen/NetRatings show that eBay’s page views in April 2005 grew by less than half a percentage point, compared with the previous April. At Craigslist, page views grew 130 percent in the same period. According to the company’s data, its traffic is now about a fifth of eBay’s. And the operational efficiencies are astounding: Craigslist has 18 employees; eBay has 8,800.

…EBay uses an elaborate feedback apparatus to allow strangers who will never meet in person to feel safe doing business with one another. Craigslist does not need that apparatus. It is for locals only, and it is the one place that can fix you up with an entire life – job, shelter, furnishings, lover – at one stop, with minimal intermediation.

Macromedia aligns with Eclipse

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Macromedia aligns with Eclipse | CNET News.com:

Macromedia said it will join the Eclipse Foundation and create a “next-generation rich Internet application development tool,” code-named Zorn, based on Eclipse.

“This is a big move for us because we’ve always used our own tools,” said Kevin Lynch, Macromedia’s chief software architect. “Now we’re adopting an open-source approach to build a new tool. It’s important for the Flash platform because there’s a growing community of developers adopting Eclipse and we would like to enable developers for the Flash platform to take advantage of it.”

For the past few years, Macromedia has been trying to transform Flash from a Web design and animation tool into a technology for creating Internet-based applications. Against heated competition by everything from existing Web technologies to Microsoft’s long-delayed new operating system, code-named Longhorn, Macromedia has claimed some success with the adoption by more than 300 enterprises of its Flex application server software, which is used to create Flash applications.

Now Macromedia, which Adobe Systems in April announced its intention to acquire, is taking the Web application fight to developers, many of whom have long regarded Flash as a design language.

“Historically, one of the challenges Macromedia has faced is that the Flash development metaphor has been foreign to people familiar with (Microsoft’s) Visual Basic and Visual Studio,” said Burton Group analyst Peter O’Kelly. “These people think in terms of projects and forms and code modules, as opposed to timelines, movies and scripts that Flash’s creative designers know.”

Influences – Wanamaker’s, the Mac and Me

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I was playing hooky from school, which I was apt to do from time to time. I was consistently on the honor roll in class – yet never did homework and only haphazardly showed up. A combination of boredom, social awkwardness, and lack of supervision drove me to cut class and do a rather odd thing with my time – explore the city. The year was 1985 and I was 13.

Getting around Philly was an amazingly cheap thing to do for someone so young and so small. Timing your run under the turnstiles for the leaving of an El, just before its doors were to close, or blending into the flow of passengers crossing between shuttle busses and trains, or entering thru the back exit door on certain busy bus routes – it was easy. No one stops a 13 year old kid in a crowd who looks like he knows what he’s doing and casts an innocent glance when looked at. They think your parent must be somewhere.

I loved people watching and one of my haunts was Wanamaker’s on Market Street. Wanamaker’s was a very upscale department store, still is in its current incarnation as Lord & Taylor’s (the renaming is a crime I tell ya). Folks who shopped here were of a different world then mine – the pace was slower and the faces brighter – yet they did not notice me as I passed thru, while I munched on a soft pretzel with mustard.

They had opened a display on one of the upper floors for the Apple Macintosh. Ten of them arrayed in a semi circle, in a darkened atmospheric alcove. A chair invitingly in front of each. The upper floors of Wanamaker’s by day were pretty empty. Quiet. And seeing that display – well it was like I was suddenly presented with the entire Star Wars action figure collection… well close. That might be going too far.

I remember the walk to a chair and sitting down. The effort it took to be nonchalant – important if I wasn’t to raise a stir with staff and get thrown out – was very hard. It had to be only around five paces for me yet it felt like forever. I remember sitting down. I remember taking the mouse and opening up MacPaint – and I remember drawing! A couple of store hands came over to watch – one clearly said – “he seems to know what he’s doing – I think it’s OK” – and let me go. I felt empowered. I knew nothing of computers yet here I was manipulating one and folks observing asking “hey, how did you do that?”. I think I sat there for a couple hours. I recall a tutorial to familiarize yourself with the Mac that I took. I headed out when the major shopping crowd started to shuffle in.

I wouldn’t own a computer for a couple of years later – it was a Commodore 64C since the Mac was way out of reach. But it’s impact on me was undeniable.

Rafe, I hope you don’t mind me riffing off of one of another of your posts again, but I found myself in the same situation as you over the book post – there were no books that got me inspired about computers – it was the computers themselves that got me hooked.

Some thoughts

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I sit here at my keyboard tonight, after cleaning out my closet, cleaning out items I have held onto for reasons I can’t recall: old magazines, pins, ticket stubs, pamphlets, phone numbers from I forget who, and even to manuals to programs long ago deleted.

It’s hard not to reflect at times like these. Holding something as simple as an old newspaper, memories can come back, some of which you don’t want to face.

It wasn’t so long ago I couldn’t have collected such minutia. I had to travel light. A trash bag filled with around two week’s worth of clothes was all I could really handle. How I got from there to here still seems unreal to me – even with all the hard work and struggle.

I’ve never shared publicly how I came to such a state. Shoot – I’ve never fully shared my struggles getting from there to here. I guess I don’t out of fear.

Which is sad really.

Here I am – someone who encourages communication – who is compelled to encourage it and build tools to enable it – and I don’t allow myself the same freedom.

TPM Cafe Debuts

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TPMCafe has had an impressive first week. Various top notch bloggers posted interesting and thought provoking stories and John Edwards even stopped by. TPMCafe is the new political collaborative journalism and activism effort by Joshua Micah Marshall. It joins the already established left leaning Daily Kos, MyDD, TalkLeft and the All Spin Zone online communities.

Question: Why can’t we just work together?

My life in books

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Even though Rafe didn’t ask me, it sounds like a fun idea, so I’ll join in:

Total number of books I’ve owned: Like Rafe I have no accurate way of getting this number. I’ve moved too often and given away a ton of books over the years. In our house, currently, I think it’s safe to say we have somewhere between 200 and 300 books. Edit: If I were to venture a guess on the total number owned over my lifetime, it would be over a thousand.

Last book I bought: On Rafe’s suggestion I bought Head First Design Patterns and I’m looking forward to reading it.

Last book I read:I’m in the middle of How to Be Your Dog’s Best Friend: The Classic Training Manual for Dog Owners by The Monks of New Skete. Yes you read that right – Monks! It’s an insightful book training manual for you and your dog. Unlike other dog training books – this one concentrates far less on technique and far more on communication – and that’s what counts I think.

Last book I finished: All too Human by George Stephanopoulos. A true behind the scenes look into President Bill Clinton’s candidacy and trials as President. I strongly recommend this – it was refreshing in its honesty – often times unflattering – and a real page turner. I feel as if I was a fly on the wall and learned much of Bill Clinton’s struggles with the press, with his past, with himself, and with the Washington establishment. You get an indoctrination in spin and that alone is worth the price of admission. I walked away being more a fan of Bill Clinton then ever, he’s a champion, but that might not be the average reader’s response.

Books that mean a lot to me:

  • All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum. Not a self help book, but the precursor to all those insipid Chicken Soup for the Soul books. The original is by far the best. I feel that Fulghum, thru sharing short stories about himself and reflections on those about others, somehow unearths the keys to happiness that we lose as we grow old. The book literally lightens my heart whenever I read it.
  • Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. A logical, compelling argument, not for the Christianity that is branded about by politicians and evangelists, but for the eternal story that is its heart. This book convinced me to pursue my confirmation.
  • Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Some people’s only exposure to this story is thru the movie and that’s a shame. It’s a short, powerful, frightening tale of a future that seems ever more like the present.
  • The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. How ideas spread, how movements form, how dreams become reality.
  • Third and Indiana by Steve Lopez. A fictional account of Gabriel, a 14-year old boy, who is caught up in the drug trade, on some Philadelphia streets I am familiar with.
  • The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen. Defined the term ‘disruptive technology’ and how business that are good at listening to their customers are vulnerable to it. Sounds confusing. At first take it is. At second take, well it will change the way you think about a healthy business.

  • To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. No book has ever transported me into its characters so completely. And it’s an inspiring, moving story to boot.

  • A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam by Karen Armstrong. After 9/11 I decided to educate myself as to the major differences and similarities between the three major faiths “of the book”. Armstrong’s book came highly recommended and I feel it did an admirable job for me.
  • Code Complete by Steve McConnell. This book had a huge impact on my work practices early on in my career.
  • A Prayer for the City by Buzz Bissinger. Live in Philly before 1995? Bissinger’s book is a page turner describing how Mayor Ed Rendell led the city back from the brink of insolvency and turned it around from decades of decay.
  • Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. Not your typical self help book. Seven Habits encourages you to think about our interdependent reality. Forget those inward turning self help books that urge you to look for your ‘inner child’. Recognize that you are part of a larger world and deal with it.

  • A Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. One of the only philosophy books on my shelf – its the book that famously influenced George Lucas, but don’t let that stop you. It will cause you to meditate on your life long search for meaning as it ties together the major strands of mythology into a single compelling story – the monomyth – that we attempt to describe in our greatest stories – again and again and again.
  • A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. The very best sci-fi book I have ever read. Pay no attention to how long ago it was written. It entwines a circle of life motif as a group of Monks attempt to ward off a *second* nuclear apocalypse – eons after an earlier one decimated mankind. Those that do not learn the lessons of history are bound to repeat the same mistakes. It will get you thinking about history, science, religion and our mission in life as it takes you on a great three part journey thru time.
  • Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. Terrific sci-fi. The best you are liable to ever read. Deep on many levels, though provoking, and a page turner.
  • Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold. For a laymen like me, indispensable. I bet it has something to tech even the most expert of techies however. As Amazon.com says, a book for anyone who wants to understand computer technology at its essence.
  • Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich. I’ve been here. The world she describes is real. And it is far harder to escape from. Want to understand just how different life is for the majority of Americans? Read this.
  • How To Speak Dog: Mastering the Art of Dog-Human Communication by Stanley Coren. Doesn’t live up to it’s title, but it does help you understand just what is going on in your puppy’s head and how he or she is trying to communicate it.
  • MoveOn’s 50 Ways to Love Your Country by MoveOn. Wish more folks read this. Wish more acted on its suggestions.
  • We the Media by Dan Gillmor. If you are interested in the intersection between journalism, technology and expression – this is the book for you. Like Small Pieces it helped to reinforce beliefs I had already held and to expand them to new places I had not thought of before.
  • The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything by Joe Trippi. Want to know the future of political campaigning? Of activism? Start here. A book that reinvigorated my faith in the Internet as a tool that can be used to pursue Democracy and civic involvement.
  • Small Pieces Loosely Joined by David Weinberger. He captures what the web is truely about – it’s so much more than just technology – and what it is empowering us to do. Powerful and heartening.
  • Small Pieces Loosely Joined Kids Edition by David Weinberger. I feel ashamed to admit that it took me so long to buy the full book, but this short, concise online version has had a profound effect on me. It is one of those special books that have come along to confirm deep seated beliefs of mine about the web and software engineering and has helped me to convince others of them.
  • Data Smog: Surviving the Information Glut by David Shenk. The prescriptions to “surviving data smog” this book pushes are rather weak – but what is so particularly interesting and powerful about this book is its diagnosis of where things were and where they were going back in 1997. A must read for those who have read the Trippi book. Read both of them along with Gillmor’s and you will have absorbed some well rounded views on the internet, media, and their role in our lives.
  • The Road Not Taken: A Selection of Robert Frost’s Poemsby Robert Frost, Louis Untermeyer, John O’Hara, Il Cosgrave. The only poetry book on my shelf that I go for time and again. Robert Frost speaks to me..
  • Effective Java Programming Language Guide by Joshua Bloch. Probably the best software engineering book I have ever read. Most of the tips this book offers are applicable in any object oriented language. A must read for a Java engineer.
  • The Bible. I’ve read it from cover to cover. But it’s Job, Psalms, and Matthew that carry with me day to day and which I read again from time to time.
  • What Every Paradox 4.5 for Windows Programmer Should Know by Mike Prestwood. Like Rafe’s software engineering choice, you shouldn’t buy this book. In fact, the link goes to an edition that covers version 5 of Paradox since there are no Amazon links to 4.5. Too long ago. This book is the book I bought at Sears to teach myself advanced Paradox development and it helped start my career.

Five people I’d like to see to do this as well:

Garret, Shelley, Bill, Dave, Susie.