WebMink

Demon Banished [PhotoTravel]

Just a footnote to the cruise. First of all, I should tell you that all the .Net folks on the cruise were very apologetic when they realised how upsetting the complaints they had made turned out to be. I think they have had very little exposure to other technologies and have been living closetted in a very fervent mono-culture, so when faced with an encounter with the heterogeneous world outside the monastery (and this is something common to each of the religious communities I have known - Windows, OS/2, Java, Christianity) they acted out of character. Almost all of the people involved apologised.

All in all I would say the Geek Cruise was warmly received and I'd encourage you to check out future events - they are genuine learning events (even for the faculty :-) and usually also offer the unique experience of developing personal friendships with some of the most respected experts in the field being studied. In particular Neil Bauman sailed high above the disputes and discharged his responsibilities admirably (Maybe you should be "Admiral" henceforth, Neil?)

And the Demon? Banished, I think, I might even be able to cruise again one day. Maybe Mac Mania...

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Thursday, February 20

Caribbean Blues [WebTech]

Today we've been docked in Cozumel, and I've been laying low. I had thought to snorkel again but it's been raining and the photos would come out dark, and anyway I've been feeling a little miserable over last night's debacle with the conference. The short story is that after yesterday's lunchtime presentation, the guys giving the .Net presentations told Neil they didn't want me at the evening Q & A session.

The longer story involves asking questions about Microsoft's internal ethos. The story goes like this: I'm on a Geek Cruise, co-sponsored by Neil Bauman's company and by a company called Wintellect who major in Microsoft-oriented training. The faculty here are some of the gods of Microsoft publications - people like Jeff Prosise and Jeff Richter, whose names have been up in lights for years and who I have respected greatly for a long time both as engineers and as authors.

Anyway, my remit has been to present a meta-layer to their classes, talking about industry trends and directions. So I delivered my keynote on Sunday evening, where I talked about the past, present and future of 'loose-coupled' computing, explianing how technologies like web services, XML and Java (and subsequently C#/CLI/CLR) have been evolving the infrastructure for the Internet. In that talk I explained about open source - how it's a business model and development methodology, not a free stuff movement, and how it's well-tuned to the Internet's main-spring, the net effect. All pretty standard stuff for me, and scrupulously avoiding any mention of anything specific to Sun or in fact any other company.

I was surprised at that talk by how hostile the reaction I got from the other speakers was. Jeff P later explained that any mention of open source is felt by the Microsoft community to be a form of attack on them, so even though I had been speaking pretty abstractly about the idea it was taken badly. He and I understood each other pretty well, I thought, so the discussion at the Evening News round-table the next night went pretty well.

The last straw seems to have been the working lunch session on Wednesday. I presented about J2EE and web services during the first slot (about 20 minutes), explaining about the way web services has been adopted by the non-Microsoft world and how this now provides an intergation bridge. In the second slot I spoke for 15 minutes or so to explain the Linux desktop world that's rapidly evolving, epitomised by Sun's 'Mad Hatter' project. The Java session was scrupulously non-partisan (at least in intent & in my opinion), the second was more Sun-oriented as the case-in-point was Mad Hatter & there was no way to generalise it.

During the afternoon, Neil came over to me and said that some of the other speakers (no names) had been incensed that I covered Java in my talk and said they had asked that I not participate in the evening Q & A. We reached an accommodation. End of history.

Now, what's interesting here is the dimension it illuminates for me of the outlook of Microsoft insiders. This is the first time I have ever had other speakers approach the event organiser and ask for me to be removed from the agenda, and naturally my first reaction was to feel hurt, shamed and insulted (in roughly that order). I have gone out of my way, being aware this is billed as '.Net Nirvana', to be non-partisan and inclusive and to avoid at all costs criticising either .Net or Microsoft - only one slide out of everything I have presented has even attempted a comparison.

But the more I think about it, the more it resonates with what I have read in books like 'Hard Drive' about Microsoft's ethos being one of 'Win at all costs, and they are all out to get us'. It seems the automatic assumption of some of the other speakers was that I was in some way 'out to get' Microsoft, that my agenda was attack, so despite that being absent from my intent it was read in as a sub-text to what I said. Considering that the people involved represent the attitudes of the largest, most aggressive company in my industry, immune from almost every attack and even able to shrug off conviction under the Sherman Act like a speeding ticket from a small-town cop, they showed a vulnerablity and insecurity which speaks volumes of the way Microsoft likes its people to feel and act. I stand educated.

posted at 11:28 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

Wednesday, February 19

At sea again [PhotoTravel]

Well, yesterday was an exhausting day in Jamaica. I spent the morning risking life & limb taking a rubber tube down the Great River on Jamaica, through the jungle floating on my back and occasionally paddling madly to get off the rocks. The tour operators were great fun, very tolerant of their (large) guest contingent and encouraging people to play. At one point there was a wide and deep swimming hole and several of us went for a swim (some even trying the rope swing jump into the river). One the way back in the Land Rover, there was free-flowing Red Strip (lager) and rum punch ("you drink the rum and it punches you") and fresh oranges off the trees by the side of the trail. Plenty of fun, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

In the evening the Geek Cruisers had a cheese and wine evening, which was supposed to also include photographs but too many people were no-shows to make it worthwhile. Overall a casual day where I was finally able to catch up on sleep missed at the weekend, and get my presentation for lunch today ready for airing.

Today we are at sea, somewhere mid-way between Jamaica and Cozumel in Mexico. Sitting here beside the window the sea has a reasonable swell and is very blue - no sign of whales or dolphins so far. At-sea days are class days so the Geek Cruisers are deeply into .NET classes. I had the rare privilege of speaking about "Java and Web Services" at lunch time to the assembled throng; surprisingly no-one threw anything! Maybe the Guru Panel this evening will prove more controversial...

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Monday, February 17

Fishy Geeks [PhotoTravel]

After a full day of lectures yesterday (as well as my opening keynote), the Geek Cruisers have had a rest day in Grand Cayman. I spent a short time ashore (long enough to get a t-shirt). The island is very flat, surrounded by reefs - apparently one of the world's best diving spots, so I went snorkelling (hence the fish). Around the port is one big knot of tourist stuff, not terribly appealing. In the evening I led a group discussion which mainly focussed on the business dimension of open source - a lively time was had by all and we over-ran a little.

I think more should be said on this topic in public; there are still too many people who think that free as in beer is the (only) important thing about open source. I've written a paper on the subject, but as one delegate pointed out practical case studies and figures are needed to support the hypothesis that iT offers a better development methodology - anyone have any pointers?

posted at 11:31 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

Sunday, February 16

Geek Crusin' [PhotoTravel]

18 months ago I spoke at the XML Excursion run by Geek Cruises. While speaking at the event was good and meeting the illustrious speaker panel (Bosak, Bray, McGrath and more - the core team that created XML) was unique and memorable, the storm on the second day made me feel worse than anything else I have ever done and I had to leave the cruise the next day at Curacao to go to another engagement.

This trip is an attempt to banish the demon - another Geek Cruise, a similar Caribbean route. So here I am, sitting on board the MS Veendam, no land anywhere in sight, accessing the internet via a wireless connection from my laptop. Last night's sunset was delicious, this morning's swell hasn't managed to make me feel ill yet. I'll keep you informed (if you can bear to think of me in the Caribbean, that is ;-)

And the event? Well, that's '.NET Nirvana', a training course run my the well-known author Jeff Prosise and a team of high-flying .NET experts. I'm along to give generalist-level talks on several evenings and generally provide a counterweight! Brave of Neil Bauman to invite a Sun speaker on a .NET event (I gather he has had what would politely be described as expressions of concern from Redmond). Neil has somehow managed to stay in business this last year despite catastrophic cuts in the two segments that constitute his business, travel and training, and he remains upbeat and lively.

posted at 4:15 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |