Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: scriptingNews outline for 6/4/2000

Author:Dave Winer
Posted:6/4/2000; 9:23:48 AM
Topic:scriptingNews outline for 6/4/2000
Msg #:17565 (In response to 17563)
Prev/Next:17564 / 17566

Edd, I want to approach this quite carefully, that's why I phrased much of what I said in the form of a question.

I don't expect much from Sun or Microsoft, having attended developer conferences put on by both companies, both present the company line, presumably to developers who know that that's what they're getting. I think in Sun's case, they go out of their way to be partisan and inflamatory, and I wonder how many developers now feel that Sun is leading a good fight against an evil empire, or if they themselves are pretty evil in their approach.

IBM has surprised me by being so active in the promotion of XML and recently SOAP. I keep looking for signs that IBM will zig to the Microsoft-Sun zag, but I don't see them doing that. Having Guy Kawasaki keynote is a pretty clear sign that this conference isn't serious about leadership in the developer community, Guy doesn't have much respect for geek stuff, it's a weird choice for a keynoter, but then Guy was the keynote at O'Reilly's open source convention last year, which left me shaking my head wondering what they're thinking over there at O'Reilly.

Behind all this is my strong belief that this is the year for XML-over-HTTP. These technologies will certainly be covered at Microsoft's convention. In my humble opinion, at the other extreme, it should be covered and evangelized, in an open choice-oriented way to developers who value choice. Those clearly are not the Microsoft developers, and perhaps to a similar extent are not the Sun developers.

But, the two conferences at the other extreme, O'Reilly and IBM, could benefit tremendously by offering a chance for these ideas to be evangelized to the people who attend their conferences.

I also think it would be truly revolutionary if Microsoft and Sun did the same, but I don't think there's much chance of that.

A bit rambly, but that's my thinking right now, and what's behind the questions I asked.

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