tim o'reilly on alpha geeks
i saw tim o'reilly speak last night at our local chapter meeting of the society for techincal communication (stc, northbay chapter). the nominal title of his presentation was "Alpha Geeks and the Emerging Internet Operating System." he covered the alpha geeks thoroughly but ran out of time to fully detail his views on the emerging internet operating system.
he started with arpanet tales and the unexpected explosion of successful computer technology titles he began publishing. he discovered these publishing opportunities by extrapolating documentation needed by the rest of us from mind bending creative outbursts by alpha geeks. he posed an evolutionary principle of software development where hacks by alpha geeks, seeking merely to "scratch an itch," in eric allman's phrase, are the nursery stage of new technologies. some of these hacks evolve into mature applications. this transition is where o'reilly press discovers information opportunities, bringing just-in-time documentation on emerging programming technologies originated by alpha geeks to super users who will broadly test the tools and spread the word. the final evolutionary stage he posed is the transition from application to platform.
he tossed off several asides worth noting. he gave concrete examples of gibson's famous observation that "the future is here, it's just not evenly distributed." he sees alpha geeks switching en masse to mac os x. he slammed the the entertainment industry for their breathtaking technology illiteracy, and cast a harsh light on their petty lobbying tantrums. he made a wickedly funny allusion comparing microsoft's efforts to market active-x to a tragicomic episode from the ancient greek adventures of jason and the argonauts. he discussed bots and wireless tools and their potential. he repeated his observation about the dot-com flameout as the birth pangs of the internet age, as mentioned in his recent writings. then he ran out of time.
even with his time constraints, listening to tim talk was a great way to spend thursday evening. -wr-
6:46:37 PM 
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