I just emailed Jeff Young of OCLC with a list of questions related to OCLC's research work in standards, metadata, and other topics.  He was very helpful in his responses.  I won't quote him here (I didn't ask him if could), but here are coulple of links to their research projects.  By the way, if you're interested in that kind of stuff, they have an RDF Feed with announcements.

ALCME - The goal of ALCME is to create a set of open-source tools to seamlessly integrate the components needed to build a distributed library collection management system.
ACE - Ace is an OCLC Research project investigating centralized solutions to personal collection management.
PURL - The Persistent Universal Resource Locator project that provides long-term redirection services for web resources that move around.
Dublin Core - That famous set of XML elements that seems to be popping up just about everywhere these days from RSS feeds to RDF files.
A former coworker also told me some history about OCLC helping on ground-breaking work with a major browser manufacturer on the creation of the love/hate HTML frames.

Just in case I haven't announced it before, I'm working on my own personal knowledge management "product"/system.  It has been a brainchild of mine for about seven years now in different forms.  Now, I'm more determined than ever to complete it in some fashion.  Every once in a while I lament my continual incompleteness on the project, swearing I'd use a similar system if it existed.  (Why reinvent the wheel, right?  I want to have a life, right?)

I have found a few systems that are very close and largely effective, but none with the feature set that I envisioned.  Additionally, with the newly emerging trends in weblogging, webservices, and other data sharing, the need for integration with other systems, products, and standards becomes abundantly clear.

I have been wondering whether or not to take the Lazy Web approach and just state my feature set for someone to discover and implement, but last time I checked, I don't quite have the leverage of being a regular stopping-off point like some of the A-listers (yeah, I'm bitter remember?).  I'm not sure that the Lazy Web has any business trying to realize my dreams, and I'm not so sure I have any business "licensing" my dreams to the Lazy Web.  Ultimately, I think that I'm way more responsible for this God-given imagination than I care to admit.

The other question is, even if I do actually self-actualize on this particular dream, should I release it commercially or open source it?  I've seen way too many designs get polluted (IMHO) and drawn off course by a lack of vision.  I'm not so ready to see that happen to a fledgling idea by way of open sourcing it.  Granted, I can still release my own upgrades, but the real power comes in a cohesive mind and vision for the product.  I saw a quote that said something like, "You can't perform a symphony without a team of people, but no team ever wrote a great symphony."  (Or something like that. BTW, if you know the correct verbage and source of this comment, please leave a comment or click the email link.  I'd love to know.)

I'm not sure I have all of the experience to pull off the entire vision, but involving other people means some intelligent delegation and compromise.  That could be painful before the inception of the "product."  On the other hand, that may be the only way to make this thing a reality.  Maybe it's too big for just me.  Maybe that's just one more reason it doesn't happen.  Oh, and by the way, I do have a day job, a wife, and a house to worry about.  (Sorry honey, I didn't mean anything by the order I listed those items, honest.)

I could sell the idea to an interested company, but I don't have the confidence that I could sell them on the idea, or that they would truly enable me to drive the process and realize the true vision.  Then there's venture capital and a business plan, but that sounds like a pipe dream to me.  And I can't quit my dayjob for lots of reasons.  A book that seems to be helping with a better perspective on this problem is Free To Succeed: Designing the Life You Want in the New Economy by Barbara B. Reinhold.  I've found some practical advice in it, despite some of its pre-bust attitude (pre-September 11, pre-recession).  But I'm ever the optimist, I think.

I admire Dave Winer, Jeremy Allaire, Bill Gates and some others for actually taking ideas and making them a reality.  I always wondered how it was that these folks got to pick and choose and make their careers whatever they wanted.  The get paid to think and write about what they think.  Man, that sounds cool, but who am I?  Sorry, not trying to self-deprecate on purpose, just a habit.

I wondered what those guys have that I don't.  I've got some decent experience.  I've got some great ideas and intuition.  I'm a great thinker.  I've wondered if a career with a research bent would suit me well.  In fact, that's why I contacted Jeff Young.  I'm not sure that OCLC's interest completely overlap my own, but it sure helps to get an inside viewpoint.  Thanks again, Jeff.

Here are some things that those guys do/did have:

• They're not new kids on the block
• They (probably) have had the advantage of getting in early
• They demonstrated leadership (by following their own dreams and ideas)
• They were able to take risks and live with the consequences of failure
• They were/are in charge
• They are action-oriented (why not people who did something about their ideas)
• They had exposure
  They got measurable, material results (revenue, mind share, etc.)

Nope.  I definitely don't have all of that.  Not yet.  I'm working on it.  In spite of myself.

Sometimes I hate being so vulnerable in print.  I consider retracting statements like these for fear of being misunderstood.  But isn't there at least a certain amount of required vulnerability in the admission agreement for the world of blogging?  Oh, it's probably not written down explicitly anywhere official, but deep down, isn't every blogger exposing a part of himself/herself for the world to applaud or throw tomatoes?

'Nuf said.