January 2008 - Posts
I was recently wallowing in my usual firehose of RSS feeds when I came across a link from Heather Leigh's blog about Mozilla's attempt to poke at Internet Explorer by quoting statistics that say IE users are more likely to get, have, or be living with cancer. The firestorm of disgust and outrage that they have since been dealt is certainly justified. But what really bothers me isn't that the ads were in incredibly poor taste, and they were, but that all of the so called "stats" were in fact complete works of fiction.
In the past several decades the world has seen a huge rise in the amount of information available with the click of a few keystrokes. But information IS NOT fact. Information requires interpretation and the application of judgement. Facts are information for which there is actual evidence. Now of course you can say that facts change, after all in my lifetime scientists have discovered that the electron is not the smallest particle of matter. But those cases are rare enough to be largely irrelevant, paritcularly when you're just trying to find out who the heck invented cheese in a can. So then, as information overload hits us all sifting through the rubbish for actual nuggets of fact is becoming ever more difficult. And Web 2.0 is making it worse.
I read through literally hundreds of blogs a day, a habit that first started while I was the editor for TheServerSide.NET. During my reign there (sounds better than job), I saw first hand how information is misinterpreted as facts. In a blog post Clemens Vasters joked about a meeting with Don Box where a new technology was going to be created called BOA or BML. It was a joke, but Mary Jo Foley from Microsoft Watch picked up on it and reported it as a new technology on the horizon from Micorsoft. Okay, so you can say shame on her for not getting her facts right (or ever reading the post correctly) but the real shame is on us, because if they hadn't pointed out her mistake we'd all be wondering when BOA and BML would be released. Blogs are great, you're reading one now. But whether you believe what I write is based on what exactly? A perception of my expertise? The fact that I have an MVP logo on my page? Just because somebody can throw up a blog and pump out deeply thought out pontifications on the evils of corporate programming doesn't make them experts nor does it make their products actually sell (Yes, I'm talking about Joel Spolsky).
Another case in point where Web 2.0 is blurring the line between fact and fiction is the case of Socal Networking. Now I believe that social networking can be a valuable tool. I like looking at the recommendations in Amazon or Rhapsody from other readers/listeners. I've found some really cool music that way. But social networking is predominantly an aggregation of opinion, not facts. You wouldn't go to Facebook to find out how magnetism and motion are converted into electricity, although I'm sure somebody has an opinion about it up there somewhere. However, people often look to sites like Wikipedia for actual facts even though it has had numerous scandals of individuals posting incorrect information or information slanted toward a company's product line. In that sort of world, the loudest voice is the expert (see earlier reference to Joel) and facts are largely irrelevant. But even in sites like FaceBook, data is often fiction. How many articles do we have to read about teens thinking they are talking to another teen only to find out that they are actually a 43 year old dock worker looking to take advantage. A teen reads the age quoted and accept it as fact automatically.
It all comes down to who do you trust. Where can you get factual information online? If I put up a flashy website with a nice corporate logo saying that I'm an expert in brain surgery and get enough links in Google, I can post any sort of rubbish I want to and it will only be a matter of time before I'm speaking at AMA conferences. The ease of large scale broadcasts that Web 2.0 has enabled means we need to be even more careful about not trusting what we read. And Mozilla, well they're just idiots.
Last night was an excellent example of the pleasant surprises you find when moving to a new place. I usually watch the ball drop in Times Square on Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve and often thought how great it would be to be in the crowd cheering as countdown reached 0 and the new year started. That desire has been replaced though with what I saw last night. Now I want to be a part of the 700,000 member crowd gathered along the Thames counting down to 0 followed by an awe inspiring near silence as we listen for the tolling of midnight by an illuminated Big Ben in the distance. This was followed by the biggest, most impressive fireworks display I've ever seen, even if it was just on TV. They launched fireworks from several floating barges, at least two moving speedboats, and directly from the London Eye.
That was New Year's in London and next year I will be on the bank of the Thames, freezing my arse off with the rest of the Londoners to see this amazing show in person.
I am once again honored to announce that I have received a Microsoft MVP (Visual Developer - Visual Basic) award for 2008. Much thanks to Akim and Vicki my new MVP Leads here in the UK.
As I look back to when I made a similar announcement last year I would never have imagined the events that have lead me to where I am today. My wife and I started 2007 on the losing end of a bitter and expensive custody battle for two children who we felt needed our help. At the end of March, I wrapped up one of a seemingly endless stream of consulting projects, this one having me travel full-time during the week to Houston while still living in Dallas. After fifteen years of being an independent consultant, I was ready for something new. It was just about that time when a friend sent an email that his company was looking for people in London and New York. I half jokingly asked my wife if she'd want to move to London, to which she fatefully said "Sure, why not". That one statement would lead to the end of my consulting practice and me taking a full-time job for a firm who moved my wife and me to London.
Things didn't go well at first, the adjustment to living in London was a lot harder than I expected and things went bad quickly with the new job. But things are much better now. I have a new job that might be one of the most challenging positions I've ever had. We finally found a place to live and managed to get moved in after more than three months of living out of suitcases. I still miss my family and friends and also my dogs Maggie and Libby. But since coming to Europe, I've been to Spain twice, I've driven across the whole of France, and visited Paris twice.
Looking forward to 2008 it's tough to say what the year will have in store. My new job is going to have me hopping, but I do have plans for getting more involved with the local developer communities. I am looking forward to adding Italy, Greece, and maybe Prague or St. Petersburg to my list of adventures. And I am looking forward to a trip home to see family and friends as well as my fellow MVPs at the MVP Summit in April. All in all, I think its going to be a very good year.
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