A Perspective on Entrepreneurship, Technology & Locative Dynamics

While reading an article about Canadian web start-ups I found the website StandoutJobs.com which “changes the face of recruiting”. A very neat idea that makes the company more personal and you get a first impression that is authentic and not the standard anonymous one. This site provides a good opportunity for small companies to recruit some really passionated and interested people. Despite that the job positions should be described in a little bit more detailed way. You don’t need passion if the job consists of 80% standard tasks, a perfect getting things done philosophy is more helpful in this case. This recruiting principle is not only useful for start-ups or small companies if you imagine that specific departments of a large company would use it too, under the assumption that they have the freedom to do so. Every employer can record a video, put it on YouTube and present it on their website. Just be more creative and authentic.

Once again there was an excellent speaker as part of the distinguished lecturer series here at the University of Waterloo. Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation and initiator of the free software movement, talked about “Copyright vs. Community in the Age of Computer Networks”. He has, in my opinion, some radical views about free software, copyright laws or digital rights management. But maybe this is a necessity for such an important position he holds and therefore some polarizing statements make people really think about what matters. Saying that watching Hollywood movies should be avoided if you are not absolutely sure that it is a good movie or avoiding all kinds of non-free software seems too strict and unrealistic. Of course, as an activist you are not accepting the current situation, you try to improve it but as an end user you would just punish and restrict yourself.

Authors (of software, books, movies,…) should be able to decide on their own how and under which licenses their work should be published. Freedom of choice is important and puts the burden on the author who should be aware of the consequences of using a strong copyright or Open Source license for his/her work. There are too many situation where no one license fits perfectly. In some cases it is the best choice to use a commercial license to make the most profit out of your product or service. This is your right as long as your users are happy and not too restricted in their capabilities.

Stallman complained about the big music labels and how less money is going to the artists. This is a well-known fact and hopefully these companies will loose their influence on the whole market. If artists would get more money if they offer their work for free with the hope to get donations and enough money through concert fees is questionable. For some it will work, for others not. Flexibility must be in the hand of the artists and the more approaches are tested the more successful revenue models will appear. Be it selling through independent labels or through an own website with micro-payments, two options out of a huge variety of possible ways.

For software everything is even more complicated caused by the manifold purposes and usages of software and the fact that it is intangible and easy to distribute and copy over available networks. Open Source software is easier too extend and distribute. You are not restricted to a specific usage of the software. Improvements can be made independently which is useful especially for software that will be reused in other developments. Essential software technologies should be available as Open Source, especially for the sake of providing third world countries with the necessary access. They need the knowledge and non-restricted software but cannot afford license fees. An advantage of Open Source software is independence and flexibility you gain while using it. Saying that all software must be free is a strong statement as long as there are companies who exactly deliver what their customers want and like to pay for.

Difficult topic with too many opinions and true answers. Be the criteria for the right choice a satisfied user who likes the software or product he/she is using.

My 2 cents.

It is always useful and interesting to take the time to do a review of the latest happenings in the Web. Read/WriteWeb posted a 2007 Half-Year Web Technology Report. The time period seems pretty short compared to traditional business sectors but the pace in web technology is still very fast. The speed Google goes with all its acquisitions and product launches is amazing. We are coming closer to a well-working, user-friendly, web-based office application including a presentation software and offline support. Google Docs is already a very useful and practical software but with some more additions in functionality and reliability users will be pleased to see it as an alternative to desktop office applications.

Facebook opening up its platform was a big headline and they are a trendsetter for many web application provider. More and more will start opening up their applications to provide a platform instead of just a single service. There is a high diversity of web services out there and a need for some integration point for the end users, be it start pages, social networks or bookmark manager.

The technology report does not state consequences about these occurences and of course it is still too early to do so. Thus, for the second half of 2007 it will be interesting to see the consequences of Google’s and Facebook’s decisions and product launches. I expect a high adoption and a growing user base for Google Docs and Facebook’s application platform because of their ease of use and usefulness. All in all, the user experience is increasing and this is a good trend.