Wak Oentoenk

Last month I went to a talk at the Computer History Museum by Ward Cunningham, the father of the wiki (not of Wikipedia, but of the general idea of a wiki).Wikis are a pretty controversial subject in the blogging community. Some people view them as one of the crowning glories of Web 2.0 software design. Others view them as a prime example of the moral bankruptcy of the whole Web 2.0 crowd. Generally Wikipedia is used as the example to prove either viewpoint.I'm somewhere in the middle – I view...

"If we execute appropriately we will be the engagement platform, or the layer, on top of anything that has an LCD display, any computing device -- everything from a refrigerator to an automobile to a video game to a computer to a mobile phone." —Adobe CEO Bruce ChizenAmid all the fuss and excitement about Web 2.0 and the latest speculation about Google's plans, it's easy to lose sight of the rest of the industry. But for most of the 1980s and 1990s, the marquee conflict in high tech was the battle...

Or, What I Did on my Summer 'Vacation'I want to tell you about a dream.Last summer, after the cutbacks at PalmSource, I spent some of my "vacation" (ie, job search) thinking about products I wanted the tech industry to build. That's what you're supposed to do in Silicon Valley, right? You leave a company, come up with the Next Great Thing, get it funded, and create a wildly successful startup.I got the idea part. Unfortunately, it involves hardware. Most VCs don't like to fund hardware companies....

My friend and longtime coworker Dave Garr just won a Webby People's Voice award for best personal website, for his online marriage proposal "Dave Loves Elizabeth." As far as I can tell, Dave's site was the only self-produced nominee in this year's Webbys, which really says something for his skills and creativity. Until recently, Dave was director of web marketing at PalmSource. He's now starting out as a consultant. If you want to inquire about his award-winning services, his e-mail address...

"The sums involved are so minuscule, they're not even insulting: they're *quaint* and *historical*, like the WHISKEY 5 CENTS sign over the bar at a pioneer village. Some writers do make it big, but they're *rounding errors* as compared to the total population of sf writers earning some of their living at the trade."--Author Cory Doctorow on the financial realities of being a writerMost people agree that the Internet and technology changes will make it possible to replace the pipe companies – the...