RSS and archive locations.

March 22, 2004 -  The Platform Effect

A new essay that uses Clay Christensen's conservation law for attractive profits to explain why software platforms are such nasty wads of code, and why they don't really succeed until they are commoditized.

March 02, 2004 -  Commodity Software

A ramble on what I've found out while researching the process of commodification.

September 25, 2003 -  The future of shrinkwrap software

A bleak look at the future of integration standards. Is big software as clueless as big entertainment?

June 23, 2003 -  Sloan/MIT Conference

A short trip report on the Harvard Business School/MIT Sloan “Conference on Free/Open Source Software,” embellished by my own always-profound conjectures on the implications of what I heard.

One likely future outcome of the open source movement is a bifurcation of the software stack. Industrialized, patent-rich, countries may begin to exclude open source projects, while at the same time, countries with developing software industries (or just a lack of capital) may rely upon it and its related standards more heavily. This is not at all unlike the pharmaceutical patent situation, although software presents a considerably lower barrier to entry.

May 15, 2003 -  The Crafty Turk

Tim O'Reilly publishes my email. (With permission, of course!)

February 11, 2003 -  Advice to Microsoft

A sanitized version of retirement email written when I left Microsoft.