zerosum dirt(nap)

There was a nice writeup on ReadWriteWeb yesterday about Montreal's upcoming Blitzweekend event. Like the Rails Rumble that we organized last September, Blitzweekend is another attempt to give people a "weekend to build a functioning startup from scratch". Unlike the Rumble, it isn't a competition, and it places added value on physical proximity.

Josh Catone (of ReadWriteWeb and also RailsForum) dubs this sort of thing "organized ultra-rapid development" and notes that, against all odds, this strange weekend-startup phenomenon seems to be trending up. This is really just constraint-based development taken to the next level, and the reason it's exciting is simple: it pushes you to deliver results, immediately.

Results, of course, are what makes application development exciting; seeing a movie get automatically reencoded after upload, a search query produce a number of restaurants in my area, plotted on a map, a transaction get authorized and recorded by the third party API you're using. And later, seeing your end to end workflow in place and your first user signup. When we see results, we get motivated to work harder in order to see even more impressive results. When we don't see results, we get depressed, we step back, we overthink. Our motivation falters.

Events and contests like Blitzweekend help give developer-entrepreneurs that extra motivation kick that they often need to get over the motivation speedbump, and an opportunity to gather a team together and just go for it. If you haven't tried it, you really should. In the process you'll find out if you can work with your team in the long haul, write some (hopefully) great code, and figure out whether or not the idea has legs to stand on. If it does, you'll have visible proof of this and will probably be more jazzed than ever to continue working on it. If it doesn't, you won't have to spend any more time wondering "what if". All in 2-3 days.

(It's important to have realistic expectations of course. Are you going to be able to build the next Flickr in 48 hours? Or the next Facebook? Nope. But you sure can get a nice first iteration out there and working. Every application has to start somewhere, and if the first iteration of your idea isn't ugly and lacking important features, then there's a good chance it took you too long. Short iterations can pack a lot of result-fu ninja punch.)

Anyway, I've rambled on for a bit and I'm sorry. We'll do another Rumble, or something like it, later this year. For sure. But the reason I'm writing is this: You don't have to wait.

That is, you don't need an actual event to prove that this brand of ultra-mega CDD works.

Take the last 3-4 days of this month, of next month, of whenever. If you're a freelancer, just tell clients you're unavailable during those days. Get 3 other people to do the same thing. Agree on an idea, flesh out the basics. And just do it, Nike-style.

I'm seriously thinking about doing just this, starting at the end of February, maybe at the end of each month. Anybody wanna be on my team?

I’m calling it now: Coworking spaces are the new startup incubator. No, I’m not talking about shared office space. No way. It’s different:

Coworking is a movement to create a community of cafe-like collaboration spaces for developers, writers and independents.

The whole concept feels very, very right to me. See, I don’t really want coworkers, just like I don’t really want a full-time ordinary run-of-the-mill 40 hour/week job; I’d rather be sharing a space with 4-10 other self-motivated similarly-minded freelancers, who split their days between client work, personal startuppy ideas, and OSS projects. Especially ones that can hack some mean code, or who have a sick artistic bent.

Of course, you need a critical mass to make something like this work, and people who can commit to participation. Those can be hairy obstacles. Coworking spaces usually develop in larger cities because, hey, they have the ecosystem to support it. The numbers are on their side. San Francisco, Washington DC, Boston and Seattle all have fairly well known coworking spaces. There are a number of entries at pbwiki for small cities, but for the most part, those links are just people who are interested should something become available.

Man, I’m jealous. I want a coworking space in my city. Hrmm.

Some git goodies, updates to both Rails and Merb, and other stuff this week. Here's the breakdown:

• Evan Williams writes about how to evaluate a new product idea
• Giston -- a piston lookalike for git
• Gitosis -- host and manage a git repo, with access control, easily/safely...
• RSpec 1.1 is Released -- with support for Rails 2.0.1+ and the new RSpec story runner (!)
• Rails 2.0.2 is Released -- includes sqlite3 as the new default database and an important fix for RubyGems 0.9.5
• Merb 0.4.2 is Released -- performance enhancements, etc.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m a bit of a comic book geek.

When I was a kid, I was a hardcore fanboy who spent pretty nearly all his paper route money on weekly trips to the local comic shop in Dover. I have no apology for that. As a technology geek also, I’ve built a social comic book pull list organizer that has yet to officially launch (we’re looking for someone who’s excited about comics and community building, no techie skills required, email me if you’re interested!) and I’ve done a little ancillary plugin work for the geeky folks over at Heavy Ink too.

These days I buy mostly graphic novels, but I’ve always loved the feel of a floppy, and back when I used to buy titles monthly, there was just something unspeakably awesome about ‘new comic book day’ and the excitement of pouring through the stacks in a local shop looking for that one key back issue…

Like most fans, I have mixed feelings about the digitization of comics. On one hand, I’d probably read a lot more of them if they were available (ahem, legally of course) through a cheap, easy to use digital distribution service like iTunes. On the other hand, I’m sort of glad this hasn’t happened, because it would kill a lot of the allure of it for me if the comics on paper were to become a thing of the past.

I imagine I’m not the only one who was both excited and, at the same time, just a little tiny bit bummed about the announcement of Marvel Comics Unlimited yesterday (NOTE: as of right now the site appears to be down for maintenance, coming soon). The basic premise is that Marvel will offer an online archive of over 2500 back issues online in high-resolution format, starting at about $5/mo. They’re also making a free sampler of 250 titles available to wet your appetites.

Marvel’s hedging their bets a little though, which is smart. New issues won’t appear on the Marvel Unlimited site until six months after their initial print publication. This is great for those of us who read graphic novels, and aren’t used to picking up books every week anyway, and it keeps the floppies in circulation. After a bit of consternation, I’ve decided that it’s pretty much a win/win. Of course, as it always is on the web, the user experience will determine the ultimate success or failure of the venture. The flash-based digital comics I’ve seen from Marvel up to this point haven’t exactly been the most pleasant things to read, so here’s to hoping this is an entirely new interface to the library.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to reading more about this, both as a comic book enthusiast and as a technologist. Welcome to the 21st century, comic fans. For better or for worse.

It’s about time, I guess!

So have you heard the new Radiohead album yet? What did you think? And more importantly, what did you pay for it? ComScore estimates that 2 out of 5 of you did. They released a study today suggesting that, during the month of October, 40% of visitors were willing to pay an average of $6.00 for the digital downloads. Click that link for the full details. It’s also interesting to note that US consumers were will to pay more, on average, than the rest of the world.

The press is having a field day with this, and opinions are mixed. The ‘glass is half empty’ point of view seems to be that, holy crap, there are a lot of freeloaders on the ‘net.

No kidding, really?

On the other hand, the ‘glass is half full’ folks point out that, hey, people are actually willing to pay for stuff, and that music on the ‘net still has a perceived value after all.

I’m siding with the latter camp. Official sales figures won’t be released until after the holidays, but shit, I think these initial estimates are fantastic. Moreover, I think they show tremendous potential for non-compulsory tipping for digital goods in the public space. Software and media piracy is only a problem because of how we perceive and hope to profit from selling media on the web. Labels don’t need a new type of DRM, they need a new approach to what they’re selling. It’s information, and once that information is out there, it’s free, regardless of how much you perceive it’s worth to be. Magazine publishers figured this out a while back, and make their money through online advertising.

What Radiohead has done is adapt, and prove that, at least to some extent, a donation-driven model can work here. Of course, public radio beat them to the punch by at least 50 years, and they’re not the first band to sell music online, but it certainly signals a big win for those of us who believe that all web users aren’t freeloading scum. Even if the average user is a freeloader, the point is that the band can make enough from their efforts such that producing art for public consumption is profitable.

Anyway, the average worldwide price for all downloads, including freeloaders, was $2.26. I’d love to know what the bands’ actual per-album net was on their previous album, 2003’s Hail To The Thief. I’d be shocked if it was much higher than, say, $6.00 (update: this article estimates that it was probably between $3 and $5 USD). Personally I paid about $7 USD.

Oh, and the album is pretty good too.

Not-so-random things you need to know about:

• New Ruby Logo Unveiled
• NetBeans 6.0 Beta 2 Released
• Datamapper ORM (add Merb, stir, & bake at 300 for gooey goodness)
• Git + Sinatra Web Framework (great screencast!)
• Using MacPorts Ruby and Rails after Upgrading to OS X Leopard
• Microplace (eBay-backed microfinance on Rails)
• Google OpenSocial to Launch on Thursday?

So Ty and I submitted our startup project's pitch to the Amazon Startup Challenge last night. Wish us luck!

The idea (currently implemented as a working prototype, albeit with a number of rough edges) has to do with micropatronage, a concept that is near and dear to my heart. In a nutshell we believe that content authors should be rewarded for their efforts, and we think we're on to a way to make that fun and rewarding for patrons too.

It's something we've been developing on and off for months now, in between various other client gigs and open source initiatives. We have no illusions about being chosen (although it sure would be nice if we were!), but if nothing else the contest has given us the kick in the butt that we needed to get back on track with it and formalize a number of principles in writing. Writing things down, and trying to explain them to people whom you've never met before, always helps to clarify your vision. It's quite amazing, really.

Anyway, I love seeing contests like this, even when I don't win (which is most of the time). I thoroughly enjoyed my role as an organizer of the Rails Rumble event we ran in September, and I look forward to similarly-minded events like the upcoming BlitzWeekend (hi Heri!), and even the more VC-involved "contests" like Seedcamp and of course Y Combinator.

I particularly enjoy following startup contests and events where creativity is a key factor; where instead of just implementing a common spec to see who can do it fastest or "best", teams are actually challenged to invent something totally new, implement it, throw it against a wall and see if it sticks. Hey, now that's entrepreneurial; it's brave, it's somewhat reckless (in it's purest form, anyway), and it's a great way to hatch new disruptive ideas in front of a live audience.

Some of the projects will be great, most of them will suck, but everyone will learn something. It's important to remember, too, that the "winning" team won't necessarily be the long term winner -- it's a distance running event, not a short sprint. In the end, it's all about development -- and I mean that in the personal growth sense, not in the geeks-behind-glass sense.

Of course, you don't need a contest or money or really anything at all to go invent something new, especially these days when launching a company doesn't cost anything more than the skills, free time, and a VPS. But sometimes a little extra motivation goes a long way.

Seth Godin is a nicer guy than I am (he's probably better dressed, too): I would have ballparked his quote a little higher. Explanation: there's a "don't waste my time" fee.

As a freelancer, this happens to me all the time and it's muy frustrating. I like hearing ideas, I like helping you structure your approach, I love developing solutions, applications, tools for you. I don't even mind giving estimates and free advice. But in order to do that, you need to tell me what it is you want.

And no, "just like digg but with/for xxx" isn't what I'm talking about :-).

So we just finished wrapping up work on the app we've been building for the past 8 months. Yay! It's part of a suite of web-powered tools for a certain niche video editing system. Implemented in Java, leveraging Swing, Axis, WebObjects... Great project and totally learned a lot, but sure am relieved to have delivered it. I'm sure there'll be a tweak to make here or there, but you know... It's delivered (rc).

What's next? Well, I'm not entirely sure to be honest. For the first time in my life I'm thinking about abandoning paid work in order to invest a couple solid months of full-time effort working on the Ruby/Rails app that's in my head. Perhaps it's finally time to put my neck out there a little and make it happen. After all, I isn't getting any younger, now is I?