Over the weekend I got to read and contemplate Jason Kottke's post A whole new internet?
that got my special attention because it solicited a response post from Mena Trott taking the bait.
Jason touches a couple of areas I'm quite passionate about and have been investing a lot of thought lately. So much so, that I'm dividing these thoughts into two parts. This is the second post and address a few specific points as a long-time members of the MT community.
In my first post I focused on how a successful application's evolution changes innovation and its community dynamic particularly as business entity with investors and employees. Here I drill down on some particualr points as they related to Six Apart and the community I call myself a part of.
Kottke writes [those who] were [once] pushing the edges of web design are now focused on making software that generates revenue and aren't saying a whole lot about it. That's great for them, for Six Apart, their customers, and their partners, but it kinda sucks for the community as a whole.
Mena points out that perhaps one of the reasons why Six Apart seems so quiet to the core audience of bloggers these days is because Six Apart wants to reach an audience outside our own inner circle of webloggers (the early adopters).
Noting a recent presentation to non-profit organization she continues, Maybe this isn't the most exciting stuff if you've been following blogs for three or four or five years. And perhaps it isn't anything new for people who read Mena's Corner. However, for this audience, I was explaining a new world – one which I hope resulted in the creation of more weblogs from the non-profit realm.
I think this is an important and often overlooked point that I wanted to highlight as I've been guilty at times of the same sort of think Jason expressed.
Being a long time user of Movable Type and friend of Mena, Kottke pulls Six Apart in front and center as an example of his observations.
Consider Six Apart as an example of what I'm talking about. 6A is like a black hole for creative people. Folks who, a year or two ago, were among the leading voices in the discussion of how weblogs were changing our culture, were coding all sorts of useful plug-ins for Movable Type, or were pushing the edges of web design are now focused on making software that generates revenue and aren't saying a whole lot about it. (Sort of ironic that working for 6A kills the weblogs of their employees, isn't it?) That's great for them, for Six Apart, their customers, and their partners, but it kinda sucks for the community as a whole.
Mena replies....
I don't buy the idea that most companies are creatively stifling their employees. While it may be true for some companies, I think it's far more likely that, as you say, people with jobs are really, really busy. Frankly, I know that when my heaviest periods of blogging came when I was unemployed or not feeling fulfilled at work.
I agree. The major of my posts came whilst unemployed and looking for employment. My habit sank dramatically once I took matters into my own hands and started my consultancy. I can commiserate with Mena's views.
I think Kottke referring to Six Apart as a black hole for creative people
is not entirely accurate. I don't see Six Apart sucking the creativity and skill out of its employees. I think there is a great deal of creativity going on everyday inside the company. What I do think is that it rarely escapes the company's inner walls and, when it does, not enough is really made about it. This is were the black hole analogy may hold up in their case.
For companies like Six Apart, I think its too their benefit for the creativity to be as outward facing as possible to the point that they should actively seek ways to promote and foster it.
People often misconstrue my motivations for not posting as frequently as I should. During the course of the day I'll get into a conversation about some hot topic and decide that I'll want to devote a Mena's Corner post to the matter. But, the fact is, I'll get pulled into a meeting about an upcoming business trip, will have to catch up on the email that builds up in my inbox, will need to participate in a meeting about future versions of our various products or will be called to handle the sort of situations that arise when you're an executive of a growing company and you're intent on fighting the good fight.
I can understand were Mena is coming from here and know it too well having been a manager in an Internet upstart myself. Still as a blogging tools company with a very active and vocal customer base that looks to them for leadership, this should be a requirement of some individual's jobs. (This is not just aimed at Mena) If they don't blog something they aren't doing their job regardless of what else is going on. If they never have the time or energy, then their workload or perhaps even the company culture needs to be re-examined and adjusted.
As I company half the size Six Apart ever was its advice I practice myself. (Now being such a time.) It is a struggled, but its one I hold dear to what I do for a living. Its rather worrisome that Six Apart seemingly doesn't.
Transparency is wonderful and we're constantly struggling about how much information we want to reveal. Today, in fact, we had a follow-up meeting about the release of Movable Type 3.16 and Shelley (one of our technical support wizards) raised the important point of finding the right balance of revealing future features to our customers and explaining to them when a certain bug will be fixed.
Like I said, it's a constant struggle. And, when you're competing with big guys like Microsoft, Yahoo and Google, I think we'd err on the side of opacity if keeping our product plan for 2005 closely guarded meant giving us an edge of these giants.
I'm not sure it is giving 6A an edge. I'd argue its holding them back and not captializing on what they've built.
For a blogging tools company this seems rather backwards and one I wish they'd reconsider and err on the side of disclosing too much. I see it as being crucial to their existing community and continued success against the big guys.
As a relatively small and nimble company that is focus on one space as opposed to the big guys, I would expect Six Apart to be able to move more quickly and innovate faster. If they can't, then they have bigger problems then a competitor potentially stealing an idea.
Mena asks, So then the question is: What do people want us to reveal?
Just let us know you are listening, thinking about it or have a plan to roughly were you are going with it. A wonderful case in point is the very post from Mena I am commenting on now.
