Email to Dan Shafer
Dan Shafer is an old friend and is running CNET's Web.Builder conference later this month.I sent Dan an email, cc'd to Tim O'Reilly, re the O'Reilly conference before Dan's and the relationship between them.
It was a strong and concise email, with some strong language. But I wanted to share it with the Scripting News readers, because I think this is an important issue that should be discussed publicly.
An important note -- I am also friends with Tim. I know he appreciates strong opinions, because he and I have shared our thoughts with each other in the past. And O'Reilly has a great book on Frontier, and we're happy they do.
Email to Dan Shafer
Dan:
Today on Scripting News I posted some strong comments on the O'Reilly gathering of power around the freeware developer leaders.
I think it's really closed-minded of them to not include the Frontier community in what they're doing. They divide the world into two parts, along a very artificial line. Money isn't that huge an issue for most serious developers. It's as mis-directed as any overhyped idea that's come along in the software business. Things are much more continuous than ORA and company think they are.
I don't begrudge them the right to organize, but they blow off every serious proposal we make to them. They're ignoring the power of our software and our community, which is no better than Netscape or Apple did. These guys may have part of the answer, but they're trying to go it alone, and that should not get your support, if you share my view that what counts is what you do.
Their users deserve better. They're making them wait. It's bullshit, they want to cuddle up to the people with money, so their issue *is* about money. They just want it to flow a different way. Software software software, that's totally what counts.
As you can tell, I'm very passionate about this subject.
Please, let some other voices be heard at your conference.
Dave
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