The future of UserLand

Monday, March 26, 2007 by Dave Winer.

It pains me to watch the traffic on the UserLand support lists, because it looks like there's no one but Lawrence at the company these days. The person we hired to be CEO, Scott Young, now has a job at another company, PostPath, and it looks like a full-time job. But he hasn't resigned, and doesn't respond to requests for information about how the company is doing. It's bizarre because I am the founder of the company, one of only two board members, and own the majority of stock in the company. It seems he has moved on, but doesn't want to let those of us who continue to have an interest in the company take care of it.  

It seems to me that this is unfair to the users of the Manila, Radio and Frontier. I watch them ask questions on the mail list, and help each other, but what hope is there for the future? Will there ever be a new release of the products? I see small fixes come sporadically, but I don't know where they're coming from. 

So I wonder what the users think-- what kind of future should UserLand have? Do you think we should try to revive the company and products, or perhaps it would be better if we GPL'd the remaining software, and let the community try to take care of itself? (Note that I am in the community myself, I continue to use the products.) 

Post a comment here if you have some thoughts about this. 

Doc Searls pays for Radio. He says: "I have great appreciation for Lawrence's reliable and tireless help over the years."