The internet is quickly turning into a presence aware medium. Rather than passively delivering content, sites are becoming interactive hubs of communication. Meebo Community IM , an in-page chat platform offered by Meebo (think Facebok Chat) , has gained a lot of traction lately. College Humor, C-Net, Mozilla, WB, and a slew of others have implemented the client. Other sites are rolling out in-house solutions. The New York Times released their own client, TimesPeople and YouTube is doing a public beta of YouTube Real.
This trend is a good thing. It’s streamlining the way people communicate and share information.
Oracle buys Sun microsostyems for $7.4 billion. They’re acquiring a number of powerful technologies including Java and Solaris. But what I find interesting is the acquisition of MySQL.
MySQL, the free open-source database, was purchased by Sun for $1 billion back in 2008 . MySQL is a textbook example of what Clayton Christensen dubs a “Disruptive Technology”. In The Innovator’s Dilemma Christensen talks at length of how lesser technologies, in low-return markets, have kept a steady upward trajectory eventually intersecting the major players (Oracle). This often times catches big firms off guard, only responding once it’s too late. MySQL is being deployed in more sophisticated situations, and could conceivably start to intrude on Oracle’s high end market. (Facebook is currently the largest deployment of MySQL).
Obviously the aquisition of Solaris and Java, at a bargain, was Oracle’s primary motivation. But MySQL was icing on the cake.
If the user has a problem, then the company has a problem.
The factor most closely linked to support costs is the extent to which the user interface matches the way the users think and work.
– Don Norman
Mr. Bezos, moreover, has become a proponent of kaizen, which means “continuous improvement” in Japanese…
For Amazon and Mr. Bezos, that balance has always been there. Experiments were encouraged, then the results measured. This combination of loose thinking and tight analysis seems to be very productive.
NYTimes: Curious at Amazon, but Not Idle
This seems a powerful combination. Solid metrics can be eye opening, but they can also stifle innovation. Cultivating a positive, failure friendly environment is key.
