On Open Source and Business Ventures

A question was posted recently to the TTLUG mailing list expressing the opinion that venture capitalists locally would never invest in a business which focused on utilising Free and Open Source Software, more commonly known in TTLUG circles as FOSS, because it was such a risky venture (in the writer's eyes). The following is my response to that post, which I thought I'd share with fellow bloggers.

Sell it as risky and no one will buy.
The focus of any new business should never be "to be FOSS based" or even alternatively "to be closed source based". If one wants to focus on the promotion of FOSS in a business venture, then it should be a business venture for which FOSS is the business-sensible solution.

Building a business just to use FOSS would be the equivalent of selling doubles (a cheap, tasty and popular Trinidian food) just because there happened to be a free corner spot in Curepe (a local densely populated town in Trinidad where doubles is popularly sold). It is doomed to failure unless there are other credible business factors to justify it.

In the case of my "doubles scenario", one of these food vendors I know who successfully made a move from the popular location in Curepe where doubles is sold to a less popular location got it to work because there also existed a bar in his new location to serve as a population centre for attracting new customers. The reputation of the vendor lended itself to helping his move succeed as once word got around as to his new location, loyal customers sought him out still dispite the less convenient location.

Similarly, new "FOSS-based" business ventures need other credible business factors to justify their coming into existence. Support from a major market sector/niche to satisfy a need not being met currently by alternate software vendors/solution providers could be a strong mitigating factor. When I started my first small business several years ago, not only could I not afford it, but my target market, the small business in Trinidad looking to now implement IT solutions, could also not afford the "costly-to-license" Microsoft software. This is why I chose to implement solutions based around the use of Open Office instead of Microsoft Office for solutions requiring no custom software to be built and building customised solutions using LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) or FOSS built on LAMP.

The co-branding of a new venture with the "good name" of a well known vendor, such as IBM or HP or another major vendor who is known to proport open-source solutions could also help significantly. In the case of my first small business it was this, among other reasons, I believe that was a contributing factor to its failing, since the "branding" I had as a small business working only for other small businesses did not grow sufficiently for a sustainable new business pipeline (and thus income) to be maintained.

It is an excellent idea to want to promote FOSS through a business venture. But it is a terrible idea to simply start a "FOSS-based" business for want of having one. There must be, at the end of the day, strong, correlating business reasons to do so as well, if one is to make such a venture sustainable and profitable.

Comparing IT salaries across borders

An email was forwarded to me recently about a Trinidadian living abroad who was looking for a current salary survey for IT workers in Trinidad.
Having lived or worked in 2 countries outside of Trinidad for extensive periods (Barbados and the US), my first advice to this person was that a salary survey is not what one would need to make the decision of whether or not to work in a country.
Rather one should be looking for salary surveys as only one part in a "salaries vs standard of living" survey.

One may ask why does one need to know the standard of living if the salary is at least high enough to be comparable to what one currently earns in the country that one is presently resident, and at best some factorial higher than one's present salary. Here are several observations that may indicate why after they are duly considered.

1. A Trinidad based IT worker makes more than an Indian based IT worker, but not as much as a US/UK based IT worker if all typical annual salaries are equated to a USD dollar annual figure. For Trinidad I will exclude the Oil/Gas sector jobs as well as Government jobs, as I believe both of these are overinflated and eventually will collapse to normal market rates given sufficient time and pressure, especially from lower-priced global competitors.

2. As time goes by and competition through globalisation and offshoring/outsourcing initiatives heats up more from countries like China and India in IT industries, the salaries of those in that industry will tend to move more towards the India side of the scale rather than the US/UK side (unless Government intervenes to set local labour prices in some way, or Trinidad can offer something that proves a better incentive to India/China labour and negates the cost-per-person advantage Indian/China has).

3. An Indian IT worker, as an entry level graduate, makes a salary that is considered middle class income in that he can pay a mortgage, be married and support a family comfortably with that income. By contrast, Trinidad's entry level Computer Science graduates can barely afford to make monthly expenses at the salary one expects to get if not working inside the Oil or Gov't industries (if one rents and is not living with one's parents).

4. Given recent local inflation woes and the outlook that they will not subside anytime soon, Trinidad's cost of living is tending more towards the US side of the scale, even though Trinidad IT workers' salaries are expected to tend more towards the India side of the scale over time. This paradoxical movement would thus put an IT worker in Trinidad into a "lower middle class" level of living, vs a US worker who typically enjoys a "standard middle class" level of living, or an Indian IT worker who enjoys an "mid-to-upper middle class" level of living.

It doesn't really look like that much of a bold new world if one wants to work in Trinidad's IT sector and hope to live comfortably in the long run. This is, I believe, unless one is looking to start a business inside the IT industry that targets taking advantage of the wave of globalisation efforts currently happening worldwide.
Given sufficient incentives (from Government or outside venture capital investors to promote such initiatives) I'd say that this is one outlet I believe possesses the best option for local IT workers to make decent and sustainable incomes in the future and which can help in transitioning Trinidad from an "oil-driven" economy to a "services-driven" economy.

From Stacey Blackman Consultancy's latest blog posting:
“Do or do not. There is no try.”- Yoda...
...
Trying makes Yoda sad. Please be kind.

Even though he’s tiny, wrinkly and green, Yoda’s got feelings too. When you “try”, you shove Yoda’s priceless Jedi wisdom back in his face. Sources tell me his feelings get so hurt that he sits on the couch and eats an entire pint of Ben & Jerry’s Mint Cookie Chip ice cream. In case you didn’t know, Yoda is lactose intolerant. It’s not a happy evening for him. So if none of the other reasons are compelling enough for you, please stop “trying” for Yoda’s sake. OK :)?

Remember, the first step in any transformation is awareness. The fastest way to stop “trying” is start noticing all the ways you do! Then it becomes easy to shift out of “try” and into powerful action."

So funny, yet still so true!

Tip: Using SQL Server 2005 Stored Procedure to return the Top N records

I had a problem today where I tried to make a stored procedure to return the top N records from a table, where N was a parameter input to the stored procedure.
Apparently you can't say 'SELECT TOP @N..." where @N is the parameter.
A quick search led me to this article by 4GuysFromRolla which re-introduced me to the ROWCOUNT statement and showed how to use it most effectively in this case by saying 'SET ROWCOUNT @N" and then calling my SELECT statement to achieve the same effect.

The initial alternative a friend recommended was to dynamically build the SQL statement using @N as a parameter in the string being built and then calling EXEC on it, however dynamic SQL is something I was taught to stay away from unless absolutely necessary. This is because by its nature dynamically generated SQL would not have benefitted from SQL Server's built in query optimizer when the stored procedure's code was compiled and thus would run slower than fully declared SQL statements and stored procedures every single time it was called.

On Lisa's Leaving

Lisa De Coteau is one of the most famous and well loved folks in Teleios. One of the core team members there, Lisa's been in it since the early days of the company when the offices were non-existent and coding happened in the house of one of the founders. Lisa left the company this week, her new husband anxiously awaiting her return to Washington D.C. for them to start their new life together. We at Teleios were each asked to give one word to describe Lisa, and having known her impact on me in the short time I knew her, and her impact on Teleios on the whole, I had to say my word for her, "inspiring," was justified in every sense. Here's my short plug on why.

I am not much for having heroes. Real-life heroes are, after all, only human. They can, and often will, fail one's rigorous vision of super-human perfection with one very human mistake. I do believe however, that there are people out there who through their very nature and cognisant effort to be the best they can be and to bring others with them for the ride, become great. If one is lucky, one builds a relationship with that person to the point where they become a mentor to oneself in one's own path to being a great person. That is Lisa in a nutshell. A great person who inspires others to be great people themselves. I have not been at Teleios long enough to have reached the mentor/mentee relationship with her, but I have been there long enough to see what great people those she has mentored are on the way to becoming.

From the history I've gathered, Lisa came to Teleios when it was very new as a company, and instilled in the initial founders an energy of passion and a drive to acheive a sustainable work culture that persists to this day. Without knowing it, (or deliberately knowing it, I never got to ask her), Lisa brought the core culture into Teleios and stuck to a major rule of Jim Collin's Built To Last as the company grew: ("Preserve the core, Stimulate Progress") by pushing the founders to understand, accept, and integrate a "well-balanced employee" concept where all managers gained an appreciation for time needed for personal lives of employees in addition to the time demanded for work.

Given enough time and research to prove the idea right I would venture to say that Lisa ensured that Teleios was "built to last" by promoting many of the core ideas of the well known book before the book was even written and the ideas articulated so clearly. Her driven yet unassuming nature, her willingness to sacrifice, to grow and to learn from feedback of others, to introspect honestly to improve herself and to inspire others along the way to strive to reach their fullest potential would have me thinking she also demonstrated a shining example of "Level 5 leadership", which according to Jim Collin's second book, "Good to Great" is a necessary component for any company to make the leap from good to great.

In honesty, Teleios has lost a valuable teammate, mentor and friend with Lisa's move, but as a true Level 5 leader she has ensured that despite her absence the culture and values she promoted and enshrined in the institution that is Teleios continue to live on. My fondest best wishes to you Lisa, may you in your new life inspire in Washington at least as many people as you have in little old Trinidad. Au revoir!

Today is RSS Awareness Day

No, really it's true...Check out the RSS day homepage for more info on RSS, what it is, and how it can make your Internet experience a whole lot more fun.


I was made aware of this by the article on the Common Crafts blog who was pointed to it by DailyBlogTips.

To celebrate I've also integrated the "RSS in Plain English" video created by the Common Crafts folks and also available on their website.

I had one blog...now two?

I started a new blog today. I thought I would simply add it to the current Redditech blog of topics but realised that trying to get into graduate school to pursue an MBA is an entirely different aspect from this blog's focus of distilling technology and creativity and thus a different audience. It made sense to have a separate blog for these experiences to be shared.

I wanted to share this continually growing chapter of my life with the online community, firstly for myself as a way to judge a year or so from now how well I did at acheiving a set goal, and secondly to give back to future MBA hopefuls something useful, in the same way others have been assisting me with their words of advice throughout their MBA experiences. As far as I know I am the only Trinidadian who has started a blog on MBA application experiences. I would welcome being corrected on this fact, but until then this fact gives me a sense of responsibility to focus on both commonalities with other MBA applicants and particulars of the Trinidad situation.

I intend that the ReddiMBA blog's content will not be at the expense of quality or frequency of content for this one. I do still read widely on creativity, business and technology theories and specifics, and experiment with those ideas I can see integrating in my daily lifestyle and workstyle. I do still want this blog to exist as my way of distilling such ideas both for myself as well as others in the online community in general.

I don't ever intend for either blog to be popular, I don't think my writing is that persuasive or original as I am often inspired to write by more creative thinkers whose works I come across accidentally or follow passionately, to tweak their ideas for my own situation, and to share what insights I have on those tweaks.
If something I write one day inspires a future leader on his or her path to greatness, then I'd be happy this blog fulfilled its purpose. Thomas Friedman wrote in "The World Is Flat" that the new "middlers" in future society will be the great collaborators, orchestrators, synthesizers, explainers, leveragers, adapters and localizers, the green people and the passionate personalizers. I hope to be privileged enough to qualify for at least one of these roles one day with the continued writings in these blogs.

IT Outsourcing: Does Trinidad have the "something else" to become the next India

The title and summary of this Business Week article says it all:

"The New Economics of Outsourcing
Efforts to send IT work anywhere but Bangalore are taking on added urgency as costs of doing work in India rise and the dollar sinks"

The question to be asked is do we in Trinidad have the “something else” mentioned that businesses are now looking for?

I think we do.

Yahoo acquired IndexTools Analytics, now makes it free!

Yahoo! made this announcement to acquire IndexTools' Analytics Business a few days ago.

Eric Peterson has a great blog article on how this action makes a possible permanent change to the field of web analytics in general.

Come today according to this blog post the use of the tool is now free, putting it head to head with Google Analytics as well as
Microsoft's Gatineau

And there's still the outstanding deadline on the offer by Microsoft to buy out Yahoo.

It seems like the board of directors are either outright refusing to think in terms of a Microsoft buyout, or ensuring there's reason enough for Microsoft to make a higher bid offer for them to consider, and not a lower one as Microsoft has subtly threatened to make if it has to go directly to shareholders.

Will this move by Yahoo's board also reinforce their shareholders' confidence to hold out if Microsoft makes them a direct offer after the deadline date, or pass altogether on being acquired if the Yahoo board chooses that route?

Time will tell.

Things are happening on TTLUG

After the first meeting of the new TTLUG executives, of which I somehow ended up in the post of Trustee, I am totally excited with some of the initiatives we're looking to undertake. "Executive" is probably an old-school term for what we are though, we've agreed that really we are firstly the caretakers for the Trinidad Linux community's "de facto" group. I hope we can also become the model team for leading by example in getting things done, that will hopefully inspire others in the TTLUG to volunteer and also help get things done.

The makeup of the group so far is just the correct mix needed to get some of these goals done. I definitely look forward to learning a little more about each of these guys going forward as we work together on cool stuff for promoting the TTLUG.
While I've missed meeting one member, I'm sure his experience in other social groups in Trinidad would be excellent addition to the current team of "superheros-in-training."
I say this as from our "icebreaker" question and subsequent discussion I realised that I really do have Hawkgirl, Professor Xavier and SpongeBob aspirants working with my Batman personality to help uplift the TTLUG over the next year. What a crossover comic this is going to be!

I'm hoping my past experience in getting things done with Medullan , a high-growth U.S.-based startup, and the lessons learned there both in project delivery and in growing organisations can contribute to keeping the ball rolling and the energy high when the various idea advocates gather their respective volunteers and start brainstorming the plans for each of them.
I encourage anyone reading this post who has an interest in learning more about Linux (and by extension Open Source software) and contributing to its growth in Trinidad to join the TTLUG mailing list and participate in our discussions.

Can't make Google I/O? Youtube videos are the next best thing

I really want to make Google I/O Developer's conference. At $400US for the 2 days, it's the most affordably priced developer conference I've seen so far. As an example, Apple's WWDC (World Wide Developer's Conference) starts its minimum ticket at over $1500USD. Unfortunately, San Francisco is pretty far from Trinidad, a ticket there borders on $800USD, and nightly accomodations will range anywhere between $200-$300 USD per night.
At over 6$TT to $1USD, I'm looking at quite a hefty amount, somewhere in the realm of a years' worth of savings if I want to make this dream happen.

I'm going to try several options to make it happen, and then deal with the issue of convincing my new employer, a staunch Microsoft shop, to give me the time off to go learn Google tools.

The next best thing though is watching various videos on Google's YouTube channels. For the developer, there are the GoogleDeveloper and GoogleDeveloperDays channels. There is also a generic Google channel, as well as a Google.org channel for promoting their philanthropical initiatives, and AtGoogleTalks where they publish videos from the various guest speaker events they have at Google. One new community oriented video channel, the GoogleDocsCommunity channel, is geared at pushing community oriented content for using their GoogleDocs product, and also a possible template for future community oriented channels.

Don't get me wrong, I have no qualms about reading wikis or technical manuals to get ramped up on new technologies, reading about things such as BigTable and GFS get me excited about these ideas as well.
Seeing these "wonder" tools and products in action via video have a greater "get excited" effect on me that transcends the reading experience. It literally has me feeling "pumped up" about being a software developer in today's world.
I'm hoping the content from Google I/O makes it to one of these channels eventually, because I have found the past ones extremely useful in getting me up to speed pretty quickly on the new tools out there.

Microsoft's Yahoo strategy, will Google get involved?

According to the public poll on Mashable on whether Microsoft is still evil, as of today
56% believe it still is
21% believe it is not
20% believe it never was evil...

Google's David Drummond, a Senior Vice President blogged on the proposed takeover of Yahoo by Microsoft very early on. Google's code of conduct ("Don't Be Evil") would be lived up to by getting involved, which doesn't just mean to counter-offer. Ideas such as outsourcing Yahoo searches to Google will be pushed to have the effect of boosting shareholder confidence in Yahoo continuing to operate successfully and profitably in future. This in turn will not only keep shareholders supportive of the Board of Directors in their refusal of Microsoft's offer, but also convince them to vote against a direct offer by Microsoft for their Yahoo shares if it is made.

Yahoo has also been talking with folks outside of Google like the MySpace owners, News Corp, however the question remains as to whether they can crunch the numbers in time and develop the strategy to make viable a real counter-offer before Microsoft's hard deadline to Yahoo.

However, Google's leadership has in the past preferred the problem of moving too fast rather than too slow, even praising executives at the centre of huge loss-incurring incidents that result from such a position.
I wouldn't be surprised if not being able to totally mitigate the risk because of the timeframe involved didn't stop Google from pushing ahead any of their ideas, whether it be counter-bid or new joint initiative with Yahoo.

Microsoft sets deadline on Yahoo offer...threatens hostil bid

I just came across this headline on Google Finance
Microsoft sets deadline on Yahoo offer...threatens hostile bid

A related article, Microsoft threatens Yahoo with proxy fight, offers some additional information.
CEO Ballmer set a three-week deadline for their offer, after which he says Microsoft will take a lower offer directly to the shareholders, in a hostile bid to take control of Yahoo.

After the statements at Mix08 by Steve Ballmer that implied Yahoo was key to reaching critical mass in Microsoft's business initiatives into the world of search and advertising, where "search is the killer application for online advertising", this move is Steve's attempt at forcing of a response to move forward by setting this deadline and consequences for missing it.

The statement by Steve should come as no surprise to anyone. Steve Ballmer is after all, that good.

Plan to get in the MIX 08 this weekend

It's several weeks past already, but I'm only now getting time to get into the sessions from Microsoft's Mix08 event. One cool demonstration of their new Silverlight 2.0 technology, a new competitor to Adobe Flash, is the enhanced interface for viewing the sessions.

I've already blogged about my takeaways from watching part of Guy Kawasaki's interview of Steve Ballmer, which you can view for yourself. I'm sure the sessions I view this weekend will provide some excellent food for thought for future posts.

Steve Balmer already knows what Jane McGonigal just told us

I just took in some of Microsoft MIX08's Keynote between Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Guy Kawasaki.

This is what Steve Balmer responds on Guy Kawasaki's question of "What Drives You?"
"1. I love what we do, I'm pretty jabbed about Silverlight 2, IE8...
2. I get a chance to work with customers as well as the folks at Microsoft. Some of the smartest most energetic most fun folks in the world...
3. I enjoy a challenge, and with the scale of what's going on in our industry...the folks we have to compete with...certainly we got them (challenges)"

In response to the question of the kind of days he has, Steve again summaries it into three kinds of days
"1. I'm out of Redmond, with customers, from 7:30am in the morning to 8 in the night, on a flight at night for another meeting at another location, that energises me...
2. I like to call it 'The doctor's in his office' day. Every hour I have a meeting, energising, but exhausting
3. Days where I can think, write and research. Mine to dig into things."

When compared to what Jane McGonigal said at SxSW on the four things that makes people happy, it seems that Steve is in his perfect job since the only area he missed explicitly was "being really good at something", which his position as Microsoft CEO could attest to in itself.
From programmer to politician to pundit, may we all strive to be as well matched in our own placements as Steve definitely is.

Jane McGonigal hits the nail on the head with "What makes us happy"

I'm sick at home today, so as I've slept more than I could, I took the opportunity to review some of the videos posted from the SxSW conference. I initially wanted to see the highlights of Mark Zuckerberg's interview. Honestly I agree with TechCrunch, it was not as bad as it was made it to be.

In browsing the video highlights of various speakers, Jane McGonigal made me sit up and take notice.
In the video highlights of her presentation she speaks of the four things that correlated research shows make people happy.
1. Satisfying work to do
2. The experience of being good at something
3. Time spent with people we like
4. The chance to be part of something bigger

Of course she relates this back to games, so my local gaming friends may argue that they are closer to happiness than the rest of us. The slides she used in this presentation are shared on SlideShare.Net, another site I am fast gaining respect for (slide 17 has the points mentioned above).

These four things should also be guides of advice for two groups of people I am quite familiar with, the individual job seeker in his quest for employment bliss and the high-growth company in its quest to attract and retain great people and minimise employee attrition.
Speaking as a fellow "blissful job seeker" I can attest to the above being definite criteria in my past searches, and a judgement of how well adjusted I am to a position I hold. It is not often easy to identify beforehand whether an offer of employment will hold when judged against the above criteria, especially when an employer is unaware that this is what people are really seeking when they look to promote an employment opportunity's merits.

As I was once a member of the recruiting team at a high growth company, I see now how these words of advice could have added to delivering the positive experience to prospective candidate we strove for. Demonstrating the ability to meet these four human requirements for happiness to any candidate are paramount in encouraging them to consider an offer if given.
In retrospect, I realise this was already done to an extent.

If I had the chance to do it again though I would first post these four points on the whiteboard during planning of a recruiting event as a criteria for success. If during the event there were missing demonstrations of how any of the four would be achieved by a candidate's joining the organisation, then the planning was incomplete.

The problem I previously wrote about is that too often job seekers believe that a high salary is the key to happiness, which in turn hurts both them and the employer. On the other hand, employers as well do not see the root problem, and instead believe that higher salaries alone would be the key to a reduction in turnover. In the end, neither finds what they want. The new employee will quickly discover his happiness stunted despite the level of compensation received, and the employer will find himself with the continued high turnover rate as still unhappy employees leave.

On buying things online and the power of the personalised experience

A friend recommended this Best Buy deal on a Canon Powershot 12.1MP camera. A quick Google search came up with this better Amazon.com deal.
It just goes to show the power of the Internet for deal-finding...if you're not the best price on the block, you're going to be found out pretty easily.

What will differentiate your site as a reseller then? It has to be the personalised experience.

Looking more closely, BestBuy's overview page is pretty brief. The "related items" listing has associated accessories, but because I know it's at the end a website for a chain of stores with inventory I don't know if that's what other people are buying or just what BestBuy is pushing.
The presence of multiple Best Buy locations also indicates to me that I can go and try it out before buying to make sure what I see is indeed what I do get.

In this example, I am an amateur photographer, so I need the layman's guide to making a good choice. The camera is pretty nice, and I like taking pictures but I have no idea of what a professional looks for in buying a digital camera.
Amazon.com's page has been more designed with me in mind. The product page focuses on educating the viewer in terms of similar items bought, product reviews, customer reviews and related recommendations that link to pages that are just as informative about alternatives.
It feels less of a "buy me" page, and more of a "learn about me and products like me" page. One key element, the "What Customers Are Buying" section, definitely helps to convey this effect.
What it risks though is becoming an overload of information by having all of this information on one page.

If I were new to buying online, I think the Amazon.com experience would make me more likely to come back to Amazon.com to search for my next purchase of an item I know very little about. My personalised experience with the website in trying to learn how to evaluate a good camera has lent itself to that.
Since I've bought from Amazon.com before and am logged in, I'll also have personal recommendations of items that are closely related to what I bought or viewed. These recommendations are usually spot on in terms of what I would buy. The personal experience will continue.
To borrow from the analogy inside Malcolm Gladwell's talk on Spaghetti Sauce, Amazon.com lets now find my "perfect pepsi" in a world of "perfect pepsis" more quickly than I would with the BestBuy.com experience.

In the end if I choose to buy this particular camera, I'll buy it from the Amazon.com website, because no matter the experience, the better price will win out for me once the after sales service and warranty support are there.
If there was a Best Buy close by, I would also walk into the store to try the camera out before I bought it online at the best price. That part of the personal experience BestBuy has won on. I don't know how many other consumers are that cautious before making a purchase though.

What is the lesson then?
If I were starting an online retailing store, I'd remember two things.
1. The personalised experience using a website is a value-added tool, and not the magic bullet for making the sale online.
2. Combined with the ingredients that make a traditional store successful, such as best prices, after-sales service and warranty/returns policy, and technology innovations such as personalised recommendations that I agree with, it's pretty close to being a magic bullet for making the sale online.

News from the front

A shocking headline in the Trinidad Linux world today!

MS G.Gobin elected TTLUG President-for-Life

Some MSDN resources on C# Generics

I've been working with C# Generics recently and in my research found this article on Generics Best Practices. I highly recommend the two as resources for any C# developer who is either new to the language or the concept of generics.

Today's Microsoft Excel Blog written by a Trinidadian

The author of today's post on the Microsoft Excel blog is by a Trinidadian, Ms Helen Hosein.

She's also a member of the Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS) mailing list as well. Her modesty didn't allow her to toot her own horn by posting her entry as a link to that list though.

Congratulations Helen!