tasty morsels of goodness on open platforms, developer relations and motherhood 2.0

Monday, June 27, 2005

the slashdot effect

when you're a developer community manager, it is a highlight, tempered with trepidation, to get your initiative slashdotted (as opposed to having your site slashdotted). only the hottest news, rumors and technology tips make the grade and are discussed in this well-established, boisterous community of developers.

the slashdot reaction around our recently launched eBay Community Codebase, an initiative i've been working on for months, generated a healthy amount of skepticism and snark. it is easy to become disheartened, reading through the multitude of negative comments on something i've worked so hard on, guilty until proven innocent. these firestorm threads can sometimes be trollish, sometimes inaccurate, but they are always provocative, current and authentic developer thoughts.

technical support engineer, bruce thompson, and technical evangelists alan lewis and adam trachtenberg, all responded with full disclosure up front about their employment at eBay, then with thoughtful clarifications about our open source licenses, new payment model and genuine intent of our open source announcement. transparency and honest dialogue, developer-to-developer, is the only appropriate response in these forums - anything that smacks of pr or spin would be flamed out of the thread.

i am proud of our new open source codebase. i hope our doubters will continue to watch to make sure we walk our talk.

Finally, some context of the reaction from the Slashdot FAQ:

Big corporations are what they are. They sell us cool stuff with one hand and tighten the screws on our freedoms with the other. We hate them every morning and love them every afternoon, and vice versa. This is part of living in the modern world: you take your yin with your yang and try to figure out how to do what's right the best you can. If you think it has to be all one way or the other, that's cool, share your opinions, but don't expect everyone else to think the same.

Thursday, June 23, 2005

eBay Live! #1

ok, well, it's really #4 - but it's new to me! Transitioning from eBay Developers Conference to eBay Live! The crowds are quite different. Feather boas, eBay tattoos and twirly hats have replaced the staid polo-and-khaki set. It's a bit like a Bay-to-Breakers atmosphere, except everyone is in a convention hall and everyone has their clothes on.

Mostly, I've enjoyed talking to all the different entrepreneurs, whether they are recent retirees or moms who started their own business to be at home more or the biggest coin seller in Singapore. If you ever want to feel better about the human condition and are looking folks who believe in opportunity, eBay Live! is the place. More booth duty and helping sellers find the right solutions for their eBay businesses over the next two days.

Monday, June 20, 2005

Developers Conference begins

This is my first eBay Developers Conference, this year at the Fairmont in San Jose. Besides booth duty, speaking and conducting a lunchtime round table about the developer community, I am excited to meet some of the folks I talk to regularly in the Developer Forums and Developer Council in person.

We're also keeping an event weblog updated with the latest announcements and developer thoughts from sessions and social events. We've also been planning the Developers Conference weblog for the past few months, and I'm very interested to get the reaction from our developer community.

Meeting folks I interact with online on a weekly basis is rewarding. Keeps online community fresh and sticky. Can't wait!

Sunday, June 19, 2005

grep le miette

tasty morsels of thought go here.

i admit it. you can count me as a reluctant blogging enthusiast. i've seen others do it well, don't get me wrong. but for most of us, isn't it a bit like a sad play at vanity publishing? like, trying to get noticed in our hyper-voyeuristic society of reality television and dr. phil.

good blogging, catchy & fun. bad blogging, worse than the real world miami.

hmmm. then again, my husband did just catch me huddled next to the tv, watching Dancing With the Stars.

so i'm puttin' it out there, and seeing what the universe throws back at me.