Pimp my docs! - What I think about Open Documents

Although I started recently to do it, some people have complained, other have misunderstood. I must admit it: if someone did the same to me, I would have done the same.

I send my documents in Open Document formats.

Actually, I send them by duplicate. That's because Office (which is the offimatic suite most people use) does not support ODF, and I am actually interested on the other people to see it.

Why support ODF? It sucks. Lots.

I don't know much about its specifications. But it's short, and some claim way underdocumented. It cannot be implemented well in Microsoft's applications, and it has had very little reception. That's talking about the format itself, but for the software, OpenOffice, which is the main competitor for Microsoft Office and is the main force in the adoption of ODF also sucks. Their suit doesn't have as much as functionality, plugins, organizational support, widespread adoption, eye-candy, etc. Your call.

So, what drives me to support ODF? Isn't it obvious? It's open. And open means, among other things: 1) we are not tied to a particular vendor any more, and 2) we, as a community, can improve it. And open source has proved many times that once sucky products later become leaders in their market. And making it depends on us as a community (I am not involved in any manner in the development of ODF, but I am user as well, and by exposing these kind of things I hope I help it)



I am not against OOXML or other standards. But I am against monopolies. I am in pro of ODF, call it whim, call it open-mindedness. OOXML is far away of being an standard. Being used by most of the population is not a valid reason for being so. And world needs standards.

Oh, crap 2.0 - The challenge of making Web 2.0 services meaningful

I must admit it, I was disbelieving in Web 2.0. When these applications first came out, I kind of neglected them. I remember it well: my MSN space (however it was called) was a spam nest, as I was completely uninterested of what flavour was my classmate (incorrectly tagged by the application as "friend") party cake. I didn't give a damn. Google Maps was just a fancy toy. Amazon was just another book seller, and eBay sounded like a scamming center. The term WEB 2.0 then popped out. And it sounded like crap.

Then I slowly succumbed by them. I watched a YouTube video. I came to a link to someone's de.licio.us. Someone told me about Twitter. And I liked them.

The reason I am posting this is because I always disliked Facebook, until I started using it. All started, ironically, with a costest for Facebook application, in which I decided to give a shot. I didn't know anything about Facebook, except those annoying requests for giving hugs to people I did not even know, and those emails pushing me to block or concede.

Filtering the good contents of each site is quite a challenge. I know, the model of the long tail tells us that no matter what you do, you will always have crappy contents. But the garbage of one person is the treasure of another. The most those sites can do is to provide us a personal way to filter it. Some of them do it really well, while others have to improve it.

By Wordle

I still dismiss many many sites. I had to block I-don't-know-how-many join requests from social network sites that I am not really interested in. Until I know they are useful, I have more than enough with my Facebook (and probably a couple of sites more that I don't remember and I won't ever visit again). But all these "fancy tools" have an added-value hidden somewhere all those things you may not like. Try them before discarding them. You will be surprised on how useful you can make them be.

This blog is going to fail (Interview with David Weekly)

As died my past two blogs. Seriously, it doesn't even has a theme. I don't update it regularly, and if three people know about it it's more than I would have expected.

And it's OK.

It's incredible what it takes to realize that failing is OK, and the important thing is trying. Keep trying. Always.

Today I had the incredible chance to meet David Weekly and César Salazar who came to University to give a talk about innovation and entrepreneurship.

David is president of PBWiki, advisor and consultant of many other companies, and, with some forgiveness of him I hope, a big, big failure. He has the record for the fastest failure of a Web 2.0 company, just a few more than 10 days! And he allegedly confessed us so many other failures he had. Fortunately, there wasn't a river and a boulder near him. Now he is a very, very successful person.

Again, what took him to the very high of Silicon Valley is that he kept on trying, and learned to manage failure. Which is a good thing in a rapid changing world. Technology is cheaper and better every time, so you can prototype really fast and really cheap, then make a proof of concept. If your idea is good, keep it and refine it. If it is bad, throw it and start again. Don't wait until you have the infrastructure for one million users, until that amazing web designer accidentally visits your LinkedIn profile and decides to work with you, until you have finished your University as if a paper is a requisite. Innovation is about getting things done.

The managing paradigm changes too. You have to innovate management, too. Be a little more permissive, take risks, manage collective expectations, ask for feedback, enforce criticism. "Yes" people contribute nothing. Document everything. Don't be afraid to fire people. Hire people to do things you do not do well, and hire smarter people than you. Hire people which do useful things for fun. Always remember your worker is a living person, don't try to make them split in two. Praise good work, always listen to your team, appreciate suggestions.



Unfortunately, there's no manual, so it's a matter of trial (and of course, the inevitable error). Starting a company is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. With a little of luck, you won't need to sweat more than necessary. But always bring your deodorant with you.

Now, I would save this blog and make it work. Or I would make it fail, quickly. I'll keep you updated... or not.

Random name picker à la Mozilla

Naming projects is not something trivial for me, nor for most of the teams I work with. We like the way Mozilla has named its products (and their respective rebrandings), elemental animals, so here's a little application to help you (and mainly, us) to choose a name.