Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled

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• Passion and its role in evaluating new product ideas

  Evan Williams has an absolutely wonderful post up about evaluating a new product idea . I think Marc is spot on - the "personally compelling" criteria is the one that stands out. Last on the list, but probably the first question I ask myself is: How important to me is it that this product exists in the world? If I were evaluating a startup, I'd ask this of the founders. . . . In theory, you can get around this with lots of user research. (It's pretty clear neither Slide nor Rockyou 's founders are creating widgets based on their own needs and desires.) But you're more likely to get it wrong that way. When I've gone sideways, it's when I wasn't listening to my gut on this issue. Specifically, Blogger and Twitter were personally compelling, while Odeo wasn't. Clearly, you're better suited to build a best-of-breed product if you're intimately familiar with the space and "scratching your own itch". But perhaps more importantly, I think... Posted Dec 26 2007, 01:01 PM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Software Development, Personal, Business, Entrepreneurship, Startup, NextNY, Notches

• Distinguishing between a platform and a destination

  Charlie says that "the whole idea that you have a main site is dead". I couldn't agree more - I strongly believe that platforms are the future of the Internet. One clarification I'd like to make in this whole discussion is Facebook is both a destination and a platform. It's important to understand that these are discrete things - something can be a platform without being a destination and vice versa. Clearly, Facebook offers a nice API for integrating your code into theirs, but this to me is not what makes Facebook a platform. MySpace, iGoogle, and a plethora of Web 2.0 portals allow you to "embed" your code - Facebook just allows you to do it more seamlessly. If anything, these are all simply platforms - or rather, vehicles - for traffic. Of course, as Charlie and myself and countless others have said, traffic does not give you a business model. On the other hand, Facebook is getting flak for not being open enough with their data . As Fred says, being open... Posted Aug 21 2007, 06:15 AM by Tim with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Software Development, Web 2.0, Business, Blogging, Entrepreneurship, Startup, NextNY, Notches

• Google launches Google Apps Premier Edition

  As rumored yesterday , Google made a major announcement : a subscription package of premium, hosted business applications. (Man, Arrington's sources are scary good). The service combines GMail, Google Calendar, Google Talk and Google Docs & Spreadsheets for $50 per user annually. I still insist that Microsoft is well positioned to compete with a hosted version that integrates with existing Office apps. There are elements about a hosted Office that are appealing, but there are just as many that are not - particularly in publicly traded enterprises. Aside from potential downtime issues, you're placing a lot of trust in Google and its security ( which may not be the best idea ). No word on any plans for a self-hosted server like their search appliance - to me, that would be key for broader adoption and erase a lot of these security and compliance concerns. Getting back to Microsoft, I'm still puzzled that they haven't done more with Foldershare. By integrating this technology with a Office... Posted Feb 22 2007, 06:04 AM by Tim with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Software Development, Security, Web 2.0, Business, Microsoft, Google, Enterprise

• notch.es is hiring

  Notch.es is seeking ninjas . If you're a rock star, give Corey a call. I'm reposting the two job descriptions here. Don’t want to spend the next six months working under florescent lights on a corporate PC with no Internet access fixing someone else’s five year old code? Would you rather help build the next Digg or Delicious? Here is an opportunity to work in an exciting, fast-paced, collaborative early stage start-up with lots of room to flex your creativity and help shape the product. We practice iterative development; pair programming and have short milestones. We are looking for self-starters who are not afraid to voice concerns, take initiative and drive major subsystems. Corey will be at BarCamp NYC2 tomorrow. I have to work in the morning but I'm registered and will be there in the afternoon/evening. Posted Sep 29 2006, 08:32 PM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Software Development, AJAX, Innovation, Business, C#, .NET