All I Want For Christmas Is To Save the Web
A peanut from Snoopy wanted a dog for Christmas. I wanted to save the web for Christmas. Save the Web Save the World.
Like any superheroes, I face the Villians who get me into the geek superhero business. Like Spiderman, one lose love interest for the greater cause for the web. It takes me a long time waiting for the right time to break the silence, not to interrupt the stock market. My words are taking seriously by leaders and some unwanted attention from investors around the globe.
I was pissed when I saw the blog post from Webguild on Google status on contractors, dated on Nov 23, 2008. This single blog post was picked up by press immediately following by Wall Street. It was an unnecessary negative out-dated news published in inappropriate times with inappropriate photo. This blog post sent the stock to rock bottom. This blog post was published during the most critical few days when our White House was bumping millions to restore the confidence of stock market. Google stock has been seriously punished by this single blog post. I urge those smart and intelligent Wall Street Analysts to disregard this blog post in your analysis and stock evaluation. It was a very irresponsible post with intention to hurt a good company stock value in critical times. It is important that Google is being evaluated fairly based on good fundamental values. Google is our backbone of Silicon Valley.
Another web landmark we must save is Yahoo. Yahoo is being under valued for its potential. Yahoo has the most potential to find its way to the top like Britney Spears. As geek superhero, I was called upon to help the falling celebrity Britney Spears back in Apr last year. At the time, no one is certain that Britney Spears’s condition is well enough to get back to the top. As one of the behind the scene core members in building Spear’s web 2.0 social media strategy, I wrote very long length emails to Yahoo Developer Network and explained why Britney Spears should be saved. Yahoo quietly alerted units including Media from Santa Monica. Britney Spears made the first break becoming the no.1 Yahoo! Buzz for her come back. This break helped Spears in TV coverage and restored confidence in her popularity. Do not underestimate what Yahoo Developer Network can do.
Yahoo is sort of like Britney Spears at her falling times. Too many outsiders beat up Yahoo with magnifying lens. If we all come together to give Yahoo the breaking room and to welcome Yahoo’s come back, it is not too difficult for Yahoo to get back to $15-$20 range and to $20-$25 range. Yahoo may be strong enough to absorb and provide exits for struggling web 2.0 startups. If the public is giving Britney Spears the break, I urge the public and government to give the same break to Yahoo. Allow Yahoo to recover and get back to the top. Rescue Yahoo will rescue the remaining Silicon Valley.
Some VCs are hoping that our government to invest in basic research and the next big thing like the web and browser. This is a distant hope while our government is too busy fixing multiple falling industries. Massive layoffs in tech industry are not long term healthy paths for Silicon Valley. Web standards and our browsers are getting too old for the next technology quantum leap. W3C should consider rapid CSS4 & CSS5 development. It’s time to shift more work and power to CSS away from the JavaScript hacks. Allow CSS to carry more weight with lighter footprint and to support for a wider range of non-desktop browsers. Allow CSS to style gesture-based, multi-media, animation, location-based actions.
I believe the leadership behind CSS standard is strong enough to move our Web Standard forward in W3C. The leaders behind JavaScript Standard are spending too much time debating like our congress. When will those JavaScript Jedi stop debating at court and start taking out their lightsabers to improve JavaScript?
Ten years ago, W2K lifted up our local economy with significant IT spending. Now it’s time our browsers and standards to go forward quicker rather than afraid of breaking the web. Breaking the web is not so bad if it lifts the world economy, putting more developers back to work. It’s time to give up IE engine. A car mechanic can tell you that you can’t fix or expect an old car to perform well on an old engine.
2-3 years ago Apple was invited to join our Browser Wars discussion panel. Behind the scenes, I urged the browser leaders to consider the importance of mobile browsers and how important it is to allow developers to build over mobile platform. Apple was actively listening while they were quietly working on Safari on iPhone. Apple addressed the navigation challenge on mobile screen by introducing touch screen user experience. I believe Apple will continue to build their success on and beyond iphone. The next natural steps are building mobile devices similar to Star Trek “PADD” (Personal Access Display Device), a hand-held computer interface with touch screen. Something it can be used to replace books/manuals and plugged into household consumer products, hospitals, transportation and public stations.
Social networking standards are quickly adopting the virtual currency on virtual goods and services. Companies shouldn’t ignore and neglect the social network infrastructure, regardless of cost saving and layoff. The next steps to bring healthy economy to Silicon Valley are to add buyer and seller communities over social graph with micropayment and e-commerce platform. It’s time to replace the old, inefficient and expensive Auction model.
After checking my favorite Feng Shui Master’s guide book, I am revealing some details here to assist the Silicon Valley with my interpretations. There will be up lifts around April and August in year 2009. Work smart now to capture these 2 mild jumps. The worst is not over yet. The recession will be lingering around 3 years until 2011 breakout from trends. Big companies collapse will create more opportunities for many unknown small businesses to gain new grounds. Our newly elected President has one year of good luck. The rest we would have to figure out without relying on the President too much. Any innovation or improvement to reduce the desktop and server energy consumption will create more harmony. This includes practices and standards reduce no. lines of codes, http requests, bandwidth, browser hacks. Accelerate the mobile development and mobile commerce are another approach. Moving forward with Star Trek “PADD” type of mobile device production and development are good directions. These directions align the expected reforms on publishing and education.
We tend to forget the power of love – the love to our country, our community, friends, family and self. To heal the historic economy depression, love is the medicine. Love has the unparallel strength to overcome any technical and economic challenges ahead of us in Silicon Valley. Save the web Save the world.
Happy Valentine!
Bess
Founder of Silicon Valley Web Builder (SVWB)
The Matrix of AJAX Revolutions: JQuery, Dojo, YUI, GWT, and MooTools
Plus
State of Job Market and Best / Worst Strategies
Tom Zhang, Google Senior Recruiter
7:00pm (10 min)
Discussion Panelists:
Dylan Schiemann, Co-creator of Dojo Toolkit, CEO at SitePen, Co-Founder at Comet Daily
Yehuda Katz, JQuery Contributor and Engineering Manager at Engine Yard
Adam Moore, Architect of YUI and founding engineers at Yahoo
Fred Sauer, Developer Advocate at Google, GWT contributor, Author of gwt-dnd, gwt-log and gwt-voices
Tom Occhino, Contributing Developer at MooTools
Moderator: Michael Carter, Silicon Valley JavaScript Meetup Leader
Date: 2/18/09 Wed
Time: 7:00pm-9:00pm
Location: Google Campus
Address: Room Kiev in Building 40, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043
Address: Bodega Bay Room 1950 Charleston Rd, Mountain View, CA 94043
6:00pm – 7:00pm – Social Hour
7:00pm – 7:15pm – Announcements and Google Recruiter
7:15pm – 8:30pm – Panel
8:30pm – 8:45pm – Q&A
Registration: http://matrixajax.eventbrite.com
Food & Drink: Sponsored by Google
6:00-7:00 PM Social Hours & Job Announcement
Note: I am giving open invitation here to any corporate recruiters and hiring managers to attend this social hour to announce job openings. This is a last minute effort to help our web community.
