Saturday August 05, 2006
Saturday August 05, 2006 On the weekends - I typically take long bike rides. Great time to think and to catch up on all of the podcasts that I don't have time for during the week. If you don't listen to them - maybe you should. There is soooo much good stuff out there - NPR, PRI, CNET, Business Week, etc.
I rode a couple of hours, so I listened to three - BOL (Buzz Out Loud), NPR Science Friday and PRI's The World Technology. There was a number of interesting topics.
Can anyone make money doing podcasts and videocasts
Why is E3 shrinking rather than growing
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AOL's new business model and letting go 5000 people
These things really don't seem very related, but thy are. It is all about changes in business models. Who is making money, how they will make money, who the buyers are and who is being left behind. Things are changing at an amazing rate. Technology is driving this, creating new opportunities and enabling new competitors to emerge.
It reminded me of a conversation that I had with an Executive Advisory Council about SOA governance models. We discussed creating a community of customers to share best practices. I asked if they all would be interested in participating. All but one company said they would. Surprisingly - when I asked them why they were not interested, they said it was because they saw their SOA governance model as a competitive advantage. But when I asked if that would still be the case after everyone else shared what they knew - they realized that this would change everything. It could not be a competitive advantage in the future.
So back to the point. New technologies and communities change everything. If you assume the old models of business will be the new models - your competitors will pass you by. I believe Sun is in a good place given all of this. We are very focused on driving the participation age. We are committed to creating communities and driving technology into these communities. We participate very broadly. Our open source initiatives, our blogging and our developer communities are all examples of this.
I love the speed at which things are changing. I like where it is going. And I like our chances as business models continue to evolve!