Ok, so I just finished watching Eben Moglen go “off” the deep end - on Tim O’Reilly.

(Not sure how I missed that. Thanks Brian for pointer.)

This, in a round-about way has prompted me to update me…and my stance on Google and Open Source. Really, it is just a retrofitting of my opinions ten years ago. I only partly agree with Eben Moglen on his policy positions. The commercialization of Open Source is the reason that he had that platform to flap his jaws. So, it is a two-way street. But, he’s absolutely right about the current media attention. “Marketization” of technologies (ala O’Reilly’s conference) is creating a strange landscape focusing on the wrong problems. Open Source isn’t about how a company can make money. Open Source is about freedom (including the freedom to make changes to source code and do whatever you want with ’em). Not saying this is right, just that it it is what it is…

I’d lost that in the past few years.

I’ve spent the past few months working with a load of new-to-me technologies to include Flash/Flex/ActionScript, Ruby (and Rails, Ramaze, Merb), XMPP/IM/OpenFire, Javascript/AJAX, OSGi and a few others.. Lot’s of stuff I’d never seen before. I’m really enjoying the exposure to all of the new things…though, I’m beginning to wonder what it is doing to my effectiveness.

So far so good on the Accenture transition. The only real problem was the hard requirement for Outlook. Before the transition I could use Entourage, or even Apple Mail to get my Exchange mail. Unfortunately Accenture has a whole slew of “stuff” they’ve added to the Exchange mix, forcing me to use VMWare Fusion and Outlook. I do feel a bit disconnected however - more so than before the acquisition. I’ve only met one Accenture person face to face…I’m getting the impression this might be the norm. Not complaining - I’m enjoying my freedom to wake up, and sit at my desk in my boxers - working (at least until I’ve finished my second cup of coffee).

Starting to get stuff together for the spiel at EclipseCon in March. We have a great story…am hoping people will show up. ; }

rVooz is coming along. We’ve spent the last sprint/spike looking at an architectural shift. The crux of the problem is how we establish the architecture to meet both SaaS objectives as well as deployable (deliverable turn-key systems) objectives. The end result is that we are looking at a Ruby on Rails web application environment that is both distributable and scalable - over our existing OSGi-framework (felix) model.

As far as clients go we are looking at continuing the Google Maps effort, as well as looking at the potential for an Eclipse plugin (for developers), a Facebook app, and a few others. We’re also beginning to discuss our next Voozer - with opportunities in VoIP and maybe Facebook.

That’s it…just a minor update. Next version coming soon though.