Live Mesh and the Web 2.0 Expo from My Perspective

Focused on Bashing Microsoft, and Throwing Sheep

During the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco this week, attendees were allowed some first hand access to Microsoft’s latest initiative, Live Mesh.  Ori Amiga was a fantastic presenter, and was able to really demonstrate the power of the mesh to people that attended the conference.  I must admit however that I was a little disappointed, but not surprised, with the whole anti-Microsoft feeling at the conference.

Live Mesh is a phenomenal idea that ties very nicely with their Silverlight initiative.  It will finally give software developers out there the ability to create applications, and content, that can be delivered very quickly to every device on the planet.  However, even before seeing the presentation attendees and presenters in some cases, were knocking Live Mesh for its “Windows Only” support.  Yet when I went to the demonstration put on by Ori, he used a Macintosh to take a picture with his webcam, then used a cell phone to take a picture of the audience, and then had the mesh synchronize his pictures across all the devices.

Marc Andressen Could Have Been a Highlight

This was not the only area where Microsoft was getting negativity thrown at it.  During the Marc Andressen keynote, the interviewer seemed to keep trying to get him to say negative things about Microsoft.  When all his attempts failed (Marc actually was very positive about Microsoft and the things they have done, and are doing), he tried to push his buttons on Bill Gates.  Some of us travelled a pretty fair distance and spent a lot of cash to watch this keynote, and although it was pretty good, I didn’t spend the money I did to watch Marc have to deal with stupid questions about Microsoft for 10 minutes.  We all know the history, move on.

What really bugs me about the slamming of Microsoft at these conferences is that people are not encouraging them to do great things.  I mean, here you have a company that basically created the software industry, made the Web 2.0 Expo possible, and you have 95% of the attendees slamming them about their lack of innovation, and their crappy products.  That’s all great if they are making only crappy products.  Vista is a great example of somewhere they deserve to be slammed, certain versions of SharePoint, again other areas where they need to get some bad press. 

However when a company spends a significant amount of time and resources into building a great OPEN product like Live Mesh, we should encourage them!  Yes Microsoft has made mistakes during there run as the software powerhouse everyone wants to be.  They have paid dearly for it, and in some cases, still are.  Have you ever made mistakes?  I certainly have made a ton of mistakes.  It’s from the mistakes you make that you grow.  It’s when you don’t grow from your mistakes, that you are wasting away and failing.

What is the Problem

Microsoft is the perfect company to put together the Web Operating System.  You can argue that Windows was a Monopoly, but they at least allowed third party developers to create software on top of the operating system, and sell them for any price they wanted.  They also worked with any hardware configuration you could think of.  In fact, before Microsoft, it would have been impossible to build a software package that would be accessible to everyone so quickly.  Microsoft has learned a great deal from these experiences.  They are setup perfectly to create the next operating system.  The Web Operating System.

I have to stop and ask a simple question.  Instead of being a complainer in the next few years when we all step back and wonder how Microsoft yet again obtained another “Monopoly”, this time on the internet, why not do something about it.  Microsoft isn’t stopping you.  Create something revolutionary!  Be a purple cow as Seth Godin would say!  Everyone seems so obsessed with just creating social networking applications, or “applications on top of the social network api’s”.  How is it original to create better ways to throw poop at each other?  I mean its cool and all, and I love the slide shows and sharing pictures on Facebook, but, are we really harnessing the power of Web 2.0 and improving lives?

I don’t want to sound like an ass kisser, but check out these freaking smart people below:

• Kevin Rose is awesome, he created Digg, and gave the news back to the people!
• Michalle Arrington is great, he created an efficient technology blog that gave all of us access to what was going on in Web 2.0 in real time, and I consider to be part of the “Fathers of Web 2.0″.
• Tim O’Reilly is phenomenal, and the “Father” of “Web 2.0″.  his speeches really had meaning, and vision!
• Jeff Bezo’s saw the vision of cloud computing and created their Amazon Web Services.
• Firefox boy believed he could make a better browser than Microsoft, and now has huge market share where other browser companies failed.  He woke the sleeping giant and pushed Microsoft to try and innovate on the browser.

These guys changed the world.  Without them, the world would be different.  They had true passion for something, and weren’t afraid to try out their idea.  They believed in something, and saw it all the way through.  I guarantee you they didn’t wake up one day and say “How can I make money from the Internet?”

Why this Rant?

I guess I’m just sad that with all that brain power I saw at the conference, 90% of the people there are focused on things that are NOT REVOLUTIONARY at all.  It seems everyone is content with copying each other, and playing it safe.  So I challenge all of you, instead of focusing on what’s safe, creating digg clones, creating facebook clones, and “silly social applications”, why not create something that will change the world!  And if you are a developer, or creative designer and think you can’t make a difference, you are wrong.  If you are working for a company that isn’t changing the world, look around you, and find one that is.

I hope that the people at the forefront of the Web 2.0 movement wake up and start creating awesome applications that are revolutionary.  If they don’t, big companies will realize the potential that is there, and will take over, and leave no more room for innovation.  This is our chance to change the world.  Microsoft is changing the world with Mesh, and will have the first Web Operating System.

Let’s stop throwing sheep.

If you liked this article, please share it on DZone, del.icio.us, StumbleUpon or Digg. I’d appreciate it.