10 Nov 1998 Copyright, 1998, Max K. Goff, all rights reserved
I'm in Zurich, waiting for my connecting flight to Barcelona. It's overcast here today. London was mixed weather; sunny mornings with a few afternoon showers. I think Barcelona should be nice. I've never been there.There were over 600 attendees at the London show. This was the second Technology Road Show that my group at Sun has sponsored. The Technology Evangelism team got started a little over a year ago. In that time I've become a Delta Gold Medallion member (over 60K miles/year) and spoken to probably 5000 developers at 30 different events. The Road Shows are by far the most fun events, as we're a geographically dispersed group, and actually seeing each other is something that only seems to happen a few times each year. With the Road Shows, I think we become more of a team. We support and learn about each other, have a whole lot of fun, and travel to interesting places. And we get paid for advocating something that we all strongly believe in: Java.
"Evangelism" is an interesting term for what we do. The religious connotations generally bring a smile to people's faces when you tell them. I met Spike Lee once on a flight from New York to Dallas, and I remember the confused look on his face when I gave him my business card. In truth, I wasn't trying to convince him that Java was the only really compelling platform of choice for software development ; I wanted to pitch him on a couple of film ideas of mine (the actor in me, you know). He hasn't called me to date, so I don't suppose he'll be taking me up on my offer to buy him dinner if I can pitch him a couple ideas (but the offer's still on, Spike, if you happen to see this. :) In any event, I game him a business card, and when he asked me what a Technology Evangelist does, I told him, "I preach god's word." Naturally, I meant that as tounge-in-cheek. But I don't think he got the joke. Upon reflection, I guess I can't expect him to.
Software developers live in a cloistered world. We have our own languages in a very literal sense. Acronyms to componentize complex abstract concepts, programming languagisms, computer analogies, and an industry specific shared history. I believe that I often fail to appreciate what babble it must sound like to the uninitiated. Unless you've spent a few years in the trenches, (or cubes, as the case may be), you simply will not understand the language spoken at software developer events, even though it may sound, at times, deceptively like English. A dialect of English, perhaps ...geek speak.
Linux was the emotional apex in London. The Halloween memos have been digested by the Linux community (which is probably more pervasive in Europe than the US today -- but that's changing), and there's a feeling of pride here. A feeling of purpose. We, the hacker community, see the fear and loathing coming out of Redmond. The Halloween memos validate our worst suspicions and give credence to the cause. Yes, there is hope. If Redmond fears Linux, and Java is still a threat despite their best efforts to fracture the platform, the combination of Linux and Java has got to be terrifying. With the announcement of the JDK1.2 port to Linux, the landscape shifts once again. And if the Linux development community elects to embrace Java development, the only viable path for Redmond would be proprietary protocols tied to bloatware as the Halloween memos infer. Mr. Gates may attempt to "Balkanize" the internet -- divide the global internet pie. The MS-Internet, and the rest of the Internet. and never the twain shall meet. To a some extent, that's already the case. Some sites simply won't work with Netscape. And Internet Explodergets heartburn on some sites as well -- generally the two break at a different set of sites, mutually exclusive. Interesting? I've lost track of the acquisitions made by Gates that would imply a forced proprietary interface to many of the classic works of our species.
But yet, there is hope. Linux proves it. Sun's getting the message. There is hope. I stood up in London and preached god's word, Java, and the Jini story. And for the first time I said something very religious but in all seriousness. I said that I believe that if there is hope for mankind, it is through software. If we are to survive, if we are to somehow escape profound ecological collapse and the ultimate Malthusian Trap, if we are to continue as a civilization that still values the contribution of the individual and still acknowledges basic human rights, then the only road ahead is that of software. It's the only growth path we have that is limitless. I was surprised to hear myself saying such things to a crowd of 600 developers - religious statements aren't that interesting in such forums. When I said it, I got a chuckle. Then I paused, and said it again, very slowly, in all seriousness. "If there is hope for mankind, it is through software." The room was quiet. And then there was applause. There is hope.
