Back in May, I read an article describing a Sun Microsystem project to replace Ajax. What caught my attention was the attitude towards existing web technologies.

Turns out the author had the focus of the article all backwards (at least I’m sure the Sun engineers would think so). The Ajax example was simply that. Sun’s Project Flair was implementing something far far more complex.

Earlier this month, the project announced the open sourcing of the Sun Labs Lively Kernel, an implementation of the Morphic user interface framework in JavaScript.

This is the point at which all the hardcore CompSci programming freaks start salivating. Squeak on the client side? Imagine using Seaside for server development and Lively Kernel for the client!

For those unfamiliar, and I can thank Myles Byrne for introducing me to these concepts at the first RailsCamp, this means that the Lively Kernel environment can be extended and developed while programming inside the that same environment - no reboots or compiling needed. If that sounds esoteric, it is, extremely so; but it’s also as powerful as it is difficult. Which is why those CompSci geeks are drooling.

Meanwhile, my inner standardista is screaming.

Our goal is to build a platform using a minimum number of underlying technologies. This is in contrast with many current web technologies that utilize a diverse array of technologies such as HTML, CSS, DOM, JavaScript, PHP, XML, and so on.

That quote resides in the Motivation section of the Lively Kernel description. It evens sounds quite reasonable. Who wouldn’t want to cut down on the number of things you have to learn in order to be good at this thing we do? Being a skillful generalist is hard.

Not everybody can do what we do, and I’m not dissing these guys because I know they can program rings around me, but being hot programmers doesn’t make them web developers. The reason the web works is because of that layered approach. Because of those disparate technologies that can be drawn together to make something strong, elegant and stable.

Building an entire website or “web application environment” in JavaScript strikes me as an interesting experiment and I know people who’ve done similar things (wave Myles again, everybody), but it is not where the web should be progressing towards.

Simplification is good. I’d love some more simplicity in my day-to-day work! But bringing everything down to a single uniform level is pushing that too far. It’s called putting all your eggs in one basket. Or even worse, it’s called a monoculture. If you want some intense thought cud for the next weeks or months, go and read Anil Dash on Monoculture and Web 2.0.

On that note, I’ll leave with a quote that sums up how at least some people at Sun are thinking about the web and web technologies right now:

AJAX sort of deals with all of the old way of doing things. It makes it simpler, which is great, but underneath it’s still all this junky HTML, Document Object Model, CSS, all that stuff, where 30 years ago, we knew how to do that stuff cleanly with a dynamic programming language and a simple graphics model

I often read about people risking all to achieve something monumental. People who gambled every speck of life, self and reputation on one last crack at some goal everybody else thought was impossible. Naturally, in such stories, the gamble pays off.

It has to. Otherwise, the protagonist is hardly likely to be as famous, are they?

I wonder about these people

I wonder what they are/were like. I wonder what they think, now that they’ve achieved the impossible. I wonder if they still strive. I think about what’s left for them. Most of all, I wonder what made them think they could do it.

I have a theory that they probably didn’t really think about it like that. Only in movies does the hero say: “everybody else thinks it’s impossible, but I know I can do it.” In real life, people just chip away at things and, sometimes, take a running leap and risk it. I wonder if those people just keep taking those leaps.

Taking a leap

13 months ago, I quit my job. I emailed everybody I knew in Sydney and said, “Help! Find me a job, please”, and I quit. I had a mortgage, a sizeable car loan and a crazy passion for my girlfriend who lived too far away.

My boss tried to offer me work in the Sydney office, but we both knew that didn’t fit their plans for the business. So I was jumping without a net.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to suggest I’ve done anything monumental (on anything but a personal scale), but yesterday was the anniversary of my move to Sydney. One year and one day ago, we were heading north from Melbourne in a car crammed with everything that I hadn’t packed before the removalists got there.

That move was the best thing I have ever done for myself.

12 months of growth

Since that time, I’ve made so many great new friends in Sydney. I’ve met so many brilliant and talented people in our industry. With one of them, the outrageously multi-skilled Anson Parker, I started Webjam.

Then there’s the friendly supportive and amazing community that finally settled on the name of Rails Oceania. These guys and gals (yes, there are female Rails hackers in Sydney) have been an inspiration. Some I already knew, like Tim Lucas and Lindsay Evans. Others, like Jason Crane, Lachie Cox, Max Muermann and Ben Askins have been an absolute revelation to meet. All have taught me so much.

I’m lucky enough to work in the best creative team in Australian media at News Digital Media. If you doubt me, just watch what we pull out in the next few months.

Let’s not forget Web Standards Group, who’ve been a staple of my professional life since my first meeting in June 2004. Wow, that feels like a long time ago! Or the local startup scene, as ably led by the Tangler crew. Or all the incredible peeps I met at SXSW this year, or Web Directions last year.

Through it all, I’ve been surrounded by a crazy cool group of friends, every one whom is an inspiration almost daily. I can’t go through them all. I’m already starting to feel this post is dropping into self-indulgent waffle, so I’ll name only two more peeople. The first is Andrew Krespanis who gave me this website and the appropriate (and necessary) kick-in-the-arse to start writing. The second is Lisa Herrod.

She’s been an inspiration from day one. She’s the reason I came to Sydney and she’s the one who gave me the courage to take the plunge. She’s always supported me and encouraged me. She drives me to achieve. To push myself and those around me. If I’ve done anything worth doing in the last 12 months, it is because of her.

Jump!

What I haven’t listed here are the bad times. No mention of the failures or the moments of crushing despair. None of the negative people I met who brought me down. Those are all irrelevant to the point. We all have those, no matter what we do.

No matter where you do or what you do, you’re going to have bad times. You’re going to face pain and heartbreak. So don’t worry about it. No point stressing over things you can’t change

Surround yourself with love and support, then risk all. Push yourself. Stare into that abyss in front of you, then look past it and take that leap. Again and again.

Twitter is a strange beast. Adored and loathed in probably equal parts, the debate of Twitter’s usefulness will continue unabated. Just as the debate about MySpace’s attractiveness or the virtue of OSX over Windows, it seems destined to become one of the tech world’s ‘holy wars’.

It is once you make the decision to have a Twitter account, though, that the real issues begin. Public or private? Friend or follower? Site name, real name or a fresh pseudonym? And how much is too much?

For some people, these decisions are easy. But others have circumstances complicated by personality, friendships, exposure, gender, and employment. These issues have been confronted by the users of all new personal publishing platforms. Twitter is no different, but its immediacy brings new scope to concerns about privacy.

What do you use Twitter for and how does your concept of its use conflict with others?

Some people use it for keeping up with real-life friends and some use it for keeping up with interesting ideas. Some people use it for networking. These are all really the one use: a simple low cost-of-entry method for learning about somebody you’re interested in. It’s the end points that differ.

What do others do with all that information I publish everyday? They read it, skim it, skip it. Sometimes they respond in public, via Twitter or a blog post. Sometimes privately, by email, direct tweet or IM. My Twitter ‘friends’ aren’t the only ones with that information - Google and Technorati index it and anybody can find it.

And once it’s on Google…

It becomes permanent. That information is never going away. It will be forever available in various caches and search engines for the lifespan of the internet as we know it. No wonder some people feel uncomfortable. Caught-in-the-moment tweets may be regretted later. Twitter will let you delete them, but Google won’t.

Many of my friends keep their Twitters private, restricted only to those they select as friends. This banishes the spectre of permanence, but creates fresh social dilemmas. Technology offers no solutions for how to let someone know that you don’t want them to see your tweets.

Going back to high school

This is both exclusive and excluding. It leads to bruised feelings and hurt comments, creating pain on both sides. Reminds me of adolescence…

With good reason, because these hurt feelings exist as we, the users, have not evolved to match the technologies. And I don’t mean that our sharks don’t have frickin’ laser beams on their heads. We’ve not yet equipped ourselves to cope with the social implications of using them. Twitter is just the latest in an ongoing line of disruptive technologies that are not only changing the way we view and use this thing we call ‘the Web’, but also changing the way we interact with each other.

We often refer to technologies as ‘immature’ to show that we see further development; that it has not yet reached its fullest potential. It is not a term people use to describe themselves in relationship to a technology very often, but it fits with increasing frequency as what we build progresses further from how we think.

New technologies require consideration

Joining Twitter requires as much careful consideration as starting a blog or publishing photos on Flickr. Sure, you can just throw yourself out there and damn the consequences, but there will be consequences. Or you can carefully consider the possible benefits for you versus the potential downsides, weigh them up, then choose. I figure most of us fall somewhere in between.

There will always be people who embrace everything full throttle. And there will be always be those who turn away and pretend it isn’t happening. I don’t think that web professionals can afford to be either. We need to have a sense of proportion; to balance the thrill of the new against the hard-won experience. So, dive in to Twitter, folks. Get with it. Learn about it. Feel the pain, the joy and the undeniable banality. Teach yourself all the tricks and pitfalls. I guarantee you’ll find that useful, no matter what you ultimately decide about Twitter.