Need someone to lead product management at your software company? I create software for people that create software and I'm looking for my next opportunity. Check out my resume and get in touch.

This is the blog of Adam Kalsey. Unusual depth and complexity. Rich, full body with a hint of nutty earthiness.

Working with open source

Freshness Warning
This blog post is over 17 years old. It's possible that the information you read below isn't current and the links no longer work.

Jonathan Schwartz compares the rise of open source to the current challenges that newspapers are seeing with the rise of citizen journalism.

There are all kinds of interesting parallels between the newspaper industry and the software industry. Both are undergoing tremendous change, creating havoc for some and opportunity for others.

An open source company became Sun’s largest competitor, and Sun (like Microsoft is deal with now) had to decide what strategy would best allow them to compete.

Could we have sued them? Sure. But suing the open source community would’ve been tantamount to a newspaper suing the authors of their letters to the editor. It wouldn’t have addressed the broader challenge - community content was becoming more interesting to our customers than our professional content.

Today Sun also puts their money where their mouth is by promising, in a legally binding manner to not enforce against OpenID any patents that OpenID might violate.

Recently Written

A Framework for Scaling product teams
Oct 9: The people, processes, and systems that make up a product organization change radically as you go through the stages of a company. This framework will guide that scaling.
My Networked Webcam Setup
Sep 25: A writeup of my network-powered conference call camera setup.
Roadmap Outcomes, not Features
Sep 4: Drive success by roadmapping the outcomes you'll create instead of the features you'll deliver.
Different roadmaps for different folks
Sep 2: The key to effective roadmapping? Different views for different needs.
Micromanaging and competence
Jul 2: Providing feedback or instruction can be seen as micromanagement unless you provide context.
My productivity operating system
Jun 24: A framework for super-charging productivity on the things that matter.
Great product managers own the outcomes
May 14: Being a product manager means never having to say, "that's not my job."
Too Big To Fail
Apr 9: When a company piles resources on a new product idea, it doesn't have room to fail. But failing is an important part of innovation. If you can't let it fail, it can't succeed.

Older...

What I'm Reading