Flock backlash

I like the Flock guys as well as the product (Bart DeCrem is a super nice guy, if you ever get the chance to talk with him I am sure you will agree). Mike's post on Flock and what is being said about them is worth reading.

There is a very interesting dynamic in the tech industry right now that is driven by the perception that companies can simply leverage existing infrastructure and get into the market very quickly. We used to say that there was a velocity and amplitude problem in private equity whereby hot trends came and went increasingly quickly and the volume by which the hype and disillusionment swung was increasingly greater each time. I think we are seeing that manifested in the public perception of startups and the value that they are creating.

Flock is a poster boy for this, I would have to say. Maybe the market was primed and ready for someone who promised to do something more with a browser than simply deal with web pages, maybe the anticipation that a browser would become a real application platform was so great that the first company that was rumored to deliver on this received a disproportionate amount of hype as a result? The prevailing attitude is "why shouldn't they go from zero to a hundred and sixty in 2 months, all this infrastructure exists." This is the problem, far too many people think that because there is an overwhelming amount of open source software in the market, and loads of proprietary stuff as well, that startups no longer are deserving of the patience we used to give to startups developing new software. How many times has the phrase "well it's built on top of Mozilla" been used to describe Flock? As if that means the company is somehow off the hook for much of the heavy lifting required of those who actually build a software product.

The reality of developing software is that this is a really complex thing to deliver on and the process by which a company develops and delivers software changes only incrementally while the perception of what software is and what it is expected to do has evolved exponentially in the last 5 years.

I do think stealth mode sucks, even though I recognize there is something to be said for playing the market with this tactic, but in all honesty I don't think anyone could ever accuse Flock of being stealth mode when they have described in good detail from day 1 what they were doing. The only attribute of stealth that they used was to limit the developer beta to invites only, and I think it's very fair to say that they did this for reasons far and away from creating hype. I also find it incredibly curious that the Valley works in this vicious cycle of build up hype around a company only to relish tearing it down.

In my mind the entire extensions versus Flock debate is pretty damn silly, if you want a tool to do del.icio.us bookmarks or posting to your blog then there are a number of simple extensions that get you there, but for Christ's sake let's at least give the Flock team an opportunity to demonstrate to the market what their vision is. If you don't buy into what they are doing, then don't use the product, it's really that simple.

Comments

[Dennis Howlett]

These are heroic words Jeff. Especially when you see how certain elements in the so-called blogosphere have tried their best to either ignore or deride the people at Flock.

I believe some may be losing sight of the fact that despite the kind expressions and cries for civility among so-called A-listers, the reality is that the folks with the largest megaphones are in it for one thing alone: $$$.

Anything else doesn't make sense when viewed from the standpoint of the American dream.

Given that audience, it makes sense to protect yourself by either rubbising the product or ignoring it.

Is this fantasy? Absolutely not. Robert Scoble - love him or hate him - made one thing very clear recently and to paraphrase - "I'm part of marketing."

Although I will not point the finger at Robewrt directly, I'm sure the picture is clear.

That's why Flock - which as a user I think is a great idea - gets screwed.

[Chris Messina]

Hey Jeff, thanks for this. I think you raised yet another good point about the flak we continue to endure -- just because there's infrastructure doesn't mean you can insert Vision X here and pop out a new, fully functional product!

Personally, I never expected anything less than to be received into a trial by fire. When I was back promoting Firefox (http://www.mozilla.org/press/mozilla-2004-12-15.html ), one of the best things about the community was its rabid devotion to Firefox-as-brand (rather than Firefox-as-platform). That kind of dedication is one of the best things about open source and I was there benefitting from the same folks whose ire we now draw.

What's too bad is that we seem to be seen as a competitive threat when in fact our work *over time* will directly benefit the Mozilla platform. Maybe I'm naively optimistic, but that's one of the most important aspects of Flock. I know for a fact that the Flock developers would not be working on this project if it weren't for the fact that it's open source.

I mean, consider that Flocker Anthony Young's ATOM code is actually included in the Performancing extension. Hello? We're all on the same team here -- we've got 9 innings to go and if we're already pitching fights in the bullpen, damn, the competition is totally gunna smoke our asses.

So we'll continue doing what we're doing because we believe in it, because there is a light out there that we're moving towards. Fuzzy, fading in and out, but we see it. We don't expect everyone else to get it or to believe that it's anything but a distant illusion in our heads. The reality is that patience is a privilege we can no longer expect. Hey, that's fine. We've got time and motivation. And I'm proud to be a part of something that is trying to make it better.

[Jack Phelps]

I wouldn't deny them the freedom to offer a product, but when someone claims they're going to change the way we browse and all they offer is some convergence that's both philosophically and operationally questionable (why are you converging these things? can you even effectively converge these things?), I reserve the right to laugh at their claim for a few minutes.

[Chris Messina]

I second what Jack Phelps said. I constantly laugh at myself! XD