RedMonk’s analytical foundations, part 2: 2006–2007

a.k.a. the advent of Coté

In celebration of RedMonk’s 10th birthday year, this is the next post in the continuing series on RedMonk’s foundational works, which continue to define our philosophy and approach today. The big event of 2006 was the addition of Michael Coté to the RedMonk team.

2006

• “New project on the block? Make some friends” on growing your community through partnerships, in essence going where the developers are.
• “Data layer diversity: It’s not just relational anymore” on the resurgence of the polyglot programmer.
• “What’s my future platform? I don’t (want to have to) care” on cross-platform apps, open data and open standards, SaaS, and synchronization (more on synchronization here).
• “Network offering: If you build it, I will buy it (and some other folks might, too)” on marketplaces, among other things.
• “The idols of ERP and Web 2.0” [link to Wayback because Anne’s blog is gone] on the interplay between human interaction and what can (and should) be automated.
• “What’s the big deal about package management, anyway” and “Do operating systems matter? Part 2: The appliance question” on the importance of integration and packaging.
• “Everyone wants a piece of the new guy: The startup Q&A” on what kinds of products get bought and used by startups.
• “LinuxWorld happenings: The Q&A” on fragmentation (and a follow-up four years later).
• “Why do we fetishize ‘best practices’ but not ‘best infrastructures’?” on the differences between best practice and best real-world implementation.
• “What is social software? One answer” on collaboration methods to enable globally dispersed teams. (a.k.a. how open-source development has worked for decades.)
• “Systems management in the real world: ERF Enterprise Network Services” on people’s desire for recommendation and automation, not just low-level data.

2007

• “Untapped intelligence? Mind your web traffic logs” on the value of data you already have in-hand, which also led to RedMonk Analytics (follow-ups on data marketplaces in 2009 and 2012 [1 and 2]).
• “Beyond service/support: making more money from open source” — a more general post on the potential of data and network services.
• “The open source business meme” on three things to do and three things to avoid for those starting open-source businesses.
• “Salesforce: Using the Force to further its platform ambitions” on online platforms and first-generation PaaS.
• “The world beyond the LAN: Collaboration and N > 1” on the need for collaboration to integrate with multiple applications rather than being a standalone piece of software.
• “Web 2.0 is people! It’s people!” on how Web 2.0 is meaningless unless it benefits from people being more collaborative, sharing, and open.
• “On Jon Udell, freedom, talent management, and the new patronage economy” on companies’ desire to be associated with innovators.
• “Tivoli and Lotus acquisitions weren’t failures. More thoughts on why IBM should buy Amazon” on the acquired company driving cultural change at the acquirer. We’re seeing this today in adoption of open-source development practices by Adobe via Day/Nitobi as well as Microsoft via Yammer, among others.
• “RedMonkTV: The rise of the designer/developer mashup developer” on what the new class of developers looks like, and how it’s different from previous ones.