The next person that says the word ‘POJO’ to me is going to get stabbed in the eye with a pen. (David Hussman, cited at Michael Nygard’s “Wide Awake Developers”)

Q: I wonder what kind of process is used to decide what becomes mainstream (part of the OCaml distribution?) and what doesn’t.

A: I believe standard procedure is to get Xavier drunk before persuading him that chicks dig MetaOCaml maintainers. (Overheard on the Ocaml mailing list)

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Interesting post from the new head of the Agile Alliance here.

I’ve got to admit: the most useful part of the Agile Alliance to my life has been their digital copy of the Agile Manifesto, so I like the fact that it is going to be recommitted towards user groups like Minnesota’s Object Technology User Group. I also like that they are requiring some kind of demonstrated contribution to the Agile community in order to be a member in the future.

What I find most interesting, though, is this assertion:

Whereas the number of people new to Agile who describe their project as “the best project I’ve ever worked on” seems to be declining, and we believe work should be joyful,

I think that this is because Agile is falling into the commercialization trap. In an effort to get acceptance in corporate centers, as well as provide a bit of control over the system, there is an increasing standardization of what constitutes an “Agile” practice. The classic example of this is the Certified Scrum Master course, which has gotten a reputation as another meaningless three-letter certification purchased by management consultants. By putting one of these people in place, businesses can check off Agile development on their buzzword bingo card without actually adopting the paradigm that makes it so powerful. So then you have people on “Agile” projects which don’t really resemble much different than normal business practices. This is also where you get the confused people who wonder if they’re Agile or not.

This seems like one of the big challenges for the Agile Alliance, and I like the fact that they are addressing it head on. By requiring people to be contributing members of the communtiy, it’s raising the bar for entry. Even that slight raise should help distinguish the people who are committed from those who just want to look like they are. The new trenches-based approach to the Agile Alliance should also raise their relevancy in this next phase: evangelism isn’t the problem anymore; implementations are. Given that, it’s good to see the Agile Alliance changing their focus.

Popularity: 4% [?]

As previously announced, I am starting a coworking site in Lowertown (a part of Saint Paul, MN). I asked this question to my LinkedIn network, but I thought I would drop it here, too, since the readership here and my contacts on LinkedIn are pretty much mutually exclusive groups.

My question is three-fold:
1) How would you estimate the size of the market is for coworking in the Twin Cities?
2) What do you see as the most important services/qualities for a successful coworking site?
3) How should we go about advertising/marketing this community?

I have my own answers on a few of these points, but I’d be interested to hear the conversation from my network.

If you are not familiar with the idea of coworking, the general idea is to create a community where independent consultants, freelancers, telecommuters, and small businesses could get out of their isolated home offices and gain some the same advantages of networking, co-operation, and focus that more larger workplaces provide.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Seriously cranked down the number of categories. I will be moving posts back into their new categorical homes late tonight.

Also going to be looking for a new theme in the near future, so that I can take advantage of WordPress’s “widget” concept.

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I now have too many blogs to keep up through FireFox’s Live Bookmarks, so I need an RSS Feed Aggregator. I’ve not been impressed with Thunderbird’s implementation of such (it often gives false positives on new postings). Does anyone out there have a recommendation?

Popularity: 3% [?]