Things came full circle today. The day I joined Skype in November, there was some confusion about who my boss was. After a couple of hours it emerged that I report to Len Pryor, an American who came from Microsoft to manage developer relations. Since then I didn't have time to breath, let alone get to know much about my colleagues.
This morning I had the luxury of reading Len's blog where he writes about some of his experiences leaving MS, starting at Skype, moving to London, having a baby and hey . . . 10th May he posts Happy birthday to Dave Winer. Dave Winer has been a guru in my house for years. In 1996, I closed down a local newspaper I published (at a loss) and dived into the heady world of online publishing. After mastering the niceties (or vulgarities) of HTML, I needed something to help make meatier websites - and I discovered Userland Frontier - a powerful content management system, complex to learn but what a piece of kit.
Dave's innovation didn't stop with content management - he went on to develop blogging, RSS feeds . . . he blogged his progress through major heart surgery, giving up cigarettes, his pain and recovery - always insightful, his blogs are honest, clever and never bow to the conventional. It's great to be rubbing shoulders, albeit vicariously.
