Of Being Lapped by a Pizzeria
About a week ago, I got turned onto the blog of a small pizzeria. Yes, a blog about nothing but pizza -- and it's just short of glorious. Topics include tips on how they do their dough, new vending machines hitting the market that will spit pizza at you while you're waiting for the bus, and of course photos of their wondrous creations.
Two things came to mind:
- These people are doing God's work.
- Alright, Apple. You ignored blogging while Microsoft was doing it, and then while Sun was doing it, but now you're getting shown up by a mom & pop pizzeria.
If you're not careful and wait too long, we could well end up with another one-button-forever fiasco, where you don't deign to participate for a decade or two because you came so late to the party and need to save face.
I've talked about Apple being opaque and one-way previously, so I'm not going to rehash that, but suffice to say they don't have to start big here and I think Buzz's Heavy Metal post shows a little dab can do ya. If they can't find the gumption to deal with employee blog powder keg, perhaps they could take a cue from the pizzeria and just talk about what they do, while helping their users and developers do things better.
I know, this is what RTFM and forums are for, but real life doesn't really work that way for most Casuals and well, they work for a reason. Off the top of my head, some things I'd be interested in seeing:
- UI-HIG-HIC-Acronym blog
I think Buzz's post is a great example of this could be rubbed shiny. I.E., tips on how to make your software look better, and how to handle common -- and uncommon -- UI situations developers might unwittingly fall into when making their apps. Nothing major, just aggregating what may be common knowledge around campus but isn't to someone working on his first shareware app.
- Developer Blog
I'm salivating at the idea of this, because it could really be such a great thing for both sides. Tips on profiling an app for performance, compiler flags, workarounds for common scenarios they're hearing about, little-used features in XCode... All sorts of things. On top of that, advanced users might just pick some things up.
- OS X Admin Blog
Everything from tips on dealing with a few hundred Macs to OS X Server to using XGrid for crunching numbers or speeding up your compiling. Ideally, this is where you'd hear an engineer explain what's going on with AnandTech's numbers, but I'd take what I could get and let the rest come later.
- iLife Blog
Everything from little known features in OS X itself to tips on using their iLife products. There are always features that are in there developers are aware of -- because they added them -- that users just never seem to find until they're pointed out.
- What Steve Jobs Had for Lunch
I know, I know. I also know you'd subscribe to it, especially if it had pictures via an assistant's camera phone.
Aside from getting over an internal cultural bias against it, I can't really see the downside to anything like this. It can all get channeled through PR, which keeps it safe, and helps alleviate that opaque feeling people are getting rubbed the wrong way on. Users are able to use the software Apple is shipping better, which means they have a higher chance of being rubbed the right way by it, which means they're more likely to be loyal.
In the case of developers... Not all developers RTFM, and prefer to pick things up in bite sized pieces. Sometimes the manual just isn't written, or only shipped with the spanish instructions, and while it's not Apple's job to teach anyone Cocoa or OpenGL or advanced programming practices, it's worth getting over it and helping their developers be the best they can be.
Besides, these are just off the top of my head at 4:20am -- I'm sure you could think of some others you'd be interested in seeing.
Posted by drunkenbatmanSeptember 04, 2005, at 04:51 AM
Comments (28)
Posted by: dirkus at September 4, 2005 05:45 AM
What Steve Jobs Had for Lunch I know, I know. I also know you'd subscribe to it, especially if it had pictures via an assistant's camera phone.
/me hates you for being right
/dirkus
Posted by: Helten E at September 4, 2005 05:49 AM
Um, Surfin' Safari?
Posted by: drunkenbatman at September 4, 2005 05:57 AM
Um, Surfin' Safari?
Ayep, I plugged Hyatt as an example of how helpful they can be in the post I linked to. However, Surfin' Safari is more of an extension of what he was doing before he went to Apple, and is only one guy. More, baby, more.
And with that, I find my pillow.
Posted by: Theodore Lee at September 4, 2005 07:33 AM
Surfin Safari was an extension of Hyatt's work before joining Apple and only one guy, but not anymore.
The blog is now featuring contributions from the other WebKit/Safari developers, and has some really cool shit. Of recent note, look at the posts about hunting memory leaks. With the community's help, the team went from nearly 4000 to about 5. This is open source at it's best.
Because Apple is fiercely secretive in most of their other projects, I wouldn't expect this transparency to extend to other teams.
Posted by: Chief at September 4, 2005 08:44 AM
I think corporate blogs are embarrassing. You want to have a "tips page?" Sure. A forum where staff members are more visible. Great. But blogging for the sake of getting on the bandwagon... I don't think that decision will age well.
Posted by: Tom at September 4, 2005 10:06 AM
You gotta be kidding. Their inner workings are none of your business.
Posted by: geop at September 4, 2005 10:09 AM
Posted by: me at September 4, 2005 11:13 AM
Ken Bereskin used to do a tips blog, and look where that ended up. You want developer tips? Go to WWDC.
P.S. Steve favors the salad bar at the Apple cafeteria, and an Odwalla. Sometimes the sushi station.
Posted by: jbelkin at September 4, 2005 11:43 AM
Disagree. There's not much to be gained from a large corporation blog - everything you say can be mis-interprected and in the worst case scenario - used against you in the court of law. What's the point of unofficial-official hearsay? It will only make rumors seem more official when they're not and everything that's printed is subject to "kremlinologists' picking where the adverb is and whether that's more significant and perhaps it's a secret cry for help he's trapped in a Chinese cookie fortune factory. So, when they don't come true, the writer is called an idiot or worse, a liar to mislead - who needs that?
It's better to have a third party fete rumors and host forums where people can discuss.
And whiel you may not face much competition in your life, most corporations need every edge they can get including finding out what their competitors are doing, thinking about or even NOT thinking about.
A corporation is not a person. Even as an Apple/Mac fan, I just want to know facts - I do not care about when the sprinklers come on or if lunch is seared tuna.
Blogs are great by real people but a blog by a corporation is exactly like a politocal PAC - subject to corruption, a misleading use of public trust and more trouble than its worth.
Posted by: Twist at September 4, 2005 11:58 AM
UI-HIG-HIC-Acronym blog I think Buzz's post is a great example of this could be rubbed shiny. I.E., tips on how to make your software look better, and how to handle common -- and uncommon -- UI situations developers might unwittingly fall into when making their apps. Nothing major, just aggregating what may be common knowledge around campus but isn't to someone working on his first shareware app.
Should developers really be looking towards Apple for stuff like this? There are a number of third parties doing it better than Apple ever has (Panic and David Watanabe for example).
Major Nelson's blog has been a major benefit for Microsoft's Xbox division. He is actually connecting with the end users in a way that has rarely been seen before. There have been a number of small question regarding the new Xbox 360 that have been left out of their PR material that he has been able to clear up. Lord know Apple could use something like this for nearly every product they make. Look at how helpful it has been in the case of Safari.
For years now I have been wanting to make an application for creating and reading manuals and the document extension would be .rtfm ;)
Posted by: at September 4, 2005 12:18 PM
I fail to see how this helps the pizzeria, and you have failed to convince me Apple changing anything they do here would help them.
Posted by: stingerman at September 4, 2005 02:28 PM
There are plenty of Apple employees that blog, I have a whole list that I have bookmarked as I come across them. However, Apple provides actual interaction with their entire developer staff via their own discussion forums! Yes, you want to ask Chris Espinosa a question, go ahead, he is posting all the time.
Why would you want Apple to go to a lower level of interaction with their community. Right now, Apple leads in its accessibility to their actual developers. Blogs have their place as personal point of view posting areas, but pale in comparison to the tried and tested discussion forums. You can even find Apple employees posting on other discussion forums such as GCC, which gives us a lot of insight on future releases of Apple's core development technology.
And BTW, Suffin Safari actually is now more that Dave Hyatt posting but a few of the Webcore/Kit team have joined in posting on that official Apple blog.
I would post the link of the 10 or so Apple Employee blogs I have, but I don't want the notoriety to close them down... There easy to find however.
One more note: It seems like you are too heavily influenced by the marketing crap of other companies and PC enthusiast sites. JMHO...
Posted by: PXLated at September 4, 2005 03:27 PM
I agree with the many others, Apple doesn't need blogs and has nothing to gain except maybe quieting all you bloggers harping ;-)
-----
And look what the Scoble blog has turned into since he took a break...more about BBQs, dinners, wife, kid and for some reason a love feast with Dave Winer.
Posted by: Who Me? at September 4, 2005 04:36 PM
First of all, it's NOT the Apple cafeteria, it's Cafe Macs! But hten you knew that right? ;-)
Posted by: Who me at September 4, 2005 04:40 PM
And another thing! Courts have given NO PROTECTION to people that blog about their employer. Given Apple's desire and need for secrecy I can't see ever having a job related blog. I can't understand it anyway! I mean who the $#$@! cares! You're obviously not going to find out anything "good" you're all nothing but voyeurs trying to get away from your own mindless existence and further validate the feeling that you don't have it so bad...well, ya know what? YOU DO!
Oh wait....I'm here! Damn it!
Posted by: Scott at September 4, 2005 06:20 PM
Maybe Apple employees do something novel, like, I dunno, their jobs; instead of yacking about doing their jobs. Ever wonder how "longhorn" became "longwait"?
Seriously, while I would certainly agree that Apple needs better give and take, active involvement with it's developer community and it's consumers, I'm not convinced that a company with literally thousands of employees would add anything useful with thousands of people publishing some kind of daily journal. Seems like the signal to noise ratio would be affected badly. If you limit it to a few chosen individuals, with Apple's tendency towards paranoid secrecy, you'd be right back to heavily filtered PR releases.
Posted by: Aragorn at September 4, 2005 06:40 PM
Seems to me DB is pushing for more weblogs like WebKit's, not developers talking about their Sunday dinners. If that is what he wants, count me in. Love to see a CoreImage weblog like Surfin' Safari.
Posted by: Wes McGee at September 4, 2005 06:56 PM
man, i'd be the first one to argue that blogs have been overhyped, overmarketed, overpromoted and oversold to do everything from replacing journalism, (I'm looking at you, Dan Gillmor) and saving democracy (I'm looking at you, MoveOn.org), to curing cancer (OK, that's hyperbole on my part). Hell, I called it "blarghing" every chance I get on my own Livejournal...um... blog. But I don't see where a little bit of openness in the making of sausage is such a terrible idea. Using Scoble for a Microsoft example is a bad idea, largely because he does more of the former...overhyping the medium itself than he does any actual blogging of MS... and of course he is Microsoft's PR guy. (Though again, he seems more on Dave Winer's payroll with all the blarghohype he produces.) Much rather, I think Raymond Chen's blog and the IE blog are better examples of how blogging can be a good thing, as they are very informative about the why and the how of Microsoft. Raymond Chen does go out of his way to answer questions posted to him in comments and the suggestion box, and the IE blog (after a very bad start with overly useless posts about pointless IE features) has actually improved the web development's opinion of the IE team by being forthright about their concerns over the flaws of the browser and talking about how they hope to fix them. Not to say developer lists aren't great, but there are concerns us outside the development community have as well, and it be good if living with Apple didn't mean being at the whim of capricious gods...
Posted by: hawaiiano at September 4, 2005 08:43 PM
Hey db,
Notice you made the top o' MacSurfer?
aloha
Posted by: J. Hartzel at September 5, 2005 02:23 AM
Jesus dbm, I'm seeing you everywhere lately. Like a targeted drunken blitz. Noticing fewer spelling errors, too. You're scaring me man!
Posted by: at September 5, 2005 05:17 AM
You all are taking "Blog" too literally. Apple already does this in their news section, where they have sequential stories listed chronologically. They're mostly promo pieces of "Apple Masters" but it is not a stretch to have it more frequent.
It does build loyalty when you know someone hears. As a standards compliant developer, I used to hate Internet Explorer. Now I feel like they are listening (I know its marketing, I can't help it) and just dislike it.
Posted by: at September 5, 2005 06:11 AM
TESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Posted by: TheSquirrel at September 5, 2005 09:52 AM
How about a Genius Bar Blog? Problems of the day hosted and answered by the stores?
Posted by: Wes McGee at September 5, 2005 03:49 PM
Well, that sucks... I messed up the link to the Internet Explorer Team blog. Though I'm sure most of you readers know where it is, but if not --
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/
Like I said, a lot of good can come from opening the doors to Cupertino -- such as exactly how they decide whether an app is done in "Brushed Anchor" normal, or "Bastardized Mail"
Posted by: Aaron Brethorst at September 6, 2005 10:44 PM
Hi, long-time reader, first time poster. Definitely a Microsoft employee. We're actually trying to do more than just write weblogs. I mean, this is certainly an aspect of our greater community outreach but it's not the entire thing.
In addition to all of the great blogs mentioned above, there's also
* Channel 9
* the Microsoft Technical Forums
* the Visual Studio SDK team's scrum sprint backlogs and reviews
* The MSDN Product Feedback Center
There are also a few good blogs that haven't been mentioned yet:
* Rory Blyth's Neopoleon
* Rick Schaut (a 12+ year Mac developer at MS)
I'm sure I'm missing a ton of other things we're doing in the public space, too.
I work on Visual Studio, our development tools platform, and I use my weblog for two primary tasks:
1. rambling about non-work topics of interest to me (see, for example, my excited post about a FPS MMO game coming out next year).
2. Open discussions about feature implementations (see, for example, my questions about our tool window tab implementations a few months back in my blog).
We're still figuring this whole thing out as we go. I've learned a lot from interacting with a wide cross-section of Visual Studio users (and more, too, from talking with users of Dreamweaver, Eclipse, XCode, and so forth).
You can also find quite a few Microsofties on Slashdot posting under their real names.
Oh yeah, I read about the Pizza thing last week on Gizmodo or Engadget, and it creeps me out a little bit :)
Also, in case anyone's curious, I've owned quite a few Macs: a Performa 6115, an indigo toilet-seat iBook, a TiBook/550MHz, an iBook G3, and an iBook G4, plus two iPods (5gb and 15gb, 3rd gen).
If you're at all curious about the whole Microsoft thing, want to ding me for issues with the Visual Studio user experience, or anything else, please email me: abreth[BLAH]microsoft[DOT]com.
Cheers,
Aaron
User Experience Program Manager, Visual Studio Core
Long time Mac owner, spare-time Cocoa developer
Posted by: Abhi Beckert at September 7, 2005 01:52 AM
They're not really blogs, but you've got the news page at apple.com, you've got Apple eNews with tips on how to use your mac (and I'm sure the .Mac newsletter is really good in this area too, at least it was when I was subscribed), and you've got the ADC Newsletter with announcments of articles and third party tools (even little ones)...
The main problem is the example Wil Shipley gave in one of his posts: Mike was waiting for a call from **** ****, who isn't doing business with us (yet?), but w ethought this might be a cool source of ideas for our new product, ****** ****, because he has so much experience in our area. I mean he *IS* the ***** of ***! The fact is that if you're working at apple and have a blog, almost all the stuff you'll want to talk about hasn't been announced yet and therefore you've gotta keep your mouth shut.
Apple's not in a position to go as far as MS has done, but I don't think they've missed this bandwagon at all. If anything they were on it before the "Blog" technology was popular and therefore are using different methods to deliver essentially the same information.
Come to think of it, if memory serves me correctly Surfin' Safari has been around longer than the IE 7 blog... I'm not someone who goes around claiming MS copies Apple in everything, but I it's a bit far fetched to call that coincidence.
If you're a developer kind of person, a fairly large number of Apple developers hang out on Apple's various mailing lists and post pretty regularly. If you ask me, that's even better than a blog, because you not only get to watch cool tidbits drop from the sky, but you can actually post questions and get one of them to respond. But as far as I'm aware, nothing like that exists for any of your other categories.