Hi Chipp,
Great post :-)
I fully agree!
I'm a bit surprised by Runrev refusals about your interesting
initiatives: I did not think they were, let us say, a bit obstinate...
This can have evolved yet or will evolve shortly.
At least I hope so :-)
They were (and are yet) a small company: grow up is necessary but
always difficult (remember when we were 13 years old :-)
In fact, I think they are growing up a lot since they released
DreamCard, capturing a part of HC scripters in the education domain,
but you are completely right: if they want to appear as credible for
'inventive users" than for hardline programmers, they must have two
lines of products.
Best Regards from Paris,
Eric Chatonet.
PS. did you make a CC to support?
Le 1 déc. 05 à 17:25, Chipp Walters a écrit :
OK, my turn and 2 cents worth.
Here are some other reasons why I believe RR is not popular.
1) The company is based in Scotland. It's one thing when your
primary programming language is owned by Apple, a whole other risk
assessment when owned by a small company in Scotland.
2) A largely isolationist business strategy by RR corporate. In the
US, companies rely on building strong strategic relationships with
other companies to help them get larger. Guy Kawasaki has written
about this and has been successful in promoting the 'sum is greater
than the parts' philosophy. RR should build stronger ties with
companies who can help them promote or use their technology. The
recent multi-million dollar acquisition of Konfabulator (an
inferior technology to RR) by Yahoo only points at the fact the
company is *not* getting around.
When I was CEO of Human Code, we spent resources doing 'road shows'
at networking conferences like 'Demo' and others, where industry
shapers hang out. It helps get noticed. It worked, too. Eventually
our company was acquired for over 100 million by a major industry
IT group.
3) The language is proprietary, and contrary to popular beief, the
learning curve is steep. This is because of a) a lack of good
learning resouces (unlike say, Flash or VB or even HyperCard); b) a
non-friendly first user experience; and c) a hybrid procedural/
object-oriented approach with a metaphor (cards) not easily
understood by programmers as it doesn't map to any existing
programming paradigm other than perhap wizards; and d) a mixed
business-logic/content paradigm sort of like HTML where display,
content are intertwined.
4) Already mentioned here, but a lack of consistent focus on the
target market. Small companies need to be vertical. Rev is not.
They want to be all things to all people. They essentially offer
the same program to the Enterprise programmer, the hobbist, the
school teacher, the commercial software programmer and the
'inventive user.'
How to fix?
1) Open up an office in the US and call it 'headquarters.'
2) Leverage existing resources (investors) for networking
opportunities
3) Create at least 2 'different' products based on DreamCard and
Rev which have totally different look-and-feel
4) Raise *serious* money if you have to (based on the Konfab deal,
this shouldn't be too hard).
5) Create more opportunities for users to get involved. Here are a
few examples of RR's seclusionary strategy:
I've asked if Altuit can build tutorials and have them sold/hosted
on RevOnline. The answer was 'not at this time' and I believe based
on the wrong assumption that it would cannibalize sales of their
own tutorials.
I've offered to take over the documentation publishing parts of
RunRev and automate the updating of doc and PDF's and purchasing
printed reference documents. I even created the tools and demo'ed
them to RR for free to show how easy it could be. Again answer was
'no.'
I've asked to have RR sell altSQLite for a 33% profit and the
answer was the profit was not enough based upon their projected
sales of altSQLite. So, altSQLite is not even listed *anywhere* on
their website. Guy Kawasaki sold 3rd party plugins for 4D at their
website for no profit, just to show support for his product and his
partners.
Many people have asked about creating a WIKI or other helpful tools
and instead of embracing the spirit of the helpfullness, RR has
steadfastedly pulled back.
All said, RR still has more than a few things going for it. It's a
great platform, plain and simple. The company seems to be solid
financial-wise (unlike many of the X-talks we've come to know and
leave). Things do improve, though not at the rate many of us wish
them to.
best,
Chipp
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