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The Power of Small
March 7, 2007
I am an avid reader of geek blogs like TechCrunch, LifeHacker and Engadget to get my daily fix of news on the latest happenings in technology. While I may get excited about a new web service, or drool over the latest tech toys, never for an instant think that the point of the passion is anything but improved services. Well, maybe for an instant, but it is usually a very small instant, and then my mind starts working on what the new technology means for libraries.
Right now, there are rather a lot of new technologies, combined with rather a lot of new ideas in libraries. In both cases, however, the most exciting changes seem to be coming from small outfits that are tapped in to what is needed in actual service. Despite some interesting developments from the big players like Google, Sirsi-Dynix, and even Apple; the really cool innovations are coming from places like Zoho, 37Signals, and AADL.
So as this gets started, I wanted to reference a very nice post on the Zoho development blog. After Google's announcement of the release of its online suite of office applications, predictions of doom and gloom for the smaller companies in the field began to appear. Zoho had an excellent response in a post titled "So, what does it mean for Zoho?"
Our business plan is not based on us beating Microsoft or Google, it is based on serving customers well enough to earn a profitable share of the market. Business is not superbowl, though it often appears that way in a 24×7 news cycle. It is perfectly possible for a smaller company to offer a compelling product to customers and earn a perfectly good living, without “winning” the market. And having a profitable business helps us invest in R&D to bring more innovations to market, keeping the pot boiling so to speak [Zoho].
Small is the power of Web 2.0 and Library 2.0. Using flexible tools that are designed and redesigned to meet our needs and our customers' needs, we can continue to thrive. This blog will continue to look for new tools and new ideas that can help libraries leverage emerging technologies to meet their missions.
Posted by Chris Harris on March 7, 2007 | Comments (0)
