Good afternoon all,
I must admit to being more than a little surprised that our friend at the Times decided to use the pictures he took of my brother and me from 2001ish. I have not seen the print addition, but the on-line version I saw was disappointing to me in that respect. I understand his motives for keeping this a human interest "wavoid" story at this time, but I think he missed an opportunity to discuss the how's and why's of the manner which this community has remained strong in its collective ability to see into the new paradigms that the computing industry will realize in the next few years. The quotes of mine he used were from the shareholders meeting last summer. Therefore, I can deduce that he left that meeting and did do some digging into Wave's business partners, prospects, and products. To the extent that he will hopefully follow up further with future articles and analysis as the Wave story continues to unfold is not a bad thing. It is my opinion that at that time we will as a community look "smarter", and as a company Wave will look much more credible and important in the larger scheme of things.
I will accept part of the burden of blame for not helping him understand the mechanics of how this has happened for us, he did attempt to contact me prior to this article, and I turned to Go-kite-surf and DRM for conversations as to whether or not our author was up to no good, or if he was going to give a balanced view of where developments currently stand. I have to admit there was some suspicion and uneasiness on my part.
To what I believe is relevant, and to what I would have shared with him had my personal level of trust been a tad bit higher. It is my firm belief that there exists a best or rational explanation for the economically challenged out there to understand the "wavoid" phenomena, and by economically challenged I mean in terms of a basic understanding of economic theory and choice theory, not financial success or wealth management which unfortunately too many lay people associate with economics. Back to my larger point, I would encourage all of you to read Steven Levitt's best seller Freakonomics. Early in this work Mr. Levitt brings to the public's attention what "Information Asymmetry" means to both individuals and the markets that involve individual decision making. More precisely speaking, the internet has not only allowed access to information that in previous informational generations was unavailable to distant individuals, it has broken down barriers of informational control and secrecy which in prior times allowed individuals on Wall Street to corner and control the important and valuable information concerning new and developing markets, technologies, trends, and consumer changes.
What makes our community special is that it serves as a prime example of the dissolution of the informational advantage and the institutional advantage the stock broker or Wall Street analyst had over the individual citizen. It is a surreal irony that today individuals like Awk, Ramsey, Countryboy, and numerous others here actually are more "expert" in their knowledge of both this company and their technology, that they truly are more educated than the so called experts on Wall Street. Fortunately for us, those very same experts will not be in control of this as an IPO if you will, those very same experts will have to fight for their share of the spoils on the open market, those very same experts will one day put out strong buy recommendations long after most people here in this community knew it was a forgone conclusion.
I guess I would cite the contributions of Ispro out of Europe as a prime example of how his thoughts, contibutions, attendance at technology shows, and pictures from those shows has allowed me to go to work in northern Illinois, and yet be connected to the developing technologies in lands I may never set foot on. The access of this information for us currently is found only in these out of the way corners of cyberspace, and this information has allowed me to make my own decisions, to break down the walls of information asymmetry and turn the internet and our community's collective intelligence into powerful tools of understanding. When we add to the equation the contributions of Awk, Ramsey, Weby, Wahoograd, Cactus Flower, Helpfulbacteria and so many others there becomes a deep understanding of the importance that Wave Systems brings to the emergence of the very fundamental changes in the way the world will conduct its computing in the future. What today outsiders view as cultish behavior, will in time be seen as worthy of a chapter in one of Dr. Levitt's future books. The fact that this community exists and thrives on the notions of trust, and the friendships that have been forged here over the years only adds to the irony of this story.
The trusted computing train left the station long ago, I can say that there are many here who will undoubtedly be not only vindicated intellectually but rewarded financially as well. There will also come a day in the future that the wavoid community will raise a toast in Vegas and celebrate the combined contributions of our friends. We all know it will not happen overnight, but we also all know it will happen. Maybe tomorrow will be what Weby calls the beginning, the end of TTT, the tipping point, the long awaited ascendance, etc. Maybe it will be Seagate, maybe it will be only revenues. So long as Steven continues to focus on market share, our first mover advantage, our technologies protected by patents, and our core place in the TCG, the rest of us can deduce that it is only a matter of time now. Revenue will follow, Microeconomics 101 suggest that the previous characteristics and the notions of barriers to entry give firms monopolistic power. Something to think about as we ponder the future.
When all is said and done, chapter one of Weby's book should be titled "Information asymmetry and the Wavoid Community". For this is story of how the internet changed how communities of individuals share the power of intellect, information, and the desire to educate and share their vision with others. As I see it, those characteristics have very little to do with cults, and more to do with much more positive aspects of the human condition. Oh, and for the record Dell, Seagate, Intel, Gateway, Juniper are not figments of our collective imagination. These companies and Wave's role in the TCG make the facts of our journey quite different than the notions of the supernatural that cultists share, that is the difference between the objective and subjective worlds, but then again all here already knew that.
Yes Weets, It's Coming!!!
Ambler
(Fish-or-work for those of you who have been here for more than a few years.)
AI
