Comment Re:A few points to make... (Score 1) 117
I "*have* to" comment on Tim O'Reilly's postings and about the O'Reilly & Associates image and PR spin.
I know some folks who work and have worked at ORA (what they call O'Reilly & Associates,) and I've heard stories and seen email that paint a very different picture of Tim and the company than
the O'Reilly PR spin. Here's are just a few of the interesting things I've heard. I hope Tim responds to this and sets me straight if he thinks I'm mistaken, and that employees read what he writes and sets him straight if his head is in the sand and/or full of BS.
What I find most interesting is that (reportedly) a lot of people can't figure out whether Tim doesn't care about many things that go on in his company, or if he's out of touch and not aware.
I've heard horror stories about employees going home crying because of how they were treated, and others because of stresses in their job. I've heard stories of high level managers who don't know what they're doing, and of false documenting of employee "problems."
O'Reilly's software division has never turned a profit. Their computer books (and now conferences) are the only divisions of the company that turn a profit. The company is becoming more and more cold and cut-throat, and increasingly profit oriented. Tim talks about "building community" in the Open Source world, especially Perl and Linux communities, but the O'Reilly culture, community, and morale are going to hell.
Just two or three years ago, Tim was telling employees that "UNIX is dying," so ORA began focusing a lot of energy on its Windows books, and let UNIX books get even more outdated. When a new edition of an old UNIX book was done and it sold much better than expected, Tim began to realize there was more life in UNIX than he thought.
Several years ago, Tim sold the Global Network Navigator to America Online for $10 million, not having the foresight and business sense to spin it off, get investors, and make it a Yahoo or Excite.
When Linux started really taking off in the last couple of years, ORA realized they had miscalculated the potential (including profit potential,) of Linux and were missing the boat. Then an effort began to position ORA as the company that's been behind Linux from the beginning (even though other publishers had been publishing new Linux books, and O'Reilly wasn't even updating its old books.)
Increased energy in Perl, Linux, and the Open Source revolution has coincided with O'Reilly's discovery that there's a lot of money in conferences, and in increased book sales through building an image of being part (or even a leader) of the Open Source community.
Here's a message from Tim O'Reilly to some of his employees. It was forwarded on to me, and I thought it was so bizarre, funny, and sad, I kept it. Just the first four lines are Tim's, but I think the whole email is important to put Tim's words in the appropriate context:
TIM> This is pretty offbeat, but there might
TIM> be some way to leverage the "internet
TIM> mindshare grab" evidenced here with the
TIM> upcoming elections.
>
>>Subject: News flash: Gore created the Internet
>>
>>Someone passed the following transcript on to >>me. I've heard of spin, but this
>>is over the top. Any idea what he's talking >>about?
>>
>>GORE CLAIMS HE CREATED THE INTERNET!!!!
>>
>>
>>CNN Transcripts
>>03/10/99=20
>>
>>
>>BLITZER: I want to get to some of those >>substantive domestic and
>>international questions in a bit, but let's >>just wrap up a bit of the
>>politics right now.
>>
>>Why should Democrats, looks at the Democratic >>nomination, the process,
>>support you instead of Bill Bradley -- a friend >>of yours, a former =
>>colleague
>>in the Senate -- what do you have to bring to >>this that he doesn't
>>necessarily bring to this process?=20
>>
>>GORE: Well, I will -- I'll be offering my >>vision when my campaign begins,
>>and it'll be comprehensive and sweeping, and I >>hope that it'll be =
>>compelling
>>enough to draw people toward it. I feel that it >>will be. But it will =
>>emerge
>>from my dialogue with the American people. I've >>traveled to every part of
>>this country during the last six years. During >>my service in the United
>>States Congress, I took the initiative in >>creating the Internet. I took =
>>the
>>initiative in moving forward a whole range of >>initiatives that have proven
>>to be important to our country's economic >>growth, environmental protection,=
>>
>>improvements in our educational system....
>
>--
> Tim O'Reilly @ O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
> 101 Morris Street, Sebastopol, CA 95472
> 707-829-0515 ext 266, Fax 707-829-0104,
> tim@ora.com
> http://www.oreilly.com
> http://software.oreilly.com
> http://www.songline.com
I wonder about the possible similarities between Tim O'Reilly and Al Gore.
Harry Dowd
I know some folks who work and have worked at ORA (what they call O'Reilly & Associates,) and I've heard stories and seen email that paint a very different picture of Tim and the company than
the O'Reilly PR spin. Here's are just a few of the interesting things I've heard. I hope Tim responds to this and sets me straight if he thinks I'm mistaken, and that employees read what he writes and sets him straight if his head is in the sand and/or full of BS.
What I find most interesting is that (reportedly) a lot of people can't figure out whether Tim doesn't care about many things that go on in his company, or if he's out of touch and not aware.
I've heard horror stories about employees going home crying because of how they were treated, and others because of stresses in their job. I've heard stories of high level managers who don't know what they're doing, and of false documenting of employee "problems."
O'Reilly's software division has never turned a profit. Their computer books (and now conferences) are the only divisions of the company that turn a profit. The company is becoming more and more cold and cut-throat, and increasingly profit oriented. Tim talks about "building community" in the Open Source world, especially Perl and Linux communities, but the O'Reilly culture, community, and morale are going to hell.
Just two or three years ago, Tim was telling employees that "UNIX is dying," so ORA began focusing a lot of energy on its Windows books, and let UNIX books get even more outdated. When a new edition of an old UNIX book was done and it sold much better than expected, Tim began to realize there was more life in UNIX than he thought.
Several years ago, Tim sold the Global Network Navigator to America Online for $10 million, not having the foresight and business sense to spin it off, get investors, and make it a Yahoo or Excite.
When Linux started really taking off in the last couple of years, ORA realized they had miscalculated the potential (including profit potential,) of Linux and were missing the boat. Then an effort began to position ORA as the company that's been behind Linux from the beginning (even though other publishers had been publishing new Linux books, and O'Reilly wasn't even updating its old books.)
Increased energy in Perl, Linux, and the Open Source revolution has coincided with O'Reilly's discovery that there's a lot of money in conferences, and in increased book sales through building an image of being part (or even a leader) of the Open Source community.
Here's a message from Tim O'Reilly to some of his employees. It was forwarded on to me, and I thought it was so bizarre, funny, and sad, I kept it. Just the first four lines are Tim's, but I think the whole email is important to put Tim's words in the appropriate context:
TIM> This is pretty offbeat, but there might
TIM> be some way to leverage the "internet
TIM> mindshare grab" evidenced here with the
TIM> upcoming elections.
>
>>Subject: News flash: Gore created the Internet
>>
>>Someone passed the following transcript on to >>me. I've heard of spin, but this
>>is over the top. Any idea what he's talking >>about?
>>
>>GORE CLAIMS HE CREATED THE INTERNET!!!!
>>
>>
>>CNN Transcripts
>>03/10/99=20
>>
>>
>>BLITZER: I want to get to some of those >>substantive domestic and
>>international questions in a bit, but let's >>just wrap up a bit of the
>>politics right now.
>>
>>Why should Democrats, looks at the Democratic >>nomination, the process,
>>support you instead of Bill Bradley -- a friend >>of yours, a former =
>>colleague
>>in the Senate -- what do you have to bring to >>this that he doesn't
>>necessarily bring to this process?=20
>>
>>GORE: Well, I will -- I'll be offering my >>vision when my campaign begins,
>>and it'll be comprehensive and sweeping, and I >>hope that it'll be =
>>compelling
>>enough to draw people toward it. I feel that it >>will be. But it will =
>>emerge
>>from my dialogue with the American people. I've >>traveled to every part of
>>this country during the last six years. During >>my service in the United
>>States Congress, I took the initiative in >>creating the Internet. I took =
>>the
>>initiative in moving forward a whole range of >>initiatives that have proven
>>to be important to our country's economic >>growth, environmental protection,=
>>
>>improvements in our educational system....
>
>--
> Tim O'Reilly @ O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
> 101 Morris Street, Sebastopol, CA 95472
> 707-829-0515 ext 266, Fax 707-829-0104,
> tim@ora.com
> http://www.oreilly.com
> http://software.oreilly.com
> http://www.songline.com
I wonder about the possible similarities between Tim O'Reilly and Al Gore.
Harry Dowd
