Dan Gillmor on Technology: Monday October 21, 2002: Software ide a may be just crazy enough to work

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Updated: Monday October 21, 2002
Dan Gillmor on Technology

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Software idea may be just crazy enough to work

By Dan Gillmor <mailto:dgillmor () sjmercury com>

Mercury News Technology Columnist

Mitch Kapor smiles at the half-serious question: ``Are you crazy to try
something like this?''

Kapor, a pioneering developer of personal-computer software, is definitely
not nuts. And it's no surprise to see the founder of Lotus Development now
leading an unorthodox project that could have an outsized impact.

For more than a year, Kapor and his small team have been working on what
they're calling an open-source ``Interpersonal Information Manager.''

The software is being designed to securely handle personal e-mail,
calendars, contacts and other such data in new ways, and to make it simple
to collaborate and share information with others without having to run
powerful, expensive server computers.

As with other open-source software, the source code (programming
instructions) will be freely available along with the working program. An
early version of the calendar part of the software should be posted on the
Web by the end of this year, and version 1.0 of the whole thing is slated
for the end of 2003 or early 2004.

Code-named ``Chandler'' after the late mystery novelist Raymond Chandler,
the software will run on the Windows, Mac OS X and Linux operating systems.
Initially, it will be aimed at individuals and small businesses, but it's
also being designed as a platform upon which other developers can build
useful software and services of their own.

The planned features alone would make the project noteworthy. If the desktop
software world needs anything, it's more innovation in the once-competitive
area of personal information management, now overwhelmingly dominated by
Microsoft's inelegant but overwhelmingly dominant Outlook, part of Microsoft
Office. No sane venture capitalist would fund a company in the financial
vacuum created by the Microsoft monopoly, Kapor says.

That makes the Chandler business plan perhaps as important as the product
itself. Kapor, founder of the software company that sold the influential and
hugely successful Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet program in the 1980s, is funding
the initial work through a non-profit foundation. Why does this matter? For
one thing, it may succeed. For another, it could be a model for other such
projects.

Kapor, who has remained active in the industry as an investor and
cyber-activist (he co-founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation), says he
has committed up to $5 million of his money. But he wants to make the
project self-sustaining by 2005 through a variety of funding sources. These
include sponsorships and contributions from outsiders -- he likens this to
one of National Public Radio's fundraising strategies -- as well as selling
services and collecting licensing fees from people who want to build
commercial applications on the Chandler base.

Call it a socially conscious, post-bubble strategy -- ``to have an impact
and be self-sustaining, not to generate revenue, profits and a high market
capitalization,'' Kapor says.

The legal vehicle is called the Open Source Application Foundation (www.osa
foundation.org). Including Kapor, the project team numbers eight. All but
one (a marketing specialist) are programming veterans. It will grow to 14
when fully staffed, Kapor says.

If the software lives up to the developers' plans, it will have wide appeal.
It should be highly adaptable to personal tastes, with robust collaborative
features. I'm especially hopeful about a feature to build in strong
encryption in a way that lets users protect their privacy without having to
think about it.

The Chandler architecture builds on other open-source projects. These
include Python, a development language and environment that's gaining more
and more fans among programmers, and Jabber, a communications infrastructure
that started life as an instant-messaging alternative but has evolved into a
robust platform of its own.

One of the Chandler developers, Andy Hertzfeld, is volunteering his
services. Hertzfeld is well-known in the software community, partly for his
key role in creating Apple's original Macintosh and Mac operating system. An
open-source company he co-founded a few years ago, Eazel, died during the
Internet bubble's immediate aftermath.

``I hope we make a great application that I love to use myself, and that
eventually millions of people will enjoy using,'' he says. ``Hopefully,
we'll be able to make e-mail a lot more secure, without encumbering the user
with technical detail. We can make accessing and managing information of all
kinds more convenient if we're lucky. And we'll be helping to pave the way
for free software to displace proprietary operating systems at the center of
the commercial software industry.''

The paid team members aren't going to get rich on this deal. Non-profits
don't go public, and they don't grant options. ``What matters,'' says Katie
Capps Parlante, a developer, ``is creating something I'm really proud of.''

How much does Kapor's longstanding antipathy toward Microsoft count in this
effort? ``I've gone to great lengths to make sure that my strong feelings
are not a motivation,'' he says. Negative motives are ``not enough to
sustain a five- to 10-year effort.''

Still, it's possible that only someone like Kapor could put together and
lead such a thing. He's rich, with an unusually powerful sense of social
justice, and he enjoys the development process. It's fun, he says, and
that's one reason to do it.

But the Open Source Application Foundation also could be a template for
other efforts to restore some choice and spark more innovation in markets
where dominant companies have squeezed out serious competition. I'd like to
see some foundation fund an ongoing effort to ensure that files in Microsoft
Office formats can be translated, opened, changed and saved with competing
programs. Microsoft has used its proprietary formats as part of an effective
lock-in strategy. I'd also like to see foundations help keep Internet
standards from being locked up by commercial interests, as some now
threaten.

For now, it will be fascinating to see if Kapor and his team succeed. This
is potentially a big deal.

``No,'' muses Kapor, ``I don't think it's crazy.''
FURTHER READING  
 * eJournal <http://www.dangillmor.com/> 

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