1. The Joy of the Fringe
Entertaining yourself in an
increasingly boring techniverse.
M@rkDav.is
CodeChops <//> FlishHorse
2. A brief history of digital expression
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Blogs
Social Sites
Status Updates
Anything
Articles and Stories
Paragraphs & Comments
“I can dress myself!”
Expression
3. A brief history of digital adoption
Anything
Articles and Stories
Paragraphs & Comments
“I can dress myself!”
The Technical Elite
Journalists
Most Folks
Anyone
Adoption
4. A brief history of digital uninterestingness
Wide platform adoption is killing
digital quality and diversity.
5.
6. Found in the Mobile Space
• There are a dozen phone OSs
• Non-native native apps
• Many alt tools & IDEs
• Lovely online folks
7. Found in the Coding Space
• Alternative tools
• APIs galore
• Hyper-specific
• Encouraging online groups
20. The Joy of the Fringe
No templates were harmed in the making of this slide deck
M@rkDav.is
CodeChops <//> FlishHorse
Editor's Notes
Hi I’m mark and I’m here to talk about a place called the fringe, where it exists, why it fun, and how to get involved. If you have not noticed, the online world is getting artistically boring.
Way back in time, at the start of the web, it was an empty canvas and you could make any crazy looking web site you wanted if you knew how., then came templates, and blogs so more people could contribute, but in more controlled ways. More recently, social sites have narrowed the way you can tribute to just a few words.
At the same time that expressiveness was shrinking adoption was drastically increasing. Where previously only a handful of folks could contribute to the web, now everyone is innabled and encouraged to contribute.
The problem is that the bigger platforms are so pervasive that the net has become incredibility uninteresting. Most of the contributions are mundane and what was once the home to artists and journalists has been replaced with a fire hose of trivia. As app developers we are also encouraged to build apps that run on popular platforms. Most startups are simply missing features of these platforms with a exit strategy if be acquired by one of the giants.
[dramatic] There is a space where digital creativity and the monster platforms collide, like the subduction zone of tectonic plates. Smaller platforms driven by courageous teams are providing an alternative to massive consolidation. It’s like a digital middle-class of platforms and services. Online corner markets of the tools you might be looking for on your next adventure.
It might not be obvious, but you have more than two options for Phones these days. There’s this Canadian company that makes a phone with keyboard. How weird is that!? And one of the browser vendors is making an new Web based Phone OS. It’s so crazy it just might work! Meta platforms exist to get apps on all devices, not just the main ones. The dev communities for those platforms are full of fun people trying to figure out how to make a more interesting mobile experience.
Somewhere along the way the choice of programming language and tools became more of a fashion statement than a meritocracy. Development online and mobile is exploding with alternative tools and controls. Cloud based IDEs and elegant UI control vendors are there to help you. Custom cloud providers give you just the bits you need to launch your next app.
This is not a new concept! In the real world we prefer to buy local and support small business. We shun big box stores and dread our favorite little shops going under. It’s time to take this trend online. Startups should be helping other startups. Don’t ya think? I do. Small companies can work together to bring new ideas to the surface rather than perpetuating the creative desert we see online today.
So that’s the fringe concept I’m talking about, now I’m going to let you in on a little secret. It’s a lot of fu!. There is learning and surprises and real people to meet. Your daily work should be full of adventure and it can be. I’ll also mention some perks that I find personally motivating.
There is the great scene in the Wrath of Kahn where they get out of a jam not by using their lazer blasters, but by knowing how the enemy ship works. You can use safe-bet solutions and they work great, but when something goes wrong you’re stuck. Cobbling something together from smaller bits allows you to learn why things work. It much more rewarding to fix it your self then to call tech support.
For some of the coding I’m doing now, simple internet searching is useless. I have to just figure it out on my own or work directly with the vendor. When I solve a problem can be a surprise and a delight. You just don’t get that rush from copying/paste code.
There is this small Japanese cloud service I’ve been working with lately. I’m using them to back-end a new app. They are so nice! They email me just to check in. When you work with other smaller teams everyone celebrates your successes and pull together when things go wrong. It’s a good feeling to know that you are all in this together.
I know it’s cheesy, but I just love free hardware. Here is a pile of phones that sits under my monitor. Some never even made it into real production and some run on OSs has been abandoned, but I’m proud of the teams that tried and have fond memories rooting for them and making apps. Being an early adopter of alternative platforms can get you access to developer devices. It’s really fun to carry around a phone or tablet that no one has ever seen.
If you are interested in plugging into this special place there are a few easy ways to get started.
Hackathons are typically sponsored. I’ve been introduced to the most obscure platforms there. You code on the sponsor’s platforms and they give you free hardware and services if you do a good job. It’s a shared success story.
Here is a local Portland User group called Rogue Coding. They are a good example because they are not platform specific. Any platform is a good topic for discussion. Another example in Eugene is a group that meets at CodeChopscoworking space. They follow along with a book that covers a variety of databases. Each time they meet they talk about a different database. It’s like a study group.
Oh look a hockey stick! Except this one is real This is actual data from the last 8 year showing the number of published web APIs, I checked in June and they had just passed the 9000 API milestone. That’s a ton of APIs! I wonder how many are from the big guys and how many are from the little guys?
There is an old saying that you vote with your money. The big platforms give it all way because they make money off advertising and other nefarious methods. We can reward the fringe players, and the best way is by paying for their products and services. These companies are rare and special. Let them know that their efforts are valuable. Encourage them to be creative!
[Slowly] Finally, knowing the fringe exists. The next time you are making a technical choice. Take a moment to pause… Explore your options… Consider how you want to participate. I found a lot of joy in the fringe, and I think you can too.
