Re: Sitting by the Rock of the Bay...

Ira Hata (ihata@gol.com)
Tue, 15 Apr 1997 08:54:42 +0900


Yo Rohit!

Sorry for the lapse in communication dude.

I tried hooking up with Mochizuki-san last
week but he didn't show to the place he
designated to me, very unlike him to do so.
We went back and forth through the weekend
and finally confirmed a meeting this
Thursday in his office.

I'll do my thing there and let you know how
it shakes out.

As for what to do with your life, (as
Mochizuki-san would say) "ride the wave"
and let it take you "wherever". The outcome
of my meeting with Mochizuki-san will pretty
much set the tempo of what to do next. If
he says, "let's go for it", then it's Canon
for you. If not, then you have one less
option to consider.

Make sense?

"i"

P.S. I sense a lot of negative energy
being spent on your experiences at
W3C. It might be a good idea to
try and think of the good times at
W3C and focus your energies on more
positive quests. Just some advice
from an ol' timer.

At 09:32 PM 4/13/97 -0700, Rohit Khare wrote:
>Hi gang --
>
>
>I'm sitting here at the furthestmost reaches of Pt. Bonita, in the Marin
>Headlands. Right above the lighthouse, looking over the cast pacific,
>silent except for the caves crashing on shore. And, of course, the sound
>of a clicking laptop keyboard. You know me by now...
>
>The winds are a bit strong -- the screen is flapping in the breeze,
>threatening to take off at any second. How's that for a risk of
>subnotebook computing?
>
>It's a fine sunny day, al the more stolen since I just missed my flight
>back East. I'm trying to decide, now that I've reached past W3C, what to
>do next. Of course, there's UC Irvine on the horizon, but what do I
>really want to do next? Do I need to bunker down for the long haul and,
>thus, escape for the summer? Do I charge straight through to UCI? Or do
>I stop to curse my wits for leaving the Kleenex for my runny noseback at
>the trailhead?
>
>In the most concrete terms, I have to decide what to do for the next few
>months. THe question of May is most urgent -- I have to be in India for
>one wedding 5/8-11, and in D.C. for another 5/25 (neither of them are
>min, thankfully!). I'd like to have Mochizuki-san fund this little
>venture in excahnge for some consulting value. Otherwise, I'll go
>directly to India on my own for three weeks (well, with my mother, but I
>think you know what I mean).
>
>During May, Adam and I need to continue the book outlines, and we can
>take a crack at the "How I learned to stop worrying and love HTTP" paper
>which HICSS has requested.
>
>The troubl begins after that -- do I want to propose spending the summer
>in Japan? vegging out on a beach somewhaere? in India? Do I write, or do
>I try to do something very difficult-- empty my mind and do nothing?
>
>I suppose I'll have to write Shemp, the story of the W3C, since now I'm
>*really* pissed. First, I'm still pissed at the "Archtiects of the Web"
>garbaggio -- and now it's even doing so well, there are display ads for
>it in the Wall $treet Journal. Second, I'm sufficiently pissed now at
>the W3C's own shyness at getting its message out. So I'm going to do my
>my bit by dsetting the agenda around them. Dark and unspecified threats
>of "wither Shemp should be done within W3C or not at all" will get some
>folks nowhere (no, it's not who you're thinking of.)
>
>The key is positioning. Shemp is not for technology weenies -- it has no
>technology in it, no specs, no bits on the wire. It's for the
>intelligent, curious layperson, but we all know how small a market that
>is. I think we have something to say about how the Web hangs together
>which hasn't been said before: how the technonology affects information
>communities/societies and why "Web philosophy" -- as found in the
>artifacts AND in the processes -- is a Good Thing. This is a lot more
>than a quickie explain-the-pages-at-w3.org book, not a literal User's
>Guide to Web Standards, but a ... what? Who should I identify as my
>target audience? the politiical philiopsphers and erudite pundits of the
>Safire ilk? Interested Web "users" like Michelle? Budding Web "content"
>developers like Duck? Policymakers? CIOs? W3C AC Reps? (that last is
>most tempting, and most telling -- I think the W3C value proposition is
>such a state secret even most of our members couldn't enunciate it.)
>
>Well, that's enough questions for now. I gotta find that kleenex...
>
>RK
>
>
Ira Hata
Principal
Roadrunner Technology Inc.
4-26-25 Eda-Minami
Tsuzuki-ku, Yokohama 225
Phome: 81-45-942-1508
Fax: 81-45-942-1542
Cellular: 81-30-088-5993
E-mail: ihata@gol.com