Year end reminiscences
Posted by Sundar Subramanian on Sun, Dec 31, 2006 @ 03:05 AM
Generally at the end of each year, I write an email to some of my friends telling them how my year went: the ups and lows and ask about their experiences in the year past. This year I thought I will write a blog post on this topic.
The major theme for me this year has been my work in Dimdim. When I was thinking about joining a startup many fears swelled (DD has written about this) but there was an air of excitement, of doing something new and interesting. The expectation was to create something truly usable (and change the world :-))
But this was tempered by the fear of loosing a stable and safe career. Especially in India, where the software profession is respected, society does not understand people who leave their existing job in a truly multi-national software company for a career in a startup company. This move of mine was viewed as stupid (at best) and childish (at worst) by many. The name “Dimdim” also didn’t inspire much confidence, it was not Acme Software Solutions or InfoTel Software Services :-).
I herded my trembling thoughts together and started work in Dimdim since I saw the possibility of fulfilling a need. But over time, with my fellow-dimdimers I have grown in confidence. The response at the OSCON Demo in July where Dimdim was first unveiled showed us that we were on the right track. Then the Open Source Alpha Release in September and the stunning response (Tens of thousands of downloads in less than 100 days) we have got from the community showed us that people are waiting for a product like Dimdim. The forums posts and interaction with the Dimdim community showed us the things we are doing right and the things we have to correct. The amount of time and energy that the members of the community have put into building Dimdim is truly humbling. People have not only suggested features but also gone ahead and implemented much-needed features (LDAP integration). We have found many bugs through community reporting and Dimdim testing has been tested by the community on many platforms which were not part of the original plan.
Right now, we are working towards the early 2007, hosted Beta release. I am sure it will not be a flawless rollout, but I am also equally sure all of you will point and prod us into correcting the mistakes that happen and ensure that Dimdim truly becomes the world’s web meeting.
Happy New Year everybody !