What's happening in the market?

I speak to contractors daily and the question that i'm being asked now even more than ever is 'how is the market looking?' I'm sure some people think i'm just sitting in my office drinking champagne and playing in a pile of money and Drupal t-shirts, but in recruitment there are some times that you have to actually do some work - actually that is every day, so I do have pretty good idea of what's happening out there.

In answer to the question on everybody involved in the technology industries lips, i'd say that it probably is clear to see that there is a little uncertainty in the market at the moment. Clients seem to be thinking a little harder about spending their money, some projects are being placed on hold, some cancelled altogether. However, generally speaking I think that 2012 is looking like a promising year. The work is definitely out there, all you have to do is pop onto Jobserve and see all the adverts that Dean from Hayes is posting and lets face it, if he has jobs then things must be alright!

The media loves to harp on about an apparent economic armageddon which is going to be happening this year and scare stories like these actually help contribute to people's mindsets, thus causing the problems in the market. But even if there is a 'double dip' this year, technology is going to remain strong.  In a recession, money doesn't evaporate, it changes hands - one of my colleagues loves that saying and I think it is very poignant.

Companies need technology to evolve and save money, which means there is no reason why 2012 can't be one of the most prosperous years in recent memory, at least for the people with the right mindsets and in the right industries. Now, if you'll excuse me, my champagne is getting warm.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

Those of you who sit by your computer for days, weeks and months on end waiting for my next blog post may remember a little while I ranted about my disappointment of the latest evolution of Google, namely Google+. 

To summarise, my main niggle was that rather than disrupting the market place and changing the game, Google+ was a lazy attempt at overtaking Facebook as the king of social networks. I stated that it reeked of arrogance and that rather than trying to revolutionise, it merely imitated - it seemed to rely on it's own name power when trying to win the race.

A few months on and I have to admit that I haven't delved into Google+ too much, but perhaps that says it all. I have no inclination to immerse myself in it, in fact until I just saw the TV advert which prompted this blog i'd barely thought about Google+ since I last wrote about it.

The grim underbelly of consumerism is that products are created, then promoted and shoved down our throats until it becomes a necessity for us to own them, it creates a fear inside of us that our lives will be less fulfilling unless we have it. We need that product to be complete. Ask those people who queue outside Carphone Warehouse in the pouring rain at 3am in morning waiting for the new iPhone, they'll know what i'm talking about. 

Google+ does not create that fear. I feel excluded from nothing. From what I gather, Google+ is very popular among the more technical minority, who perhaps feel a bit like they are part of an uber cool select by using it. That recognition creates a certain amount of prestige, but I'd bet my last mince pie that that is not the impact Google were going for. They want everybody and their nan using Google+ - but instead me and my nan are using Facebook. 

The commercial which prompted this blog was one by Google Chrome which tells the story of a father who is documenting the birth of his daughter and following it with blog posts, pictures and anecdotes before the advert finishes with him exclaiming how one day he can't wait to go through these landmarks with her.

Sound familiar? Almost sounds like they are trying to create a "timeline"? Like a Facebook Timeline? It almost sounds like it is trying to say "you can do everything you can do on Facebook on Google!".

It of course coincides with the launch of the revamped Facebook page, the Timeline, which makes it easy peasy to go back and look at exactly what you were doing right at the beginning when you first signed up. It also creates possibilities such as being able to document people's entire lives. From the moment somebody is born every step can be documented via word, picture and video on Facebook.

Perhaps not revolutionary in this day and age, but it is definitely worth thinking about - our grandkids will be able to pop on line and look at what we were doing when we were 15 years old, to the date...wouldn't you love that opportunity? Of course, your current spouse may not be too keen on seeing who you were cyber flirting with back in 2006, but that is neither here nor there. 

By back handedly declaring that whatever you can do on Facebook you can do on Google, therein lies the problem. There is no innovation, no game changing. Google are arguably the biggest start up to evolve over the past decade, they own a place in the Oxford Dictionary and it is hard to fathom the power they have. But they cannot beat or keep up with Facebook at their own game. 

Until they develop something which takes Social Networking to the next level, something which truly disrupts the market place, they are going to continue to play second fiddle to Facebook, at least in that particular field. 

The innovation at Google seems to have to slowed down somewhat and they need to think back to how they started, think about how and why they have become the global monster that they are today. Because right now, Mark Zuckerberg is checking in as the King of the Social Media Palace. 

 

Merry Christmas!

Drupal Keeps Moving Forward...

As we reach the final stages of 2011, Drupal is continuing to gain prominence as the CMS of choice for all manner of organisations. As well as the smaller, digital media type companies which are looking to bring in full time in-house Drupal Ninjas rather than spending valuable cash on the typically higher paid contractors out there, the juggernauts of business are following the suit of Capgemini and doing what they can to tempt   freelance and contract devs into taking permanent positions.

This might be a little worrying for those contractors out there and also for me since I make most of my modest revenue from contract placements but the demand for good Drupal Devs is such that there's no need for us to panic just yet. Rather, I see this as a positive for all involved. It shows that companies have gone successfully through the honeymoon period with Drupal and are now looking to tie it down as it becomes an integral part of their business.

It means sustainability for Drupal and that this isn't just a boom - even if it is a boom, it means that it is going to go on for that much longer so lets milk that cow till its dry!

There is still a skills shortage with Drupal, which i'm sure any of fellow Drupal Recruiters would begrudgingly concur with me about. So, Drupal Devs out there, spread the word! Get your friends using Drupal, your mum, your nan, anybody! Then tell them to give me a call.

I'll leave it on that note, but to summarise - the future looks good for Drupal.

DrupalCon 2011

It's been far too long since my last blog...quite a bit has gone down in the world since then...in the Open Source world the most newsworthy happening was arguably DrupalCon in Croydon whilst in the real world the most newsworthy events was probably the spontaneous riot outbreaks across London and the rest of the country.

I'm pretty sure DrupalCon and the riots weren't linked in any way though as they fell on separate weeks and most of the thefts involved Nike Air Max trainers as opposed to Drupal hats, t-shirts and mugs. Imagine that, an angry mob of Drupal Developers storming London, flying the Drupal flag...maybe that could be an event for the next DrupalCon in London? In place of a pub crawl, some light looting? I'll drop Dries a line and see what he thinks, although he hasn't been returning my calls so far. He clearly doesn't know who I am.

Back to DrupalCon, it wasn't an event I attended myself. I was very tempted, as i'm pretty sure it would have literally been a meat market of Drupal talent for me to weave and network my way through however I couldn't bring myself to do it. I would like to think that the Drupal Developers I do know have a pretty good opinion of me but I know how many calls they get every day from recruiters and I know how annoying it must be when you're not actually looking for work. I would imagine that most get at least five a day, some closer to ten. So, with that in mind I figured the last thing Developers would want at an event celebrating their vocational passion would be me loitering around in a pinstripe suit flinging out business cards.

However, I tried to keep up to speed with what was happening and all the devs I know who attended gave really positive feedback on the event both from an educational point of view and as a stand alone social event. The drunken tweets of some of the Drupallers who attended the pub crawl on the Tuesday probably said it all!

DrupalCon 2011 has further cemented Drupal as not just an incredibly efficient Content Management System but as a unique piece of kit which has created it's own community and dare I say it, lifestyle. It brings people together and there is no stronger evidence of that than the amount of people who headed to Croydon for this years event.

Croydon owes Drupal a lot as well as I don't think i've ever heard of any other good reason to go there until I heard about DrupalCon.

Until next time!

Looks like I was right...

Google+ isn't going to plan apparently - http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/27/google-minus/

Whilst they've brought on around 10 million new users, there is nothing compelling to make those new users stay...

Google+ vs Facebook

There's a select few out there who have had the privilege of being able to give the much hyped Google+ a bit of a test run - i'm not one of them. Google clearly don't know who I am. I've left Eric Schmidt countless messages, but he's yet to return my calls. If I don't receive an invite on a silver platter soon, I may have to resort to utilising Google Earth to locate his house and pay him a visit. I'd get Marc Zuckerberg to give me a hand, if only he'd stop ignoring my calls as well.

However, in the mean time i've been doing a bit of research into this new phenomenon, designed to take it to Facebook and further develop Googles plans of world domination. Is it going to present real competition? I'm not so sure.

Facebook has so cemented itself into our daily lives (much like Google has in way of a search engine) that the idea that anybody, including a company as powerful as Google, could cause the millions of 'Bookers to migrate over to a new social network is pretty unlikely. Granted, some might have said the same about MySpace before Facebook leap frogged over it a few years ago, but this is a different beast altogether.

If you look into the key selling points of Google+ which are supposed to whet the appetite of the average social networking junkie, in my opinion they're not that impressive. The first one is Circles, meaning the idea that you can now separate the different groups of people in your life such as friends, family and work colleagues.

If you're a fourteen year old hooligan worried about your mum seeing the latest picture of you being sick on yourself after one too many Bacardi Breezers then perhaps I could see the value in wanting to filter what you broadcast on your Profile page. But then again, what self respecting fourteen year old hooligan wants to even talk to his mum, let alone chat and share pictures with her on a social network site?

As for the grown ups who are worried about their work colleagues, what on earth is it you're getting up too that is so bad that you can't let them see it?

The next feature designed to shake the ground we walk on is Hangouts. Basically, this is the concept of letting other people online know that you're 'hanging out' and you can then 'drop by' via face to face technology. In other words, think of Skype. Wow.

Granted, this isn't easily available to do on Facebook at the moment but how hard would it be implement it into the current set up? Facebook has proven to be so agile over the years, that something like this clearly isn't far away anyway.

The final selling point is Sparks. Sparks looks for videos and articles that you'll like (presumably based on your browsing history) and sends them over to you to view and share. Facebook pretty much does this already.

The point is that I can't quite see the innovation here. I haven't yet come across anything which I feel is going to disrupt the current market place. There is nothing here that Facebook either hasn't thought of, isn't planning on doing or isn't doing at the moment in some form. The reason why Facebook hasn't slumped to the back of the queue like MySpace has is because it has an innate ability to evolve.

Have the talented people at Google become complacent and dare I say arrogant? Rather than really looking to break new boundaries at a time when social media is fully integrated into our daily lives, Google is relying on its name power to draw people in.

The problem is, Google may be the king of search engines and it may have its pristine fingers in a number of different pies but on this evidence, when it comes to social networking Facebook has nothing to worry about. Twitter and LinkedIn have survived and prospered because they have wisely not tried to tackle Facebook and instead have offered something which can compliment it. Google, being Google, are going straight for the jugular of Facebook and I think this will be the reason it will not be successful.

This my own view and you may find me eating a large slice of humble pie in a few months time when I invite you to 'hangout' on Google+, but for the time being i'm going to be pretty obnoxious about the whole thing and push my view on anybody who'll listen. Oh and by the way, if you see Eric Schmidt, tell him i'm looking for him.

Has Drupal got competition?

In this article, Techcrunch has revealed how often Wordpress has been downloaded recently...does Drupal have anything to worry about? Traditionally thought of as a blogging tool, the latest version of Wordpress has been sparking a lot of interest recently...

http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/04/wordpress-3-1-downloaded-15-million-times-in-under-5-months/