The Kevin Marks Departure

First Facebook stole the buzz from Google. Well, before that Google stole the buzz from Microsoft. Then Twitter stole the buzz from Facebook. And now Google is back on the bleeding edge with Google Wave. But Google Wave was created by a small team inside Google. That t

Image via CrunchBase

eam acted like a startup. And I think it is marvelous that Google Corporate nurtured that team and incubated Google Wave. But one persistent question will remain. At what point does Google become a Microsoft, an IBM, still big but no longer on the bleeding edge? One way to know Google has become big and old is that people with the newest and boldest ideas start leaving. I don't think that has happened to Google yet, but you can see some early signs.

This Reminds Me Of The Web 3.0 Definition Fight
I Did My Part
Google Wave API Google Group: Got To Undo The Ban On Me
Google Wave Protest
Google Wave API Google Group: Stalinist Mindset

Engineering leader Kevin Marks leaves Google for the social web VentureBeat

A Social Force Departs Google Washington Post

Social networking advocate Marks departs Google Brand Republic

Google social-tech evangelist leaving company CNET News

Google's OpenSocial Evangelist Leaves Google GigaOm Kevin Marks, one of the leading voices on Google-backed OpenSocial and Friend Connect, has left the Mountain View, Calif.-based search engine, he announced on his blog. ..... Google might have lost one of its most visible evangelists ...... Kevin, who in the past worked at Technorati, is one of the smartest guys I have met ....... I wonder if it has something to do with Google’s inability to totally grok the social web. ;-) OpenSocial was launched with much fanfare but seems to be lagging behind Facebook and its Facebook Connect effort.
A Social Force Departs Google TechCrunch Marks says he is working on a bunch of things “related to the social Web” and “activity streams” ...... Asked why he is leaving Google, he responds that his work is pretty much completed: “Over the last two years, we have built out the infrastructure for the social Web. Now it is time to build things on that infrastructure.” ..... is ready to work in a smaller company ..... The action, anyway, is moving to real time activity streams and Marks now seems to be pointed in that direction.
Farewell to Google My first taste of Google was to work on orkut, before starting the project now known as Google Profiles ....... Realising that Google had thousands of engineers, but very few comfortable speaking in public, I became a Developer Advocate, working to bridge external and internal developers, explaining the Social web to Google and OpenSocial and more to the wider web community. ......... build social infrastructure to make the web more social. ...... I'll be coding, writing and speaking on the social web via several new projects ..... If you want to get hold of me, I'm kevinmarks on most social networks, domains and of course Twitter. Or just google me.

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This Reminds Me Of The Web 3.0 Definition Fight

I Did My Part
Google Wave API Google Group: Got To Undo The Ban On Me
Google Wave Protest
Google Wave API Google Group: Stalinist Mindset

I thought I had done a good job of explaining here: Google Wave API Google Group: Got To Undo The Ban On Me. But I never thought I was indispensable to the group. Although vision is a specialty all its own. And just like every Tom, Dick and Harry feels like he is an expert on politics, people think great coders are by extension also great visionaries. Not true. Some are, but it is not by extension.

I think I have come to my conclusion: I Did My Part. I will have to do in the blogosphere what I was hoping to do through this Google Group.

I have a feeling a lot of glass is going to be broken in the fight on the 3.0 definition down the line. Google Wave is not my baby. But the 3.0 fight will be my own.

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From The Google Wave Developer Blog

TwilioBot: Bringing Phone Conversations into Waves
1 Wave Sandbox, 5 Hours, 17 Awesome Demos

Image by niallkennedy via Flickr

The Making of the Sudoku Gadget
Google Wave API Office Hours
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Introducing the Google Wave APIs: what can you build?

From The Official Google Blog

Went Walkabout. Brought back Google Wave

I Did My Part

I protested. I did my part. If the protests are not going to work, and the ban on me at the Google Wave API Google Group is not going to be lifted, I move on. I guess I will have to find out other ways to spot trends in Google Wave development. I am sure there will be several good blog options. We are at the early stages of seeing blogs dedicated completely to Google Wave. Maybe some of those bloggers will do the reading for me in those Google Groups.

A great way to follow an open source project is in the very open perhaps.

Google Wave API Google Group: Got To Undo The Ban On Me

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