Comments on: News from NTC ‘08

By: admin

admin — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 22:42:14 +0000

@Tompkins,

As you know, I’m always all ears about directions companies are going to open things up - transparency, open data access, etc. :-)

By: admin

admin — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 22:39:43 +0000

@Thomas,

I had a detailed conversation with the MPower folks - I’ll be blogging about it later. But suffice it to say that they convinced *me* that they are on the right track.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 22:38:10 +0000

I just found this very interesting blog entry about MPower, which I found via a comment on Alan Benamer’s blog. Sounds like MPower plans to get a lot more open as time goes on. So I am a little less skeptical.

By: Shawn Towey

Shawn Towey — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:31:08 +0000

If you think Penguins are so cute, take a look at this:
http://www.dvoc.org/BirdingHumor/Resources/EVILPENGUIN_1.mpg

By: Jordan Viator

Jordan Viator — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 03:02:59 +0000

Another thanks for the props and mentioning our new project! Wish I would have had more time to visit in person at the conference, but I look forward to reading your NTC follow up posts.

By: Tompkins Spann

Tompkins Spann — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 23:40:22 +0000

Thanks Michelle for the Convio props! I agree we still have a ways to go, but the near future horizon is full of some good stuff. I’d love to share some of these details with you and for that matter, any readers who are interested. Cheers.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 23:12:15 +0000

Having spent a little bit of time to download MPower, I have to say I’m underwhelmed.

1. Their web site makes no mention of what server technology is used/required for MPower. Turns out it requires MS SQL Server ($240 + CALs from Techsoup, plus hardware). Oh, and Crystal Reports Application Server. Not among Techsoup’s Business Objects offerings, and $15k without discounts - there may be some available.

2. Despite claims of access to a robust user community, there’s no sign of such on their website.

3. Client-(pc-only) server? Seriously? In 2008?

Without the s/w to install it (and strongly suspecting that doing so just to “check it out” is a waste of time), I have to believe that their goal here is to get clients to buy services. Which is fine. But I’m sure that their services pricing has been adjusted to account for loss of licensing revenue. And it will be quite some time before there’s any competition in the MPower Open services provision arena, since it’s been a closed app up until now.

So, good news that companies are starting to see that opening their source can be done without completely cannibalizing their revenue, but I find it hard to believe that this product is going to gain a lot of traction.