Random Thoughts on Software

When I went to bookmark www.digg.com on del.icio.us, I noticed that the majority of the recommended tags were related to the technologies that Digg is built upon, and only a few were related to what values and services the site actually provides. This is most likely because the majority of the del.icio.us userbase is Web-savvy techno-types who have particular interest in the underlying technologies.

There is a divide in the way that different people value technology. Technical people analyze and evaluate technonlogy based on how it is built. Business people analyze and evaluate technology based on how profitable it is. Users analyze and evaluate technology based on how useful and valuable it is to them.

This isn’t a new idea by any means, but as technology creators we sometimes get caught-up playing our particular roles and forget to see things from other important perspectives. It is important to note this divide and wear many hats when you are evaluating and/or building technology.