The Little Guy

When Google Gears was announced this was a bit how I felt based on some of the wrong news that was in the press:

Google Gears the first offline web application toolkit?

"One thing I hate that the IT Industry is that when someone releases a piece of technology that is completely revolutionary, and no one takes stock, however when some company with a lot of clout in the industry such as Google or Apple release, everyone think that they rock!

From my RSS feeds I stumbled across this article in ZDnet "Can Microsoft change 'gears' for the sea-change ahead?". The title was attractive so I started reading it, however early on in the article I came across this:

"During that time, I have drawn attention to the work being done with JavaDB and Derby as examples of how the offline problem might get solved. But, ultimately, I have routinely said that when the problem gets solved, it will get solved by Google. Last week, with Google's announcement of Google Gears, that day came."

Once I read this I stopped reading why? Because Google Gears is NOT the first offline web application toolkit. The first on to my knowledge is Dojo Offline. Dojo is a popular AJAX framework, and Dojo Offline extends basic Dojo's capabilities by allowing Dojo applications to be used while you're offline....So why is it that the IT industry does not recognize achievement and give credit where it's due?"

Thanks for the blog post Irfan!

I actually just sent David Berlind, the author of the ZDNet article, the following email:

Hi David! My name is Brad Neuberg; I created an offline open source framework named Dojo Offline in conjunction with SitePen. I wanted to point to an inaccuracy in one of your articles:

"Can Microsoft change 'gears' for the sea-change ahead?"
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Berlind/?p=509

You claim that Google Gears is the first offline toolkit. In fact, Dojo Offline (and Dojo Storage) shipped before Google Gears with a similar model: a very-lightweight plugin that extended the browser to cache resources when offline, in conjunction with a simple API to help you build offline web applications.

As one of the 'little guys' who works hard to do my innovation out in the open and much of the time for free, it's important to me that I at least get credit when I create something before others. Most of my ideas usually sound weird and are ignored when I first float them, such as the offline problem which I've been attacking for the last few years, with focused solutions such as Dojo Storage, Dojo Offline, and others, or coworking when I first started it, so it's important to me that I get credit when they finally go mainstream so folks take me seriously on my next weird idea.

Best,
Brad Neuberg