Light at the end of the tunnel
Sunday, January 21st, 2007For the past several months, I’ve been working on a book with Terry Reese. Basically, it discusses issues and technologies people need to be aware of if they’re thinking of starting a digital repository. We will finish this week. Even though the publisher has already accepted all of the chapters save two (which Terry and I are finishing), I can already see I have to add or modify a few sections that I was feeling pretty good about just last month.
Right now, I’m at a conference. One thing that absolutely blows my mind is that no matter how many skills and ideas I add to my bag of tricks, I always feel like I’m falling further and further behind.
Only a few years ago, a lone programmer could change the world with some code that was written in a couple hours (or days) using a handful of basic technologies. The days when the lone systems generalist could make a difference are ending. Skills that were once considered exotic are now essential for survival. The technologies, workflows, and services become increasingly sophisticated. Keeping up with the basics is like drinking out of a fire hose.
Our goal was to write something we’d want to read ourselves. Despite the fact that it’s on a technical topic, we were also hoping the ideas would be good for a few years. We’ll see how things go. In a worst case scenario, our book may help make some birds happy or prove useful for training puppies.