According to Venturebeat,
http://venturebeat.com/2010/03/15/google-tim-bray/
http://venturebeat.com/2010/03/15/google-tim-bray/
Tim Bray isnt as well-known as Sir Tim Berners-Lee, but the guy has had a leading role in defining the Internet. His name tops the list of editors on the official specs for the Internets XML language, the basic building block for all Web pages.
Bray can be entertainingly cranky, but it was off-putting today to read his blog post announcing his new job as an evangelist to software developers for Googles Android platform. He wasted only a couple of paragraphs before getting to his point: Apple sucks.
The iPhone vision of the mobile Internets future omits controversy, sex, and freedom, but includes strict limits on who can know what and who can say what. Its a sterile Disney-fied walled garden surrounded by sharp-toothed lawyers. The people who create the apps serve at the landlords pleasure and fear his anger.
I hate it.
The problem with this post is obvious: He praises the Web as the first-ever platform without a vendor, yet Bray has taken a job as spokesman for Google, a vendor. The company sells the Nexus One phone that runs on the open-source Android platform he admires.
Google is also in an escalating business battle with Apple. Google and Apples CEOs went from best buddies in August 2006 to open enemies in August 2009, demonstrating a key problem with the vendors Bray doesnt want to control the Internet. Vendors pledge to do one thing, then go against their word when the winds of cash flow change direction.
And at this point in his career, Bray also knows that whenever techies disagree with someone, they look for the money strings to discredit the other side. He probably thinks hes taken a lot of guff over the years as a steward of the complicated XML standard, but the Apple fanboy army will now simplify things for him: Hes a shill for Google.
In his first post as a Google employee, Bray brags that he gets to say whatever he wants on his blog. Yet he also admits the post was pre-screened by Google PR. They didnt suggest any changes, he writes. Of course they didnt, Tim. Apple is a sterile Disney-fied walled garden blah blah lawyers is exactly what they're paying for.
If the government did that, even if it were for different reasons (eg, security), people would have a hernia.
