Doc Searls

senior editor, Linux Journal

DIY-IT

Doc Searls

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Okay, so he's not really a doctor and doesn't even play one on TV, but Doc Searls has become one of the most-read blogger/journalists on the 'Net. He co-founded a successful ad agency during the dot-com boom only to discover that he hated advertising and marketing. He then teamed up with David Weinberger, Chris Locke and Rick Levine to co-author the classic, The Cluetrain Manifesto and then played the speakers' circuit until 9/11 shut that down.

In this conversation with host/producer Doug Kaye, Doc explains the vision he's been speaking and writing about since early 2003: do-it-yourself IT (DIY-IT). He suggests that we view the construction industry and its vendors as a model for commodity component-based application development. He says this is a "corner of the market you're not going to see when you look at vendor sports, the supply side...Really powerful things happen when the demand side starts to supply itself."

Doug and Doc explore the DIY-IT opportunity and the shift in the supply/demand ratio. Is it just due to the changes in our economy -- it's easier than it used to be to hire good people -- or has there been a permanent shift in power from vendors to customers? Open-source software is an enabler of DIY-IT, but they're not one and the same. (Unix/Linux is just a body of practices and methodologies, Doc says.) And DIY-IT isn't an open-source-only world. Doc sees roles for Microsoft and others if they get onto the bandwagon and deliver the building materials DIY'ers need.

His presentations are everywhere online, but this is a great opportunity to hear a full-length interview with Doc Searls.

Doc's many roles include:

• Senior editor for Linux Journal, the original (and still the leading) Linux publication.
• Proprietor of Doc Searls' IT Garage, a new group journal launched by Linux Journal's publisher, SSC.
• One of the four authors of The Cluetrain Manifesto, the iconoclastic web site that became the best-selling book.
• A talking source on The Linux Show, CNET Radio, ZDTV, CNBC, KOMO-TV, KING-TV, and ZDTV and whoever else wants to risk dispersing his opinions.
• A marketing, PR and advertising veteran. Most notably he co-founded Hodskins Simone and Searls, one of Silicon Valley's top advertising and public relations agencies. (HS&S was absorbed by Publicis Technology in early 1998.
• A lifelong writer whose byline has appeared in OMNI, Wired, PC Magazine, The Standard, The Sun, Upside, The Globe & Mail and lots of other places, including (of course) Linux Journal. Many of the older pieces are collected at Reality 2.0, which is at his personal portal, Searls.com, which is also home to his consultancy, The Searls Group.
• A frequent speaker on any and all the above subjects.
• On the advisory boards of Jabber, Inc., Ping Identity Corp. and Technorati. He holds stock in the first two of those three.