FriendDA is Rands’ take on the same concept. His sub-headline for the post? “Slightly more than a hearty handshake.”

I like his slightly different spelling. (Google does, too.) Rands went so far as to write a FriendDA and register a URL. More geek cred (not that he needed it), but if you need any written document, you’re taking the idea to an illogical extreme. Not that Rands is expecting anyone to sign anything…just looking for a shared understanding of the term.

Via Daring Fireball.

Too many people in technology want to be “Switzerland.”

Nothing against the Swiss or their beautiful country, but this terrible shorthand needs to expire. No one should aim for that position, even if you can build a business there in the short term. When technology companies tout their position as Switzerland, what they intend to signal is their independence and the powerful position their neutrality confers upon them. How being a crossroads for transactions (network or financial or otherwise) is a sustainable position even when few of the endpoints appreciate having a third-party in the stream of business.

What being “Swiss” in this context really means:

• I’m late, so I have to work with everyone else who got there first.
• I was early, but my attempt at dominating the marketplace didn’t pan out, so I’ll play nice with others now.
• My business is small and at the mercy of those on my “borders,” whether technical or economic.

Switzerland is fundamentally a defensive position. You react to others and stay small enough so none of the big players in your market care to challenge your tenuous position. Your only offensive moves are to keep smaller players from replacing you, because Switzerland in the technical marketplace isn’t an exclusive position. Rather, supporting the market leader’s customers’ needs is often a requirement for all entrants, whether they explicitly aim to replace the market leader or build a complementary business. So, everyone (even the market leaders) includes as much “neutrality” as the market forces them to support.

If you must use a geographical analogy, consider this.

When you think of Microsoft or Google or Oracle, what country do you imagine as representative of their market positions?

It’s not Switzerland.

Future musing: in the new world geography and economy, will Dubai replace Switzerland as the code word for the nexus of money and cultures and platforms?

Personal note: perhaps I should have been more concerned about CNET’s prospects when I read this BusinessWeek interview back in 2004.

Unlike Jeff, now at Amazon, I’ve never spoken to Google about working there, so there was less dissonance, just surprise. Although I have several good friends at the company (and appreciate the referral) and a lot of respect for many of Google’s products and services, I’m captivated by my current job…and that was my reply.

I’m just thrilled to be in Jeff Barr’s class.

1. Kaboom
The Activision game Kaboom for the Atari 2600 was the first video game (there are only two) where I actually felt competitive. I scored 3,000 at one point, and took a picture of the screen to earn myself a T-shirt. I never sent in the photograph (it’s in a box in the garage, I think), so I never received the “earned” T-shirt. If your gaming memory doesn’t include this classic, you can play a Flash version of the game right now: Kaboom. (I’m not much good anymore.)

2. Cabal
Shhhh… don’t tell my parents! During my first year of college, I finished the video game Cabal. My roommates and I often stopped by the arcade room in the basement of the dining hall, and I got to the point where I could spend waste a full 25 minutes on a quarter, finishing the game. The standup game had the trackball, fortunately. I never played the game on a computer or console.

Hmmm… two video game notes. But I’ve never gotten hooked on PC games or bought a console since the Atari 2600. Moving on…

3. 20/20
No, not the TV show: eyesight. I started wearing eyeglasses at age six. I was thrilled to start wearing contact lenses in seventh grade. I got lazier during college and thereafter, switching back and forth between glasses and contacts. But I haven’t worn either for more than five years. Thank you, Lasik. I hesitated for years, asking my optometrist just about every annual appointment. When I finally took the plunge (here), I was only upset I waited so long. I’ve slipped a bit since the surgery (can’t fight aging), but I was 20/20 for a while.

4. Hockey
I covered the varsity hockey team for the college paper for one season. It was only two years after Harvard won the national championship, so the hockey team was the most popular spectator sport. The team wasn’t nearly that strong any more, but expectations remained high. You can read my reports and columns on the Crimson website, which (to my amazement) has everything online going all the way back. Click on the “Sports” tab to see most of my stories.

On the technology front, my reporting entailed writing articles from the road on a TRS Model 100 and using the 300 baud modem. I did dictate the articles a few times, too. Feeling old school now…

5. I demo’ed for Bill Gates
I have proof, in the form of a videotape (remember those?). Of course, the VCR is shaky, and I have no equipment to transfer this to YouTube or your favorite video-hosting service. So you’ll have to harken back to October, 1997, when Internet Explorer 4.0 was released. A key feature of IE 4.0 was supposed to be Active Desktop channels, which brought pieces of web functionality to your desktop. (Hmmm… nearly 10 years later, how far have we really come?)

Snap.com (not the current one, the first one) was fresh out of the gate. So, being part of the IE 4.0 launch was a big deal for Snap. The channel was jury-rigged demoware, but we hustled to be part of the event… with several dozen other companies spread around Fort Mason, too.

My role? Demo boy. For the random folks (press, other companies with channels) wandering around, I’d show them the channel. Part way through the evening, Bill Gates was wandering around, and Tom Melcher buttonholed him to show him the channel. Tom did the talking, and I was the keyboard jockey. Never spoke a word, and the whole thing lasted maybe three minutes.

The fun part? Because CNET was there, with video cameras and (most important) bright lights, someone smart on the CNET camera crew followed Bill Gates over, turned on the lights, and drew a crowd to the demo.

Like moths to the flame… it was all the bright lights, not my demo.

(Anyone have the equipment to transfer VHS to a digital file?)

Next…

Since chain letters memes are meant to be shared, I’m tagging Dennis, Vin (personal blog?), David, Matt, and Stephen.