Open source in its boom phase

Sometimes Matt Asay makes me laugh out loud. (To the right, the logo of a Sand Hill Road VC, Leapfrog Ventures.)

Matt's piece yesterday, dissing the open source wannabes now beseiging Sand Hill Road, reminds me so much of where I was 10 years ago.

In 1997 I had been covering the Internet for 12 years and e-commerce for about 5. I was shocked, angry and appalled at all these newbies with their Internet business plans, their buzzwords, their ponytails, and their pretension.

Later I realized this was just a phase, and a really good phase at that. The years 1997-1999 would become the dot-com era, and while a lot of that money was wasted, you must admit that some real good stuff happened too. There were a ton of great stories.

That's where we are in open source right now. Everybody wants to get into the act. Everyone wants to say they're open source, even if they're not, because that's where the money is, or where they perceive the money's going.

Sitting on a park bench and shaking your fist at those crazy kids won't change anything. It's what gold rushes look like. Two years ago it was housing, and before that it was defense stocks. When I first started as a business reporter, in Houston in the 1970s, it was oil.

As to his point about soccer. I agree the American game would benefit more from other strategies. I've long advocated a unified pro structure, with promotion-and-relegation as in other countries, so every city with a pro team can feel it might see the LA Galaxy one day.

If we had that now, LA would be going down, and they'd be playing my Silverbacks next season. Let's see if Becks can bend it into Spaghetti Junction.

But that's not the way the money is flowing. Money follows its own tidal forces, and when it comes in lots of strange things happen. My advice to Matt is, enjoy them. You're far more likely to end up rich at the end of this ride than I am.

I'm just looking for stories here. And amid all the silliness there's a new one every day.