Moving On, Leaving Odeo

It’s been a year and a half since i meet noah and evhead at cafe commons to talk about this podcasting startup idea they had. I lead the building of a substantial ‘web 2.0’ rails app, based on best practices, with agile methods and a healthy serving of tests. I got to implement ideas of participatory media and push forward a new model for radio, a non-linear radio which is not constrained by broadcast schedules and airtime.

Before the days of prototype, rails 1.0, script.aculo.us, capistrano, CIA, or even the term ajax, we were able to do it the right way. Odeo uses flash and ajax extensively, but the site works without them. We build a system which let us do up to a dozen releases an hour without breaking the site. I’m proud to have worked on this along with everybody at odeo.

It was never my intention to work long term at Odeo. I started on a 6 week contract. Then i stuck around to see through the launch, then the opening up of create functionality, finally the release of upload to all users. I spent last summer in foggy san francisco, skipping time at Pantilokpom, my family’s cabin in Trinity County. The time required in a startup is endless, even at a we don’t sleep under our desks startup, I spent more than a few nights at the office and had to drop many other projects.

Odeo’s stable now and moving forward. The features are flowing. There is an agile and focused team at odeo and i’m sure they will continue to produce cool and useful stuff.

As for myself, every project which was postponed has come back with a vengeance. As soon as i have time, i have to go back prioritizing projects. There’s rails consulting, indymedia work, small applications like riot tones, fixing up protest.net, writing about politics, and finishing our papercrete cabin. I’m still doing consulting work with odeo and have taken on some other small projects. I’ve also committed to following up on a goal i’ve had for a while, write a technical book. Today i’m signing a contract with O’Reilly to co-author the Asterisk Cookbook.