So I got back Sunday from JavaOne. It was a very useful to go to from a business standpoint. Semacode is still the only one with a java reader for matrix barcodes, and there's definitely an interest in the technology. I spent 90% of my time talking to people on the expo floor, although my speaker badge got me into all the sessions as well. I also presented at the JSR-257 (contactless communication API) session which was packed to the room's 200-person capacity.

I talked for about 15 minutes about Semacode, the CCAPI spec's programming interface, and then I demo'd semacode's SDK running on three phones . My trusty demo phone (S710a) was first. Demos are a bit scary sometimes, especially something like semacode where it does occasionally require a second scan in normal operation... Anyway, the S710a worked like a charm. So then I pulled out the SavaJe Jasper S20 Developer Edition which Andy Bush loaned me for the talk. First try -- oops, no message found. It's got a really, really big java heap (much bigger than ANY other java phone) and we need to tweak a bit I think for that. Second try worked and I got some applause from the audience ... Finally I pulled out a protoype Nokia N93 and that one also worked flawlessly.

But what about business? I have a couple of fresh insights into that. My latest is if they come, you can build it . This is the exact opposite of the usual engineer's approach to business. VCs, marketers, the press, and everyone else are always either laughing or getting annoyed with the software engineer's old mantra, "if you build it they will come" (aped from Field of Dreams ). Business people always think that engineers have this crazy idea that all they have to do is build a great product and somehow, miraculously, people will buy it.

Well, yes, that's a problem, because while it's true in open source, it's not true in business. This is a subject that Geoffrey A. Moore goes and on about in Crossing the Chasm (the only business book worth reading, in my opinion). Business people don't want a technology, they want a solution to their problems.

On the other side, the engineers complain constantly about sales people who will promise anything to customers in order to land a sale. That's the "if they come, you can build it" mentality. These sales people believe (wrongly) that every technology problem is just a "SMOP" (or small matter of programming ). In fact, they wind up promising customers all kinds of crazy stuff that will take loads of time to design and build, take time away from the core technology, not be fun, etc., etc.

It comes down to this. You can have a technology and no customers, and you fail. You can have customers and no technology, and you fail. But ... you're more likely to fail the first way than the second.

Why? Because once you have the order, you have money. Money is the root of everything to a business person. To a business person, once you have money you can solve any problem. Is that realistic? Well, it's more realistic than the other way around. So while you shouldn't promise your customers everything, I think you definitely need to take the attitude that it's worth it to land a customer based on the idea that you can build the simpler peripheral components they need once you have their money.

Especially if you can build the components they need once you have their money...

Obviously that's key. But let's face it ... if you are capable of building the high-tech monument to creativity that makes up your core technology, surely you can build some simple peripheral systems to make the sale.

Anyway, the point of this long rambling rant is that the best place to play lies somewhere in the middle of the two extreme slogans. You need to build something clever, and then you need to go and find out what customers need and do some extra scaffolding for them too.