So, the results are in. On the Democrat side, Hillary Clinton fared well among Hispanics while Barak Obama got the support of the Black Community. That is what most analysts will tell you. What is missing is the explanations as to why there is such bad blood and mistrust between these communities. When we hear about Iraq we want to know why Kurds, Shiites and Sunni cannot get along. The same happens with the old Yugoslavia, we want to know why there is such hatred between Serbs and Albanians. However, if a comparable problem happens in the U.S. everyone chooses to ignore it, that is the politically correct way to behave. Is that the way to solve a problem? Frankly I do not know what to say, you figure it out.

As I wrote in a previous port I am currently in Vegas on holidays. Yesterday I went to see “Mamma Mia” a fun musical comedy based on music by ABBA. I really enjoyed the show, but that isn’t what I want to write about. You see, in the play three mature women who used to be best friends reunite and have a lot of fun remembering the good old days, behaving as if they still were young girls.

This situation isn’t unique to the play, it happens all the time. You can go to any cafe anywhere in the world and you will see groups of women having much fun and laughing. This rarely happens with men. We are much more serious, we feel silly if we behave foolishly. We have to be strong, in control. In many ways that is sad. I am sure that we would enjoy having fun like children again, but we refuse ourselves that luxury. I still remember the last time I felt like a child. A couple of friends and I had traveled to Xalapa to visit a customer. Suddenly, someone shouted “the last one to get to restaurant pays the bill” and we all started to run, pushing the others to avoid arriving last. We had a lot of fun but it made me think about all the time during which I hadn’t felt being a kid again.

There is a great French song, “Évidemment” performed by France Gall but composed by her late husband Michel Berger that summarizes the situation quite nicely, “We still laugh at silly things, obviously, but not like before”.

Women do not seem to suffer this problem. They are not as afraid of ridicule as most men are and as a result they have more fun. Good for them! This is something we men should learn from.

Yesteday I wrote about rude people. The problem extends well beyond discussion groups and forums. Until his show disappeared a couple of weeks ago, I used to watch religiously Robert Scoble’s technology interviews on PodTech.net. It was a great way to learn about emerging technologies and companies. In most cases I was really shocked at how little interest those interviewed had in what Robert had to say. They just wanted to send their message out. It was all about them. They probably did not realize that by not entering in a true conversation with him they were really hurting themselves. By the way, this is not something that I want PR people to learn, this should be something natural. No matter how interesting your message, in order to be successful you need to be able to listen with a good degree of empathy.

I get a lot of questions about SOA. It turns out that my white paper “Successful SOA Implementation” has been quite popular and I get questions from all over the world. What I find surprising is that a large majority of those who contacted me don’t even bother to thank me once they get their answer. Do they think it is my job to reply to SOA questions? Is it the medium? I am not sure. What is evident though is that the Internet is not the best place to learn good manners. No matter what site you go to, discussions are rarely civilized. Most posters seem to believe they are geniuses and those who disagree are dumbasses at best.

So, the true question is, are people showing their true nature on the Internet? Are they just having fun by trying to create controversy? I am not sure, but I don’t really like what I see.

On my way to the airport I passed a church that had a sign that said “No perfect people allowed”. I found that quite intriguing and looked for the phrase on the Internet. It turns out that it is the title of a book written by a John Burke. According to Amazon, this book “challenges Christian leaders to engage in the messy art of creating the right culture to reach our postmodern, post-Christian society. Through real stories of Gods perfect work in the lives of imperfect people, you will experience the power of an authentic church community and learn how to deconstruct barriers and bring hope and healing to Americas most unchurched generation”.

Frankly, I still don’t get it. Does this mean that perfect people (assuming such thing exists) do not need to go to church? I don’t think so, churches are first and foremost about worshiping, and this applies to everyone. Does it then mean that the church expects people to have imperfections and keep them? Unlikely, it is clear that all churches have a pretty clear defined image of how people should be and behave.

The truth is that I fully understand what this book is all about. It is about getting more people to church, accepting more people who previously would have been social outcasts. This is something that the catholic church has long done. It is easier to cater to the imperfect, as they are a much, much larger group. On the other hand, Protestants have historically had “higher standards”, marginalizing sinners until they truly repent, although this has clearly changed over time. At least that is my perception, having been raised in lutheran Utrecht and calvinist Geneva. The problem is that since so many people do no longer attend church, it has finally become impossible for any religion in the Western world, even in small towns, to hurt those sheep who abandon the herd by excluding them from the group. It is therefore necessary to move to plan B. That is what John Burke proposes, reaching to a new demographic to become relevant again.

This strategy is hardly new. We have seen this happen many times in the Western World. In the 60’s Pope Paul VI arguably started the revolution at the Second Vatican Council, but society has kept modernizing much faster than any church and that is why religious people keep looking for solutions to the exodus that most churches are suffering. The problem that I see is that like all products who change their image in order to appeal to new customers, they take the risk of losing their identity. Phony products don’t appeal to their original audience nor to the new target group.

Abandoning faith during adolescence was a difficult decision for me. Being an atheist in the early eighties was much more difficult then than it is today. Who knows, if I had faced hardships my belief in the lack of a God could have been shaken and I may have been drawn back to religion. However, this is totally impossible today. The lack of certitudes displayed by all western religions is so obvious that it has become part of the problem. Nobody likes presidential candidates, companies or churches that flip-flop. Consistency is a strength, specially for churches. Need proof? Look at the muslims, their message hasn’t changed in 1200 years. But hey, what do I know, I am one of those imperfect persons.

Having been raised in Switzerland, a country which was never ruled by a king, I have always seen royalty as a ridiculous idea, even though I am Dutch and therefore I am a citizen of a country “ruled” by a Queen.

Since it doesn’t look like my fellow countrymen are particularly interested in getting rid of this ridiculous and expensive remain from a distant past, I am at least glad that in The Netherlands we got the next best thing, a smart royal family.

The proof is that both crown prince Willem-Alexander and his wife Maxima have recently purchased an iPhone while shopping at an Apple Store in the U.S. Even better, it seems that he is an avid Mac user who participates regularly in Dutch Apple Forums. I wonder if he listens to the “One More Thing” podcast, one of my personal favorites.

Even though I am still convinced that my country should be a Republic, it is nice to see my future king making the headlines for his good technological taste, instead of the shameful behaviors displayed by other royal families.

Today I had turkey for lunch. Nothing out of the ordinary for most Americans, but for me it was a first on this particular date. Like most of the world, I do not celebrate Thanksgiving. Having lived most of my life in catholic countries, where people are more used to ask for divine help than thanking God, the idea always seemed a little odd to me. Add to that the fact that I am a convinced atheist and you will understand why I haven’t really paid any attention to this festivity.

Today was different though, that turkey made me think (at least it did not die in vain). In a world where most spend too much time complaining about all the things they cannot afford, it is actually good to spend some time analyzing all the good things that surround us and that we too often take for granted. This shouldn’t turn into a complacency exercise though. We should always do our best to improve our life but that effort shouldn’t be motivated by living in a constant state of misery, thinking that happiness will only be achieved when all our goals are met. The way I see it, Thanksgiving is a pause to remind everyone that everyday life can and must be enjoyed, even if we haven’t reached all our goals yet.

So, today, even though I do not have a God to thank, it doesn’t mean that I have reached my current situation (whatever that is) without any help. That is why I want to thank my parents, my wife and kids, my friends and colleagues for the life I have enjoyed so far. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

It is usual for employers to google for possible candidates in order to find out more about their personal interests and their past. That is why many are trying to alert the younger generations to be careful about what they post on the net. Reckless comments, visceral reactions can come back to byte you years later because once you have written something it may be impossible to take it back.

On the other hand, just like having no credit history makes it difficult to apply for a loan, it may become harder for those with no net presence to apply for a job. I see it in my job. I prefer to hire people who have a web-site and who participate in open-source projects. That means that if I do not get any search results when googling for someone, I consider that a negative. This may be related to the fact that I work in a high-tech industry, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if this trend had already become mainstream in other industries, since online reputation is becoming harder and harder to separate from real world reputation.

This phenomenon could have unintended consequences for several social groups. The first one is women. Since it is common in many countries that women adopt their husband last name and considering that marrying multiple times in a lifetime is becoming more prevalent, large chunks of their online history could easily be lost to those who do not know all the different names a woman may have used. This could have unintended beneficial consequences for those interested in burying old stories but it could also lead to a situation where women could be perceived as having a less “interesting” professional past. There are many solutions to this problem, but my personal favorite is to have women keep their maiden name all their life.

Another group we need to be concerned with is the one living on the wrong side of the digital divide. If less web presence leads to less opportunities, we must make sure that everyone has proper access to the internet and that schools teach the importance of online reputation. This could, by the way, also help improve good judgement in adolescents who tend to say or write things without measuring the consequences.

None of my previous comments should indicate that I am against anonymity on the web. I am not, on the contrary. Without anonymity there is no freedom, but you cannot spend your life writing only anonymous comments. Sometimes you will have to show what you stand for, what you believe in or what you know. That is what will be used to build your image and your reputation. This cannot be achieved anonymously.

After spending ten days in Europe I am back in Mexico. Even though I enjoyed my visit to the UK, Belgium and Holland I must say that in many ways I feel more comfortable in the Americas. It doesn’t matter if you talk about Brazil, the U.S. or Mexico, there is something over here that makes you feel alive. In Europe I feel that life is much more comfortable but I need the extra adrenaline shot that you get in a continent with few safety nets and more opportunities.

Today I spent the day in Utrecht visiting with my family the place where my father and I grew up. I hadn’t returned to The Netherlands in over a decade and my memories where starting to get blurry. It was certainly very emotional, although I think that neither my father nor I would ever consider returning to live to Utrecht.

Don’t get me wrong, I like the town, it is a medium-sized city with romantic canals that is very enjoyable during the summer and even though the rain can be depressing during the rest of the year I am convinced that it is possible to have a complete, happy life there. However, I cannot picture myself living there, as life seems to move much slower than in larger metropolitan areas.

One could argue that with the Internet (and I was able to get excellent download speeds in Utrecht) it is no longer necessary to live close to large cities in order to get many of the benefits that people normally associate with places like New York, Paris or London. I am not convinced. There is much more to live in a large city than being able to easily buy the latest and greatest. Small cities tend to favor status quo while largest cities spur competition and innovation. This doesn’t mean that innovation is less likely to appear in smaller cities or rural areas, it is just less likely because it is less necessary and there are less opportunities to share ideas with other interested parties. That is why I feel that I would feel quite lonely if I had to return to my home town. I could be wrong, though as Utrecht is only about twenty miles away from Amsterdam. Could it be that this old city combines the benefits of a small town and a large metro-pole? Possible, but it didn’t seem that way to me.

I think that small towns located to major population centers have a bright future. Knowledge workers usually no longer need to go to the office every day and that could mean a major change in the way people choose where to live. After decades of observing people move to large urban areas, we could be close to witness a major behavioral shift. Last year, after attending WWDC I went to Carmel and Monterey with my wife. I think that I (as well as many others) could easily picture myself living there, enjoying the benefits of a small town and the relative proximity to San Jose and San Francisco. What is the difference with Utrecht? Well, for a technologist Amsterdam doesn’t compare to the Bay Area and the weather is much better in Carmel than in Utrecht.