Don't trust the ecosystem

I was supposed to have a 'date' yesterday afternoon but my date had a couple of reasons to cancel it. I was a little disappointed but thankfully, I had invited a co-techie over so we had a handful of gists. I, being a newbie in the community, had a lot of listening to do. He summed up with one piece of advice "don't put much trust in the 'ecosystem'"

This was affirmed when I got a digest mail from the Lagos GTUG which I am a member of. The mail introduced a Google site created by one of it's members to connect local developers. No, the concept is not bad in itself, in fact it is wonderful. But if this invention was not a part of what I and the creator discussed in my bid to get him to join the CSC Lounge team, I wouldn't be posting this blog.

A couple of weeks back, Jide and I decided that the job at CSC Lounge was getting too much. We had more on our TODO list than we have on our DONE list, so we decided to hire the service of a creative personnel to ease off the stress. After a couple of considerations, we shortlisted a few people whom we should approach. We decided that we each talk to our acquaintance. Mine was a guy I met at a tech event I attended earlier whom I thought would make a good teammate.

After discussing a handful of the idea, the prospects and the benefits with him, we did a little brainstorming and pruning. I would say the discussion went well and he promised to get back to me with his final decision. I was expecting his call or e-mail -- well quite! The call or e-mail never came. Then I got the mail about his invention.

The worst part of his lack of personal creativity is that he used the same name as CSC Lounge but with a little twist! (CSC stands for Computer Science)

Google, our host on the tech user group which we both are members of, run with the policy "don't be evil". Hmmm... I smell some evil playing out.

Meanwhile, I'm having a second look at developer ecosystems, I think my techie friend (who visited yesterday) is right in a lot of ways.