New Ground Rules

Being the first post in my new role as Open Web Evangelist at Yahoo!, it is important to disclose certain things. First, much of my new role involves representing Yahoo!'s interests in socially-related community and open standards.

Most importantly, everything on this blog, unless otherwise specified, does not necessarily represent the opinion of Yahoo!. As I always speak in one voice, what I write here is also the advice and ideas I am promoting internally. However, that does not imply in any way that my advice translates into actual policy.

The premise of the position is to help Yahoo! open up, but as is often the case in big companies, change is slow and I will be practicing the art of compromise. This is completely in line with the role I played editing the OAuth specification, but this time have more than just myself to be accountable to.

From all the conversations I had so far, before taking the position and now in my first week on the job, I am extremely optimistic. There is a real sense of urgency within the team to move forward and not only adopt open standards, but offer resources to the community to empower it further.