I don’t understand the degree of respect accorded his “Arrrghhhhh!” post, in particular. While reading it, I seriously had to consider whether Abram was blogging drunk. I hold out hope that this is not what has endeared the man to you and other readers.

Amongst those familiar with the actual operation of his company’s several ILSs, I suspect you will find pervasively negative reactions to Abram’s writing. My reaction: “What is so innovative in ranting about change when the OPAC you sold us STILL doesn’t serve DOCTYPE, let lone validate as HTML??” That kind of thing. Abram’s expression of feelings or subsequent apologies are not particularly interesting to me, since we have through our employers, a financial relationship currently characterized by great costs and chronic failure.

There is too much underneath Abram’s topic of “change” that goes unsaid. The recent exodus of top SD management was disorganized and surprising. He mentions the SuperConference in Colorodo, but he glosses over that his CEO was supposed to keynote, instead of resign 2 days prior. All the new product info presented was promptly invalidated 2 weeks later when Rome was announced. So in the end, their largest block of clients took a week away from work and paid thousands of dollars, to hear product information the presenters likely already knew was wrong. With no top management (new or old) around. Why do I need to read about the 5 Stages of Grief again? From him?

The biggest changes in the past year (if you take Marshall Breeding’s word for it) are equity capital acquisition of SirsiDynix (and Ex Libris), and open source software making dramatic inroads. I’d be happy to see anything enlightening from Abram on either topic.