Someone in our organization recently reminded me of a ‘manifesto’ I wrote ages ago. This got me thinking of the importance of establishing standards that give everyone the confidence to proceed with projects that rely on the goalposts not moving after the ball is kicked.
About a quarter-century ago, not long after the Bodog online gambling brand I’d launched a few years earlier had established itself as a player, I sat down at my desk with a Bombay Sapphire martini and composed a document that I sent to everyone at the company.
The document came to be known as ‘The Bombay Manifesto’ due to my having mentioned early on what I was drinking. Its intent was to celebrate our early success but also to remind everyone how much work lay ahead and my thoughts of how we might improve our user experience.
This included adopting certain basic principles, like a laser focus on quick-loading pages (graphic designers’ artistic ambitions shouldn’t trump users’ desire to get on with it) and requiring the barest minimum of clicks for users to get where they wanted to go.
I wanted customer service links in the same spot on every page, so anyone needing help automatically knew where to find it. I saw the site as our first level of customer service—make it smooth enough, clear enough and quick enough so there’s little need for additional guidance.
I also wanted every page on our site to somewhat mirror the others, so that users would feel ‘at home’ regardless of what they were trying to access. This kind of ‘standardization’ not only benefited customers, it streamlined our process of creating new pages.
Having hosted what was effectively an early internet ‘incubator’ in my pre-Bodog days, I came to understand the importance of the early imposition of standards for the world wide web (HTML, URL, HTTP) to individuals/companies trying to build internet projects.
Nobody builds a structure on ground that’s constantly shifting under their feet. I’m not religious, but even I know the Biblical line about building your house on rock, not sand. Those early web standards ensured its success by giving developers confidence that the rules wouldn’t change.
Once standards are established, you can introduce open-source tools that allow innovation to arise from anywhere and anyone with ambition and vision. This is the kind of democratization of access from which insanely great projects emerge.
The blockchain I support had the similar good sense to lock its protocol, ensuring that developers could build projects with confidence. Enterprise blockchain technology focuses on building practical use cases, which is why it will outperform and outlast the speculative-focused networks.
For the record, I’m writing this stone cold sober, but I’m just as convinced that my views are as correct as they proved to be when I wrote my last ‘manifesto.’ And now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s a cocktail with my name on it calling me.
Calvin Ayre
Feb 21, 2025
https://x.com/CalvinAyre/status/1893010130863559063?t=Tp7TK7OtUAYBuNCsXdwdmA&s=19
About a quarter-century ago, not long after the Bodog online gambling brand I’d launched a few years earlier had established itself as a player, I sat down at my desk with a Bombay Sapphire martini and composed a document that I sent to everyone at the company.
The document came to be known as ‘The Bombay Manifesto’ due to my having mentioned early on what I was drinking. Its intent was to celebrate our early success but also to remind everyone how much work lay ahead and my thoughts of how we might improve our user experience.
This included adopting certain basic principles, like a laser focus on quick-loading pages (graphic designers’ artistic ambitions shouldn’t trump users’ desire to get on with it) and requiring the barest minimum of clicks for users to get where they wanted to go.
I wanted customer service links in the same spot on every page, so anyone needing help automatically knew where to find it. I saw the site as our first level of customer service—make it smooth enough, clear enough and quick enough so there’s little need for additional guidance.
I also wanted every page on our site to somewhat mirror the others, so that users would feel ‘at home’ regardless of what they were trying to access. This kind of ‘standardization’ not only benefited customers, it streamlined our process of creating new pages.
Having hosted what was effectively an early internet ‘incubator’ in my pre-Bodog days, I came to understand the importance of the early imposition of standards for the world wide web (HTML, URL, HTTP) to individuals/companies trying to build internet projects.
Nobody builds a structure on ground that’s constantly shifting under their feet. I’m not religious, but even I know the Biblical line about building your house on rock, not sand. Those early web standards ensured its success by giving developers confidence that the rules wouldn’t change.
Once standards are established, you can introduce open-source tools that allow innovation to arise from anywhere and anyone with ambition and vision. This is the kind of democratization of access from which insanely great projects emerge.
The blockchain I support had the similar good sense to lock its protocol, ensuring that developers could build projects with confidence. Enterprise blockchain technology focuses on building practical use cases, which is why it will outperform and outlast the speculative-focused networks.
For the record, I’m writing this stone cold sober, but I’m just as convinced that my views are as correct as they proved to be when I wrote my last ‘manifesto.’ And now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s a cocktail with my name on it calling me.
Calvin Ayre
Feb 21, 2025
https://x.com/CalvinAyre/status/1893010130863559063?t=Tp7TK7OtUAYBuNCsXdwdmA&s=19
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