A while back there was buzz about the Google Summer of Code where Google hired students to work as interns for the summer on stuff they were really interested in [oh yeah, and it had to ben open source, yessss!]. One such project is GAIM, an open source instant messaging client. I actually use GAIM so I found this Google summer project to be pretty interesting. Anyway, if you want to see what all of the interns working on the GAIM project this summer have done and are wrapping up then I recommend you check out the Gaim Summer of Code blog that aggregates each intern's personal blog.

Bartosz Oler is a student residing in Poland working on GAIM this summer, one feature he's implemented is the ability to change your password in gaim without gaim crashing... Thanks Bartosz, I'm quite appreciative for that one since it cause me some problems a while back, great work!

Another student Juanjo Molinero Horno has been working on a gaim plugin that communicates with iChat through the Bonjour protocol, pretty schweet eh? He's only posted twice this summer but he has a good excuse, he was busy working, beat that!

Thanks to everyone [including Google] for working on code that makes my life easier. You guys do stuff I could never dream of doing and I for one am grateful. Oh yeah, there are a lot of other talented individuals working on the project so I highly recommend you go check out what they've been up to, it's pretty slick.

One of the unique things about blogs is their uncanny ability to get information in the hands of the people that need it most. Of course the information needs to be good information, otherwise it's useless dribble. A great example of this is how the CEO of Feedster Scott Rafer took the time to comment on my post about the Feedster 500 being dead and he also put up a letter to me on his own blog.

Here's Why I Like What Scott Rafer Did
1. He took the time to let me know he's responded. Any good PR firm will make you respond to criticism if it warrants it.

2. He wrote me a personal letter on his blog, kind of like calling me out, and I like that since I've done the same thing to other folks in the past and find it to be a very effective way to get my point across.

3. He's taking corrective action. In his post he tells me that Feedster isn't dead [shows me he's got some pride and a good bit of backbone, nice!] and that the Feedster team is going to post their definition of what a blog is. I love that!

I like it when the leaders of a company take it upon themselves to respond and especially when they take it personally. I don't mean when they get offended, that's completely different than making business personal. I believe an entrepreneur has to take things personally in order for their company to embrace the credo and culture of their company [not to mention getting fired up about their business]. We all know the culture of an organization is a reflection of it's leader and Scott does a great job of defending Feedster without being offended. So to summarize that last bit. Business is personal and I like entrepreneurs that understand that and being personal with business isn't the same as making irrational decisions regarding their businesses. Clear as mud huh?