Jeremy Zawodny has announced on his blog that he is leaving Yahoo after nearly nine years in which he has been influential on its use of open source technologies such as the MySQL database (and we'd bet PHP: Yahoo is the biggest user of PHP on the planet) and also pushing web feeds (aka RSS) which he long ago declared would be ubiquitous. Well, they're all around me. And they're a big part of how Web 2.0 can get done at the edges.
He announced his departure on his blog, saying
I won't at all be surprised if some people think this is related to Microsoft or Carl Ichan and the uncertainty surrounding Yahoo's future. The reality is that there's nothing pushing me out the door at Yahoo. The reason I'm leaving is that something very compelling has come along to lure me away. Despite what the current press sentiment might be, Jerry and David have built a remarkable company.
That may be true, but there are people outside who have other thoughts for what to do with the company.
To them, and to his fellow soon-to-be-ex-employees, Zawodny says:
As for the future of Yahoo, everyone working at Yahoo today knows in their gut what Yahoo should be and needs to be. My advice is to work on making that happen. Don't let anyone else (inside or outside the company) try to tell you what Yahoo is. Trust your gut. And, if you have the chance, re-read the farewell note that Ian Rogers sent out when he left a few months back. It's good stuff.
And, by all means, don't take the stuff you read in the press at face value. You're all smarter than that.
We're not here, obviously, but there may be inbuilt reasons for that.
