Tim Bray, Developer Advocate

It's great to read that, having decided not to stay with Oracle after its takeover of Sun, Tim Bray has decided to take a role at Google.  He's "Developer Advocate", with an initial focus on Android, Google's phone OS.  The reason I'm writing about this is because I was so disappointed to see some of the negative comments about Tim having decided to work for Google.

I've known Tim for quite a few years now, a decade or so, and everyone greatly respects Tim for his honesty and for his determination to stand up (quite publically) for what he believes is right.  At the same time, he also listens to those around him, he is never closed to other people's opinions, he never ignores those opinions (albeit he can't agree with everyone else's opinions, and it would be silly to expect him to).

I'm not an Android developer, I don't have an Android phone.  However, if I was an Android developer, I couldn't imagine having a better advocate than Tim.  If anyone is going to help keep Google honest, keep them doing the right thing by developers, it's Tim.  While I don't expect that he will be the one with the final say on all things Android, I'm sure he will influence Android for the better, and you can't ask for more than that.

I used to work for Reuters, which was also sometimes criticised for making decisions that some people felt weren't in the interest of its customers and partners.  My experience from that time is that big companies aren't so much evil as they are sometimes inept or ignorant.  They don't always accurately gauge how the world around them will respond to the decisions that they make on their products and their general corporate behaviour.  I'm not sure that Google is any better or worse than other big companies in this sense, but I hoping that Tim will get every opportunity to help Google make the right decisions first time.  As a great listener, he has a great sense of what people really want.

I wish Tim every success, and I hope that everyone will give him the support to make his time at Google a success that benefits everyone.