Whit Andrews

I’ve been working with Rita Knox on the last bitter moments of the 2008 Information Access Technology Magic Quadrant. Every year I swear I won’t be up against a deadline — I’ll just finish it when it’s convenient, you know? Before the back to school thing, before the Symposium thing swings into full-on mode, before the Christmas season — whatever the nightmare benchmark is, I figure I’ll finish before then. I so totally never do. This year, I’m up against the Portals, Content and Collaboration conferences in London (last week) and Los Angeles (next week) and I had already given up hope of getting it up onstage there.

When I gave up hope of that, I felt badly, and i can’t tell you why. Attendees don’t come to the conferences to be the first to see a new MQ — they come because they have a problem to solve, and we’re in the right place at the right time to help. So I’m over that. (I swear.) But it’s time to get the dots out, so as soon as my manager OKs it, the bits the vendors get to look at for factual review will go to the vendors. Then it will be time for the annual conversations about what a “fact” really is, and whether I am willing to discuss things that are, say, right next door to facts, or smell facty — and what about factoids?

And then it will publish. Hang in there. Any moment now. Get the net and stand ready to catch it.