So things have been quiet on the blogging and tweeting front lately, but it's actually related to me being very busy. I've shifted from consulting mode to software development mode for 2010.

Without getting too vaporware-ish right now, I can tell you that I'm working on a hosted, rich internet application (RIA) that scratches a work management itch experienced by every company I've worked at over my decade+ in the tech industry. It's a "go-big-or-go-home" project for me. I've talked about it for eons, but never had time to develop it. No more excuses.

I'm dedicating serious effort on this project. It's my full time job right now. Success or failure, it will be out of my system soon. No more wistful thinking about "things that could have been".

The product code name is currently "Braintapper Engine", and I'm not going to say much in terms of functionality right now, except that it's designed to solve work management pain points commonly experienced by small services companies.

The app definitely has what I think are some compelling (and cool) features, but more later.

There are a lot of things to work out, and not just on the development side. I've got to tighten the elevator pitch, figure out the pricing model, and of course the infrastructure issues related to deploying a multi-tenant hosted solution.

The product development came out of the beta of the Braintapper Exchange functionality of the site, which was soft launched in March and visible here. A lightbulb went off in my head, with a voice saying "this engine can drive that project management app you've dreamed about for eons!". The codebase for Braintapper Exchange has evolved beyond recognition (probably worthy of a few blog posts in itself), although the data back-end is fundamentally the same, if not simpler.

On a side note, for reasons I can't talk about yet, "Braintapper Exchange" as a concept of a BI community may be going away and be replaced by something bigger and better. On the other hand, the Braintapper Exchange codebase will continue to evolve. At the very least, the codebase will be turned into the engine that drives the Braintapper blog. Once the "engine" project is completed, I'll decide whether to productize the Exchange code base or whether to release it as an open source project.

More news to come in the near future.