Roger Sullivan Blog

There's a fine book, Wooden Boats, by Michael Ruhlman that's worth a read for multiple reasons.  Firstly, the locale is in my part of the country --Martha's Vineyard.  Not that I live there, but it's only a short ferry ride away for most of us in the greater Boston, Massachusetts area.

Martha's Vineyard is one of several jewels located just off the Eastern United States seacoast.  Bartholomew Gosnold, an English explorer, named it in 1602 after his daughter who died in infancy.  Nearby and also noteworthy are: Monomoy, Elizabeth Islands and Nantucket.  Each of these played an important role in early New England sailing history as either shipyards, embarkation points, whaling settlements, and certainly as showcases for the grand homes built by the captains and owners of sailing ships.

Today, Martha's Vineyard is more often thought of as an exclusive retreat for the rich and famous.  However, one only has to spend an hour or so hanging around the wharf in Vineyard Haven to see the wide variety of "ordinary folk" -- day-trippers, vacationers, families, island workers, and curiosity seekers of all types -- who disembark from the ferries with regularity.  Some are expecting, I suppose that one or more of the Island's notable residents will be waiting on the pier.  Rarely happens.  Most will immediately set out for their island destinations: shops, restaurants, busses, taxis to Oak Bluffs, Edgartown, or moped rental shops to enable their own exploration.

Many of these visitors will be only mildly aware of the details of the beautiful Vineyard Haven harbor in which they have arrived.  They are more intent on orienting themselves so as to optimize their time (and spending) before catching the last ferry back to the mainland.  Still fewer of these visitors will notice several specific boats gently rocking on the ferry's diminishing wake.  These are the Wooden Boats of Martha's Vineyard.  Among them are "When and If," originally built for General George Patton, the "Alabama" and "Shenandoah,"  both owned by the Black Dog Tavern (of Tee Shirt fame), and "Here and Now," built by Gannon and Benjamin Marine Railway, located on the Eastern shore of Vineyard Haven.

It is Gannon and Benjamin Marine Railway about which Wooden Boats is written.  Specifically the book is the story of the boatyard and the two partners who own it, Ross Gannon and Nat Benjamin, and the building of the schooner "Rebecca." Along with Nat and Ross, the reader is introduced to the numerous craftsmen and craftswomen who are employed by the boatyard and who contribute in ways large and small to the building and restoration of the wooden boats for which the G&B is so well known.

What is so special about wooden boats?  The author devotes some pages in speculating on that.  Perhaps it's the nostalgia of time gone by.  Perhaps it's an aversion to plastic "stinkpots" (derisive names for fiberglass motor yachts with tendency to spew noxious diesel fumes in their turbulent wakes).  Or it's a sense of the permanence, safety, and resilience that wooden boats seem to embody.  I think it is simply the unequaled beauty of the lines of a wooden boat that appeals in the same way that we are intuitively drawn to a work of art in a gallery, or a fine piece of furniture, or a rare gem.  One cannot help but stop and admire a gleaming wooden boat at its mooring, or heeling over, close-hauled into a stiff breeze, slicing through the ocean waves.

Rare gems they are indeed.  It is difficult to get an accurate count of the number of functioning wooden sailing vessels.  WoodenBoat magazine registry lists about 1,200 sailing boats and roughly 1,600 power boats.  So, it could be estimated that they number ten thousand or so in total.  To show the interest in them however, the circulation of WoodenBoat magazine is well over 100,000!  This is many times the number of actual owners of wooden boats -- power or sail.  This speaks to the appeal of these boats among all types of people, including those who don't live anywhere near access to water of sufficient depth for a dinghy, let alone a schooner.  

Particularly fascinating to me are the lines of a wooden boat.  Viewed from any angle, the shape of a wooden boat is uniquely beautiful -- almost hypnotic.  The individual planks forming the hull, stern, and decking accent the shape.  Readers who may have built furniture as a hobby will know that an efficient way to create handsome pieces is to first take the time to create jigs so that similar elements of the case are consistently cut.  In this way, the pieces will fit together tightly and the lines of the piece will be true and well proportioned to one another.  Completely different is the construction of a wooden ship.

Each plank of the hull is individually shaped to fit perfectly against its neighbor.  This is necessary because each board will make several twists as it is steamed and bent around the frame.  Additionally, the width of the planks varies along its length.  Each of these twists and bends will make adjacent planks have gaps if the edges were to be left square.  Therefore, each plank must be repeatedly bent to the frame and beveled (by hand) in order to precisely align to the next one. 

I think that this is what is most admirable about wooden boats.  That is the knowledge that this kind of painstaking individual craftsmanship went into its creation.  As one admires the lines, one can sense the blending of well-selected natural materials with skilled labor to create a harmonious thing of unique beauty.

As I read Wooden Boats I was struck by the similarities with software development.

Each line of a well-built application is individually crafted -- sometimes repeatedly -- to ensure optimal "fit" with its neighboring functions.  The skill to do this takes years to develop and the knowledge of that fact, gives confidence to the user of the code that this is a secure and reliable solution to the problem at hand.

While SOA technologies are enabling more simple and rapid integration of software components, it is important to recognize that enabling this ease of integration belies the extremely sophisticated software design principals to support it.  Oracle engineers provide the hard bits requiring sophisticated knowledge of data management, security, systems integration requirements, and business needs, so that our customers can use these functional components (Identity Provisioning, Access Control, Director Services, etc.) to provide robust business solutions.

It's much like the sailor at the tiller.  The helmsman needs to know how to respond quickly and adapt to the changing winds and tides.  S/he doesn't need to have actually built the boat.  Indeed, rarely is that the case.  The sailor trusts that the hull will handle the stresses, the mainstays are fastened properly, and that the ballast is correctly computed for optimal stability and performance (among a hundred other things).  The sailor relies on the architect and builder to have provided him/her with a worthy vessel.

Oracle engineers are these trusted architects and builders on the sea of software solutions.  

As I mentioned in my last post, I recently did "the tourist thing" over a weekend in Kyoto.  In addition to Nijo castle, we visited five temples.  The most awe-inspiring (at least to me) was the Sanjusangendo Temple, a National Treasure of Japan.  The original temple was built in 1164, but was destroyed by fire.  The replacement, an exact replica of the original, was built in 1266 and remains today as it was then -- over 700 years ago.

The building is 120 meters (394 feet) in length, Japan's longest building, and contains 1,001 statues of Kannon, the Buddhist goddess of mercy.  The statues are all carved from Japanese cypress and covered in gold leaf.  It is humbling to think of the skill necessary to carve these statues and the generations upon generations of devoted followers who have visited and tended this holy place over the centuries.

Interestingly, an annual tradition since the 1600's is an archery competition on the rear veranda of the building.  The archers shoot from about 60 meters to hit a target of about 1.5 meters in diameter.  Inside, one can see these ancient champions' awards hanging from the rafters of the temple.  There is also a display of a single rafter beam from the veranda that was replaced, showing hundreds of arrows embedded in the beam like a pincushion.  The most memorable of these archery contests took place in 1686 when a Samurai, Wasa Daihaichiro shot more than 13,000 arrows within the twenty-four hour allotted period and hit the target over 8,100 times.  That's an average of an arrow shot every six seconds for twenty-four straight hours!

Japanese archery is a beautifully executed sport (and art, really) -- almost like watching slow-motion T'ai Chi  exercise.  The bow and arrow are held with the arms extended over the head in an upward "V" shape.  Then both arms are slowly lowered into position and the arrow is let fly.  Contrary to Western archery, where the string is pulled back against the cheek, in Japanese archery, the string is held to the rear of the archer's ear.  Unless this is properly executed, it would have the predictable damaging effect on the ear!  I have only seen and never attempted the sport.  But I could easily tell that it must require extraordinary physical and mental self-control and patience to perform correctly.  Wasa Daihaichiro would have been in almost constant motion during the twenty-four hours that he competed.  No sports trainers on the sidelines with massages or whirlpool saunas here!  No mandated hourly rest periods.  No athletic sports wear endorsements either.  This was done for the pride of accomplishment, doing something that no one else had done before, and earning a distinguished place in history.  This was an amazing feat of endurance and raw strength.

At another of the temples we visited, there were martial arts contests underway exhibiting different sports.  We also saw teenagers with their long bow and arrow cases and quivers as we walked about.  What a great training in discipline for these youngsters.

While the art of software development is nowhere as ancient as these endeavors, the required discipline is, nonetheless, similar.  Development requires intense mental discipline, intelligence, and patience -- and sometimes physical stamina too as deadlines loom.  One cannot help but be impressed by excellent developers.  In the field of Identity Management, I find that there is a convergence of skills, knowledge, and discipline that, to my thinking, is particularly unique.

Firstly, this field requires an awareness of business applications.  The management of corporate, partner and customer identities is, after all, focused on the advancement of common business interests.  Those interests must meet the needs of the end customers; else, all efforts will be for naught.  If it's too difficult and disruptive to navigate identity security mechanisms, then users will opt out and take their business elsewhere.  So, identity security must appear simple and easy to navigate, but actually be rock-solid and impregnable.

Identity security must also meet the core motivating business needs of business.  Today, more than ever that means regulatory and business process compliance.  The most difficult business changes to implement are those imposed from outside one's control.  To make these changes, software must be extraordinarily flexible and adaptable to a wide variety of ever-changing business situations.  In today's extended business environments, manufacturers must adapt to financial services companies' best practices.  Pharmaceuticals must meet health care requirements.  Governments must accommodate constituents.  Identity security must nimbly and easily adapt to these evolving requirements without disrupting the on-going business.

Increasingly, identity security must scale to accommodate massively large and diverse identity repositories.  These identity stores may be centrally located or scattered over the globe as the business case dictates.  Identity security architectures must be proven to meet these robust requirements.  This requires a thoughtful analysis and deep experience in building hugely scalable business solutions.

There's a fine book, Wooden Boats by Michael Ruhlman that's worth a read for multiple reasons.  Firstly, the locale is in my part of the country -- Martha's Vineyard.  Not that I live there, but it's only a short ferry ride away for most of us in the greater Boston, Massachusetts area.

Martha's Vineyard is one of several jewels located just off the Eastern United States seacoast.  Bartholomew Gosnold, an English explorer, named it in 1602 after his daughter who died in infancy.  Nearby and also noteworthy are: Monomoy, Elizabeth Islands and Nantucket.  Each of these played an important role in early New England sailing history as either shipyards, embarkation points, whaling settlements, and certainly as showcases for the grand homes built by the captains and owners of sailing ships.

Today, Martha's Vineyard is more often thought of as an exclusive retreat for the rich and famous.  However, one only has to spend an hour or so hanging around the wharf in Vineyard Haven to see the wide variety of "ordinary folk" --  day-trippers, vacationers, families, island workers, and curiosity seekers of all types -- who disembark from the ferries with regularity.  Some are expecting, I suppose that one or more of the Island's notable residents will be waiting on the pier.  Rarely happens.  Most will immediately set out for their island destinations: shops, restaurants, busses, taxis to Oak Bluffs, Edgartown, or moped rental shops to enable their own exploration.

Many of these visitors will be only mildly aware of the details of the beautiful Vineyard Haven harbor in which they have arrived.  They are more intent on orienting themselves so as to optimize their time (and spending) before catching the last ferry back to the mainland.  Still fewer of these visitors will notice several specific boats gently rocking on the ferry's diminishing wake.  These are the Wooden Boats of Martha's Vineyard.  Among them are "When and If," originally built for General George Patton, the "Alabama and "Shenandoah," both owned by the Black Dog Tavern (of Tee Shirt fame), and "Here and Now" built by Gannon and Benjamin Marine Railway located on the Eastern shore of Vineyard Haven.

It is Gannon and Benjamin Marine Railway about which Wooden Boats is written.  Specifically the book is the story of the boatyard and the two partners who own it, Ross Gannon and Nat Benjamin and the building of the schooner "Rebecca."  Along with Nat and Ross, the reader is introduced to the numerous craftsmen and craftswomen who are employed by the boatyard and who contribute in ways large and small to the building and restoration of the wooden boats for which the G&B is so well known.

What is so special about wooden boats?  The author devotes some pages in speculating on that.  Perhaps it's the nostalgia of time gone by.  Perhaps it's an aversion to plastic "stinkpots" (derisive names for fiberglass motor yachts with tendency to spew noxious diesel fumes in their turbulent wakes).  Or it's a sense of the permanence, safety, and resilience that wooden boats seem to embody.  I think it is simply the unequaled beauty of the lines of a wooden boat that appeals in the same way that we are intuitively drawn to a work of art in a gallery, or a fine piece of furniture, or a rare gem.  One cannot help but stop and admire a gleaming wooden boat at it's mooring, or heeling over, close-hauled into a stiff breeze, slicing through the ocean waves.

Rare gems they are indeed.  It is difficult to get an accurate count of the number of functioning wooden sailing vessels.  WoodenBoat magazine registry lists about 1,200 sailing boats and roughly 1,600 power boats.  So, it could be estimated that they number ten thousand or so in total.  To show the interest in them however, the circulation of WoodenBoat magazine is well over 100,000!  This is many times the number of actual owners of wooden boats -- power or sail.  This speaks to the appeal of these boats among all types of people, including those who don't live anywhere near access to water of sufficient depth for a dinghy, let alone a schooner.  

Particularly fascinating to me are the lines of a wooden boat.  Viewed from any angle, the shape of a wooden boat is uniquely beautiful -- almost hypnotic.  The individual planks forming the hull, stern, and decking accent the shape.  Readers who may have built furniture as a hobby will know that an efficient way to create handsome pieces is to first take the time to create jigs so that similar elements of the case are consistently cut.  In this way, the pieces will fit together tightly and the lines of the piece will be true and well proportioned to one another.  Completely different is the construction of a wooden ship.

Each plank of the hull is individually shaped to fit perfectly against its neighbor.  This is necessary because each board will make several twists as it is steamed and bent around the frame.  Additionally, the width of the planks varies along its length.  Each of these twists and bends will make adjacent planks have gaps if the edges were to be left square.  Therefore, each plank must be repeatedly bent to the frame and beveled (by hand) in order to precisely align to the next one. 

I think that this is what is most admirable about wooden boats.  That is the knowledge that this kind of painstaking individual craftsmanship went into its creation.  As one admires the lines, one can sense the blending of well-selected natural materials with skilled labor to create a harmonious thing of unique beauty.

As I read Wooden Boats I was struck by the similarities with software development.

Each line of a well-built application is individually crafted -- sometimes repeatedly -- to ensure optimal "fit" with its neighboring functions.  The skill to do this takes years to develop and the knowledge of that fact, gives confidence to the user of the code that this is a secure and reliable solution to the problem at hand.

While SOA technologies are enabling more simple and rapid integration of software components, it is important to recognize that enabling this ease of integration belies the extremely sophisticated software design principals to support it.  Oracle engineers provide the hard bits requiring sophisticated knowledge of data management, security, systems integration requirements, and business needs, so that our customers can use these functional components (Identity Provisioning, Access Control, Director Services, etc.) to provide robust business solutions.

It's much like the sailor at the tiller.  The helmsman needs to know how to respond quickly and adapt to the changing winds and tides.  S/he doesn't need to have actually built the boat.  Indeed, rarely is that the case.  The sailor trusts that the hull will handle the stresses, the mainstays are fastened properly, and that the ballast is correctly computed for optimal stability and performance (among a hundred other things).  The sailor relies on the architect and builder to have provided him/her with a worthy vessel.