Last DaysOriginally uploaded by julio.miyares.

I caught Jim Davidson by surprise with the camera this past week as he worked in his AOL office in Dulles, VA. This may become a historial photograph (though came out somewhat fuzzy) as Jim will be leaving AOL with his last day being September 11,2006.

I reported to Jim Davidson for many years at AOL. By extension I had the good fortune of being integrally involved in the transformation of AOL from an insular,controlled and client centric view of the internet to a full blown portal trully competing with Microsoft,Google, Yahoo’s of the internet space. To think that just happened by mandate from above is folly. It took leaders like Jim to organize teams of technically competent and fearless (there was plenty of resistance) individuals to work under tremendous pressure and outside micromanagement and second-guessing to transform the technical underpinnings at AOL to make possible products like the recently released (on August 22) Video Portal
Jim had no direct role in the Video Program but many of the individual Software Engineers and managers had been groomed under his direction and played major roles in its successful and widely aclaimed implementation. Furthermore much of the technical infrastructure used sprung from either Jim’s direct involvement in AOL Server as a lead Software Engineer or his subsequent years of managing the evolution of that platform within AOL which culminated in it being the predomninant publishing system that serves the AOL Portal and its related channels.

That is the mark of a true leader in the end. Not what you do directly but how you influence a large group of individuals to do the right thing.
[tags]Jim Davidson,AOL,AOL Server[/tags]