Sometimes it seems that the world can never have too many:

• Bug tracking tools
• Email readers
• Wiki engines
• Message boards
• Blog engines
• RSS readers

I don’t mean ‘instances of”, rather the number of different software implementations. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard or read (and thought or said), ‘I tried out foo the other day but it didn’t work exactly how I wanted so I thought I’d have a go at writing my own….’.

I take some heart from the fact that the majority of the above list (which was developed by the highly scientific method of me thinking about it for about 30 seconds) consists of communication tools. Forming connections with other people is clearly a basic human drive.