Joel Spolsky, well-known technology speaker and the author of Joel on Software, a popular weblog, joined SYS-CON's SOA Web Services Conference faculty as a keynote speaker. Joel was a program manager on the Microsoft Excel team between 1991 and 1994 and later founded Fog Creek Software.

After his work with Microsoft, Joel worked for Viacom, where he focused on Internet Java applications, and Juno.

His keynote at the Enterprise Open Source Conference will be one to remember, with his suggestions on how to get the best technology out to the public.

"Too many times we see teams create very decent products that, for whatever reason, fail to rise above the crowd and truly capture the popular imagination," says Spolsky. "They are surprised when their products are mostly ignored by the marketplace, which seems to be captivated by some other shiny geegaw that's functionally inferior and more expensive."

In many product categories, from software to consumer electronics, the product with the most market share is often more expensive and less functional than the number two product. Joel Spolsky will explore why this happens and suggest some ways to design a ''blue chip'' product that people will love. After you get great software and products using the usual repertoire of debugging, usability testing, etc., you have to go still further and think about beauty, user happiness, and emotional impact.

Let Joel help you figure out what makes truly great software...great, at the 2006 Enterprise Open Source Conference & Expo held at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City on June 5-6.

• Yakov Fain's Java Blog: "I've Invited Joel to SOA Web Services Conference Keynote"