Connecting the dots ...
How dare a 5–year old child comfort her kindergarten classmate after she fell on the playground? Shameless children! Of course their Commander teacher had to discipline them. (read on at the Boston Herald)
Somebody please pinch me, wake me up… this can’t be happening, I must be having a bad dream!
Wow, apparently others are having the same bad dream:
Tags: education, kindergarten, discipline
Samsung unveiled the t509 which will be the thinnest cell phone on the market in the U.S. The Samsung T509 will be released in May, specifically for T-Mobile. wireless service. (read more at Daily Tech)
Of course if you prefer a real smartphone, you’ll have to go for the Nokirola. 
Tags: Samsung, Motorola, RAZR, Slimphone, Cellular, Cellphone
(Updated)
Wikis and blogs -social software in general – were the “latent” subject at Software 2006, popping up at several sessions throughout the conference.
In his opening keynote Ray Lane talked about the inter-personal enterprise: collaboration, increased participation through friendlier, better user experience; the user as an individual, “consumer” has to like the software, then will use it, and usage spreads within the company: a pull process, rather than push – the traditional enterprise sales model. This is exactly the model wikis are “sold”, as we discussed earlier. Ray specifically mentioned how useful they found using a wiki at Kleiner Perkins.
Then during the last panel, Toby Redshaw, CIO of Motorola talked about how he installed wikis and blogs: turned it on, decidedly not telling anyone “above” or laterally until it was too late for anyone worried about “control” to interfere. People discovered the new tools, started to use them, and before he knew there were 1900 blogs and 2000 wikis used in Motorola. Grassroots action at it’s best, just like Ray explained. Joe (JotSpot) and Ross (SocialText) could not have asked for a better plug of wikis, just minutes prior to their software showcase.
On the way from this session to the showcase room Ross was showing me his latest baby, Miki, the mobile wiki. One of the conference attendees (Director at a major organization) walked alongside us, overheard the conversation, and jumped in: “where can I get it?” Wow, I think Ross just closed a 30–second sale 
There is something funny about these product names, though. Ross just found out that Miki in Irish slang means male genitalia… hm… close .. here’s the Urban Dictionary definition. Never mind, it didn’t hurt Jobby, won’t hurt Miki either. Incidentally, Miki in Hungarian is nickname form for Nicholas, and in Japanese a female name meaning “flower stalk.” Not bad.
The Miki launch was the last announcement of the day, then we headed off for some “Open Source” cocktails and appetizers.
Related posts – Miki seems to enjoy a warm welcome:
Update (4/8): It was fun to see JotSpot and SocialText together – would have been even more fun to see the third (and by the number of enterprise customers definitely not last) product: Confluence by Atlassian.
It’s a good time to be an Entrepreneur – Is it also a good time to be an investor? Jason Wood says: “I spoke to several colleagues in the industry today and there was a consensus of disappointment in the current landscape. I’m hardly the only one who’s been saying there’s excess capital in the VC industry for some time [in fact, there’s excess capital everywhere], but with entrepreneurs more willing [and able] to bootstrap their way to product launch and with GoogleYahooMicrosoft unafraid to throw fractional portions of their cash hoard at interesting startups, I’m not sure I see the light at the end of the 2005-2006 vintage VC tunnel.”
At the Software 2006 Conference yesterday I found myself in the middle of an interesting conversation betwen 2 VC Partners and an Angel Investor – they basically shared the above view, adding that startups either bootstrap their way to acquision, or take Angel funding, than the GYM jumps in before an A-round.
Angel investment is back big time, and this is the subject of the SVASE event tonight at 6pm in Palo Alto.
Seeking Angel Funding, want to become an Angel?
This lively panel discussion will explore current trends and panelist opinions on topics including:
• How have the dynamics of Angel investing changed in recent years?
• What are the current trends in Angel investing?
• Is Angel Investing still interesting for High Net Worth Individuals?
• What type of people are becoming Angel Investors, and why?
• What are the metrics Angels look for in their investments today?
• How are Angels working with Venture Capitalists?
• What technologies and deals are most attractive to Angel investors right now?
The Panel:
• Stewart Sonnenfeldt, Managing Director, Sand Hill Angels
• Laura Roden, Managing Director, The Angels Forum
• Randy Williams, Founder & CEO, Keiretsu Forum
• Antonio Salerno, Deal Selection Committee, Band of Angels
Moderator: David Frazee, corporate/IP shareholder, Greenberg Traurig
Thursday, April 6
6.00-7.00 pm: Networking and Dinner
7.00-8:30 pm: Panel discussion and Q/A
To reserve an Exhibit Table
Contact Info@svase.org, $500 Members, $1,000 Non-members.
Location:
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (WSGR Campus), 950 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto, 94304
PRE-REGISTERED RATES (All Rates Include Hors D’oeuvres)
Members – $20; Affiliates who advertise this event – $29;General Public – $49
WALK-IN RATES: Add $10.00 to the listed price
Tags: svase, startups, entrepreneurship, angels, angel investing, angel investors
Yet another “Pros and cons of Open source vis a vis SaaS for an SMB” post today. I feel this one barely scratches the surface, missing basic points like the availability or (mostly) lack of IT skills at a lot of SMB’s.
For reference on the subject I recommend Shop Talk: SaaS vs. open source – what SMBs should know by Paul Gillin and my own SaaS vs. Open Source for SMB’s? A No-Brainer.
Tags: SaaS, Open Source, SMB, SME, On-Demand
In my previous post I complained about the lack of interaction at some of the Software 2006 sessions. Well, the last two sessions I attended (actually running back and forth between the two) were definitely more participatory.
The panel discussion on Blogs and Web 2.0 in Marketing Communications was lively, and finally (!!!) they took a lot of customer questions. There we go, participation! 
Greg Gianforte’s presentation on “SaaS – successful go-to-market strategies” was more a traditional one, but there is something in his presence and style that made it very interesting. Of course it’s not just the presentation, but the success story behind it: while his company is not as super-hyped as Salesforce.com, RightNow is definitely a significant player, with Fortune 1000 customers and over $100M in revenue.
Some of Greg’s key points: One-size-fits-all is OK for the typical SMB customer, but large corporations will demand choice in a number of areas:
Summing it up, these two sessions were informative, lively – but I need to stop now, the wine I smuggled out of the reception area is starting …. to … take …… ef….f….e…c….t.
Related posts:
Tags: software2006, RightNow, SaaS, On-Demand, Enterprise Software, CRM, blogs, blogging
I’m sitting (actually standing in front of a workstation typing this away…) at the Software 2006 Conference, which started off with a really good keynote. Before walking up to the workstation, I already knew I “lost the race”- having seen Ross sit close to a power outlet with his Mac in his lap, I knew everything that could be said is already said . Jeff also covered the Welcome Address in detail.
Real-time update: these guys are posting faster then I can read: full coverage of Ray Lane’s keynote by Jeff and Ross. Again, I can’t really add anything (other than congrat’s to Ross, Ray did a good plug for the wiki). Ray’s session was followed by Vanessa Colella from McKinsey, and I *swear* I heard the term Tacit Interactions more often then Web 2.0, SaaS, Ajax, Collaborative and Social all lumped together at a TechCrunch party. Too bad Tacit is a private company, I’d run to buy the stock before it gets hyped up
. OK, I am not being fair, the fact is, it’s pretty hard to deliver a speech immediately after Ray Lane spoke.
Back with a cup of coffee now … oh, well, considering my poor typing skills, I’m actually glad these guys posted all the facts, so all that’s left to me are a few observations.
For all the “Web 2.0” talk I feel we’re sitting in a “1.0” type conference. Sitting, rather than participating. None of the speakers took any questions, and while it’s OK for the keynote, one would expect the Pundit Panel to end with a Q&A.
Never mind, off we go to the Software Showcase. Well, not much of a showcase, we’re getting Powerpoint-supported presentations of CollabNet, Compiere, Digium and Ingres. Again, no Q&A in the end. Finally, Zimbra saves the day, we’re actually getting an impressive live presentation, the audience wakes up, and in the end, we’re offered free beer. Free, as in Open Source. Opening the bottle is $1, as in support for Open Source.
Beer or not, I can’t wait to get out of Microsoft-prison and start using Zimbra.
All in all, it’s a good conference, interesting topics, good networking, but it’s a bit “old-fashioned”: “They” present, “we” listen passively, missing all the “Tacit Interaction” we’ve just talked about. Perhaps I’ve attended too many “unconferences” recently, I can’t expect a regular corporate-type conference to be TechCrunch or Techdirt-style 🙂
Related posts:
Tags: software2006, web 2.0, tacit interactions, buzzword, Zimbra
I am so shocked, I don’t find the right words. I’d like to hope it’s a hoax… one scientist can go mad, but the entire Texas Academy of Science giving a standing ovation to this nutcase would-be mass murderer? WTF?
Dr. Eric R. Pianka , a University of Texas evolutionary ecologist advocated for the extermination of 90 percent of the human species in a most horrible and painful manner, by releasing the Ebola virus – all in the name of “saving the Planet”. Not only he received a standing ovation, but the Texas Academy of Science honored him with its 2006 Distinguished Texas Scientist Scientist award.
Here are the chilling details by The Citizen Scientist – and retort by Dr. Shawn Carlson, Ph.D.
Update (4/2): My prediction: this story will reverberate through Blogland, then in 2-3 days mainstream media will pick it up. Nationwide uproar follows, the University of Texas will be forced to act, and Dr Pianka will not be teaching there for long.
Update (4/3): The media is starting to pick up the story. Jeff (see comment below) just pointed to a Drudge story, and I’ve found some more today – hopefully, the list will grow. World Net Daily is running a poll – they likely lose a lot of voters, since they require registration, however, viewing is unrestricted, and here are the current results.
Update (4/5): Just as I predicted, the story is all over the media, including ABC News, Fox News, NBC, CNN ..etc. Professor Death was forced to come forward and explain his views…
Related posts:
Apparently some will politize this madness:
Tags: Dr Doom, Ebola, Science, Doomsday, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Environmentalism, mad science
Since the big revelation 4 years ago we all know the secret behind Google’s search results. Apparently one of their top technologist decided to spy around in Union Square Ventures’ offices. (via Fred Wilson)
Hilarious. (hat tip: Paul Kedrosky)
Should the embedded video not work in feeds, watch it here.
Tags: Entrepreneurs, VC Funding, Venture Funding, Startup, Presentation, Pitch, Elevator Pitch, Humor
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