In the category of “big news that no one seems to be talking about”, two days ago IBM announced that it was launching a new licensing program with the venture community to allow easier access to IBM’s broad patent portfolio for start-up companies. This is actually a big deal (it is to me at least, which is why I’m shocked at the lack of press on the announcement). IBM is vastly simplifying how companies can gain access to its patent portfolio. It’s catered to the venture community (the program is intended to be administered through the companies’ venture investors) and was in part put together by IBM’s venture capital advisory board. In a nutshell if you are a company that…
Archives / December, 2005
Start-up moments
One of the things that I like about spending most of my time with start-ups is that there are very few of the trappings of larger companies – people answer their own phones; leave their own outgoing voice-mail messages; everyone can fit in a single room for a company update; all employees can give feedback on products; etc. I remember fondly the early days at my last company before we had an office – when we could hold our management/company meetings sitting around a single Starbuck’s table. Of course things tend not to stay that way (if you’re successful) and very quickly these days are forgotten history. At NewsGator’s board meeting today we had what can only be termed a…
A del.icio.us day
Yahoo buying del.icio.us makes total sense. I have to admit that around the time Union Square invested in the company I didn’t really get it – I hadn’t understood the power of a user generated hierarchy. A few months ago I got a clue about it – late to the party, but at least there. Congrats to Fred, Brad and to the del.icio.us team – nice work!
The ultimate RSS reader
When I asked ealier this year how you view your news I didn’t exactly have this in mind, but now that I know it exists I can’t imagine any better way to stay informed. Yes – those are your RSS feeds being printed out on toliet paper. See the engadget link here. Thanks to Ross for sending this over.