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From my buddy Scott Foehner: Check out Bessemer Venture Partners‘ anti-portfolio. Excerpts of some funny (and painful) missed opportunities: (GFB) eBay: “Stamps? Coins? Comic books? You’ve GOT to be kidding,” thought Cowan. “No-brainer pass.” (GFC) Federal Express: Incredibly, BVP passed on Federal Express seven times. (GFD) Google: Cowan’s college friend rented her [...]
An observation from my annual holiday card ritual: I didn’t have to scramble around as much this year to track down people’s mailing addresses. My friends have either settled down en masse or have gotten much better at sending out their latest contact info as soon as they’ve moved. Nevertheless, it reminded me of what [...]
Robin Good interviewed me yesterday for his Kolabora Internet Radio program. We discuss online collaboration — of course! — and the latter half of the conversation is about Identity Commons. (BGV) Robin also interviewed me last May, after my manifesto came out. What’s really interesting about doing these interviews — besides the fact that [...]
Today is Blue Oxen Associates‘ second anniversary. Doug Engelbart is graciously hosting a party for our friends and colleagues tonight in Atherton, California. (8TA) This year has been a fruitful one, and next year’s will be even more exciting. Many of the conversations I’ve had over the past two years are resulting in real [...]
The Identity Commons i-name fundraiser got Slashdotted today. I haven’t been all that impressed by the comments on Slashdot in the past, but they were useful this time in revealing a fundamental misunderstanding about the Identity Commons infrastructure (and a problem with its messaging). Identity Commons is not centralized. This is not a non-profit version [...]
I recently replaced the blosxom calendar plugin on my right-hand sidebar with the flatarchives. One interesting side effect is that it shows a remarkable consistency in my blogging patterns over the past year and a half. July, August, and November have been heavy blogging months for me, whereas September has been particularly dry. There’s a [...]
Doug Engelbart, the inspiration behind Blue Oxen Associates and one of our advisors, gave a talk for the Bay Area Future Salon last night. I’ve heard him give this talk a hundred times, but it’s always an interesting experience. I tend to pay more attention to the audience than to Doug — observing their reactions [...]
Eric Sinclair spotted this gem: “Let’s Paint the Town Purple.” The author makes a very compelling case, but we’re not going to change our color scheme anytime soon. (4RT) (For Purple Number-specific hilarity, don’t miss Mark Pilgrim’s “Pink Numbers.”) (4RU)
I’ve mentioned Identity Commons over and over again for the past year. (See “Identity Commons: Empowering the Individual” for a detailed introduction.) Identity Commons global i-names are now available, and until January 25, 2005, you can purchase the rights to an i-name for 50 years for only $25. I’ve posted more details at the Watering [...]
Blue Oxen Associates now has a company blog in addition to its collaboratory blog. Be sure to check it out and subscribe to its RSS feed. (4QM)
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