I met Tim at ETCON yesterday, and have enjoyed reading his insights on technology at his weblog, Due Diligence. Tim’s an industry veteran who now serves as a partner at Pacifica Fund, a VC in Palo Alto. Tim describes himself as an “old fart”, which I think is his self-deprecating way of saying he has quite a bit of experience and know-how in the industry. His blog shows a refreshing blend of analyzing some of the newest technologies through a well-defined lens of a seasoned investor and a guy who’s heard the hype several times before. Definitely a guy worth reading – and knowing.
Archive for April, 2003
Tim Oren’s Due Diligence
Friday, April 25th, 2003O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference
Friday, April 25th, 2003I’ve just returned from the ETCON held in Santa Clara over the past 4 days (and still going on today, too). There’s an enormous amount of exciting activity going on at the conference, almost all devoted to innovating by testing ideas in code.
I’ll start by laying out a few of the observations I’ve made so far:
- There is tremendous value in the “bottoms-up” approach of hacking. I think this view gets underappreciated many times in the tops-down view of finding a market, defining its size, then defining the market approach into that space. Granted that this is a valuable and critical exercise, but it needs the experimentation effect of looking for those nascent needs that creating apps provides. Whether or not the final form it takes will be the same as how a hacker (or app developer envisions it) is a different matter, but all of the activities around blogs, 802.11, GNU software radio, hardware hacking, RSS newsreaders, and Google’s talks reinforced to me that building is a method of discovering the demand in the first place.
- Open Source software is rapidly maturing in its model, and is receiving strong validation from major players like Apple (Mac OS X) and Mitch Kapor’s Open Source Applications Foundation. Open Source advocates and participants would tell you this stuff has been real for quite a while (and they’d be right), but backing by industry leaders such as these wil help bring the open source model into the mainstream. Mitch Kapor talked about his vision of creating a platform not only for open software but for an ecology of mixed free and commercial licensing. We may well find that one of the biggest benefits of OSAF is that it facilitates the creation of new business models around open source.
A constant theme of the conference has been innovation, and how open systems allow for bottoms-up discovery of new applications, new products, new things that ultimately create value in some way. Google’s Craig Silverstein talks about how Google encourages innovation, 802.11 allows for grassroots building of wireless networks, GNU radio allows for software-defined use of RF spectrum. The common theme is opening the floodgates for innovation.
10 Years Since Mosaic
Tuesday, April 15th, 2003An article commemorating 10 years since Mosaic was launched April 22, 1993.
News: Browser revolution–10 years after
Amazing statistics:
- there are roughly 500 million people online today – or, 10% of the world’s population. Only 10%!
- 75% of people on the Net have email, 40% use IM
It’s easy to think that the web and browsing are old now, and they are – but only 10 years old. Undoubtedly, there will be much more to come, making these first 10 years seem elemetary.
Vonage Growth
Wednesday, April 9th, 2003Vonage has definitely been coming on strong over the past few months. I tried the service for a month free, and decided at the time to forgo replacing my existing line with it for a few reasons:
- no 911 service
- a tinny sound occasionally
- limited caller ID support
- the fact that we’d have to plug our phones into only one box (since that box is our broadband cable modem)
Since then, however, Vonage has made some important improvements, including a deal with a company to deliver 911 service. Plus, they’ve had some great growth and signed an important white label deal with Earthlink.
Very interesting. See the link below for more.
Home Network Statistics
Wednesday, April 9th, 2003Home Networks Hold Promise, Challenges for Vendors
Some key facts:
8% of PC owners surveyed by The Yankee Group have a home network.
Of those without a home network:
-25% are interested in one
-20% were neutral
-5% were unsure
-50% were uninterested.
Clearly, we’re early stage in the development of home networks, and applications and products that take advantage of these home networks need to appear (like TiVo’s Home Media Option)
802.16 Wireless MAN
Wednesday, April 9th, 2003Article from 802.11 Planet:
German Open Source alternative to Microsoft Exchange
Monday, April 7th, 2003Smart Dust
Friday, April 4th, 2003An article on smart dust, where a cubic millimeter device would include sensors, processing power, wireless networking, and power supply. Amazing.
