On March 2, I reported to Suffolk County Superior Court for jury duty, certain that I’d be let go after my day of service or excused, just like every other time. So it was a bit of a shock to find myself seated, by the end of the day, as Juror No. 14 on a … Continue reading “When Good Doctors Make Bad Decisions—The View from the Jury Box”
Author: Wade Roush
Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco.
Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.)
I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia.
I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats.
My personal site: waderoush.com
My social media coordinates:
Twitter: @wroush
Facebook: facebook.com/wade.roush
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/waderoush
Google+ : google.com/+WadeRoush
YouTube: youtube.com/wroush1967
Flickr: flickr.com/photos/wroush/
Pinterest: pinterest.com/waderoush/
The Games Begin at PAX East, A Seattle Transplant Uniting Gamers and Developers
The largest gaming expo on the East Coast, this weekend’s PAX East festival, will be preceded by what’s likely to be the biggest party the Boston gaming scene has ever witnessed, tonight at Microsoft’s New England R&D Center in Cambridge, MA. A packed house of 800 guests is expected at the PAX East “Made in … Continue reading “The Games Begin at PAX East, A Seattle Transplant Uniting Gamers and Developers”
Reinventing Progress Software—Boston’s Next Billion-Dollar Company? Part 2
Yesterday we published the first part of an extended Xconomy interview with Progress Software CEO Richard Reidy and chief technology officer John Bates. While Bedford, MA-based Progress (NASDAQ: [[ticker:PRGS]]) is one of the largest software makers in Massachusetts and was founded just a couple of years after EMC, its profile is nowhere near as high … Continue reading “Reinventing Progress Software—Boston’s Next Billion-Dollar Company? Part 2”
Wistia Raises $775K
Lexington, MA-based Wistia, whose software helps businesses measure customer interaction with online videos, has raised an additional $775,000 from a group including existing and new angel investors, according to co-founder and CEO Chris Savage. One of the new investors is Renesys CEO Ashton Peery, who is also an investor in BzzAgent and Gazelle. “Raising this … Continue reading “Wistia Raises $775K”
Reinventing Progress Software—Boston’s Next Billion-Dollar Company?
Most businesspeople around Boston can give you a thumbnail description of anchor companies like EMC (storage devices and information management) or Nuance (speech recognition) or Boston Scientific (medical devices). But what does Progress Software do, exactly? Considering that it’s the largest software-only company headquartered in Massachusetts—with $500 million in annual revenues, 1,800 employees around the … Continue reading “Reinventing Progress Software—Boston’s Next Billion-Dollar Company?”
“Atmos Inside”: EMC’s Grand Plan to Unify Public and Private Clouds
It may not be a coincidence that the companies most closely associated with the idea of cloud computing, such as Google, Amazon, and Rackspace, are known mainly as Web or Software-as-a-Service companies rather than as makers of actual computer hardware or shrink-wrapped software. After all, the whole idea of the cloud is to outsource your … Continue reading ““Atmos Inside”: EMC’s Grand Plan to Unify Public and Private Clouds”
Why I’ve Abandoned Quicken, But Not Intuit
Somebody at Intuit must have seen the writing on the wall. Last September, the Mountain View, CA, software company, which has been selling PC-based personal finance programs since 1983 via floppy discs, CD-ROMs, and downloads, paid $170 million to buy a two-year-old Web startup called Mint.com. If you believe, as I do, that almost everyone … Continue reading “Why I’ve Abandoned Quicken, But Not Intuit”
ULocate is Where, Now? Exactly
Okay, bad joke in the headline. But there’s some real news behind it. The Boston startup formerly called uLocate, long known mainly as the creator of the GPS-based Where local search app for mobile phones, announced yesterday that it has taken the app’s name as its own. The change “creates a more coherent message for … Continue reading “ULocate is Where, Now? Exactly”
Swaptree Raises $4.8 Million
Swaptree, a Boston startup whose website allows members to trade used books, DVDs, CDs, and video games, has raised $4.8 million out of a planned $6 million offering involving equity, options, and warrants, according to a regulatory filing published today. Swaptree’s $3.35 million Series C financing round in September 2008 came from Safeguard Scientifics of … Continue reading “Swaptree Raises $4.8 Million”
$8M Series B for CorrelSense
Framingham, MA-based CorrelSense, which makes software that tracks business transactions and helps companies improve the performance of large enterprise applications, has collected $8 million in Series B venture funding, according to an announcement today. Accel Partners led the round, with existing investors Vertex Venture Capital, eXceed Technology and ProSeed Ventures joining in. The company says … Continue reading “$8M Series B for CorrelSense”
New E Ink Leader Sees Colorful Future for Company Under Taiwan’s Prime View International
A couple of weeks ago, Xconomy broke the news that Russ Wilcox, co-founder of Cambridge, MA-based E Ink, was leaving the company after eight years as CEO. Shortly after that report I caught up with the organization’s new leader, executive vice president T.H. Peng, who was formerly director of strategic planning at Prime View International … Continue reading “New E Ink Leader Sees Colorful Future for Company Under Taiwan’s Prime View International”
The Apple iPad: Three Unanswered Questions
Today is the first day that consumers can put down money for an Apple iPad. If you pre-order a Wi-Fi model now, you can avoid waiting in the inevitable around-the-block lines when the gadget hits Apple Stores on Saturday, April 3. (If you want the Wi-Fi + 3G model, though, you’ll have to wait until … Continue reading “The Apple iPad: Three Unanswered Questions”
Hubspot Leaving Kendall Square; Next Stop: Lechmere
HubSpot, a fast-growing marketing technology startup born at the Cambridge Innovation Center, will leave its space at One Broadway this summer for new offices at 25 First Street, about 10 city blocks north, Xconomy has learned. While the move will take the startup out of the center of Kendall Square, vice president of marketing Mike … Continue reading “Hubspot Leaving Kendall Square; Next Stop: Lechmere”
March Mobile Madness at Microsoft—The Day in Pictures
Though it was just one small part of Mass Mobile Month, a multi-week series of mobile technology events around Boston, Tuesday’s Mobile Madness forum at Microsoft was the highlight for us here at Xconomy. Today it’s time to share some of the images captured by our volunteer photographer Kevin Vogelsang. Kevin wasn’t able to arrive … Continue reading “March Mobile Madness at Microsoft—The Day in Pictures”
Mobile Madness—The Slide Show
NEXT IMAGE >> Rapt Audience — Xconomy’s Mobile Madness forum attracted a standing-room only crowd of 225 people to Microsoft’s New England Research and Development Center in Cambridge. photo by Kevin Vogelsang
Battery Ventures Closes $750M Fund
Battery Ventures, which has offices in Waltham, MA, Menlo Park, CA, and Herzeliya, Israel, said today that it has closed its latest fund at the targeted level of $750 million. The firm says it plans to invest the fund—its ninth—in Internet, digital media, financial and information services, cleantech, software, enterprise IT, semiconductors, and industrial technologies. … Continue reading “Battery Ventures Closes $750M Fund”
World Wide Web Consortium Must Seize High Ground on Web Standards Earlier, Says New CEO Jeffrey Jaffe
[Corrected 3/12/10, see below] When Tim Berners-Lee and colleagues from CERN proposed the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) and the hypertext markup language (HTML) as Internet-wide standards back in the early 1990s, they didn’t face much resistance, because there weren’t any competing ideas for doing what Berners-Lee wanted to do—that is, setting up a global network … Continue reading “World Wide Web Consortium Must Seize High Ground on Web Standards Earlier, Says New CEO Jeffrey Jaffe”
ULocate Launches Ad Network for Location-Aware Mobile Devices
Boston’s uLocate Communications, known up to now mainly as the creator of the Where local search and recommendation app popular with many smartphone owners, is turning into something more. Today it announced the launch of a geographically targeted mobile advertising network called Where Ads that other mobile publishers can also use to sell local ads … Continue reading “ULocate Launches Ad Network for Location-Aware Mobile Devices”
Venture Funding Down, Overall Deal Flow Up for Boston Mobile Industry in 2009
Venture investments in Boston-area mobile technology companies decreased in both volume and value in 2009, plummeting to levels not seen since 2005. But payouts from mergers and acquisitions hit a record level, raising overall deal flow to an unprecedented $1.5 billion, according to data compiled by Mobile Monday Boston. Venture investing started out strong in … Continue reading “Venture Funding Down, Overall Deal Flow Up for Boston Mobile Industry in 2009”
DataXu Raises $11M More for Ad-Buying Platform
Boston-based DataXu, whose bidding engine helps online advertisers decide which advertising purchases are most likely to pay off in the form of conversions or click-throughs, has raised $11 million in new funding, according to an announcement today. New investor Menlo Ventures of Menlo Park, CA, led the round, which was joined by existing investors Flybridge … Continue reading “DataXu Raises $11M More for Ad-Buying Platform”
Mobile Madness Innovation Showcase
Here at Xconomy we love organizing forums and events—in fact our next one, Mobile Madness: The New Future of Computing, is tomorrow. There are only two downsides to putting on events. They’re relatively small (reaching hundreds of people rather than thousands, the way we can online), and pretty soon, they’re over. To counteract those two … Continue reading “Mobile Madness Innovation Showcase”
Berners-Lee to Share Reins at World Wide Web Consortium with Former IBM, Lucent, Novell Exec
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and director of the Cambridge, MA-based World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which oversees the standards underlying the global network, has a new co-captain. It’s Jeffrey Jaffe, a technology industry veteran who served most recently as chief technology officer and executive vice president of products at Waltham, … Continue reading “Berners-Lee to Share Reins at World Wide Web Consortium with Former IBM, Lucent, Novell Exec”
Register Now for Mobile Madness—Only a Handful of Seats Left; Plus, A Mass Mobile Month Video
The impressive lineup of speakers we’ve assembled for next Tuesday’s Xconomy Forum, Mobile Madness: The New Future of Computing, is doing the trick–we’ve sold most of the available seats at Microsoft’s New England R&D Center, and only have about 20 more available. Now’s your chance to secure one of the last seats. If you missed … Continue reading “Register Now for Mobile Madness—Only a Handful of Seats Left; Plus, A Mass Mobile Month Video”
Where’s World Wide Wade? Four Encores
I regret to report that both I and my column are going on a bit of a hiatus, as I’ve been seated as a juror on an extended civil trial in Boston. To fill some airtime, I thought I’d direct you to a few old columns that are special favorites of mine or that have … Continue reading “Where’s World Wide Wade? Four Encores”
Soane Energy’s Oil-Grabbing Polymers Could Make a Necessary Industry Less Noxious
When you hear the phrase “cleantech,” you generally think of green hills studded with wind turbines, or buildings sheathed in shiny solar panels. The oil sands of Alberta—where mining companies foul vast amounts of freshwater while extracting crude oil from surface deposits, leaving behind huge, toxic tailings ponds—don’t usually come to mind. But the way … Continue reading “Soane Energy’s Oil-Grabbing Polymers Could Make a Necessary Industry Less Noxious”
Announcing the Official Mass Mobile Month iPhone App, from Swift Mobile
On the third official day of Mass Mobile Month, we’re extremely pleased to unveil the official Mass Mobile Month iPhone app. Created by Swift Mobile of Cambridge, MA, and available at no cost through Apple’s iTunes App Store, the app includes the full list of Mass Mobile Month events, as well as a map guiding … Continue reading “Announcing the Official Mass Mobile Month iPhone App, from Swift Mobile”
Millipore To March Down the Aisle with Merck KGaA, Not Thermo Fisher
Reports last week that Billerica, MA-based life sciences equipment supplier Millipore was in merger talks with Waltham, MA-based Thermo Fisher Scientific were half right. Millipore was in merger talks—but it has settled on suitor Merck KGaA, the German pharmaceutical and chemicals giant. And Millipore is fetching a higher price than the earlier reports suggested, too. … Continue reading “Millipore To March Down the Aisle with Merck KGaA, Not Thermo Fisher”
Russ Wilcox Steps Down at E Ink—Smart Energy Venture Next?
[Updated 9:55 a.m. and 1:35 p.m., see below] Russell Wilcox, until recently the president and CEO at Cambridge, MA-based display technology pioneer E Ink, has left the company, Xconomy has learned. In his 13 years with E Ink, Wilcox rose from the level of vice president of business development to the leadership helm, and engineered … Continue reading “Russ Wilcox Steps Down at E Ink—Smart Energy Venture Next?”
Mass Mobile Month Is Here!
March 2010 is Mass Mobile Month, a celebration of mobile technology innovation in New England. Who says so? Xconomy and the 22 other local organizations that have banded together to highlight the remarkable string of mobile-related events happening around town in March. Actually, the fun started in mid-February and will continue into early April—but today, … Continue reading “Mass Mobile Month Is Here!”
Video and Books: Two Great Tastes That Taste Great Together?
If a book can be made from something other than paper—say, pixels on a screen—then why can’t it consist of something other than plain old words and pictures? It can. Companies like Eastgate Systems in Watertown, MA, have been publishing PC-based interactive “hypertexts” for almost 30 years. Thanks to the built-in speech synthesis software on … Continue reading “Video and Books: Two Great Tastes That Taste Great Together?”
Mobile Madness Mega-Post: The Full Details on Xconomy’s Can’t-Miss March 9 Mobile Technology Forum
Xconomy’s next big event, Mobile Madness: The New Future of Computing, is coming up fast—it’s on March 9 at Microsoft’s New England R&D Center in Cambridge. Once again, the tech community has come out in force to support our event, and I have an amazing lineup of speakers to tell you about, as well as … Continue reading “Mobile Madness Mega-Post: The Full Details on Xconomy’s Can’t-Miss March 9 Mobile Technology Forum”
World Energy Unveils “Demand Response” Auctions, Disrupting a Market Dominated by Boston’s EnerNOC
It’s so costly and complicated to build new generating plants these days that utilities would rather prepare for periods of peak demand, such as hot summer days, by buying “negawatts”—that is, by agreeing to pay big customers like factories, stores, and municipalities to dial back their electricity use when called upon. EnerNOC (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ENOC]]), a … Continue reading “World Energy Unveils “Demand Response” Auctions, Disrupting a Market Dominated by Boston’s EnerNOC”
Luminus Devices Raises $19M
Investors continue to pour cash into Luminus Devices, the Billerica, MA-based maker of bright, efficient LEDs, at a rate that would startle most entrepreneurs in the life sciences, let alone the hardware, computing, and infotech industries. Luminus announced today that it has raised $19 million in Series F funding, from a group of existing investors … Continue reading “Luminus Devices Raises $19M”
Maine Startup mCaddie Raises Angel Funds for Golf App
Quick: Name a consumer passion that generates twice as much revenue as Hollywood movies; in which virtually all of the participants, by definition, have disposable income and an ambition to improve their performance; and which counts among its devotees millions of business executives who carry around gadgets like smartphones. If you named golf, you were … Continue reading “Maine Startup mCaddie Raises Angel Funds for Golf App”
$6 Million More for Currensee
Boston-based Currensee, a social network for currency traders, announced today that it has closed an $8 million Series B financing round led by existing investor North Bridge Venture Partners. Egan Managed Capital joined as a new investor, and Egan partner Travis Connors has joined Currensee’s board. Currensee has actually raised $6 million in new funding, … Continue reading “$6 Million More for Currensee”
Report: Thermo Fisher Bids to Take Over Millipore
According to a report today from the Bloomberg news agency, Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE: [[ticker:TMO]]), the Waltham, MA-based supplier of laboratory instruments and equipment to the life sciences industry, has made an unsolicited bid to acquire Billerica, MA-based Millipore (NYSE: [[ticker:MIL]]) for $6 billion. Millipore makes diagnostic and laboratory equipment for biotech firms. Bloomberg attributed … Continue reading “Report: Thermo Fisher Bids to Take Over Millipore”
Iron Mountain Drinks in Mimosa
Boston-based paper and digital archiving giant Iron Mountain (NYSE: [[ticker:IRM]]) said today that it has acquired Santa Clara, CA-based Mimosa Systems for $112 million in cash. Mimosa makes e-mail archiving software for companies that use Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Web Access through Microsoft’s Exchange Server. “By combining Mimosa’s on-premises archive with our cloud-based technologies, Iron … Continue reading “Iron Mountain Drinks in Mimosa”
Rival Buyout Offer for Amicas
Boston-based radiology information management company Amicas (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AMCS]]), which had been on the verge of a buyout by Chicago- and San Francisco-based private equity firm Thoma Bravo, said today it has received a rival offer from Merge Healthcare (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MERG]]), a Milwaukee, WI-based provider of radiology workflow management software. The Merge offer of $6.05 per … Continue reading “Rival Buyout Offer for Amicas”
Boston-Power Adds Ex-GM Exec to Board, Prepares to Take On Automotive Battery Market
Around the time Steve Jobs unveiled the Apple iPad, a funny Photoshopped picture began making the rounds on the Web, showing Jobs with four iPhones crudely lashed together with duct tape. The picture’s unspoken message, of course, was that the iPad is just a big iPhone. Well, something like that is actually coming true in … Continue reading “Boston-Power Adds Ex-GM Exec to Board, Prepares to Take On Automotive Battery Market”
$1.25 Million for Fluent Mobile
Fluent Mobile, the Boston, MA-based maker of a leading iPhone news-aggregating app called Fluent News Reader, has raised $1.25 million in equity-based funding, according to a regulatory filing. Fluent executives did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the round. While the regulatory filing did not list the company’s investors, it identified Guy Bradley, … Continue reading “$1.25 Million for Fluent Mobile”
Online Video Advertisers: Enough Double Stuf, Time to Get Targeted
What a wonderful world: Thanks to Fox, Comedy Central, and the other TV networks that are generous enough to post the latest episodes from their hit shows online, I can watch all of my favorite episodes on the Web on demand without paying a dime to Comcast (oops, “Xfinity”) for premium cable channels or DVR … Continue reading “Online Video Advertisers: Enough Double Stuf, Time to Get Targeted”
Brightcove Attempts to Straddle Front Line in Mobile Video Wars
Brightcove has a problem. The Cambridge, MA-based startup’s Brightcove 4 video hosting platform, which hundreds of publishers use to distribute and monetize Web video on desktop and laptop PCs, was built around Adobe’s Flash Player. But more and more people want to watch videos on their smartphones, and Flash videos won’t play on most mobile … Continue reading “Brightcove Attempts to Straddle Front Line in Mobile Video Wars”
A Call for Showcase Participants at Xconomy’s March 9 Mobile Madness Forum
Xconomy’s big mobile conference, “Mobile Madness: The New Future of Computing,” is coming up fast, on March 9. But there’s still time to register for a ticket—and if you work for a mobile technology startup and you’d like to join the madness, either live at the event or online, there’s still time to get involved … Continue reading “A Call for Showcase Participants at Xconomy’s March 9 Mobile Madness Forum”
Nova Analytics Sale to ITT Provides “Very Good” Outcome for Battery Ventures
The private equity operation of Boston-based Battery Ventures helped buy out Nova Analytics, a Woburn, MA-based maker of lab and field equipment for electrochemical measurements, in 2003. Seven years later, after a string of strategic acquisitions that helped to consolidate the analytic instruments market, Battery has sold Nova to White Plains, NY-based ITT, which says … Continue reading “Nova Analytics Sale to ITT Provides “Very Good” Outcome for Battery Ventures”
GenArts Bringing Boston to Special Effects Fore with Tinder Purchase from Britain’s The Foundry
Gradually, Cambridge, MA, is emerging as one of the world capitals of a highly specialized industry: digital effects plugins for film and video post-production. These are small software packages that production companies such as Lucasfilm or Sony Pictures buy to extend the capabilities of commercial digital compositing programs like Adobe’s After Effects, Autodesk’s Combustion, Avid’s … Continue reading “GenArts Bringing Boston to Special Effects Fore with Tinder Purchase from Britain’s The Foundry”
Isabella’s Vizit Wins Mobile Award
Isabella Products of Concord, MA, announced that the award for Best Embedded Mobile Device at the GSMA World Mobile Congress in Barcelona went to its Vizit digital photo frame today. The competition is designed to encourage innovation among wireless device makers. The $280 Vizit, which will be available by lottery beginning in mid-March, is a … Continue reading “Isabella’s Vizit Wins Mobile Award”
The $14.99 E-Book: Publishing’s Salvation, Or Just the Last Nail in the Coffin?
Last summer, when the UK National Portrait Gallery and the Wikimedia Foundation got into a kerfuffle over whether the foundation had the right to copy thousands of the gallery’s high-resolution digital images to the Wikimedia site without paying, I wrote that the foundation may have been within its rights, since the original portraits are in … Continue reading “The $14.99 E-Book: Publishing’s Salvation, Or Just the Last Nail in the Coffin?”
CloudSwitch Details Plans to Bridge Corporate Data Centers, Cloud Resources
Doing your business computing on cloud systems owned by companies like Amazon sounds like a great idea, on the surface of it. Who wouldn’t want to rent computing resources just for the time they’re needed, rather than shelling out for expensive on-premises equipment that might sit idle half of the time? The problem is that … Continue reading “CloudSwitch Details Plans to Bridge Corporate Data Centers, Cloud Resources”
Announcing Mass Mobile Month: A Celebration of New England Mobile Innovation in March 2010
Ever wondered how “official” events like National Poetry Month or National Corndog Day or International Talk Like a Pirate Day get started? We did too. Turns out all you have to do is get some people together and make a declaration. So that’s what we’re doing. In recognition of the fact that there’s an unusually … Continue reading “Announcing Mass Mobile Month: A Celebration of New England Mobile Innovation in March 2010”
Veolia Energy Buys Comfort Link
Veolia Energy North America, a Boston-based company that provides “district energy” or centralized heating, cooling, and power generation for 1,100 government and industry customers, said today that it has acquired Comfort Link of Baltimore, MD. Formerly a partnership between Baltimore Gas and Electric and Monumental Investment Corporation, Comfort Link uses an 11-mile network of chilled … Continue reading “Veolia Energy Buys Comfort Link”