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/

Sirtris Exec Says Acquisition by GlaxoSmithKline is “Great for Boston”

After financial markets closed today, news broke that pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: [[ticker:GSK]]) will pay $720 million to acquire Cambridge, MA-based Sirtris Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SIRT]]), which is researching and testing drugs for ageing-related conditions such as diabetes and cancer. A few minutes ago I spoke with Michelle Dipp, Sirtris’s corporate development director, about the acquisition. … Continue reading “Sirtris Exec Says Acquisition by GlaxoSmithKline is “Great for Boston””

GlaxoSmithKline Scoops Up Sirtris

Zhoop! It’s the sound of another prominent local biotech company being acquired by a far-away pharmaceutical giant. Last week it was Millennium, which was snapped up by Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceuticals for $8.8 billion. This time it’s Cambridge, MA-based Sirtris Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:[[ticker:SIRT]]), a company we’ve covered regularly, which is about to become part of London and … Continue reading “GlaxoSmithKline Scoops Up Sirtris”

Red Bend Downloads $10 Million Update

Today’s mobile phones have so much processing power that they are, in effect, little personal computers—and as with PCs, the software that makes them powerful is continually evolving, even after each handset leaves the factory. So it’s important to have a way of updating both the applications on mobile phones and the “firmware” underlying them … Continue reading “Red Bend Downloads $10 Million Update”

IBM Does Due Diligent

IBM is at it again, acquiring another local software company. Privately held Diligent Technologies, a Framingham, MA-based maker of de-duplication software that reduces data storage costs for large enterprises, announced Friday that it’s becoming part of IBM System Storage division of the IBM Systems and Technology Group. The purchase price was not revealed.

Kiva’s Robots Hit Their Stride…er, Slide

Kiva Systems may be winning its battle against the science-fiction robots. The Woburn, MA, company is a newcomer to a hidebound business. It builds “mobile fulfillment systems” that are overturning all the traditions of warehousing by making the shelves move around, rather than the people. The moving is done by squat wheeled robots that maneuver … Continue reading “Kiva’s Robots Hit Their Stride…er, Slide”

Spark Capital Leads $5 Million Investment in Lonelygirl15 Producers

Boston’s Spark Capital is the lead investor in a $5 million funding round for Eqal (pronounced “equal”), the Los Angeles-based independent studio behind the cult YouTube video series Lonelygirl15. Spark’s Bijan Sabet announced the investment in his personal blog yesterday, and the Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek have published pieces examining the deal. Eqal was … Continue reading “Spark Capital Leads $5 Million Investment in Lonelygirl15 Producers”

Google Earth Grows a New Crop of 3-D Buildings, and Other Web Morsels to Savor

One of my goals with this column—which is now in its third week—is to tell you about new stuff on the Web that’s so delicious you just have to taste it. Here are three morsels to tide you over until next time. The first is a quick appetizer: Very Short List, an e-mail newsletter funded … Continue reading “Google Earth Grows a New Crop of 3-D Buildings, and Other Web Morsels to Savor”

Capturing the Personal Essence of Gaming: An Interview with GamerDNA CEO Jon Radoff

It’s a big day for the company formerly known as GuildCafe, which is announcing a new name—GamerDNA—and a new $3 million funding round from Flybridge Capital Partners (see main story). I interviewed GamerDNA founder and CEO (and avid gamer) Jon Radoff about the changes earlier this week; a lightly edited transcript follows. Xconomy: When we … Continue reading “Capturing the Personal Essence of Gaming: An Interview with GamerDNA CEO Jon Radoff”

GamerDNA Rises from GuildCafe, Scavenges $3 Million in Venture Gold

The video gaming and PC gaming industry is big. A whopping $19 billion big in 2007, which doesn’t quite equal revenues from movies ($42 billion) or books ($35 billion), but still accounts for a major chunk of what U.S. consumers spend on media content. So it’s no surprise that there’s a growing list of companies … Continue reading “GamerDNA Rises from GuildCafe, Scavenges $3 Million in Venture Gold”

Clean Energy Council Launches Fellowships to Retrain Entrepreneurs for the Cleantech Industry

It’s hard to kick-start a new regional industry if there’s a shortage of entrepreneurs who understand the business. That’s the problem the New England Clean Energy Council (NECEC) is taking on with a new fellowship program designed to retrain entrepreneurs experienced in the software business and other industries so that they can venture into cleantech. … Continue reading “Clean Energy Council Launches Fellowships to Retrain Entrepreneurs for the Cleantech Industry”

OwnerIQ Capitalizes on Intelligence about Users

I’m one of those people who makes special folders in my filing cabinet for the owner’s manuals that come with every new gadget or appliance I buy. If you want to see the manual for my radioactive-green Nokia 6130 cell phone, I can probably dig it up. (Never mind that I haven’t used that phone … Continue reading “OwnerIQ Capitalizes on Intelligence about Users”

Kalido Expands to Bangalore

Kalido, the Burlington, MA-based data warehouse customization company we profiled in March, said yesterday that it’s opening a product development and servies office in Bangalore, India. The office will complement rather than replace Kalido’s existing operations in Massachusetts and London, the company says. “We’ve doubled our product portfolio in the last year and demand for … Continue reading “Kalido Expands to Bangalore”

Hydroid Dives into Navy Contract

The Naval Oceanogaphic Office, the wing of the Defense Department responsible for charting the ocean bottom, has signed a five-year support contract with Hydroid, the Pocasset, MA-based maker of robot submarines. Okay, they’re actually called AUVs, or autonomous underwater vehicles—not to be confused with UAVs, for unmanned aerial vehicles (though we wrote about those earlier … Continue reading “Hydroid Dives into Navy Contract”

Tapping TV Signals: Charles River Adds to Investment in Rosum

The Global Positioning System helps millions find their way around the surface of the planet every day. But if you’ve ever walked around with a handheld GPS unit, you know that the radio signals transmitted by GPS satellites are so weak that they’re hard to pick up under tree cover, let alone in dense urban … Continue reading “Tapping TV Signals: Charles River Adds to Investment in Rosum”

ArQule Gets a New CEO

Woburn, MA-based ArQule, which is developing several compounds known as kinase inhibitors as potential cancer therapies, said today that Paolo Pucci, a Bayer senior vice president overseeing Bayer-Schering’s global oncology and  therapeutics business, will take over as the company’s new CEO. Pucci succeeds Stephen Hill, a nine-year veteran of the company who announced his approaching … Continue reading “ArQule Gets a New CEO”

QD Vision Collects $9M in Third Round

PE Week Wire is reporting, based on a regulatory filing, that Watertown, MA-based QD Vision, which is building brighter, more efficient displays based on “quantum dot” technology, has collected $9 million of a $16 million Series C funding round. Existing backers Highland Capital Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners are leading the investment. As we … Continue reading “QD Vision Collects $9M in Third Round”

IBM and the Art of Acquisitions

“If you do something 60 times you are going to develop some best practices,” Scott Hebner says. This could be said of many things. The thing Hebner is talking about is acquisitions—software company acquisitions by his employer, IBM, to be exact. Hebner is vice president of marketing and strategy for IBM Rational Software, which makes … Continue reading “IBM and the Art of Acquisitions”

Aurora, Draper, BAE Win Contract to Build Long-Duration Surveillance Aircraft

Talk about a long flight. While the world’s longest passenger jet trip (the 18-hour, 40-minute journey from Newark to Singapore) may be a killer, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has hired a group of organizations with Massachusetts operations, including Aurora Flight Sciences, Draper Laboratories, and BAE Systems, to build a plane that can stay … Continue reading “Aurora, Draper, BAE Win Contract to Build Long-Duration Surveillance Aircraft”

Location Based Services—Moving Forward?

From the TiE-Boston website: “Are location based services about to take off?….. or have they already? The market looks increasingly appealing with the increased deployment of handset based GPS technology, mapping tools, larger color displays and feature rich phones. Many saw Apple’s iPhone as setting a new standard for it’s mapping and search integration. But … Continue reading “Location Based Services—Moving Forward?”

Cox Radio Picks EveryZing to Make Shows Searchable

Most radio stations these days have websites where you can listen to streaming versions of their broadcasts. But few have taken the added step of making individual shows available online—in part because there’s little financial incentive, unless they can sell online ads against that content. That’s where EveryZing of Cambridge, MA, thinks it can help—and … Continue reading “Cox Radio Picks EveryZing to Make Shows Searchable”

3Com Wins $45 Million in Patent Suit Against Taiwanese Chipmaker

3Com of Marlborough, MA, said today that a federal jury in California awarded it $45.3 million in its patent infringement lawsuit against Realtek Semiconductor Corporation of Hsinchu, Taiwan. 3Com charged in the suit that Realtek’s network controller chips appropriated aspects of parallel processing technology 3Com developed for its own network interface devices. A jury in … Continue reading “3Com Wins $45 Million in Patent Suit Against Taiwanese Chipmaker”

The Coolest Tools for Trawling & Tracking the Web

Ahh, Boston in springtime. Duck boat armadas on the Charles. The vinegary smell of the wood-chip mulch landscapers spread everywhere. Tow trucks hauling away cars so that street sweepers can get at the dead leaves accumulating since October. A guy on a recumbent bike pulling a train of three skateboarders along the Esplanade. I could … Continue reading “The Coolest Tools for Trawling & Tracking the Web”

LocaModa, TouchTunes Partner on Digital Jukeboxes

LocaModa, the Cambridge, MA-based maker of software that allows mobile phone owners to interact with commercial displays from their cell phones, said today that it has formed a partnership with TouchTunes, the nation’s largest operator of digital jukeboxes in bars, restaurants, and retail locations. The two companies will make it possible for customers to use … Continue reading “LocaModa, TouchTunes Partner on Digital Jukeboxes”

$500K MacArthur Award for Public Radio Exchange

The MacArthur Foundation in Chicago announced yesterday that that the Public Radio Exchange (PRX), a Cambridge, MA-based nonprofit that  maintains an online library of independently-produced radio documentaries from which public radio station managers can select programs for broadcast, is one of eight organizations selected for its 2008 MacArthur Awards for Creative and Effective Institutions. The … Continue reading “$500K MacArthur Award for Public Radio Exchange”

Second Down, Ten Yards to Go for Matchmine

When we first wrote about Needham, MA-based Matchmine last September, the Kraft Group spinoff had just introduced its MatchKey “portable preferences” system, which is designed to put an end to the fragmented state of recommendation systems on the Web. Right now, every online retailer, video rental site, or music site you visit—be it Amazon, Netflix, … Continue reading “Second Down, Ten Yards to Go for Matchmine”

QD Vision Glowing From In-Q-Tel Investment

At QD Vision in Watertown, MA, engineers are building on nanoscale “quantum dot” technology pioneered at MIT to create a new generation of light-emitting devices (LEDs) that could eventually be used in video displays with brighter colors, blacker blacks, and far higher energy efficiency. And gradually the company has been showing up on the radar … Continue reading “QD Vision Glowing From In-Q-Tel Investment”

Nuance Writes Itself an eScription

Nuance Communications (NASDAQ: [[ticker:NUAN]]), the Burlington, MA-based provider of speech-related software technologies and services, including the Dictaphone system used by hundreds of thousands of doctors to dictate clinical notes over the phone, said yesterday that it will purchase Needham, MA-based eScription. The company makes automated speech-to-text software that turns dictated medical notes into rough first … Continue reading “Nuance Writes Itself an eScription”

Two Local Startups Launch Mobile Photo-sharing Networks for the Masses

If you snap photos with your camera phone, you probably mean to share them eventually. But if you’re like 75 percent of camera phone owners surveyed by Ontela, a Seattle mobile imaging firm, those pictures are still sitting in your phone’s memory, because you’ve never succeeded at transferring them to your PC, or a photo … Continue reading “Two Local Startups Launch Mobile Photo-sharing Networks for the Masses”

PowerSteering Refuels with $3.5 Million

PowerSteering Software, a Cambridge, MA, startup specializing in programs that help companies manage large business and technology projects, said yesterday that it has raised $3.5 million in additional financing. The company’s products, delivered using a subscription, software-as-a-service model, are focused on helping clients comply with the Six Sigma standards for process improvement first formulated at … Continue reading “PowerSteering Refuels with $3.5 Million”

How Voice Meets Web: A Voice 2.0 MashUp MeetUp

Richard Scullin from VoodooVox writes: “What is VoiceMeetup? This is a chance for Web and mobile developers to sit down and learn about how and why to incorporate phone and voice technology into their applications. We’ll discuss the recent appearance of the ‘voice mashup,’ look at different APIs and services designed to simplify the deployment … Continue reading “How Voice Meets Web: A Voice 2.0 MashUp MeetUp”

Great Things Come In Small Packages—A Nanotech Story

Barbara Heffner of Chen PR, writing to Xconomy on behalf of the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge, says: “The next MIT Enterprise Forum event is focused on nanotech and will be held this Weds. April 9th, starting at 6:15 p.m. The keynoter is Josh Wolfe, who is “America’s Leading Authority on Nanotechnology,” according to Forbes, … Continue reading “Great Things Come In Small Packages—A Nanotech Story”

Advent Closes $10.4 Billion Fund

Advent International, a buyout firm with headquarters in London and Boston, said yesterday it has completed fundraising for a $10.4 billion fund that it intends to use for international buyouts, strategic restructuring opportunities and growth buyouts in the financial services, retail, consumer, leisure, healthcare, technology, media, telecoms, and industrial sectors. The fund, Advent’s sixth, is … Continue reading “Advent Closes $10.4 Billion Fund”

Driving Audiences to Your Online Video Content

MITX sponsors a panel discussion on using online video content to drive website traffic. From the MITX event page: “Now that you’ve invested in and launched great online video content, your focus changes to “how will it attract an audience?” Whether your video is to entertain or to bolster your brand, making it easily discoverable … Continue reading “Driving Audiences to Your Online Video Content”

Building Social Applications & Widgets for Top Platforms

MITX sponsors a panel discussion on software development for social networking applications. From the MITX website: “Why build a social application? Developers are looking to kick-start a company or build something fun and viral. Marketers are searching for ways to appropriately target an audience for their products and services. Regardless of the motivation, with 6,000 … Continue reading “Building Social Applications & Widgets for Top Platforms”

Jackpot Rewards CEO Jim Miller Explains (Mostly) the Company’s About-Face on Weekly $1 Million Prizes

Newton, MA-based customer-rewards startup Jackpot Rewards says it will still hold a $1 million prize drawing every week. But as we reported yesterday, the company no longer promises that it will actually give the money away—removing one of the major incentives to join the company’s cash-back rewards program and making some existing members angry enough … Continue reading “Jackpot Rewards CEO Jim Miller Explains (Mostly) the Company’s About-Face on Weekly $1 Million Prizes”

Jackpot Rewards Drops Guaranteed $1 Million Weekly Prize; Explanation Fuzzy

Less than seven weeks after it made a big media splash by promising to donate half its profits to children’s charities, Jackpot Rewards, the Newton, MA, customer-rewards and sweepstakes startup backed by Boston investing legend Peter Lynch, has put an end to what was perhaps the most unusual (and most expensive) part of its part … Continue reading “Jackpot Rewards Drops Guaranteed $1 Million Weekly Prize; Explanation Fuzzy”

Facebook, ConnectU to Settle Suits, NYT Reports

The “Bits” technology blog at the New York Times is reporting today that Facebook and Boston-based ConnectU are nearing a settlement in the long-running dispute over whether Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg based his business on an idea (and on software code) appropriated from ConnectU founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss when all of the … Continue reading “Facebook, ConnectU to Settle Suits, NYT Reports”

MIT Crushes Harvard at Google Games

Perhaps predictably, MIT students blew their Harvard counterparts out of the water at the Google Games, a day of engineering- and math-heavy challenges held Saturday at Google’s new offices in the heart of Kendall Square. Teams from MIT captured the top three slots in the competition, while the Harvard contingent had to console itself with … Continue reading “MIT Crushes Harvard at Google Games”

Imprivata Says Open Sesame to $15M Third Round

Imprivata, the Lexington, MA-based maker of software and appliances for managing password-based access to corporate computer networks, said today that it has closed a $15 million series C investment round, bringing its total venture backing to nearly $50 million. SAP Ventures, the venture capital wing of German business software giant SAP AG, led the round, … Continue reading “Imprivata Says Open Sesame to $15M Third Round”

GT Solar Lands Big Contract with Dutch Solar Panel Maker

Like microchips, photovoltaic solar cells are made from one of the most common materials on earth: silicon. But it takes a lot of bulky and expensive equipment to transform raw polycrystalline silicon or “polysilicon” into the pure, flat sheets of single-crystal silicon that make up photovoltaic cells. Merrimack, NH, is home to GT Solar, one … Continue reading “GT Solar Lands Big Contract with Dutch Solar Panel Maker”

Funding, Protecting and Commercializing Clean Technology

TiE-Boston’s Cleantech and Energy SIG and FTI Consulting co-sponsor a conference on understanding the intellectual property, contractual, and financial issues inherent in the clean technology industry. The conference will feature prominent speakers from the financial, business, legal, and government communities and will focus on the best strategies for obtaining financing, identifying and protecting intellectual property … Continue reading “Funding, Protecting and Commercializing Clean Technology”

Reinventing Our Visual World, Pixel By Pixel

Every week I come across news items, tech trends, and useful gadgets and services that I know Xconomy’s readers would find interesting, but that don’t fit with our usual lineup of hyperlocal news stories about Boston’s innovation scene. To create an outlet for such random finds—and, frankly, to get me off Bob and Rebecca’s backs … Continue reading “Reinventing Our Visual World, Pixel By Pixel”

Highland Capital Puts Out the Call for Student Entrepreneurs and Interns

Budding student-entrepreneurs awaken: Highland Capital Partners says it’s accepting applications for its second annual paid summer entrepreneurship program for undergraduates and graduate students, and for more than 20 summer internship positions at Highland-backed companies in Massachusetts. Highland launched its “Summer@Highland” program last year. Under the program, which is similar in some ways to Paul Graham’s … Continue reading “Highland Capital Puts Out the Call for Student Entrepreneurs and Interns”

Vlingo’s CEO Speaks on the Yahoo Deal

Yesterday Yahoo smiled upon Harvard Square, not only picking Dunster Street startup Vlingo to provide a speech recognition system for its oneSearch mobile search program, but putting up a whopping $20 million in venture capital to finance the company’s expansion. After publishing our story on the deal, we reached Vlingo CEO Dave Grannan at the … Continue reading “Vlingo’s CEO Speaks on the Yahoo Deal”

Vlingo Scores Software Deal, Big Investment from Yahoo

Speech-recognition startup Vlingo, which had just moved into its new Dunster Street digs in Harvard Square when I visited last August, has settled in with two major wins, both relating to Yahoo. At the CTIA Wireless conference in Las Vegas this morning, keynoter Marco Boerries, the executive vice president of Yahoo’s Connected Life division, unveiled … Continue reading “Vlingo Scores Software Deal, Big Investment from Yahoo”

From MIT Blackjack to E-Mail Databases: We Catch Up with the Other Micky Rosa

Lots of folks are excited about the movie 21, a semi-fictionalized account of the exploits of the MIT blackjack team in the 1990s. That’s clear not just from the film’s box-office-leading performance last weekend, but from the fact that so many people are coming out of the woodwork and identifying themselves as members of the … Continue reading “From MIT Blackjack to E-Mail Databases: We Catch Up with the Other Micky Rosa”

Roxbury, Dorchester Finally Get Pilot Wi-Fi Network

After months of postponements, Openairboston.net, a non-profit group created last year to oversee the rollout of citywide Wi-Fi broadband Internet service, held a “wire-cutting” ceremony for its first pilot network yesterday in the Grove Hall and Dudley Square areas of Boston’s Roxbury and Dorchester neighborhoods. Openairboston.net’s network, whose scheduled November 2007 launch was delayed by … Continue reading “Roxbury, Dorchester Finally Get Pilot Wi-Fi Network”

groupSPARK, 123Together Join mindSHIFT

No, my caps-lock key is not stuck. Collaboration Online, a Burlington, MA, software-as-a-service company that hosts Microsoft e-mail, collaboration, and CRM programs for other companies under brands such as groupSPARK and 123Together, is being purchased by Fairfax, VA-based mindSHIFT Technologies, a provider of managed IT and voice-over-Internet telephony services, the two companies said today. “We … Continue reading “groupSPARK, 123Together Join mindSHIFT”