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/

New $7 Million Funding Round Will Help EveryScape Add Scope to Its Scape

The number-one customer complaint coming into Waltham, MA-based EveryScape, says CEO Jim Schoonmaker, is “Give us more.” So far, EveryScape’s Web-based collection of pannable street-level photographs is limited to Boston and environs, New York, Miami, Laguna Beach, and four Colorado ski resorts—Aspen, Breckenridge, Snowmass Village, and Steamboat Springs. (Oh, there’s also Beijing, China—which is a … Continue reading “New $7 Million Funding Round Will Help EveryScape Add Scope to Its Scape”

Lightower Splits Fiber from Wireless

Last year Boxborough, MA-based National Grid Wireless changed its name to Lightower, reflecting the company’s purchase by M/C Venture Partners and Wachovia Capital Partners. Now it’s going through another transition, splitting its wireless-infrastructure and digital-fiber-optics businesses into two separate entities, Lightower Wireless and Lightower Fiber. Lightower said in an announcement today that demand for its … Continue reading “Lightower Splits Fiber from Wireless”

Latest Signals from iRobot: One If By Land, Two If By Pool

Burlington, MA-based iRobot (NASDAQ: [[ticker:IRBT]]) has made two announcements in as many days, touching on both sides of its business, military robots and home robots. On the military side, iRobot said Monday that it has received an award to design and develop robots for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s LANdroids program. LANdroids (the LAN … Continue reading “Latest Signals from iRobot: One If By Land, Two If By Pool”

Acquia Previews Drupal’s Commercial Twin

As we reported in December, the popular open-source Web publishing system Drupal has a new corporate home, Boston-based Acquia, where Drupal originator Dries Buytaert has joined as CTO. Today at the Drupalcon conference at Boston’s Convention and Expo Center, the company unveiled more details about its promised plans for a commercially-supported version of Drupal. Code-named … Continue reading “Acquia Previews Drupal’s Commercial Twin”

Mzinga’s Tempest of Growth Sweeps Up Prospero

Mzinga, the Burlington, MA, online community management company we profiled in December, announced today that it has raised $32.5 million in new venture financing and acquired Littleton, MA-based Prospero. Like Mzinga, Prospero sells online community applications such as message boards, blogs, wikis, polls, and chat interfaces that are used by a growing number of companies … Continue reading “Mzinga’s Tempest of Growth Sweeps Up Prospero”

With Kalido’s Drag-and-Drop Data Warehouse Customization, “Business Intelligence” Is No Longer an Oxymoron

I’d like to explain what’s cool about Kalido, a Burlington, MA, software company spun off five years ago by Royal Dutch Shell, but let’s start with a story about beer. Labatt Breweries is Canada’s largest beer producer, brewing 60 brands of ale and distributing them in stores, bars, and restaurants across the great North. Because … Continue reading “With Kalido’s Drag-and-Drop Data Warehouse Customization, “Business Intelligence” Is No Longer an Oxymoron”

Akamai Wins $45 Million in Patent Fight Against Limelight—Had Hoped for Much Bigger Award

A federal jury in Boston ruled today that Limelight Networks of Tempe, AZ, infringed on a key MIT patent licensed to Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AKAM]]) of Cambridge, MA. Akamai also won a damage award totaling more than $45 million. But the verdict was not the huge win Akamai hoped it would be, as much of … Continue reading “Akamai Wins $45 Million in Patent Fight Against Limelight—Had Hoped for Much Bigger Award”

Alnylam Touts Early Evidence of RNAi Drug Efficacy

In 2006, the Nobel Prize in medicine went to two American biologists, Stanford’s Andrew Fire and UMass Medical School’s Craig Mello, who had discovered a way to shut off individual genes by blocking key RNA molecules in the cell. But while the technique, called RNA interference or RNAi, immediately became a powerful research tool, it … Continue reading “Alnylam Touts Early Evidence of RNAi Drug Efficacy”

Mascoma Reportedly Raises $50 Million for Ethanol Production

(Updated, Feb. 28—This report now confirmed) According to an unconfirmed report this morning from Private Equity Hub, Boston-based Mascoma has arranged a sizable funding round that could help the company accelerate its research on genetically engineered bacteria that speed up the conversion of cellulosic biomass such as wood chips into ethanol. According to Private Equity … Continue reading “Mascoma Reportedly Raises $50 Million for Ethanol Production”

Brennan to Replace Reese as Iron Mountain CEO

Boston-based information protection and storage company Iron Mountain announced today that Richard Reese, CEO since 1981, will step down in June. Taking Reese’s place will be Bob Brennan, who joined the company in 2004 with Iron Mountain’s acquisition of Connected Corporation and has been its president and chief operating officer since 2005. Under Reese’s leadership, … Continue reading “Brennan to Replace Reese as Iron Mountain CEO”

SoundBite Acquires Mobile Collect

Mobile Collect, a Rochester Hills, MI, company that makes software for text-message-based marketing and debt collection (yikes!), will merge with SoundBite Communications of Bedford, MA, in a deal valued at $500,000 plus up to $2 million in payments contingent on text-messaging revenue, SoundBite announced today. “Mobile Collect’s customer base and domain expertise in text messaging … Continue reading “SoundBite Acquires Mobile Collect”

Skyhook and Locr Collaborate on Easier Geotagging for Digital Photos

Say you’re looking at somebody’s vacation pictures. Chances are you have three questions right off the bat about each photograph: When was it taken? Where was it taken? And who’s in it? Digital cameras automatically handle the first question, embedding a time code for every photograph in the so-called “EXIF header” that prefaces the actual … Continue reading “Skyhook and Locr Collaborate on Easier Geotagging for Digital Photos”

EveryZing’s Platform Opens Search-Friendly Side Doors to Multimedia Websites

Xconomy is reaching a milestone of sorts: some of the startups we profiled last summer when we were just getting started have now had time to evolve through at least one major generation of their technology, giving us the opportunity to come back and see where things stand. That’s definitely the case with Cambridge, MA-based … Continue reading “EveryZing’s Platform Opens Search-Friendly Side Doors to Multimedia Websites”

Renewable Energy Happy Hour

Advanced Technology Ventures and the Renewable Energy Business Network—East sponsor another in REBN’s regular series of informal happy hours. This time the festivities are at John Harvard’s Brew House at 33 Dunster Street in Harvard Square.

38 Studios Licenses Australian Virtual-Worlds Technology

38 Studios, the Maynard, MA-based game development studio founded by Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, has decided not to reinvent the world. The virtual world, that is—the one it’s creating as part of the massively multiplayer online-gaming experience it plans to debut in late 2010. The company said yesterday it will license a suite of … Continue reading “38 Studios Licenses Australian Virtual-Worlds Technology”

VMware Flaw Shows Virtualized Systems Aren’t Necessarily More Secure, Boston Firm Argues

Companies rushing to adopt virtualization technology have been eager to spread computing loads across fewer machines and thereby reduce IT costs. But many have also been drawn by the widely held belief that virtualization makes IT systems more secure, by isolating a physical host from the virtualized or “guest” operating systems and applications running on … Continue reading “VMware Flaw Shows Virtualized Systems Aren’t Necessarily More Secure, Boston Firm Argues”

Lionbridge to Buy Back Another $12 Million In Common Stock

Lionbridge (NASDAQ: [[ticker:LIOX]]), a Waltham, MA, “localization” company that translates English-language software, software manuals, online support materials, websites, and other product documentation into other languages, said today that it plans to buy back $12 million worth of its own common stock in 2008. That’s on top of $12 million in stock already purchased since the … Continue reading “Lionbridge to Buy Back Another $12 Million In Common Stock”

Clean Energy for High Tech

The Massachusetts High Technology Council and the New England Clean Energy Council co-sponsor a conference designed to help high-tech CFOs, facilities executives, and sustainability officers understand and manage the energy challenges confronting their organizations. Philip Giudice, commissioner of the Massachusetts Division of Energy Resources, will be the opening speaker. Attendance is free but space is … Continue reading “Clean Energy for High Tech”

$4.25 Million for Proficiency

Marlborough, MA-based Proficiency, which makes software that allows product designers to transfer product models between various types of computer-aided design programs, said today that it has raised $4.25 million in new venture funding. Catalyst Investments of Israel led the round, joined by Carmel Ventures and Pitango Venture Capital. Catalyst said its network of connections in … Continue reading “$4.25 Million for Proficiency”

Zappos Will Try Kiva’s Robots

Zappos.com, the Las Vegas-based online purveyor of shoes, handbags, and other fashion accessories, said today that will install a “mobile fulfillment system” from Woburn, MA-based Kiva Systems at its Shephersdville, KY facility. As we wrote last October, Kiva deploys fleet of squat wheeled robots across a warehouse with barcode-based navigational cues inscribed on the floor; … Continue reading “Zappos Will Try Kiva’s Robots”

State, UMass Ink Clean Energy Partnership

At a meeting in Boston this morning, Massachusetts energy and environmental affairs secretary Ian Bowles signed a memorandum of understanding with University of Massachusetts president Jack Wilson calling for the creation of a committee to coordinate research, education, and public service activities around clean energy. Bowles said that an “effective inter-organizational approach” like that outlined … Continue reading “State, UMass Ink Clean Energy Partnership”

Novell Coughs Up $205 Million for Canadian Virtualization Startup PlateSpin

Virtualization of server resources—allowing corporate IT managers to consolidate workloads onto fewer machines—is the big technology wave sweeping the corporate data-center market. Waltham, MA-based Novell (NASDAQ: [[ticker:NOVL]]) is an important player in that market, but its products are focused around identity management (a legacy of the company’s original focus on server operating systems and directory … Continue reading “Novell Coughs Up $205 Million for Canadian Virtualization Startup PlateSpin”

So You Have a Good Idea…Now What?

The Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council sponsors a morning meeting on the keys to converting a good idea into a great company. McCarter & English counsel Jeffrey Stoller moderates a panel including ViaCell president Cynthia Fisher, Fletcher Spaght CEO John Fletcher, Carbonite CEO David Friend, and Progress Partners CEO Nicholas MacShane. Members $40, non-members $80. Information … Continue reading “So You Have a Good Idea…Now What?”

Good2Gether: A Web Widget That Connects Donors to Causes

They say one good deed begets another. Apparently one good charity story also begets another. The day after Rebecca published her piece last week on Givvy, the Framingham, MA, startup planning to offer online tools to help people track their charitable donations—and the very same day I wrote about Newton, MA, startup Jackpot Rewards, which … Continue reading “Good2Gether: A Web Widget That Connects Donors to Causes”

3Com Left at the Altar, EMC’s Head in the Cloud, Let There Be LEDs, and Other News

Bob and Rebecca both went on vacation last week, but local newsmakers didn’t. I did my best to keep on top of the business-and-technology headlines, with some help from a terrific freelancer, Neil Savage; here’s a look back at the bounty. —Pogo Jet, a Chicopee, MA-based regional airline planning to fly very light jets like … Continue reading “3Com Left at the Altar, EMC’s Head in the Cloud, Let There Be LEDs, and Other News”

CMGI Buys OCS for $24.5 Million

CMGI (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CMGI]]), the Waltham, MA, provider of supply chain management software and services (and the owner of @Ventures, an early-stage-focused venture firm that often pops up in these pages), said this week that it will pay $24.5 million in cash to acquire Dedham, MA-based Open Channel Solutions. The company’s main product, Poetic, helps software … Continue reading “CMGI Buys OCS for $24.5 Million”

Sirtris Finds Anti-Cancer Effect, Teams with NIH

Cambridge’s Sirtris Pharmaceuticals is known mainly for studying compounds like resveratrol that affect how the body uses insulin and may therefore have a role in treating metabolic disorders such as diabetes and obesity. But the company has always maintained that resveratrol-like compounds, which apparently work by boosting the activity of a gene called SIRT1, may … Continue reading “Sirtris Finds Anti-Cancer Effect, Teams with NIH”

Harvard’s Palfrey Joins Highland

Highland Capital Partners of Lexington, MA, said today that it has brought on intellectual-property scholar John Palfrey, Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, as a venture executive. We interviewed Palfrey and business partner Rudy Rouhana in December for our story about … Continue reading “Harvard’s Palfrey Joins Highland”

EMC Creates Cloud Computing Division, Hires Former Microsoft Exec to Lead It; Oh, They Bought His Startup, Too

There’s a term of art in journalism called “burying the lede.” It means taking the reader on a pleasant, diverting stroll for a few paragraphs before getting to the real news. That’s what Hopkinton, MA-based EMC (NYSE: [[ticker:EMC]]) did in spades in a late-afternoon press release today. The announcement is ostensibly about EMC’s all-cash acquisition … Continue reading “EMC Creates Cloud Computing Division, Hires Former Microsoft Exec to Lead It; Oh, They Bought His Startup, Too”

As Venture Money Floods India, Two New England Firms Are Among Top Investors

A report from Dow Jones VentureSource shows that venture capital investment collected by entrepreneurs in India nearly tripled in 2007, totaling $928 million across 80 separate deals, as compared to just $349 million for 36 deals in 2006. It was “easily the highest total on record for the region,” according to the Dow Jones report,  … Continue reading “As Venture Money Floods India, Two New England Firms Are Among Top Investors”

Incipient Gathers $15.6 Million

Waltham, MA-based Incipient, which makes software for managing and moving data on enterprise storage area networks, said today that it has completed a Series E financing round totaling $15.6 million. Existing investors Globespan Capital Partners, GrandBanks Capital, HLM Venture Partners, Greylock, QuestMark Partners, Sigma Partners, and Wasatch Advisors participated in the round, which also included … Continue reading “Incipient Gathers $15.6 Million”

LocaModa Debuts in Times Square

LocaModa, the Cambridge-based company specializing in interactive applications for outdoor signage, has made its Broadway debut—well, at least its Broadway and West 47th Street debut. The company announced yesterday that its “Jumbli” application, a word game that passers-by can play via text messages from their mobile phones, is now appearing on Clear Channel’s giant 40-by-40-foot … Continue reading “LocaModa Debuts in Times Square”

Mass Technology Leadership Council Annual Meeting: Opportunities for Tomorrow

Join trustees of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council and other industry leaders as they recognize the accomplishments of the state’s IT/communications industry and explore future trends and opportunities for companies in the sector. Speakers include Governor Deval Patrick; George Colony, chairman and CEO of Forrester Research; Roger Brinner, chief economist for The Parthenon Group; and … Continue reading “Mass Technology Leadership Council Annual Meeting: Opportunities for Tomorrow”

To Get Windows Mobile into Enterprises, Microsoft Turns to Boston Software Veteran

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is the kind of guy who can start a company with a single phone call. And when Ballmer called Mort Rosenthal in early 2007, he knew exactly what he wanted: a new company that would help Microsoft’s biggest customers in industries like financial services, health care, and professional services start seeing … Continue reading “To Get Windows Mobile into Enterprises, Microsoft Turns to Boston Software Veteran”

Bain Halts 3Com Buyout

Bain Capital, the Boston-based asset management firm co-founded by Mitt Romney, has suspended a joint effort with China’s Huawei Technology to acquire Marlborough, MA-based 3Com for a proposed $2.2 bilion in cash, 3Com reported today. Bain and Huawei withdrew their joint filing with the U.S. government’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which … Continue reading “Bain Halts 3Com Buyout”

HiWired Partners with BJ’s

BJ’s Wholesale Club (NYSE: [[ticker:BJ]]), the Natick, MA-based chain of 177 warehouse club stores across 16 eastern states, has hired Neeedham, MA-based tech support outsourcing provider HiWired to manage a new website and call center that will help members of BJ’s with their computer glitches, HiWired announced today. Called TechCare, the service costs $45 to … Continue reading “HiWired Partners with BJ’s”

Jackpot Rewards: An Online “Economic Engine for the Common Good”

The idea of sponsoring a weekly $1 million sweepstakes isn’t exactly high-tech. Neither is the idea of giving consumers cash rewards for their purchases, or the concept of committing a portion of your company’s profits to kids’ charities. But mash these things together—and put the whole thing on the Internet, where viral marketing and other … Continue reading “Jackpot Rewards: An Online “Economic Engine for the Common Good””

Stop Marketing and Sell

Noted Boston entrepreneur and serial CEO Jack Derby will speak at the next meeting of the Southern New England Enterpreneurs Forum (SNEEF) on how successful entrepreneurs must continuously sell the value proposition of their business to funders, vendors, and employees, but above all to paying customers. Derby will lead a panel discussion that includes Mitchell … Continue reading “Stop Marketing and Sell”

Marine Renewable Energy Consortium Forming

The Advanced Technology Manufacturing Center at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, will be home to a new Marine Renewable Energy Consortium aimed at organizing a network of technologists, entrepreneurs, and investors around ocean wave, tidal, current, and wind energy projects, according to an announcement circulated by the center. The long-term mission of the consortium will … Continue reading “Marine Renewable Energy Consortium Forming”

At Liquid Machines, a Harvard Dean’s Invention Plugs Document Leaks

Leonardo da Vinci, the most productive and free-ranging mind of his generation, filled his notebooks using a mirror script that no one else could read. Thomas Jefferson, while serving as Washington’s Secretary of State, invented a wheel-cipher device to protect his diplomatic correspondence from prying eyes. So perhaps it’s not such an unusual irony that … Continue reading “At Liquid Machines, a Harvard Dean’s Invention Plugs Document Leaks”

Guitar Hero Returns to Boston

The billion-dollar franchise that is Guitar Hero is coming home to Boston, in the form of a special edition of the blockbuster video game enshrining the music of the original Bad Boys from Boston, Aerosmith. Activision, which distributes the Guitar Hero games, announced today that Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, the sixth game in the phenomenally popular … Continue reading “Guitar Hero Returns to Boston”

Cram for that Exam with Help from uProdigy’s Tutors in India

It’s 4:00 a.m., you’ve been up all night studying for the big linear algebra exam, and you have the sinking feeling that there’s something about eigenvectors and eigenvalues that you still just don’t understand. Your roommates are all asleep. You’d call up your friend the math whiz, who never sleeps, but you’ve already used up … Continue reading “Cram for that Exam with Help from uProdigy’s Tutors in India”

MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge Innovation Series: Life Sciences

The MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge hosts a keynote talk and panel discussion focused on Pervasis Therapeutics, a Cambridge, MA company focused on regenerative cell therapies. Harvard chemist and local entrepreneurial legend George Whitesides will give the keynote speech, and the panel will include Stephen Bollinger, president and COO of Pervasis. Members $20, non-members $30. … Continue reading “MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge Innovation Series: Life Sciences”

Novell Buys Online Workspace Provider SiteScape

Collaborative online workspaces for business people—a fringe concept just a couple of years ago—is now a hotly contested market, with WebEx launching WebOffice, Adobe’s Acrobat gaining Web conferencing features, Yahoo integrating Zimbra, and Microsoft pushing Office Groove (the legacy of its 2005 acquisition of Beverly, MA-based Groove Networks). And that’s just the beginning of the … Continue reading “Novell Buys Online Workspace Provider SiteScape”

ULocate’s “Buddy Beacon” Spreads to More Phones; Wherever You Go, Your Friends Will Know

ULocate’s Dan Gilmartin hinted last week that we should be on the lookout for another announcement about Buddy Beacon, the mobile-phone-based friend-finding service that uLocate built for, and recently bought back from, L.A.-based Helio. The announcement came yesterday, and the substance of it was predictable, given uLocate’s other recent announcement that its Where platform for … Continue reading “ULocate’s “Buddy Beacon” Spreads to More Phones; Wherever You Go, Your Friends Will Know”

Charles River Ventures Offers Startup Support at Game Developers Conference

Look for Boston’s video-gaming community to transplant itself en masse to San Francisco next week for CMP Media’s Game Developers Conference (GDC), which, for gaming industry professionals, is like the Consumer Electronics Show and MacWorld and the Olympics wrapped into one. This year there’s a new option on the GDC agenda for budding gaming entrepreneurs: … Continue reading “Charles River Ventures Offers Startup Support at Game Developers Conference”

Akamai to Multicast NBA All-Star Game

New Englanders just want to forget the Super Bowl, but for local networking leader Akamai, it’s an experience worth repeating—or at least the live streaming Internet video aspects of it. The company said today that it will be the exclusive networking provider for Turner Sports’ live, online video coverage of the NBA All-Star game in … Continue reading “Akamai to Multicast NBA All-Star Game”

Kendall Square Gets a GYM Membership: Google, Yahoo, Microsoft

On November 11, 2005, tech blogger Om Malik challenged his fellow bloggers to “Stay GYM Free” for a week. “Whether we hate them, or we love them, we do love to talk about them…Them being Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, aka GYM,” he wrote. “What would happen if the blogosphere decided that we would not talk … Continue reading “Kendall Square Gets a GYM Membership: Google, Yahoo, Microsoft”