The Extensible Markup Language, or XML—a way of structuring data inside semantic tags that allow it to be interpreted consistently across disparate information systems—is the key to many types of business software today, not to mention the entire Web 2.0 revolution. And on Sunday, the critical Web standard turned 10 years old. The Cambridge-based World … Continue reading “Happy 10th Birthday, XML”
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
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Google Android Code Day
An immersive introduction, hands-on session, and “technical deep dive” for Android, the open-source mobile phone operating system under development by Google, which offers this preview: “The Android Advocates will be walking you through building an application using the Android SDK as well as lead deep dives in select topics.” Information here, registration here.
Yahoo Buys Maven Networks, Joining Google, Microsoft in Kendall Square
A rumor circulated by TechCrunch on January 31 that Yahoo intended to acquire Cambridge-based Maven Networks, whose Web video and advertising platform is used by dozens of large media organizations, seemed to go by the wayside after Microsoft launched its unsolicited bid for Yahoo the next day. But it turns out that the deal was … Continue reading “Yahoo Buys Maven Networks, Joining Google, Microsoft in Kendall Square”
Can SpotScout Take the Pain out of Parking?
Finding parking in a busy urban area like Boston can feel like a high-stakes game of musical chairs—except that when the music ends and every parking spot is filled, there are still tens of thousands of people driving in circles. SpotScout, a service slated to launch this month in Boston and one to two months … Continue reading “Can SpotScout Take the Pain out of Parking?”
Vaultus Raises $6 Million to Bolster Sales of its Mobile Middleware
Boston-based Vaultus, which makes “mobile middleware” allowing road warriors and other workers to use their smart phones to access key enterprise systems such as customer relationship management, business intelligence, and help-desk software, announced today that it has raised $6 million in new venture funding to expand its sales and marketing operation. Point Judith Capital of … Continue reading “Vaultus Raises $6 Million to Bolster Sales of its Mobile Middleware”
TechConnect — Four Conferences in One
Starting June 1, the Hynes Convention Center will be buzzing with four (or is it three? we can’t really figure it out) simultaneous and apparently interrelated conferences, sponsored in part by the Cambridge, MA-based Nano Science and Technology Institute: TechConnect Summit 2008: “Focused on bringing together the world’s top technology transfer offices, companies, and investment … Continue reading “TechConnect — Four Conferences in One”
Live Gamer to Take Over Everquest Exchange
Sony Online Entertainment and New York-based Live Gamer (which we profiled in December) announced last week that Station Exchange, the system Sony launched in 2005 to give citizens of the online game world Everquest a “legal” way to auction off virtual currency, characters, and objects, will be shut down on March 27 and replaced four … Continue reading “Live Gamer to Take Over Everquest Exchange”
Axcelis Evaluating Sumitomo Bid
Beverly, MA-based Axcelis, a maker of equipment for ion implantation, thermal curing, and other phases of semiconductor manufacturing—and one of the largest woman-led technology companies in Massachusetts—said in an announcement today that its board is reviewing an unsolicited takeover bid from Sumitomo Heavy Industries of Japan. It noted that the proposed takeover price of $5.20 … Continue reading “Axcelis Evaluating Sumitomo Bid”
GEO2 Wins California Grant
The California Air Resources Board, which is responsible for monitoring and reducing vehicle emissions in the state of California, has picked Woburn-based GEO2 Technologies as one of three winners of the board’s annual Innovative Clean Air Technology Grants. GEO2 Technologies, which we’ve written about here, here, and here, was one of 62 applicants for just … Continue reading “GEO2 Wins California Grant”
Location, Location, Location: uLocate Acquires Zync, and Other Location-Based News
There are certain days in the news cycle where everything seems related. Today’s theme is location-based services. I started the day with some work on a piece about SpotScout, the Web- and mobile-based service that helps you find and reserve parking spaces. (Look for my story about their upcoming launch in Boston next week.) Then … Continue reading “Location, Location, Location: uLocate Acquires Zync, and Other Location-Based News”
Dealmakers 2008 Outlook Conference
ACG Boston, the local chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth, presents an afternoon of talks and panel discussions on the prospects for corporate mergers and acquisitions in 2008. The keynote speaker will be Michael McIvor, managing director and head of healthcare, consumer, and retail M&A for Bank of America. Panelists include Josh Bekenstein, managing … Continue reading “Dealmakers 2008 Outlook Conference”
MobileCamp Boston
An “un-conference” organized by the people at BarCamp, MobileCamp Boston will be a day of attendee-driven discussions between developers, companies, marketers, and pundits on all things mobile, including interfaces, location-based services, mobile Web design, and integrating SMS into Web applications. Information here; registration here. Attendance is limited to 100 (and it’s looking like there are … Continue reading “MobileCamp Boston”
Web Innovators Group 17
Per the usual format—pre-funded startups will demonstrate their products and services in several “main dish” and “side dish” presentations. Always a fruitful and fun evening, organized by Venrock’s David Beisel. Free; RSVP here.
How To Get Paid for Turning Off the Lights: The Full Interview with EnerNOC’s David Brewster
On Wednesday we published a profile of EnerNOC (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ENOC]]), the Boston-based company whose rip-roaring 2007 IPO got investors excited about the idea of using new Internet-based control capabilities to reduce electricity consumption at key commercial and industrial sites during times of peak demand. (In effect, companies that join EnerNOC’s “demand reduction” pool get paid … Continue reading “How To Get Paid for Turning Off the Lights: The Full Interview with EnerNOC’s David Brewster”
Boston.TV Chronicles Battle of the Tech Bands
We always knew we had it in us to look glamorous on TV. We just needed some hotshot video producers and editors to bring out our inner Ryan Seacrests. Mark Woit, son of Xconomy’s publisher Steve Woit, shot some great video at our big Battle of the Tech Bands event at the Middle East on … Continue reading “Boston.TV Chronicles Battle of the Tech Bands”
No More Lost Tools: Ford and ThingMagic Team Up on RFID Tracking System for Truck Beds
Carpenters, contractors, plumbers, and construction foremen are usually as tough as the pickups they drive to work. Until they leave one of their tools behind at home or at a job site. Then they cry like babies. Just kidding. But lost or forgotten tools are a serious nuisance for these workers. Ford knows, because it … Continue reading “No More Lost Tools: Ford and ThingMagic Team Up on RFID Tracking System for Truck Beds”
IBM Counters Suggestion in Economic Report That It’s Sending Massachusetts Jobs Offshore
We got an interesting e-mail on Tuesday from the global communications staff at IBM. The company was concerned about the message some readers might be taking away from an economic report published last Friday, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s 2007 Index of the Massachusetts Innovation Economy. That report’s executive summary emphasized the growing challenges for Massachusetts … Continue reading “IBM Counters Suggestion in Economic Report That It’s Sending Massachusetts Jobs Offshore”
Girding the Grid: How EnerNOC Sold Utilities and Big Electricity Users on Demand Reduction
Apparently, our economy is still so wedded to fossil fuels—and we are so firmly on a path toward turning the atmosphere into an oven—that even a small drop in the price of oil is enough to dampen investors’ enthusiasm about green technology. That’s one of the trends that seems to be hammering share prices lately … Continue reading “Girding the Grid: How EnerNOC Sold Utilities and Big Electricity Users on Demand Reduction”
$4.6 Million Nugget for Portsmouth’s VKernel
VKernel makes virtual appliances that manage virtual servers running virtual operating systems. But today the Portsmouth, NH, company announced that it’s raised some decidedly non-virtual cash—$4.6 million of it, to be exact, in a venture funding round co-led by Waltham’s Polaris Venture Partners and San Francisco’s Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. The company’s “appliances” are actually … Continue reading “$4.6 Million Nugget for Portsmouth’s VKernel”
“An Incredible Intellectual Environment”—Research VP Rick Rashid on Microsoft’s New Cambridge Lab
Microsoft announced yesterday that by July Cambridge, MA, will be home to the fifth R&D outpost outside the company’s Redmond, WA, headquarters, joining existing Microsoft Research facilities in Silicon Valley, Beijing, China, Cambridge, England, and Bangalore, India. The new lab, to be located at One Memorial Drive adjacent to the MIT campus and led by … Continue reading ““An Incredible Intellectual Environment”—Research VP Rick Rashid on Microsoft’s New Cambridge Lab”
New Microsoft Lab in Cambridge to Combine Math and Social Science; Already Besieged By Potential Research Collaborators
There isn’t any shortage around here of potential collaborators and job seekers eager to work with Jennifer Tour Chayes, managing director of Microsoft’s newest research outpost, Microsoft Research New England. Chayes tells Xconomy that by 11:00 am Eastern time today, less than five hours after news of the lab’s creation hit the New York Times … Continue reading “New Microsoft Lab in Cambridge to Combine Math and Social Science; Already Besieged By Potential Research Collaborators”
Lifting Enterprise Computing Into the Cloud
Time was, if you ran a medium-to-large-sized company and had software that processed lots of data—any kind of data, whether it be payroll or a product catalog for your Web storefront—you needed expensive, proprietary database software like Oracle’s to manage the data and expensive, finicky, power-hungry servers from IBM or Hewlett-Packard to run that software. … Continue reading “Lifting Enterprise Computing Into the Cloud”
Stocking Mock Frocks, Clocks, and Crockpots with RockBlocks
I’m glad I’m not a product marketer for Johnson & Johnson, because every time I walked into a Walgreens or a CVS or a Stop & Shop, I’d see the store-branded acetominophen on the shelf right next to the Tylenol, in a nearly identical box, for half the price, and I’d get a big Excedrin … Continue reading “Stocking Mock Frocks, Clocks, and Crockpots with RockBlocks”
The XO Laptop: It’s the Software, Stupid
On YouTube, there is an 11-minute video of the veterinarian-assisted birth of a calf on a farm in Villa Cardal, Uruguay, a small town in a dairy-rich region four hours north of the capital, Montevideo. It’s an amazing thing to watch—at least, to a city slicker like me who doesn’t get to witness the miracle … Continue reading “The XO Laptop: It’s the Software, Stupid”
$4M for Nashua Virtualization Startup
AutoVirt, a Nashua, NH company working on software for file virtualization and data migration in Windows environments, came just far enough out of stealth mode today to announce that it’s closed a $4 million Series A funding round, with participation by Waltham, MA-based Kepha Partners and Boston-based Sigma Partners. AutoVirt’s CTO and founder is Klavs … Continue reading “$4M for Nashua Virtualization Startup”
Bootstrap Your Own Social Network with KickApps
What Web publisher wouldn’t want to see his stream of visitors coalesce into a real community—people who enjoy coming back to the site again and again, not just to consume the site’s content but to leave comments, interact with one another, and perhaps even contribute their own creations? Unfortunately, the Field of Dreams scenario—if you … Continue reading “Bootstrap Your Own Social Network with KickApps”
EMC Shares Regaining Ground; VMware Falling Below Debut Levels
After plunging nearly 10 percent on news from a Monday night quarterly-earnings call that 2008 revenue growth for virtualization subsidiary VMware would be slightly less than expected, shares of EMC (NYSE: [[ticker:EMC]]) seem to be rebounding today, reaching $16.30 by noontime, only a dime or two below the pre-call levels. Apparently investors feel there’s little … Continue reading “EMC Shares Regaining Ground; VMware Falling Below Debut Levels”
$2 Million for BEZ Systems
Boston-based BEZ Systems, which makes software that helps companies model, predict, and sidestep database workload problems, announced today that it has raised $2 million in “preferred financing” from Ascent Venture Partners, Velocity Equity Partners, and the Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation. The 15-year-old company said the funds will be used to launch a new product line.
Akamai Helps Patriots Gear Up for Super Bowl
For Cambridge, MA-based Akamai, the Super Bowl has already started. Among the customers of the networking and content-distribution giant are both the NFL and the undefeated New England Patriots—and the Patriots’ official website has been overflowing this week with press-conference video and other material from Phoenix, AZ, where the team arrived on January 27 and … Continue reading “Akamai Helps Patriots Gear Up for Super Bowl”
MocoSpace Passes 2 Million Users, Collects $4 Million
Boston-based MocoSpace is celebrating two milestones this week. For one, it collected $4 million in second-round funding from a group of investors including General Catalyst, Pilot Group, and former eBay executive Michael Dearing. And its mobile-phone-based social network recently passed the 2-million-user mark—making it perhaps busiest social-networking service you’ve never heard of. Founded by serial … Continue reading “MocoSpace Passes 2 Million Users, Collects $4 Million”
StyleFeeder—Facebook’s Leading Shopping Engine—Thinks Big with Small Series A Round
While Amazon and eBay may dominate shopping in most of the Web universe, things are still up for grabs on planet Facebook. There, the leading shopping application is from a two-year-old Cambridge, MA, startup called StyleFeeder. More than half a million people have made StyleFeeder’s shopping app part of their Facebook profiles—which is about 50 … Continue reading “StyleFeeder—Facebook’s Leading Shopping Engine—Thinks Big with Small Series A Round”
$13.5 Million for Online Video Analytics Startup Visible Measures; Seeing What Happens After Viewers Press the Play Button
Advertising dollars are fleeing print media and flocking to the Web partly because Web technology makes it so much easier to measure whether audiences see or interact with individual ads. But this isn’t so true for Internet video. Publishers generally “have no idea what’s happening after the play button is pressed,” says Brian Shin, CEO … Continue reading “$13.5 Million for Online Video Analytics Startup Visible Measures; Seeing What Happens After Viewers Press the Play Button”
GreatPoint Will Get Coal from Peabody
GreatPoint Energy, a well-funded Cambridge, MA, startup focused on turning coal into natural gas, could have trouble making its technology pay off unless its planned gasification plants are close to both coal mines, minimizing transportation costs, and locations where the carbon dioxide released during the gasification process can be sequestered underground. Today, GreatPoint announced that … Continue reading “GreatPoint Will Get Coal from Peabody”
Nicholas Negroponte: The Interview
On January 16, Bob and I had the opportunity to interview Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of the One Laptop Per Child Foundation, at the organization’s Kendall Square headquarters. Negroponte is on leave from MIT, where he joined the faculty in 1966 and co-founded the MIT Media Lab in 1980. We had a wide-ranging conversation … Continue reading “Nicholas Negroponte: The Interview”
Deadbeat Darling, McAlister Drive Dominate Xconomy’s Battle of the Tech Bands 2008
It’s a good thing I’m a writer and not much of a talker, because I’m still hoarse after my big stage debut as emcee for Xconomy’s Battle of the Tech Bands at the Middle East Tuesday night. It was a fantastic night of jamming from some of the local technology community’s most talented musicians, and … Continue reading “Deadbeat Darling, McAlister Drive Dominate Xconomy’s Battle of the Tech Bands 2008”
Inform Technologies Ingests $15 Million from Spark Capital
Boston-based Spark Capital has invested $15 million in Inform Technologies, a New York-based startup whose software powers the content-aggregation features of major news websites such as CNN.com, the two organizations announced Wednesday. Privately held Inform was founded in 2004 and announced its first publishing customers, including the Washington Post, in 2006. The company’s software organizes … Continue reading “Inform Technologies Ingests $15 Million from Spark Capital”
Xconomy’s Battle of the Tech Bands 2008—The Video
Videographer: Mark Woit View and rate this video on YouTube
“School is Boring”: Nicholas Negroponte on Education, the XO Laptop, and Life After Intel
One day in early November, the first batch of mass-produced XO laptops—the little green-and-white machines designed by the One Laptop Per Child Foundation (OLPC) to revolutionize education in the IT-starved developing world—rolled off an assembly line in Changshu, China. Coming less than three years after the launch of the so-called “$100 laptop” effort by former … Continue reading ““School is Boring”: Nicholas Negroponte on Education, the XO Laptop, and Life After Intel”
Endeca Pulls in $15 Million from Intel and SAP—Search Firm’s Reliance on Multicore Processing Key to Investment
After Microsoft acquired Norway’s Fast Search & Transfer a couple of weeks ago, I wrote about a conversation with a Microsoft exec who told me the company had looked at other enterprise search firms, including local firm Endeca, before choosing Fast. Well, it turns out Endeca is having no trouble attracting the interest of other … Continue reading “Endeca Pulls in $15 Million from Intel and SAP—Search Firm’s Reliance on Multicore Processing Key to Investment”
IBM Acquires Business Event Processing Startup AptSoft
For Boston-area software firms with a focus on business applications, it’s become a classic strategy: build a technologically advanced platform, prove that it works on a handful of customers, grow for five to 10 years, then sell the company to IBM. The latest company to go this route is AptSoft, a Burlington, MA, firm that … Continue reading “IBM Acquires Business Event Processing Startup AptSoft”
Eons Hires New CTO
Last September Bob broke the story that Reed Sturtevant, the longtime chief technology officer at Eons, Boston’s social networking site for the 50-and-over crowd, had accepted a job heading up a new Cambridge, MA-based development lab and innovation group for Microsoft. Sturtevant’s departure came shortly after Eons had laid off a third of its staff … Continue reading “Eons Hires New CTO”
EMC Gets Serious About Software-as-a-Service—Forms New Business Unit and Launches Enterprise Version of Mozy Online Backup
For the last few months, EMC (NYSE: [[ticker:EMC]]), the Hopkinton, MA, storage giant famous for selling big, expensive storage and backup servers to large corporations, has made no bones about its interest in a totally different model of doing business: Software-as-a-Service. Going with “SaaS”, as it’s called, is a major switch if you’re a hardware … Continue reading “EMC Gets Serious About Software-as-a-Service—Forms New Business Unit and Launches Enterprise Version of Mozy Online Backup”
IRobot Asked to Speed Delivery of “Son of Packbot” Prototypes
All the fuss over iRobot’s Packbot military robot over the past year, including the company’s successful patent-infringement and misappropriation-of-trade-secrets actions against Packbot-clone-maker Robotic FX, may have left you with the impression that the Packbot is iRobot’s key product for the defense community. In fact, the U.S. Army is just as excited, if not more enthused, … Continue reading “IRobot Asked to Speed Delivery of “Son of Packbot” Prototypes”
Enterasys, Back from the Brink, Blocks Bad Behavior on Wireless Networks
Last summer system administrators at Duke University in North Carolina noticed a rash of failures across the campus Wi-Fi network. Logs pointed to a storm of requests for Internet connections—up to 18,000 per second—from the nifty new iPhones that students were toting onto campus (Apple had released the device just two weeks earlier). In press … Continue reading “Enterasys, Back from the Brink, Blocks Bad Behavior on Wireless Networks”
EveryScape Adds Cambridge
EveryScape’s online collection of 360-degree street views, which we reviewed in October, grew today by one city: Xconomy’s own Cambridge, MA. It’s the seventh city that the Waltham, MA, startup has added to its photographic database, after Boston, New York, Miami, Aspen, CO, Lexington, MA, and Beijing, China.
Steve Jobs Sprinkles a Bit of Magic Apple Dust on Boston’s Skyhook
“It’s probably the biggest publicity event any company can have,” says Ted Morgan. Is the CEO of Boston-based Skyhook Wireless talking about running a Superbowl ad? Being endorsed by Oprah, perhaps? Or maybe ringing the opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange? No. He’s talking about getting a mention from Steve Jobs in the … Continue reading “Steve Jobs Sprinkles a Bit of Magic Apple Dust on Boston’s Skyhook”
Ethanol Minus the Corn: ATV’s Bill Wiberg on Coskata and Its Big Deal With GM
Switching the nation’s vehicle fleet from gasoline to biofuels such as corn-derived ethanol could reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil, which is why President Bush wants the U.S. to produce 35 billion gallons of alternative fuels by 2017. But there are a couple of big problems. So much of the nation’s corn supply already … Continue reading “Ethanol Minus the Corn: ATV’s Bill Wiberg on Coskata and Its Big Deal With GM”
The A123 Story
As part of the MIT Clean Energy Entrepreneurship Prize Speaker Series, Bart Riley, co-founder and CTO of advanced lithium-ion battery startup A123, will speak on “Starting a Successful Company Based on MIT Lab Technology.” From the event description: “Dr. Bart Riley has more than fifteen years of experience in technology development and commercialization in the … Continue reading “The A123 Story”
New VMware Acquisition Thinstall Helps Companies Say Goodbye to Installing Windows Software
EMC virtualization subsidiary VMware (NYSE: [[ticker:VMW]]) has a new subsidiary of its own: San Francisco-based Thinstall, which makes a system that lets corporate employees run Windows programs on their desktops without actually installing them. In today’s announcement of the acquisition, VMware vice president Jeff Jennings said Thinstall has “the best technological approach in the market” … Continue reading “New VMware Acquisition Thinstall Helps Companies Say Goodbye to Installing Windows Software”
Pixel Qi Out to Bring Principles of Inexpensive Laptop Design to Consumer Market: Former One Laptop CTO Mary Lou Jepsen On Her New Startup
If only laptops could run on qi—the spiritual energy that, in traditional Chinese philosophy, pervades all things. Well, if anyone has come close to making that happen, it’s Mary Lou Jepsen, founding chief technology officer at the Cambridge, MA-based One Laptop Per Child Foundation (OLPC). At the foundation, Jepsen did what computer-industry executives said couldn’t … Continue reading “Pixel Qi Out to Bring Principles of Inexpensive Laptop Design to Consumer Market: Former One Laptop CTO Mary Lou Jepsen On Her New Startup”