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/

Stem Cell Summit

A gathering of stakeholders discussing the evolving climate for public and private funding of stem-cell research, with sponsorship from the Genetics Policy Institute, the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and Burrill Life Science Media Group. Invited: “Top innovators, researchers from around the world, clinicians, government officials, business leaders, political strategists, bioethicists, legal experts and advocates.” $895 … Continue reading “Stem Cell Summit”

Directing Clean-Energy Investment in Massachusetts: An Xconomy Debate

In a survey publicized last week, the non-profit Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC) confirmed what most local energy entrepreneurs and investors have been saying for months—that there’s a remarkable upswing underway in clean-energy activity in the state, at least judging from the number of new companies sprouting up and the number of people these companies are … Continue reading “Directing Clean-Energy Investment in Massachusetts: An Xconomy Debate”

TiE Boston Hull Wind Turbine Tour & Cruise

We doubt you’ll see Ginger, Mary-Ann, or Mrs. Howell, but the Professor will no doubt be on board for this three-hour tour from Quincy’s harbor terminal to Hull Wind, a 660-kilowatt wind turbine that produces about one-quarter of the electricity used by residents of Hull, MA. The cruise, sponsored by the entrepreneurs’ group TiE Boston, … Continue reading “TiE Boston Hull Wind Turbine Tour & Cruise”

Tech Cocktail Boston

Join entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, bloggers, and technology enthusiasts at a networking event that’s grown very popular with the tech-startup crowd in Chicago and is now coming to Boston for the first time. Register free at http://techcocktailboston1.eventbrite.com/. But hurry — attendance is limited.

Personal Finance Tracking for People Who Won’t Buy Personal Finance Software

I’ve been using Quicken and Turbotax to manage my finances for so long that I don’t even blink at spending the $30 to $100 that Intuit extorts every year for the newest version of the programs. But for an entire generation of younger adults, spending that much on a piece of software that comes in … Continue reading “Personal Finance Tracking for People Who Won’t Buy Personal Finance Software”

Gilbane Boston

The fourth annual Gilbane Conference Boston, focused on web content management for businesses, including wikis, blogs, search, digital rights management, text analytics, and semantic technologies.

Brix Are for Kids: Local Innovators Give Children Tools to Create Their Own Video Games

At DigitalBrix in Nashua, NH, husband-and-wife team Nanu and Naveena Swamy believe that video games are too important to leave to video game developers. They’re about to unveil the public beta version of a Web-based system that lets kids become game authors and even form their own virtual game studios, recruiting friends to design, build, … Continue reading “Brix Are for Kids: Local Innovators Give Children Tools to Create Their Own Video Games”

Firms Fail to Measure Return on Innovation, says BCG

Apparently, a lot of executives have a mystical faith in innovation, believing that it will pay off somehow, even if they can’t see the results from previous investments. That’s one conclusion from an analysis published today by local management-consulting leader Boston Consulting Group. Only 46 percent of executives BCG surveyed this year say they’re happy … Continue reading “Firms Fail to Measure Return on Innovation, says BCG”

No Summer Blockbusters for Troubled Film-Editing Giant

Quick, which local company’s name is more recognizable in Hollywood than it is here in Massachusetts? A gold star for you if you answered “Avid Technology.” Among filmmakers and TV producers, the Tewksbury firm’s Avid Media Composer brand is virtually synonymous with nonlinear film and video editing, the digital-age version of the cut-and-glue techniques used … Continue reading “No Summer Blockbusters for Troubled Film-Editing Giant”

Ze-gen: Waste Is A Terrible Thing to Waste

As a Web journalist, I’ve been writing and thinking about intangibles like software and the Internet for so long that my idea of “hardware” is an Apple iPhone, and I’d almost forgotten that a “router” used to be something you use to cut grooves in wood. So it was a welcome kick in the pants … Continue reading “Ze-gen: Waste Is A Terrible Thing to Waste”

Bypassing the Old Boy Network in the Entertainment Business

Some pretty awful Hollywood movies get greenlighted because they seem to combine elements of previous hits: 2003’s universally panned Lucy Liu-Antonio Banderas action film Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, for example, was undoubtedly pitched as “Charlie’s Angels meets The Matrix for the Game Boy crowd.” Well, the new social-networking site Nextcat can be summed up as … Continue reading “Bypassing the Old Boy Network in the Entertainment Business”

The MERL Diaspora: Researchers from Defunct Mitsubishi Group Fan Out to Other Companies

Yesterday, we reported on an ongoing wave of departures among senior members of the once-renowned research division at Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL)—and a June lab reorganization that eliminated the division altogether in favor of six technology groups with a greater focus on product development. Xconomy has since obtained more details about the researchers who … Continue reading “The MERL Diaspora: Researchers from Defunct Mitsubishi Group Fan Out to Other Companies”

Upheaval at MERL: Mitsubishi Electric Breaks Up Famous Computer Science Lab

Mitsubishi Electric Company of Japan has quietly disbanded the long-term research wing of its most famous international outpost, the Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL) in Cambridge, MA, Xconomy has learned. The research lab, long home to some of the world’s leading investigators in computer graphics, artificial intelligence, user interfaces, and speech recognition, lost its administrative … Continue reading “Upheaval at MERL: Mitsubishi Electric Breaks Up Famous Computer Science Lab”

Live from Boston, Easier TV and Radio on Your Phone

Time was when telephones were only for talking, radios were for listening, and TVs were for watching. But digitization and the wireless Internet mean that no piece of content stays in its original medium for long. And today a Boston startup is emerging from stealth mode to unveil the latest cross-media technology, a streaming-media service … Continue reading “Live from Boston, Easier TV and Radio on Your Phone”

Tech Sector, Consumers Alliance Debate Best Way to Give Consumers Green-Electricity Options

When is green energy not so green? The central Massachusetts gas and electric distributor NStar said Tuesday that it plans to sign long-term power contracts with wind farms in Maine and upstate New York and let NStar customers get their electricity directly from those facilities, in exchange for a small premium on their utility bills. … Continue reading “Tech Sector, Consumers Alliance Debate Best Way to Give Consumers Green-Electricity Options”

Getting Gamers to Spend More Time Online

Hardcore players of World of Warcraft, Star Wars Galaxies, Warhammer, and the other big massively multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPGs) can spend dozens of hours online every week. But they aren’t always “in-world” warring against enemies, winning territory and treasure, or trading weapons and spells. According to studies, serious gamers spent up to one-third of … Continue reading “Getting Gamers to Spend More Time Online”

Wind Power When the Wind Ain’t Blowin’

No one would spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build a coal, gas, or nuclear power plant and then leave it idle two-thirds of the time. Yet that’s the prospect faced by wind-farm operators, who consider themselves lucky if there’s enough wind to keep the turbines spinning eight hours a day. Wind is one … Continue reading “Wind Power When the Wind Ain’t Blowin’”

The $100 (Well, $175) Laptop Goes Into Mass Production

When the One Laptop Per Child foundation won’t even let a reporter in the front door, you know they’re busy. I stopped by One Cambridge Center in Kendall Square yesterday afternoon to see if I could snag an interview with someone at the project, the brainchild of MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte. I was … Continue reading “The $100 (Well, $175) Laptop Goes Into Mass Production”

EMC’s VMware IPO: Striking While the Iron is Hot

One of the most-watched technology IPOs of the summer will be the sale by Hopkinton, MA-based storage giant EMC (NYSE:EMC) of about 10 percent of VMware, its red-hot California “virtualization” subsidiary. The division makes software that allows a single computer or server to function as if it were many machines—running multiple applications on top of … Continue reading “EMC’s VMware IPO: Striking While the Iron is Hot”

Clean Energy: Can There Be Too Much Capital?

Thursday night I competed for chips and salsa with a standing-room-only crowd of clean-energy enthusiasts at a Kendall Square happy hour put on by the Renewable Energy Business Network. The mood was upbeat—lubricated, of course, by beer and the Red Sox’s (alas, short-lived) lead over the White Sox on the big TVs at Flat Top … Continue reading “Clean Energy: Can There Be Too Much Capital?”

Spark Capital’s Media-Entertainment-Technology Play, The Sequel

Investors are so eager to get behind Boston-based venture firm Spark Capital—which has focused its $260 million Spark I fund exclusively on early-stage companies at the crossroads of media, entertainment, and technology–that the company has had little trouble raising an even larger amount of money for its second fund, Spark II. After rounding up $360 … Continue reading “Spark Capital’s Media-Entertainment-Technology Play, The Sequel”

Netezza, Seeking $100M in IPO, Builds “Superior” Data Warehousing Gadgets

[UPDATE Thursday 7/19/07: Trading of Netezza (NZ) shares opened today at $12 per share, slightly higher than the company’s original target price, and had risen to $16.85 by 2:00 pm EDT. -eds.] It’s a big day for Framingham-based Netezza, which makes uber-data devices used by large enterprises like Amazon and Nieman Marcus to combine storage, … Continue reading “Netezza, Seeking $100M in IPO, Builds “Superior” Data Warehousing Gadgets”

UMass: The Gateway to Asia?

If MIT is the MIT of Massachusetts, then Tsinghua University is the MIT of China—a research and innovation powerhouse likely to drive much of that nation’s economic progress in the coming century. Links to laboratories and projects at Tsinghua could give Boston-area scientists and entrepreneurs access to local collaborators and local markets. And that’s why … Continue reading “UMass: The Gateway to Asia?”