crunch

The Dimdim opportunity

It's good to see TechCrunch picking up on Dimdim's launch of its hosted Web-conferencing solution. But I think it misses the main driver of Dimdim's opportunity:

The open-source strategy followed by Dimdim makes most sense when customers want to manage the software on-premise, and it's not so important when everything's hosted in the cloud. But it's good to see competition nipping at the heals of giant WebEx.

No, it actually makes the most sense for manufacturers that are looking to embed Web conferencing into other solutions. The same is true for Ringside Networks. Arguably, … Read more

My take on Calacanis' view of the TC50/Demo kerfuffle

I'm reading Henry Blodget's story on Jason Calacanis' rant about how the Demo conference organizers are to blame for the scheduling conflict that pits TechCrunch 50 against DemoFall. And I have to say, I'm a little dubious of Calacanis' statements.

According to Calacanis--who gave Blodget an "exclusive" interview on the matter despite telling me Wednesday that he was deferring to TC50 co-organizer Michael Arrington on the matter--the conflict is all Demo's fault.

(Arrington, by the way, set the tone for the environment by telling me, bluntly: "Demo needs to die.")

Demo Executive … Read more

Scalr Open Source Framework for managing Amazon EC2

Cloud computing keeps getting more interesting every day. With the open source release of a framework called Scalr you can now have a fully redundant, self-curing and self-scaling hosting environment utilizing Amazon's EC2.

Scalr allows you to create server farms through a web-based interface using prebuilt AMI's for load balancers (pound or nginx), app servers (apache, others), databases (mysql master-slave, others), and a generic AMI to build on top of.

Scalr was developed by Intridea, who describe it thusly: Scalr utilizes EC2 to provide a multi-tiered hosting environment with pre-built images for load balancers, database servers, and application … Read more

Arrington: 'Demo needs to die'

The scheduling of the TechCrunch 50 conference, which was announced Wednesday, has pit it directly against DemoFall, a long-standing event geared toward entrepreneurs and their products.

And while TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington and CEO Heather Harde insisted in interviews late Wednesday that their selection of September 8-10, 2008, as the dates for TechCrunch 50 was about the availability of an affordable San Francisco venue, Arrington also made his feelings about Demo clear.

"Demo needs to die," Arrington said in the interview. "It's just an old-school model...It clearly involves pay to play, and what we're … Read more

TechCrunch 50 scheduled to overlap with Demo

For years, the Demo conferences--one in the spring and another in the fall--have dominated the mindshare of the technology press and venture capitalists eager to see the hottest start-ups and new products at their public unveilings.

But now, Michael Arrington and Jason Calacanis have scheduled their TechCrunch 50 event--which will showcase 50 hand-selected start-ups--to overlap with DemoFall.

And besides the cachet that comes with being selected for the TechCrunch event--Arrington said in a blog post this afternoon that the 40 companies that participated last year have raised $143 million in venture capital to date--one major selling point for companies that … Read more

The blogosphere's Napoleon

The blogosphere is atwitter (see Techmeme) with Mike Arrington's latest call for someone to "pony up a big round of financing around an existing blog, or perhaps a new entity, and then start rolling them up into a big fat CNET-crushing $200 million per year in revenue business."

It's pleasing to have Mike and others targeting CNET. It must mean that we are at the top of the heap. Competitive envy comes with the territory. And I admire what Mike, Om Malik, Matt Marshall, Rafat Ali, and others have done to build their networks and companies. … Read more

My e-mail breakup with Jimmy Wales and other sordid doings

Hey, you should have seen my breakup e-mail with Jimmy Wales.

Just kidding.

Of course, as all of Silicon Valley likely knows by now, Wikipedia's major domo is getting razzed over at Valleywag. The geek gossip site got its hands on a breakup note and IM text Wales apparently sent to ex-squeeze, Rachel Marsden.

The Wales' post was par for the course since Valleywag revels in the online agony of others. (Owen, I'm a kung fu expert, so do yourself a favor and keep me out of your headlines. :) ) But the correspondence came to light just as The … Read more

Report: Yahoo to acquire Maven Networks

Yahoo will announce that it has acquired Maven Networks, a video-hosting startup, according to a report in the blog TechCrunch.

Citing three unnamed sources, TechCrunch reported that Yahoo has paid about $150 million for the start-up and will announce the deal Thursday or Friday.

Cambridge, Mass.-based Maven Neworks helps media companies present video content on their Web sites. Among the company's customers are Fox News, CBS Sports and CNET Networks, parent company of News.com.

A Yahoo spokesperson declined to comment on "rumor and speculation." Representatives from Maven could not be reached for comment.

Report: 'MySpace Tom' lied about his age. Yawn.

Following rumors that MySpace co-founder and "everybody's friend" Tom Anderson was lying about his age on his profile, Newsweek did a little digging. According to "professional license information, voter registration and utility and telephone service applications," Anderson is actually 36, not 32.

Which means that he was 31, not 27, when he co-founded MySpace, and apparently he was either self-conscious or sketched out (or both) about being in his 30s when he founded a youth-oriented social network.

TechCrunch's Michael Arrington expressed concern, saying that "the fact that MySpace and News Corp. had knowledge … Read more