The Life Sciences in New York State

What is this "Web 2.0" gibberish?

I've seen the term "Web 2.0" bounced around a lot lately. Frankly, I thought it was a lot of hooey. Isn't "Web 2.0" simply technological evolution? "2.0" implies some radical change which results in enablement. What is so radical about what we're seeing today?

Well, I finally found an explanation which makes sense. Hat tip to Ed Sim, who explains it very well on his blog here. Critically, from an enterprise/business perspective,

Everything we did in Windows and Office and other enterprise apps 5 years ago can be done through a browser/web with Salesforce.com, Skype, and web-based email and calendaring.  We are clearly not there yet, but this will happen.  In addition, as enterprises move to a world where they must support multiple users and devices on-demand, they will need to buy new software and infrastructure to manage this new complexity.

OK, now I get it...

So what is AJAX?

Question posed previously here. Gotta love Wikipedia...

The Desktop is Dead

I work from home, and enjoy it. As several of my initiatives move forward, I continue to look for better ways to work remotely, whether from home or from the road. My usage of Skype is one example of this.

This morning I learn about initiatives to move Office programs off the Desktop and into a Browser. Hat tip to Peter Rip, who comments on his blog:

Twenty years ago I had desks with files and drawers. Now my desk is merely a pedestal for my computer. My computer's "desktop" is really a pedestal for my browser -- something to place my browser on so I can use it.

One example that Peter points us to is Writely, a browser-based word processor.

Having the Office Suite in a browser has several advantages. First, we would no longer have to worry about who has the live (latest) version of a document. A browser-based word processor would enable true real-time collaboration on a document, rather than passing them back and forth, tracking and replacing edits. Second, how many times has your computer crashed when using Word and Excel and PowerPoint simultaneously? Mine did yesterday.

Peter refers to AJAX in his post. I don't know what that is (a language)?

Interesting to see how our interaction with the computer and with each other is evolving.

Is it me...

...or is Google Search becoming totally useless with so many redundant hits and junk? There's got to be a better way to search than this...

SkyBay...eSkype...SkeBaype...

Acquisition of Skype by eBay was announced early this morning. Press release here. From the press release, a note on Skype revenues:

Skype generated approximately $7 million in revenues in 2004, and the company anticipates that it will generate an estimated $60 million in revenues in 2005 and more than $200 million in 2006.

That is some hockey stick!

Clearly, the biggest winners in the deal are these guys...Mimosas for breakfast!

Catching up on a few items

I noticed that I have not written much this month, mainly due to work and vacation. In fact, I think I'm getting into the bad habit of using del.icio.us as a blog "crutch", tagging items of interest for this blog without commentary. So, I've decided to take a few minutes to go through some of these tagged items and comment.

This week's news that Immunicon is laying off workers is interesting to me because the fund I used to work for made an investment in Immunicon in the early '00s. We liquidated the investment long ago, but I still keep an eye on the company because cancer diagnostics is an interesting area with tremendous opportunity. We are fortunate to have a number of academic researchers and a few companies here in New York working in this field. I had some reservations about Immunicon back then (still do), but this does not take anything away from the cancer diagnostics space, IMHO.

Very glad to see that my friends at High Peaks Venture Partners made an investment in a Rochester-based VOIP company.

The OSI/EyeTech merger of two local companies (Long Island and NYC) was unexpected, to me at least. I'd be interested to see how they consolidate their operations. Will they consolidate on Long Island? In Times Square? My guess would be the former, saving the expense of maintaining offices in Times Square, of all places.

Lastly, with the Washington Avenue Armory being renovated, the Albany Patroons are back in action, taking to the court for their home opener on November 19th against the Michigan Mayhem. Back in my college days, I would wander over to the Armory to catch a few games per season. They were cheap and fun. Phil Jackson (yes, THE Phil Jackson) was the coach back then. I'm hoping to catch a game or two this season.

.doc + .pdf = .grr

I spent the better part of the morning converting a 30+ page Word document into an Adobe PDF. I continued to have page alignment problems. All looked fine in Word, but after the conversion process, I would have phantom Page Breaks appear in the PDF version. How irritating...

I eventually got it to work, but that took way to much time!

There's got to be an easier way to do this...

Donkey Pharm

Just caught this post on Om Malik's blog regarding Google supposedly developing an IM program with voice, a la Skype, Yahoo!, MSN Messenger, etc. Two weeks ago, it was being said that Skype will be sold for $3 B. Now Skype's goose is supposedly cooked because the big gorilla (Google and it's cash) is taking them head on. If Google can develop a voice IM platform and incorporate it into their Sidebar and GMail and (this is key) have the ability to sell phone numbers a la SkypeIn, then Skype may be in trouble. I would speculate that Google is already being used by nearly all Internet users on the planet (think about that for a second). Google has its flaws (too much junk per search), but the brand is undoubtedly established...and relatively quickly no less. Even if Google introduced a superior product, I'd remain locked in to Skype because a) I have a SkypeIn phone number, and b) Skype integrates nicely into Outlook. Still, if my contacts started migrating, I would have to carry and use both.

Can you imagine this kind of competitive dynamic in pharma? Competitors springing up out of seemingly nowhere? Developing competitive (superior?) products in months? While the software world moves at the speed of light, we plod along at the speed of a donkey making its way up a steep hill...carefully choosing our steps until we reach the summit of approval and commercialization.

I'm actually glad pharma is this way. Software is just too dynamic for me to keep up with all the changes...

del.icio.us working again

I am now able to once again use del.icio.us. I have no idea what went wrong, nor did I do anything to fix it (although I'll claim that I did!). I consider del.icio.us to be an important extension of my blog, so I'm glad it's working again.

Skype for Sale - Rumor

Rumors are resurfacing. This time, Rupert Murdoch offered $3 billion for Skype.

Original article is here.

Perspective from Skype Journal is here. They asked the same question I did, which is "How do you value Skype?"

Last we heard, Yahoo! wanted to buy Skype.

It's only a matter of time before someone gobbles them up. Let's start a new rumor...

Google is in serious merger discussions with Skype. The new company, to be called GooSky....