JULY 26, 2006
SPECIAL REPORT: WEB 2.0

Web 2.0 and The Letter “e”: The Interview
After hitting it big during the dot-com boom of the 90’s, the tech world’s best-known letter comes out of seclusion for a rare conversation with BidnessWeek’s Steve Rosenblush.

The flurry of activity in “Web 2.0” has unleashed a number of rising stars. Perhaps the best known is photo-sharing site Flickr, but others such as 37Signals and del.icio.us have also ascended to prominence over the past eighteen months.  However, the darling of the dot-com bubble -- the letter “e” -- is conspicuously missing and has decided to take a wait and see attitude this time around.

In an exclusive e-mail exchange with our editors, the reclusive vowel talks about what he’s been doing since the year 2000, his investment strategy, and his thoughts on whether we’ve entered a new technology bubble. He joins us from his yacht just outside of Antibes on the French Riviera (recently purchased from legendary venture capitalist Tom Perkins).
 

E-mail this story

Haystack Networking, from Cerado: Social Networking for Businesses and Organizations

A Social Network For Pirates

Web 2.0 or Star Wars?

Acquired or Expired?

In the late 90’s you were everywhere:  e-commerce, e-business, e-tailing, e-payments, e-procurement, e-government...the list was almost endless.  Then you disappeared. What happened?

Well, as you know, the dot-com era was very, very good to me. After the licensing gold rush, I had to take a step back.  I realized that I was horribly overextended and needed to re-evaluate a lot of things about my life. So, I bought a boat and decided to get off the grid for a while. It was definitely the right decision.  After that craziness, I needed to recharge.

Your absence has really thrown a spanner into the trademark and IP strategy of a lot of Web 2.0 firms. Where do you think you’re missed the most?

There definitely are companies that may be showing signs of having issues. In addition to Flickr, there are companies like Beggr, Coastr, Colrpickr, Fastr, Frappr, Gabbr, Mappr, Nabbr, Phrasr, Soonr, Talkr, Zooomr and probably a metric ton of other ones.  A few individuals have flamed me for “stifling innovation,” but I prefer to think of it as an opportunity to help those organizations out of a creative rut. Unfortunately, few seem to have risen to the challenge.

What about Meebo; did you make an exception for them?

No.  The folks over at CMP were nice enough to give me a heads-up about them, and are actually helping me to prepare a cease-and-desist letter.

You dropped out of sight for a while in 2000.  There were stories of all night raves and substance abuse.  Are the rumors true?

I've been advised by counsel not to comment.

Here’s the question that many of our readers are wondering about...are we in a new technology bubble?

It’s tough to say. From what I’m seeing, there is a fair amount of innovation occurring.  On the other hand, the letter “o” seems to be a bit oversubscribed right now. I’d be wary there.

Your instincts are legendary.  What do you think is next big thing?

That one’s easy. The next big thing is going to be p-mail (pneumatic mail, which is also sometimes called “pneumail”). As we all know, the Internet is a series of tubes.  That’s where the opportunity lies.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

digg this - del.icio.us - comments

And we’d really love your thoughts on where we’re going with Haystack networking, too.  Thanks!

Hat tip to The Daily Show for the "pneumail" bit. Those guys are really funny.