Bob Bickel, often credited with being one of the driving forces behind JBoss' success, has been in semi-retirement since Red Hat purchased JBoss, but he's apparently sticking his head out of hibernation to launch a new venture.
Look, Ma! I'm starting a new company.
If this doesn't sound very open source-y of Bickel, it's because it's not. But it does reflect Bickel's shifting interests: some might remember that Bickel helped to start Ringside Networks after the JBoss acquisition, an open-source competitor to Ning, the social-network platform company.
Not that Bickel is completely abandoning open source. He writes that "our site will have focus on running races, it will be simple to use, and it will be much more cost effective than the alternatives in the marketplace." I'm guessing "cost-effective" means he'll be using open-source technology at the heart of the Web site.
But then, that's an easy guess: who isn't using open source to power the Web these days?
Follow me on Twitter @mjasay.
Running used to be a solitary sport. MapMyRun changes this.
MapMyRun is a Web service that enables users to track their miles run by mapping out their route. It then allows you to calculate calories burned, among other things. I'm in London this week and have been planning all my runs using the service, figuring out in advance my six, 10, and 13-mile runs.
MapMyRun helps make running social
(Credit: Matt Asay)That, however, is not the most interesting use of MapMyRun. Despite its name (MapMyRun), the service becomes more useful as you share your runs with others, and share in others'. It makes it easy to make running social, rather than an individual affair.
The service enables you to find other runners in your area, either to become friends online or to run together offline. It's a great way to get motivation to run through others; to make running more than a way to simply burn calories.
If you're a runner, check out the service and let me know how you like it.
Todd Barr of Fiveruns (formerly of Red Hat) has a thought-provoking post comparing the software industry to the energy industry. Specifically, he calls out open source as akin to regulated energy companies, while proprietary software vendors are more like unregulated energy companies. The interesting part is what happens when you combine the two:
I think the future looks similar to the energy industry: large technology companies will have a mix of regulated and unregulated businesses, that maximizes the advantages of both. For standard, widely-used technologies, open source "regulation" makes sense because it lowers development costs and provides a standards-based, predictable subscription base of business.
... Read more
I was just reading Todd Barr's blog this morning, only to discover he has left Red Hat and joined FiveRuns. I know Red Hat. I know FiveRuns. I even know Todd ([former] director of product marketing at Red Hat and a super-sharp guy).
But I didn't know Todd had left Red Hat to join FiveRuns, an open-source systems management company for monitoring Rails applications.
Funny enough, I was thinking of pinging Todd yesterday but forbear because I didn't want to annoy Red Hat by hiring out of its ranks...Todd, if you decide to change jobs again, I'd appreciate a call. :-)
- prev
- 1
- next
