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Posts Tagged ‘startups’

Integrating MongoDB Into BitNami’s MAMPStack

Friday, February 3rd, 2012

This article is for all you OS X Lion-based Mac developers who use BitNami’s MAMPStack and dream of being able to add a NOSQL database engine, like MongoDB, to the stack. If you are not running Lion, then there is no reason to proceed. Read more »

The New Garage: Bootstrapping Your Startup

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

I came across a Google Plus debate awhile back discussing what the new garage was for startups. To give you a brief background, a few famous startups actually started in a garage.

The Apple boys used Jobs’ parents’ free garage. The Google boys used a friend’s garage for free (initially). HP founders used an unattached garage that was part of the home for which they shared the rent (Dave Packard and his wife lived in the house).

Read more »

Putting the Tech Back into Social Web

Saturday, September 17th, 2011

This article was originally part of the fifth installment to my smartup series. As I believe the message best fits in its own article bucket, I’ve placed it here instead.

I want to address an odd trend–although it’s not yet clear if this actually is a trend. Over the past several months, I’ve heard similar statements from several unrelated Internet startups—the notion that they are not tech startups.

Instead of thinking of themselves as tech startups, they believe they have a higher-calling, claiming to be some flavor of socially-focused company. This may be the result of more and more non-tech-oriented business people forming Internet-based startups, but whatever the cause, in my opinion, it must be nipped in the bud. Read more »

Building the Social Web: the Layers of the Smartup Stack

Wednesday, August 24th, 2011

<Smartups Series Part 5 of 5>

As a Social Web architect and an open source advocate I frequently write, think, and promote the notion and ideals of the Open and Social Web. My work in the areas of user-centric control (identity, privacy, data portability, and rights), federated Social Web models, future-of-money projects, and W3C standards groups has shaped my views presented here.

Soon after publishing my 4-part smartup series (almost a year ago), I began to think about key parts of what has become this article. I’ve had bits and pieces of this article jotted down in various places. Over the past three months, the ideas have coalesced into a cohesive framework. With a recent and lengthy process of helping a potential smartup try to find its foundation, I’ve been motivated to assemble, clarify, and share my views on what I call the layers of the smartup stack. Read more »

How to Get Me Involved in Your Smartup

Monday, August 15th, 2011

I receive six to eight requests for help from startups each year—from angel investing, to advising, to consulting, to joining as a founder. To date, I’ve never accepted a single offer. Recently, however, I was very intrigued by one startup’s vision, so much so that I spent a significant amount of time exploring that opportunity. In the end, it did not work out. A few of the reasons why this opportunity did not pan out will be encapsulated in my below set of guidelines.

Below you will find what I call my 7-by-7 rules. Whereas this is my current set of criteria, I believe this list is useable by anyone seeking to attract talent or looking to start a smartup. Please feel free to adopt, modifying, or expand upon this list and use it as you see fit. Read more »

Web 3.0 Smartups: the New Web Business Space

Tuesday, September 21st, 2010

<Smartups Series Part 4 of 5>

This is the fourth article in my five-part series about Powering Startups to Become Smartups. In part 1, we discussed why Web-2.0 startups were stuck in the box and how in-the-box thinking leads to missed opportunities. In part 2, we discussed the most salient aspect of Web 3.0, the Web of Data and the emergence of the Social Web. Read more »

Web 3.0 Smartups: Moving Beyond the Relational Database

Friday, September 17th, 2010

<Smartups Series Part 3 of 5>

Today’s Web-based services are dealing with substantially higher volumes of data. But the challenges of data storage and management in the Social Web go beyond the issue of increasing data volume. In Web 3.0, data are significantly more complex and difficult to define ahead of time.

Unfortunately, many existing Web-2.0 startups continue to use only a RDBMS (relational database management system) model for meeting all their data storage and management needs—and some of these startups are starting to see the problems with that decision. Read more »

Web 3.0 Smartups: the Social Web and the Web of Data

Wednesday, September 15th, 2010

<Smartups Series Part 2 of 5>

In the first installment of my Web 3.0 series, Powering Startups to Become Smartups, I presented a general overview of the Web’s evolving paradigm. I made the argument that today’s Web-based startups needed to step outside the current Web-2.0 box and think like a Web-3.0 company. By leveraging the power of Web 3.0, a common-place startup could transform itself into a smartup.

In this second installment, I’m going to talk about what most people think of when they hear the term Web 3.0—the Semantic Web or Web of data. In the process, I hope to correct some common misconceptions about what the Semantic Web is and what it is not. Read more »

Web 3.0: Powering Startups to Become Smartups

Monday, September 13th, 2010

If you are a Web-based technology startup focused on the 2.0 version of the Web (a.k.a. Web 2.0), then you are not thinking outside of the box anymore. The Web is constantly evolving: innovating and implementing new technologies; adapting in a more timely manner to user feedback and needs; redefining the roles of business partners; and pushing the boundaries of what is possible.

This is the first article in my four-part series about powering startups to become smartups. You can find the timeline for future installments of my series at the end of this article. Read more »

How the Death of Net Neutrality Effects You

Monday, August 16th, 2010

The potential impact of the Google-Verizon proposal to end wireless net neutrality on bloggers, niche social network owners, and ecommerce sites seems to be misunderstood or not even realized by many of my colleagues in the the Web design and development business Read more »

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