The Bitter Sweet Sale Of Oponia

It's been a bitter sweet couple weeks for me. As some of you may or may not know, I had a start up called oponia networks. After trying to get funding for over a year, we ended up like many start ups having to shut it down. However, I always knew that what we set out to do (and technologically succeeded at) was something important.

Vanessa (our CTO) posted our original vision for oponia on her blog:

"In a nutshell, it just bugged me that every computer and every device was not actually a node on the Web. Despite the fact that personal computers in particular are more than powerful enough to act as web servers, the physical and logical topology of the Internet as deployed relegates most devices to being web clients only.

The Web 2.0 phenomenon has improved the capabilities of lowly web-clients, allowing them to contribute content as well as consume it. This is a great thing, and I don’t mean any insult by saying that by itself it just isn’t enough.

I wanted a Web that was end-to-end. Where every device could provide as well as consume web services and content. Where every shared resource had a resolvable URL.

Just because your laptop or your phone don’t have the full power and connectivity of the “great server cloud in the sky” there’s still plenty you can do with them if they’re able to join the network in an active capacity.

So that’s what we set out to do."

Today Opera came out with its own version of our oponia techology called Unite that they are calling their reinvention of the Web. Techcrunch thinks "this is a really good idea at its core."

Well, VC's in Canada didn't agree. So sadly, we were unable to ever see our vision come to life in the way we knew it could.

And ironically, it was just last week we finalized the sale of our core technology to another start-up. Hopefully they will succeed in the machine to machine device market where we were unable to in the consumer market...not only because I would like to see our supportive and loyal investors get their investment back but because I've always believed in the kick ass platform that we created.

So thanks to everyone who participated in our journey. And thanks to all the supportive messages I've gotten today about Opera. Don't know what else to say really - times like these the only thing left to do is quote The Grateful Dead.

Man, "what a long strange trip its been"

Adobe Air & The Future Of The Network

According to the New York Times, Adobe "will release the official version of AIR, a software development system that will power potentially tens of thousands of applications that merge the Internet and the PC, as well as blur the distinctions between PCs and new computing devices like smartphones."

It was only a couple years ago when i was talking to VCs about funding the oponia ucaster that many of them told me the personal computer was dead. Everything was moving to the cloud. However, it always seemed to me that the growth of the edge and edge services had to do with DECENTRALIZATION and not CENTRALIZATION. The notion that I will be fine with having Facebook as my central hub giving my control over to their whims and changing business strategy did not seem in-line to me with where the power of the network was (and is) going.

With ucaster, we wanted to make everyone a node in their own right -first class citizens and full participants in the network (And that was both technically and spiritually speaking).

I found it interesting that still no one is mentioning Blake Ross' venture Parakey that was scooped up by Facebook, Parakey, whose product positioning looks like it was borrowed heavily by the folks at Adobe.

"Parakey is a platform for building applications that merge the best of the desktop and the Web"

We are still only at the beginning of this phenom. I still think ucaster and what the role it could play could be the next generation. Having a node to call your own - having applications that sit on your desktop - utilizing the cloud when it creates the most value - and how these things intersect with each other, and how we ascribe meaning to it in a way that creates value to each of us as individuals...that to me is the thing to watch in the coming 12 months.

Wanted: A Social Network Tagging System To Reinvent Search

This idea started for me a while back. At oponia, we had the idea of creating a new way of organizing and searching a document system through tags (that we never got funding for *sigh*). I wrote about it in my post tag and flow: connecting the end points.

And then Fraser and I started a conversation about hierarchies and friendships that has continued over at the Adaptive Blue blog.

The concept is relatively simple. I have this ever growing network of social connections, both implicit and explicit. But as with everything in life, people have different meaning to me and if I get really utilitarian about it, they also have different value.

My friend David Chant as an example, owner of the Electric Company. You might go to Dave's site and think, Dave is a motion graphics expert based on his company. But because I personally know Dave, I know him as the gadget guy. You want to buy a new tech toy? David is the guy to talk to. And if I was going to "search" through a search engine about a new gadget, I wouldn't want to search like Leigh (because I wouldn't know the first thing about new tech gadgets, bc I just go ask Dave), I would want to search like Dave.

...What if I could somehow connect my search to Dave? What if I could tag to explicitly define our relationship - Dave as 'friend' and also tag what I think he's an expert in - in this case, 'technology' 'gadget'? It would allow me to potentially then use Dave's search intelligence for my own.

Well, that's great. But what if it could then get even more interesting and we could connect Dave to all the other people who have been tagged as experts in 'technology' and 'gadgets'? Wouldn't I theoretically be able to have a socially created vertically brilliant search engine?

Ok, I don't have time now to do this start up (other than continued oponia activities, I have a doll company i want to start which will never get or require VC money), but I think someone else should get to it because I need a new and better search engine.

Tag And Flow: Connecting The End Points

For oponia, we had a planning session with some really great ideas that came up for the enterprise space. Since we don't plan to focus our efforts there I thought I would put up the ideas in hopes that they spark some thoughts for other people developing applications.

The basis of the concept was merging tags with the concept of flow. What am I taking about?

Traditional business works hierarchically. We create project folders. And yet that mode of working doesn't necessarily help work flow across projects. How does one then accommodate enterprise 2.0 concepts of viewing things by ideas? Or type?

What if project folders automagically created tags? What if files did the same? What if people in your network automagically were tags as well? Couldn't you then search by project (if that's what you wanted) or also then across projects by idea or type? You could then even search by person.

Alfons liked the idea so much he put some initial screens together. One is the search screen and the other is the results. Of course, if everyone on the network is a node (which is the basis of the ucaster concept) we can do some things that others can't right yet.





Conceptually though the idea is that you can create a results page that is centered around a project (trad style), centered around an idea (enterprise 2.0 style) or centered around YOU (always the best style).

We still plan to implement some of the cool parts into the consumer product when we can get to it. I'd be interested in what people think.

update: R/WW has an intersting post on what the big players are thinking. Check it out...

Sharing On A Stick

cross-posted from the official oponia blog

While i have versions of ucaster on every computer I own, what I also wanted to be able to do was give any computer I happen to be using the same capability without forcing anyone to download the program if they didn't want to.

So, Vanessa (our CTO) made it so that you can download a version of ucaster and install it on to a flash drive for 'instant sharing on a stick'. You choose the version you want (i have separate sticks for MACs and PCs), choose a new URL and then just plug it into any compatible computer and voila! You can send away. As we like to say, drag, drop and your done.

We've opened up the download now so anyone can try it. Have a go yourself and happy sharing.

Holy Craphammer: ucaster Review

cross-posted from the official oponia blog

I was going to write a blog posting about the fact that we launched our first product the ucaster yesterday. I was going to say what it does, how it works etc. And then this morning, Sean Howard of Craphammer sent me his review (with the impressive title 'oponia just spanked my bottom'). Damn. He did such a great review that I am going to forward you all to him (besides, of course I, the ceo and co-founder thinks it's brilliant - so better to hear it from someone else).

Ok, first, my explanation of ucaster.

ucaster:

It’s the hyper simple way to instantly publish content
online right from your desktop. You don’t have to upload it anywhere. Just drag, drop, and you're done!

Great for sharing folders filled with files, photos, and play lists. And the best thing about it? It’s instantaneous to anyone with or without ucaster.

As for the review: here it is.

And here is his powerpoint:




One final note, in Sean's note to me he said that he thought the files were being sent to a server somewhere and was disappointed we didn't have an progress bar. Then when they appeared on his url instantly which was in the Web site of his ucaster, he thought, is this a trick? Not the first person to ask. But nope. No trick. Just a hyper simple way to instantly share.

:-)

Assembly Line Vs. Couture Technology

I still have one foot in the agency world and one thing that amazes me is how many ad agencies are outsourcing their tech to countries outside of Canada (India, Columbia, China etc.).

I want to talk about how wrong I think this is and maybe not for the reasons that immediately come to mind.

Interactive communication is an art.

Let me use an analogy. If I were going to manufacture T-shirts that were all the same design and only really varied by size and colour, out sourcing that manufacturing based on price would make a lot of sense.

However, if i am making a one of a kind piece that would mean changes on the fly, a bunch of fittings with a model and having an intimate relationship with the sewers who were part of the creation team, i would have to work with people who i knew could solve problems.

And that is what great technologist do. They solve problems. Uniquely, elegantly and in a million different on the fly ways.

The amount of times that we have had a usability problem and our tech team and UX team get together only to find an amazing solution that no one had previously thought of, continues to astound me.

Innovation doesn’t happen on the assembly line.

My 2 cents? Be careful what you ask for, because in the end you just may get it. With digital becoming more and more important in clients marketing mix, it's not the cheap solution they are looking for, it's the right solution. And by not having the right technologists on your team, you will only ever have half of an answer.

We Are The Network

Cross-posted from the official oponia networks blog

So Vanessa starts talking to me about this idea of wanting the Web to be end-to-end. She was going on about nodes (huh?) and how I am not a node (wha?) and then she started to furiously draw a bunch of pictures where the Web was represented in all its glory as something that looked pretty much like this:



I loved her passion but I didn’t know wtf she was talking about. And after about a half an hour of her mad technical genius, I said, yeah but what does that mean?

V: It means you could publish stuff from your laptop without anyone in the middle.

And that’s where it started. Getting rid of the middle man and giving yourself a presence on the Web that was totally and completely your own. In many ways a simple idea, but once you wrap your head around the implications of it, an extraordinarily powerful one as well.

As for the product we created on top of the oponia networks platform?

One of the greatest things for me about the ucaster is how pervasive it has become in my life and how much I love to use it. I love our apps. I love one step publishing and having people from serious programmers to my mother use the same tool. I love how it's as easy to get stuff off the Web as it is to get it on. And I love the fact that if someone doesn’t want to use our homepage app or has their own java app (and even more soon) that they are perfectly welcome to do so.

And my favourite thing? The ucaster isn’t about us. It’s about you.

And that's as it should be.

Happy sharing

J1: Final Recap

It's over! Woot! Everyone was so tired (and I don't just mean everyone at oponia, I mean everyone in the building).

The last hour was insane. A few of the booths around us really liked our product and kept sending people our way. We had a great time and I think more than anyone, I was a bit cynical as to what this show would do for us connection wise. Probably I spend too much time in Toronto and sometimes I forget how many people who can help us live here on the West Coast.

Even after day 3 though my favorite moment of the show was from day 1. I forced an editor and chief of a well read technical magazine to come over. He literally rolled his eyes. I was like, come on, start-up, self-funded, be nice! And he was. He watched and you could kinda see his face go funny when we showed him the demo and he turned his head sideways and said, "that's actually really interesting." (don't you love when people use their inside voices out loud?) And he gave us his business card and told us he would definitely review it.

Today we are off to see the sites. I have never been to San Fran and couldn't leave without at least a trolley ride or two.

Final note, I just wanted to thank the many supportive people at Sun. Mike, Mohammed, Henry, Bernard and finally Juan Carlos Soto who was kind enough to spend some time with us yesterday.

J1: Day 2 "The Apprentice"

I feel like I am on the Apprentice. You know the episodes I am talking about? The ones where Excelsior Corp (or whatever stupid name The Donald makes up) has to sell the most water to avoid the board room.

"Come see my water" "My water is really really tasty" "Best water in the city"

Yeah, kinda like that.

But I have to say we are managing to get people (and some very well connected people) to come over.

We had four goals coming here and we have met three out of the four. The final one involves getting a Java Rockstar to come visit our pod. Mark was totally determined and rumour has it that if he is in the building today, we will might get to do a demo. But more on that later...

:)

J1_day1: San Francisco

Day 1 has come and gone. Flight uneventful (and I hate to fly so uneventful = good). Five minutes at the hotel and then off to the conference centre. After a bit of a hassle getting our passes (we have SUN employee passes) we got to see our pod.

We are next to dancing robots! How cool is that? And if I made a paper airplane and had decent enough aim (which for the record i don't) I could hit the person who will be sitting in the the OReilly Media pod chair.

We got to meet the SUN guys finally which was great for Vanessa. She's worked with them virtually for years on JXTA and never seen 'em in person. What strange circumstances technology puts us in.

Speaking of which, we are meeting Mark (Petrovic) today and he is helping us out in the pod. If I have any energy left by the end of the day I'll write a note or two.

over and out...

oponia Posters For JavaOne

I just had to put these up because I think pon has done such a beautiful job (and let us not forget Tasha who is an amazing artist, concept creator and PM). There was actually quite a team working on the design for oponia including Peter (Munck) as CD, pon as design lead and of course, Alfons UX designer extraordinaire. My job was mostly to sit back and watch it come to life (oh and make them do things they didn’t want to do or agree with - but hey, I am the business chick, that’s what I do).

oponia at JavaOne

I’m excited to announce that we (oponia networks) will be premiering our “hyper-simple” sharing and collaboration platform at JavaOne this year from May 8 to 10.

More info on the product will be available just after the show, and I’ll post again when it’s ready to share as we launch our public Alpha.

Wish us luck and don't forget to come by if you happen to be at the show! We'll be the two chicks in the Java Playground at the Pavilion (apparently, we shouldn't be that hard to miss ;-).

Passionate Users Aren't Created, They're Discovered

Brad Feld had a post back in August where he talked what he called the golden segment. The 19% of your user base that creates the tipping point for your success and in his words

“If you can figure out how to engage these folks, you win.”

Through out the process of our closed alpha test I exchanged ideas and got feedback both positive and negative from a range of people. Through those discussions, it was easy to see what types of people were going to use oponia and why and what types likely weren’t. But it wasn’t until we shut it down that I had the big epiphany. Without even knowing it, I had a sub-segment of people who were using the product all the time and actually missed it once it was gone!

I even got a request from one person to get 6 accounts activated because our product solved a short-term problem that her and a group of co-workers are having.

Needless to say, we are getting her the 6 accounts.

But here is my point. Passionate users aren’t created - they're discovered. It’s making that discovery and subsequently what you choose to do with it that might in the end make all of the difference.

Question: What Does oponia Mean?

I often get the question as to what oponia (the name of a software company that I co-founded) means.

Answer:

1. From the spanish oponer: to oppose

2. From Russian Folklore, Oponia (Опонь): a legendary land of great wealth and purity at the edge of the world. "There are no deeds of violence or robberies or other deeds contrary to the law"; "they have no secular government; the spiritual authorities govern the people and all men"; "there is no limit to their gold, silver, precious stones and very costly beads"; "they have war with no one"

I especially like they have war with no one part....
:)

Fresh Blood: oponia opens a Califonia office (well sorta)

I still haven't recovered my brain quite from the night before, but things are slowly getting back to normal. Since it is almost the new year, I thought I would welcome our new man on campus, Mark Petrovic to oponia. He will be the managing director of our California office (otherwise known as his house) and working hand in hand with Vanessa on the tech side of things. (We now have a Phd in physics to go along with our nuclear engineer...hum.....)

Mark is a total gentleman, informing V and I he likes to send a polite IM good morning in the am not to bother anyone, but to make sure we all stay connected. We all hope oponia goes well, so that we not only get to continue to work together all the time, but as well, we might even get to meet one day. Until then, we will continue to have Mark represented at our events through his likeness that Vanessa printed out and glued onto a piece of cardboard.

To find out more about Mark, go to OReilly here or his blog here