Who Are You People?!?

December 27th, 2005 • 2 comments General

A funny thing happened today. I went down to ATDC at Georgia Tech to meet a friend for lunch. This friend’s company is a member of the ATDC incubator so I ended up wandering around the halls looking for his office. I passed by another company which was the subject of ridicule by me previously. Anyways, there is a long involved (okay, not that involved really but I don’t care to write about it) story but suffice it to say, it related to what I said on this blog. I’ve made the point that there are only probably like six people that read this blog - one of which is me (I have to read it while I type it, don’t I?). I recounted this to my friend and it got me thinking - how many people do actually read my blog? So since my feed is now sent through FeedBurner, I thought I’d check out the stats. I’m not going to actually say how many people are subscribed to this blog but, what the heck is going on here? Who are you people?!? The feed subscriptions are only half the story since I can see by my server logs that there are a number of you that regularly visit this blog without feed subscriptions. Now a number of visits are from folks at my old company and my old company’s competitor, but that only explains away a handful of folks.

Needless to say, I’m a little taken aback. I never knew that so many people actually read what I typed. I guess I’ll have to post more frequently so that you folks can have more stuff to read. Or you might end up deciding that what I have to say is so terribly uninteresting that you’ll quit reading. Either way.

Grade Secrecy in Business School

December 24th, 2005 • Business, Education

I haven’t talked about grades in business school before but this article presents a perfect opportunity to discuss.  I’ve long thought that having a non-disclosure policy for an academic program made no sense.  A lack of accountability in one’s performance has led to issues in the professional realm and you can’t believe that the same wouldn’t be true in an academic environment.  In fact, this article states:

At the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, faculty members have complained that grade nondisclosure has not only decreased competition but encouraged laziness, even causing some star faculty members to avoid teaching MBAs. In the Apr. 18 edition of Wharton’s weekly newspaper, the Wharton Journal, Vice-Dean Anjani Jain blamed nondisclosure for a gradual shift away from academic rigor.

While on the other hand, according to the article current Harvard students reacted in this way:

About six weeks ago, the HBS administration announced to students that it was considering the new policy. The HBS Student Assn. quickly polled 1,559 of the nearly 1,800 full-time MBA students and found that 87% said they were against the change, 6% were in favor, and 7% were indifferent. With such an overwhelming majority opposing the measure, the Student Assn. lobbied key administrators in opposition to it.

As I’ve talked about before, I wonder what the professional background of business school students is.  Especially those who are opposing a policy like this.  Clearly, when you join the professional world, you will be accountable for your performance and the results that you drive.  Those results won’t be secret and will be well known to your superiors, peers, and even underlings.

One thing I will say from this is that I’m proud to say that my school, Goizueta Business School, does not have a grade non-disclosure policy and, as far as I am aware, never has.  Goizueta focuses heavily on leadership and one of the core values of the school is accountability.  Granted many students opt to take a simple passing (PS) grade and skip final exams, there are some (like myself) who take all exams, optional or required, because we believe in another core value - rigor.

So in conclusion, congratulations to the administrators who are attempting to remove this veil of grade secrecy from their schools.  This will only improve the quality of students who graduate and are hired from these business schools.

Funny Movie Quote About the NSA

December 21st, 2005 • 1 comment General Hilarity

Now that finals are done, I’m hanging out at home working on stuff. A side benefit (?) of this is I’m watching a lot of random television during the day. I’m watching the movie Sneakers right now and heard this exchange:

Dick Gordon (Timothy Busfield’s character who works for the NSA): National Security Agency.
Martin Bishop (Robert Redford’s character who is a security expert): Ah. You’re the guys I hear breathing on the other end of my phone.
Dick Gordon: No, that’s the FBI. We’re not chartered for domestic surveillance.
Martin Bishop: Oh, I see. You just overthrow governments. Set up friendly dictators.
Dick Gordon: No, that’s the CIA. We protect our government’s communications, we try to break the other fella’s codes. We’re the good guys, Marty.
Martin Bishop: Gee, I can’t tell you what a relief that is, Dick.

(emphasis added by me)

Man, this movie is so 1990s…

Hey Inc. Magazine, How About Some Fact Checking?

December 9th, 2005 • 1 comment Random Musings

I have great respect for Inc. magazine but when I easily discover an obvious factual error when I’m casually reading an article, I get a bit concerned. The article in question is about Ping Fu and her company Geomagic. The article states:

Last summer, DSSP crossed into public consciousness by playing a key role in the perilous landing of the space shuttle Challenger; relying on Geomagic software, NASA engineers scanned and inspected the spacecraft’s damaged shuttle tiles with a 10-foot-long robotic arm, and subsequently determined that they could safely withstand the stress of reentry into Earth’s atmosphere.

The summer in question is summer 2005. See the problem? Anyone remember the name of the space shuttle that landed this last summer. Hint: it wasn’t Challenger. The space shuttle Discovery landed this last summer. I’m pretty sure that I’m not unique in that I have lived during and remember both shuttle disasters. I saw the Columbia disaster as it happened. I was at lunch (in 6th grade mind you) when Challenger happened back on January 28, 1986. So unless the author of the story, John Brant, is less than 19 years old (highly unlikely), he should have known that we lost Challenger a long time ago. Twenty years ago next month as a matter of fact. But then, a part of my wishes that the above was true and Geomagic did help bring back Challenger last summer. If only…

Yeah, Sorry. But That Is Totally Wrong.

December 6th, 2005 • Entrepreneurship + Startups, Rants

I just read a blog posting by Brad Feld where he claims that a company he funded, Quova, invented a technology that I created! Specifically he says:

In the first few years of Quova’s life, we spent most of our time inventing the IP geolocation technology…

I know Brad is just trying to pump up his company, but let’s get the facts straight. I invented the concept and original technology of IP geotargeting (I’ve always thought “geolocation” sounded stupid) back on March 17, 1999 (yes, I remember the exact date). This technology was used as the seed that launched my company, Digital Envoy. Quova came around about year later. Yeah, they’ve tried to compete in the arena by burning through nearly (or more than, who can keep track) $30 million. Oh by the way, Digital Envoy has raised (and not burned through) about $12 million.

So for those keeping track at home. Digital Envoy/I invented it first, got it to market first, signed the first customer for the technology, and raised and spent less money. Quova has a name no one can pronounce, has raised and spent more money, and is located on the west coast. Of course, I also think that Digital Envoy has a better product but I might be biased. But the customers that choose Digital Envoy over all the competition aren’t. You can see some of those folks on Digital Envoy’s web site.

Nice attempt but you’ll have to try playing again later. In case you haven’t noticed, I get annoyed when people try to claim credit for something they didn’t do.