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LIVE NOW:
@Mitch Kapor
discussing everything from the launch of the PC era to Lotus 1-2-3, angel investing, and his involvement with nonprofits—including the Mozilla Foundation (backers of Firefox). Join us now to learn from this tech legend.
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@Scott Magoon agreed. When I moved to San Francisco as a random hacker, Mitch was one of the first guys who welcomed me. He was putting together talks with various folks using technology to change the world. From Jimmy Wales to the Science Commons folks.
It was amazing how welcoming someone who had done everything was to a kid like me. It's part of what makes me love the tech industry. -
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Welcome Mitch. Given that you have had one of the most amazing and wide-ranging careers in the tech industry, from Lotus 1-2-3 to the first ISP to the EFF to Mozilla/Firefox this'll be a really exciting conversation.
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Let's start with some of the tech business side of things and your recent angel investing, though I definitely want to talk about your nonprofit work an other activities.
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When you started, there was no real PC industry--how did you get in to it and decide to build Lotus 1-2-3?
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(for those who don't know, Lotus was the first spreadsheet app on the PC. It was fast ana amazing. People wanted Lotus 1-2-3, so they'd buy a PC to have it)
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I was convinced from reading Ted Nelson's book "Computer Lib" personal computers were going to take over the world. A crazy idea in 1975.
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@Mitch Kapor Pro tip: to respond to someone click on “Mention ______” by their comment, or type “@” and then start typing their name. An auto-complete dropdown will appear and you can select them from it.
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Computer Lib/Dream machines was so important. Did you subscribe to lots of Ted's vision?
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I got started on a career in technology based on writing crazy Lotus 1-2-3 macros. It was incredible power at that time.
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I seem to remember that you were a DJ and a Transcendatal Meditation instructor. Important, awesome things, but I don't get the tech connection--was it really that book?
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@Mitch Kapor Lotus and Microsoft must have had a hot-and-cold relationship back then. Looking back, what big early trends did you see and which did you miss?
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I was very good in math in high school and learned to program -- rare for 1960's -- but got hijacked by the 60's counterculture for a number of years.
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Mitch: I have a question for you. What do you think about all the discussion about incubators. They are popping up left and right now. You invested in one in the late 90s called Reactvity which morphed and was sold. What is your ANGLE on incubators out there now.
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Are there any books or things you know of that we should be reading that are as inspriational today?
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Inspirational -- Eric Ries' book The Lean Startup will when it comes out in October inspire a whole new generation of entrepreneurs.
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John Markoff points out that much of interactive computing was actually much more closely tied with 60s counterculture than most people assume. Were you aware of any of the engelbart folks, etc? Or just foud it on your own?
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The NSF used to fund programs for "gifted and talented" youth I went to a program in California in 1966 that changed my life.
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@Mitch Kapor agreed. The work @Eric Ries and @Steve Blank are doing to turn startups into more of a sciene will be transformative. But they seem to be more for people who are already excited.
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I found Stewart Brand, of Whole Earth Catalog fame, who wrote a book about hackers in the early 1970's. Not the Steve Levy book. The two worlds of counterculture and computer closely linked, but I was in Boston not SF.
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@Mitch Kapor was going to focus more on the tech at first, but you now fund some non-profits like the Summer Math and Science Academy--is that becaume of your early experiences with that NSF program?
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Wow, these questions come fast. I got a big break as a kid to get into computers. There are a huge number of kids who if they can get a break today, get some access to decent math-science education, to the Internet can make a big difference. So I want to help them.
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On Lotus-Microsoft: we saw PC's as next big thing. I knew Gates would be ferocious competitor, tougher than me.
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@Mitch Kapor Why is Bill Gates tougher than you? Was there something he did that you were unwilling to do?
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SMASH takes kids from low income communities with high potential in math and science and puts them in a rigorous summer program for 3 years of high school to provide academic and social support for them to get into top schools.
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Did you think "oh shit, he'll stop at nothing to win" what do you do in that situation?
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Or did you think "there's room for lots of software companies"?
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Program is 8 years old, and htis summer will have 160 kids at Berkeley and Stanford. big track record of college admissions, ambitions to scale program nationally. http://LPFI.org for more info.
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With regards to your work with EFF, do you think it is even possible for citizens to do anything to prevent a government kill switch? Do you see any technology (ie Internet in a Suitcase) that looks to be a promising way to circumvent ISPs and/or get access to the global Internet in the event of a government shutdown (whether in the US or any other country) of traditional access?
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On Gates, I did think he'd stop at nothing to win. Depressing realization for 1984.
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Pretty famously, Bill Gates is reported to have said "DOS 2.0 isn't done until Lotus won't run"--do you think the battles of the PC era were more personal than today?
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Re: internet in a suitcase. i see arms race between govt control/kill switch and those who will "route around censorship" Still in the early innings.
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I still think it's pretty personal today in the competitive fury between FB, Google, Apple, et al. But Bill Gates, like Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs is a once in a generation kind of person.
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Apparently the quote is not true literally just in spirit.;
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*Quick programming note*: everyone, if you could go retweet this we'd appreciate it, as it'll help the convo get more liquidity in here. Please take a second to retweet this link. Thank you: http://twitter.c...35410432
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With Gates now in the foundation sector, have you crossed paths more recently?
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I admire what Gates Foundation is doing and we do meet in the education sector, although they are about 1000x the size of my foundation.
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Mitch, as an ex-lotus employee, and huge admirer of yours for years... what are the innovative technologies you are looking at now from a investment standpoint? Are there any areas you would recommend focusing on?
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You also fund a lot of key open source and open access work. I had seen that as disconnected from the LPFI. But from what you're saying, it's all about giving people access.
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Shameless plug: I know the open source Firebug project could use funding help! ;)
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Lots of interesting intersection going on now in education tech startups, which we're very involved with. Inkling, Motion Math, University Now just to name three. Particularly focused on ed tech startups which can help close education achievement gaps.
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Education technology was, for years, a failure IMHO. Do you think things have changed?
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@Mitch Kapor You've written about controlling healthcare costs in 2009. You were ahead of the curve - there is a recent uptick of interest in healthcare technology, entrepreneurs and VCs are buzzing, incubators are forming, etc. What excites you in the area of healthcare today?
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LPFI = Level Playing Field Institute which runs the Summer Math and Science Honors Academy (SMASH)
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@Mitch Kapor what grade would you give the EFF after two decades? I remember it from those early days but don't hear much now. Is it just drown out by an exponentially larger internet today, or is it still an important force for online rights?
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I know you also worked with a lot of the PLATOnists like @Ray Ozzie . Will educational technology b about things like tutoring systems or social tools that connect people?
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In health care, we're investing in Asthmapolis - wireless sensors for asthma medication inhalers that help manage the disease
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@Mitch Kapor What are your thoughts the organization Achieve and what it is doing to standardize curriculum? Important or misdirected?
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Healthcare and education - no lightweight topics in this conversation. Let's throw in world peace while we are at it.
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@Mitch Kapor Cool. I'm sure @Gagan Biyani would be thrilled to hear that from you. We did a convo like this with him that you might check out later (http://namesake....platform)
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This conversation is an incredible pleasure to participate in. Thank you @Mitch Kapor for being you.
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EFF still incredibly active fighting warrantless wiretapping and amny other issues. It's one of major players on front for Internet freedom. I'm an advisor and admire what they're doing a lot.
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@Mitch Kapor that's really cool. Few people are working on the chronic, lower-levl but high-impact on cost and quality-of-life diseases like Athsma.
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Which bit of software from the early days do you wish had become bigger? (Lotus Agenda was one of the most interesting bits of software--it's why I'm in information and communication tools. Though Lotus Magellan was something I used more)
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What can we do to make sure kids can actively participate and shape our constantly changing environments? "traditional" mentorship models aren't scalable and there's a proliferation of those types of NPOs out there
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Here is a documentary our company is involved with regarding Internet freedom http://killswitc...film.com
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With good ed tech, teachers can become coaches in a hybrid learning model. Also, social aspect of ed tech helps kids learn from each other.
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As to software I wish had become bigger, I do love Lotus Agenda. Waiting for someone to tame the semantic web and make more useful, smarter tools.
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Education technology is very difficult. I was involved in a startup that helped schools and teachers via video on the web, but any for-profit has a huge problem dealing with the long sales cycle in education. It seems like it is so capital intensive that the barriers of entry make doing anything not worth doing. How do we fix that?
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@Mitch Kapor I'm really excited to see it happen. Do you think educational software will be widely available and accessible to everyone, or will there be an "educational software divide" where upper-income kids see far more benefit?
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Here is a nice infographic about how online edu is changing the way we learn: http://mashable....ographic - didn't know the Khan Academy started back in '04
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@Mitch Kapor I'll admit that I'm extremely skeptical of the semantic web. What do you think the killer use-case is?
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Unless we do something, there will be an educational software divide. That's for policy and politics, not technology to fix.
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@Mitch Kapor It's pretty awesome, the Namesake team got a demo recently and was very impressed. (http://chromatikmusic.com)
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Nowadays, you're angel investing. I know you're in SecondLife, Get Satisfaction, Twilio, bit.ly, and Posterous. What sorts of deals are you looking for? Particularly education and healthcare, or social tools like some of those investments too?
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In productivity tools, I think better semantics could help new products like Asana
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@Mitch Kapor @Dan Gould The semantic web is a great dream; I just don't know how it ever gets bootstrapped. It needs a way to deliver partial value if partially implemented. I haven't heard a semantic web proposal that delivers real value until it's somehow ubiquitous. That will never get off the ground.
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Very focused in investing in seed stage IT which also has big social impact, so could be education, health care, or other sectors. Shifting away from general purpose tech platforms.
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Interesting. You've done really well choosing general-purpose tech platofrms. Do you think it's at a peak or that others are spending more time there?
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@Mitch Kapor you mentioned an investment in one company in the health care industry. What do you think are the most important things we as a country should do to fix our health care cost and coverage issues?
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@Andrew Skotzko thanks man! @Mitch Kapor would love to get your take on Chromatik sometime. happy to swing by to give you the demo.
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Products, reviews, and conversations (forums!) all get semantic these days. They get value by the indexing on google.
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Asana - enterprise focused project and task management completely rethought. Vo-founded by Dustin Moskowitz of Facebook fame and Justin Rosenstein.
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More partial steps will help bootstrap the semantic web as people and companies see value in the incremental gains
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Payment reform , things like Accountable Care Organizations, passed by health care reform legislation are enabling new business models for health care startups. it's a huge deal.
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@Mitch Kapor I'm super-excited about Asana. We've talked in the past about efficient productivity tools. Do you think Asana may be that general productivity tool? Did lessons from your OSAF project inform that?
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(for those not familiar, Mitch funded the Open Source Applications Foundation, which was building experimental personal and group productivity apps a few years ago)
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I am going to time out in a few minutes. Appreciate all of your questions. Will try to answer the last few.
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@Shawn Doc Boyd Howdy Doc. @Mitch Kapor Thanks for sharing time with us, interesting reading and insight.
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Lotus Agenda has some influence on Asana. OSAF perhaps not.
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@Mitch Kapor np. Quickly, do you think the Obama administration has been doing a good job on tech and privacy issues?
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We should have a daily time slot for @Mitch Kapor . There's no way to ask him all possible questions on his areas of expertise. It would take weeks.
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(It was widely rumored that Obama offered you the job of CTO of the US Govt)
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Obama admin has done great work in health care IT. In broadband policy, not so much. Promoting Internet freedom via State Dept. great. Protecting civil liberties on the net - we have a lot more work to do. Thanks all, and bye.
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@Mitch Kapor One thing you mention; access to opportunity. I received my first break after helping my eventual employer's wife solve a problem with her Mac at BMUG. The world needs more BMUG's.
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We've really appreciated having you in this conversation!
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You're in to so many things exciting to the community. Alas, that also means you're crazy-busy.
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And thanks everyone for joining us for a few. I'd be up to hang around for a few and talk about some of these ideas
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Thanks for taking the time to do this. Hope we'll have more Ask Mitch sessions in the future.
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@Ori Neidich I'm interested in what the potential for an educational software resurgence would be. It's failed a bunch of times in hte past, but this time does feel different.
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What do you think?
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Participants
- Andrew Skotzko
- Jason Lankow
- Matt Sandler
- Jasmin Phua
- Scott Hurff
- Dan Dailys
- Jason Crawford
- Scott Magoon
- Brian Norgard
- Erick Cloward
- Bobby Matson
- Dan Gould
- Erik Engstrom
- Heather Gilchrist
- Ori Neidich
- Mitch Kapor
- John Furrier
- Andy Rankin
- Shawn Doc Boyd
- Adam Zuckerman
- Alex Khomenko
- Ricky Yean
- Steven Roussey
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