Speaker:
Moderator:
Panelist:
Event Description:
VCs and entrepreneurs are talking about a “funding frenzy” in the AJAX powered applications space. What is AJAX? It is the special sauce behind a new generation of rich internet applications such as Google Maps, Yahoo’s Flickr, and a plethora of emerging Web 2.0 applications.
While some technology pundits are dismissing AJAX as nothing but a cool technology that enables web applications to act like desktop applications, others are claiming that there is more to AJAX then enhanced user interfaces. Many of the emerging AJAX companies have adopted disruptive business models that have successfully displaced incumbents’ offerings.
Come and hear several break-out companies, including Zimbra, which are on the cutting-edge of Web 2.0. The panel will explore the source of value in AJAX, the viability of new business models, and the impact on software and user experience.
Speaker:
Scott Dietzen PhD 
President and CTO
Zimbra
Prior to Zimbra, Scott was CTO of BEA Systems where he was the principal architect of the technology strategy for the WebLogic product family, which drove the company from $61 million in revenue for the year prior to WebLogic’s acquisition to over $1 billion. He was also one of BEA’s top spokespersons with customers, business partners, analysts, and the press. Scott came to BEA in 1998 via the $200+ million acquisition of WebLogic, a pioneer in Java and web application technology. He is widely credited with helping put together the J2EE standard, launching the Web application server category, launching the Java Community Process, and driving the web services collaboration with Microsoft and IBM. Prior to WebLogic, Scott was Principal Technologist for Transarc (acquired by IBM), a developer of distributed transaction and information sharing systems. In addition to working on Internet infrastructure since 1991, Scott has managed teams focused on sales, marketing, product management, and standards. He earned his Ph.D. and M.S. in Computer Science and B.S. in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University.
Moderator:
Om Malik
Senior Writer at Business 2.0
Gigaom
Om is a senior writer for Business 2.0 magazine in San Francisco since 2003. Prior to that Om was a senior writer for Red Herring focusing on the telecommunications sector. Om has often appeared on several television shows such as Business Week Television (on ABC Network); BBC Television & Radio; CNNfn; CNBC and TechTV. He maintains a highly regarded blog on the next generation internet.
His first book, Broadbandits: Inside the $750 billion telecom heist, was released on May 15, 2003. Before joining Red Herring in July 2000, Om was part of the founding team of Forbes.com where he was a senior editor. His writings have also appeared in newspapers and magazines such as The Wall Street Journal, Business 2.0, Brandweek, and Crains, New York Business. In 1999, Om left Forbes.com to join Hambrecht & Quist Asia Pacific as an investment manager, thus crossing over into the venture capital business.
Om graduated from St. Stephens’ College in New Delhi with an honors degree in chemistry in 1986. Om has also contributed to several Indian publications including the Economic Times and The Week, India’s leading news weekly.
Panelist:
Larry Augustin
Chairman
VA Software
Larry Augustin, CEO, founded VA Software in 1993 as a PhD student in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. A strong advocate of collaborative software development, Augustin was the visionary behind SourceForge.net , which quickly became the world’s largest Open Source development Internet site following its launch in November 1999. Augustin serves on the board of directors for OSDL, the Open Source Development Lab, and Linux International. Prior to VA Software, Augustin was a research associate in the Program Analysis and Verification Group (PAVG) at Stanford University where he worked on rapid prototyping languages, software engineering, hardware verification, and software prototyping environments. Prior to Stanford, he worked as a systems engineer on high-speed switched digital services at AT&T Bell Laboratories. Larry Augustin holds a PhD and an MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, and a BSEE from the University of Notre Dame.
Sam Ramji
Director, Emerging Business
Microsoft
Sam is responsible for building alliances with venture capital firms and their portfolio companies in the Software as a Service and Application Development domains, covering Open Source Software, AJAX, and emerging technologies. He focuses on identifying synergy with VC-funded portfolio companies and partnering with them to develop and market offerings complementary to the Microsoft platform.
Prior to joining Microsoft, Sam was Director of Business Development at BEA Systems in the WebLogic Integration division, where he helped drive the business from $20 to $100M revenue. Sam has worked at 5 startups, including Ofoto (now Kodak), where he was Director of Engineering, leading the web and middleware teams. Sam has developed desktop, server, and web applications in COM/DCOM and J2EE on Windows, Unix, and Macintosh.
Sam holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Cognitive Science from the University of California at San Diego.
Pradeep Tagare
Senior Investment Manager
Intel Capital
Pradeep is a Sr. Investment Manager at Intel Capital focusing on investments in the enterprise software space. Prior to Intel Capital, Pradeep was the Founder/CEO and later VP Products at Yopa Inc, a venture-backed company that developed a mobile applications software platform. Yopa was acquired by XDrive Technologies in 2001. Pradeep served as VP Product Management at XDrive after the acquisition.
Before Yopa, Pradeep was instrumental in BroadVision’s early success by driving the Financial Services product line. Pradeep honed his technical skills in the software division of Intel Corp developing large scale distributed computing applications, and at Inference Corp. developing carrier-grade expert systems applications.
Pradeep holds a MSEE from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a BEEE from the University of Bombay, India.
Pradeep is a member of Kauffman Fellows Class 10 and is currently serving his fellowship under mentor Keith Larson at Intel Capital in Santa Clara, CA.
