Boston Digerati: Sites to check out

Sites to Watch for News of What's Next
Boston Globe by Scott Kirsner, 12/16/2002

Dan Bricklin
Dan wrote Visicalc which was the application that really started the PC revolution. It was later eclipsed by Lotus which was then overtaken by Excel. As a technologist with deep historical perspective, Dan's log is worth reading. He wrote the first piece I have seen that gives a good assessment of the potential impact of the new tablet PCs.

John Robb

"Robb has been a technology analyst at Forrester Research and Gomez Advisors, and he brings the incisive approach he learned at those two local firms to his weblog. Robb is one of the more prolific bloggers on this list, rarely skipping a day. Among his interests are alternative energy technologies and the radio frequency identification tags that could eventually be used to electronically track and inventory all sorts of physical objects, like packages of Gillette razor blades." Scott Kirsner

David Weinberger

"Weinberger, an author and consultant, attends more conferences and seminars than anyone I know, except perhaps a few audio-visual technicians. Last week, he was taking copious notes at the Supernova Conference in Palo Alto, Calif., where the central theme was the accelerating decentralization of everything." Scott Kirsner

Ray Kurzweil

"Though it's not technically a weblog, inventor and entrepreneur Ray Kurzweil maintains a Web site that's updated regularly, and jammed with conference listings and pointers to articles. There are also postings by people other than Kurzweil, like Mitch Kapor, the founder of Lotus Development Corp. and now a champion of open source software, and MIT artificial intelligence guru Marvin Minsky. (Kapor and Kurzweil have a bet going as to whether a computer will be able to pass the Turing Test - essentially, whether it can impersonate a human - by 2029. Kurzweil's money is on yes.)" Scott Kirsner

Jeremy Allaire

"With his brother J.J., Allaire started one of the earliest developers of Web publishing tools, Allaire Corp., and took it public. In 2001, he sold the company to Macromedia, where he now serves as chief technology officer in the West Coast firm's Newton office." Scott Kersner

Ray Ozzie

"Ozzie was the originator of Lotus Notes, and is currently CEO of Groove Networks, a Beverly company developing software for workplace collaboration. His weblog features some free-form brainstorming about problems as yet unsolved by software, progress reports on Web services, and musings on how to address decentralized, networked terrorist organizations like al Qaeda." Scott Kersner

Bob Frankston

"Frankston developed the first spreadsheet in collaboration with Bricklin, and later went on to work for Lotus and Microsoft. He's a crank in the best sense of the word - fiercely opinionated, wicked smart, and interested in sometimes arcane topics, like why automakers intentionally make it difficult to jack into your car's computer system." Scott Kersner