Nick Kellet, Act 2: GiftTRAP

I first met Nick Kellet in the late 1990s when Business Objects acquired his company, Next Action Technology, in order to get his set-based analysis product, AnswerSets. We renamed the product BusinessObjects Set Analzyer, launched it, and tried to put set-based analysis on the BI industry agenda. While set-based analysis never quite stuck, the product did end up at the core of BusinessObjects' analytic apps, which continue on to this day.

I'd always found AnswerSets a very clever product, and Nick a very creative guy. So it came as some surprise this morning to get a mail from Nick announcing that he'd quit his day job in order to pursue his next gig: a board game called GiftTRAP.

While it's off-topic for this blog, I thought I'd cover GiftTRAP for a number of reasons.

• Nick's very creative and, who knows, this thing just might take off.
• I like to let my readers know about cool new things whenever I hear about them.
  
• It's Web 2.0-y without the web. It's about social networking and social intelligence; kind of Boardgame 2.0.
  
• I think there is an eventual online angle. Given my understanding of the game, it could easily translate to an online format, and potentially into a merchandising solution for online stores.
  
• It's a clever, if indirect, solution to a very real problem -- unwanted gifts (which has eventually resulted in the new term, "re-gifting").
  

Frankly, I'm not a board game guy and I've never played GiftTRAP. But if you are, perhaps you want to particpate in their product launch party. If you want to learn more, here's a podcast where Nick speaks about the game (13 minutes and pretty fun to listen to).