eBay: Positive Feedback Only?

Either eBay or the San Jose Sharks are in trouble. Since the Sharks are 19-3-1, I'm thinking it's eBay. On what do I base this?

eBay has been just about useless this year in helping me sell my extra Sharks season tickets.

• My auctions are mostly not ending successfully (despite a sub-face-value opening bid and a consecutive string of sold-out home games)
  
• I get lots of eBay messages from members asking me to sell around eBay and do a transaction on the side
  
• eBay seems to have figured this out since they now preface every message with a warning to not do transactions on the side
  
• When my tickets don't sell on eBay, I pay a listing fee anyway
  
• When my tickets do sell on eBay and the buyer can't pay (as just happened), I pay a both a listing and a "success" fee anyway

Adding insult to injury, Ticketmaster seems to have finally figured out that Craigslist and eBay were eating them alive in the secondary market and, after a few years of trying, seem to have finally setup a reasonable secondary market strategy: PowerPlay Ticket Trader, where season ticket holders can resell their tickets. (The rub: you can only list them for a minimum of about 20% over face value.)

Simply put, based on my personal experience selling tickets and other more typical used goods, eBay used to work. I could sell stuff. When it sold, people would pay. And I wasn't constantly being invited to work around the system.

In some sense eBay was granted the "be careful what you wish for" curse and is now a mainstream site used by everybody, including scammers and fools. I liked it better when it was mostly the digerati.

Says this post in the Guardian, entitled The Steady Decline of eBay:

What is the cause of eBay's problems? Henry Blodget blames eBay failing to turn the business around, as well as overpricing and competition. We'll need to be further into the recession to see if difficult economic times mean far less people spending money on luxury second-hand stuff on eBay, or of the site might actually see some evidence of people trying to make essential extra cash by selling stuff they don't need.

But even if that is the case, eBay users have been frustrated by various rule changes, and the introduction of bulk retail listings in August this year that reinforced a very different direction from the home-seller users that got the site going.

But what kicked me over the edge this morning was this message when I was trying to leave feedback on a transaction:


First, as a nit, I was the seller in the transaction, not the buyer, so I don't know why eBay is talking to me as if I were the buyer. Second -- and infinitely more important -- look at the substance of the message: buyers can no longer receive negative or neutral feedback from sellers.

What is the purpose of a feedback system if you can only leave positive feedback!!

Yes, they try to explain the reason for this is to avoid retaliatory negative feedback -- for example, where a rightfully upset buyer gives negative feedback on a bad seller only to be wrongfully negatively rated in return. But this approach to the problem is ridiculous. eBay already allowed you to see feedback on a person in their buying and selling roles separately, and they also already allowed comments / explanations where you could type a line explaining your viewpoint.

So, first, the problem was already solved if a person wanted to dig a bit. Second, this solution discards the baby with the bathwater. What should a seller -- e.g., me -- do when a buyer wins an auction, goes silent for 10 days thereafter, and then finally sends me an email saying that he can't pay? I can only leave him positive feedback? That's insane!

I really believe that eBay is going down the tubes for a number of reasons, but first and foremost is my personal experience in using it.

(For eBayers: yes, I know about unpaid item strikes but I view those as outside the regular feedback system, since someone can not pay a seller and still maintain their 100% positive feedback.)

Related articles by Zemanta

• eBay Traffic Plummeting (EBAY) (Henry Blodget/Alley Insider)
• eBay traffic gradually falling [Meltdowns]
• The steady decline of eBay

MarkLogic Server Purer than Ivory

MarkLogic Server recently underwent the XQuery Test Suite and I'm pleased to report that we are a purer form of XQuery than Ivory is of soap.

MarkLogic Server weighed in at 99.9% on the test suite, whereas Ivory is only 99 and 44/100ths percent pure, if you believe the classic marketing slogan, which ended up as the basis for a country song by Ronnie Milsap, Pure Love. (Chorus: pure love, you're the picture of pure love, ninety-nine and forty-four one-hundredths percent pure love.)

Here is the XQuery Test Suite Result Summary. The detailed report that lists every single test on a pass/fail basis is here.

Dare I say:

MarkLogic Server,
You're the picture of XQuery,
(More than) 99 and 44 one-hundredths percent pure XQuery

Microsoft Passed on Endeca Before Buying Fast?

A Google Alert picked up this story which describes a 14% headcount reduction in Fast Search and Transfer's US staffing, concentrated, per the article, in the Boston and New York area.

The concentration isn't surprising because Fast's US headquarters is just outside Boston and, as I've always maintained, among the many reasons Microsoft paid $1.2B for Fast, their NYC-based publishing practice wasn't one of them. Put differently, I think Microsoft bought Fast as part of their general response to Google (e.g., the Google Appliance) and to improve SharePoint. They had, in my estimation, zero strategic interest in Fast's publishing / information and media industry team.

Overall, that's good for Mark Logic, because Fast focusing less on publishing and more on SharePoint means one fewer publishing-focused competitor working to provide publishers with a search-oriented platform for building their next generation of information products. Put differently, were I a publisher consider using Fast as a search platform, I would have *a lot* of questions about publishing as a strategic market for Microsoft and about Microsoft's strategic intent in spending $1.2B to buy the company. And I don't think I'd be reassured by the answers.

But I digress. The primary purpose of this post was to highlight a tidbit that I'd not previously heard. Evidently, per this story, (which is linked from the story referenced above) Microsoft passed on Endeca (and Autonomy) prior to acquiring Fast.

Excerpt:

A Microsoft product manager says the software giant evaluated several companies selling advanced search tools for businesses, including Cambridge, MA, startup Endeca, before deciding to offer $1.23 billion for Fast Search & Transfer of Oslo, Norway, which has a 200-employee outpost in Needham, MA.

Jared Spataro, group product manager for enterprise search at Microsoft, told me that the company decided about two years ago to add major features to SharePoint, which mainly provides a collection of collaboration and document management tools. “Search bubbled to the top very quickly, based on customer research,” Spataro says. “Starting in October of 2006, we introduced some of our own innovations—Search Server Express is a great example—and we also started to look around at what an acquisition could get us. We certainly looked at all the high-end vendors—Autonomy, Fast, and Endeca—to see what we could get.”

Checkout Google Flu Trends

Check out Google Flu Trends, a site at Google.org, which uses Google flu-related searches as a predictor of flu activity, giving them what they estimate as a two-week advantage over the CDC's US Influenza Sentinel Provider Surveillance Network.

The basic explanation of how it works is here. A scientific article on the project, which is to be published by the leading journal (and Mark Logic customer) Nature, is here.

O'Reilly TV Interviews Jason Hunter on MarkMail

Mike Hendrickson from O'Reilly TV caught up with Jason Hunter at OSCON in Portland and interviewed him about MarkMail, a project at Mark Logic led by Jason Hunter and Ryan Grimm aimed at providing powerful search capabilities for open source mailing lists. At present, MarkMail has about 1/2 TB of data and 30M messages spidered and converted into XML stored in MarkLogic Server.

The O'Reilly blog post on the interview is here and includes a transcript of the interview (which has a fair bit of background noise from the show floor). I've embedded the video below.

Freakonomics: A Must Read

Every once in a while I sneak the odd book review into my blog, and this time the selection is Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Duber. This is not exactly a timely review; the book was published in 2005 and, as of 2007, it had sold over 3M copies.

As it turns out, Freaknomics is the first book that I've read cover-to-cover (so to speak) on my Kindle. While I've purchased a few Kindle books (e.g., a useless tax guide, a David Baldacci novel, and Against the Gods) and several Kindle French newspapers (you can score what's usually tomorrow's issue of Le Monde for $0.75), for whatever reason, I'd never before managed to get all the way through a work on my Kindle. It could be the device, it could be the books. Time and experience will tell.

Levitt describes himself as a rogue economist, but I think of him more as a rogue data junkie or data miner. The guy loves to pour through data and look for interesting and often non-obvious correlations, sometimes over very long periods of time. Among other issues, the book investigates questions such as:

• What is the effect of information asymmetry between a client and a Realtor?
• How can you discover cheating through mining large data volumes -- either in schools or amongst Sumo wrestlers?
• Why do crack cocaine dealers tolerate such low pay and poor (i.e., often deadly) working conditions?
• What explains the relatively sharp drop-off in violent crime in the 1990s? What percent of the drop is explained by more police? What explains the rest? (And, boy, will you find the answer controversial.)
• Does "good parenting" matter? Do Mommy-and-me and other head-start programs actually increase test scores later in life? What about habits like daily oral reading?
• What is the sociological impact of a child's name?
  

One of the bittersweet tales surrounding Levitt is that he and his wife lost a baby to Meningitis several years ago, prompting him to join a support group for parents who'd lost children. During his involvement with that group, he was shocked at the number of children who drowned in the family pool, prompting him to start up his data mining engine, eventually arriving at the following conclusion: if you have both a gun and a swimming pool, your child is 100x more likely to die from the pool than the gun.

Here is the Freaknomonics book website. Here is the Freakonomics blog, hosted by the New York Times.

Note To Self: Don't Fly Private When Begging

Apologies if you've heard this one already, but the story is too good not to share. In a superb display of unawareness, the Big 3 automakers evidently flew to Washington to lobby for $25B in Federal aid in not one, but three separate, private jets. See the video below to watch a Congressman take them to task for it.

Today's New York Times reports that GM has decided to return 2 of its fleet in "coincidental" timing.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Should We Bail Out the Automakers?
• Automaker to Return 2 Leased Jets
• General Motors getting rid of two corporate jets

Should We Rename the 401K the 201K?

This quip popped into my mind the other day and, hoping to coin a phrase, I decided to blog on it. Sadly however, a few others seem to have beaten me to the punch. (Nothing like a bit of gallows humor to cheers us up.)

• If 401Ks are Now 201Ks, Should the S&P 500 be the S&P 256?
• My 201K, Which Used to be My 401K
  
• Enjoying your 201K?
  

Europeana: So Much Interest It's Down for a Month

Europeana, the European digital library, is an ambitious project to create a digital library, museum, and archive. It began in July 2007 and was launched yesterday, on 11/20/08.

Trouble is there was so much interest that the site now bears the following message:

We launched the European.eu site on 20 November and huge use - 10 million hits an hour - meant it crashed. We are doing our best to reopen Europeana.eu in a more robust version. Meanwhile, the site you're in now is the project development site, with a video to give you a taste of what's on the real Europeana site. Unfortunately this project site is only in English: the real Europeana is in all EU languages.

This is how not to do an Internet site launch. I hope for them that all that interest is still there when they finally do have the robust site that they're promising in mid December.

After all, they don't want to pull a Cuil (pronounced cool), ruin (pronounced rew-in) their first impression, and potentially not get a chance at a second one.

Thanks to Alex Moissis for telling me about this story.

Related articles by Zemanta

• TechCrunch Coverage of Europeana
  
• EU injects another 120 million € into digital library project, needs more
• EU opens digital library to public with over 2 million works

Positioning MarkLogic Server

Here's a great picture from our VP of engineering, Ron Avnur, on how he positions MarkLogic Server relative to other software categories. It's an elegant and simple way of explaining where we fit.

The two dimensions are structure and query type. Structure can either be predefined or ad hoc (and often, in the document world, there is a predefined structure that no one actually uses, which is de facto ad hoc). Query types can either be predefined (i.e., known in advance) or ad hoc (i.e., not known in advance).

Let's look at the quadrants that result:

• Bottom left is where both structure and queries and predefined. Hierarchical DBMSs, like IMS, live in this quadrant. In these (now legacy) systems, the structure of the data is rigidly defined as are the queries that may be run against them. These databases provide high performance, but their inflexibility became their Achilles' heel.
  

• Bottom right is where structure is predefined but queries are ad hoc. The quadrant defines the relational database, which brought unprecedented flexibility to database querying, eventually enabling the modern BI market. Data structure is predefined through the creation of tables with defined names/columns to hold the data. Queries are ad hoc -- in a well designed relational database, the system can provide the results for almost any imaginable query. (And with the right indexes, it can provide those results fairly quickly.)

• Top left is where queries are predefined but structure is not. This -- and this is non-obvious to most people -- is the zone of the enterprise search engine. People tend to think of search engines as providing high flexiblity because you can type any word in the search box. In reality, seen from a database viewpoint, search engines provide a small number of parametrized queries. (It's the parametrization that gives the impression of flexibility.) The small number of queries include (1) return list of documents where document contains word or phrase, (2) return list of documents where field-in-document contains word or phrase, (3) either query (1) or (2) where word or phrase is replaced with the search engine's basically Boolean primitive query language (i.e., AND, OR, NOT).
  

• The top right is the tricky zone where both queries and structure are not defined in advance. This is the zone of the XML Server, like MarkLogic. In these systems, content can be ingested "as is" without adherence to any predefined structure. Queries are ad hoc, and written in XQuery with full-text extensions. Given the proper indexes, these systems can run virtually any query against the content with high performance.
  

Hopefully this sheds some light on my soundbite that: "at Mark Logic, we are doing for (XML) documents what the relational database did for data."

Related articles by Zemanta

• MarkLogic 4.0: A Next-Generation Content System

ElfYourself's 7261-Word Terms of Service

I was over on corporate blogging expert Debbie Weil's blog today where she had a light-hearted post on ElfYourself, a site which serves but one simple purpose: upload a photo and turn yourself into an Elf.

With budding holiday spirit, I was about to give it a try, until I started browsing the terms of service. I scrolled, and scrolled, and scrolled before realizing that they have 7,261 words in their terms of service (that's 16 pages when pasted into Word) -- all for a site to support the weighty task of turning your picture into an Elf.

By comparison, the Mark Logic master software license and services agreement, which is used for million-dollar business to business enterprise software contracts, comes in at 6,052 words.

I wonder about the legal future of the web when people are increasingly clicking on totally unread and seemingly out-of-control service agreements.

Before diving into the full agreement, here a few of my favorite terms:

• The preamble says you may need to create a JibJab account to use ElfYourself and ergo you are subject also to JibJabs terms of service, which weigh in at 4,538 words, bringing the grand total up to 11,799 words.

• Section 4: You are solely responsible for your interactions with other users of the Elf Site. [A weighty responsibility, indeed.]
  

• Section 4: We reserve the right, but will have no obligation, to monitor interactions between users and take any action in good faith to restrict access to or the availability of any material that Operators or another user may consider to be obscene, lewd, defamatory, lascivious, filthy, offensive, violent, harassing or otherwise objectionable in the sole discretion of the Operators. [I've always wondered what the difference is between obscene, lewd, and lascivious.]

• Section 9: You may only link to the applicable Elf Site's home page unless we have provided prior, written consent to link to other pages [Is my linking to the terms of service without written consent a breach of contract? Seemingly yes, but remember, I didn't agree to the terms. Since there's no agreement, there's no breach, but sadly I'll never get to ElfMyself.]

• Section 14: You agree to: immediately notify Operators of any unauthorized use of your username and password or any other breach of security and log off from account at the end of each session. [My teenager (>14 years old required per the terms) forgot to log off from ElfYourself and now he's going to do hard time in the big house.]

• Section 15.6.ii: the User Materials do not and will not: (i) be defamatory, libelous, slanderous, or threatening, (ii) contain sexually explicit content that is pornographic, obscene, ... [They seem awfully worried about racy Elf photos. Given that, I'm wondering if there isn't a revenue opportunity for creating a site, say BadElf.com, that takes all the material that's banned on ElfYourself?]
  

• Section 15.6.x: [will not] provide instructional information about illegal activities such as making or buying illegal weapons. [This one's hard to believe. I guess it's never occurred to me that buried in an ElfYourself photograph are the instructions for making a dirty bomb.]

• Section 19: Elf Site Performance. You acknowledge and agree that the operation of the Elf Site may from time to time encounter technical or other problems and may not necessarily continue uninterrupted or without technical or other errors and Operators will not be responsible to you or others for any such interruptions, errors or problems or an outright discontinuance of the Operators service. [I suppose if Facebook, Twitter, Europeana, and eBay can crash, then it's reasonable to assume momentary outages on ElfYourself. Just please not on December 24th!]

• Section 22: IN NO EVENT WILL OPERATORS' TOTAL LIABILITY TO USER UNDER THIS AGREEMENT FROM ALL CAUSES OF ACTION AND UNDER ALL THEORIES OF LIABILITY EXCEED TWENTY DOLLARS ($20). [A seeming pittance consider the possibility of a lost or mangled Elf photo. Think of the lost memories. Think of the pain and suffering.]
  

For your amusement (and it is fun to read), here are the complete ElfYourself terms of service.

ElfYourself Terms of Service
Last Updated: November 11, 2008

IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ THESE ELFYOURSELF.COM TERMS OF SERVICE ("AGREEMENT") CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THE ELF SITE (DEFINED BELOW) AS THEY AFFECT YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS. This Agreement only applies to http://www.elfyourself.com and the services, features and content available on http://www.elfyourself.com (collectively, the "Elf Site") and does not apply to any other web site or any offline activities by OfficeMax Incorporated (OfficeMax) or JibJab Media Inc. ("JibJab") (unless specifically stated). The Elf Site is brought to you by OfficeMax and hosted by JibJab. OfficeMax and JibJab are collectively referred to in this Agreement as "Operators," "we," "us" or "our".

You agree to this Agreement by accessing or using the Elf Site, registering for services offered on the Elf Site, or by accepting, uploading, submitting or downloading any information or content from or to the Elf Site. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO BE BOUND BY ALL OF THIS AGREEMENT, DO NOT USE THE ELF SITE.

In some instances, both this Agreement and separate terms of service, and/or other conditions may apply to a service or product offered via the Elf Site ("Additional Terms"). For example, if you elect to store photos you have uploaded or videos you have created on the Elf Site, you will be required to register and create an account with JibJab governed by JibJab’s Terms of Service and JibJab’s Privacy Policy. To the extent there is a conflict between this Agreement and any Additional Terms, the Additional Terms will control unless the Additional Terms expressly state otherwise.

1. OWNERSHIP & LICENSE OF ELF SITE MATERIALS:
Unless otherwise explicitly specified, you agree that all Content (defined below) is, as between you and the Operators, owned or licensed by the Operators. "Content" includes, without limitation: audio; visual; audiovisual; text; and other elements and materials; graphics; layout; instructions, images; designs; advertising copy; logos; domain names; trade names; service marks and trade identities; any and all copyrightable material (including source and object code); the "look and feel" of the Elf Site; the compilation, assembly and arrangement of the Elf Site; and all other materials related to the Elf Site in any media or format now known or hereinafter devised, whether physical, electronic, digital, analog or otherwise. You agree that your right to use the Elf Site and Content, as set forth in this Agreement, is subject to using it for personal, non-commercial use only and that such use will not in any way transfer or convey any ownership rights or other proprietary interests therein to you.

Subject to your strict compliance with this Agreement and except as otherwise expressly permitted by this Agreement or Operators, Operators grant you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-commercial, revocable, non-assignable and non-transferable license to download, view and/or play one copy of the Content (excluding source and object code) on any single computer for your personal, non-commercial use only, provided that: you maintain all copyright and other proprietary notices contained in the original Content or any copy you may make of the Content; you do not use the Content in a manner that suggests an association with any of either Operator's products, services or brands; you do not modify the Content and you do not allow or aid or abet any third party (whether or not for your benefit): (i) to copy or adapt the object code of any Elf Site's software, HTML, JavaScript or other code; or (ii) reverse engineer, decompile, reverse assemble, modify or attempt to discover any source code that the Elf Site creates to generate its web pages or any software or other products or processes accessible through the Elf Site; and you do not insert any code or product to manipulate the Content in any way that affects any user's experience. You also agree that you will not: (a) use any robot, spider, rover, scraper, or any other data mining technology or automatic or manual process to monitor, cache, frame, mask, extract data from, copy or distribute the Content (except as may be a result of standard search engine or internet browser usage), nor will you (b) modify, frame, reproduce, archive, sell, lease, rent, exchange, create derivative works from, publish by hard copy or electronic means, publicly perform, display, disseminate, distribute, broadcast, retransmit, circulate to any third party or on any third-party web site, or otherwise use the Content in any way for any public or commercial purpose except as expressly permitted by this Agreement or Operators.

2. TERM/FEES:
This Agreement will remain in full force and effect while you use the Elf Site or are a registered user of the Elf Site. We may terminate your access to the Elf Site at any time, for any reason, effective immediately upon sending notice to you via the information you provide in your registration or such other information as you may subsequently provide to us. If we terminate your membership due to a breach of this Agreement, you will not be entitled to the refund of any unused portion of subscription fees (if any). If your access to the Elf Site is terminated, or upon demand from Operators, all rights granted to you under this Agreement will cease immediately, and you agree that you will: immediately discontinue use of the Elf Sites; destroy all materials obtained from the Elf Site and all related documentation; and if applicable, pay any amounts owed to Operators in full within thirty (30) days from the date of such termination and continue to pay any other amounts owed under this Agreement. Even after your account with the Elf Site is terminated, this Agreement will remain in full force and effect, as the terms hereof are not conditioned upon membership. You acknowledge that Operators reserve the right to charge for any or all of the Elf Site and have the right to terminate your account should you breach this Agreement or fail to pay for any fee-based services, as required.

3. ELIGIBILITY:
Participation on the Elf Site is void where prohibited. By registering on the Elf Site, you represent and warrant that all registration information submitted is truthful and accurate and you agree to maintain the accuracy of such information. By participating on the Elf Site, you represent and warrant that you are fourteen (14) years of age or older and that your use of the Elf Site will not violate any applicable law or regulation. Users profile may be deleted without warning, if it is found that a user is misrepresenting your age or any other membership data. Membership is solely for personal use, and you will not authorize others to use your account, including profile or email address.

4. USER CONDUCT:
You agree to act responsibly in a manner demonstrating the exercise of good judgment. For example and without limitation, you agree not to: (a) violate any applicable law or regulation, (b) submit any materials that conflict with any of your representations and warranties set forth in this Agreement, (c) infringe, misappropriate or violate the rights of any third party, including without limitation, intellectual property, privacy, publicity and/or contractual rights, (d) use the content and information available through the Elf Site for any unauthorized purpose, (e) interfere with or damage the Elf Site, including, without limitation, through the use of viruses, cancel bots, Trojan horses, harmful code, flood pings, denial of service attacks, packet or IP spoofing, forged routing or electronic mail address information or similar methods or technology, (f) use the Elf Site to transmit, distribute, post or submit any information concerning any other person or entity, including without limitation, photographs of others, voice or sound recordings of persons other than yourself, personal contact information or account numbers, or any defamatory materials of any kind, except where you have obtained express permission from such other person or entity in connection with any of the foregoing, or (g) use the Elf Site in connection with the distribution of unsolicited commercial e-mail ("Spam") or advertisements, (h) "stalk" or harass any other user of the Elf Site,, (i) collect or store any information about any other user other than in the course of the permitted use of the Elf Site, (j) use the Elf Site for any commercial purpose whatsoever (including, without limitation, to advertise, market, promote, sell or otherwise exploit any product or service), (k) sell or otherwise transfer any user information (e.g., user profiles) or other user's User Materials); or (l) assist any third party in doing any of the foregoing.

Operators may terminate any users' access to the Elf Site who are violators of the foregoing, including, without limitation, those who are infringers of third-party intellectual property rights, and may prohibit them from creating new accounts on the Elf Site.
You are solely responsible for your interactions with other users of the Elf Site. You are solely responsible for all content (including, without limitation, User Materials) uploaded to, published or displayed through your account or otherwise on the Elf Site, including any email messages. Operators will not be responsible for any damage or harm resulting from your interactions with other users. We reserve the right, but will have no obligation, to monitor interactions between users and take any action in good faith to restrict access to or the availability of any material that Operators or another user may consider to be obscene, lewd, defamatory, lascivious, filthy, offensive, violent, harassing or otherwise objectionable in the sole discretion of the Operators.
In addition to the foregoing, the User Materials you submit MUST NOT include nudity, violence, or offensive subject matter.

4. PRIVACY:
By submitting User Materials to the Elf Site, you understand that such User Materials may be made available for public review and comment and you waive any and all privacy expectations with respect to the User Materials. If you choose not to have your User Materials viewable by people you do not know, you should not upload User Materials to the Elf Site. By using the Elf Site, you agree to both the JibJab Privacy Policy and the OfficeMax Privacy Policy. We encourage you to review both for additional information about OfficeMax's and JibJab's collection and use of your personal information.

5. OWNERSHIP OF USER MATERIALS:
You will at all times retain all right, title and interest in and to the User Materials you provide under this Agreement (including, without limitation, the copyrights therein and thereto), subject to the non-exclusive rights granted to Operators under this Agreement. You are free to grant similar rights to others during and after the term of this Agreement. For the avoidance of doubt, when you submit User Materials to the Elf Site, you acknowledge that third parties may use the User Materials as described in this Agreement.

6. USER LICENSE:
As used in this Agreement, the term "User Materials" means your content, photographs, voice recordings, videos, audio, comments, written work, name(s), trademarks, trade names, likenesses, biographical materials, artwork, liner notes, and other graphical or textual materials that you upload, submit or otherwise provide to Operators via the Elf Site, and any and all computer-generated images or other artwork or images that you submit to Operators via the Elf Site.

Unless otherwise agreed between you and Operators, you hereby grant to Operators a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to do the following things in perpetuity:
1. to prepare and encode User Materials, or any portion thereof for electronic, digital and/or other transmission, manipulation and exhibition in any format and by any means now known or hereafter devised;
2. to display, copy, reproduce, create derivative works of, edit, alter, exhibit, publicly perform, broadcast, rebroadcast, transmit, retransmit, promote, distribute through any means (including electronic, analog and digital), and publish and/or otherwise exploit, in digital or physical form, any or all of the User Materials, including any portion thereof, and to include any such materials in compilations or other works, by any and all means in all media now known or hereinafter created, anywhere in the world, and for any purpose (for avoidance of doubt, the rights granted to Operators under this Agreement include the rights to make User Materials available on the Elf Site, third-party websites and electronic devices);
3. to make embed codes to which your User Materials link available;
4. to modify, adapt, change or otherwise alter and create derivative works of the User Materials and use the User Materials; and
5. to license and/or sublicense to any third party any of the foregoing rights in the User Materials, or any part or element thereof, subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement.
You hereby disclaim any and all right, title, or interest in any and all material with which User Materials may be combined or into which all or any portion of User Materials may be incorporated.
You acknowledge and agree that all right, title and interest (including, without limitation, copyright, trademark and other intellectual property rights) in and to any and all content, elements and materials created by or for Operators incorporating all or any portion of the User Materials will be exclusively owned and controlled, as between you and Operators, by Operators. You represent and warrant that by submitting User Materials to the Elf Site that the User Material is wholly- owned and/or controlled by you.

7. NAME AND LIKENESS:
You hereby grant to Operators:
1. a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to use: (i) your name(s), voice recording, photograph and/or likeness(es) and biographical materials; and (ii) any other individual's name, voice recording, photograph and/or likeness and biographical materials, where such other individual appears in the User Materials, in connection with the distribution, exploitation, promotion, marketing and advertising of the User Materials.
2. You also agree not to assert any privacy, publicity, moral or similar rights (and to the extent any other person(s) whose name(s), voice recordings, photographs and/or likeness(es) and/or performances that are embodied in the User Materials, you represent and warrant that you have obtained all necessary consents from such third parties consistent with the full scope of rights granted to Operators pursuant to this Agreement, and you agree that such persons will not assert any intellectual property, privacy, publicity, contractual, moral or similar rights, or make any claims that any User Materials are objectionable or otherwise defamatory).

8. THIRD PARTY LINKS AND CONTENT:
The Elf Site may contain content from parties other than JibJab and OfficeMax ("Third Party Content"), either through services we offer or through links to third party web sites other than JibJab.com and OfficeMax.com ("Third Party Sites"). You may also find links to Third Party Content and Sites in communications you receive from the Elf Site. Operators do not control, maintain or endorse Third Party Content or Third Party Sites and make no representations or warranties about either. By using the Elf Site, you may be exposed to Third Party Content that is false, offensive, indecent or otherwise objectionable and you agree that Operators will not be liable in any way or under any circumstances for any Third Party Content, including, without limitation, any errors or omissions in any Third Party Content or any loss or damage of any kind you may incur as a result of the use of any Third Party Content or Sites posted, stored, accessed or transmitted via the Elf Site. YOUR CORRESPONDENCE AND BUSINESS DEALINGS WITH OTHERS FOUND ON OR THROUGH THE ELF SITE INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE PAYMENT AND DELIVERY OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES, AND ANY TERMS, CONDITIONS, WARRANTIES AND REPRESENTATIONS ASSOCIATED WITH ANY SUCH DEALINGS, ARE SOLELY BETWEEN YOU AND THE THIRD PARTY. YOU AGREE TO REVIEW AND EVALUATE ALL POLICIES, RULES, TERMS AND REGULATIONS, INCLUDING THE PRIVACY POLICIES AND TERMS OF SERVICE OF EACH AND ANY THIRD PARTY SITE THAT YOU VISIT, AND BEAR ALL RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH, THIRD PARTY CONTENT AND THIRD PARTY SITES.

9. LINKING POLICY:
Operators grant you the revocable permission to link to the Elf Site; provided, however, that your website, or any third party web sites that link to the Elf Site: (a) may only link to the applicable Elf Site's home page unless we have provided prior, written consent to link to other pages; (b) must not frame or create a browser or border environment around any of the content on the Site or otherwise mirror any part of the Site; (c) must not imply that the Operators or the Elf Site is endorsing or sponsoring it or its products, unless we have given our prior written consent; (d) must not present false information about, or disparage, tarnish, or otherwise, in Operators' sole opinion, harm either OfficeMax, Inc. or JibJab Media, Inc. or either's products or services; (e) must not use any of either Operator's trademarks without the prior written permission of the applicable Operator; (f) must not contain content that could be construed as distasteful, offensive or controversial or otherwise objectionable (in our sole opinion), and (g) must be owned and controlled by you or the person or entity placing the link, or otherwise permit you to enable such link subject to this Agreement. By linking to the Elf Site, you agree that you do and will continue to comply with the above linking requirements. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in this Agreement, we reserve the right to prohibit linking to the Elf Site for any reason in our sole and absolute discretion even if the linking complies with the requirements described above.

10. TERMS OF SALE:
To the extent you can purchase a good or service through the Elf Site, the purchase transaction will be wholly processed and fulfilled by JibJab, and governed by the JibJab Terms of Sale and any other Additional Terms that are posted therewith.

11. COLLABORATIVE CONTENT AND VIRAL DISTRIBUTION:
Certain functionality on the Elf Site permits collaborative creation of content by users (“Collaborative Content”). Your contributions to the Collaborative Content are User Materials except that the resulting content is subject, in addition to all other applicable terms, to the following additional provisions as a condition to your use of any such functionality and the use of Content, if any, made available for use in connection with the Collaborative Content on the Elf Site:
1. the license to use the Content in connection with Collaborative Content or otherwise in association with User Materials is limited to Content specifically made available by Operators for that purpose, and may be revoked by Operators at any time without liability to you;
2. your use of the Collaborative Content is subject to this Agreement and any additional terms and conditions as Operators may from time-to-time require;
3. you will not make any commercial use of the Collaborative Content, or the Content made available for use in the Collaborative Content, in whole or in part, or sell, lease, hypothecate, transfer, license, distribute, reproduce, encumber or otherwise exploit same, in whole or in part, except that you may use the Elf Site to create Collaborative Content pursuant to this Agreement and, if expressly permitted on the Elf Site, you may engage in Viral Distribution pursuant to this Agreement.
If expressly permitted on the Elf Site, Operators grant you a limited, revocable permission to engage in Viral Distribution of Collaborative Content as may from time to time be made available on the Elf Site for such purpose. “Viral Distribution” means, for non-commercial purposes only: (a) sending Collaborative Content to friends, acquaintances at no charge by e-mail or other forms of digital delivery; (b) reproducing copies of Collaborative Content for personal use; and (c) posting and displaying links to Collaborative Content on a personal web site or on a third party web site that permits posting of such links at the direction of users subject to its terms and conditions, provided that such third party web site does not charge for access to the Collaborative Content or associate products, services or advertising with the Collaborative Content.
You agree to include, and not remove or alter Operators trademarks, copyrights or other proprietary rights notices specified on the Elf Site and within e-mail page(s), when displaying any Collaborative Content, and you agree to comply with usage guidelines that may be provided by Operators from time to time. WE DO NOT ENCOURAGE OR REWARD YOU FOR VIRAL DISTRIBUTION AND YOU AGREE NOT TO ENAGAGE IN SPAMMING OR OTHER UNLAWFUL OR CONTROVERSIAL BEHAVIOR IN CONNECTION THEREWITH.

12. PROPRIETARY RIGHTS:
You agree that all content and materials available on the Elf Site are protected by rights of publicity, copyright, trademarks, service marks, patents, trade secrets or other proprietary rights and laws. Except as expressly authorized by Operators, you agree not to sell, license, rent, modify, distribute, copy, reproduce, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, publish, adapt, edit or create derivative works from materials or content available on the Elf Site, or otherwise use any content, copyrights, trademarks or intellectual property of Operators in any way without Operators' prior, written consent. You also agrees not to retrieve data or other content or any materials from the Elf Site to create or compile, directly or indirectly, a collection, compilation, database, directory or the like, whether by manual methods, through the use of "bots" or otherwise. You agree not to use any of Operators' content, names or trademarks as metatags on other web sites. You agree not to display any of the Elf Site in a frame (or any of our content via in-line links) without Operators' express written permission.

13. COPYRIGHT AGENT:
You may not use the Elf Site for any purpose or in any manner that infringes the rights of any third party. In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (the "DMCA") (full text at http://www.copyright.gov), OfficeMax has designated an agent for receiving notices of copyright infringement relating to the Elf Site and OfficeMax follows the notice and take down procedures of the DMCA. OfficeMax has a policy of terminating the accounts of users who (in its reasonable discretion) are repeat infringers. If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide OfficeMax's copyright agent with the following information required by the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act of the DMCA, 17 U.S.C. § 512: (a) a physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed; (b) identification of the copyright work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site; (c) identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and information reasonably sufficient to permit us to locate the material; (d) information reasonably sufficient to permit us to contact the complaining party; (e) a statement that the complaining party has a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and (f) a statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed. OfficeMax's copyright agent for notice of claims of copyright infringement on or regarding the Elf Site may be reached at:
Copyright Notices c/o General Counsel
263 Shuman Blvd.
Naperville, IL 60563
T: 630 864 5070
F: 630 864 4527
copyrightnotice@officemax.com
This contact information is for inquiries regarding potential copyright infringement on the Elf Site only and no other correspondence to this information will be addressed.

14. MEMBERSHIP AND REGISTRATION:
Certain areas or services within the Elf Site may require registration or may otherwise ask you to provide information to participate in certain features or access certain Content or User Materials. The decision to provide this information is purely optional; however, if you elect not to provide such information, you may not be able to access certain Content or User Materials or participate in certain features of the Elf Site. When you provide information to the Elf Site, you agree to provide only true, accurate, current and complete information. If you register with either OfficeMax or JibJab, you will select a username and password when completing the registration process. You are solely and fully responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your username and password and restricting access to your computer (or other internet access device, as applicable), and will be solely and fully responsible for all activities that occur under using that username and password to access the Elf Site. You agree to: immediately notify Operators of any unauthorized use of your username and password or any other breach of security and log off from account at the end of each session. Operators cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your registration on the Elf Site. In addition, if you register with JibJab you will be required to verify your email address. If you do not verify your email address within the time indicated your registration may be cancelled. By registering with Elfyourself.com you are also registering with JibJab.com and your chosen username and password will work on both sites.

15. REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES:
You represent and warrant that:
1. You have the full right and power to enter into and perform this Agreement and to grant Operators all rights to use the User Materials as contemplated in this Agreement, including, without limitation, the license grants in this Agreement,
2. You exclusively own and/or control all right, title and interest (including, without limitation, copyright) in and to the User Materials, and have secured all necessary third-party consents, rights, licenses and permissions, if any, required in order for you to enter into and perform this Agreement and to grant Operators all rights to use the User Materials as contemplated in this Agreement (including, without limitation, consents and permissions from owners of any elements that are used or otherwise incorporated into the User Materials),
3. the User Materials (and Operators' use thereof as contemplated under this Agreement) do not and will not infringe, misappropriate or violate any rights of any third party, including any trademark, copyright, patent, trade secret, right of privacy or publicity or moral rights of any third party,
4. all information that you have provided or will provide to Operators is true and complete,
5. the User Materials do not and will not violate any law, statute, ordinance or regulation,
6. the User Materials do not and will not: (i) be defamatory, libelous, slanderous, or threatening, (ii) contain sexually explicit content that is pornographic, obscene, harmful to minors, violations of child pornography or child sexual exploitation laws (iii) denigrate any ethnic, racial, sexual or religious group by stereotypical depiction or otherwise, (iv) include images or the likeness of any individual other than you (except where you have obtained express permission from such other individual(s) for such exploitation), (v) encourage or otherwise depict drug use, (vi) make use of offensive language or images, (vii) promote physical harm of any kind against any individual or group or characterize violence, (viii) contain any personal contact information of you or any other individual, (ix) promote an illegal or unauthorized copy of another person's copyrighted work, such as providing pirated computer programs or links to them, providing information to circumvent manufacture-installed copy-protect devices, or providing pirated music or links to pirated music files; (x) provide instructional information about illegal activities such as making or buying illegal weapons, violating someone's privacy, or providing or creating computer viruses; (xi) solicit passwords or personal identifying information for commercial or unlawful purposes from other users; and/or (xii) engage in any commercial activities whatsoever and/or sales without Operators' prior written consent.
7. the User Materials do not and will not contain any viruses spyware, adware or other programming routines that may detrimentally interfere with computer systems or data, whether those of Operators or any third party.

16. MEMBER DISPUTES:
You are solely responsible for your interactions with other users of the Elf Site, whether online or offline. We are not responsible or liable for the conduct of any user. Operators reserve the right, but have no obligation, to monitor disputes between you and other users. Exercise common sense and your best judgment in your interactions with others, when you submit or post any personal or other information, and in all other online activities.

17. ITEMS AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD AND THIRD PARTY PAYMENTS:
To the extent that we make any applications, software or functionalities available for download or use from or through the Elf Site (the "Downloadable Items"), such Downloadable Items are the copyrighted work (as between you and the Operators), of Operators or its licensors or suppliers. Your use of the Downloadable Items may be governed by Additional Terms, which may be included with the Downloadable Items. Please carefully read any Additional Terms to determine the full extent of conditions governing the use of such Downloadable Items. Note that if you install certain applications that may be available via the Elf Site, you consent to the download of software to your computer and accept this Agreement and any Additional Terms related to such application. With respect to any User Materials that you download from or through the Elf Site, you are responsible for all licensing, reporting and payment obligations of any kind to third parties in connection with the User Materials (including, without limitation, any such obligations that may arise from Operators' use of such User Materials as authorized in this Agreement). You also agree that any Downloadable Items you obtain from the Elf Site (whether for free or for a fee) are only provided to you for your personal, non-commercial use and are not meant for you to further distribute.

18. INDEMNITY:
You agree to defend, indemnify, reimburse and hold Operators and their parents, subsidiaries and affiliated entities, and their members, managers, officers, directors, representatives, employees, agents, successors, designees, licensees, sublicensees and assigns harmless from and against any and all claims, damages, investigations, liabilities, loss, damages, judgments, settlements, costs and expenses (including attorney's fees, costs and expenses and court costs) that directly or indirectly arise out of or are directly or indirectly related to:
1. your use of the Elf Site or activities in connection with the Elf Site;
2. the User Materials;
3. any anticipatory breach, breach or alleged breach of your representations and warranties and/or any anticipatory breach, breach, alleged breach or violation of any other terms and conditions of this Agreement;
4. your violation or alleged or threatened violation of any laws, rules regulations, codes, statutes, ordinances or orders of any governmental or quasi-governmental authorities, including, without limitation, all regulatory, administrative and legislative authorities;
5. information or material transmitted through your computer to the Elf Site as User Materials or otherwise, even if not submitted by you, that infringes, violates or misappropriates any rights of a third party, including, without limitation, any trademark, copyright, patent, trade secret, trade dress, defamation, right of privacy or publicity or moral rights of any third party,
6. any misrepresentation made by you; and
7. Operators use of your information or your User Materials.
You agree to fully cooperate as required by the Operators in the defense of any claim. Operators reserve the right to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you, and you will not in any event settle any claim without the prior written consent of the Operators.

19. ELF SITE PERFORMANCE:
You acknowledge and agree that the operation of the Elf Site may from time to time encounter technical or other problems and may not necessarily continue uninterrupted or without technical or other errors and Operators will not be responsible to you or others for any such interruptions, errors or problems or an outright discontinuance of the Operators service. There are no assurances whatsoever that any of the User Materials or any part or element thereof will actually be utilized on the Operators Site or if so utilized continue to be available for any particular time. Operators have the right, in Operators' sole and absolute discretion, to remove from the Elf Site at any time the User Materials or any part thereof. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Operators do not control the content of the User Materials and do not have any obligation to monitor such content for any purpose. You acknowledge that you are solely responsible for all content submitted to the Elf Site. The Elf Site may be discontinued at any time, with or without reason and without any liability to you or to any third party for any modification or discontinuance of any or all of the Elf Site.

20. NO WARRANTY:
THE ELF SITE, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE CONTENT, IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS", "AS AVAILABLE" AND "WITH ALL FAULTS" BASIS. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, OPERATORS OR ANY OF ITS EMPLOYEES; DIRECTORS; OFFICERS; SHAREHOLDERS; AGENTS; VENDORS AND CONTRACTORS MAKE NO WARRANTIES, REPRESENTATIONS OR ENDORSEMENTS OF ANY KIND WHATSOEVER EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ABOUT, WITHOUT LIMITATION: THE ELF SITE; THE CONTENT ON OR PROVIDED THROUGH THE ELF SITE; USER MATERIALS; THE FUNCTIONS MADE ACCESSIBLE ON OR THROUGH THE ELF SITE; ANY PRODUCTS, SERVICES OR INSTRUCTIONS OFFERED OR REFERENCED AT OR THROUGH THE ELF SITE; AND/OR SECURITY ASSOCIATED WITH THE TRANSMISSION OF INFORMATION TRANSMITTED TO OPERATORS OR VIA THE ELF SITE. IN ADDITION, THE OPERATORS HEREBY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, TITLE, CUSTOM, TRADE, QUIET ENJOYMENT, SYSTEM INTEGRATION AND FREEDOM FROM COMPUTER VIRUS.
OPERATORS FURTHERMORE DO NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT THAT: THE ELF SITE OR THE FUNCTIONS CONTAINED THEREIN WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR FREE OR CONTINUOUSLY AVAILABILE, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED; OR THAT THE ELF SITE OR THE SERVER THAT MAKES THEM AVAILABLE IS FREE FROM ANY HARMFUL COMPONENTS, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, VIRUSES. OPERATORS DO NOT MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES THAT THE INFORMATION (INCLUDING ANY INSTRUCTIONS) ON THE ELF SITE IS ACCURATE, COMPLETE, CORRECT, ADEQUATE, USEFUL, TIMELY, RELIABLE OR OTHERWISE. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE, BY YOUR USE OF THE ELF SITE, THAT YOUR USE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. OPERATORS DO NOT WARRANT THAT YOUR USE OF THE ELF SITE IS LAWFUL IN ANY PARTICULAR JURISDICTION, AND OPERATORS SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM SUCH WARRANTIES. SOME JURISDICTIONS LIMIT OR DO NOT ALLOW THE DISCLAIMER OF IMPLIED OR OTHER WARRANTIES SO THE ABOVE DISCLAIMER MAY NOT APPLY TO THE EXTENT SUCH JURISDICTION'S LAW IS APPLICABLE TO THESE TERMS. BY ACCESSING OR USING THE ELF SITE YOU REPRESENT AND WARRANT THAT YOUR ACTIVITIES ARE LAWFUL IN EVERY JURISDICTION WHERE YOU ACCESS OR USE THE ELF SITE.

21. NO LIABILITY FOR THIRD PARTY USE:
OPERATORS DO NOT ENDORSE THE USER MATERIAL OR COLLABORATIVE CONTENT, ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE USER MATERIAL OR COLLABORATIVE CONTENT AND DISCLAIM ALL RESPONSIBILITY AND LIABILITY FOR ANY THIRD-PARTY (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, PERSONS WHO MAY USE OR RELY ON SUCH USER CONTENT OR COLLABORATIVE CONTENT) USE OF THE USER MATERIALS OR COLLARBORATIVE CONTENT MADE AVAILABLE ON THE ELF SITE BY THE USER PURSUANT TO THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT. YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR SEEKING RELIEF FOR ANY UNAUTHORIZED USE OF YOUR USER MATERIALS BY A THIRD-PARTY, AND NOT FROM OPERATORS. THIS MEANS, AMONG OTHER THINGS, THAT IF ANOTHER PERSON OBTAINS USER MATERIALS FROM OPERATORS (WHETHER OR NOT WITH OPERATORS'S PERMISSION), AND USES THOSE MATERIALS IN A WAY NOT AUTHORIZED PURSUANT TO THE LICENSES GRANTED UNDER THIS AGREEMENT, YOU WILL SEEK REDRESS FROM THE OTHER PERSON AND NOT FROM OPERATORS, AND THAT YOU WILL NOT HOLD OPERATORS RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE FOR SUCH UNAUTHORIZED USE.

22. EXCLUSION OF DAMAGES:
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE) WILL OPERATORS, THEIR OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, MEMBERS, PARENTS, AFFILIATES, SUBSIDIARIES, LICENSEES, ASSIGNS, SUCCESSORS, AGENTS, REPRESENTATIVES, EMPLOYEES OR LICENSORS BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, ECONOMIC, EXEMPLARY, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL LOSSES OR DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF AN ACTION UNDER CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR ANY OTHER THEORY AND DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF BUSINESS INFORMATION, OR OTHER PECUNIARY LOSS), THAT ARE DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY RELATED TO: THE ELF SITE; THE CONTENT; USER MATERIALS; YOUR USE OF, INABILITY TO USE, OR THE PERFORMANCE OF THE ELF SITE; ANY ACTION TAKEN IN CONNECTION WITH AN INVESTIGATION BY THE OPERATORS OR LAW ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITIES REGARDING YOUR USE OF THE ELF SITE; ANY ACTION TAKEN IN CONNECTION WITH COPYRIGHT OR OTHER INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OWNERS; ANY ERRORS OR OMISSIONS IN THE ELF SITE' TECHNICAL OPERATION; OR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR OR ANY USER'S COMPUTER, HARDWARE, COMPUTER SOFTWARE, CELLULAR PHONE OR DEVICE, MODEM OR OTHER EQUIPMENT OR TECHNOLOGY INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGE FROM ANY SECURITY BREACH OR FROM ANY VIRUS, BUGS, TAMPERING, FRAUD, ERROR, OMISSION, INTERRUPTION, DEFECT, DELAY IN OPERATION OR TRANSMISSION, COMPUTER LINE OR NETWORK FAILURE OR ANY OTHER TECHNICAL OR OTHER MALFUNCTION, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOST PROFITS, LOSS OF GOODWILL, LOSS OF DATA, WORK STOPPAGE, ACCURACY OF RESULTS, OR COMPUTER FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION, WHETHER OR NOT OPERATORS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. NOTE: SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE DISCLAIMER OF SOME TYPES OF DAMAGES, SO SOME OF THE ABOVE MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. IN NO EVENT WILL OPERATORS' TOTAL LIABILITY TO USER UNDER THIS AGREEMENT FROM ALL CAUSES OF ACTION AND UNDER ALL THEORIES OF LIABILITY EXCEED TWENTY DOLLARS ($20). YOU AGREE THAT IN THE EVENT YOU INCUR ANY DAMAGES, LOSSES OR INJURIES THAT ARISE OUT OF OPERATORS' ACTS OR OMISSIONS, THE DAMAGES, IF ANY, CAUSED TO YOU ARE NOT IRREPARABLE OR SUFFICIENT TO ENTITLE YOU TO AN INJUNCTION PREVENTING ANY EXPLOITATION OF ANY WEB SITE, PROPERTY, PRODUCT, SERVICE, OR OTHER MATERIALS OWNED OR CONTROLLED BY THE OPERATORS AND YOU WILL HAVE NO RIGHTS TO ENJOIN OR RESTRAIN THE DEVELOPMENT, PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION, ADVERTISING, EXHIBITION OR EXPLOITATION OF ANY WEB SITE, PROPERTY, PRODUCT, SERVICE, OR OTHER MATERIALS OWNED OR CONTROLLED BY THE OPERATORS.
BY ACCESSING THE ELF SITE, YOU UNDERSTAND THAT YOU MAY BE WAIVING RIGHTS WITH RESPECT TO CLAIMS THAT ARE AT THIS TIME UNKNOWN OR UNSUSPECTED, AND IN ACCORDANCE WITH SUCH WAIVER, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ AND UNDERSTAND, AND HEREBY EXPRESSLY WAIVE, THE BENEFITS OF SECTION 1542 OF THE CIVIL CODE OF CALIFORNIA, AND ANY SIMILAR LAW OF ANY STATE OR TERRITORY, WHICH PROVIDES AS FOLLOWS: "A GENERAL RELEASE DOES NOT EXTEND TO CLAIMS WHICH THE CREDITOR DOES NOT KNOW OR SUSPECT TO EXIST IN HIS FAVOR AT THE TIME OF EXECUTING THE RELEASE, WHICH IF KNOWN BY HIM MUST HAVE MATERIALLY AFFECTED HIS SETTLEMENT WITH THE DEBTOR."
YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT OPERATORS HAVE ENTERED INTO THIS AGREEMENT IN RELIANCE ON THE LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY SPECIFIED IN THIS AGREEMENT, WHICH ALLOCATE THE RISK BETWEEN YOU AND OPERATORS, AND FORM THE BASIS OF THE BARGAIN BETWEEN THE PARTIES.

23. COPYRIGHT AND TRADEMARK NOTICES:
You acknowledge and agree that the names OfficeMax and JibJab, the Operators logos and characters, and the layout and design of the Elf Site, among other marks that may appear on the Elf Site are, as between you and Operators, trademarks of Operators (the "Operators Marks"). Other trademarks and service marks on the Elf Site may be the property of the advertisers, content partners and/or providers, or other third parties. You may not use any of the Operators Marks without Operators' prior written permission, and you may not use any third-party marks without the third party's prior written permission.

24. LOCATION OF ELF SITE AND EXPORT CONTROLS:
The information provided on the Elf Site is not intended for distribution to or use by any person or entity in any jurisdiction or country where such distribution or use would be contrary to law or regulation or which would subject Operators to any registration requirement within such jurisdiction or country. Operators control and operate the Elf Site from offices located in the United States and make no representations or warranties that the information, products or services contained on the Elf Site are appropriate for use or access in other locations. Anyone using or accessing the Elf Site from other locations does so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with United States', and local laws regarding online conduct and acceptable content, if and to the extent such local laws are applicable. We reserve the right to limit the availability of the Elf Site and/or the provision of any content, program, product, service or other feature described or available thereon to any person, geographic area, or jurisdiction, at any time and in our sole discretion, and to limit the quantities of any such content, program, product, service or other feature that we provide. Software from the Elf Site (the "Software") is further subject to United States export controls. No Software may be downloaded from the Elf Site or otherwise exported or re-exported (i) into (or to a national or resident of) Cuba, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Iran, Syria, or any other Country to which the U.S. has embargoed goods; or (ii) to anyone on the U.S. Treasury Department's list of Specially Designated Nationals or the U.S. Commerce Department's Table of Deny Orders. By downloading or using the Software, you represent and warrant that you are not located in, under the control of, or a national or resident of any such country or on any such list.

25. GOVERNING LAW, JURISDICTION:
THIS AGREEMENT WILL BE GOVERNED IN ALL RESPECTS BY THE LAWS OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS WITHOUT REGARD TO ITS OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION'S CONFLICT OF LAWS PRINCIPLES. THE SOLE VENUE AND JURISDICTION FOR DISPUTES ARISING FROM THIS AGREEMENT WILL BE THE APPROPRIATE STATE OR FEDERAL COURT LOCATED IN COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS, AND USER AND OPERATORS BOTH IRREVOCABLY AGREE TO SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF SUCH COURTS.

26. ASSIGNMENT:
Operators have the right to assign this Agreement in whole or in part to any person or business entity. You may not assign your rights or delegate your obligations under this Agreement without the prior written consent of Operators.

27. ENTIRE AGREEMENT, SEVERABILITY AND MODIFICATION:
This Agreement, together with certain Additional Terms, sets forth the entire understanding and agreement of your and Operators as to the subject matter hereof and supersedes all prior proposals, discussions or agreements (oral and written) with respect to such subject matter. If any provision of this Agreement will be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision will be deemed severable from this Agreement and will not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions. Operators' failure to act with respect to a breach by you or others does not waive Operators' right to act with respect to antecedent, subsequent or similar breaches.

28. STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS:
You agree that regardless of any statute or law to the contrary, any claim or cause of action arising out of or related to use of the Service or this Agreement must be filed within one (1) year after such claim or cause of action arose or be forever barred.

29. MODIFICATION:
Operators reserve the right to change the terms of this Agreement from time to time in their sole discretion. Any change or modification made by Operators will be effective immediately upon posting on the Elf Site. By continuing to use the Elf Site after such notice, you agree to be bound by the changes to this Agreement and the new terms of the Agreement will govern all prior and future submissions of User Materials.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Elf Yourself returns for Christmas 2008 - this time using Jib Jab for added fuctionality!
• This Christmas, OfficeMax's ElfYourself.com Will Get a JibJab Twist

Is Venture Capital Broken?

See this post on VentureBeat, entitled The VC Model is Broken which asserts that the venture capital model no longer works and that the Bubble 1.0 get-out-jail-free card given to the industry around 2001 has now come due.

The post refers to a presentation by Adeo Ressi, founder of Yelp-for-VCs site The Funded which asserts that:

• VC is too much of a "hits business" (i.e., returns are lackluster excluding the 1-2 top hits per fund, and that some funds, presumably the B- and C-tier ones, don't even have those hits)
• VC is too clubby with too many exits of newer companies going to earlier portfolio companies at lofty valuations. ("Can you please buy my other company, at a premium?") One cannot help but think of YouTube's $1.6B exit to Google in this context.
• VC is too herd oriented, resulting in too many me-too companies being funded and too few truly innovative companies being funded.
  
• 2H08 is the first time period in which VC exits are less than VC investments
  

He recommends the following changes:

• Less funds and better funds
• More deals and equal treatment
• Simplified terms and standard structures
• Improved fund governance
• Restructure fund incentives

Personally, while I agree with many of his asserted troubles, I generally disagree with his recommendations. To me, market forces should work over time to correct all ills.

• Presumably, if mainstream VCs are too herd oriented then newer/different VCs should be able to stake out the different positioning. And LPs who seek such differences should be able to find them.
• Similarly, if there is a problem with mainstream VC terms/structures, then presumably B-tier and/or new VCs can attempt to differentiate themselves by offering these different terms.
• Increasingly, private equity firms are entering and innovating in VC already. I suspect they are exploiting the opportunities created by the standard criticisms of VC.
• With the fall in the stock markets, most institutions are presumably now over-allocated to VC and/or private equity. That is, if you want a 10% VC allocation and the stock market falls 30%, then presumably you end up in a 15%+ position. So I suspect institutions and investors will be seeking to reduce VC exposure, not increase it.

Basically, I'm a believer in Darwin/Malthus. Yes, VC was "too easy" in the 1990s and presumably too much money flowed in and too many firms and funds were created. But the natural response to this, over time, should be a weeding out of the weaker funds and players. Since VC timeframes are elongated, with the typical fund lasting 10 ten years, it will take a long time for these cycles to play out -- but play out they will.

Here are the slides from Adeo Ressi:

TheFunded - Canarie

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: lp investing)

Related articles by Zemanta

• Breakingviews.com: From the Valley Comes a Warning
• Recession: We need private equity to weather the storm
• VCs pin hopes on green-tech 'exits'

IBM's Top Ten Reasons to Use Native XML Databases

Conor O'Mahony, who leads XML product strategy for data management at IBM, runs a solid blog called Native XML Databases where he talks about databases, XML, and the offering on which he presumably works, IBM DB2 PureXML.

Like this blog, it's a balance of generic native XML evangelism and IBM PureXML-specific evangelism. But nevertheless I think it's a good blog, worth reading, and that we have more commonalities -- e.g., a desire to get people to understand that XML is different and the need to store it natively -- than differences.

One nice post he did was entitled Ten Reasons Why DBAs Should Understand Native XML. I've embedded the slides for it below.

| View | Upload your own

Stephen Arnold on Search and Enterprise Publishing

Just a quick note to highlight this post on the ever-colorful Beyond Search blog by Stephen Arnold. Entitled New Info Mix: Search and Enterprise Publishing, the post provides a discussion of professional and enterprise publishing from the downstream perspective of print production / composition shops.

Arnold argues that most of the high-tech enterprise publishing crowd is overlooking both the size and strategic importance of the opportunity to come at publishing from the other end of the market. Excerpt:

I think that dismissing this story is a bad idea, particularly for companies in the search, content processing, and text analytics business. Here’s why:

• Most vendors of enterprise search have not entered the enterprise publishing sector. Some of the firms with which I have had contact are generally unaware of these systems, their inclusion of search as a utility, and the systems’ ability to output Web pages, reports, and invoices. This cloud of unknowing is one that should be dispelled but the ostrich approach to business is often a favorite of search vendors, their advisers, and the conference organizers who seem indifferent to this major shift in enterprise information systems.

• Enterprise publishing systems carry hefty price tags. Because the systems are mission critical and make it possible to cross sell or run ads in most output from the system, seven or eight figure deals are not uncommon. Enterprise search and content processing systems that purport to index “all information” for the organization may gain credibility in some parts of an organization, but at the CFO level, enterprise publishing gets the attention of the woman who writes the checks.

• The end-to-end model seems to becoming popular. I may be reacting to news stories that flow through my intelligence system. [...] The Exstream Software deals are, as I understood the briefing I got earlier this year, end-to-end. The question becomes, “Where do specialist search, content processing, and text mining companies fit in?”

An excellent point, worth pondering, and ponder I will.

XML: Why You Should Care

The folks at O'Reilly Media have created an excellent blog around their ToC (Tools of Change for Publishing) meme and event. As part of that, they are running a series called StartWithXML that has some excellent material on the topic of XML and publishing.

One of the first posts in the StartWithXML project is entitled Why You Should Care About XML by Andrew Savikas, with whom I had the pleasure of speaking on a panel at the Gilbane conference in San Francisco a few months back. Excerpt:

But there are several reasons why it's really really important for publishers to start paying attention to XML right now, and across their entire workflow:

• XML is here to stay, for the reasonably forseeable future. While it's always dangerous to attempt to predict expiration dates on technology, I think it's fair to assume XML will have a shelf life at least as long as ASCII, which has been with us for more than 40 years, and isn't going anywhere soon.

• Web publishing and print publishing are converging, and writing and production for print will be much more influenced by the Web than vice-versa. It will only get harder to succeed in publishing without putting the Web on par with (or ahead of) print as the primary target. The longer you wait to get that content into Web-friendly and re-usable XML, the worse.

Many in publishing balk at bringing XML "up the stack" to the production, editing, or even the authoring stage. And with good reason; XML isn't really meant to be created or edited by hand (though a nice feature is that in a pinch it easily can be). There are two places to look for useful clues about how XML will actually fit into a publisher's workflow: Web publishing and the "alpha geeks."

He then goes on to examining both web publishing and alpha geek behavior in order to provide a lay of the future publishing land. See the post for more.

O'Reilly is also hosting a StartWithXML one-day forum in New York City on 1/13/09 at the McGraw-Hill Auditorium.

A New Media Plan for Weathering the Storm

Check out this post by Gawker Media's Nick Denton entitled A 2009 Internet Media Plan. It's a publisher's wake-up call and the Sequoia RIP Good Times presentation rolled together, all in one. Valleywag, itself a Gawker property, entitled its story about the post Publishers are Sleeping their Way to Extinction (supposedly the draft 1 title, according to them).

Denton offers six pieces of advice for (largely consumer-oriented publishers) the future:

• Get out of advertiser-averse categories, e.g., politics
• Renegotiate vendor contracts
• Consolidate titles
• Move more offshore
• Implement variable compensation plans
• Deliver more value for marketers
  

Unlearning the Relational Model

Thanks to a Google Alert I stumbled into this interesting post entitled The Content Imperative: Unlearning the Relational Model in another CEO blog, that of Joel Amoussou of Montreal-based Efasoft.

Says Joel:

The following are some fundamental differences between content and relational data:

• Content is created to be human readable
  
• Content can be rendered in multiple presentation formats such as print, web, and wireless devices. Therefore it is very important to cleanly separate content from presentation
  
• Content can have an inherent deep hierarchical structure. For example, think about the book/part/chapter/section/subsection/paragraph hierarchy
  
• The relationships between content items are expressed through hierarchical containment and hyperlinks
  
• Content is often mixed (in the sense of mixed content in XML). For example inside a paragraph, some words are italicized, in bold, or underlined to indicate special meaning
  
• Content can have multi-valued properties such as the authors of a document. Multi-valued properties are not supported by SQL.

He continues, starting an argument in favor of XML:

The problem with unstructured content is that it cannot be processed and queried like the well-structured relational data stored by the RDBMS on which your ERP and CRM systems sit. XML goes beyond tags (in the web 2.0 sense), taxonomies, full-text search, and content categorization to provide fine-grained content discovery, query, and processing capabilities. With XML, the document becomes the database. If your business is content (you are a media company, a publisher, or the technical documentation department of a manufacturing company), then you should seriously consider the benefits of XML in terms of content longevity, reuse, repurposing, and cross-media publishing.

And goes on to discuss XQuery:

The relational data model is based on set theory and predicate logic. Data is represented as n-ary relations and manipulated with relational algebra. CMS vendors and even standard bodies have tried to fork SQL in order to support hierarchies and multi-value properties. It is clear however that XQuery is a superior alternative, specifically designed to address those content-related concerns.

And then finally argues in favor of XML databases over a JCR repository when dealing with large amounts of content:

You should seriously consider a native XML database when dealing with large quantities of document-oriented XML documents.

I couldn't agree more. (Hey, I think I like this guy). The post also includes some discussion of data vs. content modeling and some interesting parallel history between SGML/XML and the RDBMS.

The Valley and the Bust

I found an interesting article in Forbes the other day entitled The Silicon Lining / Why the Bust is Good for Silicon Valley and I thought I'd discuss it a bit here.

Let's start with this excerpt with some interesting IPO-related stats:

Wall Street has been broken for eight years now, as far as Silicon Valley is concerned. Alan Patricof, a legendary venture capitalist, recently remarked: "We no longer invest with the idea of taking our companies public. If they do [IPO], it's an accident."

... Since 2002, there have been just 351 IPOs out of 19,300 VC-backed companies--fewer than one in 50 ...

... The ratio of mergers and acquisitions to IPOs has gone from roughly 1:1 from 1996 to 2000 to 6:1 during 2001 through 2008.

As I wrote in Built to IPO, Flip or Last, the IPO bar has been raised and the window has been largely closed for quite some time. This has a number of effects:

• It takes longer to build an above-bar company (I believe the bar has gone up from ~$30M to ~$50M to ~$75M in TTM revenues per the data in this and prior reports.)
  

• Since 2001, the IPO window has been closed more than it's been open so those relatively few companies who get above-bar often end up all dressed up with nowhere to go (e.g., Endeca).

• Ceteris paribus, a time delay shouldn't depress venture returns. Provided a company can maintain its impressive trajectory, the whole process should simply take longer at roughly constant IRR. Theoretically, the money remains at risk longer but, ceteris paribus, the IRR should be the same.

• But, in the real world, ceteris aren't paribus. Some companies derail between $30M and $60M. Valuations and multiples fluctuate. The lack of IPO exits can potentially depress M&A valuations. So, all things considered, I believe Forbes' assertion that the net effect of a high bar and a closed window is depressed venture returns. Recent data from the NVCA support the claim as well. (See chart, noting particularly the grim situation in early-stage VC.)
  

The result of all this, says Forbes, is a sort of infanticide of great companies:

The sad truth is that we are replacing potentially great companies with under performing divisions of mature companies. Acquisitions invariably remove both the future risk and rewards--not just for the company but for society as a whole. Innovation is stifled, and that hurts us all.

Competing with EMC and watching what they're doing with (or should I say to) their xDB division (formerly EMC Documentum XML Store, formerly x-Hive), I get a visceral sense of their point. Consider the fate of Amazon, says Forbes, in an similar IPO-shut environment:

For example, a company like Amazon.com which went public in 1997, could never have had an IPO in this environment. Instead it would have become a part of Walmart and likely would have been shut down during the tech bust.

While that's a bit harsh, my beef has always been simple: why can't the public buy a share of Endeca stock? They're a $100M company. They're far past the stage that should require accredited investor status.

All of my previous employers went public in the roughly year in which we did $30M. While I don't agree with Endeca's increasingly de-focused (or should I say decreasingly focused) strategy (the latest thing is now digital asset management), I do firmly believe that John Q. Public should be able to buy their stock. By raising the IPO bar to $50 or $100M, you effectively lock the public out of early- to mid-stage investments. That's bad for the public. It's bad the companies. It's bad for the VCs.

But the past is the past. What's happened in the past 8 years neither dictates nor predicts the coming 8. I recall when I quit Versant being absolutely sure the company would never go public, only to find it IPO-ing 18 months later. (Happily, I'd nevertheless exercised at least half my options on the Kellogg Uncertainty Principle: when in doubt, do half.)

I'm not alone in having some optimism about the future. The Forbes article continues:

The $100 million technology company will become an attractive investment again. Both Silicon Valley and Wall Street will once again bet on creating the next Amazon.com. And in my opinion, the bar for an IPO will go down over the next few years, once again creating a vibrant ecosystem in Silicon Valley.

Economist and former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Paul Volcker has said that the so-called "financial innovations" of the last few years largely rearranged existing resources instead of making real contributions to the economy. As a society we want financial returns to be aligned with value creation. This crisis will jar the the two back into alignment. Value creation is hard. But no one does it better than Silicon Valley.

For a dose of real venture optimism, check out this video I found on the related news section of Forbes.com where VC Charlie Harris predicts an eventual IPO boom.

Mark Logic in EContent Magazine Dynamic Navigation Story

A rather overdue post to highlight that Mark Logic was featured a few months back in an EContent Magazine story entitled Reaping Information: Dynamic Navigation Helps Users (PDF).

Excerpts:

Delivering information in ways that make the most sense to users is a key characteristic of MarkLogic Server, an XML Server that allows users to store, manage, manipulate, and deliver information

Indeed, a key use-case for MarkLogic is as an information delivery platform. More:

Media company ALM uses MarkLogic Server for its enterprise content repository, which holds more than 2 decades worth of news and analysis for and about the legal market.

ALM was acquired by Incisive Media a while back but nevertheless remains a customer. More:

Oxford University Press has organized its reference works on African-Americans into a central repository it calls the African American Studies Center (AASC), which allows researchers the ability to search through images and articles, arranging them in chronological order.

AASC is not only a very cool MarkLogic-based application, but also -- perhaps more importantly -- it's just one slice of Oxford's content.

Once a publisher builds their content application platform, it is relatively easy to take different slices of their content to build new and different information products. For example, Oxford Islamic Studies Online (OISO) is built on the same platform as the AASC, and I'm sure the OISO's marginal development cost was reduced because it could leverage the fixed costs invested the development of OUP's (MarkLogic-based) publishing platform.

Follow My Tweets on the Digital Publishing Summit

If you want to follow my Tweets on the Mark Logic Digital Publishing Summit, go here. If you'd like to see a general Google search on the conference hashtag, go here.

Intelligence Spending: $47.5B

See this story in Washington Technology, entitled Intelligence Spending on the Rise, which says that the Federal Government spent $47.5B on intelligence in fiscal 2008, up 9% over the prior year.

Excerpt:

This year’s disclosure marks the second time since the 2001 terrorist attacks that the government has publicly revealed significant portions of its intelligence budget and only the fourth time it has released an overall budget figure. The 1997 and 1998 budgets — $26.6 billion and $26.7 billion — were made public by then-CIA Director George Tenet. Afterward, budget figures were classified.

Mary Meeker Web 2.0 Summit Presentation

While I was unable to attend this year's Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco (due to our own Digital Publishing Summit in NYC), one of my most-viewed posts from last year was about Morgan Stanley financial analyst Mary Meeker's statistics-loaded presentation.

Here's this year's version of her speech. My favorite slide is #15, which does a simple least-squares regression of GDP growth vs. ad spending growth. For more commentary, see this post on Silicon Alley Insider or see this post on the ReadWriteWeb.

Mary Meeker Web 2.0 Presentation

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: web 2.0)

TheLancet Now on MarkLogic

The Lancet, one of the world's leading general medical journals, has launched a new website, TheLancet.com, based on MarkLogic Server.

See their press release on the launch, here. Excerpt:

Incorporating input from 100 medical students, clinicians, senior consultants, medical researchers and top academics from all over the world, TheLancet.com is built with industry-leading web technologies such as J2EE, Spring, Ajax and MarkLogic XML database functionality to create a fast and intuitive interactive online resource. TheLancet.com has been developed using best-practice Agile processes, resulting in a lean and efficient site that delivers an optimal user experience.

We're proud to have such a classic journal (founded in 1823) now deployed on MarkLogic Server.

As a complete aside, for trivia fans, whilst watching Young Frankenstein (inexplicably one of my five year old's favorite movies), I noticed that Gene Wilder (Dr. Frankenstein) was reading none other than The Lancet during his improbable train ride through the US and Transylvania.

Introduction Slides to Mark Logic Digital Publishing Summit

Below please find the slides I used to kick-off the 2nd annual Mark Logic Digital Publishing Summit at the Westin Times Square today in New York City. Over 300 people registered for the event.

Thanks to everyone for attending and to our sponsors DPCI, Temis, and ArborSys for sponsoring.

Mark Logic Digital Publishing Summit Introduction

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: publishing information)

Oracle Buys Tacit's IP

I've blogged once before about email-sniffing Tacit Software and its founder (and my old boss) David Gilmour. So I was a bit saddened to read this story on VentureBeat entitled Oracle Scoops Up Tacit's Intellectual Property.

Now, happily, I lack personal experience in such matters, but I think that "normally" when software companies sell their IP assets to Oracle, it's a -- uh -- bad sign. I take it to mean that (1) the company's winding down operations, (2) that no one wishes to buy the business as a going-concern, thus purchasing both all assets and all liabilities, and ergo (3) that -- in the absence of other interest -- someone can come along and simply buy all or some of the assets.

I'd not seen any stories on Tacit shutting down, so I was surprised to hear they were selling IP to Oracle. This Network World story has a little more detail, but the final clue came from Oracle's website, here:

Oracle has also hired all of the software engineers from Tacit Software.

It looks as if it's "goodbye Tacit" and presumably "poof" to most of the $29M in venture capital invested.

Mark Logic Named Fourth Fastest Growing IT Company in Silicon Valley

I'm thrilled to announce that Mark Logic was named the fourth fastest growing company in the Silicon Valley Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Program for software and information technology.

With a five-year growth rate of 15,174% (from 2003-2007), Mark Logic topped vendors such as ArcSight (#7), SuccessFactors (#19), and NetSuite (#22).

The full Silicon Valley Fast 50 Program winners list is here. Mark Logic's press release on the award is here.