Barcamp, sorry I missed you yesterday…but at least I got my Snap on…
Alt-title to this post: "And all I got with this d@mn t-shirt!"
I only got to attend the Saturday night portion of Barcamp this go round. I spent yesterday with nose in powerpoint preparing for a guest lecture at USC Annenberg which I will give this evening. I’ll post my presentation and thoughts about the class in the next few days.
But I’m glad that Kareem Mayan at least captured me in my finest ex-company schwag tshirt:
Photo by Kareen Mayan (on Flickr).
Photo by Kareem Mayan (on Flickr).
For those of us thinking that we might be in the midst of a second internet bubble, I present to you the timeline of the original Snap.com — my first internet job. (And note that this is different from the current snap.com, a new search engine that purchased the defunct domain from NBC…)
The Rise and Fall of Snap.com
- 22 September 1997: Snap.com launches as a spinoff search and directory from CNET.
- 13 October 1998: Snap and CNET launch Email.com as free online email
- 9 June 1998: NBC makes first investment into Snap.com and states that it will "fill Snap’s board of directors with NBC executives"
- 10 May 1999: NBC steps in and merges its online properties with Snap.com and Xoom.com to form NBC Internet
- November 1999: NBCi IPOs on NASDAQ at $76 per share.
- 20 January 2000: Not a major event in the timeline, but interesting nonetheless. NBC and NBCi trade advertising space for an equity stake in Flooz.com.
- January 2000: NBCi stock, three months young, hits high of $106
- 28 February 2000: Soon after declaring that broadband was the future, NBCi.com launches by rebranding and merging Snap, Xoom and NBC.com services into a broadband portal. Note that in February 2000, US broadband penetration rates were at about 5% of online households.
- 27 March 2000: Will Lansing replaces Chris Kitze as CEO
- May 2000: NBCi and 600 employees move into 8 floors of the 80 year old Standard Oil building, which NBC Internet purchased for $143.5 million. The building is renamed "The NBCi Building". Posters are distributed to the employees.
- 4 September 2000: BusinessWeek publishes "Behind the Mess at NBC’s Floundering NBCi"
- 30 October 2000: NBCi CEO Will Lansing states in Forbes article that "We’re going to rival Yahoo! Maybe not in 2001, but not too long after that."
- 9 April 2001: GE pulls the plug and buys out the rest of NBCi at $2.19 a share. Lays off most employees.
- 1 May 2005: NBC Internet sells 225 Bush Street for $178.5 million, generating an IRR of 17%. Externally, the building appears to have reverted back to the name "The Standard Oil Building".
Happy Monday! Hey, at least we were optimistic!
And it sounds like the rest of Barcamp was a blast. Check out Greg Cohn’s cool SixWordSciFi project. Thanks a ton to Kareem, Heather, Jason, Little Radio and everyone else who pitched into the event. I’m really sorry that I missed all of the sessions.
