Helped Launch Netscape.com

It was June 15th that we put the beta Netscape online. Love it or hate it, we certainly made waves ;)

It was a project I wasn't initially supposed to be involved with, at least, not to the extent that I was. When Jason and Brian took over the netscape.com domain, I was offered the opportunity to go to AOL sort of as a netscape/weblogs, inc contact for Blogsmith. Gavin, Mike and I had been working on Blogsmith for a few months and Blogsmith was a small indie startup still. Moving one of us to the "inside" made sense.

At some point last March, the three of us flew out to meet the Netscape team at the Viceroy in Santa Monica. One thing led to another, and I was asked to be the lead developer for the project through the product launch. The next couple of months were absolutely insane. Kathryn was out in California so I was left on my own in DC and pretty much worked around the clock. We launched the beta on June 15, 2006 and then spent the next month or two cleaning things up. We overloaded the servers, we got hacked, we had less functionality than we initially anticipated, we had scope creep into areas we didn't plan for -- you name it, and we dealt with it, all in a very short amount of time for a project of that size.

My reason for joining Netscape was to tackle the challenge of launching under such a tight deadline. Once things calmed down and things were humming along, Blogsmith happened to be purchased by AOL. I was able to slowly (perhaps without his full knowing/understanding) delegate most everything to Tom (suckah!), and transfer back to rejoin Gavin, Mike and by then, Celly on the Blogsmith project.

I was the first to drop off Netscape I guess, soon followed by Jason and then C.K.. The current team though is absolutely incredible and firing on all cylinders. The developers over there are top notch and working on some amazing technology that will certainly shake things up when its released.

It's been a hell of a year and a half personally, and Netscape is a big part of the story. I'll never forget someone ease dropping on our conversations out in LA, seeing it posted in the Digg comments and then everyone successfully burying it before it gained any strength. Riding segways around Venice with groups of people yelling "Freaks!!" at us and Jason, for some reason, acting like a Robot the whole time. Or discussing the merits of the Viceroy's amazingly delicious bacon with Wil Wheaton. Of course, using the then newly launched Emurse.com to staff up was enjoyable as well ;) (nod to Finke) (yea, I know, a plug.. I couldn't help myself)

I think the biggest lessons I learned was to sleep when I'm tired (oops), how to work with a boss like Jason (notoriously demanding) , script kiddies will always find a way, script kiddies don't like being called script kiddies, when talking to the press you're always on record and most importantly, anything in any amount of time is possible if you have a dedicated and focused enough team. Distance be damned.

Congrats on a successful first year for Netscape.com (the social edition). I absolutely can not wait to see the things planned for the next year. Trey and his team are men amongst men, and Tom's dedication and leadership holds great promise for the entire Netscape brand. Keep it up guys -- NETSCAPE FTW!

UPDATE: I've been quoted in the Netscape article on the same topic, "Happy Birthday, Netscape"

I've been tagged by Finke. Since everyone else is doing it, who am I to refuse?

Here's the history of it so far -- Me » Chris Finke » C.K. Sample » Jason Calacanis » Amanda Congdon » Michael Ambs » Rick Rey » Steve Woolf » Steve Garfield » Jeff Pulver.

Five Things You Don't Know About Me

#1. I have a dental implant. The doc's had to do a sinus bone graft, let that heal, then put in a titanium post, let that hell, then build a cap around it. Next up, boobs.
#2. I co-founded my first internet startup when I was 12. My brother, myself, and a couple of our friends took a 1 line BBS I ran out of my bedroom, got a loan from a bank, and added 3 more phone lines and some additional computer equipment. We grew it over the next 5 or so years into a small local ISP. We tried to hold onto our roots as a multiplayer gaming network / chat system for as long as we could, but ended up mainly selling dialup internet access. Eventually, everyone else had gone to college or taken positions elsewhere. I discovered girls, and we sold off the remaining assets. Online Illusions BBS (1993-1999ish), 407-722-5020. Word.
#3. I have way to strong of an affection for Morgan Freeman. I constantly argue with Gavin trying to convince him to let us name our servers after Freeman characters. I'm not sure why.
#4. I was very active in my college fraternity, so much so that I was named an "International Top Teke" in 2003. Up until our recent move, I was still involved as a Chapter Advisor at the University of Maryland chapter. LLT fo' sho'.
#5. I met my now fiance at a bar. Huh.. Didn't see that one coming... ;)

So, there are five things about me you probably didn't know. ;)

Gavin, Celly, Mike, Ryan Price, and Jason Alba at JibberJobber -- Tag, you're it.