Mena Trott steps down as SixApart CEO
Grok Headline matches for Mena Trott steps down as SixApart CEO
Congratulations Mena G. Trott and Ben
Trott
Congratulations Mena G. Trott and Ben
Trott
12/24/2004 12:46 PMMena G. Trott and Ben Trott of SixApart have been named People of
the Year by PC Magazine. Congrats to both and that is one of the
bigger Geek Awards one can win. [PC
Magazine]
IT Conversations: Ben and Mena Trott -
Six Apart
IT Conversations: Ben and Mena Trott -
Six Apart
05/16/2004 03:15 PMBen and Mena gave a great interview here .. Ben und Mena Trott
interviewt
itconversations.com/shows/detail121.html
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Ben and Mena Trott: You forgot to dance
with who brung ya
Ben and Mena Trott: You forgot to dance
with who brung ya
05/14/2004 03:25 AMAfter I wrote the post this morning, Ben and Mena Trott sucker punch
the weblogging community, I had second thoughts about it, especially
the title, which has a moralistic and judgmental tone that isn't
appropriate. If it wasn't for my belief that it is almost always
dishonest to rewrite something that you have already published (and
that others have linked to), I would take the post down. Instead, I'm
writing a new version of it: As I said earlier, Six Apart has the
right to charge whatever the market will bear for their labor. So why
are people so outraged, and why is it a questionable business
decision? Is it just because Movable Type users are a bunch of whiners
who want something for nothing, as some believe? I don't think so. Six
Apart is reneging on a very public promise, and is treating the people
who helped make Movable Type a success very poorly. A little history
from a long-time user: Movable Type owes its success first of all to
Ben and Mena having done a great job designing, implementing and
updating a product with an excellent user interface and superb
documentation, and secondly to having it ready at just the right time
to catch the blogging wave. But the third factor in Movable Type's
success was the army of evangelists and contributors who sold the
products to their friends, businesses and community organizations, and
who contributed bug reports, bug fixes, responses on the bulletin
boards, and great plug-ins. In many ways, Movable Type was treated by
the community like a Free Software project, which it wasn't. But the
ethos of the MT 2.x license, if you make money off this software you
have to pay, if you don't you don't, was very similar to that of MySQL
and other open source companies, so people, in spite of warnings,
ignored the significant differences between it and free open source.
From a business point of view, Movable Type Personal was the seed
product, or the loss- leader, that sold Movable Type Commercial. The
other part of the history is that when Six Apart got VC funding and
shortly thereafter started work on TypePad, it stopped work on its
already announced 3.0 product, but didn't say anything publically
about it for many months. Meanwhile, the Movable Type comment spam
problem started and quickly threatened to grow to unmanageable
proportions. As resentment...
Ben and Mena Trott sucker punch the
webl0gging community
Ben and Mena Trott sucker punch the
webl0gging community
05/13/2004 02:02 PMOf course Six Apart has the right to charge whatever they want for
MovableType, but having repeatedly said that they would provide a free
version of MovableType 3.0 for personal use then announcing this
crippleware that is MT 3.0 personal is stupid at best, dishonest at
worst. Enraging your first customers and your developer community is a
strange path to business success. Hopefully they will reconsider after
being enveloped in the perfect storm that is brewing....
Mena Trott answers 6A's critics and
Geodog signs off on criticism
Mena Trott answers 6A's critics and
Geodog signs off on criticism
09/16/2004 03:40 AMI wasn't planning on ever writing anything about SixApart and
MovableType again, but today Kris Krug sent me mail alerting me to a
lengthy interview he did with Mena Trott, where she responds to some
of the recent criticism of Six Apart and the MT 3.0, and 3.1 releases:
MT: One of the biggest things that I want to get through (and that I
probably don't a good enough job of getting through) is that it's
completely untrue that we're this big corporate company and that we
don't care about the users-that it's all about just Ben and Mena and
the venture capitalists. It's not so; there are so many smart people
here who love what they're doing and love blogging. It dismisses their
value when people say the company is just a big corporation that
doesn't care about its users. People should understand that when
you're insulting the company, you're insulting a lot of people. We're
all good people and I wish everyone would take some time to see that.
There are so many other targets to focus on; our little company from
San Mateo is the least among them. The interview is worth reading in
its entirety, if you are interested in the whole MovableType saga and
some of the issues around the recent releases. To round out the view,
or if you want a different perspective, check out long time MT user
Ben Hammersley's opinion, Ben Trott's response, and 6A supporter and
plug-in writer Timothy Appnel's comments. I myself have said more than
enough about MovableType and SixApart, and gained some unwanted
notoriety through a poor choice of weblog post titles. I've also have
had my criticisms misrepresented, and Anil Dash has fairly called upon
me to examine my criticisms. As a result I reread Anil's post about
criticism, and reread for about the 10th time Phil Ringnalda's classic
post on the same subject, there is no they, and I've decided not to
spend any more time offering what Anil called "unsolicited criticism."
We all have more important things to do. I will just note that I as I
have said elsewhere thought MovableType was a was a brilliant product
when I first encountered it. The documentation, user interface,
features and support were superb. I enjoyed the time learning how to
hack the templates and add plugins. I appreciated the ethos of the old
MT license --...
Sean Trott in the news
Sean Trott in the news
03/13/2003 10:17 AMI tried to tell this kid that a vote for Nader was a vote for Bush.
But did he listen?...
Congrats to SixApart
Congrats to SixApart
04/09/2004 04:11 PM
NTT's Typepad powered blogging service
Here it is, and it looks great
even though I do not understand Japanese. NTT is providing blogs to
their millions of clients. Congratulations to Six Apart's team in
Japan. Can't wait to see our first Typepad powered ISP & portals
partnerships in Europe ! [Loic Le Meur Blog]
I need to put something witty here for my friend Loic.
How 'bout "Yes, we all want to see coming out of France, besides
Wine and Cheese."
SixApart to buy LiveJournal?
SixApart to buy LiveJournal?
01/05/2005 01:19 PM
Tha
t is big news. I did not realize that
LiveJournal.com, a blogging service
with 5.5 million bloggers, is based on
open source software. It will be
interesting to see how this develops. Will
SixApart work to foster the continued
development of the open source LiveJournal software or will it instead
focus harvesting paying users for it's
TypePad service?
Congrats to Brad and SixApart
Congrats to Brad and SixApart
01/06/2005 12:44 AMAssuming that Om's story is right, LiveJournal will soon become part
of the growing SixApart family. I'm not sure what you guys are
planning, but it sure will be interesting to watch. 2005 is going to
be a very interesting year for this whole blogging thing....
Sixapart revenue model
Sixapart revenue model
02/10/2004 02:59 AMSixapart are in a position to dominate the weblog publishing market,
they have the best pro tool, Moveable type and...
Sixapart buying LiveJournal?
Sixapart buying LiveJournal?
01/04/2005 11:55 PMXeni Jardin:
There are rumors on the internets that
Six Apart just bought / is buying
/ will soon buy
LiveJournal.
Details as they come.
Update: Om Malik has more:
Six Apart, the parent company behind hosted blogging service TypePad,
and Moveable Type is about to acquire Live Journal, for an undisclosed
amount. The deal is a mix of stock and cash, and could be announced
sometime later this month, according to those close to the two
companies. If the deal goes through, then Six Apart will become one of
the largest weblog companies in the world, with nearly 6.5 million
users. It also gives the company a very fighting chance against
Google’s Blogger and Microsoft’s MSN Spaces.
Lin
kAnothr big hire at SixApart
Anothr big hire at SixApart
08/07/2004 07:21 PMCoolio - so
mebody else to get to know.
I wonder what he thinks about micro-content or digital lifestyle
aggregators?
Two Steps Foward, Two Steps Back: Bob's
Predictions for 2004
Two Steps Foward, Two Steps Back: Bob's
Predictions for 2004
01/03/2004 08:17 AMpbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20040101.html
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Rumored: SixApart will acquire
LiveJournal
Rumored: SixApart will acquire
LiveJournal
01/05/2005 03:59 PMIf it proves to be true that SixApart is purchasing Live Journal
then this will definitely be a interesting development. [Om
Malik]
Thoughtful post by Ben Trott on the
misconceptions people have about the
role of design in software development
Thoughtful post by Ben Trott on the
misconceptions people have about the
role of design in software development
12/13/2003 04:50 AMMena's every much of a programmer as Ben .. credit she
deserves
sixapart.com/log/2003/12/software_develo.shtml
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Responding to Anil Dash's request for
even more feedback about MovableType and
SixApart
Responding to Anil Dash's request for
even more feedback about MovableType and
SixApart
09/21/2004 01:02 AMFirst of all, thank you, Anil Dash, for your patience and willingness
to engage in conversation with critics and fans alike. I would also
like to agree with you about tone, and to note that I did not help
matters with the titles of some of my earlier posts. I think my
criticisms were valid, but the tone of some of the titles was uncalled
for and unhelpful. Second, I can't believe you have asked me to post
more feedback, and are getting me to spend another 2 hours of my life
writing about MovableType, something I just said I wouldn't do again.
Some would accuse you of feeding a troll, and friends have asked me
why I spend so much time worrying about one Weblog / lightweight
Content Management System vendor (it's 'cause I like y'all). As I said
earlier, we all do have more important things to do. But you (and the
Wall Street Journal) asked, so I will try to be brief, constructive
and final. Where I am today with respect to recommending SixApart
products: I would recommend Typepad to a non-technical person who was
trying to start a blog, if they had some aesthetic sensibilities and
weren't too price sensitive. Presuming that SixApart can keep up with
growth and minimize downtime, it's a nice product, reasonably priced
and segmented, and the grouping on Typepad give the author a decent
chance of attracting a readership. SixApart does also seem to be
adding features to Typepad at a reasonable pace. If someone was price
sensitive, I'd send them to Blogger. Blogger's hosting issues seem to
be a thing of the past, there are now some nice templates for it, and
there are still smart people outside Blogger doing cool things for
Blogger. Plus it is free. It is hard for SixApart being in a consumer
business where so many of their competitors are giving away their
product for free. Maybe it makes sense for SixApart to do B2B only?
See below. I would recommend Movable Type for a institution or
business wanting to host a corporate blog that didn't have a lot of
internal technical expertise. There is good documentation, nice
templates, and good support. I don't know if SixApart permits it, but
if it does I would recommend that the business start with 2.661 and
let the dust settle on 3.x before upgrading. Depending on what the...
some clarification from Mena at Six
Apart
some clarification from Mena at Six
Apart
05/15/2004 07:05 PMaddressed some of these concerns today .. The Movable Type 3.0 FAQ ..
posted a clarification .. this link to an update .. Mena and the
changes .. explanation .. firestorm .. go
over
sixapart.com/log/2004/05/movable_type_30.shtml
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Ben and Mena, I take it all back!
Ben and Mena, I take it all back!
12/23/2003 12:23 AMBen and Mena Trott have made up in a big way for their earlier silence
on future plans for MovableType. In a series of postings on Six Apart
and MovableType, they have announced release of a security update to
MT, support for Atom 0.3, and a feature list and time frame for
MovableType 3.0.. It all sounds great, and to my surprise it seems
that they intend to keep the current pricing structure, e.g. free for
non-commercial use. I hereby volunteer to be a Beta tester. I and some
others have complained publically and privately to about the lack of
news regarding MovableType. I received some kind private email from
Mena, but this kind of an announcement demonstrates better than
anything that the Trotts listen to user feedback, and that they have
not forgotten their first users. It makes me feel a little sheepish
about my earlier criticism -- I hope that it was useful, in the way it
was intended to be. Certainly the least I can do now is volunteer as a
Beta tester and send some of my Christmas pin money their way, to help
pay for all the engineering and usability work. To Ben and Mena and
the rest of the team at MT/SA, thanks for all the news, and thanks for
the hard work that it represents....
Ben and Mena come to London...
Ben and Mena come to London...
07/09/2004 03:00 AMSo Ben and Mena and Loic have been in London for
meetings and a few of us managed to get together and hang out with
them for a bit. We've got Ben drinking warm flavoursome beer, Mena
puffing away on cigarettes in pubs and Loic's been trying to run over
small children with his push trolley. We even got to roam around
Television Centre with them a bit today - Mena making a particularly
fetching weather presenter.
Loic took some pictures too:
Read the comments
Ben and Mena come to London
Ben and Mena come to London
07/10/2004 04:58 AMweather presenter .. Tom Coates ..
more
plasticbag.org/archives/2004/07/ben_and_mena_come_to_london.sht
ml
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"Mena による久し振りの長文
Entry"
"Mena による久し振りの長文
Entry"
07/14/2004 10:18 PMSixApart merges with Ubl0g to form Six
Apart EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa)
SixApart merges with Ubl0g to form Six
Apart EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa)
07/14/2004 03:27 AM
Congrats to Loic & Geraldine and Mena & Ben.
I too have started a company with my wife - in fact both wives.
OK - so maybe I didn't stay married as long as Loic - but I am just
an enthusiastic as he is.
:-)
Ben and Mena make the Fast 50
Ben and Mena make the Fast 50
02/16/2004 01:17 PMi am always amused by lists that treat the Trott as a single entity
mena on salon's six apart article
mena on salon's six apart article
08/09/2004 04:40 PMit's always nice to have an outside perspective
nice interview with ben and mena
nice interview with ben and mena
05/15/2004 07:09 AMi like the part at 12:00 where mena gets genuinely choked up talking
about how kind our users are
mena holds a gun to my head
mena holds a gun to my head
08/04/2004 03:21 PMthis is how we motivate workers at six apart
help ben and mena get on Yahoo! Most
Emailed
help ben and mena get on Yahoo! Most
Emailed
02/18/2004 09:35 PMif our blogging tool was called "pair of boobs and a kitten"
we'd already be number one
Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back
Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back
01/05/2004 09:12 PM"Mena on comment spam and the new
version of MT"
"Mena on comment spam and the new
version of MT"
12/24/2004 01:00 PMDear Ben and Mena, Thanks for lunch!
[Flickr]
Dear Ben and Mena, Thanks for lunch!
[Flickr]
02/05/2005 10:08 PMMENA Mobile Subscriptions 60% below
Market Potential
MENA Mobile Subscriptions 60% below
Market Potential
09/13/2004 03:17 AMThe Middle East & North Africa region has only 45m current subscribers
from an addressable mobile market of 115m. This large spread
emphasizes the tremendous pent up demand and the profitability
potential awaiting the mobile operators best suited to tackle this
regions needs. [PRWEB Sep 13, 2004]
mena on tightly knit bonds in bl0gging
mena on tightly knit bonds in bl0gging
07/09/2004 12:06 PMthe real weblog revolution and a defense of personal weblogs
"Meg, Ev, Paul Bausch, Ben, and Mena are
PC Magazine's People of the Year"
"Meg, Ev, Paul Bausch, Ben, and Mena are
PC Magazine's People of the Year"
12/25/2004 05:03 PMBoing Boing: Sixapart buying
LiveJournal?
Boing Boing: Sixapart buying
LiveJournal?
01/06/2005 02:24 AMBoing Boing: Sixapart buying LiveJournal? .. BoingBoing ..
Via
boingboing.net/2005/01/04/sixapart_buying_live.html
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Raya Contact Centre is the certified B2B
contact centre for Intel in the MENA
region
Raya Contact Centre is the certified B2B
contact centre for Intel in the MENA
region
03/24/2005 04:18 AMAME Info Mar 24 2005 8:36AM GMT
Red Hat CFO steps down
Red Hat CFO steps down
06/14/2004 07:40 PMSAN FRANCISCO - Red Hat Inc. announced Monday that its chief financial
officer (CFO), Kevin Thompson, will soon be leaving the company. The
news came a few days before the Linux vendor is due to announce it
quarterly financial results.
ESR steps down from OSI
ESR steps down from OSI
02/01/2005 09:02 PMHow many steps?
How many steps?
02/11/2004 12:25 PMRosecrans illustrates the importance of location for some NYC dwellers
(you know who you are) by the number of steps he has to take to reach
various destinations, entertainments, services, and delectables from
his desk: Kitchen: 6Toilet: 11Bar: 61Niman Ranch cheeseburger:
110Coffee shop: 141Cheese shop: 153Nearest subway platform:
305Manhattan (Union Square): 433Gym: 561Drycleaner (good): 961 For
some New Yorkers, many of the things on his list are even closer
than...
Ten Steps to more Web Traffic
Ten Steps to more Web Traffic
01/25/2004 09:48 PMEverywoman.co.uk Jan 26 2004 2:07AM GMT
Grok Description matches for Mena Trott steps down as SixApart CEO
GrokA matches for Mena Trott steps down as SixApart CEO
Mena Trott steps down as SixApart CEO
