I hold stock in Curl Corporation. Curl Corporation is a spin-off of the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science, (original chief scientist Prof. Steven Ward) focussing on the development of and with the programing language Curl. I act occasionally as advisor to the company on Internet development directions - on average a couple of hours every two weeks. Curl Corp is a W3C member.
I was not involved in the original design of the Curl language. It was designed by Steve Ward and his group at MIT, at the same time as I was starting the W3C. I was not a founder of the company in the sense of investing money in it -- only in the sense of being given some shares early on in its creation.
Curl, as Steve explains, is a "gentle slope" language which acts s a markup langauge when first used, but then can provide more power progresively though the application ares of scripting languages to a complete client-side graphical computing environment. At the latter end of the scale, it provides a rich user experience
I occasionally advise Akamai Corp, a spin-off of the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science (chief scientist Prof. Tom Leighton). Akamai is a W3C member. I held stock in Akamai at one point but have now sold it to prevent possible conflict of interest.
Tim Berners-LeeLast updated $Date: 2007/03/19 15:18:36 $
I no longer act as SAB member for Mainspring (1999). I still hold a few shares in the company.
The following statement is now out of date.
Tim Berners-LeeI was a member of the Strategic Advisory Board for Mainspring Communications, for which I also provided consulting services (ending in 9/97). Mainspring Communications is an interactive information service for businesses and professionals deploying Internet technologies.
I see a synergy in the work of Mainspring and that of the World Wide Web Consortium, of which Mainspring is a member. The Consortium needs links with channels for the dissemination of information about its specifications in order to fulfill its mission. (Another example is the co-publishing of the "World Wide Web Journal" with O'Reilly). I can ensure that Mainspring is aware of the developments at W3C, though of course giving them no special access to information other than that which they acquire through W3C membership. Neither, of course, will Mainspring divulge W3C member-only information to non W3C members.
MIT is a significant investor in Mainspring. The treasurer of MIT was also an SAB member at one stage.
The focus of Mainspring was initially to provide informatoin about technical directions for intranets and extranets -- now the focus has shifted more toward case studies and business models, and my involvement as a consultant ceased in September 1997.
(Please do not confuse Mainspring with Mindspring.com, the internet service provider!)