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The following statement is now out of date.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!)