I’ve been bouncing around the world of video conferencing for a while. The guys at Raindance – a company I was on the board of from 1997 – 2002 – knew this stuff cold (and what worked / didn’t work) as they were previously the founders of LinkVTC (one of the first video conferencing bridge service companies.) One of the applications of the stuff Oblong (one of our new investments) is doing applies to video conferencing, and the little cameras on top of my computers occasionally get used.

A few weeks ago, my friend Alan Shimel connected me with Jennifer Leggio. Jennifer is the Director of Strategic Communications at Fortinet and an active blogger in – among other things – security and communication. Alan suggested to Jennifer that she might be interested in the work we have been doing at the National Center for Women & Information Technology. I remember the conversation fondly because I was sitting on the floor upstairs at Oblong’s office in LA while a bunch of people ran around downstairs looking at some cool stuff that Oblong was presenting to one of their customers. Oblong had recently moved in to their new office and there was a noticeable lack of comfortable surfaces or devices to sit on (or in) upstairs. The floor had to make do. It was actually pretty clean and comfortable.

My partner, Jason Mendelson, had a post yesterday on AskTheVC about our view on the problem of figuring out who will have to serve as the shareholder rep following the closing of M&A deals. For anyone who doesn’t know what this shareholder rep issue is, Jason does a good job of briefly explaining it. We’re pretty much done serving as the rep on these transactions. It’s been a problem for us for years, but we’re now working with and advising a company called Shareholder Representative Services that professionally manages the post-closing process so that we no longer have to get stuck with this job. We also get better information and results when SRS is our rep than when one of the other stockholders takes the job.

The concept of “sucking” has been a recurring theme in my work that I’ve co-opted for the good of the universe. I’ve written about it plenty on this blog, including the origin of the concept – the motto of my first company – We Suck Less. At last night’s TechStars orientation, one of the exercises that David Cohen had everyone in the room do was talk about one thing they suck at. Mine was portion control. I eat too much. If there is a full plate of food in front of me, I will eat it. I like to live an abundant life and I have trouble limiting my abundance when it comes to eating.

Intense Debate founder Jon Fox is a huge Leo Laporte / TWiT fan so it’s super cool that he ended up on net@night with Amber MacArthur talking to Amber and Leo about Intense Debate’s commenting system. The interview with Jon and Intense Debate CEO Tom Keller is about halfway through the show. I’ve been really pleased with the progress Jon, Tom, and team have made with Intense Debate. A year ago when Intense Debate showed up at TechStars, Jon and his co-founder Isaac had an idea for an online consumer debating site. This morphed into the comment replacement system that is Intense Debate. I’ve long talked about comments being the dark matter of the blogosphere; Intense Debate helps to make them (and the ensuing conversations) much more relevant and useful. 

Ah – the bipolar nature of the web. Today’s daily reading includes some humor and some lessons, all rolled into one (or five). – Fear: it’ll make you shit your pants: Thanks for the image Andy. – Hiring; and Personal Responsibility: Everyone is hiring. Jud Valeski – the CTO/co-founder of Gnip has some points of view. Oh – and they are hiring awesome software developers in Boulder and San Francisco that like to work inside the web pipes.

My partner Jason Mendelson has finally started his own blog titled Mendelson’s Musings. Jason has been a guest blogger on Feld Thoughts for several years (in our Term Sheet, LOI, and 409A series) and he and I have been collaborating on Ask the VC since the beginning of 2007. Given Jason’s unique proclivities, I expect music to be a central theme on his blog. He even has a special magic Music tab. The subtitle – Tales from a VC and recovering drummer, software guy, lawyer tells the tale.

If that heading makes you think “Relax, relax, relax I need some information first” then you have the same Pink Floyd addiction that I have. Eric Norlin – my co-conspirator in the Defrag Conference – has a very relevant post up titled Beyond Incrementalism 2.0. I expect we are going to hear a new wave of “why aren’t we (where “we” is the computer industry) going after big problems right now.” 

Fred Wilson has a great post up today titled Can We Live In Public? If you go back in time to May 4, 2004 when I started blogging, you’ll see that Fred was one of the key inspirations with his post Transparency to my question of To Blog or Not to Blog*.* At the time, my interest came from a very simple place. I’m a professional emailer / phonecaller / meeting taker (aka a venture capitalist). Much of my time is spend writing, reading, thinking, talking, and learning. As a result, I’ve been fascinated (and deeply involved) with the evolution of email and web-based communication and technologies.