FiReStar Companies- “Changing the World in New Ways”

Wave Systems: Steven Sprague, CEO
Intersect: Peter Rinearson, CEO
Black Rock Cable: Bob Warshawer, CEO
Terremark: Chris Drumgoole, SVP, Client Services

Peter Rinearson:
We hope that Intersect will be an important tool for interactive engagement, which is important as we’ve seen here today. A storytellilng site through sharing blogs, news articles, posts. Stories exist on a storyline at a certain time and place. This gives us the ability to discover stories around times and places they find important.

Steven Sprague:
Trusted computing: build tools that are supplied without the OEM platform. Look at the PC as a 5 lb smartphone; not being used as identity centric. Value of having laid out the infrastructure is immense. We already have the to tools to turn off passwords through providing identity in PCs

Bob Warshawer:
Fiberoptic provider in 3 counties north of Seattle. Set out 7 years ago to connect every major business within their territory; now about 70% done. How? Very low costs of installation, los business costs, cross-connect with all major carriers. Plan to connect all citizens of their countries: serious mismatch between no govt broadband policy and customers, which leads to serious business opportunities in delivering services. The future will be a broadband-wireless hybrid to deliver coverage. Black Rock will continue to provide fat pipe to those that need it, but also plan to partner with existing providers to provide 4G wireless connections.

Chris Drumgoole:
Terremark is a 10yr old publicly traded company; the plumbers of the digital age; 11 facilities worldwide where all telecommunications companies come together to access their servers. Cloud is abstracting infrastructure and making it more accessible.
Efficiency of cloud allows Terremark to pool the needs of businesses in terms of physical assets, human capital and natural resources.
Empowerment: Developers in Seattle or the Eastern Block or India can build things in their garages that run across the entire world. Believe this will lead to a massive fast forwarding of the speed of software development; exponentially grown the field of potential developers.

NSA hosted a conference to emphasize the fact that we’ve already got infrastructure that we aren’t using. “Systemically, we’re all driving around in our cars without any seat belts.”