For the past few years, Justin Rubner has been diligently covering the technology beat here in Atlanta. In particular, I found his coverage of the tech startup scene to be a positive thing for the community. Justin recently left the Chronicle and landed at The Content Factor. However, the Chronicle has yet to replace him, or to provide any sort of coverage of the tech scene at all.

A week or two ago, I emailed Ed at the Chronicle and asked a simple question: are you guys going to bring back the technology column? I’ve yet to receive a reply.

Edit/Update: I have heard through the grapevine that they do not have plans to bring the technology column back.

Atlanta is the most “wired” city in the world, according to Forbes Magazine (for the second year in a row). Money Magazine was quoted as saying that Atlanta has “a bustling community of Internet-related start-ups.” (thanks to Lance Weatherby for those 2 snippets). So why then does the Atlanta Business Chronicle forego technology coverage in order to continue to fill my driveway with piles of dead trees containing in-depth coverage of the real estate market (which we all know is tanking)? See Mike Blake’s recent presentation for some statistics on this …

Since TechLinks has evolved into a love fest for big company CIOs and sponsors, we have little-to-no traditional media coverage here (save for Tech Journal South, based out of RTP/Carolina, which tries to provide at least some coverage for us).

Come on guys … this is embarrassing. There is a whole new wave of technology players in Atlanta, and you are missing the boat. Then again, since most of us get our news online these days, maybe it doesn’t even really matter.

Cheers.

Dow Jones’ VentureOne published a nice report today, outlining how technology IPOs are back. 7 of the 13 IPOs from Q1/2007 were in the IT/tech space:

As pointed out by others, if this pace continues, it will easily be the best year for tech IPOs since 2000. Not bad.

I think another observation is warranted here. Most of the firms represented above are either in the network infrastructure or mobility sectors. These are both established markets that are resting firmly on solid ground. Contrast that to the IPO scene leading up to the shakeout in 2000, where you had a large number of companies going through an IPO that really should have never even been funded to begin with.

This is good.

Cheers.

The term “Web 2.0″ is (and has been for a while) one of the most over-used and misunderstood phrases in business. I always get a chuckle when someone says they are “all about web 2.0″, when in actuality, they have no clue what it even means. They often use it to represent the “generic comeback” of the tech startup. To some people, any company started after the bubble is a “web 2.0″ company. Funny.

For those who really still don’t get the movement, you owe it to yourself to watch this video. It is a bit long, but be patient - the payoff is worth it. This is done in the style of Lessig and Dick Hardt. Click the video clip below to play it.

Thanks to Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University for putting this gem together.

Cheers.

I have been advising a local entrepreneur who is building a really interesting new web play. A great guy, but doesn’t have a deep background in technology. He is starting to see some traction with his service, and is beginning to run into those early scalability hurdles that so many young startups eventually run into.

Our informal discussions around scalability inspired me to jot down some of my thoughts on this issue, and how early-stage entrepreneurs can scale their technology platform from 5 users to millions.

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Inspired again by this post from Fred Wilson at Union Square Ventures, I began thinking of the differences in the capital required to launch something these days. Much ado has been made over Web 2.0, and how much cheaper it is to build technology solutions these todays.

I came across an old proposal that I received from a vendor years ago (in the 1.0 days), and got a good laugh out of it.

We all know that things are cheaper to build these days, but I thought it might be interesting to put together a post illustrating the actual dollar differences in hardware, software, services, and labor costs. And yes, this is my last official post for 2006 - so happy new year in advance (4 hours from now!).

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When building a new company, there is an unmistakable feeling you get when you reach the launch date. When those first users are in there, you feel like the weight of the world is off your shoulders. This is the closest that men can ever get to actually birthing a baby. On the other hand, there is the unmistakable punch in the gut that reminds you that the games are just beginning.

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Bright and early this past Friday morning, about 400 of Atlanta’s technology movers and shakers gathered down in Buckhead in the Venetian Room of the InterContinental Hotel for the 2006 TAG Excalibur Awards.

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