[info]aristoboule in [info]07refugees

Dumpster Diving on the Internet

I've been digging around for more on 6A/Barak "Borat the Hutt" Berkowitz and came across this gem:

http://r2.nokia.com/nmc2004/speaker_09.jsp?sid=9&ca=sbs and http://r2.nokia.com/nmc2004/pdf/berkowitz_sharing_a_mobile_life.pdf

I haven't posted it to the "news" thread on LJ yet because I imagine it'd be screened and someone there would contact that site to take the file down. But in any case, I've saved a copy of it should it happen anyway.

Slide/page 28 is particularly lolarious, and that whole presentation explains why his Vox blog is nothing BUT photos. Also, there was much cacklesnorting that they never took "CONFIDENTIAL" off of those slides.


http://sec.edgar-online.com/1999/04/19/07/0001012870-99-001165/Section12.asp

Barak Berkowitz joined Infoseek in October 1997 as Vice President, Marketing
and became Senior Vice President and General Manager, GO Network in November
1998. In January 1999, Mr. Berkowitz was appointed Senior Vice President,
Marketing and International. In August 1990, Mr. Berkowitz founded
MarketCentrix, a marketing consulting firm servicing technology-based
companies. Mr. Berkowitz acted as President of MarketCentrix from August 1990
to July 1994, and again from October 1996 until October 1997. From July 1994
to October 1996, Mr. Berkowitz was Vice President and General Manager for the
American region of Logitech, Inc., a computer peripherals company. Mr.
Berkowitz studied Psychology and Biology at the City College of New York.

http://www.seanlydon.com/sonyconnectcd/profiles/851.htm

Barak Berkowitz President Barak Berkowitz, 46, president, comes to OmniSky from Infoseek, where he was senior vice president and general manager of the GoNetwork, with responsibility for its production and marketing in conjunction with Disney. Previously, as vice president of marketing at Infoseek, he was instrumental in forging and managing major domestic and international partnerships, and in advocating the voice of the consumer throughout the Infoseek website. At Logitech, Barak held the position of vice president and general manager of the American region. As the founder of MarketCentrix, Barak developed strategies, marketing plans and distribution networks in the US, Asia and Europe for several of Silicon Valley`s fast-paced businesses. Prior to MarketCentrix, Barak was responsible for consumer marketing at Apple Computer. He brings to OmniSky his extensive senior management experience along with his broad marketing and strategic leadership.

http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=438186

Barak Berkowitz has been Senior Vice President, Marketing and International of Infoseek Corporation since January 1999. Mr. Berkowitz joined Infoseek Corp. in October 1997 as Vice President, Marketing and became Senior Vice President and General Manager, GO Network in November 1998. In August 1990, Mr. Berkowitz founded MarketCentrix, a marketing consulting firm servicing technology-based companies. Mr. Berkowitz acted as President of MarketCentrix from August 1990 to ... July 1994, and again from October 1996 until October 1997. From July 1994 to October 1996, Mr. Berkowitz was Vice President and General Manager for the American region of Logitech, Inc., a computer peripherals company. Mr. Berkowitz studied Psychology and Biology at the City College of New York.

http://r2.nokia.com/nmc2004/speaker_09.jsp?sid=9&ca=sbs (link from above)

Barak Berkowitz is the Chairman and CEO of Six Apart, the innovation leader in weblogging software and services.

Barak has nearly 25 years of experience marketing cutting edge technologies to consumers. In 1981 Barak opened one of the first consumer computer stores in the world at Macy's New York. In four years at Macy's he built their computer business into one of the top five distributors for Apple and IBM.

In 1985 Barak was recruited by Apple to run its consumer channel programs and later all of its consumer marketing programs; he was the leader of Apple's marketing and channel expansion in the US leading many innovative marketing campaigns. In 1990 Barak led a strategic overhaul of Apple's distribution networks in Japan, spending 4 years changing the structure of Apple Japan's business and helping it's revenues grow from $200 million to 2 billion.

In 1994 Barak joined Logitech and became their Senior VP and General Manager of the Americas region (encompassing North and South America, Australia, New Zealand and Japan).

In 1997 Barak joined Infoseek as their VP of Marketing and was later promoted to VP and General Manager of the Go Network, a joint venture between Infoseek and Disney.

In 1999 Barak co-founded OmniSky, a wireless Internet service provider for handheld devices. In the first year OmniSky built a national brand, launched an award-winning product, and raised $120 million in private investment capital. As President, Barak lead all of OmniSky's sales, marketing and product efforts. In Sept. 2000 OmniSky went public and was sold to Earthlink in September 2001.

http://sec.edgar-online.com/2001/04/30/0000950123-01-501445/Section12.asp (LULZ, he had some sucktastic pay compared to Presidents of other companies. But if the performance fits... /snark)

Barak Berkowitz................... 2000 216,347 75,000 250,000 29,618(2)
Former President(1) 1999 120,000 -- -- --

http://sec.edgar-online.com/1999/04/19/07/0001012870-99-001165/Section16.asp (more of his financial info)

Barak Berkowitz......... 1998 $135,000 -- 41,250 --
Senior Vice President, 1997 $ 39,993 $11,700 165,000 --
Marketing and 1996 -- -- -- --
International

http://www.news.com/Where-is-Infoseek-going/2100-1001_3-216038.html and http://www.news.com/2100-1023-219045.html

Other Infoseek executives have not been as definitive. ((NO WAI)) "There are a number of very loyal customers to Infoseek, and we're not foolish," said Barak Berkowitz, the firm's senior vice president and portal site general manager.


And then there's this from SixApart: http://www.sixapart.com/about/news/2007/09/were_opening_th.html

You know, it would be nice if they actually put that in LJ's news. GRRR!

Edit: They have an affiliate program?! WTF?! http://www.sixapart.com/pronet/affiliate

Comments

Yes, because the one thing I want to give 6A is more information about my habits.

I'd trust the Bush administration first.

OpenID is a wonderful concept...but I don't trust its backers at all.
Seriously. And I think they should be renamed FailApart and FailJournal anymore!
My information technology teacher would have WEPT if I'd made a slide show like that. SPAG! SPelling And Grammar! Layout! White space! *cries*

The "confidential" bits are hilarious though, I agree.
XD!!! Did you see the comment about "best in space"? As Ardath said, that's pretty lofty claims if they're comparing themselves to NASA. XD
Ahaha, yes, I was like "What does that even MEAN????"
1) The "GO" portal was a complete disaster. Ex-Infoseek employees are scathing.

2) the Open ID thing is actually cool, and very likely to to be very fine for fandom people and multi-journaling folks. The whole point is that you can run your own server or get someone you trust, aka NOT sixapart.
1) I had completely forgotten about InfoSeek and Go until searching, and I can believe it!

2) Yes, agreed! It's a good thing. But wouldn't you think it'd be worthy of including in their "news" post on LJ? Or even lj_biz? Granted, the posts/releases were on different days, but still.
Ha, this sentance from their Social Graph news thingy made me laugh:

We believe in openness.
Hahaha! More like openly screening comments!