Posted on September 8, 2008 | Category: BUSINESS, JAPAN, MARS BLOG, silicon valley, technology
As hundreds of TechCrunch50 attendees wipe the sleep from their eyes, preparing for a day of Web 2.0 start-up viewing, they probably don’t realize that they’re about to find out that the biggest star of the TechCrunch50 event is a guy hunkered down in a tiny studio apartment in Tokyo on the other side of the planet. The man is Yong Fook and his software is called Sweetcron. Unfortunately, TechCrunch neglected to mention this when writing a post announcing the event’s news aggregation site that they claim was, “developed by Sean Percival.”
To Percival’s credit, and in the fine spirit of open source software, he included Fook’s Sweetcron logo and site link, leaving no doubt where the site’s architecture came from. But the TechCrunch scribe got it wrong and in short order Techcrunch readers began to rail against the major credit omission with comments like, “Harsh! Where’s the Open Source love for Yong Fook? It’s built using Sweetcron, at least give the guy and the project a mention!!!” and “This is absurd. Yongfook deserves credit for this. Stay classy Techcrunch, stay classy.”
And, even hours later as the list of TC50 start-up companies was posted to the site, no update came for the post that should have credited Fook. The grand irony of this situation is that the TC50 event is meant to expose small, up-and-coming developers and entrepreneurs like Fook who need funding to move their ideas to the next level. While Fook’s software is indeed open source, he has made it clear that he’s not happy about the lack of credit on the TC site.
In regards to the software, it’s actually a great new way to publish your “lifestream” in a seamless way that merges Twitter, Flickr, Digg, your blog posts and various other services onto one page in a clean, powerfully designed manner. A quick search around the Web reveals that many users have quickly fallen in love with the software as they tweak it (as TechCrunch did) to their own designs.
If there is any justice in the world of Web 2.0, (or at least some smart VCs paying attention above the din of TC50 hype) Fook will ultimately walk away from this event with far more attention and possibly funding than anyone who entered the official contest.
» Filed Under BUSINESS, JAPAN, MARS BLOG, silicon valley, technology