Kim Polese's SpikeSource On the Move

Had an email exchange with Kim Polese, founder and CEO of SpikeSource -- a company few people outside of the tech community have heard of. But Kim was a high-profile figure in the Internet's early days -- first as part of the original Java team at Sun, and then as founder of Marimba. Her latest company took a couple years to get traction, but lately it has won a partnership with Microsoft and is getting noticed for a suite of open source, Web 2.0-type tools.

Writes Kim, when I asked about SpikeSource:

Things are going well at Spike. We launched a new product last quarter, SuiteTwo - Web 2.0 for the enterprise, with integrated blogging, wiki, RSS and social networking software--and are selling it through Intel's channel to the SMB/E market. (for example, Dell is shipping a "Web 2.0 appliance" based on SuiteTwo). Our other products include packaged open source-based email, web content management, business intelligence, CRM and ECM. NEC also a major distributor, along with 100+ VARs. Step by step, we are bringing open source to the masses. And it's an entirely new business model - from the pricing to distribution to sales & marketing. The software business has completely changed since my Marimba days. We're helping drive that change- and we are living it as well!

(Credit: Mark Richards/ZUMA)