This past week I attended an event at the San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park, led by Craig Venter. He talked about his many discoveries using his sailboat and my motorboat for sampling the ocean, and pointed out how many new species of ocean life he has discovered as a result. According to Craig, he has discovered hundreds of thousands of genes, which will be of importance in the medical and alternative energy fields. As I have previously discussed, Craig and his organization are vigorously pursuing the potential commercialization of algae-based biofuels, including jet fuel. Craig’s team has met with some success, but commercially significant quantities are probably still 10 years off. We are getting closer.

On Sunday night my wife Betty, daughter Mary Ann, and son Jim had dinner at the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club with UCSD engineering professor Joe Pasquale, his wife Barbara, and two Ph.D. candidates from the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering. We have been supporting these two students for the past three years as they worked on their degrees under Joe. They have one year to go, but they already appear to be making progress on wireless solutions for the telecommunications industry. Overall, I was quite impressed.

– Bob

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The team here is beginning to come together after a very active travel schedule. My daughter returned this weekend from the Galapagos Islands, and my caregivers seem to be back to work. The weather here in San Diego right now is beginning to remind me of the East Coast instead of Southern California. There are very strong winds and rain, with trees falling down and flooding in a number of areas. So far the weather hasn’t slowed me down very much, but I don’t think we’ll be taking the boat to Oceanside this week.

Thank you for your continuing feedback on the book. We have gotten some very good suggestions on what should be included from our blog readers. We will focus on moving the book forward during the next month or two. Some successful books have come out recently that were self-published. It may turn out that that is what we will have to do. If so, we’ll do it.

– Bob

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I would like to thank all of you who responded to my post a couple weeks ago asking for your opinion on which theme we should address in our next book. It seems to me that the votes were pretty evenly split between big-idea book and a book about the Network Solutions story. As I read your comments, I realized that a story about NSI could be written in a way that would provide companies and those who lead them with lessons that could help them revitalize the American industrial base. Employee ownership played a great role in the growth and success of SAIC and NSI, and it can play a role in strengthening American business. Please let me know if you have any further thoughts on the book theme.

Over the next few weeks I am going to write a paper on the apparent conflict between certain alternative energy solutions and their effect on the environment. For example, although large wind farms on the coast could generate huge amounts of electricity, some environmentalists are concerned about the impact of large wind farms on the environment. I don’t personally know if this conflict is real, but I plan to explore it. If you’ve got any strong feelings on the topic pro or con, please mention them on the blog so I can consider your points of view as I write the article.

– Bob

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We’ve been grappling lately with the issue of whether or not we should write a book on the Network Solutions story and the role that SAIC and the government played in building the Internet at a crucial juncture in its history. This juncture was the transition of the Internet from public to private ownership. There are many lessons to be learned from that experience, such as how public/private partnerships work during the transition period, and how each party can help ensure their success. In the case of the Internet, DARPA and the other defense agencies played a major role in making that happen.

We do have another alternative, which is to write a big idea book. We have discussed this option with an agent, and we were told that this kind of book would be of greater interest to publishers. One possibility would be an in-depth look at cybersecurity — the current and future vulnerabilities and what should be done to address them. Another big idea book would be to consider how to revitalize the American industrial base.

In the past when we’ve had these sorts of decisions to make we have solicited the advice of our blog readers. I ask your help again. Which approach for the book would you find of greatest interest, enough to want to buy the book? Please let us know your opinion on this matter as soon as possible.

By the way, the #1 story of 2009 on San Diego’s Xconomy.com website was The Untold Story of SAIC, Network Solutions, and the Rise of the Web. This tells me that there is some interest in the Network Solutions story.

Best wishes for a Happy New Year. I look forward to maintaining close communication with you during the next year. It has turned out to be very useful. And it’s been enjoyable to me personally to keep in touch with so many good friends and colleagues from years past.

– Bob

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I was pleased to see that the Foundation for Enterprise Development has been continuing its work with DARPA’s SBIR program. The latest set of DARPA SBIR/STTR Success Reports — which FED helped put together under contract with DARPA — was recently published and made searchable. The projects contained in the report are impressive. They include such things as a small VHF/UHF SAR antenna, nanostructured thin-film solar cell production, a tactical group decision analysis system, and much more. If you know any small technology businesses interested in participating in DARPA’s SBIR program, I suggest you have them take a look at the video presentation that FED produced for DARPA. It is titled Doing Business with DARPA — A Small Business Primer.

Last week was an eventful one for me, being the week before Christmas. I made several visits to the Crab Catcher for lunch, several visits to Blockbuster to exchange DVDs, and a trip to Oceanside on the boat. On Thursday night the Foundation for Enterprise Development organization led by my daughter Mary Ann Beyster had its annual party at the La Valencia Hotel. There were about 50 people there, each of whom had some association either with the FED or SAIC — including some SAIC old timers like Wayne Coleman. I could name everyone who attended, but I won’t do that. The party was a great success as usual and a memorable event.

On Sunday, seven of us attended the La Jolla Playhouse presentation of the musical version of Bonnie and Clyde. We were there for the last San Diego performance, and it was really an event to remember. I don’t know where the musical is going after this, but I’m sure it will be well received. If you have the opportunity to see it, I highly recommend you do.

At this time I think it’s appropriate to wish all of our readers a very Merry Christmas and holiday season.

– Bob

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I was interested to see that unemployment took a slight dip in November — from 10.2 to 10.0 percent. Many in the media have jumped on this as a sign of good times ahead for the American economy. Of course, it’s impossible to know if this is a trend that will last, or if it is just a momentary blip, perhaps fueled by widespread government spending programs. In any case, I am certain Barack Obama and the Democrat members of Congress were very happy to get this early Christmas present.

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Last week was an eventful week. The weather was good, which it wasn’t at the beginning of this week. It’s been raining in San Diego, of all places. The events started last Friday when we took Malin Burnham, Mark Waldschmidt, Chuck Nichols, and the Venter ocean sampling crew out on my boat Solutions. We went to Oceanside and had a good time, taking ocean samples both on the way and on the return. Malin told me that if we could get him a copy of the manuscript for the new book, he would check to see if there is interest with his publishers. This is welcome news.

Saturday night we visited Walter Munk’s house and had dinner there with the Freemans and a number of others. Sunday night we went to the Beach and Tennis Club where we had dinner with the Freemans again. They just returned from France and we enjoyed listening to their stories.

– Bob

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