Invited Companies - SW Industry Survey

I've sent the invitations and I've been surprised at the speed and extent of the acceptances. Cutting straight to the list of vendors I've invited to participate in my industry survey:

Aduna

Cambridge Semantics

Franz

Garlik

Intellidimension

Mondeca

Ontoprise

Ontos

Ontotext Lab

OpenLink Software

Primal Fusion

Sandpiper Software

Siderean Software

Talis

Thetus

TopQuadrant

And the "deployers" (trying to think of a better term...suggestions are welcome):

BBN

Dow Jones Client Solutions

ITA Software

The Calais Initiative

Twine/Radar Networks

Yahoo!/SearchMonkey

I've created lists for industry reviews before and I've always found that having a few basic guidelines or criteria for inclusion can be very helpful. Here are the ones I've used:

• The entrant has to be a company or part of a company.
• Professional services firms (consultants) are not included. I want to focus on vendors or makers of products, Web presences, or Web services.
• Defense contractors like Northrup Grumman, Boeing, etc. are not included. Those markets are too specialized and restrictions related to classified information arise far too early and often to allow real exposition of the issues.

I've tried to keep this simple and I don't guarantee perfection. As a matter of fact, I've always found that it takes several iterations to get the criteria, categories, and key issues right. This is a starting point where I hope we can all learn together and build on successfully.

Gotta go - I've got to get back to a bunch of people to schedule conference calls. I still owe a couple of entries on this blog related to the process of building shareholder value and separately, using a simple investment portfolio model as an analogy for corporate IT portfolios.