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The nimble development teams that create small and useful mini-apps sometimes face a point when acquisition by a much larger software firm is desirable. A moderate-sized blog tool firm is looking for the track records of its potential suitors (eg. Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, IAC, etc) for dealing with culture clashes and maintaining the usefulness of its products post-acquisition. From an insider's perspective, personal experiences and cautionary tales are welcome. From a users' viewpoint, describe how your loyalty to an acquired service was affected after your favorite widget-like software was bought.

Two big topics these days are SaaS and wireless. Obviously the two are on a converging path. Already, Blackberry email is considered an essential wireless SaaS offering. What other opportunities do you see coming into this space. If you were investing in wireless Saas, where do you think the biggest opportunities are today?

Mywaves has created a unique embeddable video player (available at http://www.mywaves.com) with complete mobile capabilities. In addition to all the usual features of embedded players, it's designed to integrate with mobile phones and can be used as a viral marketing tool. With mywaves, users can send content from the web to their phones or to their friends' devices. Videos can also be uploaded directly from mobile phones and sent right to other users' handsets, as well as the web.

Mywaves is interested in the following feedback about its player:

1) What are the obstacles to adoption? How can they be overcome?
2) How can mywaves be marketed so that potential users can better see its value?
3) What groups of potential users should the company be targeting, and who can benefit the most from the player?
4) How can mywaves better reach that potential audience?
5) Mywaves is in the process of redesigning its site -- What are the top three ways the mywaves site could be improved to better attract and support users?

The computer security game seems like a continuous tug o' war, with security firms reacting to each new trick from malicious hackers. Can there be a better way to design security so that we're not always one step behind?

In the last few months, the online service Twitter has taken off. There's some debate if this is something really important, or merely a fad. Without necessarily rehashing that debate, discuss how a consumer packaged goods company might make use of Twitter (or similar tools) in innovative ways.

For context, in the early days of the web, plenty of traditional companies ignored the web and later blogs as passing fads, only to realize much later that they could have benefited from embracing such trends early on. As a consumer packaged goods company, we're trying to understand whether Twitter faces the same curve and if it makes sense to make use of it now, and if so, how could it be useful (if at all).

Cisco has recently purchased two different sets of social networking technology (FiveAcross and assets from Tribe.net). What do you think Cisco's strategy or thought process is in making these acquisitions?

There's been tremendous consolidation lately in the computer security space, with many of the big firms (Symantec, McAfee) gobbling up the smaller players. Is this trend likely to continue over the next 18 to 24 months? Why or why not? Either way, is this a good thing or a bad thing for the overall IT security industry and why?

What features do you feel are missing from the Techdirt Insight Community and should be added? How can we improve the service?