Talk:Wendell Brown

Please work on this article

Look at other biographies. Biographies are not formatted like resumes. They begin at the beginning, trace the arc of the person's life, and go to the most recent notable and verifable information, in chronological order. Wikipedia articles also need solid sources for assertions, from inventions to education to place and date of birth. --Orange Mike | Talk 19:14, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

I think this article has been edited well now to put it much more in line with the standard BLP format as outlined here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Biographies_of_living_persons This article now traces the arc of the subject’s life with reliable sources. One thing I noticed in the formatting is that some of the format styles of the references are not the same, so I suggest those should be edited to use the same style.OsloWan (talk) 01:21, 16 February 2016 (UTC)

Involvement in the SoftRam scam?

While the owners of the company involved in the the SoftRam scam (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoftRAM) are not known, I've found a document, called "Annual Report of the Federal Trade Commission (1997)", which on page 83, lists these names as the owners of the company: Wendell Brown, Rainer Poertner and Daniel G. Taylor. Is there a way to check if it was him? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Spinel9876 (talk • contribs) 14:54, 10 May 2020 (UTC)

Involvement at Syncronys Softcorp, the SoftRAM scam company?

It seems like this might be the same Wendell Brown that was involved in the famous [SoftRAM scam] from the company Syncronys Softcorp. There is a 1996 SEC filing for Syncronys Softcorp on the official SEC website giving a short bio of Mr Brown. That bio says Mr Brown was 35 in 1996, attended Cornell University, and previously worked at Imagic. The timeline matches up with this Mr Brown who would've been 21-22 years old when graduating from Cornell in 1982/1983 and whose LinkedIn page indicates that he worked at Imagic. That same LinkedIn page also shows a gap in Mr Brown's resume during the years of the SoftRAM scam.

It seems like the main article should have a section indicating the possibility of involvement.

Fourier time (talk) 11:18, 19 July 2020 (UTC)

I remember this incident well, and its good to help people remember things like this. HOWEVER, putting this in this article would run afoul of at least two different Wikipedia policies. One is the biographies of living persons rule, in which you have to take great care in adding any disparaging material. Just because his name appears in that document, it doesn't (1) mean its the same Wendell Brown and (2) mean he had any knowledge of what was going on. He could well have simply been an investor in the company who was misled, just as the customers were, by other people involved.

But perhaps more importantly, this would be a violation of the rule about original research. If reliable third party sources have not reported that this Wendell Brown was involved in that company, we can't add it here in Wikipedia. Basically, you need a journalist to write a story in which they verify that this is the same Wendell Brown and perhaps interviews him about it. If you can find a journalist who repeatedly covers Brown in the tech press, you might send that person a tip. If they write a story that is published in a reliable source, only then can you add it to this article. --Krelnik (talk) 12:26, 19 July 2020 (UTC)

Great points about making sure to stay within Wikipedia guidelines, and it's certainly important to make sure the article is factual and relies on trusted 3rd-party sources. I totally agree that any new section would need to be descriptive rather than speculative (e.g. Wendell Brown was an investor named in the FTC settlement).

On the point of verifiability: on a second pass I realize that a lot of sources in the main article are misleading or missing and might violate the WP verifiability policy. They are either

• misrepresentations of the original sources (e.g. he is stated as the founder of LiveOps, but the linked page cites two different people as founders. The claim that he is a pioneer of the gig economy links to a NYT article that never mentions Brown but suggests that LiveOps is dehumanizing.)
• are just links to the main page of an organization rather than a citation of fact (e.g. links to the World Economic Forum or TED talks where he is supposedly a speaker. Online searches couldn't corroborate that Brown was a 2012 WEF Tech Pioneer Nominee for his inventions on energy efficiency or a TED speaker).
• are broken links with unknown dates and so can't be found on the Internet Archive. The article claims that Brown invented "voicemail-to-email, visual voicemail, and enhanced caller ID" but the link leads to a 404 error and the WP page on voicemail cites different people as inventors of voicemail-to-email (unified messaging). Similarly, there are claims of coverage by the Oneonta Daily Star, but searches on that website don't reveal any stories by that name.

It makes sense that claims should be backed up by 3rd party citations, so shouldn't these unverified ones be removed until they can be properly sourced?

I'm a bit new to WP so thanks for the pointer about original research. I guess that you're suggesting that this SEC filing would be a primary source, and to make the determination that the SEC filing and this page refer to the same person requires interpretation (i.e. that since both sources state that Wendell Brown was Howard Hughes Fellows at Cornell, are the same age, and went on to go work at Imagic, it's the same person.) and thus requires a secondary source. --Fourier time (talk) 22:28, 19 July 2020 (UTC)

Oh to be clear, I read your sources and googled a bit to see if the press has ever connected him to this. But I only skimmed the article here. If there are issues with the sourcing in the article, please do not be shy about fixing them and explaining what you are doing in the edit comment. I have no idea if it has happened here, but sometimes with articles about company executives, a PR person for the company will come in and try to spruce it up and end up filling it with poorly sourced junk. That stuff should be pruned where appropriate, especially strong claims like he's the originator of this or the first person to do that. --Krelnik (talk) 12:06, 20 July 2020 (UTC)

This SEC document includes the 1996 annual report issued by Syncronys. The following bio of Wendell Brown contained in that report certainly seems to indicate that this is indeed the same Wendell Brown, and that he was hands-on, not just an “investor”:

Wendell Brown (35) has served as a Director of the Company since May 8, 1995, and as Vice President of Technology since June 1, 1995. Mr. Brown co-founded Seamless Software Corporation with Rainer Poertner in May 1993 and served as a Director until February 1995. Prior, from 1990 to 1993, Mr. Brown was an independent consultant. From 1989 to 1990, Mr. Brown was President of Hydra Systems Inc. which subsequently filed for Chapter 7 voluntary liquidation in 1992. From 1986 to 1989, Mr. Brown was Vice President of Research and Development of Amtel Video Inc., a developer of advanced video and audio products, which he also co-founded. Mr. Brown has also served as President and co-founder of Hippopotamus Software, as an engineering manager at Imagic Corp., as a Hughes Fellow at Hughes Aircraft Company Ground Systems Group and as a software developer with Chrysler Corporation. Mr. Brown attended Cornell University. Mr. Brown has decided not to stand for re-election to the Board. As well, after completion of certain projects, Mr. Brown will make the transition from his current position to head the Company's development think tank on a consulting basis, at which time his employment agreement with the Company will terminate. Dharmabumstead (talk) 10:05, 14 August 2023 (UTC)

So according to an SEC filing (quoted above) and this one, and an annual report issued by the company, this guy was a director and "Vice President of Technology" of Syncronys, the company responsible for SoftRAM, one of the most notorious scams of the 90s...yet somehow that fact is omitted from this article. Why is that? Dharmabumstead (talk) 01:30, 17 August 2023 (UTC)

Paid editing/undisclosed COI?

This page, to me, reeks of paid editing or editing by the subject himself. As someone very familiar with the software and technology scene in the 90s and 2000s, none of the companies that he has created or worked for ring any bells at all. Of course, that's a subjective test, but little things like including the picture with Steve Jobs and talking up all his accomplishments makes this read like a resume or promotional page rather than an encyclopedia. Just my two cents. MrAureliusR_Talk! 20:11, 14 July 2023 (UTC)

Yeah, taking a look at the edit history, there's a lot of IP edits and other single-use accounts that have edited this page... I surely hope Mr. Brown hasn't been trying to edit his own page! MrAureliusR_Talk! 20:15, 14 July 2023 (UTC)

Or Mr. Brown's spouse. Check out all the edits by someone named 'Taro1' in 2009 and 2010. Dharmabumstead (talk) 01:25, 17 August 2023 (UTC)

Proposed for deletion

This article shouldn't be on wikipedia; it's a resume / PR piece that appears to have been mostly written by either the subject or people related to or employed by the subject. Remove all of the bits of the article with either no or sketchy citations and there's nothing left that merits a standalone Wikipedia article. Dharmabumstead (talk) 06:42, 30 October 2023 (UTC)