Stephen Mayne’s non-compete clause with Crikey has expired
March 13, 2009
Interesting. I got an email from the Mayne Report overnight which revealed that Stephen Mayne’s 4 year (!) non-compete clause with Crikey has expired (he founded Crikey and sold the biz to Private Media for $1M some time ago).
Stephen has continued to contribute news stories to Crikey since the sale, but I’m not sure if that arrangement will stay in place or not. The expiring of the non-compete clause means he’s free to increase his subscriber base from a cap of 500 people, and he can start covering politics and media for his own project. Here’s what he said about it in the email:
The 4-year non-compete agreement with Crikey expired on Monday so we’re now able to write about politics and media, plus send emails to more than 500 people at a time and freelance material anywhere we like. However, the focus will still very much remain on delivering a strong weekly corporate governance newsletter and this latest edition has plenty of juicy material.
The Mayne Report, for those who don’t know, is where Stephen does business reporting, with a large focus shareholder activism. It includes a fair amount of video reporting too.
Will be interesting to see what he does with the politics/media stuff now he’s off the leash from Crikey. 
(I also notice that he’s selling subs to The Mayne Report for $55 until June 30, in case you’re interested. Thought it was worth a plug.)
Google seeks open source mentors for Summer of Code
March 3, 2008
Google’s gearing up for its High School student open source project Summer of Code, and they’re seeking organisations to act as mentors, or hosts, for the students who are participating. Basically it’s a chance for open source projects to open up their doors to some new, young enthusiasts, many of whom will be working on open source projects for the first time.
The deadline for organisations to apply is SOON – March 12 – so if you’re interested in helping some bright young people help *your* project, then check it out.