Marc Andreessen Industry Leaders in Information Technology Innovation Presentation: Marc Andreessen on Computer Network Information Services: Marc Andreessen is widely known for his role in launching the Internet revolution in 1993. While at the University of Illinois in 1993, he co-created the Mosaic Web browser. After graduation, Andreessen founded Mosaic Communications Corporation, which later became Netscape. He now chairs the board for software company Opsware and guides technology development for his new company, Ning.

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Marc Andreessen is widely known for his role in launching the Internet revolution in 1993. While at the University of Illinois in 1993, he co-created the Mosaic Web browser. After graduation, Andreessen founded Mosaic Communications Corporation, which later became Netscape. He now chairs the board for software company Opsware and guides technology development for his new company, Ning.

Sun recently spoke with Andreessen about Ning's evolution and Sun's role in that process.

Q: Tell us about Ning, your new venture.

Andreessen: Ning is a consumer Internet company — a new kind of consumer Internet service that's loosely analogous to what you'd find on MySpace. We're an online platform that makes it easy for people to build highly customized social networking environments.

We started work on the software in October 2004, and we launched the site in early 2006. Already more than 5000 people have used the site to create social networking environments for their friends, their class, their church, or their hobby.

Q: With that kind of rapid growth, you must have some pretty big fans.

Andreessen: Yeah, we actually had to take the sign down from our front door because one of our customers saw it and stopped in — uninvited — to say hi. So down came the sign. I thought drop-bys like that only happened in sitcoms — not at software companies!

Q: That's priceless. Does that mean you don't typically meet your customers?

Andreessen: Correct. Consumer Internet businesses are ideal in the sense that if you do it right, your entire interaction with the customer is online. One of the exciting things about consumer Internet businesses is that there are now more than a billion people online. They're in every conceivable country, speaking every conceivable language. So if you roll out a new service and people like it, the rate of adoption can be enormous. Assuming, of course, that you can do it cost-effectively and that you can actually keep your service up and running.