Howzat has become an investor in www.academia.edu.

Howzat has always been an enthusiast for targetted social networks (WAYN was our first investment). Academia.edu is really true to the spirit of the internet as intended by the British inventor of the worldwide web Sir Tim Berners-Lee (no: it was not Al Gore).

Academia’s CEO is Richard Price who is a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, where he has just completed his Ph.D on the philosophy of perception. Founded in 1438, All Souls is a very grand place which does not accept undergraduates and is celebrated for only accepting the best of the best. Famous 20th century fellows include the philosopher Isaiah Berlin, the Viceroy of India George Curzon and Max Beloff, Founder and first Principal of Britain’s only private university, Buckingham.

All Souls values excellence above all (not very politically correct - but it is a formula that has worked well for nearly 700 years). We think that Richard represents both excellence and the best of the best of British entrepreneurship which is partly why we have backed him and his team (”a great business idea is worthless unless there are great people working in the business to make that idea a reality”).

Academia does two things:

• It displays academics around the world in a tree format, according to their affiliation by university/department
• It enables an academic to have an easy-to-maintain academic webpage. A sample page on Academia.edu is here: http://oxford.academia.edu/RichardPrice

The site has only recently launched and is already creating a frisson of excitement in California where it is based:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/16/academiaedu-a-geni-for-researchers/

It is winning rave reviews from academics across the globe.

So if you happen to know a Professor, a Lecturer or anyone in the world of higher learning , do encourage them to sign up.

- David