Values of n

Values of n was an information management software company established by Rael Dornfest, a prominent figure in the technology sector. Prior to founding the company, Dornfest served as the Chief Technology Officer at O'Reilly Media, where he was instrumental in various projects, including chairing the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference and editing the popular "Hacks" book series. His background also includes pioneering work on the RSS 1.0 specification and the creation of the open-source blogging application Blosxom, reflecting a deep expertise in information systems and web technologies.

The Portland, Oregon-based company was the vehicle for Dornfest's explorations into personal productivity tools. Values of n developed two notable products: "I Want Sandy" and "Stikkit." "I Want Sandy" was an innovative email-based personal assistant. Users could interact with the service by sending or CC'ing emails with natural language commands to set reminders, manage to-do lists, and store information. The service could also send reminders via SMS and Twitter and supported collaborative reminders by including multiple people in an email thread. "Stikkit" was a virtual sticky note application designed to be more intelligent than simple digital notes. It could interpret the text on a note to automatically organize information, such as creating a calendar appointment from a phrase like "Call Mary at 4pm tomorrow." The products were aimed at individuals looking to enhance personal productivity, drawing inspiration from methodologies like "Getting Things Done."

The company's journey culminated on November 24, 2008, when it was acquired by Twitter. The deal was characterized as an "acqui-hire," with the primary motivation being to integrate Rael Dornfest into Twitter's user experience group, where he had already been consulting. Following the acquisition, both "I Want Sandy" and "Stikkit" were discontinued on December 8, 2008, as Twitter's focus was on acquiring Dornfest's talent rather than continuing the product lines.

Keywords: Rael Dornfest, I Want Sandy, Stikkit, personal productivity software, email personal assistant, virtual sticky notes, information management tools, Twitter acquisition, acqui-hire, O'Reilly Media, RSS 1.0, Blosxom, Getting Things Done, personal information management, social software development, productivity apps, note-taking app, task management via email