Marc Andreessen is the visionary who developed first web browser-the NSCA Mosaic. He wrote the code while still in University, and went on to co-found Netscape Communications while in his early 20's. He has now moved on to a new, exciting venture.

Loudcloud Inc. will be the first venture from the 28-year-old since he stepped down as AOL Inc.'s Chief Technology Officer this past September. However, the details of the Loudcloud business plan have been shrouded in mystery since the announcement of the company in October. He did say that Loudcloud would not be a conventional software company-which gets those of us who have been around the `Net long enough to remember how revolutionary Mosaic was, very excited.

"Marca" did mention the specific problems this new venture will try to solve:

"E-commerce sites are becoming increasingly complex in terms of the services, software and technology needed to run them. There is nothing out there that can help companies run and maintain these sites without having to build huge technical teams."

And of the Loudcloud approach to this problem?

He said: "We aren't throwing bodies at problems. We are going to throw technology at them."

This makes one wonder just what is going on behind closed doors down there in Menlo Park. One clue; Tim Howes is the CTO-so look for their solution to the quoted issues to be open-source, and directory enabled.

In an effort to `crack the code', PCstats will be taking a behind the scenes look at powerful, yet underutilized technologies that would be applicable to this market niche: XML, RDF and LDAP. But if two heads are better than one, then 200,000 are better still. Log on to the BBS and let fly with your ideas, speculations and expectations.