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How the dodgeball bounces

My fellow Jupiter Research alumni and I were excited for Dennis Crowley when Google acquired dodgeball, but it seems that it wasn’t a happy marriage as Dens (as his hipper friends call him) and his co-founder Alex Rainert (whom I met briefly at some Motorola party for the original ROKR, the product of another unhappy collaboration) have parted ways with Google and, for now, each other. Dennis becomes my second former Jupiter colleague to leave Google in the past few months with Pat Keane heading to the interactive division at of a three-letter network and picking up some three-letter titles in the process.

Dennis has joined the dungeon masters at area/code which, like former Jupiter CEO Gene DeRose’s company House Party (now being led by former Jupiter EVP of sales and marketing Kitty Kolding), brings people together in the world of atoms. Both companies seem to be leaning on promotional sponsorship opportunities as well. Whereas House Party focuses on the intimate setting of a host’s home, area/code games can envelop a whole city or even larger area. It sounds like a creative, exciting endeavor that should hopefully give Dennis more excuses to wear ’80s arcade character costumes.

Of course, I wish Dennis and (belatedly) Patrick great success in their new gigs, and continued success to Gene, Kitty and their partner Parker Reilly at House Party.