Clear Methods provides enterprises and independent software vendors with an advanced Web services platform that dramatically speeds the creation of flexible business software. The Clear Methods Steam XML product enables rapid prototyping of XML Web services. Through rapid prototyping, businesses can validate requirements and test new Web services early in the development process. Steam XML eliminates the need to program in multiple languages and technologies, and instead provides a single, interactive environment, especially designed for Web services and XML.

Company History

Clear Methods was founded in 2001 to provide a flexible and secure business platform that would radically simplify and accelerate the creation of business services and applications for the Web. As early as 1998, the company’s founders, Christopher Fry and Mike Plusch, recognized both the potential and the limitations of XML and Web services. They set about creating a new platform to enable businesses to capture the economic benefits of Web services and XML without the current limitations and complexity of traditional Web services development. They have approached this effort with a relentless commitment to simplification, comprehensiveness and practicality.

Clear Methods has systematically rendered unnecessary the complex, heterogeneous array of technologies, protocols, and interfaces required to implement Web services. Starting with a clean slate, the company constructed a uniform, homogeneous and straightforward platform. The Water language is the underlying base for the company’s products, which include the Steam Engine runtime and the Steam XML Integrated Development Environment. The Steam Engine and Steam XML IDE were first delivered to customers in 2002 and are now in version 3.10.

Investors

Clear Methods is funded by Draper Fisher Jurvetson (www.dfj.com), DFJ New England (www.dfjne.com), and several private investors. Draper Fisher Jurvetson is the leader in early-stage Internet venture capital. They focus on information technology businesses that have a large market potential.

Management Team

Clear Methods has assembled a core team of seasoned software industry veterans with a successful track record across a broad range of business and technical initiatives. Our core team members are:

Michael Plusch, CEO, CTO, and Founder

Mike Plusch has over ten years of industry experience building platforms and complex Web applications for organizations including Digitas, Harlequin, and Bowstreet, a pioneer in Web services. He is the co-inventor of the Water language and ConciseXML. He has developed a broad range of applications for financial services, travel, retail and manufacturing. An accomplished author, Plusch has written two books and contributed to numerous books and articles on Web services, including Water: Simplified Web Services and XML Programming, Wiley; and Water Programming, Mike Plusch and Christopher Fry. Plusch holds two degrees from MIT, one in Management and one in Computer Science.

Christopher Fry, Chief Scientist and Founder

Christopher Fry has over twenty years experience as an architect in language development and artificial intelligence. He is the co-inventor of the Water language and ConciseXML. Fry was the architect and major contributor to the development of several software languages. He has also authored numerous related publications in the journal Communications of the ACM.

Fry’s language development experience includes Macintosh Common Lisp, Dylan, and a knowledge representation language while at BBN. He has also designed languages for describing musical scores. His previous technology leadership experience includes positions at Bowstreet; MIT; PowerScout, where he was CTO; Harlequin; Coral Software; BBN; and IBM.

Robert Nilsson, Vice President of Marketing

Robert Nilsson has twenty-five years of high tech marketing experience, with both software and systems. Prior to Clear Methods, he helped launch Orbital Software, a pioneer in the field of enterprise knowledge management software. Nilsson was also VP of product marketing at UNIFI Communications, a $60M provider of enterprise-class desktop fax, email, and voice messaging products and services.

Nilsson’s system marketing background includes tenure as VP Marketing at Axil Computer, the leading provider of Sun-compatible systems, and the first company to introduce enterprise-class eight processor Intel Windows NT servers for commercial applications. Nilsson has also held marketing management positions at Digital Equipment Corporation and Hewlett-Packard Company. He holds an SB from MIT and MBA from Columbia University.

Advisors to Clear Methods

Henry Lieberman, MIT Media Lab

Henry Lieberman has been a research scientist at the MIT Media Laboratory since 1987. His research interests focus on the intersection of artificial intelligence and the human interface. He directs the lab's Software Agents group, which is concerned with making intelligent software that provides assistance to users through interactive interfaces.

Jason Bluming, Director of Marketing, Distributed Meetings, Microsoft

Prior to joining Microsoft, Jason was founder and president of BoardWare and COO of Abridge. At Bowstreet Inc., an industry leader in XML Web Services and Business Web Infrastructure software he was vice president responsible for providing leadership and vision in their corporate strategy, partner development, and product marketing divisions. Before joining Bowstreet, Jason was President and Founder of Pollinate, Inc., a startup software firm developing an electronic commerce system for software metering. Preceding his role at Pollinate, he was the VP and CTO of NetMarket, acquired by CUC International, the CTO of MecklerWeb Corporation, and a Senior Software Architect at Enterprise Integration Technologies. Jason holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MS in Computer Science from Stanford University, and a BS in Computer Science and Engineering from M.I.T.

Leonid Perlovsky, Harvard University and Air Force Research Laboratory

Dr. Leonid Perlovsky is Visiting Scholar at Harvard University, Technical Advisor and Principal Research Physicist at the Air Force Research Laboratory, and a leading scholar in the field of Neural Dynamic Logic. His financial newsletter predicted the market crash that followed 9/11 one week before the event, apparently detecting illegal Al Qaeda trades. He has published 60 papers in refereed scientific journals, 250 papers at conferences, authored seven book chapters and a monograph “Neural Networks and Intellect” (Oxford University Press). Dr. Perlovsky received the International Neural Network Society Gabor Award in 2007 and Distinguished Member Award of the IEEE Boston Section. He leads the IEEE NNTC Task Force on The Mind and Brain, serves as chair of the IEEE Boston Computational Intelligence Chapter, is assistant editor for “Transactions on Neural Networks,” editor-at-large for “Natural Computations,” and editor-in-chief for “Physics of Life Reviews.”  

Joseph Ekman, Sales Advisor

Joseph Ekman has more than 18 years experience selling enterprise software to Fortune 500 customers. In his role at Clear Methods, he advises on ways to grow business with enterprise IT customers and strategic relationships.

In his former role of Director of Worldwide Alliances & Business Development at Jeeves Solutions, a division of Ask Jeeves, Ekman was part of the management team that turned the company profitable. Before Ask Jeeves, Ekman was a senior manager at IBM, where he managed strategic relationships with Netscape, PeopleSoft, and Oracle, and managed sales to Ariba, American Honda, CIA, FBI, Southern California Edison, Safeway, Charles Schwab, and National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In 2003, he founded About The Kids, a non-profit foundation that academically enriches the lives of children and parents through Internet resources and print media.