About Fleck

Fleck.com wants to add a new layer of interactivity to the web. Fleck is inspired on a story written in 1945 by Vannevar Bush and an article titled 'We Are The Web' by Kevin Kelly.

Vannevar Bush predicted a machine called the Memex that would allow people to surf from one information page to another. Some people say that Hypertext and the World Wide Web are based on or at least inspired by the Memex.

One thing that the Memex had and the web doesn't is the ability to add new content to every page it contained. After reading the Wired article by Kevin Kelly we decided to try to add a new level to the web by adding new tools that would allow its users to add information rather than just consuming it.

Fleck allows you to interact with pages on the web just as if it were pages in a magazine. You can save your annotated page for yourself, send it to friends or colleagues or use it in your blog.

You can start using Fleck right now. It's free and what's best: you don't have to install anything on your computer. Try the search box at the top of this page or add Fleck to your browser with a Bookmarklet or Extention.

Fleck was founded by Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Patrick de Laive and Arjen Schat and is privately funded.

What about the white suits?

When we launched the first version of Fleck we we're invited to a TechCrunch party (pics) in New York. Because we had very limited promotional budget we decided to buy four 44 euro white suits and wore them to the party. Armed white Permanent Markers we asked the attendees to Fleck our suits. This was hilarious and a huge success, so we decided to wearing them to industry events like FOWA, The Next Web (pics), TechCrunch40 (pics and boris' 18+ pics), LeWeb3 , DLD and SIME. One day we woke up Michael Arrington at his house, in white suits, which ended up as a story in Wired magazine. You can find the full story + video clip of the 'Waking up Michael Arrington' event on the Fleck.com blog. Here is the quote from Wired Magazine:

Michael Arrington was sound asleep in his bedroom in Atherton, California, when three men burst in. Naturally, he was startled. His first reaction, he recalls, was to tell them to Òget the fuck out.Ó But he quickly realized they meant no harm. Clad in white business suits and speaking English with a Dutch accent, the apologetic men looked more like dandies on their way to a garden party than criminals.

Our white suits are sponsored by New Tailor, our shoe supplier is K-Swiss, thanks guys.