Hank [BS/MSEE,
MSM $$$, Ph.D. Mgmt] teaches A high-tech CEO’s Midwestern megamanse
Scott Jones, CEO of search engine ChaCha, has built a high-tech wonderland of a mansion in central Indiana to rival any abode in Silicon Valley. The 27,000 sq. ft. English country manor, selected by HGTV as the No. 1 home in America, melds old-world charm with a hardcore nerd’s wet dreams. Amenities include the obligatory, and thoroughly geeky, automated lighting, air conditioning, and media systems controlled by touchscreen and a workstation sporting eight large LCDs (one of twenty-six computers in the home). Jones’s playthings, however, don’t stop with the typical high technology.
The house also sports a 2,700-gallon salt water aquarium, a home theater that trumps commercial movie venues, a Web-enabled wine cellar that keeps itself stocked, automated dog-food dispensers, a mahogany slide that took a year and a half to build, an indoor treehouse, a secret passage triggered by a Harry Potter book, and a waterfall shower in the master suite that gushes 300 gallons per minute. Apple board member and noted environmentalist Al Gore would not approve.
Steve Wozniak’s 7,100 sq. ft. Los Gatos home, by contrast, is a quaint bungalow at best. Sure, it features “a children’s discovery complex, an arcade, a cave (designed to look real by experts from the California Academy of Sciences ) and a pet hotel.” But those hardly compare.
Scott Jones, with this house, has launched himself firmly into Michael Jackson Neverland territory. How does the CEO of an also-ran search engine afford such a spread? I’m sorry, did I fail to mention that Jones’s first company, Boston Technology, invented voicemail, and that he runs six other companies in addition to ChaCha, including Gracenote, the music directory used by many services, including Apple’s iTunes?
All of which raises the question: Why, with all his wealth, does Jones need Indiana University president Michael McRobbie, a former ChaCha board member, to oversee a deal in which IU librarians and IT staff are forced to volunteer their time on ChaCha?
Watch Indiana’s RTV6’s video tour or view the slide show.
Read More:
Controversy keeps growing in IU-ChaCha deal- Search engine flack can’t find her spin
- ChaCha scandal leaves SEC searching for the truth
From: http://valleywag.com/tech/scott-jones/a-high+tech-ceos-midwestern-megamanse-289808.php accessed 8/15/07 4PM
Regarding the potentially serious ChaCha scandal, given events like the Martha Stewart scandal, WorldCom scandal, Enron scandal, etc., I sincerely hope that the folks involved with ChaCha will not follow a similar path. ChaCha prove that we actually learn from history, not just names, events, and dates.
Given the fact that the players involved in ChaCha are already RICH, why jeopardize all that by not playing by the book?!? Again, I sincerely hope that the ChaCha players did not let their greed get the best of their ethics.
Maybe ethic classes/seminars should be standard for entrepreneurs, and in these classes/seminars have the potential negative consequences of “not playing by the book” belabored.
Its scary to think that some people are spending money on waterfalls in there house and secret hallways, when there are others that are living on the streets. Nice things are great, but there are somethings that are just objects for attention.
I happen to agree with Kelly’s comments which is why I live in a pre-civil war, small farm house that’s very small by today’s standards. Hank
I think “live in excess” is a longstanding American epidemic. Scott’s home is an example, the debt in America is another, America’s power usage relative to the rest of the world is another, and on and on and on. But back to Scott and “eccentric” millionaires like him, the public loves it and gobbles it up–which is why shows like “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” existed. For some reason we love it when the rich throw their money in our face.
Wow, that is an elaborate house. Even though the glamour of the house catches me, my mind keeps returning to the thoughts of the people who put so many man hours into constructing such an elaborate pad. They are managing to gain a paycheck, while Scott Jones is pumping money into useless details which may or may not hold up their value. How important will the automatic dog food dispensers be when it comes to reselling the house? With the shift of environmental ideals how appealing is it to have a shower that gushes out that much water? It is somewhat ironic how these individuals are gaining from Jones’ inability to see the uselessness of his purchasing. Sure it’s nice, but is it practical? I guess it really doesn’t matter when you have that much money to waste, does it?
Looking at this house, makes me wonder do people really actually spend that much money on useless things? There are some things we would want to have but it really comes down to what we really need. Many people buy things that they want, I know I am guilty of this at times, but they never really think that will they use it in a week when they have found something else they want? Many people are living on the streets and living out of soup kitchens just to get by when others waste their money on useless things when they could put their money into a charity or a something useful for someone else for a change. America is changing to where it is every person for themselves and noone cares about others as long as they get ahead. Maybe if people stopped once in a while and helped out another person we may not have as many people on the streets and the more wealthy people spending their money foolishly.
One could argue that giving large sums of Scott’s money to the underprivileged would in MANY CASES be just as wasteful as him spending it on eccentric things. Someone with a poor person’s mentality will always be poor regardless of the money given to him/her.
You would never know if the poor person’s mentality will stay poor until you give money. I would ask if they want something to eat if they do not then they probably faking the poor act. I would donate money to charities that help the poor or people that can’t afford food or anything else. I would do that instead of wasting money on useless/extravagant items.