Why the Commtouch Café?
When my colleague Nikki and I started brainstorming a name for our new Commtouch corporate blog, we thought about all that we hoped it could accomplish:
- show the face & voice of the people behind Commtouch’s technology
- share the type of informal information that we are exposed to daily just wandering the halls here, that might also interest our partner community or other spam/virus fighters
- have some fun
So we thought, where do you have those cool relaxed conversations about, well, everything? In a café! Besides chatting in a café about all sorts of things, people share information, sometimes surf the Internet or work a little bit, and mostly just recharge their batteries. And that is the atmosphere we wanted for our blog.
The name was also a good fit since coffee and other drinks — ok, and food in general 
— hold a central location in the culture at Commtouch. In our Israel HQ, we have a semi-professional espresso machine for the truly die-hard coffee fans, plus about half-a dozen others types of coffee and other drinks (Turkish, instant, decaf, various herbal and regular teas, etc.) The R&D team has their coffee ritual after returning from lunch; they take turns making coffee for the team, always in small glasses lined up on the counter, middle-eastern style Turkish coffee. And our CEO Gideon Mantel makes the best cappuccino in the company, so much so that if he’s around and not too busy, he’ll sometimes prepare it for guests with a smile and a flourish, and if he’s in a good mood he’ll even sprinkle chocolate on top. And in the US office, I was excited to discover that in addition to a great selection of herbal teas, there is a stock of hot chocolate! So during my last trip to Mountain View I pampered myself with that sweet drink and it was only the lack of tiny marshmallows that reminded me that I was in Silicon Valley, and not back in snowy Boston where I grew up.
And truly, some of the most interesting conversations I’ve been privy to at Commtouch have taken place hanging around the kitchen while someone was frothing milk for their espresso. (“I think we’re in the middle of the biggest virus attack I’ve ever seen – something like 12% of all email volume!” That was the Happy New Year virus at the end of 2006, by the way)
So, we invite you to lean back, grab a cuppa, and join us in some relaxed conversation about spam, viruses, and probably some other stuff along the way.
