Many of you know that I am a keen advocate of Sun Microsystems’ Sun StartUp Essentials Programme. I am fortunate to work with Stewart Townsend (a brilliant easy-to-get-alone individual) from the beginning of the programme, and continue to do so with sharing ideas and initiatives. Stewart has geared the initiative to become a true friend to digital startups in the UK. He has filled the gap that other competitors (HP, Microsoft, etc) have not seen. Initiatives he supports or supported include Northern StartUp 2.0, Mashup Events, Webmission08 and Digital Mission.

No company is too small for Sun. Stewart engages with any company by understanding their pain and then providing or recommending solutions to ease the pain and set the company forward for growth. It is not always about selling hardware or services. The engagement model has started to work well for Sun. And Stewart’s commitment to programme is well recognised externally as well as within the company when Sun recently presented him with an award for commitment.

Here is a snap shot of recent discussion on Sun’s startup blog

OpenSolaris Vending Machine

Free Hosting for Facebook and Open Social Applications

Sun and Joyent have teamed up to bring free hosting for Facebook and Open Social Applications.

Thanks to Stewart, Sun Microsystems now has a permanent office at Daresbury Science and Innovation Centre. Stewart, keep up the good work. The community needs true champions such as you to make a change.

Jelle de Bruin, co-founder of AppAppeal informed me of this excellent video they have created on UK’s hottest 30 web companies. Glad to see edocr among them plus number of webmission08 companies.