Ben Bassi

Ben Bassi, founder and CEO of CommonPlaces, is a seasoned internet pioneer and marketing executive with a proven track record. As the former EVP of the Firefly Network, the Web’s first personalized community, Bassi was among the early pioneers of Internet privacy standards working with the Federal Trade Commission, Microsoft and Netscape. He led the company’s efforts in developing e-business and privacy solutions for companies like Barnes & Noble, Cendant, MasterCard, Marriott, Proctor & Gamble and Yahoo! Microsoft acquired Firefly and the Firefly Passport used today in its web and e-business solutions offerings.

As one of the first business executives of Lycos, one of the world’s top-five websites, he was responsible for creating many of the first ASP agreements with industry giants such as Blockbuster Video, GTE, Microsoft, Netscape, Time Warner and Viacom. Bassi also spearheaded Lycos’ joint venture with Bertelsmann and Published over 50 Internet books. Prior to Lycos, Bassi was VP of North America at Object Design, where the company was number one on the “1994 INC 500” list. Bassi managed Strategic Accounts at McDonnell Douglas Systems Integration, which provided internally developed Enterprise Automation to companies such as General Motors, GTE, Tyco, Tupperware and General Electric.

CommonPlaces e-Solutions (www.commonplaces.com) is one of the fastest growing web development firms in New England (100% growth each of the past 4 years). Our specialty is using bleeding edge Open Source applications to deliver comprehensive Web-based solutions like Web 2.0 Social Networking, eCommerce, Customer Service and Enterprise 2.0. We specialize in CMS (Drupal), PHP, MySQL and CSS. We also provide strategic online marketing services to mid-sized through Fortune 500 companies.