The just-launched tech blog TechFlash.com has the scoop on the next move from Bill Gates since he retired from day-to-day at Microsoft last June.

It's a company now called bgC3 LLC, and public documents describe it as a kind of "think tank," according to Eric Engleman and Todd Bishop, the former Microsoft reporter for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and one of the minds behind TechFlash.

The company, which apparently has its own logo, is housed in a Kirkland, Wash., office not far from Gates' home. The report has some detail on what bgC3 is about:

Federal trademark filings provide more clues -- describing bgC3 as a think tank, under a generic trademark classification that corresponds broadly to areas including "scientific and technological services," "industrial analysis and research," and "design and development of computer hardware and software."

Not a bad story to help launch the new blog by the Puget Sound Business Journal. As for what bgC3 stands for, the bg part is easy (Bill Gates), but an "insider" tells TechFlash that C stands for "catalyst", and not company 3 as some had guessed.

And so unfolds the next chapter of How Bill Gates is Changing the World. The speculation on this company is that it will help nurture all kinds of innovation beyond just plain technology. Investment in research and development historically suffers during economic downturns, so the timing of the new think tank could give a lot of tinkerers, scientists and innovators' heart to keep the faith in the strength of their ideas.