Esther Dyson to Keynote SIGGRAPH 2002 Conference

Business Wire, March 4, 2002

Business/Technology Editors

SIGGRAPH 2002

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 4, 2002

Esther Dyson, chairman of EDventure Holdings, presents the SIGGRAPH 2002 keynote address, at the 29th International Conference on Computer Graphics & Interactive Techniques, 21-26 July 2002 at the Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas.

Nearly 25,000 computer graphics and interactive technology professionals from six continents will gather to showcase their best work to a multi-disciplinary international community. A comprehensive technical program, three-day exhibition, and special activities focusing on research, art, animation, games, interactivity, and the Web are planned

"Esther Dyson has long been regarded as one of the most powerful thinkers in the computing industry," said Tom Appolloni, SIGGRAPH 2002 Conference Chair from Harris Corporation. "The SIGGRAPH community is looking forward to hearing from Dyson, who is a strategic thinker immersed in emerging technologies and their impact on the world."

As an active investor and commentator, Dyson focuses on emerging technologies and business models - peer-to-peer, artificial intelligence, the Internet, wireless applications - emerging markets in Eastern Europe, and emerging companies. In 1994, she had already explored the impact of the Net on intellectual property. In 1997, she wrote a book on the impact of the Net on individuals' lives, Release 2.0: A Design for Living in the Digital Age. She remains an active player in discussions and policy-making concerning the Internet and society.

Dyson is also chairman of EDventure Holdings (www.edventure.com), which publishes the influential monthly technology-industry newsletter, "Release 1.0," and sponsors two of the industry's premier annual conferences. Dyson also writes a fortnightly column for the New York Times syndicate titled "Release 3.0" which also appears in EDventure's online newsletter, "The conversation continues."

In addition, she donates time and money as a trustee to emerging organizations including Bridges.org, the Santa Fe Institute, the National Endowment for Democracy, and the Eurasia Foundation. She recently finished a two-year-term as founding chairman of ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the international agency charged with setting policy for the Internet's core infrastructure (technical standards and the Domain Name System) independent of government control. Now she sits on its "reform" committee, dedicated to defining a role for individuals in ICANN's decision-making and governance structures.

After graduating from Harvard in economics, Dyson began her serious career in 1974 as a fact-checker for Forbes magazine and quickly rose to reporter. In 1977 she joined New Court Securities as "the research department," following Federal Express and other start-ups. After a stint at Oppenheimer covering software companies, she moved to Rosen Research and in 1983 bought the company from her employer Ben Rosen, and renamed it EDventure Holdings. The daughter of an English physicist and a Swiss mathematician, Dyson started traveling in Eastern Europe in 1989 and eventually helped to fill the small but vital vacuum at the intersection of Eastern Europe, high-tech and venture capital, even as she remains active in the US and Western Europe.

Immediately preceding the keynote, ACM SIGGRAPH will present three awards: The Computer Graphics Achievement Award, the Significant New Researcher Award, and the ACM SIGGRAPH Outstanding Service Award. SIGGRAPH 2002 is sponsored by ACM SIGGRAPH, the leading professional society for computer graphics and interactive techniques. Information on ACM SIGGRAPH membership and other conferences and activities can be found at www.siggraph.org.