Richard Pandiscio's Thirty To Watch - prominent people in computer, software industry

Interview, Oct, 1999 by Jessie Scanlon

This month, Ones to Watch turns to the wired world - a natural place to find people to watch for at least the next thirty years. In so doing, we sought out individuals who are not only impressing us with their spirit and abilities right now, but who we think will continue to astonish us over and over again. Because that is the nature of the wired revolution: It's constantly evolving, and the talent that powers it is endlessly adaptable. We asked reporter Jessie Scanlon, a "One to Watch" of her own, to look at the forces that are driving the mushrooming tech scene.

Patrick Ames A veteran of Adobe Systems and Apple Computer, Ames is up-and-coming all over again. His 1997 start-up, Octavo, publishes rare books and manuscripts, from Galileo's Sidereus Nuncius to Shakespeare's Sonnets. The Octavo library (available on CD-ROM and at www.octavo.com) combines keyword search and site indexes with images so detailed - you see the texture of the paper, the imprint of the letterpress - that you hardly miss the paper. In his efforts to bring the past into the future, Ames has really invented the digital book.

John Battelle In 1998, Battelle launched The Industry Standard, a weekly magazine for silicon types (think a tech-savvy Economist with a sense of humor). In less than two years, the thirty-four-year-old has built a media company with an extensive online presence (www.thestandard.com) and a growing influence.

Brian Behlendorf This baby-faced programmer has emerged as one of the most respected leaders of the international open-source movement, which promotes nonproprietary software. In 1993, when he was just out of college, Behlendorf wrote thousands of lines of code to fix bugs in the network. Those efforts led to the Apache Project, an open-source software program that runs sixty percent of all Web servers. This year, Behlendorf launched SourceXchange (www.sourcexchange.com), the first commercial job bank for open-source programmers - whose work has traditionally been a labor of love.

Kim Binsted Binsted joined the Sony Computer Science Laboratories in 1998, where she's continuing her research into emotional expression, artificial intelligence, and entertainment. What's in it for the Japanese gadget gods? As the electronics giant develops entertainment products such as ALBO, the robot pet launched last summer, Sony will need to understand human emotion and character as well as it grasps programming and circuits. Part of Binsted's job, in some sense, is to teach Sony's new dog new tricks.

Doug Camplejohn MyPlay Inc. (www.myplay.com), launched by Camplejohn and David Pakman in late September, is to music on the Net what America Online was to the Net in general - a service so easy it can't fail. While the big music labels and the digital music evangelists squabble over copyright issues and technical standards, Camplejohn and team (whose combined resume includes Apple, CDNow, and CNET) are developing that other key element: a compelling consumer experience.

Caleb Chung While toy companies rush to get their smart toys on the market, Chung and his partners at TOY are focused on the microelectronics and cheap motors that will really bring toys to life. If it sounds overambitious, take a glance at Chung's resume: He's the original creator of Furby, which raised the bar for smart toys (until Hasbro repositioned the critter as Happy-Meal fodder).

Chris Cunningham Because Stanley Kubrick hired him at the age of fourteen to build the creatures for his long-awaited, never-made film, Al. Because he has directed videos for Bjork, Aphex Twin, and Portishead. And because he is now, in his featurefilm directorial debut, bringing William Gibson's cyberpunk bible Neuromancer to the big screen.

LiLi Cunningham Cunningham's six-page-and-growing resume includes film productions, special effects, advertising, and, most recently, CD-ROMs for last year's hot girl-game company Purple Moon. Cunningham left that startup earlier this year, and within no time joined MTV Networks Online as senior producer for the highly secretive Buggles project.

Paul Debevec As a grad student in computer science, Debevec wrote some computer algorithms - and then there was light. Or at least software to create the effect of natural light in computer-generated environments. In the past, computer animators have created highlights and shadows with the equivalent of a digital paintbrush. Using Debevec's code, Hollywood wizards can define the lighting of an environment, and objects within it automatically reflect and cast shadows. For computer animators, Debevec's work is Genesis retold.

Nick Gleason This thirty-one-year-old civic spark plug did time at Habitat for Humanity and Harvard Business School before cofounding his own company - CitySoft. The Boston-based firm (www.citysoft.com) builds corporate Web sites for clients such as Stonyfield Farm, The Boston Globe, and many nonprofit organizations. What sets CitySoft apart from the hundreds of other Web-design firms? Its employees come from Roxbury and Harlem and other nondigital low-income urban areas in Boston and New York City.