__ People __
__ Net Juggernaut __
We know more about Net application development than Andersen Consulting, Deloitte & Touche, and IBM," boasts Joe Firmage, 27-year-old cofounder and CEO of USWeb. Bold statements aside, Firmage's growth strategy has proved difficult to resist: 32 webcos and 1,000 employees have been assimilated into USWeb since '95. Having turned heads with his Borg-like biz model, Firmage now stands accused of wanting to cash out. "The common perception is that any roll-up strategy is purely a financial play," he admits. "But this is a long-term bet."
__ Splicemeister __
Whole genome shotgun sequencing," declares J. Craig Venter, will shoot his venture past the government-sponsored Human Genome Project and decipher the human genetic code in a paltry three years. "It's the biological equivalent of Moore's Law." Venter, the president of the private-sector Institute for Genomic Research, is one of the few scientists who isn't shy about making grand predictions. When asked to assess the advantages of his brand of gene mapping, he says, "We're going to do the whole thing for US$300 million instead of $3 billion, and in three years instead of 15 - at no cost to the taxpayer."
__ Techno Muse __
Fox Lorber is planning to distribute Lynn Hershman-Leeson's Conceiving Ada, a film homage to Lady Ada Lovelace. But Ada is only the latest in a long line of digital exploits: Almost 30 years ago, Hershman-Leeson made Lorna, the first interactive laserdisc art piece. Recently, her photo series Cyborgs showed in San Francisco and Berlin. And now she's busy crafting dolls with networked surveillance cams for eyes. "Duchamp said that all anyone can expect is three good ideas," says Hershman-Leeson. "I've had only one: People can change the utopian or dystopian force of technology by infusing it with poetry." Next, she plans to direct two poetic films about "the ethics of artificial life."
__ Agenda Setter __
At the FCC, I was one of 2,000 staff people - most of whom were lawyers," says former FCC counsel Kevin Werbach, who recently swapped his legal briefs for the managing editor gig at Release 1.0. One of the few policy wonks who really got it, Werbach must now give it back - in the form of analysis - via Esther Dyson's exclusive newsletter. "My job used to be convincing companies not to run out of the room screaming when I told them I was from the government," he jokes. "Now I have tons of start-ups beating down my door."
__ Storyteller __
Before Myst, Jordan Mechner set the standard for elegant adventure games with his 1989 classic Prince of Persia. Mechner's creations, like the Miller brothers' work, eschew body count for story line, and his fans seem excited that he has agreed to help craft Prince of Persia 3D. But the interactive aficionado seems to be steering his narrative prowess in another direction: He's wrapping up a movie script based on the train mystery The Last Express. "Programming once seemed like the hardest activity ever," he says. "But now I think screenwriting is harder."
