Remaking the Grade
While Clinton & Co. work to get a computer in every classroom, teachers and administrators are still drowning in a sea of paperwork. In response, former public school principal__Stacey Boyd__ founded Project Achieve (www.projectachieve.com), a Web-based software suite that keeps track of student information. Now, teachers in more than 50 participating school districts in six states can post grades, lesson plans, and attendance and disciplinary records, plus exchange syllabi with other educators. Parents can see the password-protected info using any browser. "Unless teachers bump into each other in the hallway or call parents at home, nothing gets shared," says Boyd. "This is a way for teachers to connect with parents and other teachers."
i-Spy
"A lot of the technology I used for undercover work inspires me," says onetime covert operative__Katrina Barillova__. Trained in espionage by the Czechoslovakian government, Barillova quit the spy business to cofound and serve as VP of InfoCharms (www.infocharms.com), an MIT Media Lab spin-off that designs wearable computers.
In May, the company launches Nanix, an open source operating system for body-mounted devices that employs just 3 Mbytes of code. To rev up development in wearables technology, InfoCharms will give away Nanix to nonprofits and sell it inexpensively to commercial firms.
So how does dodging bullets stack up with finding backing for a company? "Getting investors is scarier," says Barillova. "People put their dreams in your hands."
Auto Pilot
Alex Groundsell's days working the pits for Mario Andretti and Al Unser Sr. in the '70s seem a world away from the Cupertino, California, Chevy dealership where the 57-year-old found himself until last summer. But then he answered the siren call from BestOffer.com, a San Francisco-based auction site that vets and rates used cars before posting them for sale. As VP of inspection quality, Groundsell oversees vehicle evaluation and hires mechanics. For the firm's April launch in LA, he had to bring an additional 28 technicians aboard - simple when stock options enter the picture. "Mechanics are pretty mercenary," Groundsell says. "They'll work for the highest bidder."
Fourth Dimension
"When the digital revolution in film came along, I wanted to do something different," says director Mike Figgis ofLeaving Las Vegas fame. His latest project -Time Code (www.timecode2000.com), out April 28 - is certainly different from typical multiplex fare: The screen is split into four squares, each containing a different but related visual. Shot simultaneously with four handheld digicams, the 93-minute comedy-thriller was done in one continuous take; the actors, working without scripts, relied on synchronized watches for their cues. Figgis believes today's audiences, multitaskers in their daily lives, are ready for his brand of multiscreen entertainment. "Films," he says, "are constantly playing with the low end of an audience's expectations."
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