Home > Esther Dyson

After graduating from Harvard in economics, Ms. Dyson began her serious career in 1974 as a fact-checker for Forbes 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.

A signature element of her projects are their names:

• Release 1.0 is Ms. Dyson's influential monthly technology-industry newsletter, published for the last 20 years by EDventure Holdings. Ms. Dyson writes several issues herself and edits the rest.

• Release 2.0 is Ms. Dyson's 1997 book on the impact of the Internet on individuals' lives. The full title is Release 2.0: A design for living in the digital age. She published an updated volume, Release 2.1, in 1998.

• Release 3.0 is Ms. Dyson's bimonthly column for the New York Times and its syndicate. Ms. Dyson also publishes the column in their own newsletter.

• Release 4.0 ( http://weblog.edventure.com ) is Ms. Dyson's weblog.

Ms. Dyson and her company specialize in analyzing the impact of emerging technologies and markets on the economy and society.

She is a noted participant in numerous non-profit organizations. She donates time and money as a trustee to emerging organizations (Bridges.org, 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. As of 2004, she sits on its "reform" committee, dedicated to defining a role for individuals in ICANN's decision-making and governance structures.

The biography above was based on the official biography at Esther Dyson's website, http://www.edventure.com/edventure/esther.cfm..