Chapter 9

THE PATTERN-RECOGNIZER

Esther Dyson

THE COYOTE (John Perry Barlow): Esther is the smartest woman I know. She would rather have me say she is one of the five smartest humans I know, which I could also say. But I'll stick with calling her the smartest woman I know because there is something about the combination of that kind of intelligence and femininity which is still too rare in the computer field. There is a quality to her insight that is not masculine and is incredibly powerful as a result.

Esther Dyson is president of EDventure Holdings and editor of Release 1.0. Her PC Forum conference is an annual industry event.

Chapter 7

THE STATESMAN

Steve Case

THE COMPETITOR (Scott McNealy): AOL has the big challenge we all have: it's right in the middle of the vortex of the change. One of the things it has been able to do is adapt and deal with the new and different competitive threats and regulatory environments and technology changes driving the business. This is one business where you want to spend very little time in internal strategizing and a ton of time with your head outside the window, or on an airplane, flying around, trying to figure out what's really going on. Technology in AOL's space is moving way faster than it does in the hardware space or the operating system space or the product space. Steve Case has done a good job of keeping his head in an environment that is swirling like crazy.

Steve Case is the founder and CEO of America Online.

Chapter 5

THE THINKER

Doug Carlston

THE IDEALIST (Denise Caruso): Doug Carlston does good things, and does them well, and people like them. He doesn't have to be a jerk about it‹it's kind of amazing. He's like that Rodin sculpture. You can feel him thinking.

Doug Carlston cofounded Brøderbund Software after starting a career as an attorney. Today he is its chairman and CEO. 
 

Chapter 3

THE SCOUT

Stewart Brand

THE CITIZEN (Howard Rheingold): What's unrecognized about Stewart is that he's a designer. He designed The Well to be something that wouldn't require his running it. He designed the Whole Earth Review and the Whole Earth Catalog to be self-sustaining communities. We need more mavericks like him. The world has become too much of an intellectual monoculture of people who belong to corporations and who don't question the established way of doing things.

Stewart Brand is founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, cofounder of The Well, cofounder of Global Business Network, and author of The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at MIT (1987) and How Buildings Learn (1994).

Chapter 1

THE PRAGMATIST 

Stewart Alsop

THE ORACLE (Paul Saffo): Stewart Alsop has played a number of different roles in this business. Despite his considerable expertise, he works very hard to keep the perspective of the reasonable businessperson asking what exactly does this mean for me. It is very much in the intellectual tradition of his family to speak and write articulately about things in a way that makes sense to ordinary people.

Stewart Alsop is a partner in New Enterprise Associates, a venture capital firm, and a contributing editor to InfoWorld, of which he is the former editor-in-chief. He is executive producer of Agenda, an annual conference for executives of the computer industry.