Esther Dyson papers, 1974-2001, bulk Bulk, 1980-1996

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Summary

Creators:

Dyson, Esther, 1951-

Abstract:

The Esther Dyson papers contain material that documents Dyson’s career analyzing and creating projections on emerging technologies with her newsletter Release 1.0, and her interest and investment in tech start-ups with her venture capitalism firm EDventure Holdings. The collection dates from 1974 to 2001, with the bulk of material from 1980 to 1996, and includes material related to Dyson’s research on technology companies, products, and topics.

Extent:

36 Linear feet, 28 record cartons, 3 manuscript boxes

Language:

and The collection is primarily in English, with a small amount of material in Russian, German, Japanese, French, Hungarian, Romanian, Croatian, and Spanish.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of Item], [Date], Esther Dyson papers, Lot X[#], Box [#], Folder [#], Catalog [#], Computer History Museum.

Note: For this collection the lot number citation will either be X2780.2004 or X2957.2005.

Background

Scope and content:

The Esther Dyson papers are comprised of material Dyson collected from 1974 to 2001, with the bulk of material from 1980 to 1996, related to her work analyzing and making projections on emerging technologies, her industry newsletter Release 1.0, and her venture capitalism firm EDventure Holdings.

The largest part of the collection contains material related to various topics, companies, and products that reflect Dyson’s venture capitalism and interest in the computer and software industry. A smaller but significant part of the collection relates to Dyson’s industry-analyst newsletter Release 1.0 and its Eastern European-focused sister publication Rel-EAST, including edited drafts of the newsletters and material used for research on the subjects, products, and companies she wrote about. The smallest part of the collection consists of books, manuals, periodicals, and computer industry conference proceedings and workbooks that are focused on computer technology, software, programming, and development.

Biographical / historical:

Esther Dyson was born July 14, 1951, in Zürich, Switzerland, to physicist Freeman Dyson and mathematician Verena Huber-Dyson. At age 16, Dyson was accepted to Harvard University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1972. After graduation, she went to work at Forbes as a fact-checker and then reporter from 1974 to 1977. In 1977, she started working as a Wall Street securities analyst for New Court Securities (later called Rothschild) and then Oppenheimer and Company, specializing in high-tech and software companies.

In 1982, Dyson began working with Rosen Research firm and its founder, venture capitalist Ben Rosen. The next year, she bought the firm from Rosen, which included the newsletter Rosen’s Electronic News and the annual PC Forum conference. She renamed the firm EDventure Holdings and the newsletter Release 1.0, and began organizing PC Forum, which she helmed each year until its last conference in 2006. After Dyson took it over, PC Forum was considered one of the premier conferences in the technology industry.

Dyson published Release 1.0 from 1983 through 2006, with a break in 1985 when she accepted an offer to edit Ziff-Davis’ short-lived newsletter Computer Industry Daily (CID), which only lasted a few months. Release 1.0 focused on Dyson’s analysis and projections of emerging technologies, and the software and technology industries. As a paid-subscription publication, Release 1.0 had a fairly small readership but its subscribers were considered highly influential in the industry. With EDventure Holdings, Dyson has invested in technology start-ups, more recently focusing on health care and aerospace. In the late 1980s, she started investing in Eastern and Central European technology ventures. She was an early investor in Flickr, Evernote, Medstory, and Square, and was active in the sale of Flickr to Yahoo! and Medstory to Microsoft.

In the 1990s, Dyson became involved in internet public policy. She chaired several organizations, including the National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIIAC) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and she was a founding chair of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Dyson’s book, Release 2.0: A Design for Living in the Digital Age, was published in 1997, and she has written columns for the New York Times, ZDNet, Project Syndicate, the Guardian, Content magazine, and other publications. Dyson sold EDventure Holdings, Release 1.0, and PC Forum to CNET Networks in 2004. She left CNET three years later, but has continued to work under the EDventure Holdings name. She also sits on the boards of several companies and nonprofits.

Acquisition information:

Gift of Esther Dyson, 2004.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into 3 series:

Series 1, Subject files, 1974-2001, bulk 1980-1996

Series 2, Release 1.0 files, 1979-1996

Series 3, Books, manuals, periodicals, and conference material, 1982-1992

Rules or conventions:

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Indexed terms

Subjects:: Computer industry--Capital investments
EDventure Holdings Inc.
Internet governance
Release 1.0
Names:: Dyson, Esther-1951

Access and use

Restrictions:: Material in box 8, folder 31 contains social security numbers. Researchers must use a redacted photocopy of this restricted material for research until the restriction is lifted at the death of the number holder. Otherwise the collection is open for research.
Terms of access:: The Computer History Museum (CHM) can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible for satisfying any claims of the copyright holder. Requests for copying and permission to publish, quote, or reproduce any portion of the Computer History Museum’s collection must be obtained jointly from both the copyright holder (if applicable) and the Computer History Museum.