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Guide to the Esther Dyson papers
X2780.2004; X2957.2005
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Table of contents
Title: Esther Dyson papers
Identifier/Call Number: X2780.2004; X2957.2005
Contributing Institution:
Computer History Museum
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
36 Linear feet,
28 record cartons, 3 manuscript boxes
Date (bulk): Bulk, 1980-1996
Date (inclusive): 1974-2001
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.
Languages: The collection is primarily in English, with a small amount of material in Russian, German, Japanese, French, Hungarian, Romanian,
Croatian, and Spanish.
creator:
Dyson, Esther, 1951-
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.
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.
[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.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Esther Dyson, 2004.
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.
Scope and Content of the Collection
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.
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
Software was separated from the main collection (X2957.2005). To view catalog records for separated material, search the CHM
catalog at
http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/search/ .
Related Collections at Other Repositories
Esther Dyson Papers, 1971-1999; MC 755. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Computer industry--Capital investments
Dyson, Esther-1951
EDventure Holdings Inc.
Internet governance
Release 1.0