 Esther Dyson is chairman of EDventure Holdings, a small but diversified company focused on emerging information technology worldwide, and on the emerging computer markets of Central and Eastern Europe . She co-chaired the National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council's Information Privacy and Intellectual Property subcommittee, and is now involved in advising various government figures and organizations on a less formal basis, both in the US and elsewhere. Naming her Number 12 in its Elite 100, Upside Magazine recently wrote that Dyson's "stature is based entirely on her ability to influence others with her ideas rather than directly control companies or huge amounts of capital." Last year, Dyson published her first book, Release 2.0: A Design for Living in the Digital Age. The book is intended to help citizens and rulemakers (legislators, vendors of products and services, and other "designers" of cyberspace) think analytically and responsibly about the world they are creating as they raise children, run companies and services, and use the Internet in their daily lives. A paperback version, Release 2.1, will appear in the U.S. in late 1998. Dyson has spoken on many aspects of online business at meetings held by AT&T, Merrill Lynch, The Tribune Company, Siemens Nixdorf, Hewlett-Packard, The Aspen Institute, Andersen Consulting, Ernst & Young, BBDO Chicago, the Newspaper Association of America, Progressive Insurance, and others. Fluent in Russian, Dyson is a regular keynote speaker at the annual International Computer Forum in Moscow , and at other trade shows and conferences in the region. She also gives talks in English at events around the world. Dyson spent five years learning the dynamics of the computer and software businesses as a securities analyst (New Court Securities, 1977-80; Oppenheimer & Co., 1980-82). She began her serious career -- and got her business education -- as a reporter for Forbes magazine (1974-77).
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