Dates:
July 14, 1951 -
Occupation:
consultant on emerging technologies, businesswoman, founder and chair: EDventure Holdings (New York), newsletter publisher, writer, speaker
About Esther Dyson:
Esther Dyson was born in Switzerland and grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, surrounded by scientists. Her mother was the mathematician Verena Huber-Dyson, and her father the astrophysicist Freeman Dyson. They divorced when Esther was five, and her mother moved to the West Coast. Esther spent time with each parent, and also in Europe.
Esther Dyson began her Harvard studies at age 16, and graduated in 1974 with a degree in economics. While at Harvard, she wrote for the campus paper, the Crimson.
Esther Dyson worked after graduation as a factchecker for Forbes, then as a security analyst at New Court Securities and, later, Oppenheimer. She worked for the Rosen Electronic Newsletter, and bought it from its founder and chnaged its name to Release 1.0. She founded her company, EDventure Holdings, as a holding company for the newsletter and other ventures.
Esther Dyson has written for numerous business and technical publications, with a monthly column in Computerworld. She has served on many boards, including chairing ICANN, the organization with authority over Internet domain names. She has also chaired the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a not-for-profit group that advocates for rights in the digital world.
Her influence has also been felt through her forums on technology, open only to subscribers to her publication. Her 1997 book of trend predictions was called Release 2.0: A Design for Living in the Digital Age.
