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You didn't think all this stuff just grew in a woodsy patch out back of the Microsoft campus, did you? Here are the people who are really moving multimedia into the future.
Carla Sinclair
Columnist, author, Playboy ''Girl of the Internet''
Why Her:
Helped reclaim the hypermasculine Internet world for women with
last year's Net Chick, a paperback guide to all things femme
online. Net Chick and its pink website, Clubhouse prove that sisters can have as
many endless debates and trivial obsessions as their online
brothers.
What's Next: A cyberthriller, Looking for Douglas
Coupland.
Chief Judge Dolores K. Sloviter, Judges Stewart R. Dalzell and Ronald L. Buckwalter
Justices on a special federal judiciary panel in Philadelphia
Why Them: Declaring much of the vaguely worded Communications
Decency Act ''profoundly repugnant'' to the First Amendment, these
justices set Congress' effort to ban adult material on its ear
with a restraining order.
What's Next: The Supreme Court is
expected to rule on an appeal of their decision this winter.
Rob Glaser
Chairman and CEO, Progressive Networks
Why Him: Glaser and his
partners developed RealAudio software, which makes news, talk,
and concert broadcasts available to anyone with a modem.
What's Next: A Dolby stereo version has just been released;
more than 30,000 copies are being downloaded daily.
Nick Grouf
Cofounder and CEO of Web music and movie database/community
Firefly (www.ffly.com)
Why Him: Giving cold artificial
intelligence a warm glow, Firefly's software ''agents'' get to
know you, then proffer movie and music suggestions, plus names
of other Firefly members they think you might take a shine to.
What's Next: Expansion into such areas as travel and financial planning.
Mark Jeffrey
Director of commercial marketing, The Palace
Why Him: With
partner Jim Bumgardner, he led the crew that built The Palace,
whose fun graphics take online chat a quantum leap beyond
traditional text-only conversation.
What's Next: A retail
version of The Palace is coming to computer stores soon.
Thomas Lakeman
Senior vice president of production, Digital Planet
Why Him: A
pioneer in the design of distinctive movie sites like Apollo 13,
Digital Planet (www. digiplanet.com) provides high-paying
customers such as Universal Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox
with a chic, disposable style.
What's Next: With the animated
Madeleine's Mind psychodrama (www.madmind. com), DP is seeking
to define the content of the Web as well as the look.
Shigeru Miyamoto
Videogame designer, Nintendo
Why Him: The man who gave us
Donkey Kong and Mario is back with Super Mario 64, the jewel in
the crown of the mind-boggling new Nintendo 64 system.
What's Next: He's cooking up a hot batch of N64 games, including a new
incarnation of the sword-and-sorcery favorite Zelda.
