September 16th, 2006

Don't write my obit just yet!

Posted by Esther Dyson @ 2:41 pm

Categories: Uncategorized

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Word has slowly gotten out that the PC Forum last March was the last ever.  So let me interview myself:

 
What happened? 

 Well, with very few exceptions, each PC Forum would be better than the previous  year’s.  Yet, even though everyone was happy and the compliments mostly flowed in, I would spend the first couple of days after each Forum in a post-partum depression, thinking through the bits that had not been perfect, eager to do it again and do it better.  

But last March, amazingly, I was satisfied. I t was still not perfect, but I didn’t think I could do it better.  The whole thing flowed smoothly from start to finish, with questions raised by the early speakers resonating through the later discussions. (For the transcripts, see here.) We had finally reached Release 1.0 of PC Forum; it was ready to ship and declare complete.

 But what about the business decision?

 Daphne Kis and I sold EDventure Holdings (including PC Forum) to CNET almost three years ago.  From my perspective, one goal was to put PC Forum into other hands so I could do other things.  That has finally happened, though CNET has elected not to continue it with someone else at the helm.

So do you have a non-compete? Would you like to start over?

 Yes, I have a non-compete, but it’s not even necessary. I have no interest in doing another PC Forum.  I will be continuing to run Flight School, with Aspen Institute (save the dates: June 21-22). And I’ll be doing other events, as moderator, speaker  or panelist rather than organizer.  But I keep telling people they should change and take on new challenges, so that’s what I’m doing. It just took a while!

 I still don’t get it. Won’t you miss it?

 Let me tell you a true story from yesterday:   I was in an old gymnasium on Governor’s Island. There was a basketball lying on the floor, and a basket on a stand. I suppose I must have played basketball in high school, but certainly never since.  So I started trying to get the ball into the basket. It took about ten tries, and when I succeeded I quit.  It took almost 25 years for me to make the goal with PC Forum…

 What will you do instead?

 Well, I’m still an active employee of CNET Networks as editor at large and as the writer of this blog.  I also do a fair amount of private investing, speaking and general Internet troublemaking on the side.  None of that will change.