by Gary Welz
Innovators II: EarthWeb
Earthweb is a Web development firm that has already made a name for itself in several significant arenas.They are best known as the creators of Gamelan, the Java Directory. Sponsored by Sun Microsystems, it is the most comprehensive Java-related database in the world, with over 3,000 applets and a library of other resources including a JavaScript repository. It is also a focal point for the community of Java developers and a clearinghouse for information about Java and developments in the Java programming industry.
Gamelan is a Javanese word for orchestra, and the founders of EarthWeb, Jack Hidary, Murray Hidary, and Nova Spivack, view this enterprise as rather like assembling an orchestra of people with a wide range of talents and letting them collaborate to make beautiful music. EarthWeb provides the endeavor with focus, enables grass roots participation, assures quality control, and gives the participants marketing opportunities they could never obtain as cheaply or easily working on their own. It's rather like an artists cooperative for programmers--they all share, and they all benefit.
Earthweb has recently announced the launch of Gamelan Direct, a new online store that will offer commercial Java products and related merchandise. The site will support a variety of online transaction methods to process the sales. Gamelan aims to be the central marketplace where Webmasters and site developers can purchase "shrinkwrapped" software, finished applets, and applications as well as the latest building blocks. The site will enable large and small developers to sell Java products at a fraction of the cost of traditional distribution channels.
In a one-month pilot, Gamelan Direct licensed more than 5,000 copies of EarthWeb Chat, EarthWeb's own Java-enabled product. Many licensees of EarthWeb Chat don't run it from their own server because EarthWeb offers what it calls "transparent distribution"--a technique that enables sites to have a chat window appear on their Web pages while the chat server is run on an EarthWeb computer. This allows the customer to provide chat to their users but avoid having to manage the chat software. Many also find that they can attract new visitors because the EarthWeb chat users on that server have access to other chat "channels" and will frequently channel surf to other discussions.
The product is highly scalable. Current clients include Condé Nast and a leading shareware site named Happy Puppy. An Alaskan fish auctioneer even uses it to hold fish auctions.
EarthWeb is also developing other products such as HyperTV, which uses Java to integrate live broadcast TV with the Web. HyperTV sends URLs to the user's Web browser while the program is on the air. This is not the same as Intercast, a technology that sends Web pages in the vertical blanking interval of the TV signal. HyperTV sends its signal independently of the TV signal so it can work with any program, not just those specially tailored to this format. Advertisers are interested because it will allow them to send advertisements on Web pages during programming.
Fashion Internet, another EarthWeb venture, has been named the leading online fashion magazine by WIRED and the New York Times. They've also produced sites for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Reuters, and BMG.
Jack Hidary, President and CEO of EarthWeb, is very excited about servicing the Web publishing environment. He believes that during the next two years the Web will go from its "early adopter" phase to its mass market phase. Now only 10 to 15 percent of the country has Web access. He believes that the "contentware" EarthWeb is developing will allow the mass market to participate.
What is contentware? "Software and content are fusing, contentware is the software that enhances the experience of content, ideally in a seamless way," answered Hidary. He reminded me that Microsoft's Bill Gates saw the value of content, and in the past two year he's bought the Bettman Photo Archive, partnered with NBC on MSNBC, started the online magazine Slate, and has plans to launch many more media ventures--being much more of a mogul these days than a nerd.
What did Hidary do before the Web explosion? Can you believe research in clinical neurosciences at the National Institutes of Health? He was working on brain imaging and pattern recognition analysis. Someday he'd like to return to research, but two years ago he saw the Web's magnificent "window of opportunity" and leapt through it. He's still flying.
