In October of 2006, I gave a presentation at TechRepublic about the history of women in IT. One of the women I highlighted in my PowerPoint was Esther Dyson, who is known in the IT community as an investor and a commentator on emerging digital technology. Several months later (July of 2007), I actually met Esther at BlogHer 2007. She graciously agreed to be a part of TechRepublic’s Women in IT series. Listen to the podcast interview.

“It’s been such an amazing, fun life… and it’s not over yet!”
— Esther Dyson

One of the most exciting things about meeting Esther — aside from the fact that she was in my history lesson — was that she used to work for CNET Networks. That employment link gave me a certain sisterhood bond vibe, like we were related in a distant cousin sort of way. Not only that, but Esther is knowledgeable, insightful, and serves as a great example of IT success for women and men alike.

What? You haven’t heard of Esther? Here’s a little snip from her bio:

Esther’s primary activity is investing in start-ups and guiding many of them as a board member. Her board seats include 23andMe, Boxbe, CVO Group, Eventful, Evernote, IBS Group (Russia, advisory board), Meetup, Midentity (UK), NewspaperDirect, Yandex (Russia)…and WPP Group (not a start-up). Some of her other direct IT investments include Flickr and Del.icio.us (sold to Yahoo!), BrightMail (sold to Symantec), Orbitz (sold to Cendant), Medstory (sold to Microsoft), ActiveWeave, BlogAds, ChoiceStream, Dotomi, Linkstorm, Mashery, Ovusoft, Plazes, Powerset, Resilient, Tacit, Technorati, Visible Path, Vizu.com and Zedo.

Yes, she’s busy! When I asked Esther what event or events stick out as pivotal to her IT career, she began, “I’ve had such an amazing, fun life… and it’s not over yet!”

Find out what important developments Esther sees coming in the next five years, companies that are doing interesting things that we should watch out for, and how she balances being a technology investor and a commentator.

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