CATCHING THE DIGITAL INFORMATION WAVE

Don’t let the low profile fool you. Paul Allen may not be a name capturing headlines often, but the Microsoft cofounder turned high-tech venture capitalist has been very busy behind the scenes providing financial backing to several companies with eyes turned toward the digital information future.

The Allen-funded company count includes Asymetrix Corp., a multimedia tools developer; and Interval Research, a less-than-one-year-old media research and development firm in Palo Alto, CA, that is headed by Xerox PARC veteran and Metaphor Systems cofounder David Liddle. Allen is also one of the backers of SkyPix, the digital direct-broadcast satellite (DBS) delivery system. While SkyPix is currently experiencing severe financial and managerial woes, which has all but doomed the company to failure, Allen still holds a major stake in the compression and communications technology the company has developed.

What they all have in common are tools and technology to access and present information — from computer-based presentations to movies — in digital form.

Now enter Starwave Inc., a startup company formed earlier this year with a mission to develop and market “products and services that have to do with online information and digital data.”

“Our general view of the world is that over the next five to 10 years, all the information you want will be available online,” says Starwave president Steve Wood (formerly the vice president of business development for multimedia tools developer Asymetrix). But as many users have already discovered, just because online services are available doesn’t mean that you can easily access or find the information you want.

To that end, Starwave is setting an agenda that includes developing improved interfaces and better access software to existing online information sources, such as news wires, government databases and financial services. Says Wood: “The delivery mechanisms will be there — cables, satellites, cell networks — and there’s going to be some huge opportunities to provide information in a form that people can use and to help them filter that information.”

The company also hopes to be a major software supplier to the new crop of emerging information publishers who lack the software expertise necessary to organize, present and provide users with easy access software for their information databases. “Our premise is that there is going to be a real explosion in the quantity of digital information,” says Wood. “We plan to be there to take advantage of the new industry that’s going to emerge to provide interesting and innovative ways to use all that digital information.”

The company, which currently has eight employees, does not plan to make any firm product announcements until it is ready to deliver, which won’t be for several years, according to Wood. But with the backing of Paul Allen, it’s a company worth keeping an eye on.

Connie Guglielmo