In 1994, personal computers were going "multimedia" - gaining the ability to present and manipulate photographs and other high-resolution still images, sound and music, digital video.

"Interactivity" was another buzz word that was becoming reality. A dedicated band of programmers and designers had emerged from the disparate domains of videogames, consumer electronics, computer software development, television and radio broadcasting, and cinema. They created and published a broad spectrum of entertainment and educational experiences, publications in every genre, art - vast software landscapes that people could wander through, more or less purposefully, enlivened by multimedia, distributed on CD-ROM. I created and edited a magazine that helped to pull this community together, Morph's Outpost on the Digital Frontier.

In 1994, Compuserve and upstart America Online were the go-to online destinations. The Internet still carried a whiff of rocket science. The Web was just emerging as a viable publishing platform.

All kinds of projects were beginning to seem possible. Books that extended their contents with interactive multimedia CD-ROMs. CD-ROMs that included a built-in browser to connect to a web site and update the contents. And, the Holy Grail: the "information superhighway" where all publishers (newspaper, magazine, book) and broadcasters (TV and radio) and software developers would sell or otherwise distribute their wares to consumers around the world.

The funny thing is, despite the dot-com and larger technology business nose-dive, we're still on track to realize this dream - steadily building, bit by bit, what my old friend Michael Moon calls the "mediasphere."

And, as in 1994, Silicon Valley remains the motor, the bank, the brain at the center of it all. Thus the need for Silicon Valley Media Watch.

As they were then, Silicon Valley's geographical boundaries remain fluid. We'll focus primarily on media coverage of people, companies, tools, and technologies in the the greater San Francisco Bay Area…and we'll trace causes and effects, impacts and influences farther afield as necessary and appropriate.

The way the media depict Silicon Valley has a direct effect on Silicon Valley - influencing customer behavior, market opportunities, and even stock valuations. To see this demonstrated in real-time, watch Apple's share price this week, rising in part because of positive media coverage of the iPod phenomenon.

As Silicon Valley Media Watch ramps up and expands offerings, we'll need help from readers, too. You know better than any journalist, even more, in some important ways, than any industry pundit. Your tips, links, inside information will be reflected in what you read here. We'll respect anonymity if that's what you want

Back to Blaster magazine. It was predicated on the notion that young people would use multimedia-capable computers and a new generation of low-cost software and hardware tools for their own creations - combining text, graphics, photos, and music - that they would share online and via high-capacity disks. We focused on young people - "screenagers" we called them, who had grown up using videogame controllers and computer mice - because we knew they would discover the best way to use the tools and platforms that were just beginning to take shape in the early 1990s.

The blog phenomenon and DVDs are making the Blaster vision a reality for millions of people around the world.

It's worth nothing that the software I'm using for this column, Moveable Type, one of the popular tools at the center of the "blogosphere," was created in Menlo Park, the heart of Silicon Valley.

Thanks for joining us for this ride.

Doug Millison
Editor, Silicon Valley Media Watch
doug@siliconvalleywatcher.com

Links:

In Remembrance Sam Whitmore remembers Comdex, via the ever-interesting The Fullrunner newsletter.