Portals in space
In 1998, Joe Firmage took the risky step of disclosing a visionary experience that convinced him of a connection between the world's religions and high-tech advances and visitors from outer space.
The furor surrounding Firmage's revelations coincided with the young multimillionaire entrepreneur's resignation from his position as chief executive of USWeb/CKS. Firmage subsequently became associated with Ann Druyan, a respected science writer and the widow of famed astronomer Carl Sagan, and withdrew from public scrutiny to devise what he and Druyan described as a science-based entertainment portal.
On Tuesday, Firmage returns from the high-tech wilderness to the Siggraph computer graphics gathering in San Diego to announce that his company, ManyOne Networks, has acquired San Francisco-based Web start-up Media Machines, a 3D technology company.
The acquisition of a Web3D start-up might suggest to some that Firmage is looking to the future, or what he calls Web 2.0, by recycling ideas and technologies from the Web's past. And VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) graphics aren't the only suggestion of a back-to-the future strategy: Firmage's plan for a next-generation World Wide Web combines the power of affinity portals, the Mozilla browser, Web directories, and 3D Web graphics--a virtual museum of tried and abandoned Web media concepts. He recently sat down for a CNET News.com roundtable discussion with reporters and editors to talk in more detail about his plans.
