Jeteye Interview Questions
4 January, 2006


EN:  The emergence of the Internet has yielded enormous benefits for the global community, but what are the negative implications (i.e., information overload and clutter) of the prevalence of the web?

DH: I think what has emerged, in parallel with all the benefits of the ‘find anything, anytime’ phenomenon, is a growing complacency and acceptance of satisfactory and mediocre mass information. Lost I think, is the sense of wonder ̬–– curiousity around how and why…invention, intention and the process and satisfaction of getting there.
Cultural issues have barely been identified let alone thought about socially – the primary one being what I call the ‘dumbing-down’ of education.  Today’s internet provides fast information, or answers.  This ‘great thing’ (Google currently playing the leading role), is an answer seeking/answer driven mentality that justifies not thinking.  Especially in schools, where the “answer” is paramount to passing the test, we are no longer really teaching our children that learning is to think, to question, and to really absorb the process.  An entire new generation is growing up with the ‘benefits’ of the Internet –– that of getting whatever they want quickly, without having to think about it.  That, in my opinion is a tragedy.



EN:  What differentiates Jeteye from competitors such as Yahoo! and Google?

DH: At Jeteye we believe knowledge is a human quality, a manifestation of belief, intent, thought, experience, trial and error – assimilation in order to actually ‘know’ something is what matters. To take each persons ability to think, intuit, learn, and decide and then communicate that expression is what is irreplaceable and different from the approach taken to date.  Many engineers believe the computer can or will be able to do this.  I don’t.  We are working at Jeteye towards creating a product that encourages the sharing of information from person to person, and also encourages the mental activities of thinking, which have been so well-represented in the act of writing and communicating.



EN: What role do you think search engines play in our attention deficit society?

DH: Attention deficit, as we are referring to it, is a societal problem. We are experiencing severe cultural entropy. This is precisely a result of the current environment and our cultural shift toward information overload as a way of life rather than toward understanding ‘why’ and ‘who’  ––  we are moving toward a  fast, ‘give me the answer now’ society. In fact, we are already there.  I think search engines in their current incarnations are contributing to the problem, rather than working to solve it. We “Google” everything now and much of the time settle for the first few results. The competitive advantage companies like Google used to tout was speed…now we simple expect infinite information instantly.



EN:  What is a Jetpak?  How do you see the Jetpak technology revolutionizing organization, efficiency and time management?

DH: I think of them as light, efficient, turbo-charged vehicles for transmission and communication of what matters to us individually. One can bundle all kinds of stuff in them and send them from one spot on the web (or any network) to another. Think of the ubiquitous car’s on the interstate highway. Movies, monies, books, messages…anything… nested in, contained, and transported in Jetpaks for organization, information expansion and development and forwarding, (medical records, summons, signatures, games, vouchers ,etc.) While one might argue these are nothing but super-email applications, I will suggest that this is the next layer, above the web and its infrastructure, offering a new applications based tool for transport and communication.  The difference is they are created by people from the resources already available on-line, to the knowledge they each add, trade and share. Jetpak’s are easy to create…they encourage thought, collaboration, digging deeper, having an opinion. Jeteye is not an effortless ‘consumption’ oriented technology. Well placed effort is a good thing.



EN:  The Internet and Search Engine industry is an extremely fast-paced and is constantly evolving; how do you stay effective as a tech-industry executive and how do you plan to keep jeteye relevant and competitive?

DH: I read a lot, especially current cultural works, philosophy, science, and history, all are important to me.   And I talk to people a lot. I think a lot about what is important, what is lost and/or lacking in our evolving global cultures. That helps my imagination, and helps keep me current, or at least trying to stay effective and in tune with myself, which is the only way I know of guiding the vision to keep Jeteye relevant.  I feel that we have touched on something at Jeteye that has been largely ignored in technology, but that at the very core was meant to happen:  that we need to see computing as a tool not a crutch. Much of the time I am striving to define this as an area that is not competitive with a fast paced, instantaneous machine oriented universe.



EN:  What role do you see the Jeteye technology playing in the attention deficit workplace as well as in the sphere of students and education?

DH: I think we learn when things are fun – we’re definitely working at Jeteye to keep our work and product fun, so that means we’re looking always for ways to put fun and intelligence into the web!  And it’s quite simple really.  Jeteye technology is one  way of creating shared work, shared play, in any workplace or environment.  One of the nice things about the technology is that we’ve made Jetpaks persistent – they exist, and once created, they exist indefinitely.  They can appear anywhere the creator intends.



EN: What is the biggest challenge you have overcome?

DH: Probably the biggest challenge is solving the intuitive flow in the product – what we are trying to do is tap into the creative and playful side of the brain, and engage that… it is what leads to better thinking, and to satisfying our natural hunger for knowledge. This is just the ever-so-slightest shift from the behavior we have come to think of as efficient. Jeteye is much more an extroverted environment than the impersonal experience of search, and it can be far less restrictive than social networks.  In fact, Jetpaks are a natural currency we can have between the many social networks that will be coming into existence.



EN:  As a successful entrepreneur, what recommendations do you have for other entrepreneurs?

DH: That’s a really tough question. I’ve worked closely with a number of entrepreneurs, and I always try to steer them away from feeling that money will solve their problems. That’s actually never the case, but it’s a hard lesson to learn.  For me, success has come with the persistent belief in the ideas I am bringing to fruition.  There is always change, and going with change is important, but there is such a misunderstanding among the entrepreneurs I have talked to – there is too much focus on money solving problems.  Money doesn’t actually solve any problems.  Anyway, there are many people and situations along the way that can derail a great idea and it is especially in those time that it is sometimes sheer endurance and maintaining belief in oneself and the team that marks a company for its success.




EN: Do you foresee any drastic changes in internet technology during 2006?

DH: Whether this year or next, I think we’ll see some radical changes – I think in a human sense, the Internet as we have known it for the past 10 years, is going away.  When is a good question.

EN: Describe an instance where an interviewee has really gotten your attention, and what it really takes to get your resume noticed. 

DH: Something I read about Sir James Goldsmith some years back, probably in VF.  That got my attention because his intelligence simply leapt through the print --  I immediately went out and bought the Trap, and from there, it was simple to get his resume ;-)  .  So the answer to the last part of your question is speak your truth and people will notice you.



EN: How can we use technology to get and keep people’s attention?

DH: I don’t think we can – at least, what keeps my attention has nothing to do with technology, and only to do with people.




EN: What is your brief history with internet technology?

DH: Currently I’m Chairman, CEO of Jeteye Technologies which I founded in early 2004.  Prior to this I was Executive Chairman of Critical Path, the company I founded in 1997, and came back to in 2001 to lead the company’s financial turnaround. Previously, I was President and Founder of Archipelago.net, a holding company investing in global technology, education, and ecology, which I founded in 1999.  Prior to Critical Path I was co-founder, chairman and CEO of Magellan, one of the Internet’s first leading search engines, which we sold to Excite in 1996.   Since 1996 I have served on many public, private and charitable boards, including E*Trade, Andale, and the GGNPA.  I have been successfully backed by notable venture capital firms, given the keynote address at the World Bank’s Government Borrower’s Forum 2000, been quoted or featured in Forbes, BusinessWeek, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Red Herring and other leading publications, and am referenced in several successfully published books about entrepreneurs. My college degree is from Stanford in Political Science.

 

EN: With our increasing access to “everything” via the internet, what do you believe we can’t find by tapping into the World Wide Web? 

I think it’s really hard to find what’s inside your heart by tapping into the web.