Adam Clark Curry (born September 3, 1964 in
Washington, D.C.) is a broadcasting and Internet
personality well known for his stint from 1987 to 1994 as a video jockey on the music video channel MTV. In the mid-1990s, Curry was a World Wide Web entrepreneur and one of the first celebrities to personally create and administer a Web
site. In the 2000s, he helped pioneer podcasting, and is often called the 'Podfather' because of
his efforts.[1] He pilots his own Cessna 182 RG. He is married to Dutch singer Patricia Paay; they have
one daughter, Christina. He is also a co-crank on CrankyGeeks with John Dvorak.
The Web and MTV.com
In the late 1980s, before the World Wide Web, in the days of Gopher, Curry began
experimenting on the Net. He registered the then-unclaimed domain name "mtv.com" in 1993
with the idea of being MTV's unofficial new voice on the Internet. Although this move was
sanctioned by his superiors at MTV Networks at the time, when Adam left to start his own web-portal design and hosting company,
OnRamp Inc, MTV subsequently sued him for the domain name, which led to an out-of-court settlement.[2]
OnRamp eventually grew the to forty employees and sold it to THINK New Ideas Inc, another
company that he co-founded, becoming Chief Technology Officer of THINK. In 1996,
as the Internet was undergoing its legendary "bubble", the company made an initial
public offering on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol THNK. It subsequently grew to employ
over 400 people and with offices in seven countries, and was absorbed into Answerthink Inc, in a
later merger.
Back to Europe
After selling his business in the US, Curry and his family returned to work in the
Netherlands in 1999. He pursued his radio and television career by presenting a morning
talk/music show for his former employer, Veronica Radio. It was discontinued in September 2004.
He carried out several loose television assignments and his family briefly starred in the reality soap Adam's Family. [3]
Curry and two business partners founded the multimedia company United Resources of Jamby in
1999. It was to act as an incubator and cultivator for new internet-related businesses. The business was unsuccessful. The
participation in Kennisnet, a venture to introduce internet to Dutch schools
ended in a bitter argument and lawsuits over incorrect European invitation to tender.[4] Sportus.nl, an online webshop in cooperation with Dutch sporters like
Marcel Wouda, Jacco Eltingh, Ron Zwerver and Daniëlle Overgaag, started in 1999, went bankrupt in 2001.[5] And a prestigious content exchange project
called Freedom Controller[6] was cancelled in 2002.[7]
In 2000 he and his business partner Simon Cavendish, a participant in his earlier ventures,
founded the RotorJet company which was to offer helicopter services. The company went bankrupt in
2005. In the subsequent dispute, Cavendish seized the assets of the company. In April 2005, Adam Curry was ordered by the Dutch
Court to restitute approximately two million American dollars which he had withdrawn from RotorJet.[8]
In 2004, the Curry family, who had resided in Belgium since 1999, moved their home to the
United Kingdom. They currently reside in Guildford,
Surrey, in what some and Adam himself refer to on his podcast, The Daily Source Code as
"Curry Manor". Curry also owns a condominium in San Francisco,
California, ("Curry Condo") which he uses for his frequent business trips to
the city. In summer 2006, he and his wife began looking to purchase their own home in the UK.
On July 2, 2006, Adam's mother, Valerie Gail Clark (Breezy), died after a 2-year battle with cancer.[9]During the same
month, a younger cousin of Adam Curry, Timothy Curry, was arrested in Amsterdam for the possession of several illegal drugs. This
caused some minor controversies in the Dutch media, especially local news in Amsterdam.
Podcasting
Adam Curry is involved in the development and promotion of podcasting. He produces and presents a podcast named
Daily Source Code. He did not invent the podcasting technology, but was one of
the first to create a successful podcast show. He is a prominent figure in podcasting and he was a key figure at BloggerCon 2004, held at Stanford Law School. Media interviewers
and others often refer to Curry as "the podfather".[10]
"Every new medium needs a celebrity, and Curry is happy to fill that role," noted Annalee Newitz when she interviewed Curry
for Wired. [11]
Curry founded PodShow, Inc., along with business partner, Ron
Bloom, in January 2005. Venture capitalists Kleiner Perkins
Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital have invested nearly $9 million into
PodShow.[12] PodShow is a podcast promotions and advertising company
that encompasses the Podshow Podcast Network, the Podcast Delivery
Network (launched on July 4, 2006), and the Podsafe Music Network. Some of Podshow's top podcasts are Curry's own Daily Source Code,
The Dawn and Drew Show, GeekBrief.TV through PodShow.[12] As of the end of 2006 PodShow's
total amount of venture capital investments have risen to approximately $23m.
As of June 2005, Curry hosts a show on Sirius Satellite Radio, entitled
Adam Curry's PodShow, running from 6 to 10 p.m. EST on
weekdays.[13] The radio show features arguably "The Best of
Podcasting". Also in June of 2005 he started the iTunes podcast PodFinder, a guide to podcasts for new listeners.
Since around the time of Daily Source Code episode 380 (aired May 4 2006),[14] Curry has been promoting Daily Source Code in
Second Life under the name Adam Neumann via Curry Castle.[14]
Controversies
Wikipedia
Some controversy was caused by four edits Curry made to the podcasting article on Wikipedia
during 2005, which appeared to boost his role in the creation of podcasting by removing mention of early work by others.[15] Curry later apologized, saying he had not understood how to
use Wikipedia editing functions and had been unaware of some of the prior work done by Kevin
Marks.
Newspaper lawsuit
In late February 2006, Adam sued the Dutch tabloid Weekend for reprinting photos from
his Flickr page and publishing details about his daughter.[16] The photos were released under a version of
the Creative Commons license, which forbids commercial
use and requires acknowledgement, but the tabloid printed a few of them without contacting Curry. The verdict of the lawsuit did
not reward Curry, but required the tabloid to pay 1,000 euros for each photo used if they published the photos again.
References
- ^ LAtimes. Retrieved on 2007-09-09.
- ^ MTV vs. Curry. Retrieved on 2007-03-28.
- ^ Adam's Family. IMDB. Retrieved on 2006-12-05.
- ^ Wilbert de Vries (2003-05-16). Problems for Kennisnet (NL). Retrieved on
2007-03-28.
- ^ Nieuwe sportwinkel mikt op Europese markt (NL). Sportus.nl
(December 16, 1999). Retrieved on 2006-12-05.
- ^ Ad Mulder (2001-01-23). Interview with Adam Curry
where he speaks about his Peer2Peer video sharing program Freedom Controller (NL). Retrieved on 2007-03-28.
- ^ Maarten Reijnders (2002-12-19). "Freedom Controller canceled, Jamby B.V. chapter elevened (NL). Retrieved on 2007-03-28.
- ^ Dutch
Legal document on the RotorJet case (NL). Retrieved
on 2007-03-28.
- ^ Curry, Adam (2006-07-03).
DSC-For Mom. Curry.com. Retrieved on
2006-12-05.
- ^ Audience with the podfather.
Wired News (2005-05-14). Retrieved on 2007-02-11.
- ^ Adam Curry Wants to Make You an iPod
Radio Star. Wired (March, 2005). Retrieved on 2007-02-11.
- ^ a b Miller, Martin (2006-05-25). ‘Podfather’ plots a radio hit of his own : LA Times. PodShow, Inc.. Retrieved
on 2006-12-05.
- ^ SIRIUS Satellite radio partnering with Adam Curry. Press
release. Retrieved on 2007-03-28.
- ^ a b Sekiya, Baron (2006-05-03). Adam Curry
discovers Second Life. MediaBaron.com.
Retrieved on 2006-11-28.
- ^ Cadenhead, Rogers (2005-12-01). Adam Curry
Caught in Sticky Wiki. Workbench.
Retrieved on 2006-12-05.
- ^ Garlick, Mia (2006-03-16). Creative Commons Licenses Enforced in Dutch
Court. Creative Commons. Retrieved on 2006-12-05.
External links
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