William Dawson (born March 16, 1958) is an American software engineer and co-founder of early Web giant Xoom, which at one time ranked as the 7th largest Internet site in the world. Dawson is credited for creating over 30 products for a dozen companies ranging from scientific research tools to video games. Early in his career, Dawson was the Chief Science Officer at

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company b ...

and a member of the Macintosh Development Team. He also helped launch the optical media industry by producing the world's first CD-ROMs and DVDs, authoring both the media and development systems that mastered them.

Early life

Born in Los Angeles, Dawson attended six different colleges before selecting

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sys ...

to obtain a BFA in

Journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...

. One semester prior to graduating, Dawson dropped out of college to work for Apple with the encouragement of

Guy Kawasaki Guy Kawasaki (born August 30, 1954) is an American marketing specialist, author, and Silicon Valley venture capitalist. He was one of the Apple employees originally responsible for marketing their Macintosh computer line in 1984. He popularized ...

, who told him he would learn more in six months' time than from the six schools he had already attended.

Career

After joining Apple as a senior engineer in 1984, Dawson authored Apple's Interactive Music Toolkit for mastering Blue Book CD-ROMs, as well as the

QuickTime QuickTime is an extensible multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. Created in 1991, the latest Mac version, QuickTime X, is avai ...

Album Container file format. Dawson left Apple, and in 1996 co-founded Xoom (NASDQ: XMCM) with Chris Kitze (create
Unseen
with co-creater Vo Hoang Vinh who owned domain
Đại Kỷ Nguyên
-
Đại Kỷ Nguyên Việt Nam
), leading its engineering, Internet, design and product development teams. His nearly four-year association with Xoom spanned the company's inception to its IPO, with a valuation in excess of $6 billion. Xoom was ultimately purchased by NBC and is now

nbc.com The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

. After the sale of Xoom to NBC, Dawson was recruited by SoftNet Systems CEO Dr. Larry Brilliant, and he became the company's technical director. Dawson created a community portal content management system for SoftNet's 2.4 million subscribers, which is now known a
LocalToolbox
SoftNet Systems Inc. was an early independent broadband company that brought high speed Internet access to small cities, airports and rural towns. By September 2000, it had 400 employees and a market value of $280 million. In 2000, Dawson became the president of Manex Interactive, the multimedia division of

Manex Visual Effects Manex Visual Effects (MVFX) was a motion picture special visual effects company located in Alameda, California. Though a small company active only for a short period of time, it provided visual effects for a number of high-profile movies and the ...

, which had pioneered the

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

-winning

visual effects Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production. The integration of live-action footage and other live-action foota ...

for '' The Matrix'' and '' What Dreams May Come'', among other films. Dawson directed the division's creation of cutting-edge websites, CD-ROM products, video games, interactive kiosks and digital video production. Dawson recruited Kawika Maszak, also from Softnet and formerly of

Gannett Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.Seriality {{see also, Seriality (gender studies) A seriality is a social construct which differs from a mere group of individuals. Serialities take the form of labels which are either imposed onto persons or voluntarily adopted by them. A seriality can be "u ...

''. In 2009, Dawson reteamed with Xoom's Chris Kitze to become the co-founder and chief technical officer of Before It's News, an Internet platform that enables the hosting and distribution of news. Concurrently, he also co-founded and is the chief technology officer of EV Global, LLC. Dawson also run
Bill Dawson & Associates
a company that creates and brands websites and mobile applications.

Personal life

Dawson married wife Susette in 1992 in a wedding ceremony held in a hot air balloon above Wilsonville, Oregon. They have three children: Justin, Dan and Lucille. Bill has played guitar for over 30 years and is a member of the Santa Cruz Ukulele Club, the largest ukulele club in the world.Archived a
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dawson, Bill 1958 births Living people San Jose State University alumni Businesspeople from Los Angeles