FC: IT inventor responds to media coverage, by Mark Boal

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[Forwarded with permission. Also see 
http://technews.netscape.com/news/0-1006-200-5041016.html?pt.nc.htmldisp.hl.ne 
--Declan

**********

From: "Mark Boal" <mboal () nyc rr com>
To: "Declan McCullagh" <declan () well com>
Subject: Kamen speaks
Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2001 16:59:02 -0500

okay, here's the piece - mb

<http://www.brillscontent.com/2001may/notebook/boal.shtml>http://www.brillscontent.com/2001may/notebook/boal.shtml


March 7, 2001
IT Inventor Responds to Media Coverage
Dean Kamen says the new Inside article that claims to have solved the 
mystery of his top-secret invention is much ado about nothing.

By <mailto:mboal () brillscontent com,feedback () brillscontent com>Mark Boal

In the realm of media hype, January 2001 will likely go down as a historic 
month. That was when the media tripped over itself speculating about a 
mysterious new invention called IT, or Ginger. More than 200 print and 
television stories were devoted to the subject. Some described IT as a 
hovercraft, others as a wearable car. It all started when Inside.com 
reported on a proposal for a book that claimed it would tell the story of 
IT's development. The invention was so hot, so revolutionary, the story 
said, that it had "drawn the attention of technology visionaries Jeff Bezos 
[CEO of Amazon.com] and Steve Jobs [CEO of Apple] and the investment 
dollars of preeminent Silicon Valley venture capitalist John Doerr, among 
others." There was no interview with Dean Kamen, the inventor and engineer 
who was supposedly behind IT.

When Brill's Content contacted Kamen last month for an article in its April 
issue (on newsstands March 12), his description of his situation diverged 
radically from the press reports. According to Kamen -- and contrary to 
press reports -- neither Jeff Bezos nor Steve Jobs invested in his company. 
In fact, the book proposal quoted from a meeting at which both Bezos and 
Jobs were present and were critical of IT's design and implementation 
plans. And there were many other ways, Kamen said in his first interview 
about IT, that the press had overblown the significance of IT; indeed, he 
said, he had yet to file patents on the invention.

Earlier this week, Inside magazine, the print magazine published by 
Inside.com, released another story that once again fueled the speculation. 
Inside's latest report claims that IT is a scooter that burns hydrogen 
fuel. Adam L. Penenberg, the author of the new piece discussed his article 
on the Today show and CNN on Tuesday, March 6.

Brill's Content reached Kamen last night by telephone. He had not read the 
Inside story, but he had seen reports summarizing it on Yahoo.com. Kamen, 
though, dismissed the new round of IT coverage: "There's nothing here." In 
his previous interview with Brill's Content, Kamen dismissed Inside.com's 
IT coverage as "hype about a project that doesn't even exist yet."

Last night Kamen was clearly disturbed by the new story. "Why are they 
[Inside] hyping this? I mean, you have kids that were shot in California, 
the vice-president of the United States may have had a coronary, of all the 
things to hype, why this?" Kamen declined to comment on the details of the 
Inside report. Instead, he focused on what he considers to be the 
intrusiveness of the media. "The whole thing is inappropriate, unethical, 
rude, and possibly illegal. I don't know why people would be prying into 
things that are private."




_________________________________
Mark Boal > Senior Writer > Brills Content
p1: 212-366-4348
cell: 646-325-7230
fax: 212-366-1939
<mailto:mboal () nyc rr com>mboal () nyc rr com




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