Letting Kids Call the (Cartoon) Shots

Kids of all ages wake up at the crack of dawn every saturday to watch cartoons on TV, but trust us: What they really want to do is direct. Thanks to emerging video technology, interactive Web 'toons that let young viewers guide plot twists are with us. The Internet empowers children to decide such compelling questions as: Should the safe land on the bad guy?

For SpunkyTown.com, which began offering interactive cartoons featuring Possum 'n' Weezie and T-Bit on Oct. 6, the payoff may be offline: Spunky plans to use the Net as a test bed to develop new characters cheaply--then land TV deals for the ones kids like. Karl Kronenberger, CEO of Spunky Productions Inc. in San Francisco, also wants to make deals with other 'toon artists who will use SpunkyTown.com to nurture their own characters.

Kronenberger says Spunky .com is at the frontier of the convergence of the Internet and TV. Tell yourself that the next time your kid hogs the PC to play with a monster.

By Janet Rae-Dupree

PHOTO: SpunkyTown.com's T-Bit in His Alien Ship

Boston's Route 128 Is Humming Again

With the sale of digital equipment, Wang Laboratories, and Data General for bargain prices as recently as last year, it looked as if it might be the end of an era for Boston's high-tech Route 128. But don't hit the delete key just yet. Greater Boston is continuing its comeback, according to a new survey of venture-capital investment that ranks the area a solid No. 2. Credit a boom in software, telecommunications, and, what else, Internet startups.

Boston-area companies attracted $1.6 billion in venture money in the first half of 1999, says the National Venture Capital Assn. Funding in the area lags behind the $5.7 billion for California companies during the same period, but it beats New York's $1 billion. Boston's numbers were up only slightly from 1998 because smaller companies had already begun surging when local tech titans were stumbling.

But Boston tech companies haven't gone to the public markets nearly as aggressively as they've courted venture capital. During the first half of '99, only five Boston-area companies went public, vs. 17 in the same period of '96, says market researcher Venture Economics. New York had 11 initial public offerings, up from five in 1996. Boston's still a conservative place.

By Paul C. Judge

Coming in from the Cold

On news that the CIA is getting into the business of funding new tech companies, venture firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson in Redwood City, Calif., sent some tips via (encrypted) e-mail to CIA head-quarters in Langley, Va. Highlights:


1. The only bugs we have out here are in our software.

2. The term ''taking out'' is a little different out here. When we do it, we're taking a company public.

3. ''Hits'' are what we call visits to Web sites, not what you know them as.

4. Collecting eyeballs is not to be taken literally.

5. Change the name. Nothing is centralized here in Silicon Valley.

6. Your agents should learn to play ultimate Frisbee. It will help them fit in.

7. When raising your first fund, don't start files on people who don't invest.

8. You will find that the entrepreneurs always have better information on you than you do on them.

9. Finally, the best intelligence about the Valley we can give you is: Stanford always beats Cal.

Need Tech Workers? Try Keeping the Ones You've Got

The U.S.'s high-tech staff gap is old news, but a study by market researcher International Data Corp. says it's getting worse--and growing in Europe, too.

In 1999, U.S. companies will have unfilled slots for 722,158 info-tech workers such as programmers, systems analysts, and technical-support reps. That gap will grow 5% a year through 2002, says IDC. In Europe, vacancies will top 1 million, reflecting its larger workforce.

What can companies do? Since 90% of the rise in high-tech shortages are expected to result from companies' failure to hang on to staffers, IDC suggests that employers retrain workers and offer more perks. ''Retaining people has got to be the absolute corporate mission,'' says IDC's Michael Boyd. If shortages don't ease, companies will have to fill tech slots with trainable English majors.

By Catherine Yang

TABLE: Help Really, Really Wanted

1999 2000 2001 2002

EXPECTED OPENINGS 4,061 4,468 4,916 4,508

AVAILABLE WORKERS 3,685 4,054 4,460 4,907

UNFILLED JOBS 722 759 801 847

(Numbers in thousands)

DATA: INTERNATIONAL DATA CORP.

Bits & Bytes Contacts

LETTING KIDS CALL THE (CARTOON) SHOTS
Karl Kronenberger
karl@spunkyproductions.com

COMING IN FROM THE COLD
Tim Draper
Draper, Fisher, Jurvetson
400 Seaport Court, Suite 250
Redwood City, CA 94063
(650) 599-9000

BOSTON'S ROUTE 128 IS HUMMING AGAIN
Thomson Financial Securities Data
Marketing Department
22 Thomson Place
Boston, MA 02210
or
John Taylor
National Venture Capital Association
(703) 524-2549

NEED TECH WORKERS? TRY KEEPING THE ONES YOU'VE GOT

Michael Boyd
508-935-4685
mboyd@idc.com

Kara Murphy
508-935-4136
kmurphy@idc.com