Brian Dear is author of the upcoming book The Friendly Orange Glow, scheduled for release in late 2010. It is the first book ever to tell the story of the PLATO system, its creators and users, and its seminal online community that emerged in the early 1970s. The book is the result of more than 20 years of research, including conducting over 400 interviews and amassing a large archive of clippings, reports, books, articles, recordings, and other documents. In addition to the book, Dear runs a website about PLATO at http://platohistory.org. Dear first became a user of the PLATO system in 1979 at the University of Delaware.
Dear is also Founder and Chairman of San Diego-based Eventful, Inc., makers of Eventful.com, the world's largest events search engine, dedicated to helping people discover, share, track, and demand events they care about. Prior to Eventful, he was founding Director of eBay Design Labs at eBay, Inc. Other past engagements include management positions at Eazel, MP3.com, FlatWorks, RealNetworks, and Coconut Computing, which he co-founded in 1987. Dear's 25-year career has focused on designing and building rich,interactive applications for online communities.
