Michael Kolowich is back at it again...starting new companies and making yet another return to his professional roots. Michael was Lotus' Corporate VP of Marketing in the mid-1980's, and in 1987 was the VP/chief of all non-spreadsheet products, including some that thrived (most notably Notes and Freelance) and some that struggled (Agenda, Magellan, and Manuscript).

Now, though, he's starting an entirely new venture in Concord, Massachusetts, called DigiNovations Incorporated. It's a digital video production studio which is breaking new ground in a hot new area -- preserving family video memories on DVD. It's a throwback career move for the 49-year-old Lotus alum, who was a television news producer and reporter in Boston during his first five years out of college in the 1970's.

"I don't think many people realize how much their precious video memories are in jeopardy," says Kolowich. "VHS tapes were only designed to last ten years or so before they start deteriorating. The magnetic properties of the tape change, and the pictures literally degrading in quality. And every time you play an old tape, it gets worse."

Digital video technology makes it possible to preserve those videos and even to enhance the picture quality. And DVD copies, properly stored, can last more than 100 years. "A lot of our customers don't stop at preservation," Kolowich says. "They're asking us to edit them, cut them to music, and make them into wonderful gifts and heirlooms."

The idea of starting a new company is nothing new to Kolowich. Even within Lotus, he was always starting something new - whether it was acquiring GCI to start a new graphics products division or an initiative to acquire and commercialize a new video technology invented at RCA. He negotiated and signed the major development contract with Iris Software that led to the launch of Lotus Notes, and has the distinction of having written the first Notes note outside the development team. (No, it didn’t say "Mr. Ozzie come here, I need you.")

Kolowich left Lotus in 1988 to become founding publisher of PC/Computing magazine for Ziff-Davis -- the fastest ramp-up for any special-interest magazine ever. Three years later, he led Ziff's efforts into interactive media as President and Founder of Ziff-Davis Interactive. Plenty of ex-Loti joined him there -- Ed Belove, Mike Kraley, Rob Lippincott, Janet Logan, Lisa Landa, Ron Turcotte among many, many others. The team designed a breakthrough online services platform called Interchange, hailed at the time for the many breakthrough concepts introduced to the interactive services world. Interchange was lost in the tumult of an AT&T acquisition and the Netscape/Mosaic tsumani, but many of the design and implementation concepts formulated by the Interchange time are visible in websites all across the net, including ZDNet, which came directly out of the Interchange team's efforts.

After a brief stint (via acquisition) at Jim Manzi's Nets Inc., Kolowich took over as Chairman, President and CEO of Individual, Incorporated, the pioneer in online news filtering and customization. Ex-Loti Mike Kraley, Michael Welles, and Ron Turcotte followed him there on the executive team. Less than two years later, Individual merged with competitor Desktop Data (founded by still another ex-Loti, Don McLagan) to form NewsEdge Corporation. Michael stayed with the NewsEdge board and helped Lotus alum Cliff Pollan build the company until its recent acquisition by Thompson.

For the last three years, Kolowich has helped other companies get started, serving on nine different boards of directors. But his real passion during that time has been for his not-for-profit work. He's president and a performer for Revels, the national performing arts organization based in Cambridge; as a trustee at the Museum of Science, he's been working on the museum's new initiatives in technology; and as a trustee at the Fenn School in Concord, he's been working on ways to make the student and faculty body more diverse.

DigiNovations represents a radical departure from any other business Kolowich has started. "I'm contradicting all the conventional wisdom about what Harvard Business School teaches you to do at my age," says Kolowich. "DigiNovations is local, not global. It's retail, not industrial. It is highly dependent on the talents of the people involved, rather than on large-scale production processes. It isn't designed to produced megabucks while I sleep."

"It is, however, something that reflects my passions. It is doing something that matters to the families I work with. It makes people smile and laugh and cry all in the span of a few minutes. And it's a perfect application of this breakthrough technology. We're preserving a million memories, one family at a time."

One of his first projects? A surprise for another ex-Loti. "I was rummaging through old films in my basement and came across a 24-year-old film I took of Ed Belove’s wedding in 1977, long before our days together at Lotus. I restored the film, cut it to music, and gave it to Ed and Laura as an early 25th anniversary present."

Kolowich made it a point to invite all Lotus alumni to drop by his studio at 34 Main Street, right in the middle of Concord. "Bring that box of old home videos and films with you," he said. "You'll never know what gems we'll find in there."

DigiNovations is on the web at www.familymemories.net.

February 2, 2002