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Documentary on Gene Kan in the works
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Gene
Kan became an unofficial spokesman for his file-swapping
software Gnutella at the height of the Internet’s
fascination with peer-to-peer technology. |
The talented young alumnus Gene Kan (B.S.'97 EECS), who was best
known as a spokesman for Gnutella peer-to-peer software and died
tragically in 2002, is now the subject of a film that will begin
production this fall.
Gone Silent, an independent documentary, is the project
of Vikki Merriman, a Boston-area filmmaker and web designer, and
Sean Fitzroy, who will serve as technical director and co-producer.
Merriman was Kan’s housemate in Berkeley in 1995.
"I got the idea for the film the day after I read about Gene’s
death," Merriman says. "A friend forwarded me a story
about it, not realizing that I had known him." She hopes
the film will not only pay tribute to Kan’s brilliance but
also educate viewers about the promise of peer-to-peer technology
and the depressive and suicidal feelings that often plague highly
intelligent and successful people like Kan.
A gifted programmer who graduated from EECS in three-and-a-half
years, Kan had a whirlwind career with Gnutella, the controversial
distributed search network he helped develop, and InfraSearch,
a real-time search engine he and his colleagues subsequently created
based on Gnutella-type technology. Comparable to Napster but even
more powerful, Gnutella was a free download that enabled users
to swap and search files outside a corporate or commercial server
setting.
By the time he was in his early 20s, Kan was thrust into the high-tech
limelight. He had earned wide respect in his field and was aggressively
recruited by Sun Microsystems, which ended up buying his 15-person
start-up. He testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about
music on the Internet and was interviewed by National Public Radio
and other mainstream media on Gnutella and its implications for
peer-to-peer technology.
Despite these successes, he suffered from depression and, on June
29, 2002, after writing notes to family and friends, he took his
own life. His sense of failure was documented in the months leading
up to his death in his writings and online journals, which Merriman
will use to help tell Kan’s story in his own words.
The film is sponsored by Boston Film and Video Foundation, and
Merriman is seeking other sponsors as well as information about
Kan. Production and release date will depend on the progress of
research and funding, she says. For more details, go to the film’s
Web site, www.gonesilent.org.
A scholarship fund is being established in Kan’s honor to
support a student working on innovative technologies. For more
information, contact the Special Gifts Steward, College of Engineering,
UC Berkeley, 201 McLaughlin Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-1722, 510.643.8361.
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