Driven, but not the least bit pushy

Her Castanet technology is transforming the Internet. Sophia Chauchard- Stuart talks to the Marimba CEO about `push technology', Java programming and her sudden celebrity

Kim Polese, chief executive of Marimba, is one to watch. Time magazine recently named the 35-year-old businesswoman as one of the 25 most influential people in America, and the reason is clear. Polese is shaking up the way we understand the Internet with Castanet, her Java- enabled "push technology", which aims to make the Internet a simple, yet media-rich, plug 'n' play environment.

Castanet allows Net users to access "channels" of specific information, which is then "pushed" to the desktop of a PC. It can also push automatic software upgrades to the desktop.

At Internet World UK in London last week, Polese set out her vision. "The future of the Internet is the reality of `plug-it-in and it works'. Whether it's a cellular phone, pager or computer, people won't have to be involved in getting the software together and installing it or updating it - it will already be there. Using Castanet, accessing an application becomes as simple as changing television channels."

Polese's vision is controversial, and not everyone is happy to hear her eulogise the future. As well as speaking at Internet World, Polese was invited to participate in a debate at the Oxford Union. Ancient tradition met cyberspace when the softly spoken, elegant American was surrounded by the most English of undergraduates in black tie, all braying in loud tones and passing port to the left. The Oxford Union had decided to debate the motion "This House believes that the Internet heralds the demise of the nation state".

Not that many there had a concrete definition of what constituted the Internet - although one speaker in a voluminous taffeta ballgown said helpfully that it was something that she had looked at maybe twice, and apparently someone had said you could buy electronic sex aids on it. One particular chap, passing through the hallowed "Ayes" door to vote with the motion, summed it up, "Oh Lord," he said. "The Internet. How dull." It seems that Polese's passion for technology and her warning that "backward attitudes block social and economic change" had fallen on deaf ears. Nevertheless, it was amusing to see how many undergraduates tried to waylay her outside the chamber, producing business cards from their waistcoat pockets.

Likewise, after Polese's speech at Internet World the following morning, everyone flocked to the stage to talk. Her passion for technology is evident, and people want to listen to her.

In recent months, Polese has faced a great deal of attention from the press and the industry at large. Some cynics say it is because she is female in a largely male world. Others acknowledge that it is because Castanet is a truly clever solution.

Polese says she is surprised by all the attention. As a typical programmer, she is happier coding than being called a cover girl. True, Polese is an attractive woman, but she is hardly a cyberbabe. "Well, it's all very silly," she says. "I'm serious about the way I approach my job. We've got a great product, a great team and a great company, so the cover-girl status I find very irritating and meaningless. And insulting." She frowns, pointing out, "There are a lot of talented and accomplished women in this industry, so I certainly don't count myself an oddity."

Polese is not an oddity, but contention surrounds her. She founded Marimba after leaving Sun Microsystems, where she was part of the team that developed the Java programming language. She took with her other members of the Java team. Apparently, Sun is still talking to her.

"I think they knew that we were going to go and do something that really leveraged Java. We were getting very frustrated, you know, about a year ago when people were saying, `Oh, Java is just an animation language for having dancing bears on a web browser.'

"We knew that Java was a full-blown programming language capable of delivering a word processor or an inventory control application, but what was missing was a way of getting that application delivered down to the hard disk, making it persistent on the hard disk and having a facility to update it ... so that's what we did."

Java looked good before, but Castanet has made it even more desirable a product in its flexibility and security, so Sun can't be too upset.

While Polese was in the UK last week, Netscape announced that Castanet would be part of its new Netcaster product, while Netscape's rival, Microsoft, was setting out its own stall based on its proprietary channel definition format (CDF). Polese is dismissive of the threat to Castanet's success presented by Microsoft, which is seeking to promote CDF as an Internet standard. She cites Microsoft's recent turnaround on the network computer as proof that the software giant is not always right.

"Having a deal with Microsoft certainly doesn't guarantee you success," she says. "Doing a deal with Microsoft is not something that any small company should approach lightly. There are always implications and complications."

For now, though, Polese is concentrating on building up Marimba and looking at ways to grow. The company has gone from five to 50 people in the past few months and is fast outgrowing its small headquarters in Palo Alto, California. "We're having the time of our lives," she smiles. "There's a buzz when you walk into the company, an excitement." And fear?

"Fear, no. There's an energy coming from the fact that there's always going to be a curve coming round the corner that you can't predict, and there's always going to be competition from somewhere, but I'd call that adrenalin, not fear. If it were easy, it wouldn't be as much fun".