Simon Higgs is a polymath - Artist, Author, Designer, Engineer, Entrepreneur, Journalist, Musician, Producer, Researcher & Internet Crash Test Dummy. His ability to bridge diverse fields and create innovative solutions is often described as 'creating things that did not exist before.'
Inspired by an Isaac Asimov novella entitled 'Sucker Bait,' Simon works from the principle that all knowledge is interconnected. He combines his formal training in art, design, music & telecommunications with experience in marketing and management to traverse multiple disciplines.
As an explorer of audio & video over TCP/IP networks (before the web came along), he helped pioneer multi-site television performances - where artists perform together from different locations - in a trial sponsored by Viacom at the Electronic Cafe. His experiments distributing Quicktime movies online also led to articles on Electronic Press Kits.
As a pioneer in domain names and DNS, he was the first applicant for a new top level domain. In a pilot DNS infrastructure deployment (authorized by Jon Postel during Draft Postel), he become a root server operator for the Open Root Server Confederation (ORSC), an organization formed to bid on the Department of Commerce's contract for the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) - a role that now goes under the name of ICANN.
Prior to that, as a journalist, he broke the first story of music being downloaded on the Internet - seven whole years before Napster came along. Many years later, immediately after Apple's iTunes Music Store came online, he wrote the definitive book on how to become a vendor to Apple and sell music in the store. As a musician, producer and record label/artist relations consultant he has worked alongside top name talent.
Under the brand name of CouponNet (part of the original Coupons.com) he beat out the Ringo/Firefly Network team from MIT's Media Lab to win CommerceNet's 1996 Very Innovative Practice Award for Best Online Community - one of the pioneering awards for building online communities and social media. This included creating the first downloadable consumer coupons and rebates on the web, and pioneering mobile coupon redemption.
He often gets called to solve problems, or provide unique solutions. When the Department of Defense needed a working demonstration of the CHCS II medical records system, he built one for them. He also designed 67 web sites and helped create a 10,000 mile TCP/IP network for the Defense Logistics Agency's Contract Management Command, leading to the creation of the Defense Contract Management Agency. When the New York Times, News Corp. and Coupons.com were sued for patent infringement, as the original founder of Coupons.com, he came to the rescue with the prior art.
As a result he is able to speak multiple corporate languages, and he is equally at home whether it be working with name talent, the board room, the recording studio, the R&D workshop, the data center, or the garage start-up with a large unwieldy hammer.
Some of the things Simon has pioneered include:
- the first working clock on the web
- the first downloadable consumer coupon on the web
- one of the earliest recorded instances of rotating banner ads on the web
- first applicant for a top level domain name
- pioneer of online audio & music distribution
- first working demo of a DOD medical records system
- pioneered live multi-site performances for broadcast
In addition, you can see some of Simon Higgs' music and film credits here.
Simon Higgs has been quoted in:
- Advertising Age
- Computer Reseller News
- Interactive Week
- Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine
- MacWeek
- Washington Internet Daily
- Wired