Jon Lebkowsky (“JonL” to those that know him well) is a longtime writer and thought leader on the topics of technoculture, technology policy and digital convergence. He was one of the early members of the WELL, one of the first online communities, and has been a regular contributor to Mondo 200, bOING bOING, and Wired.

JonL was a co-founder of FringeWare, a store in Austin, Texas for technology products of an unusual nature.

Wayne McDilda joined the Texas Department of Information Resources in June 1986. While there, he spearheaded efforts that lead to all state agencies creating websites. As a result, the State of Texas’ website system became a model for the other forty-nine states.

Since leaving Texas DIR in late 1995, Wayne has been involved with a number of private sector web projects, including Elecomm Corp., ClearData, Aperian, Mirage Networks, and Extreme Networks.

Dave Evans came to marketing through an unusual path, receiving a BS in physics and mathematics, with a concentration in art from the State University of New York at Brockport. In 1994, Dave founded the Austin Web Users Group with Mark Gaither and I.

Also in 1994, he co-founded Digital Voodoo in Austin, Texas. Digital Voodoo initiatlly provided strategic marketing services, and now also provides specialized software applications supporting social business strategy.

Lynn Bender is the man behind GeekAustin.org, a community for Austin’s high-tech industry. The site contains news and postings of interest to the technical community, as well as information on the numerous real world events GeekAustin.org hosts.

In the early 1990′s, Julie Fergerson managed the help desk for IBM’s Austin office. She was bothered by the inefficiencies of their systems, so she began using web technologies to reduce costs and improve technologies. In doing so, she created perhaps the first corporate internet.

Note: This is the first in a series of biographies of and interviews with the people who made things happen in Austin’s early internet history. H/T to William Leake of Apogee Search for the idea behind this series.

Prior to 1990, Steve Jackson was known as the the man behind Austin, Texas based Steve Jackson Games, publisher of the games Car Wars, Illuminati, and GURPS. Then, everything changed.