(Last updated 8:56 am CDT August 4th, 2023)
I’m Dwight Silverman, and I’ve been writing about personal technology since the mid-1980s, mostly for daily newspapers and mostly for the Houston Chronicle and, for a brief period, for Forbes. This is my blog.
I kinda retired in August 2021 – this blog is part of the “kinda” part. I’ll be writing here from time to time as necessary. I’ve also resumed writing my weekly personal tech column for the Chronicle’s business section. It pubs in print on Sundays and online on Monday.
More background: I first began writing about technology at the now-defunct San Antonio Light. I started working at the Chronicle in 1990 as an assistant state editor, then became the tech columnist and tech beat reporter in 1993. I had the honor of covering Houston’s Compaq Computer Corp. when it was the biggest computer company in the world. I also covered its dramatic fall from that position.
I was there with my keyboard for the birth of the World Wide Web and the development of the smartphone and the iPhone. I was on the committee at the Chronicle that launched its digital presence, and in 2000 I became Chron.com’s first online news editor. Later, I helped launch and manage the website’s network of blogs, and spearheaded its early efforts on social media.
I also managed HoustonChronicle.com, the paper’s subscription site; launched and ran a personal-tech vertical called TechBurger; then returned to tech beat reporting and launched a newsletter, Release Notes.
After taking a buyout at the paper in 2021 with an eye toward semi-retirement, I was recruited by Forbes to take part in its Journalist Entrepreneur program, where I produced a paid newsletter (also called Release Notes). I ultimately decided that, yeah, I really did want to retire. So, here we are.
Throughout my career, the most important thing has been to be helpful. Explaining technology has fulfilled that need, and I plan to continue to do that – but at my pace, on my terms. This blog will be part of that. Stick around.
Dwight Silverman / Updated August 2023