In some ways, Sky Dayton is a typical Gen X dotcom millionaire: He keeps a skateboard in his office. He listens to the Beastie Boys. He's prone to making sweeping statements about the power of technology. And he's an admirer of libertarian ideas.

Dayton is the chairman of the Internet service provider (ISP) EarthLink, and the founder of Boingo Wireless.

According to Forbes (June 14, 1999), Dayton is also "a fan of libertarian thinkers Henry Hazlitt, Frederic Bastiat, and Ayn Rand." He arrived at his belief in "libertarian economic theory" thanks to a program of self-education, which he embarked on after being rejected by the California Institute for the Arts.

Dayton put that self-taught course in economics to good use. In 1993, after a frustrating experience trying to log onto the Internet, he launched EarthLink. The company, which focuses on no-frills Internet access, had attracted 5 million customers by 2001. That made it the nation's second-largest ISP, and earned Dayton a $100 million-plus fortune. Dayton's success did not go unnoticed: In 1998, he was named POV magazine's entrepreneur of the year.

In 2001, Dayton founded Boingo Wireless. It offers wireless Web access, which he predicts will be "the next phase of the Internet."

Dayton isn't afraid to tout the free market's nimble superiority over the heavy hand of government. In his own words:

* On education: "The first thing we have to do is create competition in public schooling. There is just no way we should have a monopoly there." (Government Technology, February 1999)

* On government aid to business: "Consumers are the arbiters of success in a free market. It never occurred to me to go to the government for a solution. It seems barbaric." (Forbes, June 14, 1999)

* On government: "Competition breeds innovation. Without competition, there is no incentive. The same thing is true for government. If everyone in government basically had to get up in the morning and go create their own market, create their job or at the end of the day it wouldn't be there, it would be a whole new world." (Government Technology, February 1999)

                                                                                              -- Bill Winter

Quotable

"It never occurred to me to go to the government for a solution. It seems barbaric. A medieval solution to a Net-age problem." -- Sky Dayton in Forbes, June 14, 1999

Books & Tapes

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