Barton works very closely with TiVo R&D, overseeing a staff of five top TiVo engineers and developing technology and services for the digital-video recorder company. He also weighs in on company and product strategy and says he acts as a “go-between to help make sure the stuff we’re doing in R&D matches up with how our IT systems are being moved forward.” The company just passed the 500,000 subscriber mark. One challenge for Barton is to protect people’s rights to fair use of content coming into their homes while also making sure copyright owners have reasonable control over what is happening with their content. For users, TiVo represents a step toward a new idea of how to define a computer. With each TiVo receiver having 35GB of disk storage, the total storage remotely managed by TiVo over its distributed system is into the “tens of petabytes,” Barton says. And yes, Barton does have a TiVo — actually, he has six of them, some dedicated to particular topics such as educational shows or “fun” shows. As for his current top show, the CBS drama “CSI,” Barton says “of course, I never miss an episode.” — S.S. Return to InfoWorld’s 25 Most Influential CTOs 2002