Just what is Peter Rinearson up to?

The Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who co-wrote a best-selling book with Bill Gates isn’t saying much about his latest venture. And neither is Silicon Valley media consultant Lawrence Wilkinson, who also is involved. Wilkinson backed Oprah Winfrey’s Oxygen network and has been a frequent talking head on the future of the media and the consumer.

Rinearson has raised at least $1.6 million for a Seattle company called Intersect PTP Inc. Intersect runs the web site Dead.AtYourAge.com. The beta site allows users to enter their birth date and see what famous people they have already outlived.

The web site says that Intersect “strives to marry compelling content” with the social utility of the internet.

Rinearson’s is the second local fund-raising effort launched in recent months by one or more local entrepreneurs with stellar journalism credentials. Sports writers Art Thiel and Steve Rudman are raising money for a sports web site they hope to launch later this spring.

Both for-profit online ventures promise to be watched closely by media companies and media professionals, given the financial crisis facing many newspapers and other “old media” companies that have seen many of their readers and advertisers migrate to online sites.

It is unclear if the Dead.AtYourAge.com web site would be the platform for Rinearson’s venture. The web site says that Intersect “strives to marry compelling content” with the social utility of the internet.

“You don’t see community content yet, but stay tuned,” the site says.

Rinearson founded Alki Software Corp. in 1988, and he also has worked as a Microsoft executive. Alki’s web site says it was “working at the intersection of journalism and community” and touted the success of eBay, Amazon and MySpace at owning online spaces that draw in people who want to share and use their own content.

Alki’s web site gives a few more teases about what Rinearson might be planning:

“Just as the advent of photography, audio recording and video recording each launched new forms of journalism in past eras, so the advent of pervasive interactive networks is creating a new path for journalism. The ‘interactive application’ is an evolving form of journalism that delivers information in response to requests or actions by a consumer.”

Greg Lamm covers media and marketing for the The Puget Sound Business Journal. This post first appeared on BizTalk, the PSBJ's business news blog.