Invited Speakers

Looking for something a little different? The Invited Speakers track brings professionals from other disciplines to share their insights and experiences. These presentations will surprise us, challenge us, and make us think about ways our profession is connected to other fields. Invited speakers complement the more pragmatic offerings of the conference program, with sessions designed to stimulate new associations and relationships.

You can spend 90 minutes with...

Sam Pitroda, a businessman taking digital tech to rural India

actors and playwrights Kristina Halvorsen and Michael Bigelow Dixon from the Guthrie theatre

anthropologist Kurt Anschuetz

digital artist Malcolm McCullough

agent of corporate changeSteve Denning

author Howard Berkowitz

Alex Kinnebrew and Anjali Kelkar from the Urban Opportunity Project

professor and consultant Chris Conley

Kurt Anschuetz (Friday, 8:30)

The Tewa Pueblo Indians of northern New Mexico live in an environment of striking contrasts -- both in beautiful scenery and historical meaning. Honoring their history, the Tewa sustain their communities by fulfilling a sacred vow never to let "the fires burn out." Breathing new life into age-old traditions as they face the challenge of living in the modern world, the Tewa demonstrate why historical memory is important for all communities to live by.

Dr. Kurt F. Anschuetz, archaeologist and anthropologist, is the Program Director of the Rio Grande Foundation for Communities and Cultural Landscapes in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Foundation provides educational opportunities and technical assistance to Indian, Hispanic, and Anglo communities working to sustain their traditional relations with the land, the water, and their cultural heritage resources in the face of rapid development.

Howard Berkowitz (Thursday, 3:30)

Building systems for large organizations, such as hospitals, telephone companies, and government/military groups, involves enormous turf wars and miscommunications among technical cultures. Internet and telco people regard one another with fear and loathing -- without realizing they are often talking about the same concept under different terminology and operational assumptions. Howard gets different technical cultures talking to one another.

Howard C. Berkowitz consults on general networking and clinical medical systems. He works with the Gett Communications consultancy, Netcases.net, Knowledgequests.com, and certificationzone.com. Author of four networking textbooks, he is also active in networking research, standards and operational forums.

Building Service Provider Networks (Buy on Amazon)

Chris Conley (Thursday, 10:30)

Lost in the rise and fall of the Internet boom, but accessible by almost any product or service, is the emergence of a ubiquitous network that is setting the stage for unprecedented capabilities, services, and value chains. Chris will explore the opportunities this wireless infrastructure presents for building communities in new, innovative ways.

Chris Conley is assistant professor and director of product design at the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology, where he runs a research consortium in new product definition. His interests are in improving the conceptualization of new products from user, technology, and business perspectives through interdisciplinary collaborative methods.

Steve Denning (Wednesday, 1:30)

We live in narrative. We are defined and constituted by our narratives of ourselves. We create or invent the self specifically by "writing" and "storying" it. And we connect with others through stories. This presentation will demonstrate the unexpectedly large role that storytelling plays in organizations in general and in connecting communities in particular.

Steve Denning is the author of the acclaimed book, _The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations_ (Butterworth Heinemann, 2000). As former Program Director, Knowledge Management, at the World Bank, Steve Denning was in November 2000 selected as one of the world's Ten Most Admired Knowledge Leaders (Teleos). His newest book, _Squirrel Inc.: A Fable of Leadership and Storytelling_ will be published by Jossey-Bass in June 2004.

stevedenning.com

The Springboard

more about storytelling
  

Kristina Halvorsen and Michael Bigelow Dixon (Wednesday, 3:30)

In theater, there are infinite combinations of "user experiences" to consider. To deliver a satisfying, successful product, what types of questions do the artistic collaborators - playwright, actor, director, designers - need to ask during a play's development and production? See the creative process of theater in action during this presentation by the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.

Michael Bigelow Dixon is the Literary Director and an Associate Artist at the Guthrie Theater. Michael has worked with more than 200 playwrights, edited 30 volumes of plays and criticism, taught at several universities, and is a former National Endowment of the Arts Fellow in Theater.

Kristina Halvorson is an interactive content expert. Since 1998, she's developed content strategies and/or written copy for nearly 50 web sites. Kristina is also an accomplished playwright whose work is produced and published around the world. She is a three-time recipient of new play commissions from the Guthrie Theater.

The Guthrie Theatre

 

Alex Kinnebrew and Anjali Kelkar  (Thursday, 8:30)

Begun in 2003, the Urban Opportunity Project conducted research and analysis of daily life in slums in India which provided a unique insight to the problems of urban poverty. By applying human-centered design methods to the research findings, ideas for new products, services and environments were created for the generation of sustainable enterprises and living conditions.

Anjali Kelkar is the lead researcher for the Urban Opportunity Project at the Institute of Design in Chicago. She received an MDes in Design Planning from the Institute of Design and a BFA from Parsons School of Design, New York. Her primary area of interest lies in ICT-related innovations that can help economically disadvantaged communities in the developing world leverage existing capabilities.

Alex Kinnebrew recently completed a Masters Degree in Design Planning and Strategy at the Institute of Design. She is particularly interested in how design can create value for customers and help companies succeed in culturally diverse markets. Alex received her B.A. from Amherst College.

Malcolm McCullough (Thursday, 1:30)

Activity in context is the heart of interaction design, yet context is seldom considered enough. Anytime-anyplace computing is not the same as situated computing. Especially for mobile and embedded systems, appropriateness to context can surpass technical features in the success of designs. This talk offers a conceptual overview of context and place.

Malcolm McCullough is an author and associate professor of architecture at the University of Michigan. He has also served on the faculty at Carnegie Mellon and Harvard. His latest book, Digital Ground, connects the fields of architecture and interaction design. His 1996 book Abstracting Craft became a literary pick among digital designers.

Malcolm McCullough's home page

Abstracting Craft (Buy on Amazon)

Sam Pitroda (Wednesday, 10:30)

Global entrepreneurship and a rereading of the literature surrounding FDR's New Deal, helped connect the people of rural India to each other and to the world. Where the developed world saw a resource-strained country heading toward a billion people separated by large distances, Sam Pitroda saw access via technology as a solution.

Winner of Dataquest's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002, Sam Pitroda earned his E.E. in the US in the early 1960's. After building his own company Wescom Switching, Inc., later merged into Rockwell International, Sam returned to India and wanted to "give something back" to his homeland. A combination of a chance meeting Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and generally statesman-like behavior led to a partnership with Rajiv Gandhi, and the rest is history.

Article about Sam Pitroda in Silicon India

Sam Pitroda: Lifetime Achievement Award 2002

Sam Pitroda on the importance of information