John Seely Brown -- author, humanistic technologist, and former chief Xerox scientist and director of the Palo Alto Research Center -- will be at IC October 18-20. Seely Brown is the ninth Park Distinguished Visitor.
The campus community is invited to participate in a variety of activities during his visit.
Public Lecture
The Real Digital Divide: What Dinosaurs Don't Get
Tuesday, October 19, 7:30 p.m. in Emerson Suites
Kids who grow up digital learn, interact, get their "news," deliberate, and create meaning for and among themselves in ways quite at odds with us, digital dinosaurs who think knowing how to use e-mail makes us digital.
This divide between today's digital kids and yesterday's analog teachers, politicians, communication specialists, and parents is of critical importance to bridge. These differences are not only social in nature but lie at the heart of building a 21st-century democracy, since they concern ways that digital kids come to know and believe. This divide also concerns an emerging class of vernaculars quite at odds with our text-based notions of literacy. Indeed, this divide might best be glossed as the divide between (digital) natives and (digital) immigrants.
Master Classes
Seely Brown will teach two master classes. Registration is required, as space is limited. To sign up, please contact April Korpi in Park 279.
- Monday, October 18, 4:00-5:30 p.m. in Park 220
The Social Life of Information: Supporting and Tapping the Social Mind in the Digital Age
In this class, participants will explore many of the current ideas underlying open source movements, social software, creativit,y and viral marketing. All these issues actually relate to an emerging remix culture and to how identity gets formed. These ideas also extend our earlier work on genre formations and communities of practice.
- Wednesday, October 20, 2:00-3:30 p.m. in Park 220
Rethinking Communication in and for the 21st Century
Learn about the shift from supply-push forms of communication to demand-pull (Web-based) forms of communication. Activities as establishing virtual reputations, blogs, wikis, remix, OneWorldTV, StoryMixer, and more will be discussed. Participants will consider how trust gets established and the role of multimedia forms of communication, including immersive media.
Biographical Information
As former chief scientist of Xerox Corporation and director of Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center for 12 years, John Seely Brown is one of the world's most innovative thinkers at the interesting intersection where technology and people meet. Now a visiting scholar at the Annenberg Center at USC, his personal research interests include digital culture and rich media, ubiquitous computing, Web service architectures, and organizational and individual learning.
As an author, John Seely Brown (or JSB as he likes to called) coauthored several books, including
The Social Life of Information, and published over 100 papers in scientific journals. He was also the executive producer for the award-winning film
Art, Lunch, Internet, Dinner, which won a bronze medal at Worldfest 1994, the Charleston International Film Festival.
Contributed by Melissa Gattine
