Topic: Personal Technology
As macular degeneration erodes Susan Gerhart's vision, she's shifting into audio mode. On this edition of Interviews with Innovators, host Jon Udell asks about what she has learned about adaptive technologies, and ask her about her blog, As Your World
Changes.
In this talk at the Emerging Communications Conference, Rich Miner, manager of the Wireless Platforms group at Google discusses the ways that increasing openness will bring an explosion of innovation in the mobile industry. Carriers, manufacturers, and software companies are beginning to open up the networks, technology, and business models, all of which is opening up new opportunities for entrepreneurship and services for consumers.
Ken Ledeen and Harry Lewis are co-authors (with Hal Abelson) of the forthcoming book "Blown to Bits: Your Life, Liberty, and Happiness After the Digital Explosion." All three authors are veteran information technologists. On this edition of Interviews with Innovators, host Jon Udell speaks to Ledeen and Lewis to reflect on the rapid and sweeping changes these technologies bring.
Phil, Ben, and Scott are joined by Tyler Whitaker to discuss some of their current projects and activities. They first talk about alternate uses of mobile phones and how cellphone usage in other countries is quite similar to the United States. Scott then talks about the status of his work with Asterisk, an open source PBX, telephony engine, and telephony applications toolkit.
Quakr is building an on-line virtual world from user contributed photographs and metadata. Developer Peter Arbuthnott shares the inspirations for this project, and leads a whirlwind tour of its most compelling features. Given the converging advances in camera and geolocation technologies, and the interest people have in sharing their geo-coded photos on line, a fascinating 3D mashup is beginning to emerge.
Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Newsweek's Technology Editor Steven Levy, about the best technology writing of 2007, and how to submit your own work for 2008.
As more companies examine the issue of environmentally friendly products, it is not surprising that the concept of green computing would grow in importance. IT professionals are examining power consumption, the hazardous materials used in manufacturing computers, as well as how best to recycle older devices. Jeremy Faludi, a product designer currently working for Project Frog, discusses the subject with Phil and Scott. He talks about the issues in general, as well as how companies are working to keep up with the problems.
Expensive technological devices can be found just about anywhere today, ranging from the business executive's office to the middle school playground. It is no surprise that gadgets have also become prime targets for thieves operating just about anywhere as well. In this talk Mark Simpkins of the Design Against Crime advisory panel raises the idea of socially responsible design in respect to preventing crime.
An average Internet user today has to manage many IM handles, phone numbers, login names and email addresses. Holding multiple identifiers, one or more for each service, can be a problem. Kaliya Hamlin, the Identity Woman, advocates enabling a unified, open identity on the next generation of devices to make it easier for users to move around the Web. She presents a vision of a user-centric identity that works for citizens, applications, communities and operators.
Jesse James Garrett, co-founder of both Adaptive Path and the Information Architecture Institute, thoughtfully examines what is behind the long-term success of truly transformative consumer technology products like TiVo, Flickr, and the iPod. It's about understanding the psychology underlying the user experience, and developing the product from the consumer experience perspective. Garrett gets to the heart of how products developed using the experience strategy quickly make us wonder how we ever lived without them.
