Social Computing Symposium at Microsoft

Some bright bulbs over at Microsoft Research (MSR) have organized a Symposium on Social Computing on March 29th and 30th at the Columbia Winery north of Redmond.  Mark your calendars!  Word is, the talks will be streamed to the Web.  Stay tuned for details.  There will be 20 speakers (see below) and a cap of 70 attendees total. Apparently, only 20 invitations will be distributed to Microsoft employees. As Scoble puts it, This one is gonna be harder to get tickets to than the SuperBowl.   Why? Because geeks like me are willing to go to extraordinary lengths to rub elbows with luminaries such as Clay Shirky, David Weinberger, Ward Cunningham, Jenny Preece, and Tim O'Reilly.  Here's the list of speakers (thanks, Robert):

Joi Ito: founder of Neoteny (www.neoteny.com), venture capital firm focused on personal communications and enabling technologies. Blogger and moblogger (mobile) in Japan https://joi.ito.com
Clay Shirky: Writes extensively about the internet & economics. Previously an editor at Ziff Davis, and teaches at NYU Blog: https://www.corante.com/many/
Steven Johnson: author Interface Culture, Emergence Mind Wide Open https://www.stevenberlinjohnson.com/
Tim O'Reilly: O'Reilly conferences, books, and web sites on open source, mac, emerging technologies https://tim.oreilly.com

Panel on E-Democracy & Civic Action:

David Weinberger: author Cluetrain Manifesto, Small Pieces Loosely Joined, NPR Commentator (All Things Considerred) https://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/
Bob Putnum: Harvard University professor in public policy, author Bowling Alone https://www.bowlingalone.com/
Zack Exley: Organizing director of https://www.moveon.org
Scott Heiferman: Founder https://www.meetup.com

Moderators and short talks:

Linda Stone Our own ex-Microsoft VP/director of the Virtual Worlds Group in MS Research is organizing and will moderate the 2 panels above Elizabeth Churchill: Social Computing Research, group manager FX Palo Alto Lab
Wendy Kellogg: Social Computing Research, group manage IBM TJ Watson Research Center
Danah Boyd: Ph.D student at UC Berkely, known for thesis on Identity and blogs: https://www.zephoria.org/ & https://www.misbehaving.net/
Judith Donath: runs Socialble Media Group at MIT Media Lab, talking about work on online dating
Mizuko Ito: Researcher at USC, known for reseach on mobile phones use in Japan, and impact of Japanese media (yugioh, etc.) https://www.itofisher.com/mito/
Ward Cunningham: Inventor of the WIKI, pattern languages, now a Microsoft employee!
Tom Erickson: researcher in the Social Computing Group, IBM TJ Watson Research Center, ex-Apple Human Interface Group
Jenny Preece: professor, university of Maryland, Baltimore County (online communities research)
Susan Herring: professor of Information Science, Indiana University, editor of Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
Warren Sack: assistant professor, Social Technologies Group (SIMS), UC Berkeley
Steve Whittaker: Inforamtion Studies Department, Sheffield University (UI and collaboration systems)
Paul Resnick: Associate professor University of Michigan, School of Information (blogs, socio technical capital, reputation systems)
Shelly Farnham: Researcher Social Computing Group, Microsoft
- Sean Kelly: Research Developer, Wallop, rss Microsoft.
Rael Dornfest (unconfirmed): With O'Reilly.org, emerging Media Conference, https://www.mobilewhack.com/
Paul Dourish (unconfirmed): Associate professor Interactive and Collaborative Technologies, Dept of Informatics, UC Irvine