October 18, 2001-Vol33n7: Conference to examine digital world

Conference to examine digital world
Participants to address astonishing impact of digital technology on our life and times

By PATRICIA DONOVAN
Contributing Editor

Have we developed the collective wisdom and conscience to deal with a world in which ubiquitous technological interactions are so intertwined that they cannot be untangled? Let's hope so, because that's what our future holds.

This question will trigger discussions ranging from the practical concerns of today to speculation on the world of tomorrow at a major international conference to be held Nov. 2 and 3 at UB.

"Digital Frontier: Buffalo Summit 2001" will present observations and research on what digital technology has wrought by some of the most brilliant, pioneering thinkers in art, social science, applied science and engineering, medicine, philosophy and education.

The conference will be open to the public at a registration cost of $20, thanks to the generous corporate sponsorship of, among others, IBM, Xerox, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Cisco Systems, Verizon Corp. and Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. There will be no registration fee for students.

Registration information is available by calling 645-3869 or online at the conference Web site at http://digitalsummit.buffalo.edu.

Conference proceedings and symposiums will be broadcast live over the Internet and will be available on Nov. 2 and 3 for those who visit the conference Web site.

Conference symposium topics will include legal developments and political structures that influence cyber-privacy; what sense-enhancing technologies have in store for us from the point of view of artists and researchers; how culture, politics and self-identity are likely to evolve with technology and telemedicine, and a world in which educators, students and researchers no longer have to meet face-to-face.

They also will address the nature of a future with unimaginably more data than we have today and examine the effects of the female presence in the info-tech disciplines and related entrepreneurial enterprises.

The dozens of distinguished conference speakers will include Jaren Lanier of Eyematic Interfaces, who coined the term "virtual reality" and helped introduce immersive virtual reality products, and Steve Mann of the University of Toronto, an intriguing scientist who invented the wearable computer for reasons only he can explain.

They will be joined by astronomer and UB alumnus Cliff Stoll of the University of California, Berkeley, author of "Silicon Valley Snake Oil;" Michael Paige, director of research at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, and Brenda Laurel, artist, designer and founding member of the research staff at Interval Research Corp.