Speaker: Robert Stein, USC Annenberg / Night Kitchen

Date: Wednesday, September 22, 2004 4:15-5:15p

Location: Cornell Information Science, 301 College Avenue, Seminar Room

Abstract -

For several hundred years, "reading" has meant absorbing text and pictures encoded on a printed page. The onset of electronic media and digital technology is changing that definition as "reading" expands to include other media and other means of distribution. "Writing" which historically has meant the expression of ideas in textual form, is undergoing a similar evolution. The locus of serious intellectual discourse will inevitably shift from paper to screen. While it's too early to predict the precise new forms of expression that will evolve and become dominant, it's important to have a vision of where things might go and the tools required to move us to the next stage.


Bio -

Robert Stein was the founder of The Voyager Company. For 13 years he led the development of over 300 titles in The Criterion Collection, a series of definitive films on videodisc, and more than 75 CD ROM titles including the CD Companion to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Who Built America, and the Voyager edition of Macbeth. Previous to Voyager, Stein worked with Alan Kay in the Research Group at Atari on a variety of electronic publishing projects. Seven years ago, Stein started Night Kitchen to develop authoring tools for the next generation of electronic publishing. That work will be continued at the Institute for the Future of the Book which is co-located at Columbia and the University of Southern California.

For more information please contact Jeff Hancock.