Artist group: 8GG interactive (Fu Yu, Jia Haiqing) [China]
Tech: Shan Yang, Sun Zhongyi [China]
Assistance: Er Mao, Ding Ying [China]
Special thanks to: Gai Yunong, Wang Zhaofang, EON [China]
Topic: Food
Location: Lord of Salt Restaurant, Beijing, China

This project creates the illusion of moving scents from Beijing to Linz. In the Chinese capital, participants blow into a sensor, which will transmit to the electronic fan in Linz, thus releasing scents into the wind. The ensuing breeze will transport smells of the Chinese delicacy, “Spicy Hot Pot”. The installed scents are collected and obtained in advance from Beijing, which are all familiar smells from different foods or tea. Meanwhile, there are real time visual signals transmitting between Beijing and Linz so that people can feel as if the scent travels without boundaries.

Foto: Marianne Schmidt

Artist: Marianne Schmidt [Germany]
Software Engineer: André Bernhardt
Topic: Progress
Location: 80+1 basecamp and AEC

Digitie is a real-time communication channel that connects two places. For both sides, it is only a little test of courage to put a hand inside the gadget. The two hands of strangers, from far distant places, meet each other real-time on a screen. Then, they can wave, handshake or arm wrestle — all the possibilities of gesticulation and interaction are open. The interlocutors playfully determine their own form of non-verbal communication. The project illustrates the importance and representation of analog, but technological forms of communication by using human hands. How can we generate and receive information of body language, especially of emotions, using digital media?

Artist: Pierre Proske [Australia]
Tech: Damian Stewart
Software: Arturo Castro
Topic: Happiness
Location: Thimphu, Bhutan

Website: http://www.digitalstar.net/

Supported by Michael Rutland OBE, chairman of the British Bhutanese Society, Dr Claus Walter and Franz Leuthner from the Austrian Bhutanese Society, Dorji Wangchuck and Dr. Michael Schneeberger, Voluntary Artists Studio Thimphu (VAST) (Bhutan), Austrian Bhutanese Society (Austria/Bhutan)

In a response to accusations in 1987 by a journalist that the pace of development in Bhutan was slow, the then King of Bhutan replied “Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross National Product”. This signaled his commitment to building an economy appropriate to Bhutan’s culture, based on Buddhist spiritual values, and has since served as a unifying vision for the Bhutanese economy. In a survey in 2005, 45 percent of those Bhutanese surveyed reported being very happy, 52 percent reported being happy and only three percent reported not being happy. Grand Mutual Smiles is a two-way interactive installation that communicates between two parties through the transmission of images of smiling faces. Progressively captured pictures of smiling people are displayed on screens at each installation site. The motivation is to encourage users to communicate across the Internet in a non-verbal and humoristic way — by smiling. The project will present two real-time updating sets of people’s faces at each of the locations – Linz, Austria and Thimphu, Bhutan.

Foto: Lila Chitayat & Alon Chitayat

Artists: Lila Chitayat [Israel] and Alon Chitayat [Israel]
Tech: Tal Chalozin [Israel]
Software: Michael Shynar [Israel]
Topic: Cultural Heritage
Location: Jerusalem, Israel
Website: www.taxilinkproject.com

Supported by G.M.B.S – General Management and Business Strategy (Isreal), Garage Geeks (Israel) – http://www.garagegeeks.org/ , Hewlett-Packard (Israel), Pelephone (Israel). Jerusalem City Hall (Israel), Schreil-Hofer GmbH (Austria)

TaxiLink Project is an interactive installation that enables users to experience a distant, but authentic taxi ride in Jerusalem. While sitting in the static TaxiLink booth, virtual passengers join a real tour in and around the old city of Jerusalem, and can interact with a real-life taxi driver through live video and audio transmitted from across the world.

Credits
Thomas Seifried, Jakob Leitner, Daniel Leithinger, Peter Brandl, Michael Frühmann, Michael Haller,
Media Interaction Lab
Department of Digital Media
Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences

Source: Emiko Ogawa

The Opening Event of the 2009 Ars Electronica Festival

Thu3.9.

beginning at 10 AM on Hauptplatz

beginning at 7 PM on the Maindeck of the Ars Electronica Center

Since June 17, 2009, Linz’s Main Square has served as the Base Camp of “80+1 A JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD,” a project sponsored jointly by Ars Electronica, voestalpine and Linz09. Ars Electronica 2009—“Human Nature”—and 80+1 will encounter one another for the first time on September 3, 2009 at the opening of this year’s 30th anniversary festival in what promises to be a very fortuitous convergence!

As soon as the sun dips below the horizon, the illumination of the cityscape will get switched down a notch or two in line with the watchwords “Lights Out. Starlight.” In cooperation with the ORF – Austrian Broadcasting Company’s Upper Austria Regional Studio, we’re calling upon Linzers to turn off the lights in their homes from 10 PM to 12 Midnight, and come and do some stargazing on Hauptplatz. Amateur astronomers will make their telescopes and their knowledge of the heavens available to visitors.
A great lineup of music and performances will kick off at 7 PM on the Maindeck of the Ars Electronica Center.

Program:

Beginning at 10 AM Hauptplatz
Bring us a star bearing your own personal wish for the future!
An essential element of the “80+1 A JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD” project is peering into the future. In conjunction with “Starry Starry Night,” we’ll be collecting your fondest hopes and desires on a “wish tree” at www.80plus1.org and sending them out into the world.

Beginning at 10 AM Hauptplatz
Exhibition of the Rolling Stars and Planets

10 AM-3 PM Hauptplatz
Austrian Space Forum (ÖWF) Workshops for Young People
ÖWF experts will show you how to build model rockets that can then be launched from the banks of the Danube.

10 AM-6 PM Hauptplatz
Astronaut Trainer from the Children & Youth Service

10 AM-6 PM Hauptplatz
ÖWF Workshops for Young People
Take a test drive in the Dignity Rover, a vehicle used in the space program. Youngsters can try on space suits and experience what it’s like to be an astronaut.

10 AM-6 PM Hauptplatz
COSMOS – An Advanced Scientific Repository for Science Teaching and Learning
Would you like to find out more about the COSMOS website www.cosmos-project.eu? Then pay a visit to the project’s information stand, where staffers will be on hand to answer your questions one-on-one.

12 Noon-6 PM 80+1 Base Camp
Global Window Live
Get linked up LIVE to the whole wide world! Plus: incredible films, links and info about astronomy, space exploration, stars and the cosmos.

3-4 PM Hauptplatz
Trip through the Solar System
Join the ÖWF’s Gernot Grömer on a journey through our solar system and then come along on an Austro-Mars expedition.

4-5 PM Hauptplatz
LIVE remote hookup to Franz Kerschbaum of the University of Vienna’s Department of Astronomy
Franz Kerschbaum provides insights into, among other subjects, the history of astronomy, the birth and death of stars, and the future of our Sun in conversation with ÖWF’s Dietmar Hager and Gernot Grömer.

5-5:45 PM Hauptplatz
LIVE remote hookup to the ESO
We establish contact with the ESO’s Yuri Beletsky.

6:30-7 PM Hauptplatz
Light Pollution
Astronomy expert Dietmar Hager provides interesting information and insights about light pollution and astrophotography.

7-8 PM Hauptplatz
Future Talk alfresco
on the subject of exploration with Franz Viehböck, Austria’s first astronaut, geneticist Josef Penninger and American mathematician John L. Casti; moderated by AEC artistic director Gerfried Stocker

7-9 PM Kirche Urfahr
Klanghimmel and Speeds of Time

8-9 PM Maindeck
Futuristic Sound-Performance – Felix Kubin
The artist Felix Kubin works against the gravitation: Electroacoustic Pop – Noise and rhythm.

8-9 PM Hauptplatz
Stellar Music: Nordwest featuring Louis Nostitz, Ali Andress and Flo Muigg
World premiere of Thomas Nordwest’s “Sternenmusik” featuring Louis Nostitz, Ali Andress and Flo Muigg.

9 -10 PM Hauptplatz
Sternenstunde: Astrology with Gerda Rogers
What does the zodiac portend for Linzers’ future?

10-11 PM Maindeck
InterSidera – TeZ
World premiere of “InterSidera,” a sound performance composed especially for this event by media artist TeZ.

10 PM-12 Midnight Hauptplatz
“Lights Out – Starlight” / A Battery of Telescopes for Stargazing
A one-of-a-kind experience awaits stargazers—amateur astronomers will make available their telescopes and also provide expert explanations of the constellations and the cosmos. Special highlight: the new telescope of the Petrinum parochial high school’s observatory.

10 PM-12 Midnight Hauptplatz
Performance of Rolling Stars & Planets
The Ladies First Ladies modern dance group from BiondekBühne Baden and the SlowForward performance group present “Breath of the Universe” and “The Birth of the World,” thereby conjuring up the stars and constellations on the Nibelungen Bridge.

10 PM-12 Midnight Hauptplatz
Stellar Myths
Stirring accounts of the fairytale creatures that populate the night sky, the heroic sagas of Andromeda, Perseus & Co. and the mythical beasts of the heavens.

12 Midnight Stadtwerkstatt, Café Strom
Ars Electronica Nightline
Numorai live, Sonic Death Monkey, DJ Malvin Elektronik

www.80plus1.org

Important Traffic & Public Transportation Information
9 PM to 1 AM: Hauptplatz closed to all traffic

80+1, Ars Electronica, voesalpine, Linz09, ORF OÖ, LinzAG , Österreichisches Weltraum Forum (ÖWF), Linzer Astronomische Gemeinschaft (LAG), Stadt Linz.

Special thanks to voestalpine, Linz09, ORF OÖ, LinzAG, Magistrat der Stadt Linz, Österreichisches Weltraum Forum (ÖWF), Linzer Astronomische Gemeinschaft (LAG), Bischöfliches Gymnasium Petrinum, Teleskop-Sternwartenzentrum Linz, Stargazer-Observatory, Teleskop-Service Ransburg GmbH, Dietmar Hager, Lajos Santos, Gerda Rogers, Franz Viehböck, Elisabeth Ledersberger-Lehoczky, „Ladies First Ladies” Modern-Dance-Gruppe von der BiondekBühne Baden und „SlowForward” Performace-Gruppe, Wiener Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Astronomie, Astrofreunde Oberes Mühlviertel, sowie allen Teilnehmer beim Teleskopwald, Cosmos – An Advanced Scientific Repository for Science Teaching and Learning, Österreichische Versuchsender Verband (ÖVSV), Kinder- und Jugendservice der Stadt Linz, Werner Prödl, City Ring, Wirtschaftskammer Linz, Jindrak, Stadtgärten Linz, Anrainer und Gewerbetreibenden des Hauptplatzes.

Foto: Handong Zhu

The construction of the world’s largest hydroelectric power plant in the vicinity of China’s Three Gorges was accompanied by some heated discussions concerning energy production as well as the protection of the region’s population, environment and cultural heritage.

Now, you can pay a visit to the idyllic Three Gorges region via the Internet portal “Second Life” and experience a journey through history. Immerse yourself in the past, hike through the landscape as it exists in the present, or soar high above it into the future.

A video documentary complements the presentation and reflects life in and around the villages of the Three Gorges region.

Credits
Artist: Zhu Handong
Photographer: Liao Hongbo
Second Life Technician: Zhao Ken
Project Assistant: Zhang Han
http://www.zhuhandong.com/

Foto: ARCHIPICTURE Mag. Dietmar Tollerian

Since time immemorial, people have been coming together to make music and sing. As universal means of communication, rhythms, melodies and songs mediate interaction across language barriers, cultures and generations.

The “Arrorró” project invites installation visitors to engage in international understanding by way of music and to sing together with others. The mission is for all sorts of people to mutually exchange their stories, dreams, traditions and languages in a shared setting. Visitors are invited to themselves record lullabies for the project’s homepage and to log on to it to hear the songs of others.

Credits:
Artist: Gabriela Golder

Realization: Gabriela Golder,
Escuela de Comunicación Multimedial de la Universidad Maimónides [Argentina]
Production: Abel Cassanelli
Design, website and connectivity: Violeta Gau /José Allona
Edition: Santiago Pedroncini
Team: María Fernanda Amenta, Facundo Colantonio, Guido Gardini, Violeta Cassanelli, Tiago Espírito Santo, Valeria Evdemón, Pablo Martín Fernández, Guido Ceratto, Alexis Wurstein, Ars Electronica [Austria]

Supported by:
Universidad Maimónides.

http://www.arrorrolullabies.com.ar/

Fotos: Shahjahan Siraj

Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, is a vibrant metropolis of 12 million inhabitants. Here, markets, tiny shops and bazaars pack just about every street corner. The merchandise ranges from traditional local products all the way to fast food, coffee to go and luxury goods.

80+1 – A JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD immerses you via live video into the hustle and bustle of colorful everyday life in Dhaka. Every day, we’ll be visiting another market and enjoying fascinating experiences—for instance, a ride in a rickshaw or a tomtom (horse-drawn cart). In Dhaka, we’ll be shooting short daily videos that, at the end of the project, will be edited into an 81-minute film.

Credits:
Artist, Coordinator, Editor: Shahjahan Siraj
Cinematographer: Jahangir Alam
Researcher: Raihath Sohel
Field Assistant: Farhad Hossain
Photographer: Kamrul Hasan
Production Assistant: Junaed Shahriar
Volunteer, Advisor: Matsuzaki Misuzu

Foto: ARCHIPICTURE Mag. Dietmar Tollerian

The “80+1 – A Journey around the World” exhibition’s project entitled WIA < > WIA -Water in Africa – Water in Austria, which was purportedly to have linked up Linz via the internet to an African village’s well in order to gather data in real time about African water usage and transmit the data to Linz where it would be used to flush a toilet with the exact same amount of water, was actually completely fabricated. Nor does there exist an artist named Melissa Fatoumata Touré. Both the artist and the entire project are fictions that I invented, and I intentionally did not inform Ars Electronica of this fact. Nevertheless, when doubts began to mount about the reality of this project, it seemed advisable to go public with the truth and state the background facts and circumstances.

In a public call for the tender of ideas in 2008, Ars Electronica invited artists and scholars to submit proposals for a virtual journey around the world, a medial reinterpretation of the trip protagonist Phileas Fogg took in Jules Verne’s novel Around the World in 80 Days. The aim is to thereby call attention to important issues that affect the population of the whole world.

I took the journey’s belletristic basis (as specified by Ars Electronica itself) as an occasion to consider an installation that would be played out in the realm of fiction just like the novel that gave the whole project its name. The internet as the filter in the communication between Ars Electronica and me played an essential role in this by effectively concealing my true identity for a long time. Inventing and subsequently maintaining a fictional identity by means of digital communication have also simultaneously been the core of my artistic contribution to this exhibition.

The WIA < > WIA installation I proposed via a fictitious person named Melissa Fatoumata Touré unfortunately deals with a very serious issue: the fact that not all people in this world have enough clean drinking water at their disposal. The installation is set up in such a way that it puts forth a real solution to this very real problem: the operation of the installation will help to raise money that will be used to subsidize the building of wells in Africa.

These facts are not changed in the least by the otherwise fictive character of the installation. The data that are being fed to the toilet in Linz don’t come from an African well hooked up to the internet but rather from a random number generator. And the panoramic image of the African village square that adorns the walls of the toilet is actually a Photoshop collage assembled using images freely available online.

An integral part of a fiction, if it’s to be perpetrated in such a way that people will give it credence, is skepticism. What was originally perceived by the project organizer and audiences as a real project by a real person was revealed, at a certain point, to be a deception. From an artistic perspective, I was interested in exploring this borderline. How long does one keep believing in information? At what point does one classify it as false? And how can I, someone who disseminates fictitious information, use my influence to cause it to be believed nevertheless? This is why the way in which the project is set up calls attention to a problem that, although it has always existed in all media, has been significantly exacerbated by the speed and multilayered complexity of global digital communications: the increasing importance of being able to autonomously assess the extent to which information is true. Or to put this in different terms: to be cognizant of ones occasional impotence in this regard. After all, one is not always in the enviable situation of being able to correctly classify the quality of a piece of information or its source.

I custom-tailored both the WIA < > WIA installation as well as the fictional artist Melissa Fatoumata Touré to the wishes expressed by the project organizers in their published call for submissions.

Doing so afforded me the opportunity to very vividly treat the subject of fraudulent identity and falsified information on the basis of a concrete example in an exhibition context since it’s my opinion that 80+1 – A Journey around the World, a project structured precisely in such a way as to take advantage of all modes of electronic data transfer, should also shed light on this dark side of the internet.

I’m pleased that discovery on the part of Ars Electronica has now brought closure to this undertaking.

Since sustainably providing all people with clean drinking water is more important than the subject of misinformation in the media—indeed, is truly a matter of life or death—I’m also happy that the installation will remain in operation until the conclusion of 80+1 – A Journey around the World and will continue to raise donations to finance the construction of actual wells in Africa.

Electronics: Zoumana Habib Tounkara
Programming: Djelimady Samaké
Internet access: Ballaké Touré
Sibiri Touré, Soumano Dieneba Touré
Sponsored by Niklas Roy
http://www.niklasroy.com/shows/index.htm

“Urbanet” focuses on Johannesburg—and particular on the raw underbelly of the city that remains hidden from the eyes of most tourists. A city that is characterized by problematic social and economic conditions as well as the grueling conflict between the highly motivated democracy movement and the system of apartheid whose legacy is still present in many areas of life.
“Urbanet” presents art as a challenge to discover something new. Hidden among the windows looking out on Linz’s Main Square are numerous projects that you can discover with the installation’s camera. Become an inconspicuous observer; walk through the dense thicket of the cityscape in search of rips and cracks in the surface of pretty appearances.
Then, via live telephone hookup, you can share and discuss your discoveries with inhabitants of Johannesburg.

Credits:
Artists: Stephen Hobbes, Marcus Neustetter
Supported by:
Österreichische Provinz der Jesuiten, Ignatiuskirche / Alter Dom
Kunstuniversität Linz
Uniconsult
Dr. Manfred Lehner
Altes Rathaus, Linz

Foto: ARCHIPICTURE Mag. Dietmar Tollerian

Up to six million vehicles a year pass through the Gotthard Road Tunnel, Switzerland’s most important north-south traffic artery. “Movement & Impact” gives you a completely new feeling for the Gotthard Tunnel and the cars and trucks incessantly pouring through it: ground-mounted sensors translate traffic density as well as each vehicle’s size, weight and direction of travel into vibrations of varying intensity, which are then transmitted to the installation’s reclining platform.

So, make yourself comfortable in the wellness area and experience how loud, stinky highway traffic is converted into gently massaging vibrations that transport you far, far away from the unremitting racket of everyday life.

Artists:
Sabine Haerri and Yvonne Weber (CH); in collaboration with the Ars Electronica Futurelab and commissioned by Ars Electronica Linz.

Credits:
Extra Europa Schweiz – Kooperation von Linz 2009 und der Schweizer Kulturstiftung Pro Helvetia

Remember the last time you felt completely surprised opening a box? Whatever was inside, nothing compares with the fun “Pin Hole” brings you.

Imagine now that you don’t need to fly all the way there to see all of it. Simply walk by the Pin Hole and—voila!—here they are, the people, the place, all of it. Everything is possible; a smile, a joke, a gesture, or even a dance.

Simply a laptop and internet connection can already make it happen!

The “Pin Hole” is hooked up just about every day to another one on the face of this planet.

Partners:

MOCATaipei- Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei
http://www.mocataipei.org.tw/

Total Museum of Contemporary Art
www.totalmuseum.org
blog.naver.com/totalmuseum
cafe.naver.com/totalmuseum

Mauj Collective for Open Technology, Art and Culture, Karachi
http://sites.google.com/site/maujwiki/Home
http://maujmedia.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=23338118462

IKEJIRI INSTITUTE OF DESIGN (IID)
http://www.r-school.net/en/

Foto: rubra

Sat, 5.9.2009
10:30 AM – 5:50 PM

Brucknerhaus, Mittlerer Saal

Curatorial Statement by the Guest Curators Isaac Mao (CN) & David Sasaki (US)

For 80 days the world will come to Linz. Inspired by Jules Verne’s epic 19th century journey “Around the World in 80 Days”, we too shall take advantage of the latest technologies of our day in order to explore and experience some of the most remote and fascinating locations on our planet; from the ship-wrecking yards of Gadani, Pakistan to the skyscrapers of Dubai to the bustling markets of Bangladesh, and far beyond.  For 80 days, from June 17th until September 4th, digital artists based around the world will take us on a tour of what our world has become. On September 5th, the 81st day of our voyage, we will chart new maps of where our world is heading.

Jules Verne published his novel at the dawn of industrialised globalisation, when the steam engine and the colonial conquests of Europe made it possible for the first time to circumnavigate the planet in relative comfort, and in less than three months. In the 125 years since, the pace of globalisation has accelerated exponentially. Our cars, clothes, computers, and cupboards all depend on vast international networks of manufacturing, finance, and trade.  This flood of globalisation has carried the economic and environmental crises to almost every corner of the world. Are these crises an inevitable part of human nature? Or is it possible to shape a new connected consciousness to tackle global problems collectively and equitably?

Welcome to the cloud. Welcome to new the social ecology of the 21st century. Welcome to mobile banking from a New York taxi cab direct to rural Kenya. Welcome to the wild wondrous web of blogs, podcasts, mailing lists and streaming video from camera phones the size of credit cards. All instant and all the time. The world has changed. We have changed.

Local solutions must be global in scope. How will we avoid the violent wars and genocide that defined the 20th century? How will we stay objective when our local newspapers go bankrupt? Who owns the limitless depth of online information and knowledge and who is granted access to it? The answers to these questions and thousands like them are being discussed this instant, in real time, on social networks, mailing lists, mobile phones and the ever-expanding blogosphere. The bits and bytes that will dictate our future live in the cloud.

As more and more information and individuals filter into our lives, how will we find the time and the capacity to care? Will new connections lead to unthinkable solutions, or is the avalanche of information, conversations and connections leaving us less satisfied? Will subculture and language become more influential than geographic distance in how we shape society? How will we decide our priorities in the 21st century?

We need new a new type of intelligence; new art to imagine possibilities, new science to evaluate solutions, and new technologies to implement them. Commercial globalisation has led to a marketplace of goods and services, while new technologies such as social networking enable people to share ideas and feelings. The next stage of globalisation, cloud intelligence, will empower us to instantly share new solutions and act on them.

We see the explosive growth of digital communities and digital nomads, social networks and social clusters. Hierarchies are flattening. Any idea can be shared quickly and spread through networks of reputation. Communities that were once marginalised and ignored can now take advantage of new tools to make themselves heard. Traditional media have realised that they must adapt to fit in to the new world order.

People are not only reshaping their social identities, but also strengthening the links of knowledge and their existence. In the cloud of connections, we each become social neurons, mimicking the biological human brain but on a giant scale. The collective knowledge is far beyond anything a single search engine could index and archive. Intelligence is spreading everywhere, every minute, and cloud computing can draw new links across new ideas. We think together but remain independent in our identity. If we could foster co-thinking to reach consensus about new solutions, we may be able to find a new direction for the future. Hope can emerge from new collaborative models based on a new paradigm; science and art will act gracefully to match human nature, and to shape the future of humanity.

We are experiencing a new way of travelling around the world, not in 80+1 days, but in 80+1 minutes. Speed matters. Because crises spread quickly, social intelligence must spread quickly as well. Today, every one of us can use different tools to create and share mountains of information. But how can we manage the rhythm of our lives? How can we keep our digital properties safe and long-lasting? How can we define new rules to maximise creativity in our rapid social evolution?

Such challenges remain unsolved, creating space for new ventures and new opportunities. We are just at the beginning.

Welcome to the new social ecology. Welcome to our shared intelligence, networked anxiety, and collective future. Welcome to the cloud.

Schedule

10:30 AM – 11:00 AM
David Sasaki – Introduction to cloud computing and brief mention of cloud intelligence

11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Cloud Intelligence “Those enable us and encourage us”

Stephen Downes – Cloud Intelligence (Encouraging collaboration)
Ethan Zuckerman – Cloud Cartography (Mapping the flow of information and interaction)
Anders Sandberg – Distributed superintelligence

1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Break

2:00 PM – 5:50 PM
Cloud Activism “What should we do”

Isaac Mao – Introduction to cloud activism
Hamid Tehrani – Review of Iran protests
Xiao Qiang – Activism without organization
Evgeny Morozov (Remote) – Activism, not Slacktivism
Kristen Taylor – The social future of food
Teddy Ruge – Diaspora-based development
Pablo Flores – Enabling cloud education
Andrés Monroy-Hernández (Remote)– Cloud programming for children
Juliana Rotich – Cloud environmentalism in Africa

Round table: Q&A with speakers around “constructing alternatives”
Isaac Mao – Looking toward the future

Biographies

Stephen Downes (CA) works for the National Research Council of Canada where he has served as a Senior Research, based in Moncton, New Brunswick, since 2001. Affiliated with the Learning and Collaborative Technologies Group, Institute for Information Technology, Downes specializes in the fields of online learning, new media, pedagogy and philosophy. Downes is perhaps best known for his daily nesletter, OLDaily. He has published numerous articles both online and in print, including The Future of Online Learning (1998), Learning Objects (2000), Resource Profiles (2003), and E-Learning 2.0 (2005).

Pablo Flores (UR/IT). International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada, working on a research with DESEM Foundation about projects in 1:1 modality (one computer per child) in Latin America and the Caribbean. Universidad de la República – Proyecto Flor de Ceibo.

Juliana Rotich (KE) is a blogger, digital activist and environment editor of Global Voices Online with particular focus on technology, the environment, renewable energy, and digital expression in Africa and the developing world. Juliana is also the Program Director of Ushahidi.com, an innovative non-profit web startup that is creating a tool and mashup for mapping crises. Prior to joining global voices online and Ushahidi, Juliana spent several years as an IT professional working in Kansas City as a Database Administrator then later as a Data Analyst at Hewitt Associates, Chicago. She is also a contributing author on Afrigadget.com where she highlights African ingenuity in everything from children’s toys to wind powered cell phone base stations. Juliana is particularly proud to be one of the TED Fellows and bloggers who covered the first ever African TEDGlobal conference in Arusha June 2007.she holds a Bachelors of Science Degree in Information Technology from the University of Missouri Kansas City.

Teddy Ruge (UG) is the co-founder of Project Diaspora – an organisation aimed at connecting the African Diaspora to socially-relevant development projects in Africa. Project Diaspora’s mission is to engage Africa’s 50 million-strong diaspora population and their $40 billion in annual remittances to move Africa from an aid-dependent continent to an investment destination. As a budding social entrepreneur, he’s currently assisting several indigenous farmer organisations in Uganda move from subsistence farming to large-scale commercial farming of aloe vera and moringa. Teddy is also a mobile technology enthusiast and blogs frequently about the African ICT sectors and its effects on development. He has also served on several panel discussions related to Africa, the role of the African diaspora and Africa’s emerging technology space. Teddy is a Ugandan record-holder in the decathlon and pole vault and, formerly, the high jump.

Xiao Qiang (US) is a well-known Chinese human rights activist. He is director of the China Internet Project at the Graduate School of Journalism, University of California, Berkeley. Xiao is currently teaching on China and human rights, and researching the convergence of information and communication technologies against the backdrop of China’s social and political sea change. He runs the China Digital Times news portal as part of the China Internet Project.

Ethan Zuckerman (US). Co-founder Global Voices

Anders Sandberg (SE) is a researcher, science debater, futurist, transhumanist, and author. He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Stockholm University in computational neuroscience, and is currently a James Martin Research Fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University.

Kristen Taylor (US) is a cook, photographer, videographer, and writer unfolding the connective tissue of local food.

Andres Monroy-Hernandez (US) is a PhD student and Bradesco Fellow at the MIT Media Lab. He is interested in understanding how the Web and mobile technologies can empower people and support collaboration, especially among youth and communities in the developing world. His work currently focuses on the design and analysis of social software. Previously, he worked in the software industry and at the Los Alamos National Lab. He finished a MS in Media Technology at MIT as Samsung Fellow, and a BS in Electronics Engineering at Tec de Monterrey. He likes very spicy food.