CEO Adaptive Path, San Francisco
Jesse James Garrett is President and a founding partner of Adaptive Path. He is author of The Elements of User Experience (New Riders), and is recognized as a pioneer in the field of information architecture. Jesse´s clients include AT&T, Intel, Crayola, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, and National Public Radio.
Since starting in the Internet industry in 1995, Jesse has had a hands-on role in almost every aspect of Web development, from interface design and programming to content development and high-level strategy.
Today, information architects around the world depend on the tools and concepts he has developed, including the widely acclaimed « Elements of User Experience » model.
Jesse is co-founder of the Information Architecture Institute, the only professional organization dedicated to information architecture. He is also a frequent speaker and writer whose work has appeared in numerous publications, including New Architect, Digital Web, and Boxes and Arrows.
Scientist & Web pioneer at the CERN, Geneva
Robert Cailliau is one of the co-developers of the World Wide Web. In 1990, he proposed, with Tim Berners-Lee, a hypertext system for access to the CERN documentation. This led to the World Wide Web. Tim had a prototype on NeXTStep. They got together to develop and promote this software. The name «world-wide web» was coined during that period (May 1990).
In 1993 he started the authentication scheme for the Web and supervised its implementation. Robert Cailliau also started «WISE», the first Web based project at the European Commission.
At that same time, he also split the CERN laboratory information server from the purely Web technical information server.
Robert started the series of International World Wide Web Conferences, by calling the first one in December 1993; it took place at CERN in May 1994. The conferences are now run by the IW3C2 (International WWW Conference Committee), of which he is co-founder (August 1994) and was a long-time Chairman.
In December 1995, the ACM attributed the Software System Award to Tim Berners-Lee, Robert Cailliau (both for WWW), M. Andreessen and E. Bina (both for Mosaic).
Robert started with the European Commission the Web for Schools project which has given support and access to 150 schools in the European Union. In 2000 hi joined the Education and Technology Transfer unit. Finally in 2005 he retired from his work at CERN.
Software engineer, Google Geo Team
Bernhard is a software engineer at Google and working in the Geo team that is responsible for products like Google Maps and Google Earth. He joined Google through the acquisition of Endoxon December 2006.
Bernhard is best known as co-founder of search.ch. Starting in 1995 it was one of the first regional search engines. search.ch started with indexing the swiss web and quickly grew to one of the most used Swiss websites. A position that was re-inforced by additions like a swiss phonebook, the first local search site that automatically connected business entries with related web pages.
search.ch was sold to the Swiss Post in 2004. In the same year, map.search.ch, the world´s first AJAX mapping application was created in cooperation with Endoxon.
Endoxon is a company with a long history of mapping products coming from Switzerland. It became known for high quality image processing of aerial and satellite imagery and innovative web based mapping applications.
Bernhard moved to Endoxon to realize the vision of a spatial web. He is now following this vision within Google. Bernhard studied theoretical physics at the University of Bern.
Director, Media and Design Laboratory, EPFL
Jeffrey Huang is the Director of the Media and Design Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), and a Full Professor at the School of Computer and Communications Sciences, and the School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Huang´s research explores the vision of bringing the physical and virtual environments together. He investigates the possibility of combining physical architecture and information structures to support integrated offline and online processes for everyday activities, such as learning, working, governing and healing.
His current projects focus on (1) the integration of physical computing (sensors, actuators, RFID, LEDs, etc.) into architecture and cities, (2) the design of digital space, such as 3D information game and navigation interfaces, (3) and more generally, the understanding of design thinking.
Huang has published and lectured widely on the convergence of physical and virtual architecture, including “Future Space: A Blueprint for a New Business Architecture” in Harvard Business Review, and a forthcoming book (with Muriel Waldvogel) on “Architecture as Interface” for MIT Press. His research has appeared widely in a variety of media including CNN, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Le Temps, Science, Architectural Record, and Agefi.
Prior to joining the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, he was Associate Professor of Architecture, Digital Media, and Information Technology at Harvard University´s Graduate School of Design (GSD), and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS). He was also a Visiting Fellow at Stanford University´s d.school, and Designer-in-Residence at Fuji Xerox Palo Alto Research Lab.
In 2001, Huang (in partnership with architect Muriel Waldvogel) founded the design and consulting firm Convergeo. Convergeo designs, develops and implements “smart spaces” that combine physical and virtual technologies for real, innovative clients. Recent projects include: (1) the Swisshouse, a prototype networked consulate for Switzerland, (2) Interactive Wallpaper, a collection of responsive architectural surfaces for cities, buildings and interiors, (3) Digital Agora, a smart classroom in Washington D.C. for interactive research among distributed classics scholars for Harvard´s Center for Hellenic Studies (currently under construction), and (4) Smart Store, a prototype interactive environment for mass-customization in Helsinki.
A native of Rome, Italy, and a Swiss citizen of Chinese origins, Huang received his Diploma in Architecture from ETH Zurich and his Master´s and Doctoral degrees from Harvard University, where he was awarded the Gerald McCue Medal.
CTO Fairtilizer, Founder Vizta
More than 10 years ago, Jean-François Groff was with the creators of the Web at the CERN. Then he joined Netvibes, one of the emblematic enterprises of the Web 2.0. He argues that we are finally getting back to beautiful ideas of sharing that were imagined by the inventors of the Web.
Jean-François Groff is now the co-founder and CTO of Fairtilizer and the founder of Vizta. He analyses the participative web and states that it forms, following the example of opensource languages, a powerful tool for creating collective value (Creative common license, Wikipedia, etc).
Chief e-Strategies, ITU, Geneva
Alexander NTOKO is Chief of the E-Strategies Unit at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland. His main responsibility includes the execution of ITU´s Development mandate in the use of telecommunications and ICTs for social and economic development for countries world wide.
He has published papers on ICTs, speaks and organizes national, regional and international conferences worldwide and has undertaken activities to assist ITU Member States in all regions of the world.
He was keynote speaker at the UN 5th Global Forum on Re-inventing Government in Mexico. From the early 1990s he played a leading role in the introduction of Internet services to ITU, launched the ITU global e-commerce initiative (EC-DC) and spear-headed its expansion to other ICT applications (e-health, e-government, e-security, e-business, e-agriculture etc).
Today he manages and supervises a wide range of activities in areas such as Cybersecurity, Internet Protocol, e-government, e-health, e-business, e-learning, e-agriculture, e-legislation and rural communications in various regions of the world. He has also assisted many developing countries in national and regional strategies on ICTs.
His activities in information technology began in the mid 80s in the United States where he obtained Bachelors (BSc) and Masters (MSc) degrees in Computer and Information Sciences from the State University of New York in 1985 and 1987 respectively.
Throughout his career at the ITU, his work has been cited in several press including Time Magazine, International Herald Tribune, Middle East Communications, International Security Review, Tribune de Genève, AGEFI and Suddeutsch Zeitung (one of the biggest printed press in Germany). Articles about his work have also been written in several languages including Chinese, Japanese, Polish, French, Spanish, Bulgarian and Arabic languages in both printed and electronic media. His work as equally received positive reviews from the World Bank, United States Government, Government of India, UNIDO, World Trade Agenda and several other governments and organizations.
He is Cameroonian and has been with ITU at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland for the past 16 years.
Further information about his activities can be obtained from :
Professor HES, Haute Ecole de Genève
Rolf holds a degree in Computer Science from Geneva University. Since 2001, he is a professor at HES, Haute Ecole Geneva, in the department of business information systems. In charge of the Information System Security laboratory, Rolf teaches fields related with security, application development, Internet technologies and information valorization.
After being in charge of a branch development in an American multinational active in banking field, Rolf has worked at the computer science division at Geneva University for which he conceived a new approach to the diffusion of electronic information.
His main researches are on the field of security (Anti-spam strategies, users sensitization, e-business security,.. ) and cyberadministration.
PhD Candidate, University of Tokyo
Holding a Bachelor of Science degree in Government and Economics from LSE and a Masters in Urban Planning from Columbia University, Matias Echanove is currently pursuing a PhD at the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, University of Tokyo.
His main research interests are city planning, communication technologies, urban networks, participatory planning, spontaneous development and informal settlements. More specifically he is studying how the web can be used to gather and process local knowledge in order to improve urban development.
Matias Echanove participated to and initiated several conferences and collaborative projects in the US, Latin America, and Asia. Most recently he presented a plan for a community-owned wireless Internet network in Harlem, New York; organized a participatory urban design workshop in Tokyo with more than 130 guests from all over the world; and worked on a bottom-up development plan for the largest slum in Mumbai. At the moment he is coordinating the development of an online network & collaborative platform for urbanists and architects at the Center on Organization Innovation, Columbia University. He is also a contributor to natiw.ch/blog .
NATIW
