Pop!Tech 2002 Caps Speaker List With Physicist Stephen Wolfram; Conference Adds 'New Kind of Science' Author to Speaker Lineup

Business Wire, Sept 6, 2002

Business/Technology Editors

CAMDEN, Maine--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 6, 2002

Pop!Tech, the world's premier conference on the collision of technology and culture, announced today that physicist Stephen Wolfram, creator of Mathematica and author of A New Kind of Science, would join its lineup of speakers for its fall conference, taking place October 18 - 20, 2002 in Camden, Maine.

"Wolfram is exploring how complexity - beauty even - emerges from certain kinds of simplicity," said Bob Metcalfe, president of Pop!Tech. "His audacious new computing paradigm begins to show how the real world might emerge from structures akin to those generating artificial worlds, which makes him perfect for Pop!Tech 2002."

With a speaking list already including leading visionaries from business, academia, and science, and a limited attendee list on its way to sellout, Wolfram marks the final addition to the conference program.

"After ten years as something of a recluse, I'm really looking forward to going to a conference like Pop!Tech," said Stephen Wolfram. "It's a wonderfully diverse and eclectic group, and I'm expecting some dramatic moments as new ideas mix for the first time."

The intimate conference will take place during peak foliage season in the newly restored Camden Opera House, making for an inspirational weekend, unlike any other conference experience in the industry. With a focus strong on interpersonal networking, Pop!Tech offers many opportunities for attendees to share ideas and interact with one other.

Registration for the conference is $1395 and can be completed online at: http://www.poptech.org

Additional Pop!Tech Speakers & Moderators

-- Amy Bruckman, Asst. Professor, Georgia Institute of Tech, Electronic Learning Communities

-- Will Calhoun, widely acclaimed drummer; Rolling Stone's "Best Drummer, 1990"

-- Bruce Damer, founder, DigitalSpace; early developer of Xerox Star interface; modeler of virtual worlds for NASA

-- Tom DeMarco, principal, Atlantic Systems Guild; author, Slack: Getting Past Burnout and Dark Harbor House

-- Judith Donath, head of MIT Media Lab's Sociable Media Group; builder of online community interfaces

-- Simson Garfinkel, CTO, Sandstorm Enterprises; journalist

-- Dan Gillmor, columnist, San Jose Mercury News

-- General Paul Gorman, US Army, Ret.; founder, Cardinal Point

-- Henry Jenkins, director of MIT's Comparative Media Studies Program

-- Gerard Jones, creator and analyst of popular culture; author, Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Superheroes, and Make-Believe

Violence

-- Amy Jo Kim, behavioral neuroscientist; designer of online environments, founder, NAIMA

-- Honorable Angus S. King, Jr., Governor, State of Maine

-- Ray Kurzweil, founder and developer of four AI businesses; author, Age of Spiritual Machines and Age of Intelligent Machines

-- Polly LaBarre, Senior editor, Fast Company

-- Jaron Lanier, virtual reality pioneer; creator of first multi-person virtual worlds

-- Steve Larsen, partner, Saint Paul Venture Capital; Pop!Tech outside program chair

-- Bob Metcalfe, venture partner, Polaris Venture Partners; founder, 3com; inventor, Ethernet

-- Joe Pine, co-founder, Strategic Horizons; co-author, The Experience Economy

-- Jordan Pollack, AI pioneer; computer science professor, Brandeis; head of Brandeis' DEMO lab

-- Lauren Rabinovitz, chair, University of Iowa's American studies department; Professor of cinema

-- Howard Rheingold, internationally-syndicated author of Virtual Reality and The Virtual Community; founding editor, HotWired; founder, Electric Minds

-- John Sculley, partner, Sculley Brothers LLC; co-founder, InPhonic

-- Tiffany Shlain, founder, Webby Awards; co-founder, International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences

-- Alexander Shulgin, pharmacologist; synthesizer of hundreds of psychoactive compounds; scientific consultant to NIDA, DEA, NASA, and Bristol Labs

-- Alvy Ray Smith, founder of Pixar

-- Eliot Soloway, professor of Education and Computer Science, University of Michigan

-- Warren Spector, co-producer of dozens of games including Ultima VI, Wing Commander, and System Shock; Studio Director, Ion Storm

-- Linda Stone, former VP, Microsoft; co-founder of Microsoft's Virtual Worlds Group; multimedia pioneer at Apple Computer

-- Noel Paul Stookey, songwriter and musician, Peter, Paul and Mary

-- Sherry Turkle, Science, Technology, and Society professor, MIT; director, MIT Initiative on Technology and Self

-- Vernor Vinge, science fiction author of dozens of novels and stories including True Names

About Pop!Tech

Pop!Tech, officially known as the Camden Technology Conference, was founded in 1997 to explore the impact of technology on human culture. Hosted annually in the historic seaside village of Camden, Maine, the Camden Technology Conference is a non-profit organization focused on uniting the world's most prominent thought leaders to network, share knowledge, and discuss the effects of technology on society at its Pop!Tech conferences. The conference's roster of speakers and its unique format have earned international acclaim. The audience is limited to 500 attendees and includes founders, CEOs, senior technical personnel, venture capitalists, and policy makers from academia, government and private think tanks. For more information see: http://www.poptech.org