Keynote Address

Everyware: Some Social and Ethical Implications of Ubiquitous Computing Adam Greenfield

Abstract
While the Weiserian vision of ubiquitous computing as something transpiring in heavily-instrumented, interior spaces may never quite come to pass, it's clear that we already live in a world utterly permeated by digital information processing, from RFID-based payment systems to municipal wireless networks to GPS-enabled phones.

We can already see new notions of presence, privacy, awareness and reputation springing up around the use of these systems, and they are only beginning to be knit together. How will this emergent ubiquity shape our choices in the years to come? What are some of the foreseeable implications for our communities, for the way we organize polities, for our experience of the everyday, and for our very sense of selfhood?

Biography
Adam Greenfield is an internationally-recognized writer, user experience consultant and critical futurist, having worked for clients ranging from global concerns like Toyota, Capgemini, and Sony to local nonprofits.

Before starting his current practice, Studies and Observations, Adam was lead information architect for the Tokyo office of well-known Web consultancy Razorfish; prior to that, he worked as senior information architect for marchFIRST, also in Tokyo. He's also been, at various points in his career, a rock critic for SPIN Magazine, a medic at the Berkeley Free Clinic, a coffeehouse owner in West Philadelphia, and a PSYOP sergeant in the US Army's Special Operations Command.

His 2006 Everyware, the first work on ubiquitous computing suitable for general audiences, has been acclaimed as "groundbreaking," "elegant" and "soulful" by Bruce Sterling, and as "gracefully written, fascinating, and deeply wise" by Wired's Steve Silberman.

Adam lives and works with his wife, artist Nurri Kim, in New York City.