DEPARTMENT OF
COMPUTER SCIENCE
CSC454/2527S: The Business of Software
January-April
2000
Course Faculty
19 December 1999
Professor Ronald Baecker
Sanford Fleming Building 4306E
978-6983
(phone)
978-5184 (fax)
rmb@dgp.toronto.edu
(email)
Office Hour: Mondays 4:30-5:15, or phone or send email
for an appointment.
Ronald
Baecker
is Professor of Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and
Management at the University of Toronto, and founder and Chief Scientist of the
Knowledge Media Design Institute of the University. He was the founder, President for 8 years, and Chairman of the
Board of HCR Corporation, a Toronto-based UNIX contract R&D and technology
development and marketing firm, sold in 1990 to a U.S. competitor. He is also currently the founder and CEO of
Expresto Software, a firm specializing in developing and delivering multimedia
explanations of software. He has
taught this course to over 1000 students and software entrepreneurs and
managers in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires
(Argentina), and Santiago (Chile).
The holder of a B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D.
from M.I.T., he is an active lecturer and consultant to industry on topics
including human-computer interaction and user interface design, multimedia, and
entrepreneurship and strategic planning in the software industry. He is the author or co-author of four books,
Readings in Human-Computer
Interaction: A Multidisciplinary
Approach, Human Factors and
Typography for More Readable Programs, Readings
in Groupware and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work: Facilitating Human-Human
Collaboration, and Readings in
Human-Computer Interaction: Toward the
Year 2000.
Philip
D. Stern
(pstern@sternthinking.com) is founder and principal of Stern Thinking, a firm
that helps private companies and their existing investors create Business Plans
that raise money. Prior to Stern Thinking, his was founder and CEO of
Simon/Ross + Associates Inc., a successful Apple Macintosh training firm; Manager,
Industry Marketing, and Manager, Corporate Development, of MDI Mobile Data
International; Vice President, Marketing and Sales, of Pacific Microcircuits;
and President of Knoware Inc. He has a B.Com
from McGill University and an MBA from Harvard Business School with a focus on
marketing.
Lillian Blume (lil.blume@hwcn.org)
has taught English and interpersonal communications at Mohawk College and
McMaster University, and is a lecturer and consultant specializing in
interpersonal communications.
Teaching
Assistants
David
Rosen
(DavidYYZ@aol.com) is a management
consultant and writer working in Toronto, Silicon Valley and London. He has 20
years of experience in the computer industry and is a contributing editor of
Canada Computes! -- Canada's oldest computer newspaper -- and a past editor of
America Online's Multimedia Online, a print magazine with a circulation of over
one million readers. The lead writer of the best-selling book, Making Money with Multimedia
(Addison-Wesley), his clients include America Online, Apple Computer, Coopers
& Lybrand and many others.
Wynton Semple (Wynton.Semple@zds.on.ca)
is a Toronto corporate commercial lawyer. He deals mainly with small business
clients, many of whom are concerned with computer software as consumers,
developers and vendors. He is a partner
in the Toronto law firm Zammit, Dash & Semple and holds law degrees from
McGill and York Universities.
Michael Shiner (mshiner@chedington.com) manages high-technology and other
strategic investments for Chedington Technology. He has also been an independent consultant helping
entrepreneurial IT companies with
issues related to successful growth including strategic and business planning,
marketing, operations, and financing.
From 1987 to 1993, he created and built one of the largest independent
instructional swim schools in Toronto which he sold to a competitor in
1993. He holds a Bachelor of Music
degree in Performance and an MBA from U of T.