Computers embedded in everything from running shoes to lifts and lampposts are becoming part of everyday life, according to the head of Nokia's user design department, Adam Greenfield, speaking at QUT in Brisbane this week.
Author of Everyware, and the highly anticipated new book The city is here for you to use, Mr Greenfield is an internationally recognised writer and consultant who is head of design direction for service and user-interface design at Nokia.
He says computers are being merged into everyday objects and surfaces around us to collect, store, and process information in ways we cannot imagine but we have not given enough thought to how this will affect cities and the people who live in them.
Mr Greenfield is delivering the keynote address, The city is here for you to use, at QUT Kelvin Grove campus as part of the HCSNet (Human Communication Science Network) Workshop on Social and Mobile Technology to Support Civic Engagement, and National ICT Australia (NICTA) Queensland's Big Picture seminar series, following an invitation from Dr Marcus Foth and Jaz Choi of Queensland University of Technology's Urban Informatics research group.
"We need to consider how the advent of a truly ubiquitous computing environment will change the way our cities are built and the way we live in them," he said.
"Meanwhile the phones we carry with us have become powerful 'remote controls' for our lives."
Senior research fellow at QUT's Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation and team leader of the Urban Informatics research group, Dr Marcus Foth said that Mr Greenfield as a user experience consultant and futurist would bring the most advanced thinking on next-generation computing to Brisbane combined with his real world experience with such companies as Toyota, Capgemini, Sony, as well as Nokia.
"Mr Greenfield's special expertise is in consideration of the social, ethical and design implications of ubiquitous computing," Dr Foth said.
His keynote presentation will be held on Tuesday, 14 July 2009, from 4 to 5pm at the LaBoite Roundhouse Theatre, QUT Creative Industries Precinct, 6-8 Musk Ave, Kelvin Grove.
Further information at http://www.hcsnet.edu.au/hcsnetevents/2009/butterfly
Media contact: Niki Widdowson, QUT media officer, 07 3138 1841 or n.widdowson@qut.edu.au.
