Welcome to the new LIFT website! To fully enjoy the new website empty your cache or ctrl-refresh.
We took your feedback seriously and created a new website that is easier to navigate and supports multi events (LIFT Asia in September, LIFT09 in February). We also structured the blog in announcements and stories to make it easier for you to keep track of the latest announcements concerning upcoming events.

More content, new features as well as a fresh design will follow in the next weeks, so stay tuned :)

From April 2-4 more than 800 bloggers, netizens, and media creators will gather in Berlin for the 2nd edition of the Re:publica conference. The 2008-theme will be "the critical mass". In over 100 talks, panels and workshops the conference will address the social and cultural impact of blogs, wikis, and social networks and discuss social media that rely on the interaction between people. The conference will be held mostly in German. If you are in Berlin these you can register here.

Please print your e-tickets and bring them along. We will scan them at the registration desk, this will allow us to proceed registration as fast as possible. Thank you!

Why we invited Francesco to LIFT
Francesco is in charge of the development of design strategy at Nokia. He has a really exciting job. His work combines analysis: of evolutions in the way people communicate, enjoy and work, of innovations in design, technology and business models; and intuition to draw inspiring, new directions for design. This viewpoint is very valuable and relevant to LIFT08.

What will Francesco talk about
Francesco has written about the adoption and use of digital technologies, communication, automation and user-centered design. In this context he will present important future trends to us.

See Francesco's LIFT Profile to learn more about her enlightening work.

Why we invited Heewon to LIFT
She is Korean, doing anthropological research on how Asians use certain technologies (social software, virtual worlds). Her knowledge of these local markets is invaluable to us. It helps us understand what is happening there. Asia is to many of us a mysterious place where we do not really know how to apprehend things because of language/cultural barriers.

What is Heewon going to talk about?
As a speaker in the glimpse of Asia track, Heewon Kim will address trends and in particular with respect to how teenagers use social software in Korea.

Official biography
Heewon Kim is a researcher at the Center for Youth and Cultural Studies at Yonsei University in Seoul, specializing in social software and online environments. Before working at Yonsei, she worked as a researcher for several companies such as Daum Communications and NCSOFT.
See Heewon's LIFT Profile to learn more about her enlightening work.

Why we invited Rafi to LIFT
Rafi's career is very bright and original (coming form the Minitel entrepreneurship world), we were interested in his perspective about current development in technologies, especially about ubiquitous computing. He has indeed an original stance in the way he proposed to develop his company; somewhat like "we don't know what ubiquitous computing is so let's try something and see how people do out of it", leaving some space in his Nabaztag product to customization or hacking.

What will Rafi speak about
Rafi will talk about his latest start up venture, his approach towards entrepreneurship and what led to the creation of the Nabaztag. This cute little communicating animal is permanently connected to the Internet. It sends and receives a myriad of messages, indicates your mood to the outside world with its ears or lights in its belly, tells jokes, has performed in operas in France and the US (NY) and that is not all it can do. For more information check out Rafi's interview with Benjamin Gauthey on YouTube about Nabaztag or Rafi's LIFT Profile.

Would you like to be part of our passionate team in making LIFT a unique experience? We are looking for outgoing, friendly, 100% reliable, english-speaking people supporting us as volunteers.
We offer a free ticket to LIFT08, an enlightning work experience and inspiring contacts for 2.5 days of work. Plus you get the possiblity to see 2 hours of presentations per day of your choice. If you are interested and would be available throughout February 6th to 8th, please contact sylvie at liftconference.com. Look forward to hear from you:)

Why we invited Genevieve to LIFT
Genevieve Bell is Ethnographer, Senior Engineer and Director of User Experiences at Intel. We are interested in the fact that Genevieve's profile and her work are very original for a technological company such as Intel.

What will Genevieve talk about
Genevieve will present us with her understanding of user experience of technology and product shaping insights into consumers world-wide. She will tell us from her experience in bringing a research driven, end-user focus to Intel.

Official biography
Genevieve Bell grew up in Australia, moving between the working class suburbs of Melbourne and Canberra and the Aboriginal communities of Central and Northern Australia. She has a PhD in anthropology and works as Director of User Experience within Intel’s Digital Home Group. There she manages an inter-disciplinary team of social scientists, interaction designers and human factors engineers.
Learn more about Genevieve's groundbreaking work on her LIFT profile .

Why we invited Henry to LIFT
Henry Markram is Co-Director of the Brain Mind Institute, Director of the Center for Neuroscience & Technology and Director of the "Blue Brain Project". He works at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. A worldwide recognized expert in his field, Henry Markram, is also local. And, at LIFT we like to promote locals! His main project, the Blue Brain Project, is carried out in collaboration with IBM

What will Henry talk about
In the context of our New Frontiers Track, Henry will present the Blue Brain Project to us. The Blue Brain project is the first comprehensive attempt to reverse-engineer the mammalian brain, in order to understand brain function and dysfunction.

Official biography
Henry Markram started his academic career in South Africa at Cape Town University and became particularly interested in the mammalian brain during his stay at the Weizmann institute of Science in Israel. For more information about Henry see his LIFT profile.

Why we invited Paul to LIFT
Paul is a computer science researcher who is interested in social sciences. He investigates how social sciences can help with the design of technical products and services. At the same time, Paul can be very critical about how developers and designers are using Anthropology to gain insights about their products or services. We invited him because we're interested in his perspective about how using Anthropology goes beyond observing people and drawing perhaps hasty conclusions with serious implications for design.

What is Paul going to talk about?
Paul will talk about links between social science and design research, and the problems of integrating ethnography with technology development, particularly in the context of ubiquitous computing.

Official biography
Before coming to UCI, Paul Dourish was a Senior Member of Research Staff in the Computer Science Laboratory of Xerox PARC. He has also held research positions at Apple Computer and at Rank Xerox EuroPARC. Paul holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from University College, London, and a B.Sc. (Hons) in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science from the University of Edinburgh.

Learn more about Paul's inspiring work on his LIFT Profile.