The LIFT08 program explained

Tonight we announced the 2008 program at an event with the local members of the LIFT community, and here is a short rundown of what will happen for those who couldn't be here.

The program of LIFT08 is made of 8 "tracks" of 3-4 speakers (for a total of 28 speakers). So far, we have booked 17 speakers.

Track "On-line environments"

Jyri Engestrom who founded Jaiku, a microblogging and mobile platform ans sold it last week to Google. Jyri will talk about the future of social software applications and new ways to filter information based on social sharing.

Jonathan Cabiria will talk about the relationships of virtual environments and social justice, especially about how platforms such as Second Life as a recommended activity for marginalized people, especially if issues of loneliness, depression, isolation, pessimism and/or low self-esteem are evident in their real lives.

2 others to be announced soon

Track "User experience"

We will have two anthropologists, one working for Nokia in Tokyo (Younghee Jung) and another for Intel in Seattle (Genevieve Bell). Both will describe us how observing users of technologies is important and brings insights to design of future products.

Paul Dourish, a researcher from University of California Irvine will then show how these insights are employed by developers and designers to create new products and services.

Track "Stories"

This track is aimed at hearing entrepreneurs' stories, their successes and failures as well as their motivations.

Rafi Haladjian, founder of Minitel start-ups, internet/wi-fi providers in France will tell us more about his new venture: Violet, a company who is designing the Nabaztag: a Wi-Fi and RFID enabled rabbit.

3 other speakers will be announced soon.

Track "A glimpse of Asia"

Given the fact that LIFT is now partly in Europe and partly in Asia, we want to bring some ideas of what we have been impressed of in Seoul to Geneva. To do so, we have a special track dedicated to technologies in Asia.

Marc Laperrouza, a researcher at EPFL specialist of new technologies in China. Marc will be talking about the current state and trends in chinese telecommunication.

Heewon Kim, a researcher from Yonsei University in Seoul will talk about how teenagers use social software in South Korea, her academic research topic.

A third speaker will be announced soon.

Track "New Frontiers"

This track is aimed at showing what are the new boundaries (ethical, cultural, physical) to be crossed by new technological developments.

Kevin Warwick, the british researcher who implanted a microchip in his body will tell us how he carried out a series of pioneering experiments involving the neuro-surgical implantation of a device into the median nerves of his left arm in order to link his nervous system directly to a computer to assess the latest technology for use with the disabled.

Then Henri Markram from EPFL will describe the "blue brain" project he is conducting with IBM: the deployment of massive computational resources to simulate brain cells functioning.

Holm Friebe will go on by presenting new forms of cooperation and collaborative work in todays' society.

A fourth speaker will be announced soon.

Track "Gaming"

Robin Hunicke who is both an academic and work for Electonic Arts on designing games for the Nintendo Wii (such as My Sims) will describe new trends in gaming practices: user-generated content and the important of social software.

Guy Vardi (from Oberon Media) will then focus on the evolution of casual gaming.

Two other speakers will be announced soon.

Track "Web and entreprises"

The purpose of this track is to show how the web is reshuffling work practices. David Sadigh (IC Agency) will show us how organizations can focus on user retention rather than acquisition to boost traffic, and David Marcus (Zong) will talk about the new business models opened by mobile channels.

And two further speakers will be announced soon.

Track "Foresight"

The conference will end on with this track about the "future" and to get to know the upcoming trends.

Scott Smith (Changeist) and William Cockayne (Stanford, Change research) will both describe concrete foresight methodologies with case studies. And Francesco Cara (Head of Design at Nokia in Helsinki) will give more details about new trends he finds relevant concerning mobile and on-line behaviors.