'Ocarina' Designer Wang to Keynote at eComm 2009.

Smule Co-founder One of 12 Keynote Speakers in Stellar Lineup

SAN FRANCISCO -- Computer science researcher and entrepreneur Ge Wang is slated to deliver a keynote address that promises to be one of the most audibly and visibly stimulating sessions at this year's Emerging Communications Conference (eComm 2009).

Wang, an assistant professor at Stanford University and co-founder, CTO and chief creative officer of Smule.com, will speak on "Creating New Expressive Social Mediums on the iPhone" on the second day of eComm2009, March 3-5 at the San Francisco Airport Marriott Hotel.

In explaining his exploration of the iPhone as a unique platform for creating new expressive, social mediums, Wang will describe and demonstrate his company's innovative "Ocarina" and "Sonic Lighter" applications. Wang calls them "social sonic artifacts" that, respectively, turn the Apple iPhone into a musical instrument nearly everyone can quickly master, or a synthetic flame that lights the dark and responds to a user's breath and hand gestures toward the iPhone's screen.

Wang will relate some of the possibilities to be achieved by taking full advantage of the iPhone's intersection of technologies - multi-touch, powerful mobile CPU and GPU, full audio pipeline, GPS/location and persistent data connection via 3G/Edge -- to provide a unique experience for users that is both expressive on a personal level and social on a global scale.

Smule's "Ocarina" was released in the iPhone App Store in early November and within four days reached the top Paid App spot in more than 40 countries, remaining there for three weeks. Since then, more than half a million users have downloaded "Ocarina," playing and listening to more than 30 million "Ocarina" performances worldwide via the app's geo-tracked social features. The app was declared Macworld 2009's best in show.

"Smule's success with 'Ocarina' demonstrates that, through the intersection of the mobile, expressive and social, it is possible to achieve massive scale almost immediately, while creating global communities overnight," said Lee S. Dryburgh, eComm 2009 organizer and chair. "We are pleased to showcase the creative ideas behind such innovations at eComm."

Wang received his PhD in Computer Science at Princeton University and now is an assistant professor at Stanford University's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. Smule is a startup exploring interactive sonic media and intensely exploring expressive audio, enabling creativity for a wide population and new social interactions. The company recently received $3.9 million in a second round of venture capital funding.

Wang is one of a dozen keynote speakers and scores of other presenters over the three days of eComm2009. Other keynote speakers include:

* Jonathan Christensen, general manager for audio and video at Skype;

* John Forsyth, vice president of strategy at Symbian;

* Malcolm Matson, founder of the OPLAN Foundation and entrepreneur;

* Michael Calabrese, vice president, and Sascha Meinrath, research director, both of the wireless future program at the New America Foundation;

* Tony Jebara, co-founder and chief scientist at Sense Networks and assistant professor of computer science at Columbia University;

* Media futurist Gerd Leonhard;

* Richard Whitt, telecommunications and media counsel for Google in Washington, D.C.;

* Martin Geddes, head of strategy at BT Design;

* Benjamin Joffe. Founder and CEO of +8*;

* Mark Rolston, chief creative officer of Frog Design.

Sponsors include Skype, MetaSwitch, NEC Sphere, Voxbone, Global IP Solutions, Voxeo, Jaduka, Ribbit and Broadsoft.

Dryburgh announced that the Wireless Innovation Alliance (WIA) has become a media partner of eComm2009.

Full details about the conference are available at http://ecommconf.com/2009/. For online registration, visit http://www.amiando.com/ecomm2009.html.