Getting ready for EduComm 2007.

It's only January, but we're already deep into preparations for EduComm 2007 (Anaheim, Calif., June 19-21). I'm pleased to announce the two keynote speakers for this year's conference: Alan Kay and David Pogue.

Kay is one of those people for whom the label visionary is not an exaggeration. In fact we owe much of the way we interact with technology today to Kay's pioneering work.

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it," he has said, and his vita shows he meant it. At Xerox PARC, in the 1970s, he invented Smalltalk, the first completely object-oriented programming, authoring, and operating system, which included the overlapping window interface we all use. Kay's work at PARC was a direct inspiration for the Apple Macintosh computer and the Microsoft Windows operating system.

Kay participated in the development era number of technologies that we now take for granted, including the laptop computer, Ethernet, laserprinting, modern word processing, client-servers, and P2P networking.

Today Kay continues to innovate and is on the board of directors for One Laptop Per Child, a nonprofit group dedicated to research for developing a $100 laptop--a technology that could revolutionize education.

David Pogue is something of a modern-day Renaissance Man. He's familiar to many readers as a regular technology columnist for The New York Times. With 3 million books in print, he is also one of the world's bestselling how-to authors. Pogue wrote or co-wrote seven books in the popular " ... for Dummies" series (including Macs, Magic, Opera, and Classical Music), and in 1999 he launched his own series of detailed, humorous computer books called the Missing Manual series, which now includes 30 titles.

Pogue is an Emmy-winning tech correspondent for CBS News Sunday Morning, a frequent tech guest for NPR's Morning Edition, and produces his own weekly technology video podcast for NYTimes.com. He's a talented musician and composer, and has worked as a conductor, synthesizer programmer, arranger, or assistant on several Broadway shows--and he's also an accomplished magician. Anyway you look at it, it should be an entertaining session.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

And while we're on the subject, if you are interested in be coming an EduComm 2007 workshop presenter, you can submit a proposal by visiting the EduComm website educomm.educatorsportal.com/sessions

This year, responding to rapid developments in this market, EduComm 2007 is being expanded to include the topics related to Web 2.0 to empower educational institutions to enhance education (and administration) through the sharing and collaboration of digital content.

ABOUT THE COVER

You've no doubt noticed a change in the look of our cover. We've made the change to better highlight the breadth of articles in each issue of University Business. This publication has a broad readership made up of many disciplines in higher education, and our goal is to provide more access points to the variety of articles within. We hope that, in this case, you can judge a book by its cover.

Write to Tim Goral at [e-mail].