Talk WHAT: Gordon Bell (eSciences Group, Microsoft) "MyLifeBits: A System to Realize Memex. . .and More" WHEN: Friday, September 15, 2006 at 2:00 PM EST WHERE: Bartos Theatre, MIT Media Lab (E15) SUMMARY: MyLifeBits is a project to assist one's memory, including chronicling a person's life by encoding every aspect of one's communications with people and machines, what is heard and seen, and many aspects of physical existence. What started as a project for capturing books and papers evolved to art, articles, books, cards, email, letters, memos, papers, photos, posters, and physical objects such as coffee mugs and T-shirt logos. In 2005, it was clear that the system is fundamentally a transaction-processing database for all personal interactions with the computer and other devices, e.g. SenseCam, which captures 1-2 thousand photos a day, and perhaps someday the 2+ billion heart beats. BIO: Gordon Bell is a senior researcher in Microsoft's Silicon Valley Center eSciences group (San Francisco, CA). Since 2000, he has worked on MyLifeBits, a system for capturing everything in a person's life. He has BS and MS degrees from MIT and an honorary DEng from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. In 1959 he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of New South Wales, and from 1966-72 he was professor of computer science and electrical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. From 1960-1983 he was vice president of research and development at Digital Equipment Corporation, where he was responsible for numerous mini- and time-sharing computers, and led the development of the VAX. He has been involved in the design of over 30 multiprocessor computers. He founded the National Science Foundation's Computing and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate. He led the National Research and Education Network (NREN) panel that became the NII/GII, and was an author of the first High Performance Computer and Communications Initiative. Since 1987 he has sponsored "The Gordon Bell Prize" for Parallelism, awarded annually at the ACM/IEEE Supercomputer Conference. Bell has authored books and papers about computer structures and start-up companies. In April 1991, Addison-Wesley published High Tech Ventures: The Guide to Entrepreurial Success, a diagnostic for analyzing start-up ventures. His first book, Computer Structures (with Allen Newell) was published in 1972. Bell is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, ACM, IEEE, and member of the National Academy of Engineering. His awards include the IEEE Von Neumann Medal, the AEA Inventor Award for the economic contribution to the New England region, the IEEE 2001 Vladamir Karapetoff Eminent Member's Award of Eta Kappa Nu, and The 1991 National Medal of Technology. MIT Media Laboratory Home Page | Events Main Index