There was one LIFT08 moment for me. It happened during the Gaming session while both Guy Vardi and Paul Barnett spoke. The energy and content of their presentations delivered something into the discussion that Nada Kakabadse and I were having over what is the basis of Theoretical Man. What intrigues me is how technology enables humanity's evolution. Nada and I cracked the one pièce de résistance that I have been pondering for the past few months. I could not have done it alone - not that quickly - it was two brains thinking as one. It was one of those magic moments when you know that alone you are nothing, and together you are everything. I was elated!

If something is to be remembered from the World Economic Forum 2008 edition it is probably the very candid comment made by the Wang Jianzhou, the CEO of the world’s largest mobile phone operator.

“We know who you are, but also where you are” was actually meant to convince the audience that China Mobile could use the personal data of its customers to sell advertising and services to them based on knowledge of where they were and what they were doing. Instead it turned into worries about the risk of passing over private information to Chinese authorities: with more than 370 million subscribers, China Mobile has a real-time ear and eye on 25% of the country’s citizens.

The outcry of congressman Markey (chairman of the US House of Representatives subcommittee on telecommunications) was even more surprising since most national security agencies have so-called signals intelligence collection and analysis networks (like Echelon or Onyx). That said most countries are supposed to have checks and controls in place to make sure that only court orders allow the government to check phone records.

Maybe time has come to look into more details at how the mobile phone is becoming a threat to privacy in all countries!

P.S.: It is quite revealing that the two operators invited to the World Economic Forum’s discussion on “The Future of Mobile Technology” were China Mobile and SK Telecom

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 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.

Time to muse a bit here on this corner of the blogosphere, this corner of Switzerland. I am sitting here and pondering a few embryonic ideas for an interactive workshop at lift08. Here are some of these ideas:

- The Art of Digital Identity
- The Business of Freedom
- Speed, Time, Money and Sex (I can not be serious about this, can I?)
- Waiting for Godot on the Matrix
- What happens when a Transhumanist meets Calvin?

What do you think?
What is it that as a lift08 participant you want to spend a few hours exploring?

The DIGITAL ART WEEKS program is concerned with the application of digital technology in the arts. Consisting of symposium, workshops and performances, the Digital Art Weeks program offers insight into current research and innovations in art and technology as well as illustrating resulting synergies in a series of performances during the Digital Art Weeks Festival each year, making artists aware of impulses in technology and scientists aware of the possibilities of application of technology in the arts.

http://www.digitalartweeks.ethz.ch/web/DAW/Front