Keynote Presentations

Opening Keynote Presentation
Kathy Sierra, Javaranch.com, Founder

Kathy Sierra has been interested in the brain and artificial intelligence since her days as a game developer (Virgin, Amblin', MGM). She is the co-creator of the bestselling Head First Series (finalist for a Jolt Software Development award in 2003, and named to the Amazon Top Ten Editors Choice Computer Books for 2003 and 2004).

She is also the founder of one of the largest community web sites in the world, javaranch.com. Kathy's passions are skiing, running, her Icelandic horse, gravity, and her latest favorite thing--Dance Dance Revolution.

• Listen to an ITConversations podcast of Kathy Sierra's presentation at the March 2008 O'Reilly Media Emerging Technology Conference.
• Watch a video of Kathy Sierra's presentation at the August 2008 Wordcamp Conference.

Friday Keynote Presentation
Marco Torres; Director, Producer & Educator

Marco Torres has been recognized locally and internationally for his accomplishments in the classroom, creative program building, administering complex budgets, and for the use of technology to empower minority students. He has received honors and awards from the government, educational leadership organizations, the creative arts community, business groups, and also from his students.

As a teacher and media professional artist, Marco Torres is involved with many professional organizations where he is an advocate for more collaboration between the media arts world and education. For example, Marco was recruited to serve as a board member for the George Lucas Educational Foundation --a foundation created by filmmaker George Lucas to promote digital technology, change, community, and learning everywhere. Marco also is an Apple Distinguished Educator -- a program, sponsored by Apple that recognizes innovators in today's classrooms.

Once referred to as "Jaime Escalante.com" by Mr. Escalante himself, Torres is empowering students, teaches them how to celebrate their culture, build communities, and how (and why) to use multimedia tools to share their very special stories and ideas with the world.

Consequently, Marco's students are regularly recruited by some of the nation's finest universities and businesses. He has keynoted and presented at numerous conferences nationally and internationally. His practical workshops help teachers push their teaching and learning to new exciting levels.

Special Recognition
Doug Engelbart, NMC Fellow Award

Doug Engelbart is best known for inventing the computer mouse, and is a pioneer of human-computer interaction, including GUIs, hypertext, and groupware, as well as strategic organizing principles for continuous improvement and innovation.

Engelbart received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Oregon State University in 1948, an M.S. degree from UC Berkeley in 1953, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from UC Berkeley in 1955.

As a World War II radio technician based in the Philippines, Engelbart was inspired by Vannevar Bush's article As We May Think. After the war, he was moved to carve out a career that would make a significant difference to humanity and the planet. He envisioned outfitting the people working on solutions to important problems with interactive computers, enabling them to fly through their information spaces to optimize their collective problem-solving capabilities. Following his inspiration, Engelbart quit his comfortable job as an engineer at NASA, and studied at UC Berkeley, where he earned a PhD in 1955. Engelbart was the primary force behind the design of the Stanford Research Institute's On-Line System, or NLS. Throughout the 1960s and ‘70s he and his team at the Augmentation Research Center developed human-computer interface elements such as the mouse, multiple windows, hypermedia, online publishing, online communities, groupware, and the graphical user interface. He developed many of his user interface ideas before 1968, long before the personal computer revolution, captured for posterity in what is now known as The Mother of All Demos.

In December 2008, the 40th anniversary of the Mother of All Demos, Doug and his visionary work was recognized at two major events: the Program for the Future and the Dawn of Interactive Computing. Join the NMC at the closing of the NMC Summer Conference, as we award Doug the NMC's highest recognition as an NMC Fellow.

Visit Doug’s website
Doug's List of Firsts