TECHNO-TRAVELS: Curtis Wong Previews the World Wide Telescope

On Friday May 23, the Techno-Travels Keynote is by Curtis Wong on the WorldWideTelescope, a visualization tool that brings together all of the bestimages of the solar system in a way never seen before. For a preview, here is Curtis Wong's talk last month at TED. The talk will take place in the gorgeous auditorium at CAL IT2 . . . prepare to be dazzled, prepare to be blown away . . .

To register, and for conference details, go to: http://www.uchri.org/page-home.php?page_id=1289&cat_id=2

CurtisWong is manager of Next Media Research for Microsoft, whose focus"spans the linear and interactive media spectrum from television,broadband and gaming to emerging media forms." He's a leader on theWorldWide Telescope project.

Why you should listen to him:

CurtisWong is manager of Next Media Research for Microsoft. He studies thefuture of digital media and interactive entertainment -- from TV tobroadband to whatever is coming next. As he says, "I think a lot abouthow different kinds of technology can be used to deliver informationand entertainment that people want."

His work on the WorldWide Telescope is dedicated to Microsoft researcher Jim Gray.

"A lot of educational materials I have seen are very reference-like in nature but not the best way to learn something if you don't already know about the subject since the top two layers of the information pyramid are missing. The first question you should ask is, 'Why should anyone care about this?'"

Curtis Wong interviewed on Futures Channel

YouTube video from TED on the World Wide Telescope and its interactive features that allow you to travel, to tell the story of the universe that you want to tell, and to contribute.  Punchline:  "OUR GAZE FILLS THE UNIVERSE." 

[Thanks to Flickr photographer Scott Dungan for the eclipse photograph.]