Stony Brook University Computer Science

Prof. James Finn will be giving a talk on "Computer Writing Systems, or Wouldn't It Be Nice?".

Please find the seminar details below:
Title: Computer Writing Systems, or Wouldn't It Be Nice?
Date & Time: Friday, September 19, 2 PM
Venue: B204

Abstract 
In 1974, seven years before the first personal computer and almost twenty years before the World Wide Web, Ted Nelson published Computer Lib / Dream Machines, in which he argued why personal control over personal computers is essential and described how a networked writing system similar to the web could change how people write. Fast forward to today, and we find that people have less control over their computers and data than was true in 1984, and that writing with computers has not evolved past word processors with shared documents. We revisit Nelson's vision and consider how a global hypertext system might work in reality. "No one's life has yet been simplified by a computer."

Speaker Bio
James Finn earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Princeton University, where he also completed an M.A. in Mathematics after graduating with a B.A. in Mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Finn has a lifelong interest in teaching and has taught at institutions including Stanford University, Wellesley College, the University of San Francisco, and King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi in Thailand. He ran programmer training seminars for IBM, HP and Intel, and worked as a software engineer for a small startup and later for Yelp. Dr. Finn has also taught technical writing classes and was a writer and editor for MacUser Magazine.