VALA2014 Keynote Speakers

vala-keynote-speakerIntroducing six outstanding Keynote Speakers for VALA2014

Breaking all the stereotypes and challenging your preconceptions, don’t miss a moment of VALA2014 in plenary. 

 

Johan Bollen

Johan Bollen

Associate Professor, Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing

VALA2014 Plenary Session 2

Johan Bollen is associate professor at the Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing where he is a member of the Center for Complex Networks and Systems and the Cognitive Science Program. He was formerly a staff scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. He obtained his PhD in Experimental Psychology from the University of Brussels (VUB) in 2001. His present research interests are computational social science, web science, behavioral finance, and informetrics. In his free time he enjoys P90x and performs as DJ Angst in the local Bloomington clubs.

 

 

Christine Borgman

Professor Christine Borgman

Professor and Presidential Chair, Information Studies, UCLA

VALA2014 Plenary Session 1

Christine L. Borgman is Professor and Presidential Chair in Information Studies at UCLA. In 2012-13 she was the Oliver Smithies Visiting Fellow and Lecturer at Balliol College, University of Oxford, and also affiliated with the Oxford Internet Institute and the eResearch Centre. Prof. Borgman is the author of more than 200 publications in information studies, computer science, and communication. Her monographs, Scholarship in the Digital Age: Information, Infrastructure, and the Internet (MIT Press, 2007) and From Gutenberg to the Global Information Infrastructure: Access to Information in a Networked World (MIT Press, 2000), each won the Best Information Science Book of the Year award from the American Society for Information Science and Technology. She conducts data practices research with funding from the National Science Foundation, Sloan Foundation, and Microsoft Research. Current collaborations include Monitoring, Modeling, and Memory, The Transformation of Knowledge, Culture, and Practice in Data-Driven Science, and Empowering Long Tail Research.

 

 

Matt FinchMatt Finch

Reader-in-Residence for Parkes Shire, New South Wales

VALA2014 Plenary Session 4

Time travel. Robots. Zombies. Library burlesque. Matt Finch writes and makes fun things for people to do in public places – creating and curating engaging activites on and offline. Currently Reader-in-Residence for Parkes Shire, New South Wales, he’s spoken on literacy issues in both the British and Australian Parliaments, as well as writing on pop culture, science, education, and community outreach for print, broadcast, and online outlets around the world. See more at www.matthewfinch.me.

 

 

Joe Murphy

Joe Murphy

Director, Library Futures, Innovative Interfaces, Inc.

VALA2014 Plenary Session 6

Joe Murphy is a Technology Analyst/Trend Spotter and Librarian. Joe synthesizes technology changes for the library industry through consulting, as a keynote speaker focusing on the impacts of the most current trends in technology, and as an author and editor. Joe gained 4+ years of experience as a Science Librarian at Yale University after earning a Master’s degree in Library & Information Science at the University of Hawaii in 2006. He received the Library Journal “Mover & Shaker” award in 2009, has a few books out and is on the board of several innovative library conferences. Joe fosters passion at the confluence of libraries, change, and technology. Joe enjoys sipping tea, traveling, poetry and practicing yoga. For more details about Joe and his experience, please see his website http://joemurphylibraryfuture.com and his Twitter account @libraryfuture

 

 

Mia Ridge

Mia Ridge

Chair, Museums Computer Group (MCG) and Member of the Executive Council, Association for Computers and the Humanities (ACH)

VALA2014 Plenary Session 5

Mia Ridge is Chair of the Museums Computer Group (MCG) and a member of the Executive Council of the Association for Computers and the Humanities (ACH).  She is currently researching a PhD in digital humanities (Department of History, Open University), focusing on historians and scholarly crowdsourcing. Mia has published and presented widely on her key areas of interest including: user experience design, human-computer interaction, open cultural data, audience engagement and crowdsourcing in the cultural heritage sector.
Formerly Lead Web Developer at the Science Museum Group, Mia has worked internationally as a business analyst, digital consultant and web programmer in the cultural heritage and commercial sectors. Mia has post-graduate qualifications in software development (RMIT University, 2001) and an MSc in Human-Centred Systems (City University, London, 2011). Editor of the forthcoming volume ‘Crowdsourcing our Cultural Heritage’ (Ashgate, forthcoming 2014), she tweets at http://twitter.com/mia_out and blogs at http://openobjects.blogspot.com/ .

 

 

Gene TanGene Tan

Director, National Library of Singapore

VALA2014 Plenary Session 3

Gene Tan is Director of the National Library of Singapore. Gene is a librarian by training and was also the President of the Library Association of Singapore spearheading the representation of librarians’ and libraries’ interests in Singapore. In his career as a librarian, he has done innovative projects to reinvent the nature of librarianship.  These include the original library@orchard and being involved in the development of the National Library Building. He was the winner of The Enterprise Challenge (TEC) Champion award for developing and promoting innovation in Singapore’s public service. As Director of the National Library, Gene directs the Singapore Memory Project, a whole of nation project that was announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at his National Day Rally in 2011. It aims to develop a national bank of content on Singapore through collecting, preserving, organising and promoting the use of anything that has ever been said or thought about Singapore.  And through ArtsCultureSG – another national project, Gene is also developing a national portal to have arts and culture proliferate throughout the whole of Singapore through every level of society.