Njideka Harry (DVF 2003 - ‘04) is the founder and executive director of Youth for Technology Foundation (YTF), an international non-profit organization.

December 2006, Cambrian House Inc., supports YTF through their fundraising campaign “Follow the White Laptop.” The campaign kicked off in September by delivering a new white MacBook to Guy Kawasaki the former Apple evangelist, in hopes of him signing it and sending it off to another “technology rock star.” In last month’s Web 2.0 summit, the laptop was signed by Caterina Fake (co-founder Ludicorp), Jeffrey Bezos (Founder, Amazon.com) and Steve Wozniak (co-founder, Apple). Read the rest of this entry »

Vinod Khosla’s Marshall Plan for rural India

The daily drumbeat of biofuel headlines has made Vinod Khosla — co-founder of Sun Microsystems, former Kleiner-Perkins venture capitalist, and ethanol evangelist/entrepreneur extraordinaire — a hard man to ignore of late. But Khosla’s massive bet on renewable energy as the answer to climate change and peak oil (and big profits) may not even be his most ambitious scheme to remake the world. In 2002, Khosla co-wrote a paper with development economist Atanu Dey sketching out a plan to boost economic growth in rural India. It’s hard to think bigger than a bid to upgrade the living standards of some 700 million people — as the paper notes, one out of 10 people on this planet is a rural Indian. (Thanks to the India Economy blog for the link.) Read the rest of this entry »

Date: Thursday 1/25/2007
Time: 3:30-5pm
Location: Cordura 100

Speaker bio:
Linda is a partner in the Center For New Futures, an international consulting and executive education firm with offices in New Jersey and California. She earned positions of increasing responsibility by creating breakthrough results in both small and large corporations in the Information Technology industry.

Linda’s business experience includes–

Founder, President, and CEO of Pebblesoft Learning, Inc.
The company had an innovative business-to-business strategy for compliance training over the Net. The pioneering software technology was based on personalization and objects. The company shipped its first product only nine months after formation. Major alliances were established with Bell Canada and Rust Environmental and Infrastructure. Within 15 months, there were sales to large N.Y. insurance, pharmaceutical, and consulting firms. Over $5 million in seed and first round financing was raised.

Amdahl Corporation
Linda spent eighteen years at Amdahl, a large computer company headquartered in Silicon Valley. In her last position, she helped lead the successful turnaround of Amdahl. As the architect of the major restructuring effort, she helped the company return to profitability in less than one year. She was recognized for this contribution by election to corporate officer. Other positions she held at Amdahl included VP of Market Development, Director of Financial Planning and Analysis, and Manager of Market Support.

IBM Corporation
Linda held various managerial and individual contributor positions in IBM.

She has spoken at INC. Magazine’s Small Business Conferences, Forbes CIO conference, and George Washington University. She has appeared on PBS, Nightly Business Report. She is interviewed in a new management book—Maslow on Management, 1998.

Linda is a graduate of Stanford University.

DigitalStream Conference Description
Conference March 22-24, 2007.
Each year, the DigitalStream Conference attracts more than 300 attendees from California, across the country and overseas to share their interest in the study of foreign languages and the best uses of technology in the language classroom.
The conference provides a unique forum of scheduled presentations, panel discussions, hands-on workshops and technology exhibitions where language teachers, technologists, administrators and vendors can share useful and cutting-edge information and learn from one another.

Read the rest of this entry »

Date: Tuesday 1/23/2007
Time: 3:30-5:30PM

Speaker bio:
Eric D. Carlson is a Senior Fellow with Santa Clara University’s Center for Science, Technology, and Society, where he also is Associate Director of the Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI), Editor of the publication STS NEXUS, and an adjunct professor in the Leavey School of Business. Prior to his association with SCU, Carlson spent 25 years in research, product development, and executive management in Silicon Valley. During that time he served as CEO of two software companies (the ASK Group and deCarta), and served 10 years on the Los Gatos Town Council, including two terms as mayor. He has served on the boards of directors of several non-profit organizations. Carlson has a BA in economics from Carleton College in Minnesota, and MS (City and Regional Planning) and PhD (Computer Science) degrees from the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill).

Date: Thursday 1/18/2007

Bio:
Karen Coppock is the Director of Industry Collaboration for the Stanford Digital Vision Program. Karen has a diverse international background, including extensive experience in the high-tech industry, grass-roots economic development, and interdisciplinary research. Karen recently completed her doctoral research on collaborative business models to increase Internet usage in emerging markets (Mexico).

Prior to her doctorate, Karen spent four years with Telcordia, most recently as Assistant Vice President of Strategic Accounts, International. Before joining Telcordia, Karen launched and headed the Latin American regional sales office for Williams Communications. Karen has also held positions with INTELSAT, Pacific Bell, AT&T and Harvard’s Center for International Development (Information Technology Group). Karen is a member of the Graduate Student Committee for Stanford’s Social Innovation Review and an Affiliate of Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. She has published in leading academic journals and books.

Karen received her Doctoral and Master’s Degrees in international relations from the Fletcher School, Tufts University. She graduated cum laude in business administration and modern languages (Spanish) from California State University at Chico. Karen lived in Latin America for almost a decade, serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala and Uruguay from 1991-1994, and is fluent in Spanish.

Date: Tuesday 1/16/2007

Bio:
Karen Coppock is the Director of Industry Collaboration for the Stanford Digital Vision Program. Karen has a diverse international background, including extensive experience in the high-tech industry, grass-roots economic development, and interdisciplinary research. Karen recently completed her doctoral research on collaborative business models to increase Internet usage in emerging markets (Mexico).

Prior to her doctorate, Karen spent four years with Telcordia, most recently as Assistant Vice President of Strategic Accounts, International. Before joining Telcordia, Karen launched and headed the Latin American regional sales office for Williams Communications. Karen has also held positions with INTELSAT, Pacific Bell, AT&T and Harvard’s Center for International Development (Information Technology Group). Karen is a member of the Graduate Student Committee for Stanford’s Social Innovation Review and an Affiliate of Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. She has published in leading academic journals and books.

Karen received her Doctoral and Master’s Degrees in international relations from the Fletcher School, Tufts University. She graduated cum laude in business administration and modern languages (Spanish) from California State University at Chico. Karen lived in Latin America for almost a decade, serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala and Uruguay from 1991-1994, and is fluent in Spanish.

Seminar info:
Date: Thursday 1/11/2007
Location: Cordura 100
Time: 3:30-5pm

Greg Wolff biography:
As Vice President of Ricoh Innovations, Greg Wolff is responsible for creating new possibilities and better alternatives for the information processing capabilities of workgroups and other collaborative environments. With degrees in Cognitive Psychology from Carnegie Mellon and MIT, Greg has led research and development teams to create effective collaboration tools by working directly with users in their everyday environments.

Joyojeet Pal biography:
Joyojeet Pal is a doctoral candidate at the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California at Berkeley and a member of the TIER (Technology and Infrastructure in Emerging Regions) group. His research is primarily in the area of computer aided learning, and the social impacts of computers in rural schools. In the past, he has worked on kiosk impact assessments, and co-taught a class on Information and Communications Technology for Development at the School of Information in Berkeley. Joyojeet holds a B.Com degree from Sydenham College, Mumbai. For more information, see http://tier.cs.berkeley.edu.

Speaker/Seminar series resumes in January.

Discovery International - the TV channel - has covered Erik’s blog from last year during the conflict in Lebanon as one of the highlights of this year. It will be broadcasted as part of their Rewind 2006 show. It has also been featured on their website as “Blogging in the Battlefield.” That can be found at http://www.discoverychannel.co.uk/rewind2006/motor.shtml?vEpisodio=18.