MyLifeBits: Realizing Memex Digital Capture, Storage, and Use of All Personal Information
Speaker: Gordon Bell, Microsoft Research
When: 2008-04-01 11:00:00
Venue: Lecture theatre, Queensland Centre for Advanced Technologies (QCAT),1 Technology Court, Pulenvale
Host: Peter Corke
Abstract:For almost a decade, we have worked on MyLifeBits, a project that chronicles a
person's life by encoding every aspect of one's communications with people and
machines, what is heard and seen, and many aspects of their physical
existence. MyLifeBits manifesto: the cost to store and maintain such a
cyberlife is negligible (1-5 Terabytes); an individual¹s data increasingly
exists electronically for short and long term use; the value of the data
increases super-linearly by being able to relate all items. Three pillars
underlie need  supplementing human memory including faithful reproduction of
content, freeing an individual of both the atomic and electronic clutter of
life's bits, and providing the potential for a digital immortality. What
started as a project for capturing books and papers evolved to art, articles,
books, cards, email, letters, memos, papers, photos, posters, and physical
objects such as coffee mugs and T-shirts. In 2005, it was clear that the
system is fundamentally a transaction processing database for all personal
interactions with the computer and other devices e.g. SenseCam that captures
several thousand photos a day, and perhaps someday the 2+ billion heart beats.
Biography:Gordon Bell has been a principal researcher at Microsoft Research, since
1995, researching the lifetime capture and storage of everything for an
individual. Previous roles include VP of R&D, Digital Equipment Corp.
(1960-1983); professor, Carnegie-Mellon University (1966-72); founding
assistant director of NSF's Computing and Information Sciences and
Engineering (CISE) Directorate (1986-1988); chairman, cross agency committee
(FCCSET) creating the Internet(1987-1988); advisor /investor in 100+
start-up companies; and a founding trustee of the Computer History Museum,
Mountain View, CA. He is a member of various engineering societies and 1991
National of Medal of Technology medalist.
Since 1987 he has sponsored the Association for Computing Machinery's (ACM)
Gordon Bell Prizes for parallelism awarded annually at Supercomputing. He
has bachelor and master of science degrees from MIT (1956-57), is a
University of New South Wales Fulbright Scholar (1957-58), has an honorary
doctorate in English from Worchester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) (1993), and
is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AMACAD), ACM, the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the National
Academies of Engineering (NAE) and Science (NAS). Awards include: ACM-IEEE
Eckert-Mauchly Award; the IEEE's Computer Pioneer and McDowell Awards; the
IEEE's Von Neumann Medal; the Computer History Museum Fellow Awards; the
American Electronics Association (AEA) Inventor Award for the economic
contribution to New England; the IEEE 2001 Karapetoff Eminent Member's Award
of Eta Kappa Nu; and the 1991 National Medal of Technology "for his
continuing intellectual and industrial achievements in the field of computer
design and for his leading role in establishing computers that serve as a
significant tool for engineering, science, and industry."
Specifically, he was the architect of various mini- and time-sharing
computers (DEC PDP-6) and led the development of DEC's VAX and the VAX
Computing Environment. Mr. Bell has been involved in, or responsible for,
the design of many products at Digital Equipment and a score of other
companies. Mr. Bell has authored books and papers about computers and
start-up companies including Computer Structures with Dan Siewiorek and
Allen Newell (1982). High Tech Ventures: The Guide for Entrepreneurial
Success (1991) describes the Bell-Mason model and diagnostic for analyzing
new ventures. Bell's Law describes how information processing technologies
evolve to create new computer classes and industries.
Type: CSIRO seminar
Contact:Peter Corke, seminar host (peter.corke@csiro.au)
or Guido Governatori (ITEE seminar co-ordinator)
(guido@itee.uq.edu.au)