John Seely Brown, the former chief scientist at Xerox who writes extensively about collective innovation and digital culture, says he grew up at Colgate.
His father was a chemistry professor (1934 to 1968) and his mother a librarian, so Brown was on campus all the time, mostly feeding his interests in computers and astronomy.
In fact, back in the 1950s, Brown worked on the university’s first computer system as a teenager. Now, he is a noted researcher exploring virtual worlds such as Second Life and how they might be used to foster collaborative learning by today’s college students.
Brown was on campus last month as the keynote speaker for the dedication of the Case Library and Geyer Center for Information Technology. He talked about new modes of learning and the emergence of technologies, which often fall under the “web 2.0” umbrella, that support this new scholarship.
Podcasts are considered a web 2.0 application, and Brown stopped by the Case-Geyer audio studio to tape the 24th episode (mp3) of Colgate Conversations, the podcast series that highlights guests and members of the campus community.
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| John Seely Brown co-authored the acclaimed book The Social Life of Information that has been translated into nine languages. |
During his interview, Brown raved about the newly expanded Case-Geyer and the new Ho Science Center, calling Colgate an “architectural wonder.”
He also discusses how the culture of scholarship and popular culture are beginning to merge in interesting ways.
A visiting scholar at the University of Southern California, he says real learning happens on campus in study groups, with students working in a social, collaborative way. He suggests that this collaborative learning can be augmented through the use of online worlds, where students send their “avatars” to a virtual classroom and engage with others from on campus or from around the world.
Brown also is exploring massive multiplayer online role-playing games such as World of Warcraft. He examines what he calls the social edges of these games that involve 10 million or so players, and the “networks of imagination” they create and the leadership qualities they can enhance.
Brown, who is known as JSB, has published more than 100 papers in scientific journals and was awarded the Harvard Business Review’s 1991 McKinsey Award for his article, “Research that Reinvents the Corporation” and again in 2002 for his article (with John Hagel) “Your Next IT Strategy.”
Now a visiting scholar at the University of Southern California, Brown also is a member of the National Academy of Education and a fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence.
To hear more about his views on today’s “networked age” and what he expects to be the next major technological advancement, go here (mp3).or see the Colgate Conversations page or iTunes page for download options.