ENABLING ENHANCED COMMUNICATION AND COMMERCE

Date: Thursday, January 15, 2009

Time: 4:10 p.m.

Location: Bahen Centre for IT, 40 St. George Street, Room 1130

"Netting Together: Social Networks Meet Computer Networks" By Professor Barry Wellman

ABSTRACT: Evidence from the Connected Lives studied of East York and Chapleau show how the Internet and mobile phones are transforming relationships. In contrast to the group-centred world of yore, spouses, friends, relatives and coworkers connect together in loosely-bounded, sparsely-knit social networks in which offline and online connectivity are intertwined.

BIOGRAPHY: Sociologist Barry Wellman directs NetLab at the University of Toronto, a team studying the intersection of online and offline networks -- social, communication and computer -- in communities and at work. Wellman learned to keypunch as a Harvard graduate student in 1964, and he hasn't stopped playing with computers since. He's written more than 200 papers with more than 80 co-authors, and he's the (co-)editor of _Social Structures: A Network Approach_(1988);_Networks in the Global Village_(1999), and_The Internet in Everyday Life_(2002). Wellman is the S.D.Clark Professor of Sociology and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He founded the International Network for Social Network Analysis 1976, and he has won lifetime achievement awards for the study of community, the internet and society.

"Spending Together: Commerce in a Socially Networked World by Professor Mark Fox

ABSTRACT: Without a doubt, the web has changed how we conduct commerce. Within the span of a decade, US consumer online retail sales has grown from millions to over $200 billion. Have we experienced a retailing revolution or just the technical evolution of catalog retailing introduced by Richard Sears in 1887? Some believe the advent of social networking will revolutionize our paradigm of retailing. This presentation will explore how social networking is transforming retailing today and the possiblities for the future. Is it a revolution? We'll let your avatar decide.

BIOGRAPHY: Mark Fox splits his time between being a Professor of Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto where his research has focused on Ontologies for Enterprise Modelling and Constraint-Directed Reasoning in Manufacturing & Logistics, and being the CEO of Novator Systems a provider of online retailing software and solutions since 1994.