Presence: Being Alive on the Network

Laurin Herr

Laurin Herr is President of Pacific Interface, Inc., an international consulting company, and organizer of the CineGrid International Workshop. He was previously vice president for strategic development within Pinnacle Systems' Professional Media Division, where he played an integral role in the integration of the Truevision and Pinnacle Systems desktop product lines. Herr brings more than 25 years of experience as a product strategist, consultant and programmer to Pinnacle Systems. Previously, Herr held senior management positions at Truevision, Radius and SuperMac Technology during periods of rapid growth of the desktop publishing and desktop video markets. He has also worked in the television production industry for 20 years as a producer/director of broadcast and industrial programs in Japan and the United States. Herr wrote, produced and hosted a series of five critically acclaimed video reports about computer graphics technology and market trends published in the ACM SIGGRAPH Video Review between 1987 and 1992. Laurin Herr has spoken in front of international audiences on topics such as HDTV, desktop production of digital media, applications of image-intensive informatics, digital archiving, computer graphics, and immersive virtual reality. He is the author of several in-depth market studies, most recently on the topic of digital cinema. From 1982-1992, Herr was the official ACM SIGGRAPH liaison to Japan and served on the board of directors of the National Computer Graphics Association (NCGA) from 1988-1989. After receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University in 1972, Herr - who is fluent in Japanese - pursued additional graduate studies at Cornell and in Tokyo at Sophia University.

Naohisa Ohta

Professor Naohisa Ohta, Director of Research Institute for Digital Media and Content, Keio University Naohisa Ohta joined NTT Laboratories in 1978 where he researched and developed signal processing algorithms for audio-video communications and highly parallel DSP systems and architectures. He joined Sony in 1998 and directed R&D on AV transmission with QoS for real-time applications, scalable coding for high-quality digital cinema, extra realty video creation technologies, and personalization technologies, etc. as a President of Broadband Applications Laboratories from 2002 to 2004. He is currently a Professor of Research Institute for Digital Media and Content of Keio University, Japan. An IEEE Fellow, he authored over 90 papers and three books, participated in editorial boards of several IEEE publications, and presented as a Distinguished Lecturer of SP Society. Having organized many COMSOC technical conferences, he served as a Director, AP region, COMSOC. Currently he serves as a Member at Large of Board of Governors in IEEE ComSoc.

Marleen Stikker

Marleen is co-founder of PICNIC - Amsterdam Cross Media Week. Marleen Stikker is Founder and Director of Waag Society, a medialab which develops new creative technologies for culture, health, education and society. Waag Society initated the Mediaguild, an incubator that supports creative new media talent. Marleen is Co-Founder of Pakhuis de Zwijger, a warehouse for media and culture that opens it doors during PICNIC '06 Cross Media Week. In 1993, Marleen initiated De Digitale Stad (DDS), the first Digital City on the Internet. Marleen is a member of the national advisory board Netherlands ICT Research and Innovation Authority (ICTRegie).