The Open Publishing Lab (OPL) at RIT is a cross-disciplinary lab dedicated to researching and developing innovative, open source applications for publishing across various media. Based in the School of Print Media, the OPL has created a space where a diverse team of faculty and students collaborate in creating next generation publishing platforms.

Join the researchers and directors of the OPL for a discussion of how the lab was formed and an exploration of its current operations. The talk will cover everything from getting this type of project started to the steps necessary to sustain creativity.

“Story” is the title and substance of a presentation of the academic pursuits of Vincent F. A. Golphin. Personal stories chart the basic elements of human lives and societies, and in that sense, are a glue that holds disparate parts into a structure. Stories are what Professor Golphin deals with in various forms in the classroom, speeches and publications as a poet, fiction writer, essayist, commentator, memoirist, cultural analyst and ethnographer.

As April's featured Faculty Scholar, he will discuss the role of stories in society and culture and share how they are used in a recent memoir, poetry collection and ethnographic study.

Professor Schweppe traced her career from early work in the New York theatre through her current work in Virtual Theatre, with many stops along the way. She provided examples of work from all phases and disciplines involved, including:

• Motion Graphics

• Visualization

• Virtual City Planning

• Designing Game Assets

Her career also included forays working as a babysitter, running a snack bar, as a computer programmer, a system administrator, a toy sales person, and an illustrator. Her current work involves collaborating on Participatory Virtual Theatre productions over the Internet with Joseph Geigel, Professor of Computer Science, B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Science. This interdisciplinary project is currently supported by the National Science Foundation.

Professor Schweppe shared examples of the Virtual Theatre project. She also shared renderings of some ideas for the new RIT Innovation Center.

Big business is dumping billions of dollars into the online social networking phenomenon without understanding its true value. A recent study of an extended online network of two RIT professors revealed the way in which users derive value from their social computing activity. They explore the results.

Dr. Neil Hair holds a PhD in Marketing from Cranfield University in the UK and is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Rochester Institute of Technology’s E. Philip Saunders College of Business. He is a fully accredited Chartered Marketer, and his expertise focuses on the use of the internet in enhancing customer service through research of perceptions. He is a virtual ethnographer and his interests extend to advertising research, personal branding, and he is a member of the RIT Digital Business Group.

Dr. Victor Perotti is an Associate Professor of Management Information Systems at the E. Philip Saunders College of Business of the Rochester Institute of Technology. He holds his PhD from the Ohio State University. He has varied research interests surrounding the impact of the internet and network devices on business and society. He is the faculty champion for RIT’s Digital Business Group.

© Rochester Institute of Technology 2007

The recently coined term cyberinfrastructure describes the global information technology environments in which capabilities of the highest level of computing tools would be available to researchers in an interoperable network. It refers to what is required for a knowledge economy in the information age.

Join Dr. Diaz-Herrera as he discusses the fundamental elements and complexities of Cyberinfrastructure, both from a computing point of view and the enduser’s. He will present several examples from various domains.

© Rochester Institute of Technology 2007

David Pankow, Curator of the Melbert B. Cary, Jr. Graphic Arts Collection and Professor in RIT’s College of Imaging Arts and Sciences: “Typographical Allegories and Erotic Ambiguities: The Strangest Book at RIT” © Rochester Institute of Technology 2007

"A Nexus of Education, Inspiration Research and Play" Presentation by Professor Andrew Phelps, RIT B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences.