Focus on Networked Information Society continues this month at SU with experts from Microsoft, Carnegie Mellon

Focus on Networked Information Society continues this month at SU with experts from Microsoft, Carnegie MellonFebruary 12, 2007Kelly Homan Rodoskikahoman@syr.edu

The focus on the Networked Information Society in the “Year of Exploration” series jointly presented by Syracuse University’s L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science and School of Information Studies will continue this month with guest lecturers on Feb. 22 and 28.

Scott Charney, vice president with Microsoft Corp., will speak on “Building Trust in the Digital Decade” on Thursday, Feb. 22, at 10 a.m. in the Kilian Room, Room 500 of the Hall of Languages. Kathleen M. Carley, professor at the Institute for Software Research International at Carnegie Mellon University, will speak on “Assessing Terror Networks” on Wednesday, Feb. 28, at 1:30 p.m. in the Katzer Collaboratory, Room 347 of Hinds Hall.

Both events are free and open to the public; pay parking is available in the University’s visitor lots.

Charney oversees Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing Team, which aims to promote a safe, private and reliable computing experience for everyone, in part by working with product teams and others at Microsoft to advance the development of better products, services and infrastructures. Charney will detail the history and current state of cybercrime; talk about Microsoft’s security initiatives; and identify challenges governments, industry and the public face as they attempt to prevent and respond to computer abuse.

At Carnegie Mellon, Carley is the director of the center for Computational Analysis of Social and Organizational Systems (CASOS), a university-wide interdisciplinary center that brings together network analysis, computer science and organization science, and has an associated National Science Foundation-funded training program for Ph.D. students. Carley’s research combines cognitive science, dynamic social networks, text processing, organizations, and social and computer science in a variety of theoretical and applied venues. In her lecture, Carley will discuss dynamic network analytic techniques and demonstrate how they can be used to assess terror networks.

“The Year of Exploration” series is jointly presented by the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science and the School of Information Studies.

The networked information society was chosen as the focus of “The Year of Exploration” in recognition of the intimate interconnections among information technology, society and globalization. Political, economic and cultural developments over recent decades have made the management, distribution control and use of information critically important to the proper functioning of societies. The challenges of creating, deploying and protecting technology and the information it contains have grown beyond a singe academic discipline.

The series places emphasis on three areas chosen to represent the most challenging interdisciplinary problems facing the networked information society — trust, security and transparency; pervasive networks; and collaboration.