MMO's, movies, las vegas, and golf

In one of Lift's most legendary talks, Paul Barnett - creative director at Electronic Arts - explains that the conventional thinking which goes into designing an existing product and simply make it bigger, louder, taller, and crazier doesn't work in the world of online games. There has to be room for new ideas, and it's the person with the ideas who is going to be walking away with the money.

The Modern Age of Gaming

Robin is a researcher (studying artificial intelligence) now working for Electonic Arts. She is designing games for the Nintendo Wii - she worked on My Sims - and tells us about user-generated content and the importance of social software in gaming.

The Next Nature

Mobile phone cell antennas are being camouflaged as trees and tomatoes are turning square. Technology wants to look like nature, and nature like technology. Mieke Gerritzen is a dutch artist talking about how culture becomes nature.

Secrets, lies & the possible perils of truthful technology

Genevieve Bell grew up in Australia, moving between the working class suburbs of Melbourne and Canberra and the Aboriginal communities of Central and Northern Australia. She has a PhD in anthropology and works as Director of User Experience within Intel’s Digital Home Group. There she manages an inter-disciplinary team of social scientists, interaction designers and human factors engineers.

Evolution of the mobile communication ecosystem

Francesco Cara, a design strategist at Nokia with a psychology background, looks at the evolution of mobile communication ecosystems.

Google Open Social

Kevin Marks of Google talks about Open Social, a framework to build cross-site social apps and fight against social network fatigue and incompatibilities.

Implant technology to enhance human abilities

In this presentation Kevin Warwick takes a look at four different mergers involving the use of implant technology and micro electrode arrays, like technology for identifying and tracking humans, robots with biological brains, deep brain stimulation for therapeutic purposes and neural implants to enhance human abilities.

Let ALL things be connected

Why, after 20 years spent building online virtual worlds on the French minitel, then the Internet, Rafi Haladjian realized in 2003 that time had come to jump out of the screen and take the physical world as the new frontier. How Violet, the company he co-founded decided to start connecting everything, to get out of the lab and make actual products with a Darwinian view of the advent of ubiquitous computing...and why among all things he is convinced that the Internet of Things should start with a Rabbit.

Open-source in Asia

Gen Kanai is the head of Mozilla in Japan. He talks about open source in Asia, and the perception that Asia is contributing less to open source projects than other parts of the world.

The Hedonistic Company

How to be a socialistic-capitalist firm and turn your company into a "hedonistic company": the seven rules of working together professionally and still stay friends.

A look at 2008, the "boring" year ahead

In the LIFT08 opening keynote, science fiction writer Bruce Sterling looked in his rear mirror to see the near future, and predicts a boring 2008.

What can we learn by inviting people to be designers?

Younghee Jung talks about how Nokia explores the different usages of their mobile phones by customers to gain valuable insight on future products design.

What is the climate of the 21st century going to be like?

Notes from Bruno Giussani's LunchOverIP

Andy Reisinger is a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC - wikipedia page) that won -- collectively -- the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize alongside Al Gore for their work on scientifically assessing the state of the Earth's climate. He's actually a very important member of the group, because he has coordinated the small group writing and editing the summaries of the reports -- the documents that you've read about in the press and that have landed on governmental desks all over the world.

Virtual environments and social justice

Jonathan Cabiria talks about relationships in virtual environments and social justice. He explores how platforms such as Second Life can be a recommended activity for marginalized people, especially if they suffer from issues such as loneliness, depression, isolation, pessimism and/or low self-esteem.

Mobile in Asia

Marc spends his time between academic work (China and technology), consulting (telecommunication) and pro bono activities. He talks about "Mobile In Asia" and explains how, for the first time in history, a technology is more used in the developing world than in the developed world.

Introducing Going-solo

Stephanie Booth presents Going Solo, a conference for independent professionals happening on May 16th, 2008 in Lausanne.

Getting from here to there: ethnography, design, privacy, and location

Ethnographic research is increasingly figured as a foundation for design practice, but the questions of just how these two approaches should be combined remain largely unanswered. In particular, designers often turn to ethnographic work more for marketing data than for cultural understandings. Drawing on some recent studies of mobility and privacy, I will outline an alternative approach that attempts to take ethnography seriously.

Space Solar Power

Capturing Solar Energy in orbit and beaming it down to Earth in a 24 hours a day controlled process, in combination with hydrogen technology, apppears as one of the global, clean and sustainable solutions to replace fossil fuels. The application is expected to be operational in 30 years from now, and technological development is already underway.

From distributed computing to distributed thinking

François Grey is the head of IT Communications at the CERN, the web's birthplace. In his talk, he discusses the profound implications of citizen cyberscience for the public understanding of science, and for scientists' understanding of the public.

The social network of the future

Pierre Bellanger talks about the future of social networks. As the founder and owner of Europe's largest site of such a kind (and the 17th most visited site on earth), he has a very interesting vision on what directions these tools will take, and hints at a future made of instant communication and mobile.

Using social software to encourage sustainable development

Tom Taylor works as a developer/tech consultant for Headshift, a London based company who build and consult on social software applications. He presents on the subject of using social software to encourage sustainable development.

Converting visitors into buyers

David Sadigh, founder of the Geneva-based IC-Agency, shows us how organizations can focus on user retention rather than user acquisition to boost traffic.

How social networks changed everyday life

Heewon Kim addresses the trends in web usage in South Korea, and focuses in particular on how teenagers use social software in the world's most wired country.

LIFT08 wrap up

Bill Cockayne wraps up the 2008 edition of LIFT, offering his observations and insights on a rich edition.

Foresight and Innovation

William Cockayne's ongoing research dissolves the socially constructed membrane used to separate "real" and "virtual" lives. His findings indicate that the concepts we hold about our relationship with mediated social environments may need to be re-evaluated.

The luck of seven

Noel Hidalgo talks about "the luck of seven", a tour of the world he started On 7-7-7 which took him through the 7 continents, visiting the 7 wonders of the world in 7 months.

Monetization of the mobile Internet

David Marcus, serial entrepreneur now founder and CEO of Zong, talks about the new business models created by mobile channels.

From Nespresso to Monodor, the story of an inventor

Eric Favre patented the Nespresso process in 1978, the first step of the amazing story of an inventor turning his idea into one of the world's most successful product.

Robotics in the leisure industry

Bruno Bonnell, founder and former CEO of Infogrames, discusses the implications and opportunities of robotics in the leisure industry.

Foresight tools and perspectives

Scott Smith, founder of foresight firm Changeist, explains that his job is about "helping people see change clearly" and offers seven tips of foresight like "understanding the role of values" or "having a view, not an ideology".

Hardcore nonsense, the story of a Serbian blogger

Back in the nineties, during the darkest moments of the Milosevic regime, when every freedom of expression was suffocated by blaring nationalist propaganda, the dissident founders of the legendary B92 radio, driven to bold desperation, decided that their line of work would have to become "hardcore nonsense."

WattWatt

Bill Thomson and Philippa Martin-King introduce WattWatt, an online community for individuals interested in electrical energy efficiency.

How innovative projects can transform education

Kushtrim Xhakli works at the IPKO Institute in Kosovo. He speaks about how innovative projects can transform education.

Enabling Emergent Innovation

The fascinating aspect of “real” radical innovations does not primarily lie in their manifestations as entirely new services or products; what is of interest are rather the new forms and processes of knowledge creation having led to these manifestations.

Viewdle

Presentation of Viewdle at the LIFT venture night.

Clipperz

Clipperz's presentation at the LIFT08 venture night.

Wuala

Wuala presents at the LIFT08 venture night in Geneva on February 6, 2008.

LIFT Experience 2008

Discover the LIFT experience, a series of activities inviting LIFTers to get together, create and share.

Pixelux

Raphaël Arrigoni presents Pixelux Entertainment at the LIFT08 Venture Night.

Holistis

Cyril Lamblard presents Holistis at the LIFT08 venture night.

iO

Presentation of iO at the LIFT08 venture night.

Casual gaming

Guy Vardi from Oberon Media talks about casual games, an emerging part of the gaming industry that widely differs from the cliche we usually have on gamers and games.

Social media creates open education

Ewan McIntosh is the National Adviser for Learning and Teaching Scotland, the education agency responsible for curriculum development. He talks about how social media creates open education.

Timelapse video: Lift08 afternoon break

Michael Scholl made an amazing series of timelapse videos. Here is what happens during the last day break inside the main room.

The importance of social networking and conversations

During the LIFT08 open stage, Matt Colebourne of coComment talks about The importance of social networking and conversations are having for companies and bloggers.

Timelapse video: Lift08 break

Michael Scholl made an amazing series of timelapse videos. Here is what happens during the breaks!

Mixin

Nicolas Dengler presents Mixin at the LIFT08 venture night.

Enjoy the chaos

Henriette is an online community specialist. She talks about how we should all enjoy the chaos.