Curriculum Vitae

CEO of Patricia Seybold Group, an e-business consultancy she founded in 1978

Helped create the Open Software Foundation and the Object Management Group

Book

Customers.Com: How to Create a Profitable Business Strategy for the Internet and Beyond, coauthored with Ronni T. Marshak (Random House, 1998)

Contact

Seybold can be reached through the Patricia Seybold Group at www.psgroup.com/consulting/overview.html.

David Shenk

Digital culture

Claim to Fame

Shenk’s book Data Smog was the first well-reviewed book to warn about the consequences of information overload and living life at hyperspeed. Through his books, essays and commentaries, Shenk has emerged as a leading voice for balanced assessment of technology.

Words of Wisdom for Today’s Business Executives

"Avoid gratuitous complexity. Don’t rush to adopt new technologies just because others are rushing. Be mindful that almost always when adopting new tools, you gain things and you give things up. Try to be aware what you’re giving up and compensate for that. Also, be mindful of our culture’s distractedness; seek people’s attention respectfully."

Q&A

What are some common misconceptions about the social impact of technology?

Shenk: That we should ignore it. Technorealism tries to remind people about the real consequences of these technologies and not to assume that these marketing lines are true.

Who is the most influential person in the new economy?

The one person who was amazingly influential who hasn’t gotten the credit that he deserves is Lou Rossetto, publisher of Wired. I don’t think any of this would have happened without Wired. It created a new lens so that ordinary people could see what these things could do. It helped an entire world to see this new promise. Even the greatest magazines in history didn’t have that direct influence.

What is the biggest change the Internet has brought to business?

There’s a whole new visibility to microstore operations, the mom-and-pop stores that don’t have a storefront. The best way to see this is through eBay. You get this overwhelming sense that there are people basing their lives on being able to sell their stuff. There are just so many people with a basement full of stuff who are selling it and making some sort of living.

Curriculum Vitae

Cofounder of Technorealism, a group that critiques technologies and their social and political implications

Guest commentator for National Public Radio’s "All Things Considered"

Wrote for Harper’s, Wired magazine, Salon, The New Republic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker and CIO

Former producer for National Public Radio, and also a former editor and columnist at Spy magazine.