My life has been devoted to developing and working with emerging technologies of shared experience and innovation management on the US West Coast and in Scandinavia.

I cofounded one of the first VR R&D labs, organized and co-moderated the USENET newsgroup sci.virtual-worlds, and was startup CEO of three companies in the field; Futurist in Residence at SRI in Menlo Park, CA; and Entrepreneur in Residence at Malmö University, Sweden.

I'm the author of three books: one on public cable/video; one on participatory design of complex shared environments; and an anthology of contributions considering Information Design, published by MIT Press. A fourth book, a novel in progress, is set in post-devolutionary America.

I've been a member of SEGD since the 1970s, originally interested in physical environmental awareness, now more concerned with comprehension and sharing of complex concepts and information. For a decade I contributed to policy on these topics as a principal consultant in the California State Assembly. I coined the term "electronic commerce" and wrote California's path-breaking Universal Telecommunications Services Act.

As a Fulbright Scholar, studied the social consequences of then-new cellular telephony and the resulting formation of trans-border communities in the Nordic Arctic Circle, radically reshaping Nordic societies, culture, and politics. I also addressed the Royal Society in London.

I'm currently enjoying an unusual intellectual and practical renaissance, merging my prior interests as one unified field theory of information, experience, knowledge, and action.

Still bodysurfing like a fool, whenever I can get back to the Southern California shoreline, where I grew up, enjoying the sunsets on the horizon.

Volunteer Activities
Too many to shake a stick at. Currently, pro bono consulting, R&D, and grantsmanship directed toward creating in the Borderlands an institute for the development of emerging technologies of experience and their uses, based on a designed network of globally accessible innovation platforms.

Connect with Bob on LinkedIn.