Pat Albanese’s extensive career has been one of exploring the intersection of information and technology. Currently Pat holds the position of Gannet Distinguished Professor in the School of Print Media, College of Imaging Arts and Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology. Previously Pat served as the Chief Information Officer and Executive Director of Library and Information Technology Services for Mount Holyoke College. In her position, Pat oversaw all library and computing services and provided leadership and strategic direction for the College’s information technology programs. Among her accomplishments at Mount Holyoke College were the introduction of campus-wide wireless services, a content management system, a web site redesign, the introduction of an open source academic technology platform which includes student e-portfolio, institutional repository and digital course management systems and a campus-wide enterprise level system. Prior to Mount Holyoke, Pat led the libraries at Rochester Institute of Technology for over 20 years. Among her accomplishments at RIT were the development of an extensive array of digital information services to the campus–including the transition to digital journals, electronic books, and desktop delivery of articles–and installing the first campus wireless network. In addition, she oversaw the planning, renovation and building of a 150,000 sq ft library building, the addition of Java Wally’s library café, a central community-gathering place on campus. Also at RIT, Pat acted as co-P.I. of an $800,000 NFS grant to encourage young women to study science and technology-based disciplines and taught graduate level classes in information technology. Pat has served as a national and international library and information technology consultant, and sat on several national boards. She holds a BA in Philosophy and Masters Degrees in both Library Science and Information Technology.

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Matthew Bernius’ research focuses on studying how new media tools alter the way groups communicate, and, in turn, how those changes affect the evolution of said tools. In addition to his role as a co-director and researcher at the Open Publishing Lab at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Matthew is pursuing a dual PhD at Cornell University in anthropology and information systems. Prior starting his PhD, Matthew was a visiting professor at RIT’s School of Print Media. He completed a Masters in the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago. Before that, Matthew spent eight years in a variety of internet production, community management, and content strategy roles at Eastman Kodak’s kodak.com, during which time he earned one patent.

In addition to his work with the OPL, he is member of RIT’s Lab for Social Computing, a cross disciplinary center focusing on the use of computing tools to facilitate these social and collaborative interactions.

You can view his personal blog at http://www.waking-dream.com.

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Michael Riordan is an Assistant Professor at RIT’s School of Print Media where he teaches coursework relating to the reproduction of content and accurate color between print and publishing production systems. He works closely with publishers, print service providers and creative agencies to help improve all aspects of production workflows and has worked with CGATS and others to create quality assurance mechanisms to support the same. In addition to actively providing training and consulting on related topics and being a regular presenter at industry events such as GraphExpo, Michael has written several papers on related topics and served as co-editor for the Pocket Pal: A Graphic Arts Production Handbook.

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Tona Henderson is an Associate Professor of Information Technology at the Rochester Institute of Technology. She is interested in all aspects of information architecture and XML and is still, in her heart, a librarian.