Kentaro Toyama, the W.K. Kellogg Professor of Community Information at the U-M School of Information, will discuss/read from his new book <i>Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology</i> (Public Affairs Books).In his book, Toyama argues that to help people with technology, it's far better to teach them to become technology producers -- engineers, entrepreneurs, and corporate professionals -- than to treat them as consumers.

More information about the book can be found here: https://www.si.umich.edu/news/kentaro-toyama-geek-heresy

The talk will be followed by a Q&A and book signing. Refreshments will be served.

<strong>About the speaker:</strong>

Kentaro Toyama is W.K. Kellogg Professor of Community Information at the University of Michigan School of Information and a fellow of the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT. Previously, he was a researcher at UC Berkeley and assistant managing director of Microsoft Research India, which he co-founded in 2005. At MSR India, he started the Technology for Emerging Markets research group, which conducts interdisciplinary research to understand how the world's poorer communities interact with electronic technology and to invent new ways for technology to support their socio-economic development. The award-winning group is known for projects such as MultiPoint, Text-Free User Interfaces, and Digital Green. Kentaro co-founded the IEEE/ACM International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD) to provide a global platform for rigorous academic research in this field. He is also co-editor-in-chief of the journal Information Technologies and International Development.