Memorable Moments in Chicagoland Innovation

 

About This Series: The story of innovation in Chicago is best told through the experiences of accomplished local visionaries. All innovators are blessed with imagination, drive and at least a bit of serendipity. In this 10-part series, we will showcase how inspiration turns into execution and the creation of new systems. These stories are only the beginning.
 

Featured Chicago Innovator: Kristian Hammond , Northwestern University’s Intelligent Information Laboratory

 

Kristian Hammond of Northwestern’s Intelligent Information Laboratory believes that over the next few years the notion of a website will go away.

 

Kristian Hammond on a Web Without Websites:

 

As the disciplines of news reporting and computer programming converge, Northwestern University’s Kristian Hammond finds himself at the epicenter of this brave new world of information delivery.

 

A professor of computer science and journalism at Northwestern University’s Intelligent Information Laboratory, Hammond – while most of his peers are eulogizing newspapers – is forecasting the demise of the Internet as we have come to know it.

 

“Over the next few years, the notion of a website will go away,” says Hammond, also an entrepreneur who has invented a number of artificial intelligence technologies. “What we want to do is identify the particular moments in one’s life that they will be needing information and then build around those moments.”

 

Hammond believes applications for the iPhone and social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook are rapidly changing how we search for and process information online. As we become more comfortable managing our information streams, there is less loyalty or attachment to any one publisher of information.

 

“You have to publish into space and build things for when people who are interested in it will come to it,” Hammond instructs his students. “Companies will still have websites, but even their purchasing opportunities will have a distributed feel.”

 

Hammond is committed to understanding both the economic and societal impact and opportunities available during this great shift in information consumption patterns.

 

“For us,” he said, “the real push right now is how do we use these new channels as real modes of communication.”
 
 

 

The "Innovation in Chicago" series features interviews and work by Brad Spirrison. Brad is a local technology writer and media creator. Each week he authors the “Tech Matters” column in the Chicago Sun-Times. He can be reached at brad@chicago.com.