Announcing these talks is fun; we’ve got a wonderful range this time. Don’t worry there’s more to come — and don’t forget that the deadline for submissions is Wednesday. Here are the speakers and their talks’ titles:

1. Sarah Davies (Freedom For IP) - Share and share alike: GPL, Creative Commons, and the future of digital freedom
• Abstract: Patent and copyright systems were created in times when production was expensive. Incentive was needed for creators to bring their products to market. A dangerous trend has emerged since that time. As the cost of production has gone down, the incentive to create has gone up. This has created a culture in which large corporations are locking up culture and innovation, in which people buy portfolios of patents for the sole purpose of litigating against anyone who tries to bring them to market. The GPL and Creative Commons have been devised to mitigate the damage that this trend is causing to our society, and we must decide as a society how they should be crafted.
2. Barry Brumitt (Google) - MapReduce: Simplified Data Processing on Large Clusters [Brady: Powerful tech. Learn more ahead of time.]
3. Lars Liden (Teachtown) - Utilizing Web Technology to Help Children with Autism
• Abstract: Autism, a severe brain disorder that begins in early childhood, has grown from a relatively rare condition to one that affects one in 166 births. Treatment usually consists of hands-on time with a team of clinicians, teachers and therapy assistants using printed materials such as flashcards and time consuming generation of reports created by hand. Furthermore, coordination of therapy is usually done through physically passing binders of information back and forth between team members. This talk will demonstrate how a web enabled treatment system can connect members of a child’s team, making sure everyone on the team is up to date on their latest progress, and automatically tracking and sharing data and notes between team members. This allows for a substantially more effective treatment program. Among other novel approaches, the concept of e-mail is flipped on it’s head, so instead of team members mailing each other individually, authored notes are attached to the child and given context (such as which lesson they relate to). The talk will also touch on the use of artificial intelligence for tailoring the curriculum for individual students.
4. Mike Arcuri (Ontela) - Escaping the Empire: how to leave a big company
5. Leo Dirac (Rhapsody) - Transhuman technology trends and their implications for a theory of morality

The first two sets of announced talks included

Identity, Pitches, Bouncing, Analyzing AJAX, and Rich Internet Applications

and

Applied Privacy, Power, Neuroscience, Custom Bags, and World Travel

Ignite Seattle is a geek event that combines on-site geekery, sharing, and innovation (and drinking). The next one will be held upstairs at the CHAC on Tuesday, February 13th. The Make Contest will begin at 6:30; the Ask Later talks will begin at 8:30. Videos and photos from the previous Ignite are available. Admission is free.