Leo Frishberg

I was born digital, even though I am a baby boomer. My father, Mort Frishberg, wrote the IBM 360 introduction letter back in 1964. During that time I still recall dinner-table conversations with phrases like "black boxes" and "cybernetics."

Later on, when he worked for Control Data Corporation, we had a CDC Cyber70 terminal in my bedroom. In 1981, I had the opportunity to use email, IM and collaborative games with people all over the planet. It was heady stuff!

By age 7, I had declared my intention to be an architect, and by age 24 (in the early 80s) I had achieved that life goal. But more interesting, I had fulfilled a prediction my father had made when I was a kid: I would be doing all of my architecture work on a computer. So it was I began my digital career and have not stopped since.

I am now fully engaged in the discipline of "User Experience" - designing ways in which people work with digital artifacts - whether a website, a software application or a digitally-enabled object.

My reading interests are broad: I have read almost every science-fiction story published before 1960 - whether in magazines such as Fantasy and Science Fiction, Astounding (and then Analog) or in books and anthologies. With the explosion of speculative fiction in the late 20th century, I narrowed my focus. I'm an avid reader of William Gibson's work (who wouldn't be?) among other techno-social-centric writers.

But I love historical accounts as well, along with technical literature in the area of design, information visualization and business strategy.