Woz to hold fireside chat at ESC Silicon Valley conference on Tuesday, May 3

Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer, Inc. and Chief Scientist of Fusion-io, will hold a “Fireside Chat” on Tuesday, May 3 at 9:30-10:30am at the ESC Silicon Valley conference in the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California.

A Silicon Valley icon and philanthropist for more than thirty years, Steve Wozniak has helped shape the computing industry with his design of Apple’s first line of products the Apple I and II and influenced the popular Macintosh.

U.S. President Reagan awards Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs 1985's National Medal of TechnologyIn 1976, Wozniak and Steve Jobs founded Apple Computer Inc. with Wozniak’s Apple I personal computer. For his achievements at Apple Computer Inc., Wozniak was awarded the National Medal of Technology, the highest honor bestowed on America’s leading innovators.

After leaving Apple Computer Inc. in 1985, Wozniak was involved in various business and philanthropic ventures, focusing primarily on computer capabilities in schools and stressing hands-on learning and encouraging creativity for students. In 2000, he was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame and was awarded the prestigious Heinz Award for Technology, The Economy and Employment. Wozniak also founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and was the founding sponsor of the Tech Museum, Silicon Valley Ballet and Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose. He currently serves as Chief Scientist for Fusion-io.

More info here.

9 Comments

  1. Woz is unbelievable! If you’re ever in San Jose, it’s well worth the time to go visit the Tech Museum. If you have children, the Discovery Museum will be a highlight of their visit (plus adults have lots of fun as well). SJ even named a three-block-long street Woz Way opposite the Discovery Museum, and a couple of blocks from the Ballet and Tech Museum.

    http://maps.google.com/maps?q=woz+way+san+jose&oe=utf-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=Woz+Way,+San+Jose,+CA&gl=us&ei=daK4TeCyFtDAtgec8ZneBA&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CBkQ8gEwAA

  2. a fireside chat. In may? I’m from the UK but I think its a but warm to have the fire on. Will it be on? If not why a fireside chat?

    Even so worth sparing an ear for this.

  3. Not trying to be a troll here but what’s the big fuss over Woz 25 years later. Sure he built the early Apple I, Apple ][ and such, but that’s from the Geek era at Apple. Nowadays, the biggest differentiator between Apple and the rest of the industry is that it is NOT a geek driven company. Even though he’s moved on to other types of activities, to me, Woz is still the personification of the geek/tinkerer/tweaker that technical people look up to. Unfortunately, the techies have always been and are still screwing with the way people perceive and evaluate products. Injecting their geeky preoccupations of tweaking, hacking and hardware feature lists in the mind of people who don’t realize they shouldn’t be caring for those things. In short, I just can’t relate to this hero worship around Woz, especially on a site that celebrates the Apple “whole widget” and user experience advantage.

    1. While a agree with much of what you’re expressing, Woz still stands for something, similar to the way we revere many past US Presidents (Washington, Lincoln for example) who were leading our country at vastly different times and had to overcome difficult problems.

      Woz is like that. It certainly didn’t help that he crashed an airplane in 1981, causing various memory problems.

      But I’ll certainly grant you that he was the ultimate tech wienie.

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