Hi, I'm Ben Sibelman, a software developer at [http://www.microsoft.com Microsoft] in Redmond, Washington. This is me with one of my most favorite posters (despite its slight astronomical inaccuracies), which nicely sums up my desire for large-scale, long-term perspective, and one of my favorite T-shirts, which represents my belief in the power of grassroots [[SolSeedMovement|movements]] and [[SolSeedCommunity|communities]] to change the world. (To hear and read Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot speech shown illegibly in the photo, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFpFlKy1Pso go here.])
[[Image:BenSibelman.jpg]]
Currently, I'm working on the Photos app for [http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/consumer-preview?ocid=O_WOL_W8P_OandO_Home_EN-US Windows 8], which provides a new "[http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57370910-75/why-metro-now-rules-at-microsoft/ Metro]-style" interface for viewing and sharing your favorite "digital memories" or works of photographic art.
My previous employer was the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), which is a bit of a misnomer these days: they sell mapmaking and geographic analysis software to corporations, governments, and other organizations. Some of this software is used for ecology and conservation work, but I ended up on the team that makes nautical charting software. Such is life.
But ESRI's CEO, Jack Dangermond, is a fervent environmentalist. As he is fond of saying, the geographic perspective is a global one, ideal for managing and sustaining the planet we call home. And that's my perspective, too: I think best on the general, large-scale, long-term level.
My goals are very ambitious: I'm hoping to help shape the [[SolSeed Movement]] into what Harvey Mudd Professor [http://www.hmc.edu/academicsclinicresearch/academicdepartments/humanitiesandsocialsciences1/faculty1/paulsteinberg.html Paul Steinberg] calls a Thousand-Year Institution, one that could help maintain some of the core principles needed for a truly sustainable civilization.
You can also check out
[http://living-worlds.org my website, Living Worlds Productions] (which I haven't updated in ages)
and
[http://scifiben.livejournal.com my blog, OpenSpace4Life].
[[Category:SolSeed]]
[[Category:SolSeedMovement]]