Salisbury Forum Dec. 6: The Internet and how it will grow globally

SALISBURY, Conn. — After a successful event this autumn with poet Richard Blanco and a visit to the cosmos with astrophysicist Nick Scoville, the Salisbury Forum turns to the Internet with David Kirkpatrick, who will share observations on technology and its implications for future global society.Kirkpatrick is the author of the New York Times best-selling 2010 book, “The Facebook Effect,” which is the only book to have profiled the company with founder Mark Zuckerberg’s cooperation. Over two years, Kirkpatrick immersed himself in Facebook’s culture and philosophy and came to view Zuckerberg as both a “visionary genius” and a man deeply concerned with the social welfare of the world.Kirkpatrick found that the underpinning of Facebook’s growth and impact was that Zuckerberg’s model, even as he developed it as an undergraduate at Harvard, was “deeply imbedded in the behavior of people.” It gave the company and its website the ability to satisfy users’ needs to connect with other people — as well as companies, social services, health-care providers — cheaply, globally and at any time of day.So to Kirkpatrick, Facebook is emblematic of a more open, technological society in which “The Internet of Everything,” the title of his presentation at the forum, will change the habits of both people and businesses. “Actually, The Internet of Everything is not a title I dreamed up,” Kirkpatrick says. “It actually exists as a Cisco Systems effort to make connectivity richer and more valuable, turning information into actions.”Kirkpatrick came to technology indirectly. After receiving a degree in English from Amherst College, he studied art in New York City for two years. To make ends meet, he began at Time Inc. as a copy clerk in 1978 while also working as a video artist whose work was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art. After covering computing and technology for Fortune and eventually becoming a senior editor, he wrote the magazine’s weekly tech column from 2002 until 2008, when he left to work on “The Facebook Effect.”In 2011 Kirkpatrick founded Techonomy Media Inc., a company that sponsors national and global events bringing together business, government and social leaders to recognize “the centrality of technology to their future actions and to encourage more rapid adoption of technological change.” He continues to write for Forbes and Vanity Fair.Kirkpatrick’s appearance for the Salisbury Forum will be on Friday, Dec. 6, at the Salisbury School. The program begins at 7:30 p.m. and is free. All are welcome.