Program 1: 8:30am - 10:00am

A Culture of Innovation: What Don Bitzer Wrought

Abstract of Talk
The Computer-based Education Research Lab, where the PLATO system was invented, was a caldron of innovation. Out of that environment, new technologies grew and lives were changed. What was it about the environment that stimulated innovation? Bob Sutton, management guru and scholar of innovation, will lead a conversation focusing on the characteristics of a culture of innovation. What was special about the PLATO environment? What generalizable lessons might be gleaned? Are there insights to be gained from CDC’s efforts to commercialize an enormous project from an academic research laboratory, in an unproven market? Sutton will conduct a discussion with Don Bitzer, the director of the lab and lead innovator, two CERL alumni whose career paths have gone in quite different directions, and Bob Price, who led Control Data to the licensing and further development of the PLATO system.