Joshua W. Klein, M.S.

Joshua W. Klein, M.S. is a Mobile, Personal, and Future Technology Specialist who is currently Senior Technology Principal at Frog Design.
 
Frog Design helps their clients reinvent themselves, calling upon intensive research and creative facilitation to expose new strategic directions and untapped business potential. They offer end-to-end services, delivering concepts, designs, partnerships, and a concrete roadmap for success.
 
Josh’s projects include:
 
The Vending Machine for Crows: Exactly what it sounds like — a machine designed to autonomously train crow populations to find lost change and deposit it in exchange for peanuts.
 
SugarCandy: Groupware for your mobile phone; MySpace gone mobile.
 
OMFGI Mobile Privacy Network (only my friends get in): a framework for privacy on mobile networks.
 
Roo’d — a Cyberpunk Novel: This sci-fi novel was released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. It was chosen for release for the eBook reader for the iPhone — the first modern novel released for the platform.
 
The King County Library Mobile Catalog POC: The King County Library System suffered from an unusual conundrum; the computers they provided were being used the majority of the time by those accessing functions other than the library catalog, and yet the majority of users had catalog access as their first goal. Their existing research indicated that mobile technology might be a good solution, presenting a convenient way for users to access the catalog while wandering the library on the wireless LAN. It would also provide a solid platform for future mobile applications (wayfinding, remote access, etc.) However, their first priority was to test the waters. This Proof of Concept (POC) was designed to do just that, leveraging their existing technologies through XSL transformations to present their existing catalog on small form factor devices, such as PDAs.
 
Komposite’s Wearable Computing Fashion Show: This project grew out of a desire to present wearable and mobile technologies in a truly public-facing light to increase the exposure of current research and development efforts. Having worked with wearable computing for the last six years, Josh knew that the time was right for an actual Fashion Show at the premier wearables conference itself. Through the assistance of Dr. Bruce Thomas and others at the ISWC (International Symposium for Wearable Computers) he was able to obtain funding, equipment, and time from many talented companies and individuals in presenting the Komposite Wearable Computing Fashion Show. It made quite a splash, being reported by Wired Magazine, MSNBC, The Associated Press, and many others. The materials generated (video, slides, documentation, and flash pieces) have since been made available to educational institutions the world over.
 
So what next? At the moment Josh’s looking to work with companies that are willing to take risks in deploying new and emerging tech in order to lead new markets. He wants to make applications that improve people’s lives.
 
Right now that means mobile/social apps (like his Sugarcandy), but in the future could mean ubiquitous computing, large-scale data analysis, or even wetware. He’s always open to new cool projects — if you’ve got something going, drop him a line!
 
Josh earned his B.A. in Anthropology, Minor in English at Fairhaven College, Western Washington University in 1996 and his M.S. in M.S. Interactive Telecommunications Program at Tisch College, New York University in 2007.