Albert M. Selvin
	Director, Usability  Sales & Marketing Systems  Verizon Telecom IT  White Plains, NY 10604 USA  Tel: (914) 390-2075  Fax: (use email)  www | email | linkedin | facebook | blog | bike    PhD Candidate  Knowledge Media Institute  Open University  Milton Keynes UK MK7 6AA  "It is the way the thing is related that counts."  John Dewey, Art as Experience

New! Thesis info

Summary

As a director in Verizon Telecom IT, I run a group designing the user experience for the systems used in our retail call centers. This involves spending a lot of time with the users out in the field, understanding what works and what could work better. See below for previous roles.

I originated the Compendium hypermedia methodology and software in the mid-1990s, and have stayed a member of the core team throughout its history. It's a free open source tool, finding all sorts of uses. I write about it and related tools and practices in the Knowledge Art blog.

As a researcher I'm interested in helping people to understand their situation, especially in difficult circumstances. In college I looked at how film and artworks could help their audiences work toward social and personal change. I also wanted to understand how cultural artifacts could have the opposite effect -- closing off thought, removing the sense of possibility. In the 1990s I got interested in looking at these issues in the workplace, and in developing software and methods that could help. This led to Compendium and to the research I'm currently doing as a doctoral candidate at the Knowledge Media Institute, Open University.

I've followed this set of threads through many studies, jobs, travels, writing and music. I'm helped most in this by working with good friends, many of whom are also big influences.

A pretty recent publications list. Also, here is a slightly older Compendium version, as well as a CV that includes research papers (needs updating). I did some freelance journalism in the mid-1980s, as far as I know none of it is on line (some was published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Philadelphia Inquirer, and a couple of now-defunct magazines). Some experiments in collaborative hypermedia fiction are here.

I play piano, organ, guitar, and bass, self-taught and of limited technique, but I do alright in some kinds of funk, rock, and blues (and am an Afropop wannabe). I've played in a bunch of bands over the years. Here are a few recent pictures. Here are a few mp3s of three Uzuto songs which I wrote or co-wrote, from the mid-1990s.

In the 1980s I took several longish bicycle trips in the US and Canada, but the most interesting one was across southern Asia in 1986 (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore). Here are some pictures from that trip. I've also biked, hiked, and otherwise traveled a fair amount around Europe.

For me, engaged and creative collaboration is one of the highest human states. Here are a few of the people I've had the privilege of working, thinking, and playing with:

In addition to my friends and family, other people whose work inspires me are:

These are books I bug my friends to read if they haven't, and that I've gone back to over and over again (I really need to update this list):

I'm crazy about Indian food, particularly South Indian. Also Ethiopian, Mexican, Lebanese, Thai, Vietnamese...

PhD candidate, Knowledge Media Institute/Open University. Started October 2003.

1984. Master of Arts, International Telecommunications, Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

1982. Bachelor of Arts, High Honors, Program in Film/Video Studies, University of Michigan.

Feb 2008-Present. Director, Usability, Sales and Marketing Systems, Verizon Data Services, Verizon Communications.

2003-Feb 2008. Director, Portals, Connectivity, and eLearning, Partner Solutions IT, Information Technology Group, Verizon Communications.

2000-2002. Senior eBusiness Architect/Technical Manager, Information Technology Group, Verizon Communications. Managed development, design, and operations group for Verizon's wholesale B2B website (now known as Verizon Partner Solutions).

1998-2000. Senior Member of Technical Staff, Bell Atlantic Network Systems Advanced Technology; 1991-1998. Member of Technical Staff, NYNEX Science & Technology, White Plains, NY. Led project teams and task forces in computing and business process redesign projects. Developed business strategy, products and conducted research in the areas of group support technology, knowledge management, modeling and facilitation of process redesign, requirements analysis, computer-supported cooperative work, and social systems analysis. Domains included eBusiness, contingency planning, demand forecasting, financial decision-making, network maintenance, broadband systems engineering, and marketing information systems. Principal achievements: conducting Year 2000 corporate contingency planning risk analysis task force; formulating eBusiness wholesale strategy; leading project team developing advanced telecommunications forecasting system; developing financial model used to allocate $1.4 billion network capital budget among strategic business units; developing user interface for maintenance and capital allocation expert systems; pioneering advanced CSCW technology for internal and external clients; developing innovative IS09001 compliance system.

1986-1991. Consultant, St. Louis, MO; Washington, DC; and New York, NY. Conducted user interface design, technical communication, systems analysis, and training development projects for Anheuser-Busch Companies, Computerized Medical Systems, Advanced Laser Graphics, NYNEX Information Technologies, NYNEX Science & Technology, Affinitec Corporation, Robert Falk Group, House of Seagram, and Geer Dubois Advertising. Won industry awards and honors.

1984-1985. Project Coordinator, INFOTEXT Project, Telecommunications Division, University of Wisconsin-Extension, Madison, WI. Led project team in trial of first USA statewide agricultural teletext system.

1984. Researcher, Chancellor's Telecommunications Strategic Planning Task Force, University of Wisconsin-Extension, Madison, WI. Researched and wrote sections on videotex/teletext applications for major planning document.

Before all that, and sometimes in between, I delivered furniture, played in a few Top 40 and Motown bands, did some freelance writing, and sundry other jobs.

Verizon honors
2006. Verizon Excellence Award
2005. Verizon Excellence Award
2002. Verizon Excellence Award
2002. Verizon Master's Club Award
2000. Network & Corporate Systems Special Recognition Award, Bell Atlantic Corporation
1999. Network & Corporate Systems Special Recognition Award, Bell Atlantic Corporation

Patents
2003. US Patent 6,615,202. Ding, Pannone, Selvin, Shapiro, Sun. Method for specifying a database import/export operation through a graphical user interface
2004. US Patent 6,718,329. Selvin, Sierhuis. A method and apparatus for generating typed nodes and links in a hypertext database from formatted documents