John Seely Brown is an avid reader, traveler, and motorcyclist; part scientist, part artist, and part strategist. His views are distinguished by a broad view of the human contexts in which technologies operate and a healthy skepticism about whether or not change always represents genuine progress. His most recent book, published earlier this year, is The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion.

Brown is currently a visiting scholar and advisor to the provost at University of Southern California (USC) and independent co-chairman of the Deloitte Center for the Edge. Prior to that he was the chief scientist at Xerox Corporation and the director of its Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), a position he held for nearly two decades. While head of PARC, Brown expanded the role of corporate research to include such topics as organizational learning, knowledge management, complex adaptive systems, and nano/mems technologies. He was a cofounder of the Institute for Research on Learning (IRL). His personal research interests include the management of radical innovation, digital youth culture, digital media, and new forms of communication and learning.

Generous support for CCA public programs in San Francisco has been provided by Grants for the Arts / San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund.