Experts in computer science, art, education, law and other fields will gather at Duke University for a three-day conference this month to examine digital technology and how it affects the way people learn, think, create and relate to one another. The conference, called “Electronic Techtonics: Thinking at the Interface,” takes place April 19-21 and is organized by Humanities, Arts, Science Technology and Advanced Collaboratory, or HASTAC. HASTAC (“haystack”) is a voluntary network of more than 80 universities, humanities centers, science institutes, arts centers, libraries, museums and community organizations in the U.S. and abroad dedicated to the creative use and critical understanding of technology in life, education and society. The conference is one in a yearlong series of events at universities across the country. Three of the “Electronic Techtonics” events at Duke that focus on education are free and open to the public. “‘Electronic Techtonics’ is a mashup of science and speculation, art and policy, law and education,” said HASTAC co-founder and Duke professor Cathy N. Davidson. “It is a rare opportunity for scientists who helped develop the Internet to exchange ideas with adventurous and socially concerned educators, policymakers, artists, theorists and practitioners. “Our mission is to inspire the future of digital technologies. We’re aiming high.” The keynote speaker will be John Seely Brown, former chief scientist at Xerox Corp., who will talk about “The Social Life of Learning in the Net Age.” The event, open to the public, will begin at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 19, at the Nasher Museum of Art, and will be followed by a reception with theremin music and access to the galleries. Other speakers include James Boyle, a Duke law professor who is co-founder of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain and co-author of a comic book on fair use in documentary film, and Dan Connolly, a research scientist at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory who collaborated with Tim Berners-Lee on the creation of the World Wide Web. Sessions will address issues such as racial attitudes in digital media, new media in the context of media history, funding sources, “the semantic web” and the future of the World Wide Web. There also will be demonstrations of new technology, performances, poster sessions and information sessions on open source and proprietary software and hardware. In addition to Seely Brown’s talk, two panel discussions April 21 at the Duke School of Nursing on Trent Drive are free and open to the public. The first panel features Carl Harris, superintendent of the Durham Public Schools; Julia Stasch of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; David Theo Goldberg, director of the University of California Humanities Research Institute; and Davidson. They will offer different perspectives on innovative learning from kindergarten through the university level. Later in the day, a conversation of “digital visionaries” that includes Seely Brown and Connolly will address issues and ideas from universal access to intellectual property issues to art theory. The conference is co-sponsored by Duke University, Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) and the MacArthur Foundation, with additional support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. For more information about HASTAC and the conference, visit its website.