Gilberte Houbart

25 Thatcher Street
Brookline MA 02446

gilberte@media.mit.edu
xenia.media.mit.edu/people/gilberte/

Primary Focus

Online television and interactive video. Projects demanding creativity and initiative in combining technology and content, editorial skills and a sense of aesthetics.

E D U C A T I O N

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Media Laboratory

1992-94 Master,
Media Arts and Sciences

Designed and built Viewpoints on Demand, an interactive video system that tailors a video stream to the viewer's interests. Produced "It was a Knowledge War"using the VOD engine.

Fall 92

Worked on the design and creation of an interactive space - The Wheel of Life - built at the Media Lab around a network of Macintosh stations controlling video, sound, sensors and lights.

Spring 1992

Took an MIT class (Structure & Interpretation of Computer Programs) while working as a correspondent for French technology magazines.

Fall 1991

Worked at the Media Lab on a prototype for an interactive video map of Boston. Developed a novel model of user interface to navigate through clips expressing opinions and linking them.

Université des Sciences Paris VI
Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris

1985 Enrolled in PhD program

Worked on a graphical language for object oriented databases (didn't pursue due to lack of funding).

1984 Specialization in Networking

(DESS Téléinformatique) (cum laude)

Université Paris IX-Dauphine, Paris

1981-83 Master,
Computer Science and Information Management

(Maitrise d'Informatique et Gestion)
(cum laude)

1979-81 Undergraduate Degree,
Math applied to Economics

(Diplôme D'études Générales en Economie) with minor in Computer Science.

Lycée Molière, Paris

1979 French baccalaureat in physics and mathematics

(included optional topics in humanities: literature, history, geography and latin - this degree concludes French high school education).

10/97 Today

· 1:1 TV: Seeking funding. Developed a prototype for an advanced online video browser: art direction, product design, interface design. Wrote business plan, built team and conducted market research.

· Children's Hospital: designed web site for interactive training of medical students.

· VIANT fellow: consulted on development of a prototype for "online social shopping" (based on a concept initially researched with my partner, Neil Mayle).

· Cargo Films: Technology advisor to Director Jean-Jacques Beineix. Web site design.

· Invention Machine Corp. : re-launched corporate Web site, coordinated technical and graphic design work, specified site architecture .

· Invention Machine Corp. : Produced mock-up for future product (art direction, specs and UI), an expert system to assist engineers in finding solutions to technical problems in the design process.

· Wildfire Communications: adapted vocal user interface to French version of electronic phone assistant, produced video illustrating typical interactions.

03/97 - 07/97 ChannelVision

Responsible for defining the user experience and content architecture of a consumer application for online television.

02/96 - 02/97 Banta Interactive Media

Project manager and interactive designer for B.I.M (MIT start-up acquired by Banta) developing database backed Web sites. Job involved defining functional specifications for Web sites, creative use of technology, coordinating work with artists, design and content architecture, communication and production of marketing material.

1994-96

Worked on various consulting projects, some of which intended to develop France-US connections.

Conducted a comparative study on online services for Hachette-Filipacchi Presse, one of the main European publishers.

Wrote a report for the French Ministry of Culture on "Art and the Net".

Taught Interactive Media classes in the US and in France (Apple, Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris).

Did consulting for LEGO US for an Intranet project connecting their R&D labs.

1987-92
Journalist, France & United States

Wrote numerous articles about science and technology as a professional journalist and correspondent.

1988-90
Researcher, ONERA
(French Space Agency), Paris

Conducted research in user interface. Helped specify and start a major project using D.A.I. (Distributed Artificial Intelligence: agent-based languages and "blackboards") for an electronic co-pilot.

1986-87
Software Designer, SESA, Paris

Designed part of an electronic check processing system for a French banking network. Used mainly proprietary specification tools.

1984-86 Developer, TITN, Paris

Developed advanced software tools in C to generate programming code in Cobol. Tools were used in a large project for the Soviet airline Aeroflot.

Wrote a large program in Assembly language for managing a large automated freight storage (8000 items).

Summer 1982
Developer, SODETEG-TAI, Paris

Designed and programmed a PC based (TRS 80) spreadsheet system for an accounting system used by a group of companies building an electronic subway system in Caracas (Brazil).

Other activities

· Taught course on User Interface Builders and Object Oriented Languages, organized by COGNITECH (1987) (French leading company in ArtificiaI Intelligence).

· Wrote storyboard for a documentary on AI for Culture Production, a French company specializing in films about high technology. (1986).

Publications, Talks

· "Interactive Narrative and the Digital Iceberg;, IMAGINA, international conference on computer graphics, animation and multimedia, Monaco, 1997

· "Viewpoints on Demand", MIT Media Lab, MS thesis, 1994

· "Des objets et des icônes pour un outil d'aide à la conception: COGITO" (objects and icons for a CAD system), MICAD'88, Paris (European confe-rence on Computer Aided Design).

· "Objets et bases de données" (objects and databases), RFIA'87, Antibes (European conference on Artificial Intelligence).

· Numerous articles for the general press.

Miscellaneous

· Fluent in English, French, and Spanish.

· Loves drawing and visual arts.

· Reading: literature, history, world news, travel.

· Travelled in Spain, Sweden, Norway, Colombia, the United States, and France.