10/31/97

CONTACT: Public Management Program (650) 725-5399

Herbie Hancock to speak on "Music, Technology and Improving Human Lives"

Legendary jazz musician Herbie Hancock will speak on "Music, Technology and Humanity" at noon Thursday, Nov. 13, in Bishop Auditorium at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. Hancock will speak at the invitation of the business school's 1997-98 Public Management Initiative on Technology and Social Change.

A Grammy and Oscar-winning artist, Hancock has been a leading innovator in bringing technology to the music industry. As he has helped shape virtually every new phase of jazz since the early 1960s, he has also involved himself as a catalyst for social change. Hancock has spoken on numerous occasions, including to corporate leaders, as an evangelist for harnessing and sharing technologies to improve human lives and potential, particularly in underserved communities.

Hancock founded the San Francisco-based Rhythm of Life Organization in 1996 to reduce the gap between technology "haves" and "have-nots" by supporting grassroots technology transfer and training efforts. The group is currently working with the City of San Francisco on plans to establish a community center in the Hunter's Point neighborhood for technology education, job training, experiential learning through the arts, and social mission-driven technology/arts-based enterprise.

Stanford MBA students will do pro bono planning, research and consulting for Hancock's community education and enterprise effort in San Francisco.

"There are many positive new uses for technology to improve the human experience that we can't even imagine right now. We have to bridge [the access] gap, and include as many people, cultures, histories and approaches as possible toward shaping the 21st-century world," Hancock says.

The business school's year-long Initiative on Technology and Social Change is examining the ways people use technology to change society, for better or worse; and opportunities for the business school community to make a difference in the public sector through use of technology.

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By Alison Carlson