Kent Summers
Personal Homepage:
http://www.garofalollc.comCurrent place of employment:
Garofalo & Associates LLCKent J. Summers, Partner — joined Garofalo & Associates in 2001 following 15 years of executive management experience in the software industry, where he successfully built, financed and sold a number of software companies.Kent is an expert in emerging software technologies and markets with extensive corporate finance and operational experience. Prior to G&A Mr. Summers served as Chairman & CEO of Collego Corporation (acquired by MRO Software), founder and CEO of MyHelpdesk, Inc. (acquired by PC Support, Inc.), and VP of marketing at Electronic Book Technologies (acquired by INSO Corporation). Mr. Summers is a co-founding member of the W3C Technical Advisory Board (MIT 1994), and served as a director with the X Consortium and OASIS. Kent began his career in NYC as a program trader on the options trading desk at Bear Stearns & Co. Mr. Summers is currently an active mentor with the MIT Venture Mentoring Services program, and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the University of Houston.
Publications by Kent Summers (bibliography)
» 1994 «
Glushko, Robert J., Dougherty, Dale, Kimber, Eliot, Rizk, Antoine, Russell, Daniel M. and Summers, Kent (1994): HTML -- Poison or Panacea?. In: Proceedings of ECHT 94 the ACM European Conference on Hypermedia Technology Sept 18-23, 1994, Edinburgh, UK. pp. 245-246. Available online
Many people are having their first experience with a distributed hypertext system by using Mosaic or some other viewer based on HTML, the HyperText Markup Language of the World Wide Web. HTML's simplicity allows it to be created without special authoring tools or expertise, and the ubiquity of free WWW viewers like Mosaic removes one of the cost barriers. Because HTML is an application of SGML, the Standard Generalized Markup Language, it has also introduced many people to the concepts and syntax of application-independent markup. The explosive growth of the WWW makes it undeniable that HTML and Mosaic will serve as the reference point for much future thinking about hypertext and SGML outside of the academic and research community. But if HTML is to some people a democratizing force for hypertext authoring and publishing, to others its lack of structure and validation is a substantial step backwards for authors, readers, and their organizations. HTML has proven the basic premise of SGML, that a standard, application-independent data representation can enable blind interchange among disparate and even unknown or unpredicted applications. But to many SGML advocates, HTML is too primitive, and today's HTML documents will end up as tomorrow's cast-off legacy data format. HTML viewers may seem appealing for network publishing, but to some they are merely seductive and superficial, undermining years of careful research on usability and business models. The goal of this panel is to de-balkanize the bi-polar HTML camps and seek a productive role for all points of view. HTML and the WWW are simply too important for the academic and research community to ignore. HTML will not go away. We must participate in the evolution of HTML and find ways to become part of the network publishing revolution it represents.
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Nisen, W. G., Limback, Jeff von, Johnson, Scott, Summers, Kent and Shephard, Maurice (1994): Private Sector Perspectives on Advances in Hypermedia. In: Proceedings of ECHT 94 the ACM European Conference on Hypermedia Technology Sept 18-23, 1994, Edinburgh, UK. p. 250. Available online
Numerous market and industry segments are becoming increasingly interested in hypermedia. For example, hypermedia is a fundamental cornerstone in electronic publishing, electronic performance support systems, and interactive entertainment. Most of the current state of the art in hypermedia is being defined by research which is conducted in universities and research institutions. Yet many of the hypermedia systems that are in use today by industry are first generation systems, often at least five years old. This begs the question: just how important is leading edge hypermedia technology to the private sector? The areas that this panel addresses are: * Is there commercial rationalization for incorporating advanced hypermedia technology, and what is it? * How important is basic research and development in hypermedia technology to a company? * Is the current state of the art in hypermedia sufficient to successfully commercialize hypermedia products and services? * What are the best ways to transfer the results from hypermedia research from the academic and research communities to the private sector?
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Mar 21st, 2010
Changes to this page (author)
15 Feb 2010: Enabled abstracts to be shown on Kent Summers's author page.28 Apr 2003: Added the author to the bibliography