John Lenarcic is a honourary associate of Museum Victoria. He is engaged in an oral history project focusing on the CDC3200 main frame computer (ST 043555). Working with David Demant, John interviewed various people associated with the CDC3200, namely Trevor Robinson, George Karoly, John Marquet and John O'Neill. These interviews are or will be attached to this record.

John supplied the following p'eon of self-praise:

Who is John Lenarcic? An Executive Summary as of 13 January 2005

John Lenarcic is a Physicist and Applied Mathematician by training, an Information Technology Academic by fortunate accident and an Armchair Philosopher by conscious choice.

He currently ruminates at length on IT matters as a Lecturer in the School of Business Information Technology at RMIT University. A graduate of Monash University, John has taught in the computing arena at most of the major universities in Victoria, including Melbourne, Monash, Deakin, Swinburne and RMIT, as well as Central Queensland University. During his academic tenure at Monash, John was involved in research projects dealing with intelligent hypermedia navigation systems and low-budget implementations of virtual reality. As part of these activities he attended seminars and visited leading research centres in Washington D.C., Boston, Toronto, Seattle, Lausanne, Paris and London.

On the teaching side, John designed several innovative postgraduate courses, including one on the Psychology of Computer Programming. At Swinburne, John has taught subjects ranging from object-oriented programming to human-computer interface design to computer ethics. In the latter, he introduced the inventive format of using the parables of science fiction to assist in the process of instruction. At RMIT, John has taught project management as well as object-oriented programming. He is also actively developing computer ethics content material for a variety of IT subjects. A key initiative of his at the moment is the organisation of a series of public forums dealing with emerging ethical and social issues of IT. One of these - dealing with the future rights of intelligent robots - was staged at the Reader's Feast bookstore in Melbourne in May 2003.

Outside of academia, John has held a variety of positions, such as being an Experimental Scientist with the CSIRO, where he was involved in Artificial Intelligence research. He worked as a Commercial Applications Programmer with Coles-Myer and as a Physicist with the Bureau of Meteorology. John has even enjoyed a short stint as a Freelance Writer with Kerry Packer's Australian Consolidated Press. Because of his interest in computer ethics, John was the subject of a 2001 profile article within the The City Weekly magazine in Melbourne and also appeared on an episode of the ABC TV series 'Aftershock' to discuss the societal implications of virtual reality.

He has been a commentator on computer ethics for 'Byteintoit' and 'Einstein A-Go-Go' on Melbourne's 3RRR radio. John was also interviewed at length on the 3AW radio show 'After Midnight'. His opinions on the human side of technology have appeared in publications such as the Herald Sun, Sunday Age, Australian Financial Review and BRW and he has made numerous appearances on ABC radio nationwide offering commentary in this regard. In September of 2001 John co-presented a discussion forum on Steven Spielberg's film 'A.I'. at Borders bookstore in South Yarra. In connection with this event, he also appeared on 3RRR's ;Film Buff's Forecast' to discuss the ethical connotations within the Spielberg movie.

In March 2004, John took academia to the bar with the launch of an ongoing series of informal seminars entitled 'University in the Pub', held at Melbourne's Stork Hotel. Structured as a pastiche of television talk shows, the forums explored the information revolution in the broadest sense. A self-confessed polymath - or 'jack-of-all-trades-master-of-some' as he would say - John is also undertaking independent research into cross-cultural colour cognition in association with the Swinburne National School of Design. His work in this area is inherently interdisciplinary in nature, involving the Biology of Colour Vision, Linguistics, Philosophy, Anthropology, Psychology and Computer Science. It is anticipated that the outcomes of John's research will be of practical relevance to the design of commercial websites that span global communities.

John is a passionate aficionado of film music who has written articles on this topic for Melbourne street-press magazines, such as InPress and Scopofile. In 2001 John secured a rare personal interview for the latter publication with renowned film composer Philip Glass who was in Australia to attend the world premiere of his most recent commissioned work at the Melbourne Town Hall. He has also interviewed Michael Nyman, composer of the score to the film 'The Piano', and George Daugherty of 'Bugs Bunny on Broadway' fame. In terms of public speaking engagements, John has presented the fruits of his many academic research interests to audiences at conferences in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, Wollongong and the Gold Coast, in addition to appearances at international venues in locations such as Dallas, Texas, San Francisco and Hawaii.

More Information