Alex BYRNE (Australia)

Alex BYRNE is the University Librarian at the University of Technology, Sydney.  He is also the President-elect of IFLA and will serve as President 2005-2007.  His involvement with IFLA started in 1988 and has included: Chair, Standing Committee on University and General Research Libraries (1997-1999), CAIFE (1995-1997), First Chair of the Committee on Freedom of Access to Information and Freedom of Expression (FAIFE) (1997-2001 and 2001-2003); Governing Board (2001-2007).  Alex has broad professional expertise in the following areas: Library and Information Technology Management; Flexible Learning; Best Practices and Quality; Strategic Planning; Information Policy; Information Architecture; Literature and Publishing; Freedom of Expression and Human Rights.  He has published on all of these topics.
 

 ZHAN Furui（China）

ZHAN Furui has been Deputy Executive Director of the National Library of China since 2003.  After his graduation from the Chinese Language & Literature Department of Hebei University in 1978, ZHAN studied at the Institute of Ancient Book Preservation at the same university for his M.A. and Ph.D.   Since May 1991, he has been Communist Party Chief, professor, and PH.D advisor at Hebei University.  He is a celebrated scholar in China, with considerable influence in academic circles.  Zhan has a leading position in the research field of the literature of Han, Weijing Nanbei, Sui and Tang Dynasties, and in the field of ancient Chinese literary theory.  In recent years, he has published more than 50 papers in prestigious Chinese journals, including “Literature Comments”, “Culture Study”, “Literary Heritage” and “Studies on the Literature of the Tang Dynasty”.  In addition, he has published several books, including “Towards Secularity---the Trend of Poetic Thoughts in the Nan Dynasty”, “Categories of the Ancient Chinese Literary Theory”, “Elegy of the Feudal Families”, and has written in collaboration with others “Annotation and Comments on the Collected Editions of Libai”, “Complete Interpretation of Libai’s Poems”.

 Eric MILLER (the United States)

Eric MILLER is the Activity Lead for the W3C World Wide Web Consortium's Semantic Web Initiative.  Eric's responsibilities include the architectural and technical leadership in the design and evolution of Semantic Web infrastructure.  Responsibilities additionally include working with W3C Working Group members so that both working groups in the Semantic Web activity, as well as other W3C activities, produce Web standards that support Semantic Web requirements.  In addition, he builds support among user and vendor communities for the Semantic Web by illustrating the benefits to those communities and means of participating in the creation of a metadata-ready Web.  He is also active in establishing liaisons with other technical standards bodies involved in Web-related technology, to ensure compliance with existing Semantic Web standards and collect requirements for future W3C work.  Before joining the W3C, Eric was a Senior Research Scientist at OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc., and the co-founder and Associate Director of the DCMI (Dublin Core Metadata Initiative), an open forum engaged in the development of interoperable online metadata standards that support a broad range of purposes and business models.  Eric holds a Research Scientist appointment at MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science.