Talk: “Buddhist Authority Databases”
Panel: “Mapping History”

Simon Wiles (魏希明) is an IT specialist and part-time Lecturer at Dharma Drum Buddhist College (法鼓佛教學院) in Taiwan. At DDBC he is involved in all areas of IT management and development, and particularly with the Digital Archives Section, which has produced and continues to produce a wide array of digital research and resources in Buddhist studies. Prior to his involvement at DDBC, he obtained degrees in Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and Indian Buddhism and Middle-Indic languages in his native UK, and expects to begin doctoral studies in Chinese Buddhist literature in 2011. His professional experience covers a large swathe of the IT landscape, beginning right back in his early teens when he started a small business offering DTP and web-design services in the early days of the World-Wide Web, and extending to a role as a consultant Systems Developer and his present role at DDBC. He has recently published a paper with Oxford Journals concerning statistical and algorithmic methods for the attribution of authorship in early Chinese Buddhist translations.