Mr. Bellaver has forty years experience in telecommunications and data processing. He has developed software, supervised analyst and programmer teams, evaluated development software, and been a planner at the local and corporate level. He has been at Ball State University for seventeen years where he is the Associate Director of The Center for Information and Communications Sciences. He teaches courses in the History of the Information and Communications Industry, Human Factors in Design, Telecommunications Management, Knowledge Management and Strategic Planning for Information Systems. He has consulted with a large telecommunications company regarding its entry into new business areas, has developed and led several product and system usability studies in conjunction with US corporations, and moderated focus groups for a very large retailer interested in the use of technology by their customers. He was the originator and editor of the CICS Journal. He co-edited a book called Knowledge Management Strategy and Technology.  He has also published a history book called Characters of the Information and Communication Age.  He has been named a Faculty Fellow in Industrial Ecology  by AT&T and by the Indiana Campus Compact.  

Immediately prior to Ball State he was at AT&T Headquarters where he was the Acting Director for System Engineering.  He was responsible for planning the analysis of all systems leading to the establishment of the computer systems architecture and helped establish the Data Stewardship program.  In two tours in the Michigan Bell Company his responsibilities were in Billing and Comptroller results, advanced communications studies, and planning for the IT function at the Corporate level.  He was a rate case witness and spent some time in Business Research. Mr. Bellaver spent six years at the Bell Telephone Laboratories responsible for various technical and human factors usability studies.

His research activities, in addition to Knowledge Management, include electronic books (eBooks.)   He has authored four publications on the subject concerning usage by graduate students and children at the K-12 educational level.   He has received three grants to advance his activities to eliminate backpacks in the grade schools.  He is on the standards work group of the International Digital Publishing Forum.

Mr. Bellaver is a graduate of Purdue University with a BS in Industrial Economics, attended Rutgers and Wayne State Universities taking graduate economics courses, and has an MBA from Michigan State. He holds the Certification for Human Participant Protections Education for Research Teams sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. 

Richard is the past Vice President of the Usability Professional’s Association.  He was responsible for the enactment of the UPA Code of Conduct and serves as Chair of the Advisory Committee.

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