Alexandria ACM SC | TechNews | April: Half-Month Edition

7/28/2019 Alexandria ACM SC | TechNews | April: Half-Month Edition

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Page 4 | Could Google tilt a close election?

Page 7 | Making Robots Mimic the Human Hand

Page 9 | Researchers Find Surprising SimilaritiesBetween Genetic and Computer Codes

Page 11 | Mobile APP Turning iPhone into abiologically-inspired hearing aid

Page 13 | RIT researchers develop advancedvideo and image processing

Page 14 | Holograms Add New Dimensionto Fighting Fire

Page 16 | New clues to Wikipedia's sharedsuper mind

Page 17 | NSF Official On New Supers,Data-Intensive Future

Page 21 | Google Australia funds universitiesto spruik computer science

Page 23 | Crowd-funding is working forOpen Source projects


4/24

Not only could Kadoodle sway the outcome

of close elections, he says, it could do so in

a way most voters would never notice.

Epstein, who had a public spat with

Google last year, offers no evidence of

actual evil acts by the company. Yet his

exploration of Kadoodle think of it as

the equivalent of Evil Spock, complete

with goatee not only illuminates how

search engines shape individual choices

but asks whether the government should

have a role in keeping this power in check.

They have a tool far more powerful thanan endorsement or a donation to affect the

outcome, Epstein said. You have a tool

for shaping government. ... Its a hugeeffect thats basically undetectable.

There is no reason to believe that Google

would manipulate politically sensitive

search results. The company depends on

its reputation for presenting fair, useful

links, and though that image has takensome hits in recent years with high-profile

investigations in the United States and

Europe, it would be far worse to get

caught trying to distort search results for

political ends.

Yet Epsteins core finding that a

dominant search engine could alter

perceptions of candidates in close elections

has substantial support. Given the

wealth of information available about

Internet users, a search engine could even

tailor results for certain groups, based on

location, age, income level, past searches,

Googles motto isDont be evil.But what would it mean for democracy if it was?

Thats the question psychologist Robert Epstein has been asking in a series of

experiments testing the impact of a fictitious search engine he called it Kadoodle

that manipulated search rankings, giving an edge to a favoured political candidate by

pushing up flattering links and pushing down unflattering ones.

Web browsing history or other factors.

The voters least tuned in to other sources

of information, such as news reports or

campaign advertisements, would be most

vulnerable. These are the same people

who often end up in the crucial middle of

American politics as coveted swing voters.

Elections are won among low-information

voters, said Eli Pariser, former president

of MoveOn.org and the author of The

Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding

From You. The ability to raise a negative

story about a candidate to a voter ... couldbe quite powerful.

Even efforts to refine search algorithms,

he said, can unintentionally affect what

voters see on their results pages. A search

engine that favours certain news sources

based, for example, on the sophistication

of the writing as measured by vocabulary

or sentence length might push to

prominence links preferred by highlyeducated readers, helping the political

party and ideas they support.

Epsteins research is slated to be

presented in Washington this spring at

the annual meeting of the Association for

Psychological Science. The Washington

Post shared an advance copy of a five-page

research summary with officials at Google.

Providing relevant answers has been the

cornerstone ofGoogles approach to search

from the very beginning, the company

said in a statement. It would undermine

peoples trust in our results and company

if we were to change course.

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Could Google tilt a close election?


5/245

It certainly is clear that outside groups

seek to manipulate Googles results. The

consequences of such tactics in the

consumer world are well-known, with

companies spending vast sums trying to

goose search rankings for their products

in make-or-break bids for profit.

In the political realm, the creators

of Google bombs managed to link the

name of then-Sen. John Kerry, the

Democratic presidential nominee in 2004,

with the word waffles in search results.

President George W. Bush had his name

linked, through similar tactics, to thewords miserable failure. In 2010, a

conservative group used a collection of

linked Twitter accounts to affect search

rankings about the Massachusetts special

election that brought Scott Brown to the

Senate, according to research by two

computer science professors at Wellesley

College.

Google has resisted such tactics, and itsvulnerability to manipulation from outside

was limited in the 2012 election cycle,

according to researchers, political

professionals and search experts.

Though search results on Google are

generated by a complex and ever-changing

algorithm weighing, for example, links

to other sites, content quality and the time

spent on sites when people click through

the key factors emphasize relevance to

users. The company works to spot and

defeat those who seek to alter results

unfairly, and it sometimes punishes those

who do by demoting their search rankings.

But Epsteins argument is based on a

different scenario: What if manipulation

came from within? Even those who

harbour no doubts about Googles

intentions generally agree that internalmanipulation would be potent and, at

least initially, hard to spot. They could do

something manually with these results,

but I cant see why they would do that,

said Mike Grehan, publisher of Search

Engine

Watch and a commentator whose views

often are in line with Googles.

Yet Epstein and some others say the

companys power alone whether or not

it uses it calls out for legal safeguards.

Though Microsoft, Yahoo and Facebook

also operate search engines, Google has

about two-thirds of the U.S. market.

Even if Google has no plan to skew search

rankings today, what if conditions or its

corporate leadership changed over

time?

There is a bit of history of some powerful

communications companies directlymeddling in elections. I dont think Google

has an incentive to do this, but a future

Google could, said Tim Wu, a Columbia

University law professor and the author

ofThe Master Switch: The Rise and Fall

of Information Empires.The question of

free speech in America is controlled by a

few powerful gatekeepers who could

subtly shape things.In the 1800s, Wu noted, Western Union

employees often read telegrams from

Democrats and shared their contents with

Republicans their political allies or

didnt deliver them. This stopped, Wu

said, only with the arrival of forceful

federal regulation.

Epstein, a Harvard-trained psychologist

and former editor in chief of Psychology

Today, turned his attention to Google

after the company flagged search

results for a Web site that he ran, warning

that it was infected with malicious

programs that could harm visitors.

Epstein complained publicly about the

move and the lack of responsiveness from

Google, e-mailing senior company officials.

He later acknowledged that his site had

been infiltrated by hackers, but theexperience left him aghast at what he

considered Googles unchecked power. He

wrote blog posts calling for greater

regulatory oversight of the company.


6/246

For his experiment, conducted with

colleague Ronald E. Robertson at the

American Institute for Behavioural

Research and Technology, Epsteinattempted to shape the perceptions of a

random sampling of potential voters in

California. The test involved an election

most of the subjects knew little about: a

close-fought campaign for prime minister

of Australia in 2010. The researchers

secretly altered the rankings of search

results to help favoured candidates.

After 15 minutes of searching and reading

linked articles, it was clear that the ma-

nipulation had worked, with about 65

percent of subjects favouring the

candidate getting elevated rankings,

compared with 50 percent among a control

group that saw impartial search results,

according to Epstein. Three out of four

subjects, meanwhile, reported no

awareness that the search rankings had

been altered.The lack of prior knowledge about the race

or alternative sources of information

accentuated the effects of the search

rankings, Epstein acknowledged. But he

said the experiment made clear that ma-

nipulation is possible, powerful and hard

to detect.

However, the sheer volume of other

information available to voters wouldmake such manipulation hard to execute,

said David Vladeck, a Georgetown

University law professor and the former

head of consumer protection at the

Federal Trade Commission. Traditional

news organizations, he said, probably

have more power over the views of voters.

It is not clear to me that, even if Google

tried to, it could exercise the same power

over the American public as Fox News or

MSNBC, Vladeck said. The claim is such

a difficult one to sustain that I find it hard

to take it seriously.

Federal regulations have in some

circumstances limited what news

organizations can do.

The Fairness Doctrineonce requiredbroadcasters to present both sides of

controversial issues, and media cross-

ownership rules can still limit the ability

of newspapers, for example, to own radio

or television stations in the same

metropolitan area.

Some legal scholars contend that search

engine rankings are covered under the

First Amendments free speechprotections. Yet, even those who think

that search engines can have potent

effects on elections differ on what kind of

regulation, if any, would be sensible and

effective. And its not even clear what

federal agency would have the authority

to investigate allegations of abuse.

The key lesson may be that search engines

are not mere machines spitting out

perfectly impartial results. They aredriven by decisions, made by people who

have biases. This does not necessarily

make them evil merely human.

The more trust we give to these kinds of

tools, the more likely we can be

manipulated down the road, said

Panagiotis T. Metaxas, one of the

computer science professors at Wellesley

College who studied the Massachusettselection. We need to understand, as

people, as citizens, why we believe what

we believe.

Craig Timberg

References[1] The Washington Post|http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/could-

google-tilt-a-close-election/2013/03/29/c8d7f4e6-

9587-11e2-b6f0-a5150a247b6a_story.html

[email protected]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/could-google-tilt-a-close-election/2013/03/29/c8d7f4e6-9587-11e2-b6f0-a5150a247b6a_story.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/could-google-tilt-a-close-election/2013/03/29/c8d7f4e6-9587-11e2-b6f0-a5150a247b6a_story.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/could-google-tilt-a-close-election/2013/03/29/c8d7f4e6-9587-11e2-b6f0-a5150a247b6a_story.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/could-google-tilt-a-close-election/2013/03/29/c8d7f4e6-9587-11e2-b6f0-a5150a247b6a_story.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/could-google-tilt-a-close-election/2013/03/29/c8d7f4e6-9587-11e2-b6f0-a5150a247b6a_story.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/could-google-tilt-a-close-election/2013/03/29/c8d7f4e6-9587-11e2-b6f0-a5150a247b6a_story.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/could-google-tilt-a-close-election/2013/03/29/c8d7f4e6-9587-11e2-b6f0-a5150a247b6a_story.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/could-google-tilt-a-close-election/2013/03/29/c8d7f4e6-9587-11e2-b6f0-a5150a247b6a_story.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/could-google-tilt-a-close-election/2013/03/29/c8d7f4e6-9587-11e2-b6f0-a5150a247b6a_story.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/could-google-tilt-a-close-election/2013/03/29/c8d7f4e6-9587-11e2-b6f0-a5150a247b6a_story.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/could-google-tilt-a-close-election/2013/03/29/c8d7f4e6-9587-11e2-b6f0-a5150a247b6a_story.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/could-google-tilt-a-close-election/2013/03/29/c8d7f4e6-9587-11e2-b6f0-a5150a247b6a_story.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/could-google-tilt-a-close-election/2013/03/29/c8d7f4e6-9587-11e2-b6f0-a5150a247b6a_story.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/could-google-tilt-a-close-election/2013/03/29/c8d7f4e6-9587-11e2-b6f0-a5150a247b6a_story.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/could-google-tilt-a-close-election/2013/03/29/c8d7f4e6-9587-11e2-b6f0-a5150a247b6a_story.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/could-google-tilt-a-close-election/2013/03/29/c8d7f4e6-9587-11e2-b6f0-a5150a247b6a_story.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/could-google-tilt-a-close-election/2013/03/29/c8d7f4e6-9587-11e2-b6f0-a5150a247b6a_story.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/could-google-tilt-a-close-election/2013/03/29/c8d7f4e6-9587-11e2-b6f0-a5150a247b6a_story.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/could-google-tilt-a-close-election/2013/03/29/c8d7f4e6-9587-11e2-b6f0-a5150a247b6a_story.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/could-google-tilt-a-close-election/2013/03/29/c8d7f4e6-9587-11e2-b6f0-a5150a247b6a_story.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/could-google-tilt-a-close-election/2013/03/29/c8d7f4e6-9587-11e2-b6f0-a5150a247b6a_story.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/could-google-tilt-a-close-election/2013/03/29/c8d7f4e6-9587-11e2-b6f0-a5150a247b6a_story.html


7/24

The goal of the program, now in its third

phase, is to develop robots and prosthetic

devices for wide use. Until now, high cost

as well as limits on dexterity and machinevision have been major obstacles to

advanced robotic systems.

Robotic hands that mimic the capabilities

of the human hand have cost $10,000 or

more, and computer vision systems have

worked only in highly structured

environments on a very limited set of

objects.

But it is becoming feasible to make hands

that will cost less than $3,000 in

quantities of 1,000. Two teams from

iRobot, a robot maker in Bedford, Mass.,

and the governments Sandia National

Laboratories in New Mexico are

working on the hand project; they employ

a variety of widely available technologies,

like cellphone cameras and sensors, to

help lower costs.

Were definitely watching their progress,said Rodney Brooks, founder of Rethink

Robotics, a Boston-based maker of low-cost

manufacturing robot systems.

The Darpa research has been vital in

keeping the United States in the forefront

of robotic technology, he said. He likened

the current work to Darpa projects in the

1980s and 1990s that led to the robotic

navigation technologies crucial to thedevelopment of self-driving automobiles.

One of the hands under development

comes with three fingers and the other

comes with four, and they are able to do a

variety of delicate operations.

As part of a national research project to develop low-cost artificial hands, the Pentagon

has released a video of a robot that can change a tire almost. In the video, the two-

armed robot uses a tool to remove a tire from a car. Were almost at the stage where we

can put the the nuts back onto the bolts, said Gill Pratt, a program manager at the

Pentagons Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa.

In one Darpa video, a robot hand picks up

a tweezers and uses it to pick up a straw

and move it back and forth, Dr. Pratt said.

The various hands are still a work inprogress, he noted. The tire-changing

video was made when we were using the

old hands and not the new hands, and

they did not quite have the dexterity to

thread the nut onto the bolt in a way that

it doesnt cross the thread.

Darpa also set out tasks that it hopes to

accomplish during the next phase. One

example is to design a robot arm and handthat can search for an improvised

explosive device, or I.E.D., by touch. The

challenge would be to program a hand

that could open the zipper on a gym bag

and then go through the bag and

recognize objects by touch.

The agency is also financing research

groups in two other categories. It has

selected the National Robotics

Engineering Center at Carnegie MellonUniversity, NASAs Jet Propulsion

Laboratory and the University of

Southern California to continue

development of high-level software for the

next generation of robot arms.

Until recently, the agency asked software

developers to develop robotic programs for

generic individual motions, like moving

forward or backward; now it has set out tosimply have the robots perform a specific

task.

You could say things like pick up the

bottle, unlock the door, tasks like that,

Dr. Pratt said.

7

Making Robots Mimic the Human Hand


8/248

The agency began with six teams and held

a bake-off in which it chose three teams

to continue in the last phase of the project.

In the software project, Darpa suppliedeach team with a standard hand that it

then programmed.

The grasping tasks were done so well

that we believe that for the kinds of

objects we had them pick up ranging

from a ball to a rock to tools like hammers

we dont need to do further work in

grasping, Dr. Pratt said.

Manipulating grasped objects was a morechallenging task, he said, and one on

which the teams would continue to do

research. The program is financed for 18

more months.

Darpa is also continuing to finance the

development of low-cost arms at Barrett

Technologies, a robotics research firm in

Cambridge, Mass.; Sandia; iRobot; and

SRI International, a research organization

in Menlo Park, Calif.The agency is also planning to create a

joint project to transfer some of the low-

cost technology advances it has made in

the project into a related effort to develop

prosthetic limbs for wounded soldiers.

Johns Hopkins University has received

funds to develop a neural interface a

direct link from a robot arm to the human

brain and DEKA Research, anindependent development laboratory

headed by Dean Kamen in Manchester,

N.H., has developed a separate wearable

arm now being considered for approval by

the Food and Drug Administration.

That robotic arm is close to

commercialization, said Geoffrey Ling,

acting deputy director of Darpas Defense

Sciences Office.

We have pictures of young men doing

rock climbing and one of the patients

using chopsticks, which is really

extraordinary, he said. It provides a high

degree of functionality, and the patients

who have it are using it.

John Markoff

References[1] The New York Times|http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/30/science/maki

ng-robots-mimic-the-human-hand.html?_r=1&
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/30/science/making-robots-mimic-the-human-hand.html?_r=1&http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/30/science/making-robots-mimic-the-human-hand.html?_r=1&http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/30/science/making-robots-mimic-the-human-hand.html?_r=1&http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/30/science/making-robots-mimic-the-human-hand.html?_r=1&http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/30/science/making-robots-mimic-the-human-hand.html?_r=1&http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/30/science/making-robots-mimic-the-human-hand.html?_r=1&http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/30/science/making-robots-mimic-the-human-hand.html?_r=1&http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/30/science/making-robots-mimic-the-human-hand.html?_r=1&http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/30/science/making-robots-mimic-the-human-hand.html?_r=1&http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/30/science/making-robots-mimic-the-human-hand.html?_r=1&http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/30/science/making-robots-mimic-the-human-hand.html?_r=1&http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/30/science/making-robots-mimic-the-human-hand.html?_r=1&http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/30/science/making-robots-mimic-the-human-hand.html?_r=1&http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/30/science/making-robots-mimic-the-human-hand.html?_r=1&


9/24

Computational biologist Sergei Maslov ofBrookhaven National Laboratory worked

with graduate student Tin Yau Pang from

Stony Brook University to compare the

frequency with which components

"survive" in two complex systems:

bacterial genomes and operating systems

on Linux computers. Their work

is published in the Proceedings of the

National Academy of Sciences.

Maslov and Pang set out to determine notonly why some specialized genes or

computer programs are very common

while others are fairly rare, but to see how

many components in any system are so

important that they can't be eliminated.

"If a bacteria genome doesn't have a

particular gene, it will be dead on arrival,"

Maslov said. "How many of those genes

are there? The same goes for largesoftware systems. They have multiple

components that work together and the

systems require just the right components

working together to thrive.'"

Using data from the massive sequencing

of bacterial genomes, now a part of the

DOE Systems Biology Knowledgebase

(KBase), Maslov and Pang examined the

frequency of usage of crucial bits of

genetic code in the metabolic processes of

500 bacterial species and found a

surprising similarity with the frequency of

installation of 200,000 Linux packages on

more than 2 million individual computers.

The term "survival of the fittest" refers to natural selection in biological systems, but

Darwin's theory may apply more broadly than that. New research from the U.S.

Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory shows that this evolutionary

theory also applies to technological systems.

Linux is an open source software

collaboration that allows designers to

modify source code to create programs for

public use.

The most frequently used components in

both the biological and computer systems

are those that allow for the most

descendants. That is, the more a

component is relied upon by others, the

more likely it is to be required for full

functionality of a system.It may seem logical, but the surprising

part of this finding is how universal it is.

"It is almost expected that the frequency

of usage of any component is correlated

with how many other components depend

on it," said Maslov. "But we found that we

can determine the number of crucial

components those without which other

components couldn't function by asimple calculation that holds true both in

biological systems and computer systems."

For both the bacteria and the computing

systems, take the square root of the

interdependent components and you can

find the number of key components that

are so important that not a single other

piece can get by without them.

Maslov's finding applies equally to these

complex networks because they are bothexamples of open access systems with

components that are independently

installed. "Bacteria are the ultimate

BitTorrents of biology," he said, referring

to a popular file-sharing protocol.

9

Between Genetic& Computer CodesFind Surprising Similarities

Researchers


10/2410

"They have this enormous common pool of

genes that they are freely sharing with

each other. Bacterial systems can easily

add or remove genes from their genomesthrough what's called horizontal gene

transfer, a kind of file sharing between

bacteria," Maslov said.

The same goes for Linux operating

systems, which allow free installation of

components built and shared by a

multitude of designers independently of

one another. The theory wouldn't hold

true for, say, a Windows operating system,

which only runs proprietary programs.

Maslov is co-principal investigator in the

KBase program, which is led by principal

investigator Adam Arkin of DOE's

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory,

with additional co-principal investigators

Rick Stevens of DOE's Argonne National

Laboratory and Robert Cottingham of

DOE's Oak Ridge National

Laboratory. Supported by DOE's Office ofScience, the KBase program provides a

high-performance computing environment

that enables researchers to access,

integrate, analyze and share large-scale

genomic data to facilitate scientific

collaboration and accelerate the pace of

scientific discovery.

DOE's Office of Science is the single

largest supporter of basic research in thephysical sciences in the United States, and

is working to address some of the most

pressing challenges of our time.

References[1] BrookHaven National Lab|http://www.bnl.gov/newsroom/news.php?a=11518

Chelsea Whyte,Phone (631) 344-8671

Peter Genzer,Phone(631) 344-3174
http://www.bnl.gov/newsroom/news.php?a=11518http://www.bnl.gov/newsroom/news.php?a=11518


11/24

BioAid, which is available on iTunes has

been developed by Professor Ray Meddis

ofEssexs Department of Psychology with

Nick Clark, formerly a Research Officer in

the Department and Dr Wendy Lecluyse

of University Campus Suffolk. Unlike

standard aids that have a single setting,BioAid has six fixed settings each of which

has four fine-tuning settings allowing the

user to find the perfect match for their

impairment.

Professor Meddis said: We are very

excited about the potential of BioAid

which could genuinely change lives.

People with hearing impairment very

often withdraw from public life. Even if

they have a hearing aid, the technology is

not sophisticated enough to offer a tailor-

made solution to their impairment and in

many cases people simply stop using

them.

Sounds are a complicated mixture of

different frequencies and hearing loss is

usually a loss of sensitivity to some but

not all frequencies. Standard hearing aids

amplify some frequencies more thanothers but BioAid is different because it

also compresses the very loud sounds that

can make social situations like going to

the pub, cinema or a birthday party

intolerable.

Researchers at the University of Essex have developed a free mobile app that turns an

iPhone or iPod into a hearing aid that could revolutionise the future for people with

hearing loss.Unlike standard hearing aids that simply amplify all sounds, the BioAid

app is inspired by biology and replicates the complexities of the human ear. It puts the

user in control, is available to anyone, anywhere without the need for a hearing test, andpotentially holds the key to a future where tiny, phone-based hearing aids can be

dispensed and adjusted remotely.

Nick Clark added: The mobile phone is a

great platform for rapidly transferring

hearing aid technology from the

laboratory to the hands of the public.

Standard hearing aids, which can cost

thousands of pounds, are only dispensed

by a professional after a hearing test.BioAid offers a simple alternative

accessible to anyone with an iPhone or

iPod. The hearing test is replaced by an

exploratory process, allowing users to find

which setting works best for them. In the

short term, people unsure about visiting a

hearing care professional might be swayed

to do so by BioAid, which can only be a

good thing.As phones get smaller and technology

continues to advance, the researchers

believe the BioAid project has the

potential to radically change the future of

hearing devices. Professor Meddis

explained: Its not inconceivable that well

wear phones on our wrist in the near

future, or even as tiny devices behind the

ear. With the BioAid algorithm and wi-fi

technology, we could see dispensers ableto remotely adjust the settings on a phone-

based aid and even monitor use to ensure

the user is getting the most out of it.

11

Mobile App Turns iPhone IntoA Biologically-inspired Hearing Aid


12/2412

Wendy Lecluyse added: This new device

opens up many intriguing research

possibilities allowing scientists to explore

new ideas in hearing aid design and howthey work in everyday settings. At the

moment, we are particularly interested to

find out how the preferred setting of each

user corresponds with their hearing

problem.

The development of BioAid, which has

been funded by the Engineering and

Physical Sciences Research Council, is

part of a research project to influence thefuture of hearing aids. The researchers

want to hear about peoples experiences

using BioAid so that they can continue to

perfect the technology. Users can get in

touch, and find further information

at:http://bioaid.org.uk/.

References[1] University of Essex|http://www.essex.ac.uk/news/event.aspx?e_id=5095

University of Essex

Telephone: 01206 873529E-mail: [email protected].
http://bioaid.org.uk/http://www.essex.ac.uk/news/event.aspx?e_id=5095http://www.essex.ac.uk/news/event.aspx?e_id=5095http://bioaid.org.uk/http://bioaid.org.uk/http://bioaid.org.uk/http://bioaid.org.uk/http://bioaid.org.uk/http://bioaid.org.uk/http://bioaid.org.uk/


13/24

Eli Saber, professor of electrical and

microelectronic engineering in RITs KateGleason College of Engineering, and

David Messinger, associate research

professor of imaging science in the

universitys Chester F. Carlson Center for

Imaging Science, were awarded two

grants, totaling more than $1.1 million,

from the Department of Defense to

continue advancing this technology.

The first, Hierarchical Representation ofRemote Senses Multimodal Imagery was

awarded $576,042 to advance the

foundation for object-based image analysis

of remotely sensed images, and to explore

the use of topological features to improve

classification and detection results. The

second grant, Spatio - Temporal

Segmentation of Full Motion Airborne

Video Imagery, was awarded $576, 043

and focuses on development of a

segmentation methodology to differentiate

the unique cues of moving and still objects

derived from full motion video capture.

It all comes down to efficiently handling

large amounts of image data collected

from satellites and video streams, which

are not necessarily big images, but I can

collect video for hours, says Messinger,

who also serves as the director of RITsDigital Imaging and Remote Sensing

Laboratory. Youd like to be able to

download the data, have it go into a

computer system and have it reduce that

eight hours of video down to 20 minutes

Rapid developments in satellite and sensor technologies have increased the availability

of high-resolution, remotely sensed images faster than researchers can process and

analyze the data manually. Researchers at Rochester Institute of Technology are

developing advanced intelligence processing technologies to handle those large volumes

of data in a timely manner, and to effectively distinguish objects, scale, complexity and

organization.

that somebody actually has to look at, just

the highlights so they can process theinformation to make decisions.

Both projects advance work done by

researchers in the area of image

segmentation, with this newest research

focused on advanced video processing.

Messinger and Sabers project team will

develop complex computer algorithms to

promote a platform for intelligent

computer processing. Computers interpretobject information from images and video

as a two-dimensional plane, unlike

humans who understand an objects three-

dimensional aspects, says Saber.

We struggle in doing the proper video

segmentation intelligently, he adds. How

do computers form this recognition that

we as humans have understood for most of

our lives? How do you get the computer to

recognize images the same as humanswould do it? It is a problem that is largely

unsolved and difficult.

The system the team is producing would

be adaptable for identifying structures,

objects of various sizes, shapes and

timescales, says Messinger.

It has to be flexible enough to capture all

of that information in multiple spatial and

temporal scales, he says. I want to beable to process it to extract information

automatically, so I can make the process

more efficient for the end user.

13

advanced video & image processingRIT Researchers develop

http://www.rit.edu/news/story.php?

id=49877


14/24

In Italy, Pietro Ferraro of the Consiglio

Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) Istituto

Nazionale di Ottica (National ResearchCouncil - National Institute of Optics), is

using hologram technology to create three-

dimensional images that would allow fire

fighters to see through smoke and flames

during a rescue.

Though thermal imaging can see through

smoke, the presence of flames can obscure

objects, such as people in need of rescue.

Instead of using lenses to generate animage, Ferraros hologram device uses

laser beams and something called

numerical processing, so the device can

see through flames and generate a 3-D

image of a room. If somehow combined

with thermal imaging, the technology

could provide yet another layer of

information to fire fighters.

So far, the experiments have been carried

out in a laboratory, but simulating

outdoor conditions," Ferraro said

via email. "No anti-vibration systems have

been used and no dark-rooms have been

employed. For these reasons, we are

strongly confident about the possibility to

bring this technology out of the lab. We

think that in a few years, these systems

could be applied for fixed installations, for

example in hospitals, schools tunnels oreven highways.

The software behind Ferraros

experiments works quickly, he said, and a

single frame of imagery can be

constructed in less than half a second.

The use of thermal imaging in fighting fires is 25 years old this year the first

documented life saved by the technology goes back to a New York City fire in 1988.

Though it took years for thermal imaging technology to become widespread due to cost,

once it was well established in fire fighting, a direct connection between their use and

the preservation of life was clear. And now, a new device being developed by researchers

could further augment this live-saving technology.

The invention can scan for data and

process the data in quasi-real time, he

said, generating a rapidly updated 3-Dimage of a room or area.

Because the software demands a relatively

small amount of processing power from a

computer, the processing could be

performed by a common laptop or mobile

device. We strongly think that this part

can be performed at a fire scene," he said,

"maybe by a host connected from a mobile

station outside the building."

Ferraros invention isnt available yet, but

Capt. Jon Muir, public information officer

of the Orange County Fire Authority in

California, said it sounds potentially

useful. Any technology that will assist or

aid us in doing what we need to do, Muir

said, is something worth looking into. For

15 years, Muir said hes been using

thermal imaging, along with others, to

make fighting fires safer.

Thermal imaging has three main uses,

Muir said. It can allow fire fighters to

measure the temperature of a burning

building and identify what stage the fire is

in. Thermal imaging can also help fire

fighters understand the layout of a

building and spot weak structural

elements before they fall. Perhaps mostimportantly, thermal imaging can be used

to find victims amid the flames. In this

way, thermal imaging has saved lives.

14

Holograms

Add New Dimension to Fighting Fire

http://www.rit.edu/news/story.php?

id=49877


15/2415

But sometimes, Muir said, flames can

make it difficult to see everything, so if

holograms could be combined with

thermal imaging to create a morecomplete picture, it would be a welcome

addition.

References[1] Government Technology|http://www.govtech.com/public-safety/Holograms-

Add-New-Dimension-to-Fighting-Fire.html

Colin Wood
http://www.govtech.com/public-safety/Holograms-Add-New-Dimension-to-Fighting-Fire.htmlhttp://www.govtech.com/public-safety/Holograms-Add-New-Dimension-to-Fighting-Fire.htmlhttp://www.govtech.com/public-safety/Holograms-Add-New-Dimension-to-Fighting-Fire.htmlhttp://www.govtech.com/public-safety/Holograms-Add-New-Dimension-to-Fighting-Fire.htmlhttp://www.govtech.com/public-safety/Holograms-Add-New-Dimension-to-Fighting-Fire.htmlhttp://www.govtech.com/public-safety/Holograms-Add-New-Dimension-to-Fighting-Fire.htmlhttp://www.govtech.com/public-safety/Holograms-Add-New-Dimension-to-Fighting-Fire.htmlhttp://www.govtech.com/public-safety/Holograms-Add-New-Dimension-to-Fighting-Fire.htmlhttp://www.govtech.com/public-safety/Holograms-Add-New-Dimension-to-Fighting-Fire.htmlhttp://www.govtech.com/public-safety/Holograms-Add-New-Dimension-to-Fighting-Fire.htmlhttp://www.govtech.com/public-safety/Holograms-Add-New-Dimension-to-Fighting-Fire.htmlhttp://www.govtech.com/public-safety/Holograms-Add-New-Dimension-to-Fighting-Fire.htmlhttp://www.govtech.com/public-safety/Holograms-Add-New-Dimension-to-Fighting-Fire.htmlhttp://www.govtech.com/public-safety/Holograms-Add-New-Dimension-to-Fighting-Fire.htmlhttp://www.govtech.com/public-safety/Holograms-Add-New-Dimension-to-Fighting-Fire.htmlhttp://www.govtech.com/public-safety/Holograms-Add-New-Dimension-to-Fighting-Fire.htmlhttp://www.govtech.com/public-safety/Holograms-Add-New-Dimension-to-Fighting-Fire.html


16/24

A great example of this cooperative nature

is Wikipedias article on former U.S.President George W. Bush a highly

contested piece of Wiki real estate that

has been edited some 45,000 times.

Show me a place on the Internet where

people agree about George W. Bush? asks

DeDeo. But the Wikipedia article reads

as if it was written by aliens who didn't

care [about Bush] although we know it

was written by people who cared a lot.Just how Wikipedia manages this

collective balance is something DeDeo was

able to study in detail because, unlike

most other social systems, every

Wikipedia edit is recorded.

It's almost like you had closed circuit

cameras running as a society is creating

itself, he says, so every move could be

studied and watched.

All these sequences of behaviors createwhat can be viewed as a historical

grammar, like that of a language or even

bird song. A bird song, for example, has

very simple grammar, with few elements

and combinations possible what's called

a finite-state system. The historical

language that creates and maintains

Wikipedia might be expected to follow a

rather limited grammar as well, but that'snot what DeDeo discovered.

The big result is that the Wikipedia

behavior is what we call non-finite state,

DeDeo says. Its constantly generating

new patterns of behavior that havent

been seen before.

Wikipedia's remarkable accuracy and usefulness comes from something larger than the

sum of its written contributions, a new study by SFI Research Fellow Simon

DeDeo finds. The free, anonymously written and edited online encyclopaedia was widely

expected to fall prey to cranks and partisans. Instead, it has proven no less accurate

than the venerable Encyclopaedia Britannica, according to several analyses of the

quality of its information. "The question is how?

One possibility, he says, is that the

unbounded source for these behaviorpatterns in Wikipedia is shared between

people its the product of everyones

mind. That's what's really exciting, he

says.

16

Wikipedia's shared super mind

New clues to

References[1] SANTA FE INSTITUTE|http://www.santafe.edu/news/item/dedeo-

wikipedia-shared-super-mind/
http://www.santafe.edu/news/item/dedeo-wikipedia-shared-super-mind/http://www.santafe.edu/news/item/dedeo-wikipedia-shared-super-mind/http://www.santafe.edu/news/item/dedeo-wikipedia-shared-super-mind/http://www.santafe.edu/news/item/dedeo-wikipedia-shared-super-mind/http://www.santafe.edu/news/item/dedeo-wikipedia-shared-super-mind/http://www.santafe.edu/news/item/dedeo-wikipedia-shared-super-mind/http://www.santafe.edu/news/item/dedeo-wikipedia-shared-super-mind/http://www.santafe.edu/news/item/dedeo-wikipedia-shared-super-mind/http://www.santafe.edu/news/item/dedeo-wikipedia-shared-super-mind/http://www.santafe.edu/news/item/dedeo-wikipedia-shared-super-mind/http://www.santafe.edu/news/item/dedeo-wikipedia-shared-super-mind/


17/24

At the heart of both of these systems is

some serious monetary backing from the

National Science Foundation (NSF), which

has committed several million to seeing

both supers into the worldno

matter how entangled the path. The

organization funded the large majority of

both projects in the name of furthering

some critical human - centred scientific

projects related to the environment,

gemonics, disaster preparedness and

epidemiology.We chatted earlier this week with Alan

Blatecky who directs the NSFs Division of

Advanced Cyber infrastructure about

where these supers fit into the

overarching mission of the NSF--and what

the future looks like as applications

require systems that are as "big data"

ready as they are computationally robust.

Blatecky reiterated that from an NSFstandpoint, these are two major

investments in HPC, but they aren't

necessarily related in terms of anticipated

use or application types. As he told us, the

two systems are designed for quite

different purposes.

One the one hand, the massive Stampede

will cater to a large number of users with

an emphasis on boosting the breadth of

applicationsnot to mention extending

what those extended apps are able to

crunch. Blue Waters, on the other hand,

will focus on a much smaller number of

users, perhaps as many as a dozen, who

have very deep, specific research

applications.

It has been a noteworthy week in the world of scientific and technical computing as two

long-awaited supercomputers have been formally revved up for big research action.

The Dell-Intel scientific workhorse, Stampede, at TACC was ushered into the large-scale

distributed research fold yesterday. And at the moment of this writing, the rather storied

IBM and then Cray-backed Blue Waters system at NCSA is gearing up for its formal

intro.

While grappling with multiple users

across a distributed system like Stampedeand its XSEDE base is never simple, there

are far more pressing challenges. In

addition to pointing to extensive

application retooling that needs to

happen, especially on Blue Waters, there

was one phrase we heard several times--

"big data".

The ability to take advantage of the large

number of cores on a machine like BlueWaters is one of the biggest challenges

user will face, says Blatecky, who points to

how his organization is providing support

on the programming and computer science

front to aid domain specialist scientists.

He said that going forward, the systems

that will shine for the big science

endeavours of the NSF will be those that

can strike a balance between being data-

intensive systems while retaining the

computational power of massive numbers

of cores, some of which are being pushed

by accelerators and co-processors.

As Blatecky detailed, Our point of view at

the NSF is focused on the broader base of

scientific users. Were interested in the

data-intensive computational

requirements, which is part of whats

unique about Blue Waters. It has thatneeded balance between power, memory

and storage to address both the data-

intensive and computationally-intensive

applications.

17

Supers, Data-Intensive Future

NSF Official On New


18/2418

When asked about the supercomputing

goals the NSF wants to support over the

next five years, Blatecky said that the real

mission is to support a broader group of

scientific users, especially those working

in hot applications like genomics,

materials science and environmental

research areas. Most of their plans revolve

around socially-oriented missions,

including studies to predict earthquakes,

flood outcomes, disaster response

situations, and medically-driven research

on the HIV and epidemic modelling fronts.

We also talked briefly about how HPC aswe know it--and the NSF funds it--could

change over the next five years. "I don't

know what it will be," he noted, but he has

no doubt that the performance-driven

architectures might not be enough to keep

up with the very real data explosion

across real science applications unless

they strike that memory/storage/power

balance that Blue Waters has.While not all HPC application are

necessarily hugely data-intensive, a look

down the list of applications reveals some

of the highest data volume-driven

research areas in science, particularly

around medical and earth sciences

projects. TACC, for instance, will now be

the centre of some cutting-edge

earthquake, environmental and ecological

research as scientists from around theworld bring their best and brightest ideas

--not to mention an unprecedented level of

data--to the common table of the shared

resource.

As TACC Director Jay Boisseau stated

upon the formal announcement of

Stampede yesterday, the system has been

designed to support a large, diverse

research community. We are as excitedabout Stampede's comprehensive

capabilities and its high usability as we

are of its tremendous performance."

On that note, 90% of TACCs new

powerhouse will be dedicated to

the XSEDE program, which is a unified

virtualized system that lets globalscientists tap into powerful systems, new

data wells and computational tools

through one hub.

TACC will tap into the remaining

horsepower for larger goals within its own

centre and in the University of Texas

research community. And there is

certainly some power to the system. As

TACC described cleanly in their own

statement on the specs, the Dell and Intel

system boasts the following points of

pride:

Stampede system components are

connected via a fat-tree, FDR InfiniBand

interconnect. One hundred and sixty

compute racks house compute nodes with

dual, eight-core sockets, and feature the

new Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors.

Additional racks house login, I/O, big-memory, and general hardware

management nodes. Each compute node is

provisioned with local storage. A high-

speed Lustre file system is backed by 76

I/O servers. Stampede also contains 16

large memory nodes, each with 1 TB of

RAM and 32 cores, and 128 standard

compute nodes, each with an NVIDIA

Kepler K20 GPU, giving users access tolarge shared-memory computing and

remote visualization capabilities,

respectively. Users will interact with the

system via multiple dedicated login

servers, and a suite of high-speed data

servers. The cluster resource manager for

job submission and scheduling will be

SLURM (Simple Linux Utility for

Resource Management).

Unlike Stampede, which is expected tomake a top 5 showing on the Top 500m

Blue Waters will not be benchmarking for

reasons NCSA's Bill Kramer explained to

us in detail right around SC12.


19/2419

Of course, not that it needs to convince us

that it will be a scientific powerhouse..

The Blue Waters saga began back in 2007

when the NSF funded the super to thetune of $208 million. At the time, IBM was

at the heart of the project but refunded

their payments for Blue Waters

system after looking at the cost versus

return equation. Cray was later selected

to take over the project with a $188

million contract that would lead the super

into completion.

In the year since the video below was

filmed, work on the system was completed

and Blue Waters was installed at NCSA.

The 11.6 petaflops (peak) supercomputer

contains 237 XE cabinets, each with 24

blade assemblies, and 32 cabinets of the

Cray XK6 supercomputer with NVIDIA

Tesla GPU computing capability.

Currently available in "friendly-user"

mode for NCSA-approved teams, Blue

Waters provides sustained performance of1 petaflop or more on a range of real-world

science and engineering applications.

"Blue Waters is an example of a high-risk,

high-reward research infrastructure

project that will enable NSF to achieve its

mission of funding basic research at the

frontiers of science," said NSF Acting

Director Cora Marrett. "Its impact on

science and engineering discoveries andinnovation, as well as on national

priorities, such as health, safety and well-

being, will be extraordinary.

Examples1. Modelling HIVBlue Waters is enabling Klaus

Schulten and his team at UIUC to

describe the HIV genome and itsbehaviour in minute detail, through

computations that require the simulations

of more than 60 million atoms. They just

published a paper in PLOS Pathogens

touting an early

discovery--not (yet) the structure of the

HIV virus, but that of a smaller virus,

which could only be achieved through a 10

million atom, molecular dynamicssimulation, inconceivable before Blue

Waters. The team is using Blue Waters to

investigate complex and fundamental

molecular dynamics problems requiring

atomic level simulations that are 10 to 100

times larger than those modelled to date,

providing unprecedented insights.

2. Global Climate Change

Also featured at the dedicationevent, Cristiana Stan and James Kinter of

George Mason University are using Blue

Waters to engage in topical research on

the role of clouds in modelling the global

climate system during present conditions

and in future climate change scenarios.

3. Earthquake PredictionA team at the Southern California

Earthquake Centre, led by ThomasJordan, is carrying out large-scale, high-

resolution earthquake simulations that

incorporate the entire Los Angeles basin,

including all natural and human-built

infrastructure, requiring orders of

magnitude more computing power than

studies done to date. Their work will

provide better seismic hazard assessments

and inform safer building

codes: Preparing for the Big One.

4. Flood Assessment, Drought

Monitoring& Resource

ManagementEngineering Professor Patrick Reed and

his team from Penn State, Princeton and

the Aerospace Corporation, are using Blue

Waters to transform understanding and

optimization of space-based Earth sciencesatellite constellation designs. "Blue

Waters has fundamentally changed the

scale and scope of the questions we can

explore," he said.


20/2420

"Our hope is that the answers we discover

will enhance flood assessment, drought

monitoring, and the management of water

resources in large river basins world-wide.

6. Fundamental Properties of

NatureRobert Sugar, professor of physics at the

University of California, Santa Barbara is

using Blue Waters to more fully

understand the fundamental laws of

nature and to glean knowledge of the

early development of the universe. "Blue

Waters packs a one-two punch," said

Sugar, "Blue Waters enables us to perform

the most detailed and realistic simulations

of sub-atomic particles and their

interactions to date. Studies such as these

are a global endeavour, and the large data

sets produced on Blue Waters will be

shared with researchers worldwide for

further discoveries."

References[1] HPC WIREhttp://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/2013-03-

28/nsf_official_on_new_supers_data-

intensive_future.html

Nicole Hemsoth
http://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/2013-03-28/nsf_official_on_new_supers_data-intensive_future.htmlhttp://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/2013-03-28/nsf_official_on_new_supers_data-intensive_future.htmlhttp://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/2013-03-28/nsf_official_on_new_supers_data-intensive_future.htmlhttp://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/2013-03-28/nsf_official_on_new_supers_data-intensive_future.htmlhttp://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/2013-03-28/nsf_official_on_new_supers_data-intensive_future.htmlhttp://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/2013-03-28/nsf_official_on_new_supers_data-intensive_future.htmlhttp://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/2013-03-28/nsf_official_on_new_supers_data-intensive_future.htmlhttp://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/2013-03-28/nsf_official_on_new_supers_data-intensive_future.htmlhttp://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/2013-03-28/nsf_official_on_new_supers_data-intensive_future.htmlhttp://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/2013-03-28/nsf_official_on_new_supers_data-intensive_future.html


21/24

Funding varies based on the number of

participants and other associated costs

and is capped at $15,000 for each

program, Google said. The search giant

provided funding to seven Australian

universities in 2012.

The universities to receive funding this

year are:

The University of Western Australia

University of Sydney

The University of Queensland

Macquarie University

Swinburne University of Technology Deakin University

The University of Newcastle

University of Canberra

The University of Adelaide

University of Tasmania

Griffith University

University of New South Wales.

Google Australia and New Zealands

engineering program manager, Sally-AnnWilliams, hopes that the increase in the

number of universities being funded will

ensure computer science education at high

schools is up-to-date with the needs of the

industry and will grow university ICT

enrolments.

We need to ensure that were equipping

our students to be future creators, rather

than just consumers, of technology,

Williams told CIO Australia.Right now, were not well-placed as a

country to meet demand for the computer

science graduates that are needed in the

new digital economy.

Google Australia is providing funding to 12 Australian universities this year to develop

workshops that help high school teachers promote computer science in their curriculums.

Under its Computer Science for High School (CS4HS) program, launched in Australia

in 2011, Google provides funds to universities across several countries to develop two- to

three-day computer science workshops for the teachers.

We hope that by supporting computer

science at high school level, well increase

the number of bright young Australians

that go into computer science at university

level.

Australian Computer Societys head of

policy and external affairs, Adam

Redman, has also said that computer

science education in high schools needs to

be updated and would like to see more

support for teachers in delivering this to

students.

In some high schools students areassessed on how well they can use the

computer, not on how well they

understand the computer. Kids today are

born technology literate. They dont need

to be taught how to use the computer;

they need to be taught what makes the

computer work, Remand said.

So translated into policy that means a

greater emphasis and support to teachersand to encourage high school students to

learn maths and sciences so they can

learn the fundamentals of computational

maths, for example, and relationship

mapping, and by the time they get to

university they are not confronted with

having to figure out what an algorithm is.

According to the ACS Statistical

Compendium 2012, the number of

students completing an ICT-related

degree has halved over a decade, and

women only make up 19.73 per cent of the

total ICT-related occupation workforce.

21

universities to spruik computer science

Google Australia funds
http://www.cs4hs.com/locations/http://www.cs4hs.com/locations/http://www.cs4hs.com/locations/http://www.cs4hs.com/locations/http://www.cs4hs.com/locations/http://www.cs4hs.com/locations/http://www.cs4hs.com/locations/http://www.cs4hs.com/locations/http://www.cs4hs.com/locations/http://www.cs4hs.com/locations/http://www.cs4hs.com/locations/http://www.cs4hs.com/locations/http://www.cs4hs.com/locations/


22/2422

The Clarius Skills Index during the

December 2012 quarter also shows there

were 211,700 IT positions (including

vacancies) available during the period butonly 207,100 professionals available to fill

these roles.

References[1] Computer Worldhttp://www.computerworld.com.au/article/457559/

google_australia_funds_universities_spruik_comput

er_science/?fp=16&fpid=1

Rebecca MerrettFollow her onTwitter: @Rebecca_Merrett
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/457559/google_australia_funds_universities_spruik_computer_science/?fp=16&fpid=1http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/457559/google_australia_funds_universities_spruik_computer_science/?fp=16&fpid=1http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/457559/google_australia_funds_universities_spruik_computer_science/?fp=16&fpid=1http://twitter.com/Rebecca_Merretthttp://twitter.com/Rebecca_Merretthttp://twitter.com/Rebecca_Merretthttp://www.computerworld.com.au/article/457559/google_australia_funds_universities_spruik_computer_science/?fp=16&fpid=1http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/457559/google_australia_funds_universities_spruik_computer_science/?fp=16&fpid=1http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/457559/google_australia_funds_universities_spruik_computer_science/?fp=16&fpid=1


23/24

As you may remember, last month the

company behind the LiveCode

development tool set up a Kick-starter

campaign with the goal of creating an

Open Source edition of their software.

They set out to raise roughly $500,000 in

order to fund the endeavour. And they

nailed it.

In the final days of the Kick-starter

campaign, it seemed like success may not

be on the table this time around. While

they had raised a significant amount, they

were still considerably short of their goal.

Luckily, a surge of folks, I'm assuming

some of you reading this are countedamong them, pitched in at the last minute

and took it over the finish line.

But that description really doesn't do this

success justice. They ended up raising

nearly $750,000. Thats 50% more than

the base goal, all directed towards taking

an existing (successful) Closed Source

software and bringing it under an Open

license, proving that, at least in specificcircumstances, it is possible to fund the

migration of a Closed Source product to an

Open one all through the power of the

community. Simply glorious.

In other news, the developers behind the

popular image organization tool Shot

well have started a crowd-funding

campaign (in this case, through Indiegogo)

to fund the further development of Geary,

their email client.

The approach is different Geary is an

existing, Open Source, application looking

for continued development as they do not

have the funding to continue it otherwise

but the goal is the same.

Funding Open Source software isn't easyheck, in some cases, it can be darn near

impossiblebut it is certainly a worthwhile goal. And, right now, we're seeing a number

of people and organizations tackling this challenge.

Fund the development of new, open-

licensed code. And the scope of work and

target dollar amount is different too in

this case only $100,000. But the project

looks to be, at first glance, every bit as

valuable.

It will be interesting to see if the

community at large will continue to fund

some of these excellent projects. Here's

hoping.

23

Working for Open Source Projects

Crowd-funding is

References[1] Network Worldhttp://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/crowd-funding-working-open-source-projects
http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/crowd-funding-working-open-source-projectshttp://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/crowd-funding-working-open-source-projectshttp://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/crowd-funding-working-open-source-projectshttp://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/crowd-funding-working-open-source-projectshttp://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/crowd-funding-working-open-source-projectshttp://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/crowd-funding-working-open-source-projectshttp://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/crowd-funding-working-open-source-projectshttp://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/crowd-funding-working-open-source-projectshttp://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/crowd-funding-working-open-source-projectshttp://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/crowd-funding-working-open-source-projectshttp://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/crowd-funding-working-open-source-projectshttp://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/crowd-funding-working-open-source-projectshttp://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/crowd-funding-working-open-source-projectshttp://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/crowd-funding-working-open-source-projects


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