CS 2.0: There is No Gravity

Web 2.0 Redux

2010-05-03T12:46:00.000-07:00

Back again at Web 2.0, tracking the latest trends. One that is worth noting is HTML5 - despite the fact that various browsers support different subsets, it looks to bring interactivity into HTML with Flash-like capabilities. The audio and video API look very good. Lots done with new tags and Java Script. Interesting site: http://whencaniuse.com

Time marches forward

2009-04-15T18:35:00.001-07:00

back from web 2.0 with a new sense of how social media, web 2.0, semantic web are converging. fyi, i've created a blog/web site: www.drczone.com

Also am finding lots of heat in the twitter world. i've been tweeting (aka microblogging) and it's been very interesting see http://www.twitter.com/frankc101

Semantic Grid

2009-01-28T06:17:00.000-08:00

Cloud computing and the grid are important developments to be reckoned with in a CS 2.0 world, where the von Neumann architecture is becoming more invisible plumbing. How does the semantic web fit into this new cloud/grid paradigm? I just came across an IEEE call for workshop papers, http://etngrid.diit.unict.it/, that puts some of this in context. Some food for thought from the call:

The Grid was originally designed as a large network of computer systems able to offer an environment where computing and storage resources are shared on-demand. To date, the development of standards, such as the Open Grid Service Architecture (OGSA), along with the introduction of new paradigms, such as the Semantic Grid, is leading the Grid toward an environment that is not only suited for computational-intensive applications, but also for computing scenarios typical of distributed systems, like service and information providing, multimedia environments, ubiquitous computing, etc. For these and other reasons, the Grid is becoming an interesting and challenging environment supporting both old and new services for cooperative applications. A relevant research effort is thus needed not only to investigate innovative Grid infrastructures but also to make the current Grid model suitable for these emerging usage scenarios.

The objective of this workshop is to gather researchers working on different emerging Grid computing aspects relevant to enterprise collaboration, covering issues ranging from the middleware layer to application development and user interaction. The goals of the workshop include (but are not limited to) discovering new application scenarios, proposing new programming abstractions and tools, identifying the challenging problem that still need to be solved, and reporting results and experiences gained by researchers in building Grid-based middleware, applications and alike.

What is CS 2.0?

2009-01-26T07:31:00.000-08:00

I just returned from something called the Rebooting Computing Summit in sunny San Jose. The basic thrust of the three day exercise was to come up with new ideas about how we as a community can revitalize computing and restore the joy and beauty that was part of computing, but now seems missing. Data suggest that enrollments in computing and engineering are way down, the field appears boring to high school students, why?
My personal take on the problem is that computer science has lost its way. The vast majority of courses focus on theory that has little to do with the role of computing today. Our students may know differential equations and are able to prove that some algorithm is O(n2 + k), but can they write software. Very much like major industries that have been caught unprepared for the changes in software has wrought (e.g. music industry, newspaper industry), so is education having the rug pulled out from under it. When there is google, why does one need to sit in a room facing an instructor reading powerpoint slides. Between YouTube videos and google I can literally learn anything, in far less time than it takes me in a traditional class.
What to do? I believe the answer is problem-based learning. Give em an interesting problem and let them figure out what is needed -- learn it via YouTube and Google. Somewhere at the turn of the 20th century, our educational system got hooked on the german academic model, with fixed subdisciplines, just like we now have CS, EE, ME, CpE. However, what we forget is that much of the early education in America was open-ended, tutor and problem-based.