When Microsoft couldn't get me to TechFest as planned, we decided we still wanted to go to a conference about emerging technology - how handy that O'Reilly was running one that week and that a friend reminded...to Google on your phone with Android, from Google predictingthe future to the Department of Defense taking nine months to build a wiki to speed up procurement, ETech looked at what might emerge next.
Open Source Hardware Phillip Torrone (Maker Media), Limor Fried (Adafruit Industries) Abstract: Open source hardware is a term slowly working its way into many new projects and efforts, but what is it...offer FireFly - open source guitar amp MAKE controller kit "moaning lisa" at arse electronika Chumby - physical widget LEDminimenorah Peggy - Open source LED board BugLabs - widget computing
Prediction Markets and the Flow of Information at Google Bo Cowgill (Google Economics Group) Abstract: For 2.5 years, Google operated the largest experiment with internal corporate prediction markets...have a yes or no answer for. THe optimism bias was most pronounced what Google had control over itself. Being higher in the company doesn't make someone's performance better. bo at bocowgill.com
On-Demand Databases: Or How to build High-Scale Data Storage on a Low-Scale Budget Mike Culver (Amazon), Jay Ridgeway (Nextumi) Abstract: A year ago the industry buzz phrase was “on demand computing”...things like that. Question: What's the idealapplication? Answer: Sweet spot is write once, query many. My Question: How does SimpleDB compare with HBase/BigTable? Answer: No hands on experience.
How Technology Almost Lost the War: In Iraq, the Critical Networks Are Social—Not Electronic Noah Shachtman (Wired Magazine) Abstract: Why have things begun to shift in Iraq? And why did it take so long...used cell phones. Question: Do you see evidence of other government agencies acting? Answer: I haven't seen much of it really. DoD personnel don't think this is their job. Feel they got stuck with it.
Modeling Crowd Behavior Paul Torrens (Arizona State University) Abstract: Ambient crowds are the new distributed computing platform. Smart mobs are fashioning new architectures for social networking... the Orcs won which should have been impossible. Answer: I've seen that. This is why I keep my models deterministic and avoid random number generation. The movie is trying to make it look realistic.
Practice Makes Perfect: How Billions of Examples Lead to Better Models Peter Norvig (Google, Inc.) Abstract: The Internet gives us access to billions of pages of information, along with billions of pictures...do you loose by having limits on ???? Answer: The ability to have knowledge of the individual user. Ability to help other users. Often more useful to see what other people did. Fraud detection.
I had lunch with Charles Armstrong and Peter Biddle of Trampoline Systems . Trampoline is working on social networking for the enterprise. What really excites me about their technology is the approach...to some information needs. On top of all that, they have some nice visualizations for managing and exploringthe network. This has the ability to be a truly disruptive technology in the enterprise
Multi-Touch Displays in the Real World Elizabeth Churchill (Yahoo! Research) Abstract: Historically, information, internet and communication technology design has looked to human information processing...with each installation the nature of the social group and the public space requires flexibility in the system it's hard to design for culture specificity mutual monitoring, situation at large
Project Darkstar: Putting the Massive in Massive Multiplayer Chris Melissinos (Sun Microsystems, Inc.) Abstract: The video games represent one of the largest entertainment industries in the world, and...their own data center allows small companies to compete reuse of infrastructure investment projectdarkstar.com, community site project wonderland: virtual world collaboration shared workspace
