Short takes week of July 16

Posted by on

Institute of Applied Informatics and Formal Description Methods (Germany) AIFB http://www.aifb.kit.edu

FZI Research Center for Information Technology (Germany) Karlsruhe http://www.fzi.de

Jobs Policy Debate (US) Andy Grove article http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-01/how-to-make-an-american-job-before-it-s-too-late-andy-grove.html

Jobs and skills (US)  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/02/business/economy/02manufacturing.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=todayspaper

Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (India) IIT Bombay http://www.sineiitb.org/

Association of Cost Engineers (UK) Rajkumar Roy, Professor of Competitive Design, Cranfield University http://www.acoste.org.uk

American Education Research Association (US) ISSS Roundtable may be forming contact Sue Gabriele https://www.aera.net/
Gabriele Educational Materials and Systems (US) http://www.gemslearning.com

International Society for Systems Sciences (US) http://isss.org/world/index.php

Intense Video promoting Non-Fiction Book (US) Social Media Finding from Jean Paul Jacob http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU-i0faBPkY

Ocean Resources Sustainability (EU) Video Competition http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTT9-xuWoMo

World Science and Engineering Academy and Society (WW) http://www.wseas.org

Student Engineering Exhibition (Pakistan) http://www.see2010.net/about_kiet.html

Qingdao Desalination Conference (China) http://www.desalination.biz/whatson/view_event.asp?id=124

Coro (US) Training civic leaders http://www.coro.org

Project Management (US) http://ilign.com/

International Conference on Services in Emerging Markets (India) http://www.isb.edu/ICSEM2010/

International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence (Italy) ICAART 2011  http://www.icaart.org/

International Conference on Emerging Economies (India) http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/smfconf/

LinkedIn Group Service Science (WW)  http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=149276

Silicon Valley e-Learning Foundation (US) http://www.svefoundation.org/

Masters of IT in Business for Service Sector (Singapore) http://www.sjs.smu.edu.sg

Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship (US) U Chicago, Booth School of Management http://www.chicagobooth.edu/entrepreneurship

Global Knowledge Initiative (WW) http://globalknowledgeinitiative.org
Technology, Investment, and Policy (US) University of Minnesota  http://www.technoscan.com/

University of Pretoria Webcampus Blog for Students (South Africa) http://blogs.up.ac.za/esmwebcampus.php

Build Your Business (WW) http://www.smetoolkit.org

Governors Education Summits (US) http://www.achieve.org/Summits (as in http://www.corestandards.org/)

Irving’s Blog (US)  http://blog.irvingwb.com/

Future of Higher Education (Australia) Ross Dawson https://deimos.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/BrowsePrivately/griffith.edu.au.3684852440

Perspective Balancer (US) http://blogs.hbr.org/bregman/2010/06/why-i-returned-my-ipad.html

SRII Global Conference (US San Jose) March 30 – April 2, 2011 http://www.thesrii.org/index.php/global-conference

SRII Global Conference Call for Paper http://www.thesrii.org/index.php/global-conference/2011-confernce-papers

My dream (WW) High QoS Connections http://www.nlr.net/telepresence-faq.php

Amazon and IBM are ‘cloud champions,’ report says

Posted by on

By Jon Brodkin  — July 15, 2010 03:47 PM ET
Network World – Amazon and IBM are the “cloud champions” according to a new report, but Microsoft, Google, Cisco, Red Hat and VMware are also among the list of heavyweights in the emerging cloud computing field.

Amazon cloud uses FedEx instead of the Internet to ship data
All tech vendors are embracing the cloud. Even those that don’t provide public cloud services are fighting to become the top builders of infrastructures to support emerging cloud networks.

A new quarterly report from BTC Logic, an IT consulting firm, attempts to rank the top cloud players, and puts them into seven broad categories: cloud foundations, infrastructure, network services, platforms, applications, security and management.

BTC Logic claims Amazon and IBM are the “cloud champions” because they rank in the top five in four of the seven categories. The companies Microsoft, Google, Red Hat, Salesforce, Symantec, VMware, Citrix, EMC, Oracle, Level 3 and Cisco are deemed “cloud heavyweights,” one level below Amazon and IBM, because they rank highly in fewer categories.A third group of companies is listed merely as “cloud contenders,” and this group includes AT&T, Aylus Networks, Rackspace and SAP’s Business Objects division.
Neither Microsoft nor Google rank first in any of the seven cloud categories, but Google is second behind Salesforce.com in cloud applications and Microsoft is second behind VMware in cloud foundations. Cloud foundations refer to tools and software that make it possible to build cloud infrastructure.
BTC Logic says it is trying to help customers sort out the confusing mass of cloud vendors.
“The Cloud Computing marketplace still has a confusing array of vendors each promoting its own solution, and a steady increase in the number of new Cloud product and services,” the firm says. BTC Logic says its research shows that “enterprises will not significantly move applications and data into the Cloud until issues related to security, privacy, and data location (trust services) are fully resolved … [and] that enterprises want to retain more control over governance and have the ability to oversee applications and data running in a broad hybrid Cloud.”

IBM joined Amazon as a “cloud champion” by placing first in management with the IBM WebSphere CloudBurst Appliance, third in security (behind EMC/RSA and Symantec), second in platforms, and second in infrastructure.

Engineering Graduates Still See Highest Salary Offers.

Posted by on

The Sacramento Business Journal (7/16, Johnson) reports, “Local engineering students should feel hopeful from a national finding released Thursday that recent engineering graduates are earning the top pay among the college class of 2010.” The summer 2010 salary survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that “engineering degrees account for four of the five most highly paid majors among the college class of 2010,” with “petroleum engineers receiving the highest starting salary offer – $74,799. Chemical engineers were next at $65,628,” followed by computer science students, computer engineers, and electrical/electronics engineers. “While the salaries are high among the class of 2010, the average salaries actually lost ground for all but chemical engineering graduates, the association said.” A NACE official said, “Those high starting salary offers reflect the uneven supply and demand that exists for these graduates, even in the current economy.”

Where We are Losing: The 2010 State of the Future report

Posted by on

Where We are Losing:   The 2010 State of the Future report has just been released by the Millennium Project (http://www.millennium-project.org).   I urge you all to read it soon.

I especially think the service science community needs to engage in understanding where we (as an instrumented, interconnected, and intelligent planetary community) are losing: fewer people voting, more corruption, more green-house-gases, more homicides, higher temperature, more unemployment, and more terrorism.   Both the carrying capacity of the planet and quality of life will be determined by the service systems we evolve and design as well as interconnect and don’t interconnect over the next century.   A good summary of the report is the following interview at the Kurzweil website:   http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-state-of-the-future

The Indispensable University

Posted by on

Universities as Urban Community Leaders: The Indispensable University is a new book by recently retired Virgina Commonwealth University President Trani….  “The Indispensable University asserts that higher education is undergoing a ‘major transformation that is fundamentally redefining the relationship of colleges and universities to the broader community.  This transformation is occurring at every level of higher education, from community colleges, to comprehensive undergraduate schools, to research-intensive doctoral universities. And it is becoming an increasingly global phenomenon as universities around the world seek to redefine themselves in ways that will enable them to become significant actors in the modern, knowledge-based economy.'”   http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2010/jun/13/ed-tas13-ar-105711/ Great cities and great universities is a vital partnership to be nurtured  http://www.usucoalition.org/downloads/part4/great_cities_great_universities.pdf

K-12

Posted by on

Studying Engineering Before They Can Spell It: NYT FRONTPAGE, By Winnie Hu (June 14, 2010) To compete in a global economy, some school districts are offering engineering lessons to students in kindergarten.  “…the big bad wolf had to do more than just huff and puff to blow down the three little pigs’ house.   To start, he needed to get past a voice-activated security gate, find a hidden door and negotiate a few other traps in a house that a pair of kindergartners here imagined for the pigs — and then pieced together from index cards, paper cups, wood sticks and pipe cleaners.”  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/education/14engineering.html?_r=1&emc=eta1 This is all part of the Engineering is Elementary program… http://www.mos.org/eie/

Much of K-12 Math and Science has a focus on the naturally-evolved world, but good a grounding in the human-made world is equally important.    For example, even students in Kindergarten know how they got to school – by walking,bus, car, etc.    And learning about transportation as a service system is important.   Eventually, K-12 will be learning about holistic service systems without even knowing it, as they learn about cities they are learning about – transportation, water/air, food/products, energy, communications, buildings, retail/hospitality/media/entertainment, finance, health, education, security-governance.

Shared Service, Shared Governance Example:

Posted by on

Shared Service, Shared Governance Example: We know universities have libraries and most cities have libraries as well… often many of the same journal and books, but different software and systems…. So one of the very practical examples of “shared governance and share service” between city and university that is possible is the shared library….  Pioneering Example: City of San Jose, CA and San Jose State University (SJSU)…. http://www.sjlibrary.org/about/locations/king/index.htm

National League of Cities James C. Howland Awards for Municipal Enrichment  ….an award winning idea for cities (2005)… http://www.library.sjsu.edu/about/news/story_05-12-07.htm “The King Library is both a public and academic library, built where the city and campus meet so that it can be shared by the entire community. ”  It is green too, award winningly green: http://www.sjsu.edu/fdo/energy/sustainability/lighting/KingLightMBCx/ … a great city, great university partnership http://www.sjlibrary.org/about/index.htm

There are also service learning examples between the university and community… http://www.communivercitysanjose.org/history.htm

Our ecological footprint?

Posted by on

How Big Is Our Ecological Footprint: The carrying capacity of Earth depends on the quality of service systems that exist.   Here is a nice website and quiz to help build awareness of our ecological footpprint http://www.myfootprint.org/

Of course, “Our Ecological Footprint” is a classic book by Mathis Wackernagel (search Google books). There is a great deal of work required to model humanities ecological footprint http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/footprint_basics_overview/ as well as to understand nature’s service http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature’s_services and ecological service http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecosystem_services

Short takes week of July 9

Posted by on

Ovum Comments:  New Skills and Service Science http://www.ovum.com/go/content/c,77654

Best Paper Award Health INFORMS: http://www.informs.org/Recognize-Excellence/INFORMS-Community-Prizes-and-Awards/Pierskalla-Best-Paper-Award

Urban Dive Experience http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNnuFkMrMPM

Earthmine (US Berkeley) collect-process-deliver pixel-level-accurate urban-maps  http://www.earthmine.com

US Dept ED SCANS http://www.arp.sprnet.org/default/curric/scans.htm

Service Innovation (Netherlands) Rene van Buuren http://www.novay.nl/about-novay/22

Water Test Kits  for Students http://www.worldwatermonitoringday.com/Test_Kits/Kits_Main.html

Making Service Science Mainstream: http://www.servicefactory.aalto.fi/fi/wp-content/themes/default/Service_Science_Summit_White_Paper.pdf

Executive Masters in Service Science (Switzerland) EMISS Michel Leonard  http://matis.unige.ch/

Complexity in Business Conference (US) Washington DC 11/12/2010 – last year’s http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/ccb/cbconference.aspx

Services and Enterprise Research Unit (UK) Paul Daniels University of Birmingham http://www.gees.bham.ac.uk/research/clusters/ee/seru/

Enterprise Risk Management for Universities (US) University of California http://www.ucop.edu/riskmgt/erm/

Silicon Valley Innovation Initiative (US) http://svii.net/events/?event_id=18

Visit University of Wisconsin Madison (US) NMC event (humorous) http://www.nmc.org/2010-summer-conference/nmc2011-invitation

International Doctoral or Post-Doc Grant (Portugal) IBM/UP/FEUP http://www.fe.up.pt/~ibmcas
IBM CAS (Portugal) Center for Advanced Study https://www.ibm.com/ibm/cas/sites/portugal/index.shtml

Service in Abnormal Situations (UK) Steve Baron (U Liverpool) sent this chilling video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb5rZkB1GgU

Modeling and Simulation (US) University of Central Florida http://www.iems.ucf.edu/about/leaders.html

Luxury resort hotels (US) of the complexity of the Venetian in Las Vegas  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm7MeZlS5fo

Universities (US) key economic drivers for regions http://www.usucoalition.org/downloads/part4/great_cities_great_universities.pdf

Cities (US) models of cities http://www.earthmine.com and http://www.vterrain.org/Culture/BldCity/Com/services.html

Service Innovation (US) Steve Kwan San Jose State University (SJSU) http://www.cob.sjsu.edu/ssme/kwanmanchester2010.pptx

The Karlsruhe Service Research Institute (Germany) KSRI http://www.ksri.kit.edu

Service Innovation in Cities

Posted by on

Service Innovation in Cities: More and more stakeholders agree – we need to focus on urban sustainability and service innovation.  Cities, Universities, Companies, are convening to declare their challenges, intentions, solutions, and most of all trigger discussion of future opportunities for co-creating value together.   http://www.amiando.com/livinglabsglobalcopenhagen.html I am especially interested in the work of Prof. David Gann at Imperial College’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group in London.   He is contributing to the UK’s Digital City effort, which is is quite compelling.  http://www.livinglabs-global.com/documents/events/2010_WellConnectedCity/Speakers_Biographies.pdf He also have a very nice book  Think-Play-Do.   After reading it you will agree, we need to replace ThinkTanks with Think-Play-DoTanks.  See http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199268092.do There are many, many companies with visions of what the Digital City might be, including Autodesk’s  http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?id=11053875&siteID=123112