http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/06/obama-to-host-town-hall-on-twitter/1By David Jackson, USA TODAY
Updated 11m ago

CAPTIONBy Pool, Getty Images
The White House announced today that President Obama will take questions via Twitter on Wednesday.
"The President of the United States will answer your questions about the economy and jobs live via webcast from the White House," thefolks at Twitter announced.

You can tweet inquiries to the hashtag #AskObama.

No word on whether Obama will have to restrict his answers to 14 characters -- but there will be a videostream of the president's replies.

"It's very exciting," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

The details of the event are still being worked on, he added.

"We'll have to find out how this will work," Carney said.

The White House agreed to the Twitter town hall a week after Obama's 2012 campaign announced that the president will soon start Tweeting himself.

His account name: "-BO."

New framework for an open Internet agreed at OECD

http://benton.org/node/80148

Submitted: June 29, 2011 - 5:23pm
Originally published: June 29, 2011
Last updated: June 29, 2011 - 5:40pm
Source: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
Location:
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2, rue André Pascal, Paris, France
OECD governments and other stakeholders have created a new framework to promote a more transparent, open Internet. The new principles, agreed by OECD member governments, business representatives and technical experts, aim to advance the debate on Internet governance:

Promote and protect the global free flow of information
Promote the open, distributed and interconnected nature of the Internet
Promote investment and competition in high speed networks and services
Promote and Enable the Cross-Border Delivery of Services
Encourage multi-stakeholder co-operation in policy development processes
Foster voluntarily developed codes of conduct
Develop capacities to bring publicly available, reliable data into the policy-making process
Ensure transparency, fair process, and accountability
Strengthen consistency and effectiveness in privacy protection at a global level
Maximize individual empowerment
Promote Creativity and Innovation
Limit Internet intermediary liability
Encourage co-operation to promote Internet security and
Give appropriate priority to enforcement efforts
They underline the benefits that today's light-touch, flexible regulation has brought in driving innovation and economic growth. This model, which includes governments, business, civil society and the technical community in a so-called multi-stakeholder approach, has been key to the Internet's rapid growth and impact. "The Internet has achieved global interconnection without the development of any international regulatory regime. The development of such a formal regulatory regime could risk undermining its growth," according to the communiqué.

Links to Sources

New framework for an open Internet agreed at OECD

Future clouds: low-energy boxes, immersive services
By Kevin C. Tofel Jun. 23, 2011, 2:44pm PT No Comments

The world is becoming a giant computer comprised of data centers, networks and devices on the fringe, but that's not good enough. With massive amounts of untapped data and cloud computers still running on desktop processors, there are opportunities to change the computing model. Doing so will bring a collection of immersive services to the world's population while using less energy at the same time. There's much work to be done before this future arrives, however.

"Energy efficiency and cost is driving everything we do in cloud computing," said Partha Ranganathan, distinguished technologist for HP. Speaking on a panel at the GigaOM Structure conference, Ranganathan pointed to the massive potential yet to be found in the cloud through low-powered devices. "Today's cellphones have as much computing power as NASA had in the 1960′s. They launched a rocket to the moon and we're launching pigs and birds," he said, referring to the popular Angry Birds game.

Anant Agarwal, co-founder and CTO of Tilera Corporation agreed. "Datacenters use hundreds of megawatts of power because they're build upon desktop processors. We can do 100 times better with specific cloud processors that have many cores in a chip but don't have other features not needed for cloud computing." Agarwal suggested that processors are still the bottleneck in cloud services because bandwidth is plentiful and fast while memristors are providing cheaper, non-volatile memory. But there's still an issue of software, according to Jason Hoffman, founder and chief scientist of Joyent.

"Software is a million times worse than it needs to be," Hoffman said, mainly because there's no software platform for the cloud itself. Agarwal suggests an OSaaS or Operating System as a Service to address this issue. "Operating systems today are really good for a single computer," he said. "Cloud apps require systems programmers, however, to deal with load balancing, databases and more." And as computing has come down in price, it has "allowed software to be sloppy," said Agarwal.

What will overcoming of these challenges bring? The panelists used the example of how today's high-end luxury cars examine hundreds of data points to determine if the driver is falling asleep. Scaling such computation to the "world as a giant computer" will lead to new interactions with computers, services and even people. Instead of using the cloud for simple voice searches as we do today on smartphones, tomorrow's cloud will be able to interpret our gestures, expressions and even our current health stats. That sounds great, but if it doesn't pan out, we can always use a cheap desktop with an sensor-filled Kinect.



gigaomstructure on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free
Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req'd):

Defining Internal Cloud Options: From Appistry to VMware
A field guide to cloud computing: current trends, future opportunities
The Structure 50: The Top 50 Cloud Innovators
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THE CLOUD

GIGAOM PRO
TOP RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS
The Structure 50: The Top 50 Cloud Innovators by Derrick Harris in Infrastructure
Defining Internal Cloud Options: From Appistry to VMware by Derrick Harris in Infrastructure
The Internet of Things: What It Is, Why It Matters by Laurie Lamberth in Connected Consumer

TeraGrid '11: Extreme Digital Discovery
https://www.teragrid.org/web/tg11/home
July 18-21, 2011
Marriott Downtown Hotel
Salt Lake City, Utah
The TeraGrid 2011 conference will showcase the capabilities, achievements, and impact of the TeraGrid in research and education. The conference will also mark the beginning of the National Science Foundation's eXtreme Digital Resources for Science and Engineering program and will give scientists and engineers information on the resources and services to be provided through this successor to the TeraGrid.

hat is TeraGrid? TeraGrid is an open scientific discovery infrastructure combining leadership class computing resources at 11 resource provider (RP) sites to create an integrated, persistent computational resource. Funded by the National Science Foundation(NSF), TeraGrid is the world's largest, most comprehensive resource in support of open scientific research.

Where are the resources and what services exist? Using high-performance network connections, TeraGrid integrates high-performance computers, data resources and tools, and high-end experimental facilities across the country. Currently, TeraGrid resources include more than a petaflop of computing capability and more than 30 petabytes of online and archival data storage, with rapid access and retrieval over high-performance networks. Researchers can also access more than 100 discipline-specific databases. Additionally, each of the RP sites contributes human expertise to TeraGrid's culture of advanced user support. The Campus Champion program prepares professionals from more than 50 institutions across the nation to acquaint their faculty and staff with TeraGrid resources. With this combination of resources and services, TeraGrid is the world's largest, most comprehensive distributed cyberinfrastructure for open scientific research.

Who can use it? The principal investigator (PI) must be a researcher or educator at a U.S.-based institution, including federal research labs and commercial organizations.

Why use it? The best reason-there is no cost to qualified users. TeraGrid offers powerful computational hardware, large-capacity storage, visualization and data analysis systems, access to more than 100 scientific databases, licensed access to software, and advanced user support including assistance with porting code to its systems.

How does TeraGrid help prepare the next generation of experts? TeraGrid sponsors multiple education, outreach, and training programs. There are ongoing efforts to collaborate with the Open Science Grid on a strategic workforce development initiative. Each summer, TeraGrid hosts more than 300 high performance computing enthusiasts at their annual conference where participants learn about advances in technology from TeraGrid personnel, campus champions, and users. The annual conference, TeraGrid'10, will be held August 2-5, 2010 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Participants will learn from a wealth of offerings including keynote addresses, presentations, poster sessions, and birds-of-a-feather discussion groups.

TeraGrid is coordinated through the Grid Infrastructure Group (GIG) at the University of Chicago, working in partnership with the Resource Provider sites: Indiana University, the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, the National Institute for Computational Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, Purdue University, San Diego Supercomputer Center, Texas Advanced Computing Center, the University of Chicago/Argonne National Laboratory, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

October 17 - 21, 2011 * Honolulu, Hawaii
FINAL Call for Participation
conf/elearn
Proposals Due: August 31, 2011
aace.org/

http://aace.org/conf/elearn/call.htm

Proposal Submission Guide & Form
http://aace.org/conf/elearn/submitguide.htm


October 17 - 21, 2011 Sheraton, Waikiki Beach

FINAL CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS
&
FINAL CALL FOR VIRTUAL PRESENTATIONS

E-Learn 2011 -- World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, & Higher Education is an international, annual conference which serves as a multi-disciplinary forum for the exchange of information on research, development, and applications of all topics related to e-Learning in these four sectors.

All presentation proposals are reviewed and selected by a respected, International Executive Advisory Board and Program Committee, based on merit and the perceived value for attendees. Accepted proposals will be included in the conference program and Proceedings, available on EdITLib - Education & Information Technology Digital Library.

E-Learn spans all disciplines and levels of education and attracts more than 1,000 attendees from over 60 countries. We invite you to attend E-Learn and submit proposals for presentations.

Click here for Color Poster PDF to Print & Distribute
Presentation Categories and Topics
E-Learn 2011 Topics
The scope of the conference includes, but is not limited to, the following topics as they relate to the e-Learning and the technologies supporting e-Learning.
Sectors or Application Domains
Major Topics
Specific Topic Examples
Presentation Categories

Registration & Hotel Information

Click Here for: E-Learn 2011 Registration Rates
Hotel Information : Sheraton, Waikiki Beach



Special discounted hotel rates have been secured for E-Learn participants at the Sheraton Waikiki Beach. To receive this rate, identify yourself as an E-Learn attendee.

Reservations must be made by September 16, 2011.
Social Networking
Conference Proceedings are now available for purchase
in book form at the
AACE Online Bookshelf

Is Affirmative Action Headed Back to the Supreme Court?
June 21, 2011, 5:07 pm

http://chronicle.com/blogs/innovations/is-affirmative-action-headed-back-to-the-supreme-court/29699

By Richard Kahlenberg
On Friday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decided by a 9-7 vote not to have a full panel of court members rehear a challenge to affirmative action at the University of Texas at Austin, leaving in place a ruling of a three-member panel upholding UT's use of racial and ethnic preferences. Although the plaintiffs in the case, Fisher v. Texas, have not yet announced whether they will appeal, a source close to the case indicated to me that the U.S. Supreme Court is a likely next stop.

If the Supreme Court accepts a petition to hear the case, the oral argument could take place in the spring, with a decision likely a year from now-smack in the middle of the presidential campaign.

Fifth Circuit Chief Judge Edith Jones, writing for five dissenting judges, faulted the three-member panel for sustaining racial and ethnic preferences because UT Austin's Top Ten Percent Plan, which automatically admits students at the top of their high-school classes, produced sufficient racial diversity on its own. She noted that without using race, the Ten Percent plan produced a class that was more than 20 percent African-American and Hispanic. Texas, she said, had achieved more racial and ethnic diversity without using race in admissions than had the race-conscious University of Michigan law school plan upheld in Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), which produced a class that 14.5 percent black and Hispanic. Texas's decision to reinstate the use of race on top of the Ten Percent plan may be unconstitutional, she said.

Moreover, Jones rejected as "pernicious" the three-member panel's support for the idea that even if the undergraduate school were diverse without using race, racial preference would nevertheless be necessary in order to ensure that individual classrooms were diverse as well. She wrote: "The panel opinion opens the door to effective quotas in undergraduate majors in which certain minority students are perceived to be 'underrepresented.'"

If the suit is appealed, will the U.S. Supreme Court agree to consider the case? On the one hand, there is no split among Circuit courts-with one court ruling one way and another court ruling another-which sometimes prompts the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. But Chief Judge Jones and her dissenting colleagues seemed to be signaling to the Supreme Court that the question of how the 2003 Grutter decision is applied is one of national significance. And for the new conservative majority on the Court that has formed in the years since Grutter was decided, the Fisher case may present a unique opportunity to reshape the law of affirmative action. (There are no other high-profile challenges to affirmative action in higher education waiting in the wings.)

In particular, the Fisher case appears tailor-made to appeal to Justice Anthony Kennedy, the new swing vote on the Supreme Court, and a dissenter in the Grutter decision. In Grutter, Kennedy complained that the university was not sufficiently pressed to show that it was impossible to find race-neutral means-such as top-percent plans or class-based affirmative action-to achieve racial diversity prior to resorting to racial preferences.

Finally, the Court may wish to revisit the question of affirmative action given accelerating demographic changes. For example, how should admissions officers treat bi-racial or multi-racial children? As a recent front-page New York Times story asks, is it right that the current system of racial preferences in college encourages a student who identifies as both Asian and black to check only the black box to increase her chances of admission? As others have noted, the UT Austin case also highlights the way affirmative action affects America's largest minority group, Latinos, moving beyond the older, largely black/white paradigm presented in Grutter and earlier cases.

If the Supreme Court does decide to hear the case, the issue will put the Obama administration in an awkward position. At the lower court level, where very little attention was paid, Obama's Department of Justice sided with the University of Texas in support of using race in admissions. But this position may be hard to reconcile with Obama's stated belief that his own privileged daughters don't deserve affirmative-action preferences, and that low-income students of all races do. Roger Clegg, of the conservative Center for Equal Opportunity, argues that Obama's endorsement of race-neutral alternatives to affirmative action could be "a Nixon goes to China moment."

Public-opinion polls taken around that time of the Grutter case suggested that Americans opposed racial preferences by 2:1, but favored class-based preferences by the same margin. Just yesterday, a Washington Post poll found by 56% to 11%, Washingtonians believe they are mainly divided by income rather than race. And new research suggests that today's obstacles to doing well on the SAT are more closely related to socioeconomic disadvantages (which cost students up to 399 SAT points) than racial ones (which cost students up to 56 points.)

The issues of race, class, and college admissions-which have largely subsided in the eight years since Grutter was decided-may soon return to center stage.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Submitted: June 21, 2011 - 6:10pm
Originally published: June 21, 2011
Last updated: June 21, 2011 - 6:23pm
Source: Government Technology
Location:
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA, 98102, United States

http://www.govtech.com/e-government/E-Books-Wi-Fi-Open-Hours-Public-Libraries.html
Public libraries in the U.S. are facing more demand for e-books and Wi-Fi just as many municipalities are cutting budget and reducing hours of operation, according to an annual study released Tuesday, June 21.

Findings in the 2011 Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study continue to reflect how libraries have become community hubs for publicly available computers and Internet connectivity. More Americans are relying on technology in libraries to hunt for jobs, to fill out government forms, and to simply browse the Web. In fact, 64 percent of library locations said they are the only provider of free public computer and Internet access in their communities.

Technology is becoming integral to the American public library. Compared to last year's survey:

Almost 70 percent of libraries reported an increased use of public access workstations.
Seventy-five percent re¬ported an increased use of Wi-Fi.
Almost half re¬ported an increased use of electron¬ic resources.
Links to Sources

E-Books and Wi-Fi Up, Open Hours Down at Public Libraries

Electronic Teaming for Singletons in a PLC

One of the questions that I'm asked all the time as an advocate for both professional learning communities and teaching with technology is, "How can digital tools be used to support the learning of singletons in our schools?"

The answer is that there are two steps in any effort to develop electronic learning teams.

First, many singletons need help simply finding peers who teach similar content areas and grade levels. Tackling that challenge can start with Twitter.

A microblogging service that allows users to post short (140-character), public messages to the web, Twitter makes sharing ideas and resources with one another easy.

More importantly for singletons, however, Twitter makes finding peers to learn with-no matter how alone you feel-easy.

You see, THOUSANDS of singletons have started to use Twitter to network with peers. Better yet, they are organizing ongoing conversations around common hashtags-short, searchable phrases included at the end of every message.

Here are direct links to the hashtag conversations of some of the most active singleton groups on Twitter:

#musiced : Music Educators

#agedu : Agricultural Educators

#careerteched : Career and Technical Educators

#physed : Physical Education Teachers

#ushist : US History Teachers

#tlchat : Teacher-Librarians

#langchat and #flteach : Foreign Language Teachers

#ece : Early Childhood Educators

#artsed : Fine Arts Educators

#esol : English as a Second Language Teachers

#spedchat : Special Educators

While the content being shared in each of these conversations is bound to be valuable for any singleton teacher, the potential connections are even MORE valuable.

Consider signing up for a Twitter account and then reaching out to new partners in new places. It's really not as intimidating as you may think!

My favorite collection of resources for teachers new to Twitter is this Kim Cofino blog entry.

Check it out and start experimenting. You'll be a pro in no time. More importantly, you'll find content specific peers to learn with in no time, too!

The second step to creating meaningful electronic learning teams is to begin joining together in more sophisticated digital homes.

You see, PLCs aren't just groups of teachers who are sharing resources with each other. Instead, they are groups of teachers who are engaged in sustained, collective inquiry around their practice together.

PLC expert Rick DuFour and his Learning by Doing coauthors define the core work of PLCs as:

"An ongoing process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students that they serve."

No matter how much I love Twitter, "recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research" just aren't possible in 140-character messages.

But it IS possible to use digital tools to engage in "recurring cycles of collective inquire and action research" with far-flung peers.

Some electronic teams use free tools like Skype to videoconference weekly and Google Docs to develop shared assessments and lesson plans.

Others use asynchronous tools like Voicethread to maintain ongoing conversations on important instructional concepts and PB Works to warehouse team content.

I've been recommending that digital novices interested in electronic teaming explore Wiggio. Another free service, Wiggio stands out because it makes ALL of these collaborative actions possible from behind one login.

After creating a group that includes the singleton peers that you want to collaborate with, you can use Wiggio to create common assessments and to warehouse shared lesson plans.

More importantly, you can conduct regular video conferences and maintain ongoing asynchronous conversations with each other.

This ability to bring together tools that make every collaborative task possible in one place will resonate with many teachers. While techies might be comfortable with service-switching when collaborating, most teachers will be much happier with one new tool to learn!

Whatever tool you pick to build a collaborative home for your electronic learning team, remember that your priority should be to implement collaborative practices that look just like the work being done by peers on traditional learning teams.

Develop sets of essential outcomes. Create common rubrics and exemplars of accomplished student work. Set criteria for student mastery and deliver common assessments. "Meet" regularly to talk about instruction.

In the end, that commitment to a structured process of collective inquiry focused on student learning is the hallmark of every successful learning team, whether they're gathering in person or online!

____________________________________

Related Radical Resources:

Twitter for Singletons

Twitter as a Tool for Professional Development


Posted at 12:50 PM in PD, PLCs, Web 2.0 | Permalink ShareThis
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http://sc11.supercomputing.org/

Follow SC11:

SC11 will feature the latest scientific and technical innovations from around the world. Bringing together
scientists, engineers, researchers, educators, programmers, system administrators and managers, SC11
will be the forum for demonstrating how these developments are driving new ideas, new discoveries and
new industries. The SC11 thrust is: Data Intensive Science; the theme is Connecting Communities; and the
technical program focus is on sustained performance. As we head toward yet another great conference, this
newsletter will serve as a resource for preparations, deadlines and news regarding the conference.



HEADLINES:

* Welcome from the Chair

* Communities Program Adds New and Exciting Enhancements

* Education Program Full of Opportunities

* New - Advanced Track Added to the Broader Engagement Program

* Applications Being Accepted for the Student Volunteers Program

* Student Cluster Competition is On!

* Assistance for SC International Attendees

* SC11 Awards

* ACM-IEEE CS Ken Kennedy Award (nominations due July 1)

* IEEE Seymour Cray Computer Science and Engineering Award (nominations due July 1)

* IEEE Sidney Fernbach Memorial Award (nominations due July 1)

* George Michael Memorial HPC Fellowship Program (submissions deadline extended to July 14)

* Birds of a Feather (submissions due July 22)

* Disruptive Technologies (submissions due July 22)

* Doctoral Showcase (submissions due July 22)

* Posters (submissions due July 22)




Welcome from the Chair

The Technical Program was overwhelmed with the tremendous response from the community. The Technical Program
committee reviewed more than 350 paper submissions for SC11. While the task of reviewing the papers was immense,
the committee's selection resulted in a very high quality Technical Program offering. Remember to book your hotel room
to stay through Saturday, November 19 to benefit from a full day of Technical Program sessions on Friday, November 18.

The SC11 committee remains focused on ensuring that the SC11 Conference provides you with the best possible
experience. If you have suggestions for how we can enhance your experience, please let us know. The George Michael
HPC Ph.D. Fellowships were established in memory of George Michael, one of the founding fathers of the SC Conference
series. This fellowship, named in his honor, honors exceptional Ph.D. students throughout the world whose focus areas
are on high performance computing, networking, storage and analysis. We have extended the deadline for submissions
to July 14 to allow the community more time to apply and benefit from this award.

There is still time to submit to the new State-of-the-Practice session, Posters, BOFs, Disruptive Technologies, Doctoral
Showcase, the George Michael HPC Ph.D. Fellowships, Education Program,

Student Volunteers, and Broader
Engagement Program.

Below is a summary of "Important Submission Deadlines":

* Birds of a Feather: Friday, July 22
* Disruptive Technologies: Friday, July 22
* Doctoral Showcase: Friday, July 22
* Posters: Friday, July 22
* Education Program: Sunday, July 31
* Student Volunteers: Sunday, August 14
* Broader Engagement Program: Sunday, August 14

Please share this information with your friends and colleagues and encourage them to join you in November to connect
with the global HPC community.


Scott Lathrop, SC11 Chair


Communities Program Adds New and Exciting Enhancements

The SC11 Communities Program, which consists of Broader Engagement, Education, International Ambassadors,
Student Volunteers, and Mentor/Protégé Programs, supports the cultivation of new participants into the exciting world of
high performance computing and the SC conference series. Existing components within the Communities Program have
been enhanced this year to facilitate more than ever opportunities for participation from across the globe, as well as for
enriching the experiences of program participants. For example, the Broader Engagement program is offering an
"advanced" track for returning participants, and the Education Program is offering LittleFe, a multiple-node mini-cluster
that will provide classroom demonstrations and exercises in HPC and parallel programming.

For more information: http://sc11.supercomputing.org/?pg=communities.html



Education Program Full of Opportunities

The Education Program introduces high performance computing and computational and data enabled science and
engineering (CDESE) techniques, technologies and resources to undergraduate faculty and high school teachers and
assists educators in integrating HPC and CDESE into their classrooms.

This year, the Education Program will host SC's first ever LittleFe (co-funded by Intel Lab's University Program Office),
a portable mini-cluster of multiple nodes, whose primary focus is on turnkey classroom demonstrations of and exercises
in HPC, parallel programming, and CDESE. (Visit LittleFe.net for more information on this cluster project.)

The Education Program also will host a four-day intensive program (Saturday, November 12 through Tuesday,
November 15) with plenary sessions, focused hands-on tutorials and birds-of-a-feather gatherings, as well as formal
and informal opportunities to interact with the full spectrum of conference attendees and exhibitors.

Limited grants are available to support teaching faculty from both secondary and postsecondary institutions. International
transportation grants, to attract attendees from around the world, are also available.

The Education Program is also supporting summer workshops this year, in collaboration with the National Computational
Science Institute and several other organizations, including substantial videoconferencing components as a means of
expanding the reach of these activities and reducing cost per participant.

Applications due: Sunday, July 31
Notification by: Friday, August 19
Submission Site:http://submissions.supercomputing.org
For more information: http://sc11.supercomputing.org/?pg=edprog.html
Questions: education@info.supercomputing.org




New-Advanced Track Added to the Broader Engagement Program

The Broader Engagement (BE) component of the Communities Program focuses on increasing the involvement of
individuals from traditionally underrepresented groups. Participants in BE meet each other, as well as conference
leaders, early in the week of SC, and have the opportunity to engage in community-building programs, such as
networking events, professional development sessions, and some specialized technical sessions.

In addition to the standard BE program track, this year we're featuring a new "advanced" track. Where the standard
track is intended for newcomers to SC, the advanced track is intended for the returning and/or advanced BE participants.
This track provides access to tutorials as well as the standard BE program, with partial support of conference expenses.
More information on this addition will be provided in next month's newsletter.

Early Acceptance Submissions due: Monday, June 27
Early Acceptance Notification: Friday, July 15
Submission due: Sunday, August 15
Submission site: http://submissions.supercomputing.org
For more information: http://sc11.supercomputing.org/?pg=broadeng.html
Questions: be@info.supercomputing.org





Applications Being Accepted for the Student Volunteers Program

Applications for the SC11 Student Volunteers Program are OPEN! Please go to the submissions site to apply.
We encourage undergraduate and graduate students to apply as volunteers to help with the administration of the
conference. In exchange for volunteering, you will receive complimentary conference registration, housing
(for out-of-town volunteers), and most meals.

In addition, we provide limited support for transportation expenses (such as airfare) for international students and
students from groups that traditionally have been underrepresented in HPC (African Americans, Hispanics,
Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, the physically challenged and women).

Submissions due: Monday, August 12
Submission site: http://submissions.supercomputing.org
For more information: http://sc11.supercomputing.org/?pg=studvol.html
Questions: student-vols@info.supercomputing.org





The Student Cluster Competition is On!

The Student Cluster Competition received more than 17 team applications from over five different countries for
undergraduate students to participate in this year's intensive competition. Teams will be announced in a future edition
of this newsletter.

The competition will feature small teams that compete to harness the incredible power of current-generation cluster
hardware. In a real-time challenge, teams of six undergraduate and/or high school students will build a small cluster
of their own design on the SC exhibit floor and race to demonstrate the greatest sustained performance across
a series of applications.
For more information: http://sc11.supercomputing.org/?pg=studentcluster.html
Questions: student-cluster-competition@info.supercomputing.org


Assistance for SC International Attendees

The International Ambassadors Program is designed specifically to help international conference attendees with issues
encountered while traveling to the United States. SC11 is making a special effort to identify and provide any assistance
and/or facilities for non-US attendees to enhance their conference experience. The International Attendees Center,
a place at the conference for international attendees, will be open for attendees to meet, learn more about the
conference and interact with other international colleagues, as well as SC conference organizers.

For more information: http://sc11.supercomputing.org/?pg=international.html
Questions: SCambassadors@info.supercomputing.org



SC11 Awards

The young field of supercomputing is richly blessed with legacies. Recent achievements and career-spanning
contributions will be recognized in the names of these visionaries and in other non-eponymous prizes, such as
best paper, best student paper, best poster, and on-site competitions. The judging becomes more difficult each year
as supercomputing expands. Each winner represents countless others whose strivings for excellence push the field
forward. Annual awards become thumbnails of the history of ideas and of the evolution of technologies.

Several volunteer awards committees have been populated to evaluate the 2011 submissions and nominations.
The Gordon Bell competition closed with 26 entries, which will be reduced to six finalists, who will present updated
scaling results in Seattle. Pause to consider your own pleasure in seeing deserving peers recognized, and plan with
other colleagues to complete a prize nomination by July 1. The nomination processes for other named prizes are
described below.


ACM-IEEE CS Ken Kennedy Award
The Ken Kennedy Award recognizes substantial contributions to programmability and productivity in computing and
substantial community service or mentoring contributions. The award honors the remarkable research, service, and
mentoring contributions of Ken Kennedy and includes a $5,000 honorarium. This award will be presented during a
special session at the conference.

Nominations due: Friday, July 1
Nomination form: http://www.computer.org/portal/web/awards/kennedy
For more information: http://sc11.supercomputing.org/?pg=awards.html
Questions: awards@info.supercomputing.org



IEEE Seymour Cray Computer Science and Engineering Award
Nominate that person who you know is most deserving of the Seymour Cray Computer Science and Engineering Award,
which recognizes innovative contributions to HPC systems that best exemplify the creative spirit of Seymour Cray.
The award consists of a certificate and $10,000 honorarium. Sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society, this prestigious
honor will be presented during a special awards session at the conference.

Nominations due: Friday, July 1
Nomination form: http://www.computer.org/portal/web/awards/seymourcray
For more information: http://sc11.supercomputing.org/?pg=awards.html
Questions: awards@info.supercomputing.org


IEEE Sidney Fernbach Memorial Award
If you know a peer, student, or anyone who excels at HPC problem solving, nominate this deserving individual for the
Sidney Fernbach Memorial Award, which honors innovative uses of HPC in problem solving. A certificate and $5,000
honorarium are given to the winner, Sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society, this prestigious honor will be presented
during a special awards session at the conference.

Nominations due: Friday, July 1
Nomination form: http://awards.computer.org/ana/award/view.action?id=16
For more information: http://sc11.supercomputing.org/?pg=awards.html
Questions: awards@info.supercomputing.org



George Michael Memorial HPC Fellowship Program
The deadline for submissions has been extended to July 14 to allow the community time to apply and benefit from this
award. This prestigious fellowship program is an opportunity for you to nominate exceptional Ph.D. students throughout
the world whose focus areas are on high performance computing, networking, storage and analysis. The fellowship
program is in memory of George Michael, one of the founding fathers of the SC Conference series. Sponsored by ACM,
IEEE Computer Society and the SC Conference, this award will be presented during a special session at the conference.
Don't miss your chance to honor a Ph.D. student who you know will make - or who already has made - a positive
impact on this community.

Submissions due: Thursday, July 14
Submission site: https://submissions.supercomputing.org/
For more information: http://sc11.supercomputing.org/?pg=awards.html
Questions: awards@info.supercomputing.org


Birds of a Feather
The Birds of a Feather (BOF) program invites you to submit a proposal if you are interested in holding a session that
emphasizes audience interaction and open discussion on non-commercial HPC topics of focused mutual interest and
currency within the HPC community. A strong emphasis should be placed on audience-driven discussion and participation.

We expect the number of submissions to exceed the number of available rooms for BOF sessions; submissions,
therefore, will be reviewed by a selection committee for topic, submission quality, audience engagement, and level
of interest to the SC community.
Submissions due: Friday, July 22
Notifications: Friday, August 19
Final program info due: Friday, August 26
Submission site: https://submissions.supercomputing.org/
For more information: http://sc11.supercomputing.org/?pg=bofs.html
Questions: bofs@info.supercomputing.org


Disruptive Technologies
A disruptive technology is a technological innovation or product that may eventually supplant an existing dominant
technology or product in the marketplace. For SC11, Disruptive Technologies will serve as a forum for examining
technologies that could significantly reshape the high performance computing, networking, storage and data analysis
ecosystem in the next five to fifteen years, but which are not common in today's systems. Disruptive Technologies will
showcase these technologies in panel sessions and an exhibit showcase.
Submissions due: Friday, July 22
Notification: Monday, August 19
Submission site: https://submissions.supercomputing.org/
For more information: http://sc11.supercomputing.org/?pg=disrupttech.html
Questions: disruptive-techs@info.supercomputing.org


Doctoral Showcase
Ph.D. students in high performance computing, networking, storage, and analysis, who anticipate completion within
12 months, are invited to submit a short summary of their research for Doctoral Showcase presentation at SC11.
This is your opportunity to present your ideas and innovations to an international audience composed of your peers,
many of whom have been in this community for numbers of years. The submission should consist of a one-page
summary of research, a publication list, and three slides on major results for consideration by the review committee.
Selected students may present a 15-minute summary of their research results to the technical program attendees.
Submissions due: Friday, July 22
Notification: Friday, August 19
Submission site: https://submissions.supercomputing.org/
For more information: http://sc11.supercomputing.org/?pg=doctsc.html
Questions: doc-showcase@info.supercomputing.org


Posters Submissions
SC11 is soliciting submissions for posters that display cutting-edge, interesting research in high performance computing,
storage, networking and analytics. Posters provide an excellent opportunity for short presentations and informal
discussions with conference attendees. We encourage students who are ACM members to submit posters as part
of the ACM Student Research Competition (SRC).

Posters will be prominently displayed for the duration of the conference, giving presenters a chance to showcase their
latest results and innovations. There will be one award for Best Poster. Electronic versions of the posters will be
archived and made publicly available after the conference.
Submissions due: Friday, July 22
Notification: Friday, August 19
ACM Student Research Competition (SRC) information: http://src.acm.org/
Submission site: http://src.acm.org/
For more information: http://sc11.supercomputing.org/?pg=posters.html
Questions: posters@info.supercomputing.org


Seattle Events During SC11

When you are not attending one of SC11's many tutorials, panels, speakers or the exhibits program, step outside of the
convention center and experience what Seattle has to offer. There are many events that are occurring in the city
during the conference that may be of interest to you. Check out the Seattle's Convention and Visitors Bureau
calendar of events to find the many exhibits, concerts, and shows that you can choose from during the month of November.

By Joan Engebretson

The NetAmerica Alliance, an organization launched with the goal of helping rural network operators gain economies of scale in making 4G deployments, has added two new members-Peoples Telephone Cooperative of Quitman, Tex. and Etex Telephone Cooperative of Gilmer, Tex.

When NetAmerica was announced earlier this year, the organization said it had four rural carrier members representing 1 million pops.

http://www.telecompetitor.com/netamerica-reveals-two-partners-begins-building-rural-4g-footprint/

Edudemic
http://edudemic.com/2011/05/social-networks/

June 20, 2011
http://andersonatlarge.typepad.com/andersonlarge/2011/06/stem-education-meet-the-innovators-tracking-change.html

STEM Education: Meet the Innovators

Later today, the College Board Advocacy & Policy Center will release a new report, The Educational Experience of Young Men of Color. College Board President Gaston Caperton said:

At a time when our nation is committed to reclaiming its place as the world leader in higher education, we can no longer afford to ignore the plight of our young men of color. As long as educational opportunities are limited for some, we all suffer. We rise as one nation and we fall as one nation.
The College Board, in partnership with the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, will host an interactive town hall meeting and panel discussion on the "progress and pitfalls for young men of color on their way to a college degree."

I'll leave the endless talk of the challenges of black male students who pitch a fit in the classroom to the "distinguished scholars, leading educators, policymakers and experts in the field."

Instead, I want to introduce Ben Brown, an 11-year-old entrepreneur who pitched his mobile app at the recent Triangle Startup Weekend.



Marci Lawson was also in the house. Marci has developed an app and social network for cheerleaders.



Ben and Marci were Startup Weekend's youngest entrepreneurs.

If you want to help stem the tide of bad news about African American students, send me an email at fmanderson@trackingchange.info.

June 20, 2011

Broadcasting and Cable
By John Eggerton

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Wednesday that the pace of broadband adoption is too slow and called on cable operators to step up their efforts. For his part, National Cable & Telecommunications Association President Michael Powell said the industry was committed to being a partner in that effort.

That came in a conversation between the two old friends to kick off Wednesday morning's general session at The Cable Show in Chicago. Genachowski's office had tipped his hand the night before in speech highlights that emphasized the adoption issue, which Powell teed up as the last question of the interview.

Echoing Powell's phrase in his keynote of the day before, Genachowski said broadband adoption is what "powers the American dream," and empowers people to find and get jobs, an education, and healthcare.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/print/469751-The_Cable_Show_2011_Genachowski_Broadband_Adoption_Just_Not_Good_Enough_.php

875 TEDTalks in a Neat Spreadsheet
http://www.openculture.com/2011/02/875_ted_talks_in_a_spreadsheet.html
in TED Talks
207 481
A quick fyi for TED heads in our audience: Right here, you can find an online spreadsheet that lists 875 TEDTalks, with handy links to each individual video. This evolving Google doc will give you access to more than 265 hours of "riveting talks by remarkable people." Because the page is updated on a regular basis, you'll definitely want to bookmark it and keep tabs on the new additions.

On a related note, TED has also just rolled out TEDBooks, a new digital book series that delivers powerful ideas in 20,000 words or less. That's about 1/3 the length of a traditional book. TEDBooks are currently being sold for $2.99 through Amazon as "Kindle Singles." You can learn more about the initiative on TED's blog or via BrainPickings, or simply visit Amazon to preview the first three books in the series:


Homo Evolutis by Juan Enriquez and Steve Gullans
The Happiness Manifesto by Nic Marks
Beware Dangerism! by Gever Tulley

http://spotlight.macfound.org/blog/entry/playback-race-class-and-technology-use/


Filed in: Family, Digital Divide, Mobile, Schools, Social Media
Filed by Sarah J.


Photo by Xiaming.
6.16.11 | How parental attitudes affect young children's technology use; kids of color are using more media than white youth; and real-life examples of cloud computing and Twitter in the classroom.
A Parental Digital Divide?: Parental attitudes toward young children's use of technology greatly affect a child's interest in and skill using new tools in a pre-school setting, according to a new UK-based study.
"Multimodal Literacies in the Early Years" explores what learning to be literate means for young children growing up in today's media-rich world. Researchers from The Open University and Cambridge University completed case studies of 10 pre-school children in a Sure Start Children's Centre and interviewed parents and staff. Among the key findings:
Home ownership of mobile phones, TVs, satellite, computers and internet was widespread, although two families in the lowest income band (>£10,000 per annum) had no computer, with implications for social inclusion/equality. Whilst safeguarding against their over-use, most parents recognised the potential of new technologies for their children's learning, but were less sure about how to support screen-based literacy activities.

Some children were not allowed computer access at home, but did use mobile phones, TV/videos, and 'smart' toys which converged new and traditional technologies (e.g. talking books, interactive toys). We therefore found a 'digital divide' where some children in the nursery displayed strategic, meta-level literacy knowledge with new technologies derived principally from participation in supported activity at home, whilst children with less experience only participated in low-level activities or did not use them at all.

"There is a lack of guidance on how to support literacy with digital technologies," researcher Rosie Flewitt told The Guardian. "The exception was with children with learning difficulties or physical difficulties, as practitioners had realized new technology could really help." Some of the more affluent families-as well as pre-school staff-were more likely to restrict access out of concern that early technology use can hinder educational and social development.
"Some children from highly educated, affluent families had very little exposure to new technologies," said Flewitt, "whereas some children from less affluent families were given excellent support at home to develop their literacy skills through diverse uses of new technologies."
The Guardian article also quotes experts who believe digital technologies can compromise healthy development for very young children. We've covered this issue in depth on Spotlight earlier this year. For more, read

"Learning, Digital Media and Creative Play in Early Childhood."

Youth of Color Use More Media: Minority youth are using an average of 13 hours of media a day, nearly 4.5 hours more than white youth, according to a new study by Northwestern University released last week.
The number of hours includes listening to music, watching TV, playing video games, using the computer, reading print media, and viewing movies. The report, Children, Media and Race: Media Use Among White, Black, Hispanic and Asian American Children," (pdf) analyzes data from the 2010 Kaiser Family Foundation Generation M2 study on media use among 2,000 8- to 18-year-olds and the foundation's 2006 Media Family study on another 2,000 children from birth to 6 years old. The study also found all groups read for pleasure 30 to 40 minutes a day.

The study's authors-Ellen Wartella, Vicky Rideout and Alexis Lauri-wrote that the report aims to "briefly hit a national pause button: to stop and take note of these differences, to consider the possible positive and negative implications for young people's health and well-being, and to reflect on how each of us can respond in our own realms-as educators, public health advocates, content creators, and parents-in a way that benefits children, tweens, and teens to the greatest extent possible."
Another interesting piece of the research found that minority youth spend more time consuming media on mobile devices, including cell phones and iPods, than other groups. Last year, Spotlight spoke with S. Craig Watkins, an associate professor of media studies at the University of Texas at Austin who has written about the "participation gap" and the ways that black and Latino youth are embracing mobile technology. Read the story here.
Educators on Cloud Nine: We've been writing about the possibilities that cloud computing offers for education lately. In case you've been in the clouds yourself, the term to refers to storing data and applications online, removing the need for installing application software on a computer. The model got a lot of attention recently with the unveiling of Apple's iCloud and Google's Chromebook.

Before we jump to the conclusion that this is surely a game changer, we have to get beyond the slick unveilings at developer conferences and pay attention to how cloud computing is being integrated into schools. We're always on the lookout for examples of how teachers are using new tools to enhance learning in classrooms. Turns out many educators are already using cloud-based technologies-and for more for more than just administrative management.

This great piece in THE Journal shares nine compelling detailed examples from educators around the country who are experimenting with new online tools like StudySync and Wixie. Some students are collaborating on projects such as literacy salons and podcasts, while others are mentoring younger students.

In Florida's Palm Beach County, for example, students and teachers are using Adobe Connect Pro tools to collaborate before, during, and after field trips:
In advance of a recent trip to a local state park to explore its different ecological zones, for example, Palm Beach students met online with park rangers via a video chat to ask questions, obtain beach reports, and gather other pertinent information. Once out in the field, students were armed with laptops, cameras, and scientific probe devices that allowed them to gather data for use in the classroom the next day. Final reports (both written and video) were completed online and shared with teachers back at the school. Teachers were able to connect with the students in real time with feedback to the information they were uploading, ask additional questions, and even immediately grade the assignments students were completing back at the park.

"Using technology, teachers can make the lesson much more compelling and extend past a single day's trip," says Kim Cavanaugh, the district's technology program specialist. "They can also latch onto the enthusiasm immediately, and use it as a motivational tool for students."
Read the full piece here.
http://thejournal.com/articles/2011/06/10/on-cloud-nine.aspx

Plus: The New York Times technology columnist David Pogue says Google's new Chromebook is not all it's cracked up to be. Echoing concerns some educators have raised about privacy, infrastructure and access issues, Pogue writes that while Google deserves praise for its "noble experiment," for now, "unless you're an early-adopter masochist with money to burn, you probably shouldn't buy a Chromebook."

Twitter for Budding Historians: And finally, one more story of classroom learning comes from this story at CNN last week featuring Enrique Legaspi, an eighth-grade history teacher at Hollenbeck Middle School in East Los Angeles who uses Twitter in his class to help his students "find their voice."
"I have many students that do not participate in my classes or share what's on their mind, so Twitter became that vehicle," he said.
In the video below, you can see how Legaspi sparks discussion about World War I and how he's developing literacy and voice in the process. As an educator, Legaspi is really enthusiastic about Twitter's ability to engage his students.
"I get feedback on the spot. Not only that, all the students can see what they're sharing," he said. "This is powerful."


cloud computing, craig watkins, early childhood, google, race, twitter, video

There are great videos on the site of the McArthur Foundation.

http://www.stemequitypipeline.org/Resources/OnlineResources/default.aspx

As a past president of the National Academy of Engineering put it, "A
consequence of lack of diversity...[is that] we pay an opportunity cost, a
cost in designs not thought of, in solutions not produced." Thus, in an
effort to increase the diversity of the Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics (STEM) workforce, STEM Equity Pipeline was developed. The
"Online Resources" section of their website offers visitors a wide variety
of resources, including "pamphlets/brochures", "posters", "scholarships" and
"videos". The "Curriculum" resource is particularly rich and it offers over
50 websites that contain single activities, whole lesson plans or hands-on
explorations. Some of the titles visitors might find valuable are "Some
Disassembly Required", which employs reverse engineering (or taking things
apart) to learn how they work, "Teaching Tool for Introductory Programming
Concepts", to teach students computer programming in a 3D environment, and
"Home Science Adventures", science lessons and plans for home- schoolers.
[KMG]

To find this resource and more high-quality online resources in math and
science visit Scout's sister site - AMSER, the Applied Math and Science
Educational Repository at http://amser.org.

Report: Social networking sites and our lives

Questions have been raised about the social impact of widespread use of social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Twitter. Do these technologies isolate people and truncate their relationships? Or are there benefits associated with being connected to others in this way? The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project decided to examine social networking sites in a survey that explored people's overall social networks and how use of these technologies is related to trust, tolerance, social support, and community and political engagement.

This new report finds that Facebook users are more trusting, have more close friends, are more politically engaged, and get more support from their friends. Additionally, Facebook helps revive "dormant" ties with lost connections-the highest proportion of Facebook friends is high school classmates.

This survey also showed that more people are using social networking sites - the figure is now 47% of the entire adult population, compared with 26% that was measured in our similar 2008 survey. Among other things, this means the average age of adult social networking site users has shifted from 33 in 2008 to 38 in 2010. Over half of all adult social networking site users are now over the age of 35.

Read or download the full report: http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Technology-and-social-networks.aspx