Conmergence

5th International Digital Curation Conference "Moving to Multi-Scale Science: Managing Complexity and Diversity" Call for Papers

We invite submission of full papers, posters, workshops and demos and welcome contributions and participation from individuals, organisations and institutions across all disciplines and domains that are engaged in the creation, use and management of digital data, especially those involved in the challenge of curating data for e-science and e-research.

Proposals will be considered for short (up to 6 pages) or long (up to 12 pages) papers and also for demonstrations, workshops and posters. The full text of papers will be peer-reviewed; abstracts for all posters, workshops and demos will be reviewed by the co-chairs. Final copy of accepted contributions will be made available to conference delegates, and papers will be published in our International Journal of Digital Curation. Accordingly, we recommend that you download our template and read the advice on its use.

Papers should be original and innovative, probably analytical in approach, and should present or reference significant evidence (whether experimental, observational or textual) to support their conclusions.

Subject matter could be policy, strategic, operational, experimental, infrastructural, tool-based, and so on, in nature, but the key elements are originality and evidence. Layout and structure should be appropriate for the disciplinary area. Papers should not have been published in their current or a very similar form before, other than as a pre-print in a repository.

We seek papers that respond to the main themes of the conference: multi-scale, multi-discipline, multi-skill and multi-sector, and that relate to the creation, curation, management and re-use of research data. Research data should be interpreted broadly to include the digital subjects of all types of research and scholarship (including Arts and Humanities, and all the Sciences). Papers may cover:

• Curation practice and data management at the extremes of scale (e.g. interactions between small science and big science, or extremes of object size, numbers of objects, rates of deposit and use)
• Challenging content: (e.g. addressing issues of data complexity, diversity and granularity)
• Curation and e-research, including contextual, provenance, authenticity and other metadata for curation (e.g. automated systems for acquiring such metadata)
• Research data infrastructures, including data repositories and services
• Disciplinary and inter-disciplinary curation challenges and data management approaches, standards and norms
• Promoting, enabling, demonstrating and characterizing the re-use of data
• Semantically rich documents (e.g. the “well-supported article”)
• The human infrastructure for curation (e.g. skills, careers, training and organisational support structures, careers, skills, training and curriculum)
• Curation across academia, government, commerce and industry
• Legal and policy issues; Creative Commons, special licences, the public domain and other approaches for re-use, and questions of privacy, consent, and embargo
• Sustainability and economics: understanding business and financial models; balancing costs, benefits and value of digital curation

Important Dates

• Submission of papers for peer-review: 24 July 2009
• Submission of abstracts posters/demos/workshops: 24 July 2009
• Notification of authors of papers: 18 September 2009
• Notification of authors of posters/demos/workshops: 2 October 2009
• Final papers deadline: 13 November 2009
• Final posters deadline: 13 November 2009

Project Health Design National Advisory Committee

David K. Ahern, Ph.D.
Director, Health Information Technology Resource Center
Aligning Forces for Quality, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Brigham & Women's Hospital

David K. Ahern, Ph.D., is the director of the Health Information Technology Resource Center (HITRC) based at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston for Aligning Forces for Quality, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation providing 15 current active communities across the U.S. with technical assistance and guidance to leverage the near term value of health information technology to improve health care quality.

Dr. Ahern is an associate in psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Also, Dr. Ahern is an assistant professor of Psychology (Psychiatry) at Harvard Medical School. From 1992-2000, Dr. Ahern was the founder and director of the Behavioral Medicine Service at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) wherein he provided clinical care, mentoring of interns and residents, clinical research, and consultative services. Dr. Ahern transferred his primary hospital appointment from MGH to the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 2000 to continue his collaborative research program with Arthur Barsky, M.D., within the Department of Psychiatry.

Dr. Ahern has had a distinguished career in clinical research, behavioral medicine and behavioral informatics and eHealth. He has published over 80 original articles in the areas of chronic pain, psychosocial aspects of musculoskeletal disorders, cardiovascular behavioral medicine and eHealth research.

He has held investigator roles on numerous research grants and contracts funded by multiple agencies including the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, the National Cancer Institute, and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Dr. Ahern also holds the position of senior scientist for Abacus Management Technologies based in Rhode Island.

Veenu Aulakh, M.S.P.H.
Senior Program Officer, Better Chronic Disease Care
California HealthCare Foundation

Veenu Aulakh, M.S.P.H., is a senior program officer for the California HealthCare Foundation's (CHCF) Better Chronic Disease Care program, which focuses on improving the quality of care for Californians with chronic diseases. She manages projects that increase the participation of patients and their families in all aspects of care. These projects center on improving the quality of care for patients with chronic illnesses and conditions through two mechanisms: engaging patients in their own care and using information technology at the point of care through tools like personal health records.

Prior to joining CHCF, she worked as a senior project manager at Kaiser Permanente, with an emphasis on improving the quality of care through health education and patient engagement. She also worked as a consultant in Kaiser Permanente's Care Management Institute, where she developed diabetes management programs. Ms. Aulakh has also worked for CareGuide as director of strategic projects and as a project manager in the diagnostics division of Abbott Laboratories.

Ms. Aulakh received a bachelor's degree in industrial and operations engineering from the University of Michigan and a master's of science in health policy and management from Harvard University.

Carmella A. Bocchino, R.N., M.B.A.
Executive Vice President, Clinical Affairs and Strategic Planning
America’s Health Insurance Plans

Carmella Bocchino, R.N., M.B.A., is a leading authority in identifying strategies that promote greater organization in the health care delivery system and advance innovative payment models that drive quality and value. As executive vice president of Clinical Affairs and Strategic Planning at America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), Ms. Bocchino works with the executives of member organizations to develop patient-centered programs and tools, foster private-public partnerships and advance an interconnected highly functioning health care system.

A registered professional nurse and former hospital administrator, Ms. Bocchino’s clinical and public policy expertise has been widely recognized by national and state lawmakers, policymakers, patient advocacy groups, employers, and throughout the health care community.  She has been appointed to numerous private, state, and federal health care advisory committees, including the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine for the Study of the Medicare End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) program; advisor to the Rand Health Sciences Program for the capitation study for the end-stage renal disease project; the Advisory Committee for Quality Improvement Standards for Managed Care; the Planning Committee establishing the National Quality Forum; and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) ONCHIT Health Information Technology Adoption Initiative Expert Consensus Panel. She currently serves on the RWJF National Advisory Committee, Project Health Design: Rethinking the Power and Potential of Personal Health Records.

Ms. Bocchino received her Master in Business Administration from Rutgers University, Graduate School of Management in Newark, N.J. She also has an undergraduate degree in human resources management from Upsala College and a nursing degree from Mountainside Hospital School of Nursing. Prior to her positions in health policy, Ms. Bocchino held administrative and clinical positions in critical care medicine and renal replacement therapy.

Susannah Fox
Associate Director, Digital Strategy
Pew Internet & American Life Project

Susannah Fox is associate director of Digital Strategy at the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Ms. Fox leads the Project's health research and oversees the Project's digital strategy. Some of her recent reports include, “The Social Life of Health Information,” “Twitter and Status Updating,” and “Generations Online in 2009.”

Ms. Fox is the former editor of the U.S. News & World Report Web site, and she also worked as a researcher for RealNetworks and for The Harwood Group.

Ms. Fox graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in anthropology. She also contributes to e-patients.net, a multi-author blog about health and health care.

Michael Christopher Gibbons, M.D., M.P.H.
Associate Director, Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute
Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins’ Schools of Medicine and Public Health

Michael Christopher Gibbons, M.D., M.P.H., is an associate director of the Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute and is an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins’ Schools of Medicine and Public Health. Dr. Gibbons’ is an urban health expert and informatician who works primarily in the area of consumer health informatics where he focuses on using health information and communications technologies to improve urban healthcare disparities.

He is an advisor and expert consultant to several state and federal agencies and policymakers in the areas of urban health, eHealth, minority health and healthcare disparities. Dr. Gibbons is leading a systematic evidence review on the impact of consumer health informatics applications for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and has been named a Health Disparities Scholar by the National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities at the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Gibbons is currently serving on a National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council committee investigating the role of human factors in the delivery of healthcare in nonclinical home and community settings. Dr. Gibbon’s has recently authored the book entitled “eHealth Solutions for Healthcare Disparities” and his research is leading the development of the emerging field of Populomics.

Dr. Gibbons obtained his medical degree from the University of Alabama. He then completed residency training in preventive medicine, a molecular oncology research fellowship and earned a Master of Public Health degree focusing in health promotion among urban and disadvantaged populations all from Johns Hopkins.

John D. Halamka, M.D., M.S.
Chief Information Officer
Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

John D. Halamka, M.D., M.S., is chief information officer of Harvard Medical School, chief information officer of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, chairman of the New England Health Electronic Data Interchange Network (NEHEN), CEO of MA-SHARE (a Regional Health Information Organization), chair of the U.S. Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP), and a practicing emergency physician.

 As chief information officer of Harvard Medical School, he oversees all educational, research and administrative computing for 18,000 faculty and 3,000 students. At Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, he is responsible for all clinical, financial, administrative and academic information technology serving 3,000 doctors, 14,000 employees and two million patients. As chairman of NEHEN, he oversees the administrative data exchange in Massachusetts; as CEO of MA-SHARE, he oversees the clinical data exchange efforts in Massachusetts; and as chair of HITS, he coordinates the process of electronic standards harmonization among stakeholders nationwide.

J. Daniell Hebert
CEO and Co-Founder
MOTO Development Group

J. Daniell Hebert is the CEO of MOTO Development Group which he founded with college roommate Gregor Berkowitz in 1991. MOTO is a leading product research and development company focusing on innovation and product development that blends electronics, software, and mechanical engineering.

Under Mr. Hebert's leadership, MOTO has provided advanced research and intellectual property for leading research and innovation groups at Apple, Microsoft, Sony, Hewlett Packard, Interval Research, Motorola, Casio and Ricoh. MOTO has also developed and shipped high volume consumer electronics products for Virgin, Intel, Logitech, Sirius and many other startup companies.

While at MOTO, Mr. Hebert was also the founder and CTO of two startup companies: Mjuice (1997) a secure music download company (aquired by Artist Direct) and MVOEM/MSX (2003) a software company providing deeply brand-customized mobile phones and services. Prior to founding MOTO, Mr. Hebert was a researcher in MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and later joined Apple Computer as a researcher of advanced manufacturing systems.

Mr. Hebert received his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and completed the Stanford Business School Executive Program for Growing Companies. He has been awarded patents for portable computer systems, portable audio systems and medical instruments.

Brandon Hull, M.B.A.
Partner and Co-Founder
Cardinal Partners

Brandon Hull, M.B.A., is a co-founder of Cardinal Partners, a medical and life sciences venture capital partnership established in 1996. He entered the venture capital industry in 1991 as a principal of the Edison Venture Fund, where he directed Edison's healthcare investing activities and served on the boards of its healthcare portfolio companies. His extensive investment experience includes all facets of health care services, health care information systems, medical products and devices, and encompasses a variety of information technology sectors outside of health care. Prior to his venture investing experience, Brandon spent seven years in health services operations.

Brandon has served on the boards of numerous healthcare and medtech companies, and currently serves as a director of AthenaHealth, CardioOptics, Replication Medical, CodeRyte, and Fluidnet and is a board observer at AccentCare.

Brandon received his B.A. in philosophy and literature from Wheaton College and his M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Carlos Roberto Jaén, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor and Chairman, Department of Family and Community Medicine
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

Carlos Roberto Jaén, M.D., Ph.D., is the Dr. John M. Smith, Jr. professor and chairman of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio since 2001.

Dr. Jaén is a former RWJF Generalist Physician Faculty Scholar and completed a U.S. PHS Primary Care Policy Fellowship. He is co-director of the AAFP-funded Center for Research in Family Medicine and Primary Care and is the PI of the National Demonstration Project evaluation of TransforMED. He served on the panels that published smoking cessation guidelines in 1996 and 2000 and is co-chair of the panel that published an update in 2008.

Dr. Jaén has been active in family medicine and public health research since 1985. In 2005, he was appointed to the National Advisory Council to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).  He is a practicing family physician and has been selected to the Best Doctors in America since 2002.

He has B.S. and M.S. degrees in biology from Niagara University and doctoral degrees in medicine and epidemiology from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He completed a family medicine residency and primary care research fellowship at Case Western Reserve University.

John Maeda, Ph.D., M.B.A.
President
Rhode Island School of Design

John Maeda, Ph.D., M.B.A., is a world-renowned graphic designer, artist, and computer scientist and is a founding voice for “simplicity” in the digital age.  He has pioneered the use of the computer for people of all ages and skills to create art. Dr. Maeda's early work redefined the use of electronic media as a tool for expression by combining skilled computer programming with a sensitivity to traditional artistic concerns. This work helped to develop the interactive motion graphics that are prevalent on the Internet today.

He also initiated the Design by Numbers project, a global initiative to teach computer programming to visual artists through a freely available, custom software system that he designed. He has displayed his work at numerous exhibitions, lectured extensively worldwide, and has published several books featuring his graphic designs.

Previously associate director of Research at the MIT Media Laboratory, where he managed relationships for a $32 million laboratory, he also held the E. Rudge and Nancy Allen Professorship of Media Arts and Sciences. On June 1, 2008, he became the sixteenth president of Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in Providence, Rhode Island, the preeminent college of art and design in the United States.

In 1999, Dr. Maeda was included in Esquire’s list of the 21 most important people for the twenty-first century. He is also the recipient of the highest career honors for design in the United States (2001, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award; 2008, Art Directors Club Lifetime Achievement Award), Japan (2002, Mainichi Design Prize), and Germany (2005, Raymond Loewy Foundation Prize). In May of 2003, he received an honorary doctorate of fine arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art.

He is the recipient of the highest career honors for design in the United States, Japan, and Germany and serves on the board of trustees for the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.  He has had major exhibits of his work in Paris, London, New York and Tokyo, and has written several books on his philosophy of “humanizing technology” through his perspective on the future of creative uses of technologies, including “The Laws Of Simplicity” (MIT Press) published in 14 languages.  His design work and consulting for organizations like Google, Cartier, Samsung, Shiseido, Reebok, Chanel, Philips and Sony have led to seminal advances in how digital thinking meets the analog world with the greatest respect for humanity.

He received both his B.S. and M.S. degrees from MIT, and earned his Ph.D. in design from Tsukuba University Institute of Art and Design in Japan. He also holds an M.B.A. from Arizona State University. Dr. Maeda is the author of four books, including his 480-page retrospective “Maeda@Media” (2001, Thames & Hudson), and his most recent book, “The Laws of Simplicity” (2006, MIT Press).

Deven McGraw, J.D., M.P.H., L.L.M.
Director, Health Privacy Project
Center for Democracy & Technology

Deven McGraw, J.D., M.P.H., L.L.M., is the director of the Health Privacy Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology. The Project is focused on developing and promoting workable privacy and security protections for electronic personal health information.

Ms. McGraw is active in efforts to advance the adoption and implementation of health information technology and electronic health information exchange to improve health care. She was one of three persons appointed by Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), to serve on the Health Information Technology (HIT) Policy Committee, a federal advisory committee established in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

She also served on two key workgroups of the American Health Information Community (AHIC), the federal advisory body established by HHS in the Bush Administration to develop recommendations on how to facilitate use of health information technology to improve health. Specifically, she co-chaired the Confidentiality, Privacy and Security Workgroup and was a member of the Personalized Health Care Workgroup. She also served on the Policy Steering Committee of the eHealth Initiative and now serves on its Leadership Council. She is also on the Steering Group of the Markle Foundation’s Connecting for Health multi-stakeholder initiative.

Ms. McGraw has a strong background in health care policy. Prior to joining CDT, Ms. McGraw was the chief operating officer of the National Partnership for Women & Families, providing strategic direction and oversight for all of the organization’s core program areas, including the promotion of initiatives to improve health care quality. Ms. McGraw also was an associate in the public policy group at Patton Boggs, LLP and in the health care group at Ropes & Gray. She also served as Deputy Legal Counsel to the Governor of Massachusetts and taught in the Federal Legislation Clinic at the Georgetown University Law Center.

Ms. McGraw graduated magna cum laude from the University of Maryland. She earned her J.D., magna cum laude, and her L.L.M. from Georgetown University Law Center and was executive editor of the Georgetown Law Journal. She also has a Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.

Omid Moghadam, M.S., M.B.A.
Member of Staff
The Harvard Medical School Center for Biomedical Informatics

Omid Moghadam is a member of staff at Harvard Medical School’s Center for Biomedical Informatics, focusing on applications of next generation sequencing and personal genomics. He is also the chair of National Development Board for the Ignite Institute for the Individual Health (www.ignitehealth.org), a newly formed research institute in personalized medicine.

Previously, he was the global director for Intel Genomics, an Intel division focused on providing services to the Genomics market. Prior to joining Intel Genomics, he founded Dossia Corporation (www.dossia.org), a corporation that has created a national network for storing life long consumer owned health records. Mr. Moghadam served as Dossia chief executive for three years. Before Dossia, Mr. Moghadam was the head of product strategy at Intel, where he led the transition of the corporation from single to multiple core processors.

Prior to joining Intel, Mr. Moghadam was a principal of the American Management Systems (AMS), a management consultancy based in Washington, D.C. At AMS, he focused his efforts on serving clients strategy needs in healthcare, finance and government.

Before AMS, Mr. Moghadam spent seven years with Eastman Kodak Company in various technical and general management roles. His assignments ranged from creation of the digital angiography business, to managing regional sales and marketing for the newly created digital imaging business and leading mergers and acquisition deals in the printing and semiconductor sectors.

An expert in medical imaging, Mr. Moghadam holds bachelors and masters degrees in electrical and computer engineering, with concentration in biophysics. He also holds an M.B.A. in finance.

Mr. Moghadam is an entrepreneur in Residence at the Lally School of Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and also serves on the advisory boards of Markle Foundation’s Personal Health Technology, Children Hospital Boston’s Gene Partnership Program, CITL Personal Health Records, and Robert Wood Johnson’s Project HealthDesign. A prolific inventor, he holds 32 patents, and has received the honor of being named an Eastman distinguished inventor.

Paul C. Tang, M.D., M.S. (Chair)
Internist, Vice President, and Chief Medical Information Officer
Palo Alto Medical Foundation

Paul Tang, M.D., M.S., is an internist and vice president, chief medical information officer at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF). He is also consulting associate professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. At PAMF, Dr. Tang is responsible for clinical information systems, including an enterprise-wide electronic health record system and an integrated personal health record system.

Dr. Tang is immediate past chair of the board for the American Medical Informatics Association. He is a member of the National Committee on Vital Health Statistics, the federal advisory committee to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt regarding health information policy, and the Consumer Empowerment Workgroup of the American Health Information Community, which Secretary Leavitt chairs. In addition, Dr. Tang chairs the Robert Wood Johnson National Advisory Committee on personal health records and the National Quality Forum's (NQF) Health Information Technology Expert Panel, and co-chairs the Quality Alliance Steering Committee Measurement Implementation Strategy committee. He is a member of NQF's Consensus Standards Approval Committee.

Dr. Tang is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and serves on the Health Care Services Board. He chaired the IOM Committee on Data Standards for Patient Safety whose reports, "Patient Safety: Achieving a New Standard for Care" and "Key Capabilities of an Electronic Health Record System," were published in 2003. He is currently a member of the IOM Committee on the Future Health Care Workforce for Older Americans.

Dr. Tang has served on numerous committees of the National Institutes of Health, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine, and Computer Science and Technology Board. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, American College of Medical Informatics, College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, and Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.

Dr. Tang received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University and his M.D. degree from the UCSF School of Medicine. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Stanford University and is board certified in internal medicine.

Milt Capps Stirs Up a Great Discussion on Nashville Tech Culture [Update]

here.

<ed.note>I find the discussion of interest for several reasons -- most of them being the discussion's implications for some of my freer market soapboxes: Forget the PR line "Our people are our greatest assets" - this may apply to members of the C-Suite - but for all the blather about the need to innovate, and the hand wringing over the lack of STEM workers and programs to train them, the folks who provide the IT backbone to both innovation and business as usual are being globally level set to $16 an hour. If you are the stockholder of a publicly traded company meditate and act upon these thoughts:

• Q: How much of your CEO's pay is tied to producing innovation and (let's face it, tech-flavored) business model improvement? Q: How long would that firm last without its techies? Q: Why the disparity in remuneration between the occupations? Hey, it's your portfolio.
• The current US policy is to "bring jobs back to the US" while Indians are beginning to investigate the cost/benefits of the results-only work environment. Q: As the great globally grid replaces the world wide web how much longer can a US geo-lock thinking management mindset be tolerated? Hey, it's still your portfolio.
• I know a lot of techie boosters want to form/expand IT unions (or guilds or associations or similar activity) but personally I think its time for tech stockholders to begin using these nifty web 2.0 ip-based collaboration tools to determine just who is bringing value add to the enterprise (that's profit, not just revenue) and start rewarding accordingly -- in  a far more transparent (eg, XBRL) manner. Imagine a world where PE and M&A activity was actually tied to some level of reality? Thoughts?

</ed.note>

The Fund for Global Environment and Conflict Resolution Call for Proposals

Overview of The Fund

The Fund for Global Environment and Conflict Resolution (The Fund) is the result of a partnership between Columbia University Center for International Conflict Resolution, School of International & Public Affairs and the Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea of the Italian government. Over a period of three years, The Fund will provide support for research, teaching and fellowships. Thanks to The Fund, CICR will promote research conducted by prominent scholars at Columbia University, in Italy and in other countries relating to the issue of the global environment and conflict resolution.

The Fund has three major focus areas. First, it will look at the relationships between sustainable development and post-conflict issues in the Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan, Peru and Colombia—areas where the Italian Ministry has ongoing activities. Second, the research will focus on the prevention of potential conflicts over natural resources, paying particular attention to China, the Middle East and North Africa. Third, the research will focus on the relationship between climate change and international security. The Fund will also provide opportunities for fellowships and scholarships to scholars and students interested in these areas.

Candidates must be from Italy, the Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan, Peru, Colombia, China, the Middle East, and/or North Africa and/or be at Columbia University. Exceptions to this will be made on a case-by-case basis where the researcher in question has demonstrated excellence or expertise in one of the above fields or case-studies in a way not met by the other candidates.

Call for Proposals

The Fund for the Global Environment and Conflict Resolution at CICR would like to invite all interested applicants to submit proposals for research before June 30. Proposals should look generally at the Environment-Conflict nexus and specifically be related to one of the following areas of interest:

1. Researching the prevention and control of potential conflict in the use of natural resources with particular reference to China, Middle East and North Africa. Paying particular attention, where possible, to afforestation/reforestation land use efforts in China or the impact of economic development as a direct result of renewable energy projects as an impetus to security and stability in Northern African regions.

2. Researching environmental solutions and sustainable development policies in conflict and post-conflict areas, based on the ongoing activities of the Italian Ministry in the Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan, Peru and Colombia as case studies. Areas of research might also look into illicit land use for drug trade and terrorist efforts. Paying attention, where possible, to endeavors underway in Iraq, the Republic of Serbia, the Republic of Montenegro and the Amazonas region of Peru and Caribbean coasts of Colombia.

3. Researching climate change and its relationship to international security as a whole with regards to water scarcity and food security.  Paying particular attention, where possible, to researching the consequences of the current worldwide financial credit crisis sand how this impacts security as a whole in both developed and developing/emerging markets as climate change adaptation forces transnational border trade and migration. Paying attention, where possible to climate change phenomena and water scarcity.

The research should be problem driven and available, upon completion for wide dissemination in the form of policy papers, through books, journal publications, conferences and seminars both at Columbia University and in relation to avenues linked to the Italian Government.

Applications

1. Applications should include a cover letter stating the reasons for applying The Fund.
2. A CV detailing all education, work experience and publications.
3. One letter of recommendation
4. A Research Proposal of no more than ten pages, including:
    a) Executive Summary
    b) Project Description/Field-work outline
    c) Rationale
    d) Objectives
    e) Outputs/Outcomes
    f) Challenges
    g) Budget

CICR is able to provide support for research proposals of around $10,000 per project and two to four proposals will be awarded funding. However, exact amounts to be provided will be decided by the selection committee; all decisions are final.

Candidates shall be hired as Consultants, or given Honorariums, depending on the specific tasks decided upon. Timeframes and financial compensation will be decided upon on a case-by-case basis. CICR cannot provide office space but will provide access to libraries on Columbia University campus.

All applications should be sent to Josie Lianna Kaye at cicrapplications@columbia.edu on or before 30 June.

Special Issue of the Journal of Web Semantics - Bridging the Gap - Call for Papers

Data Mining and Social Network Analysis for integrating Semantic Web and Web 2.0

Abstract submission: 21 September 2009
Submission deadline: 1 October 2009
Reviews due: 1 December 2009
Notification: 15 December 2009
Final version submitted: 15 January 2010
Publication: April 2010

Focus of the Special Issue

The last years have seen increasing collaboration of researchers from the Semantic Web, Web 2.0, social network analysis and machine learning communities. Applications that use these research results are achieving economic success. Data now become available that allow researchers to analyze the use, acceptance and evolution of their ideas.

Highly popular user-centered applications such as Blogs, social tagging systems, and Wikis have come to be known as "Web 2.0". A major reason for their immediate success is the high ease of use of new Web 2.0 services. These sites do not only provide data but also generate an abundance of weakly structured metadata. A good example is tagging. Here, users add keywords from an uncontrolled vocabulary, called tags, to a resource. Such metadata are easy to produce, but lack any kind of formal grounding, as used in the Semantic Web.

The Semantic Web can complement the bottom-up effort of the Web 2.0 community in a top-down manner. Its central point is a stronger knowledge representation based on some kind of ontology with a fixed vocabulary and typed relations. Such a structure is typically something users have in mind when they provide their information in Web 2.0 systems. However, for further use, this structure is hidden in the data and needs to be extracted. Techniques to analyze network structures or weak knowledge representations as can be found in the Web 2.0 have a long tradition in different other disciplines, like social network analysis, machine learning and data mining. These kinds of automatic mechanisms are necessary to extract the hidden information and to reveal the structure in a way that the end user can benefit from it. Using established methods to represent knowledge gained from unstructured data will also be beneficial for the Web 2.0 in that it provides Web 2.0 users with enhanced Semantic Web features to structure their data.

For this special issue, we invite contributions which show how synergies between Semantic Web and Web 2.0 techniques can be successfully used. Since both communities work on network-like data structures, analysis methods from different fields of research could form a link between those communities. Techniques can be - but are not limited to - social network analysis, graph analysis, machine learning and data mining methods.

Topics of interest for this special issue include, but are not limited to:

• ontology learning from Web 2.0 data
• instance extraction from Web 2.0 systems
• analysis of Blogs
• discovering social structures and communities
• predicting trends and user behaviour
• analysis of dynamic networks
• using content of the Web for modelling
• discovering misuse and fraud
• network analysis of social resource sharing systems
• analysis of folksonomies and other Web 2.0 data structures
• analysis of Web 2.0 applications and their data
• deriving profiles from usage
• personalized delivery of news and journals
• Semantic Web personalization
• Semantic Web technologies for recommender systems
• ubiquitous data mining in Web (2.0) environment
• applications

In accordance with the focus of the journal, the relatedness of your submission to the Semantic Web will be an important evaluation criterion.

Submission Details

Submissions should describe original contributions and should not have been published or submitted elsewhere. Submissions based on conference papers should be extended and include a reference to the
corresponding proceedings. All submissions will be reviewed by at least two reviewers. Final decisions on accepted papers will be approved by an editor in chief.

Manuscripts should be prepared for publication in accordance with instructions given in the Guide for Authors.

The submission and review process will be carried out using Elsevier's Web-based EES system.

Guest Editors

* Bettina Berendt, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Bettina.Berendt@cs.kuleuven.be
* Andreas Hotho, University of Würzburg, hotho@informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de
* Gerd Stumme, University of Kassel, stumme@cs.uni-kassel.de

Post-graduate fellowship in Semantic Web technologies for Content Management Systems DERI, National University of Ireland, Galway

<ed.note>The IRONY of a research position focusing on ip-based collaboration tools which does not allow remote work IS NOT LOST ON ME. If anyone hears of a position hosted at an institution existing in this century please let me know.</ed.note>

Employment type: Full time

Telecommute: Not allowed

The Reasoning and Querying Unit at the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) of the National University of Ireland, Galway invites applications for a Research Assistant, Masters or PhD fellowship position in the area of Semantic Web technologies for Content Management Systems.

DERI, a leading research institute in semantic technologies, offers a stimulating, dynamic and multi-cultural research environment, excellent ties to research-groups worldwide and close collaboration with industrial partners.

The open fellowship is tailored to deploy Semantic Web technologies at large scale in widely used Open Source Content Management Systems and is funded by Science Foundation Ireland. The position offers for the successful candidate an annual stipend, course fees and conference travel when presenting. The DERI Unit for Reasoning and Querying focuses on improving the scalability and investigating the adequacy of traditional reasoning and query answering techniques for the Web, where several classical assumptions no longer hold as data is heterogeneous, distributed, possibly incomplete or contradictory, structured in different levels of granularity, varying in levels of trust and accessible only by following implicit or explicit security policies. Research is performed in collaboration with other DERI units and industrial partners.

Applicants should hold an excellent primary degree in a relevant discipline with industrial project experience, such as active website development with Content Management Systems being a distinct advantage. Applicants should have a strong interest in the area of Linked Data with an understanding of its application and use. Applicants must have a background in concrete CMS systems such as for instance Drupal, Joomla!, Typo3, Plone, etc.; any knowledge about other CMSs is a bonus, programming skills in Java or scripting languages such as PHP, JavaScript is desirable. Applicants must be highly motivated with the ability for independent and critical thought. Successful applicants are expected to combine scientific work with application-oriented research and development in collaborative projects funded by national and European funding agencies.

Please submit your application (including cover letter outlining suitability, a brief outline of your preferred methodology, full CV and contact details for three referees) to hr@deri.org with the subject line 'Post-graduate fellowship in Semantic Web Technologies for Content Management Systems', by 5 pm on Friday, July 10th 2009.

For further information please contact Dr. Axel Polleres at axel.polleres@deri.org or Stéphane Corlosquet at stephane.corlosquet@deri.org

Tolven's Tom Jones Provides Pointer (via AMIA OS-WG Listserv) to Jeff Scoble's cogent observations re: CCHIT and its current structure and alternative goals

Dan Housman’s comments have prompted me to share the following, which was authored by Jeff Soble, the CEO of Amaji, a small, innovative, software development company; you will note that Jeff has gone to the trouble of making some recommendations that might actually be worth discussing in AMIA. He also points out some consequences of the current CCHIT process that may have escaped notice:

**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

HIMSS is mistaken in calling for restricting federal funding and incentives for the adoption of health IT (including expansion of Stark exemptions and anti-kickback safe harbors) to products certified by the existing CCHIT process. An alternative set of recommendations would preserve and promote HIT choice, competition and innovation, and better serve the public interest:

1)       A government or government-sponsored organization should develop a health information technology data interchange certification program.

a)       Data interchange certification could be included in, but should not depend on, certification for more general EMR/EHR specifications or functional requirements.

b)       Data interchange certification should be built on existing data interchange standards and initiatives (HL7, DICOM, IHE, HITSP).

2)       Any federal funding, endorsement, or extension of Stark exemptions for HIT systems should be based only on data interchange certification.

The rationale for this position includes:

1)       The central problem with existing HIT systems is lack of interoperability, not the absence of any specific functionality.

2)       The 2009 report of the National Research Council on HIT identified a significant gap in ROI from investments in existing systems. One of its primary recommendations for the federal government was to encourage initiatives to empower iterative process improvement and small-scale optimization.

In addition, a 2008 NEJM study makes clear that the number one issue impeding adoption of ambulatory IT systems is cost, with only 4% of practices having a fully-implemented EMR.

The solution to this problem is not to throw funding at expensive monolithic software that promotes vendor lock-in, but to foster the development of flexible, affordable and interchangeable solutions. This means fostering interoperable components (both proprietary and open-source) that can be right-sized to the needs of specific healthcare environments, rather than promoting one-size-fits all systems.

3)       As it currently exists, CCHIT certification is an inappropriate standard for federal funding, authorization or endorsement of HIT systems:

a)       CCHIT 2009 certification has over 450 separate requirements, the collective effect of which tremendously increases the cost and complexity of IT solutions.  Many of these requirements are "functional specifications" that should be determined by customer needs and priorities, rather than by committee. These requirements foster (if not mandate) the development of rigid, monolithic systems.

b)       The monolithic approach to certification taken by CCHIT does not reflect the current advances in information technology being leveraged by other industries where integrated solutions are used to support the complete "end-to-end" business process. Integration and interoperability are essential to leverage the potential of "cloud computing" and other service orientated delivery mechanisms. 

c)       CCHIT works to the benefit of a small number of large EMR vendors that can command a high price from the relatively small segment of the market able to currently afford their products. It is essentially anti-competitive, and establishes a major barrier to entry by new vendors and open source projects (where the majority of innovation will take place).

d)       A quick count from the CCHIT website gives the following results for the number of systems certified for ambulatory EMR (including conditional certifications and multiple certified products from a single vendor):

i)         2006 = 93

ii)       2007 = 55

iii)      2008 = 14

At this rate of attrition, the number of certified products will dwindle to the single digits.

e)       The shrinking number of vendors that are capable of meeting CCHIT certification exposes a fundamental flaw in its current organizational structure - CCHIT is funded by the very vendors it certifies. In order for it to maintain revenue, it needs to provide a reason for vendors to continue to either:

i)         re-certify on a regular basis

ii)       apply for new certifications

The problem with this model is that, in order to justify ongoing re-certification, CCHIT must continue to add new certification requirements year-to-year. The driver for more requirements is not necessarily the needs of customers or the best interest of the healthcare system, but the need to have new requirements against which to certify vendors. This is illustrated by the fact that CCHIT has recently reduced the length of the certification from three to two years, and is adding numerous supplemental certifications in areas like child health, cardiovascular, etc. There is no end to the number of requirements to which this could lead, but there is no evidence it will serve anyone well in the long run, other than the few large vendors with the resources to keep up with this process, and CCHIT itself.

f)         Although in theory vendors can apply jointly for CCHIT certification, in practice the monolithic certification process will limit the ability for vendors to provide component solutions from which customers can choose to create best-of-breed, low cost solutions that best fit their needs. For instance, in the ambulatory arena, this might typically be a combination of Practice Management, EMR and e-Prescribing solutions.

g)       Certification of Practice Management systems in other markets (e.g., UK) has arguably reduced innovation and investment, increased the total cost of ownership and consolidated the market to such a point that there is limited choice and the barrier to entry for new entrants into the marketplace is unaffordable.

4)      A separate data interchange certification program would not prohibit HIT consumers from using other CCHIT certifications on a voluntary basis to guide purchasing decisions where they see fit.

Thanks to Jeff for letting me share his thoughts with you. I invite interested readers to comment on the points that Jeff has made.

Tom

Tom Jones, MD

Chief Medical Officer, Tolven

Sonoma, CA

www.tolven.org

www.tolvenhealth.com

707 695 5712 (mobile)

707 939 7845 (office)

American Medical Informatics Association Mentorship Program

Dear AMIA member,

Last year, the AMIA in collaboration with the CIS-WG conducted a successful mentorship program. We are writing today to let you know that the Mentorship program is open for registration for the 2009-2010 year. Last year we had a more than 100 Mentee-Mentor pairs sign up for the program - a great success, and we would like to repeat the success.

We plan to match Mentors and Mentees based on interests and location as an AMIA membership benefit. This year, we hope to improve our matching (done manually) and are looking for some volunteers.

By participating mentors have the opportunity to

• get to know great newer trainees
• help newer trainees with some/all of the above in highly manageable way
• mold newer trainees and provide guidance you wish you had had
• stay in touch with the Mentee base
• brush up your own networking skills and build your network
• look for potential project collaborators and candidates for hire
• encourage bright minds to stick with informatics, thereby strengthening the field
• serve and strengthen AMIA, their professional home

How it works

If you are interested in being a Mentor, you will ask you to go to to the AMIA Mentorship Program application on the web (http://derm.med.jhmi.edu/amia_mentorship/ ), where you will provide basic information to assist us in placing you in a good match. Once matched, Mentees and Mentors will partner actively for the duration of  that calendar year. Mentors, you may participate in the program in an ongoing basis, and we hope that you will!

We will contact you with your mentorship partner's information in the early fall. Mentees will kick things off by initiating first contact with their Mentors. You'll interact with your program partner at least once per month for the full calendar year. We will provide you with reminders and suggestions on how to collaborate and learn most effectively from each other.

After each Annual Symposium, near the end of your official program participation year, you and your partner will be asked to provide your feedback via a survey linked to the AMIA Website.Additional information can be found here.

Please consider becoming a mentor - we believe that all will benefit greatly from this new networking opportunity and we hope for great turnout.

Best regards

Christoph U. Lehmann, MD
Chair, Working Group Steering Committee
Associate Professor in Pediatrics & Health Sciences Informatics Johns Hopkins University

Catherine Craven
Students' Representative (ex officio) to the AMIA Board (2008-2009) Chair, AMIA Membership Committee (2008-2009) Immediate Past Chair, AMIA Student WG (2008)

Gilad Kuperman, MD, PhD
Chair, Clinical Information Systems WG
Director for Quality Informatics at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital

Summit at Stanford Co-Presented by AlwaysOn and Stanford Technology Ventures Program

July 28th-30th, 2009, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA

What's New with Summit at Stanford on 6/1:

The Era of Banner Ads may be fading, but the Gold Rush to online advertising is far from over. New winners in this race emerge daily, and we're thrilled to welcome innovators to our stage at Summit at Stanford 2009 for the conversation: "Is the Internet optimizing Madison Avenue out of business—or enabling a revolution?"

Founding chairman of the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Archer advisory-group founder Rich LeFurgy will moderate. Quantcast CEO Konrad Feldman, the Rubicon Project CEO Frank Addante, Omniture CEO Josh James, and OMD's Chief Digital Officer Jon Raj will offer high-level viewpoints.

How are ad buyers of Madison Avenue transforming their patterns for the online audience? Which digital tools will enable massive returns?

This is a debate entrepreneurs and investors won't want to miss. Forget soundbytes and get ready for real ROI-driven debate.

Event Countdown: Only nine weeks to go! Click here to register and take advantage of the exclusive 33% discount we have reserved for you before it expires!

If you do not want to pay online or want to inquire about group rates, please contact John Schwartz (john@alwayson-network.com or 310.721.9451), who can also help you secure spots for you and your associates at the lowest possible price.

Summit at Stanford 2009 Program and Invited Speakers

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Opening Remarks
•  Tony Perkins, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, AlwaysOn
•  Tina Seelig, Executive Director, Stanford Technology Ventures Program
•  Arden Pennell, Program Director, Summit at Stanford, AlwaysOn

Introducing the AO Global 250
•  Tony Perkins, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, AlwaysOn
•  Packy Kelly, Partner, KPMG

Fireside Chat: How High-Tech Can Save CA

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Technology Thought Leader Keynote
•  Bill Gurley, General Partner, Benchmark Capital

OnDemand Video Has Arrived; Who Profits?

Keynote: The Global Mobile Race–When Will the U.S. Catch Up? How Can
Investors Cash In?
•  Paul Jacobs, CEO, Qualcomm

Who's Making Money in Mobile?
With the increasing sophistication and stickiness of mobile devices, big money has been predicted for years. Which business models are working and how?
•  Bart Decrem, CEO, Tapulous
•  Simon Khalaf, CEO, Flurry
•  Matt Murphy, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Top Women in Technology: Success Stories and Hard-Nosed Advice

The Rainmakers in Cloud Computing
What opportunities are enabled by "the cloud" and will tech giants or startups leverage them best? Who's creating the most value for investors?
•  Monica Lam, Co-Founder & Chief Scientist, MokaFive
•  Chip Hazard, General Partner, Flybridge Capital Partners

Where's the Short-Term Green in Green?
Which investments avoid long-term reliance on technology and marketplace evolution to be capital-efficient now?
Moderator: Awais Khan, Director, Venture Capital Practice, KPMG
•  Jennifer Fonstad, Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson

Bioterrorism and Defense: A View of the Future in Technology
•  Dr. George Poste, Director, Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University; Fellow,
   Hoover Institution and Member, Council for Foreign Relations

SaaS Goes Open Source
Moderator: Matt Asay, VP Business Development, Alfresco & Blogger, CNET
•  Ron Yekutiel, CEO, Kaltura
•  Satish Dharmaraj, Partner, Redpoint Ventures, Founder & Former CEO, Zimbra

The New Sages of Sand Hill Road
Venture capitalists who understand social media consumption and the millenial generation talk about top opportunities going forward.
Moderator: Packy Kelly, Partner, KPMG
•  Josh Hannah, General Partner, Matrix Partners
•  Jeremy Liew, Managing Director, Lightspeed Venture Partners
•  James Slavet, Partner, Greylock Partners
•  Tim Chang, Principal, Norwest Venture Partners

The Reporter's Demise Has Been Greatly Exaggerated
What will emerge from the ashes as big media transforms itself? Cross-platform, local, and social have been touted as saviors—where's the opportunity?
Moderator: Jason Pontin, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher, Technology Review
•  David Smith, Founder & CEO, Mediasmith

Thursday, July 30, 2009

VC Survey results and VC Video
•  Packy Kelly, Partner, KPMG

Angel Investing Success Stories
•  Ron Conway, Founder, Angel Investors LP
•  Rob Hayes, Partner, First Round Capital

Liquidity in the Innovation Economy in 2009 and Beyond
Are IPOs set for an uptick? What will the technology investment bank look like post-meltdown?
•  Jason Hutchinson, Managing Director, Houlihan Lokey

VC in DC
How can government policy help the private-company ecosystem? Can VCs and entrepreneurs tap into Obama's stimulus dollars? Should DC be playing VC?
•  Nancy Pfund, Managing Partner, DBL Investors
•  Joe Kennedy, CEO, Pandora

Is the Internet Optimizing Madison Avenue Out of Business?
As online advertising continues to ramp up, who will grab consumer eyeballs going forward, and how will the behavior of media buyers evolve?
Moderator: Rich LeFurgy, Founding Chairman, IAB & General Partner, Archer
•  Konrad Feldman, CEO, Quantcast
•  Frank Addante, CEO, the Rubicon Project
•  Josh James, Co-founder & CEO, Omniture
•  Jon Raj, Chief Digital Officer, OMD

Silicon Valley in the New Millennium
Geek chiefs of the old guard lay out the new software and computing agenda.
•  Tom Malloy, Chief Software Architect, Adobe

Is Education Finally a High-Growth Opportunity for Entrepreneurs?
How can high-tech enhance .edu? Is the innovation ecosystem ripe for edtech profits?
Moderator: Deborah Quazzo, Co-founder, NeXtGlobal Advisors
•  Mark Atkinson, CEO, Teachscape
•  Ntiedo Etuk, CEO, Tabula Digita
•  Bruce Kingma, Associate Provost for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Syracuse University
•  James Shelton, Advisor to US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Former
   Program Director, Gates Foundation

Beyond Facebook and Twitter: The Social-Media Future
As social-media functions spread beyond dedicated platforms to a variety of digital services, how will they impact lives, businesses, and Web browsing?
•  Max Ventilla, Co-founder and CEO, Aardvark

Please feel free to suggest speakers or provide program input by contacting Arden at arden@alwayson-network.com.

2009 Tennessee Valley Corridor National Summit May 27-28, 2009 Oak Ridge, TN

Live Stream Details Here

Wednesday -- May 27, 2009
10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.	Exhibitor Set-Up Location: The New Hope Center, Y-12 National Security Complex - Summit Exhibit Area
10:00 a.m. - 6:45 p.m	Summit Registration Location: The New Hope Center, Y-12 National Security Complex
2:30 p.m. - 3:45 p.m.	Welcome and General Session I: "Looking Back. Moving Forward - New Missions and New Opportunities in the Tennessee Valley Corridor" Location: The New Hope Center, Y-12 National Security Complex Host: Ted Sherry, Manager, Y-12 Site Office, DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration Welcoming remarks: -Tom Rogers, Chairman, Tennessee Valley Corridor -Gerald Boyd, Manager, Department of Energy - Oak Ridge Office -Darrel Kohlhorst, President and General Manager, Y-12 National Security Complex -Congressman Zach Wamp Opening remarks: Congressman Zach Wamp; Congressman Lincoln Davis Keynote speaker: U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander Roundtable hosts: Congressman Zach Wamp and Congressman Lincoln Davis Roundtable participants: -Gerald Boyd, Manager, Department of Energy - Oak Ridge Office -Darrel Kohlhorst, President and General Manager, Y-12 National Security Complex -Ted Sherry, Manager, Y-12 Site Office, DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration -Dr. Thom Mason, Director, Oak Ridge National Laboratory -Dr. Dave Williams, President, The University of Alabama in Huntsville
3:45 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.	Coffee Break Location: The New Hope Center, Y-12 National Security Complex - Summit Exhibit Area
4:15 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.	General Session II: "Energy Innovation and the New Economy" Location: The New Hope Center, Y-12 National Security Complex Host: Congressman Zach Wamp Keynote speaker: KR Sridhar, Principal Co-Founder and CEO of Bloom Energy Roundtable host: Congressman Zach Wamp Roundtable participants: -KR Sridhar, Principal Co-Founder and CEO of Bloom Energy -Gary Gilmartin, Laboratory Liaison Director, Y-12 National Security Complex -Dr. Dana Christensen, Associate Laboratory Director, Energy and Engineering Sciences Directorate, Oak Ridge National Laboratory -Dr. Joe Hoagland, Vice President of Environmental Science, Technology & Policy, Tennessee Valley Authority
5:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.	Opening Reception Location: The New Hope Center, Y-12 National Security Complex - Summit Exhibit Area
7:00 p.m. - TBD	Summit Attendee Dinner on Own
Thursday -- May 28, 2009
8:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.	Summit Registration Location: The New Hope Center, Y-12 National Security Complex
8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.	Networking and Continental Breakfast Location: The New Hope Center, Y-12 National Security Complex - Summit Exhibit Area
9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.	General Session III: "Creating an Entrepreneurial Culture - Bridging the Gap from Science to Commerce" Location: The New Hope Center, Y-12 National Security Complex Host: Congressman Zach Wamp Keynote speakers: Congressman Phil Roe and Congressman Parker Griffith Roundtable host: Congressman Zach Wamp Roundtable participants: -Mike Cuddy, President and CEO, Technology 2020 -Dr. Alex Miller, William B. Stokely Professor of Management and Associate Dean for Executive Education, The University of Tennessee -Tom Rogers, Director of Industrial and Economic Development Partnerships, Partnerships Directorate, UT-Battelle/Oak Ridge National Laboratory -Grady Vanderhoofven, Fund Manager, Meritus Ventures, L.P. -Keith Buckner, Vice President of Manufacturing, Adaptive Methods -Todd May, Special Assistant to the Director, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
10:30 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.	Coffee Break Location: The New Hope Center, Y-12 National Security Complex - Summit Exhibit Area
10:45 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.	General Session IV: "Advancing our Regional Economic Development" Location: The New Hope Center, Y-12 National Security Complex Host: Congressman Zach Wamp Keynote speaker: Matt Kisber, Commissioner, Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development Roundtable host: Congressman Zach Wamp Roundtable participants: -Susan Reid, Executive Director, First Tennessee Development District -Tom Ballard, Director, Partnerships Directorate, UT-Battelle/Oak Ridge National Laboratory -Wayne Cropp, President and CEO, The Enterprise Center -Betty Huskins, President, Ridgetop Associates -Andrea Loughry, Chair, Mind2Marketplace -Greg Jones, Executive Director, Southern Kentucky Economic Development Corporation -Ethan Hadley, Vice President of Economic Development, Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville/Madison County
12:15 p.m. - 2:15 p.m.	Oak Ridge Luncheon Tours   -- Y-12 National Security Complex  -- Oak Ridge National Laboratory  -- East Tennessee Technology Park  -- Oak Ridge Technology Tour (Oak Ridge Associated Universities' 21st Century      Classroom and Oak Ridge High School)

Venture Summit East 2009 Speakers

•  David Topper, Vice Chairman, J.P. Morgan
•  Don Dodge, Director, Business Development, Microsoft
•  Bob Davis, General Partner, Highland Capital Partners
•  Scott Anthony, President, Innosight, an international consulting firm co-founded
   with Clayton Christensen
•  Tim Draper, Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson
•  Michael Moe, co-founder & CEO, Next Global Advisors
•  Barry Silbert, Founder & CEO, SecondMarket
•  Greg Brogger, Founder & CEO, SharesPost
•  William Sahlman, Professor of Business Administration & Sr. Associate Dean for External
   Relations, Harvard Business School
•  Raj Marphatia, Partner, Private Investment Funds Group, Ropes & Gray
•  Diana Frazier, Co-founder & Managing Partner, FLAG Capital
•  Barbara Piette, Managing Principal, Knightsbridge
•  John Dominguez, Partner, Silicon Valley Bank Capital
•  Scott Myers, Managing Director, Cogent Partners
•  Chris Pasko, Sr. Managing Director, Corporate and M&A Advisory Services, Blackstone
•  Tom Gabel, Head of Equity Capital Markets and Institutional Sales, Canaccord Adams
•  Giles McNamee, Partner, McNamee Lawrence & Co.
•  Jeff Fagnan, Partner, Atlas Venture
•  Bob Hower, General Partner, ATV
•  Michael Skok, General Partner, North Bridge Venture Partners
•  Sunil Dhaliwal, General Partner, Battery Ventures
•  Chuck McDermott, General Partner, Rockport Capital Partners
•  Dennis Costello, Managing Director, Braemar Energy Ventures
•  Aaron Mandell, Managing Partner, GreatPoint Ventures
•  Mark Zanoli, Managing Director, J.P. Morgan
•  Michael Greeley, General Partner, Flybridge Capital Partners
•  John Landry, Managing Director, Lead Dog Ventures
•  Elon Boms, Managing Director, LaunchCapital
•  Bijan Sabet, General Partner, Spark Capital
•  Paul Maeder, General Partner, Highland Capital Partners
•  Bill Schnoor, Partner and Co-Chair, Technology Companies Group, Goodwin Procter
•  Art Marks, General Partner, Valhalla Partners
•  Alan Patricof, Founder & Managing Director, Greycroft Partners
•  Ed Anderson, Managing Partner, North Bridge Venture Partners
•  Lucy McQuilken, Investment Director, Intel Capital
•  Urs Cete, Principal & CFO, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments
•  Ed Sullivan, Partner, KPMG
•  Woody Benson, General Partner, Prism VentureWorks
•  John Landry, Managing Director, Lead Dog Ventures
•  John Egan, Partner and Co-Chair, Technology Companies Group, Goodwin Procter
•  Paul Sagan, CEO, Akamai
•  Bill Kerrigan, Adviser & Former EVP, McAfee
•  Mike Monahan, Partner, KPMG
•  Bob Davis, General Partner, Highland Capital Partners
•  Jeffrey Bussgang, General Partner, Flybridge Capital Partners
•  David Beisel, Vice President, Venrock
•  Amish Jani, Managing Director, FirstMark Capital
•  Alan Spoon, Managing General Partner, Polaris Venture Partners
•  Mark Lowenstein, Managing Director, Mobile Ecosystem
•  Andy Goldfarb, Executive Managing Director, Globespan Capital Partners
•  John Simon, Managing Director, General Catalyst Partners
•  Ted Morgan, CEO, Skyhook Wireless
•  Brian Hughes, Partner, KMPG
•  Jeff Glass, Managing Director, Bain Capital Ventures & former CEO, m-Qube
•  Jeff Leopold, Managing Director, Technology & Communications, Cook Associates
•  Scott Cutler, EVP, NYSE Euronext
•  Jeff Hoffmeister, Head of East Coast Tech Banking, Morgan Stanley
•  David Lavallee, Managing Director, Revolution Partners
•  Michael Millman, Managing Director, J.P. Morgan
•  Bill Burgess, Managing Partner, ABS Ventures
•  Ham Lord, Managing Director, Launchpad Venture Group
•  Jean Hammond, Co-Leader, Boston Forum, Golden Seeds
•  David Verrill, Founder & Managing Director, Hub Angels Investment Group
•  Richard Anders, Founder, Mass Medical Angels
•  Gabor Garai, Partner and Chair of Private Equity & Venture Capital Practice and Co-Chair
   of Life Sciences Team, Foley & Lardner
•  Lita Nelsen, Director, Office of Technology Licensing, MIT
•  Ashley Stevens, Executive Director, Office of Technology Transfer, Boston University
•  Rosalind Picard, Co-founder & Director, Affectiva
•  Amir Nashat, General Partner, Polaris Venture Partners

Internet 2 Member Meeting April-29, 2009 Netcast Information

Internet2 uses our meetings to showcase advanced networking video streaming technologies. Below are links to generally available streams, and streams that require high-performance networks. Please visit the downloads section before the event to test your network's streaming capabilities.

Note: Multicast works only if your network supports multicast. For more information about multicast, visit the Internet2 Multicast Working Group. Multicast detection tools include the Internet2 Detective and the Multicast Technologies tester.

For netcast support email: netcastsupport@internet2.edu

Tuesday	Session Title	Live Streams	Video On Demand
8:45 AM - 10:00 AM	Campus Cyberinfrastructure
8:45 AM - 10:00 AM	Regional and State Networks: Poised to Face Economic Challenges
10:30 AM - 11:45 AM	General Session
1:15 PM - 2:30 PM	Challenges and Successes for US Campuses Overseas
1:15 PM - 2:30 PM	Information Security Tools: Salsa and REN-ISAC Updates
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM	The MACE Program
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM	Stimulating Big Broadband Deployment
4:30 PM - 5:30 PM	NSF Office of Cyberinfrastructure Update
4:30 PM - 6:00 PM	Telepresence Perspectives and Interoperability
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM	Internet2 Network Members and Connectors BoF
Wednesday	Session Title	Live Streams	Video On Demand
8:45 AM - 10:00 AM	Digital Humanities Initiatives and Internet2: A National Dialogue
8:45 AM - 10:00 AM	Emerging StateNets Issues Associated with CI and the 3-Tier Networking Model
10:30 AM - 11:45 AM	General Session
1:15 PM - 2:30 PM	Green: Start with the End in Mind? Three Views to Solve Parts of the Problem
1:15 PM - 2:30 PM	R&E Network Models: Using Lessons Learned and Creative Solutions to Address Challenges
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM	Advanced Information Technology at the Department of Veteran Affairs
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM	Future of InCommon and US Federations

Nashville LAMP Users Group Meeting, Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Developers who use or who would like to learn more about Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, Python or Perl are invited to the first meeting of a new LAMP Users Group on Tuesday, May 19 at 6 PM at the offices of Emma, 2120 8th Avenue South (corner of 8th Ave. & Prentice Ave.) in Nashville, TN. The speaker will be Jonathan Wage of Sensio Labs, the creators of the symfony MVC framework. Wage is a core contributor to symfony and the lead developer and manager of the Doctrine project, an open source PHP Object Relational Mapper. There is no cost to attend. Please RSVP to Betsy.Jones@ProfitSherpa.com.

Betsy Jones
Profit Sherpa, LLC
555 Church Street, Suite 1710
Nashville, TN 37219 USA
http://www.ProfitSherpa.com
Office +1 615 259.5188
Cell +1 615 542.1396
Fax +1 615 254.2215

Car Wash in honor of Chief David Sewell

Some Links Which Are More Valuable Than A Kick to the Head

BioLit - Integrating Open Literature and Databases

http://biolit.ucsd.edu/doc/index.html

dgCommunities - a collaborative space for professionals working to reduce poverty and promote sustainable development worldwide

http://topics.developmentgateway.org/

Digital Research Tools (DiRT)

http://digitalresearchtools.pbwiki.com/

ehealth connection

http://ehealth-connection.org/

Future Health 2009

http://www.futuregov.net/media/events/pdf/FutureHealth09_brochure.pdf

Microfinance Gateway

http://www.microfinancegateway.org/

SAS Presentations

http://support.sas.com/resources/papers/proceedings09/TOC.html

SciVee TV

http://www.scivee.tv/

World Digital Library Project

http://project.wdl.org/project/english/about/

Kevan Peer: Campbell-Stone Churches Respond to Tornadoes

Good Morning, mid-state Family,

Most of this will detail how we can dovetail into what our Sister a cappella Churches of Christ are already doing. I have asked our IDES ministry to partner with them, but that approval takes time, and I have not heard if they will. And the Disciples group, "Week of Compassion" is also expected to contribute in some form, but again, they are a committee type organization, and it has not been determined how, or if they will help.

At this point, here is what I know.

Scene:

After hitting Arkansas the night before with similar results, the tornado hit M'boro, TN. on Good Friday : 1 tornado, 2 killed, 15 mile long path of destruction, 30 homes demolished, 100+ injured, 519 structures in all were damaged (Bldg & Codes Dept report Sunday), 1000's without water & power as of Saturday, many people had to stay elsewhere temporarily due to lack of utilities, damage estimates continue to rise.

Here is the AOL report: http://news.aol.com/article/tornado-kills-2-in-tennessee/398528 their pics http://news.aol.com/article/tornado-kills-2-in-tennessee/398528 Here are photos of a local church helping in initial clean-up: http://www.flickr.com/photos/37313167@N04/sets/72157616595940117

In terms of our Churches, I am still receiving reports, but so far: 1 family staying elsewhere due to utilities being down, 2 families with some damage, 14 families had significant enough damage that they had to move out, 2 families lost their entire homes, and all 3 streams of the Restoration Movement were affected. Accordingly, all 3 are helping in recovery attempts.

The Churches of Christ delivered their 1st truck Saturday, and will have another tractor trailer Wednesday. The Christian Churches are looking to partner with the CoCDRE in this part of the recovery effort. And the Disciples of Christ are looking at an additional partnering, but have not come up with a formal plan yet (typical committee boards type of process).

In my Church / State cooperation role, part of what I do as ambassador for our Churches, I serve on the Murfreesboro Mayor's Disaster Preparedness Task Force. While that coordinates all the official responses and procedures for such events, my task is simply to help coordinate efforts with our Churches.

While some in our Congregations are not comfortable with "mutual efforts" or "cooperative ventures", there are other options listed here as well, so feel free to plug-in anywhere in this matrix.

And, as always, thanks for your efforts for our Lord in your part of His Vineyard.

Below, I have listed 6 ways you can participate, set under 4 "Office" headings.

In HIS love,

kevan peer, a servant

(615)481-4503

"for it does not yet appear, what we shall be"

http://RestorationMovement.Bravehost.com

Church Offices

(A) In addition to giving funds earmarked for recovery efforts to your local Congregation, we also have 1 major coordinated effort going on already for you to plug into in M'boro, and 1 just starting to come together:

(B) Church of Christ Disaster Relief Effort (CoCDRE) is providing food boxes, cleaning supplies, yard hand tools being distributed through 2 local Congregations:

1) Kingwood Heights Church of Christ (starting last Saturday, Apr. 11, 2009) 115 E. MTCS Rd (off Memorial Blvd. across from the school - MTCS) Murfreesboro, TN. 37129 (615)893-8618 http://www.KingwoodHeights.com/ Elder (Shepherd) in charge - Doug Hutchins Supplies distributed through the back side of the building in their fellowship hall. They are open 8 AM to 9 PM and expect to have to be there through Friday. They anticipate receiving another truckload Thursday, and may need help unloading, but say they are staffed for the regular ongoing efforts well enough.

They are also providing some meals through their kitchen. A Church team out of Florida is doing the cooking! A second Church group out of Florida is asking if they can come help. This "Disaster Response Team" will help with the clean-up efforts ongoing, and especially Saturday.

They, along with several other agencies, also have clothing if needed.

2) Franklin Rd Church of Christ (starting Wednesday, Apr. 15, 2009) 3700 Franklin Rd. Murfreesboro, TN. 37133 (615)895-7955 http://www.FranklinRoad.net/ Minister - bro. Clyde Franklin Elders - bro. Greg Daniels and bro. Fred Gaston

They will also distribute starting Wednesday, but the times are not yet known to me.

Our folk can come help the CoCDRE as they again pack boxes this Tuesday at 10 AM there near Thompson Ln., right off Nolensville Rd (behind Whitt's BBQ), on 410 Allied Drive, Nashville, TN. 37211. Their number is (615)83-0888. Packing a set of boxes should take about 2 hours and they will even offer you a lunch for helping out there!

(C) Also, I have heard that T Harville is organizing the clean up and move out at Diane and Ben Austin’s house. His number is 427-3606. In a few days we will have to move everything out of their house.

Mayor's Office

They are coordinating volunteers through this phone number (615)890-1934.

Saturday, the police will allow volunteers into the affected areas past the barricades to help in the clean-up efforts. Presently, a pass must be issued for entrance if you are not a local resident in that neighborhood.

You can call, leave your name and number, and they will call you back when they have the plans and locations lined-up for volunteers.

They are also coordinating things with the Governor's Office and TEMA.

That number is also good for those seeking help. (615)890-1934.

Red Cross Office (615)893-4272, provides humanitarian aid in these situations. there are two other agencies who will also try to provide spiritual assistance. The M'boro Salvation Army (615)895-7071, and Greenhouse Ministries (615)494-0499, are providing assistance, and will all welcome your contributions.

Greenhouse may be collecting furniture and appliances again as they did for Katrina victims a while back.

The Highest Office We ask that you not only remember in prayer those of our own who have suffered loss, but also those of the community - both those who suffered loss, and those who will see our incarnation of Messiah's ministry into their lives.

And pray that God will use this to His glory. CS Lewis said, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, but He shouts to us in our pains." God has already taught us that when we are one, He will receive glory, and this is one way we can express that oneness through meeting fellow human beings' needs.

Baptism in the Early Church: History, Theology, and Liturgy in the First Five Centuries

<ed.note>Mark and I were housemates at ACU.</ed.note>

Dr. Everett Ferguson, professor emeritus of church history at ACU, has just released a major book from Eerdmans, "Baptism in the Early Church: History, Theology, and Liturgy in the First Five Centuries." To celebrate the launch of this book, the Graduate School of Theology is hosting a reception on April 28 at 3:30 p.m. in Room 115 of the Biblical Studies building. Professor Ferguson will give a brief talk entitled "Baptism: what I learned and what surprised me." Refreshments will follow. Books will be available for sale, and we are sure that Dr. Ferguson will sign as many as you like!

We will be delighted to see you at this event honoring the research of one of ACU's most illustrious professors. Come be part of this significant moment.

Blessings,

Dr. Mark W. Hamilton
Associate Professor of Old Testament and Associate Dean
Graduate School of Theology
Abilene Christian University
Abilene, TX 79699
Editor, The Transforming Word
http://www.transformingwordcommentary.com

Call for Participation: OSS2009 Doctoral Consortium, June 3, 2009, Skovde, Sweden

Submit here.

These papers already confirmed:

OSS Changes Software Production Models
Juho Lindman — Helsinki School of Economics

Analyzing Firms' Behaviour towards Free Libre Open Source Software Communities
Michail Batikas — Universitat Pompeu Fabra

The Use of External Knowledge in Firm-Driven OSS Development
Mario Schaarschmidt — University of Koblenz-Landau

The FLOSS Marketplace
Mohammad AlMarzouq — Clemson University

Innovation Through Cooperation. Information and Communication Technology Assessment and Design for an Inclusive Society
Celina Raffl — ICT&S Center, University of Salzburg

Model Construction for Measuring Developer Contribution from Software Repository Data
Eirini Kalliamvakou — Athens University of Economics and Business

Legitimate Peripheral Participation in Free and Open Source Software Communities of Practice — Even non Developers Enter the Community
Giacomo Poderi — Institute of Information Technology Services (IITS), University of Stuttgart

Coordination Dynamics in Free/Libre Open Source Software Development
Andrea Wiggins — Syracuse University

Supporting the User Experience in Codeplex, an Open Source Project Hosting Website
Paula Bach — Pennsylvania State University

Leadership in Apache FLOSS Teams
Yeliz Eseryel — Syracuse University

Fibonacci - The Annual International Open Source Magazine

SF-FOSS, ABV-Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management Gwalior, in joint association with SUN Microsystems and National Resource Center for FOSS, Chennai proudly present their International Open Source Magazine FIBONACCI.

For details please visit: http://sf-foss.iiitm.ac.in/fibonacci/

All accepted articles would be published without any registration fee. The magazine may be treated as any other technical/non-technical magazine and the articles of this magazine may be cited in the same way.

Here you can submit:

ARTICLES: Articles are invited from senior researchers, developers, FOSS users, enterprises using or working for FOSS, students and organizations working for FOSS.

FOSS BODY INFORMATION: Fibonacci aims in acting as a means of collaboration between various Global FOSS departments, forums, organizations, or other bodies working in any way towards FOSS. If you belong to such organization or know about such organizations, please let us know...

FOSS SOFTWARE INFORMATION: Fibonacci aims in spreading the know-how of different types of FOSS Software, their users, features etc. We are trying to spread analyze what type of users use what type of software. If you use or develop any Software under FOSS, please let us know...

FOSS INFORMAL NOTES: Here you can post anything… really anything. If you have interesting quotes, comments, incidents, views, etc. about FOSS, please make a post here. Views on FOSS are also invited. Anonymous posts are also allowed.

Last date for all submissions: 11th June, 2009

All submissions may be made at: http://sf-foss.iiitm.ac.in/fibonacci/SubmitCall.php

INVITING EDITORS AND TECHNICAL COMMITTEE: If you want to suggest a new track or would like to join a track, please do so by mailing us at sf-foss@iiitm.ac.in along with the necessary details. If you want to suggest an editor or a member of the technical committee, please mail us the relevant details by 10th April, 2009.

The magazine aims at:

• Spreading awareness about Open Sourcing among the young people
• Providing technical knowledge to the students worldwide
• To cast an international image of open source initiatives of the country
• To cultivate interest of students towards Software Development through Open Sourcing
  
• To induce ethics and philosophy of Open Source among people

The magazine would be released under Creative Commons “Attribution, Share-alike, Non-commercial”. Share it, pass it, redistribute it and feel the real charm of Open Source.

Regards,
Rahul Kala
SF-FOSS,
http://sf-foss.iiitm.ac.in/
sf-fos@iiitm.ac.in

Tennessee SCORE (TNSCORE) Tennessee's Top Ten Education Facts

<ed.note>Because Tennessee still practices the model of education which requires that quality teachers stand in the same classroom as their students statistics like the following are relevant. (Twitter hashtag #tnscore) Strange, the business world is all a flutter with social networks (Facebook, Linkedin, MySpace), distributed collaboration (Google Docs and Sites, Microsoft Live Suite, Telepresence, White House Virtual Town Hall Meetings, Zoho) and innovation but for some reason it apparently isn't applicable to educational models, even given Curriki.org, DSpace, Flat World Knowledge, Free Homeschool Resources, Google Scholar, Moodle, OpenCourseWare (Consortium), Twitter, Wikibooks, etc. Poorly Performing Educator spelling bee time: Dis-in-ter-me-di-ate.

Also,"In today’s world, some 774 million adults lack minimum literacy skills; one in five adults is still not literate and two-thirds of them are women; 72.1 million children are out of school and many more attend irregularly or drop out". This condition requires investment in technologies such as http://literacybridge.org/talkingbook.html</ed.note>

1. 77% of Tennessee 8th graders are not proficient in math and 75% are not proficient in reading.

2. Tennessee ranks 41st in student achievement – ranking behind six of our neighboring states.

3. An average student with a top 20% teacher for three consecutive years will be in the top 35% of their class after three years while an average student with a bottom 20% teacher for three consecutive years will be in the bottom 40% of their class after three years.

4. 15 of Tennessee’s 30 teacher colleges produce a disproportionate share of the state’s lowest-performing teachers.

5. In 2008, 134 Tennessee schools failed to meet No Child Left Behind minimum performance standards.

6. Nearly 28,000 students dropped out of Tennessee high schools in 2008.

7. Approximately 1.2 million Tennesseans over the age of 18 do not have a high school diploma or GED.

8. 21% of Tennesseans over the age of 18 cannot read well enough to fill out an application, read a food label, or read a simple story to a child.

9. 67% of Tennesseans who receive a HOPE lottery scholarship fail to keep it for four years.

10. Of every 100 Tennessee ninth graders, only 72 will graduate high school and only 17 will graduate college within six years of leaving high school.

SOURCES

1) Percent of eighth grader students ranking proficient on the 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress.

2) Average of 4th grade reading and 8th grade math scaled scores on the 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress.

3) Vanderbilt University analysis of the Tennessee State Board of Education’s 2008 Teacher College Report Card.

4) Cumulative percent of teachers in all subjects in the bottom quintile based on the Tennessee State Board of Education’s 2008 Teacher College Report Card.

5) Tennessee Department of Education’s 2008 State Report Card.

6) Education Week’s Diplomas Count 2008.

7) Jeremy Hiedt’s “What Tennessee Gains By Dropping the Dropout Rate” in the Nashville Business Journal on May 20, 2005.

8) National Institute for Literacy’s Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System.

9) Tennessee Higher Education Commission’s “2008 Tennessee Education Lottery Scholarship Program Annual Report.”

10) Johns Hopkins University’s 2009 “Raising Graduation Rates” report by Robert Balfanz and Thomas West and Tennessee Higher Education Commission’s 2008 “Tennessee Higher Education Profiles and Trends” report.

Fred Trotter Announces FOSS Healthcare Conference, July 31st to August 2, Houston, TX

The local FOSS revolutionaries in Houston, TX have decided that it is time to restart hosting a conference/unconference focused exclusively on FOSS in healthcare. DOHCS ( http://www.dohcs.org/ ) is awesome, but there is only so much that you can accomplish in a single day. We also feel that Californians should not be the only ones having all the fun. So I am happy to announce the FOSS Healthcare conference. http://fosshealth.eventbrite.com/

The conference will be held here in Houston, TX the weekend of July 31st to August 2. We are trying to coordinate to have the WorldVistA conference at the same time/location, but for now that is up in the air.

Early bird registration is really, really cheap. This is very intentional. I know that budgets are tight and travel is often the first thing to go. We are making early bird registration cheap enough that you might be able to fund the trip out-of-pocket if you are an individual contributor to a particular project. We also have limited "spare room" availability so if you want to go, but cannot afford a hotel, contact me offline ASAP. If I get an overwhelming response to this, I may need to change to bigger facilities. So really cheap early-bird registration has the added benefit of giving me a good early head count. Early-bird registration is just $60 bucks. You can SAVE TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS if you register early!

I have invited every project that I could think of, but I know for a fact that FOSS in healthcare is much bigger than my meager contact list. If you work with or know of an open source project with serious impact in healthcare that might like to attend/present, please forward them this invitation! Here are the rules for project invitations:

• You have to be actually using the software live to be considered for a project invitation. No disrespect to alpha projects, but our resources are limited and we have to favor mature projects.


• Project leaders can get two free tickets to the conference, one for a guest and one for a speaker. The speaker should be ready to give a 10 minute summary talk on your project.


• Please advertise this talk now on your own forums. The early-bird pricing, specifically for community members is only good for about a month.

I have already gotten commitments to speak from people that I consider to be some of the top minds in FOSS healthcare. I can guarantee that if you are a Medical or IT professional you will get good talks on software that can make a difference in your world today. I am doing everything that I can think of to ensure that different projects will be able to cross-pollinate and grow.

If you are not sure if you can go... it is worth $60 to reserve a spot... sign up today!

Bontha Esudas on an Indian Christian School and Children Home

India has been placed in a special position in the world and is becoming an economically rich country. This development is limited to a select group of rich Hindu in the country. The Rich higher caste people are receiving educations while the lower caste are being denied these opportunities. There are many challenges borne by Christians and lower cast people. Special quality education, health and common needs are limited to select groups only. Education and Healthcare have become thriving businesses. The more fortunate people sell education and Healthcare for a cost that the Christians and lower caste citizens cannot afford. Education is in the hands of Hindu higher cast people. Many private or corporate schools have been established and they are collecting large amounts of money to get quality teachers and are able to provide a good education to those who are able to afford it. This is a great problem for the Christians and Lower caste people because they cannot afford this education.

Why we have Established a Christian School and Children Home:

1. Christian parents are uneducated and cannot teach their children.

2. They live in rural areas and are agricultural laborers.

3. Their incomes are very low and suffer from extreme poverty.

4. Education is financially unattainable.

5. Poor children contribute to feeding the family. The opportunity cost of sending a child to school is more than a family can endure.

6. Christians and the poor are at the mercy of higher cast people for jobs and wages.

Most of the Christians are lower cast people in India. Because of widespread poverty and illiteracy, the church cannot became self supportive. Many missionaries are trying to do good works and evangelizing India. Due to poverty churches who depend on foreign support disappear daily. As Christians become educated they will become healthier and wealthier people. So they will be able to support the church through the contribution thereby causing the church to be self supportive.

Challenges of establishing a Christian School and Children Home:

A school capable of this will not be established in a short time frame. And it will not be possible to do it with a single man. This is going to require the hard work, patience, time and dedication of many people working together. There are few basic needs in order to start a Christian School and children's home. A Christian school has been started by Esudas thanks to the generosity of his supporters but it has a long way to go in order to meet the goals set before it.

We are in need of 3 main things on a continual basis.

1. Physical Resources. There are physical needs like land, buildings, furniture, play ground equipment and other items for teaching purposes. Most of these things are in the hands of the Hindus now and cannot be obtained by the lower caste people.

2. Human Resources. There is a need of staff fulfilling positions of headmaster, superintendent, teachers, clerk, night watchman, janitor, cook and other workers.

3. Financial need. We need to find supporters who will fund all of the things we plan to achieve on an ongoing basis. Small, medium, and large donations will be useful. We are able to purchase many things for very little money; with a single cent we can purchase a slate pencil.

School and Home plan:

The School plan acts as an important role in the quality education. For the quality education we need to have a good atmosphere and location. If the atmosphere is good children will be attentive and studious.

1. Facilities will have an affect on children's health.

2. School plan needs to outline the running of the school in right manner.

3. Adequate facilities ensure efficient learning.

Different requirements of Christian School and Home plan:

1. Class Rooms: We have to construct the class rooms based on the number of students. Correct size and ventilation are very important. Thanks to the contributions of many, this process has only just begun.

2. Staff Room: We have to have staff room for the school to function at a high level. The room will be useful as a break room and resource room to prepare lessons. The teachers will keep their books, other valuable things in that room.

3. Principal room: The principal will be there to organize the school and to take care of the children. This room will serve as an office.

4. Front Office room: All of the administration things like record keeping. The Clerk and all other files will be in that room.

5. Toilets: We need to construct toilets on the basis of students.

6. Library room: A library is needed for the students to research for reports.

7. Rooms for Children home. We will need a room for boys and a room for girls and one room kitchen and dining hall.

It requires much hard work to see it come into existence. If we have all of these items then we will have reached our goal.

Who we Consider as Orphans

The groups we are trying to reach are the marginally poor, living outside mainstream society, and illiterates. We are also trying to reach those families that can afford to offer a meal once a day and those who are able to send their children to school. If we can bring these children into our fold and then train and nurture them in the Gospel from childhood we will have reached three generations of Christians.

The new school has started with a limited number of students, few teachers, and little funds, so it will start small and will, Lord willing, grow each year so that it will become a large school in the future. We have started with basic school with three primary grades. The grades include LKG, UKG and 1st Class or in the United States kindergarten, first and second grade. We hope to add one class per year and build a new classroom for each class each year based on funds availability.

We have started this program at the bare minimum and as of now it is operating from Esudas home. In the future we hope to add the other rooms as the facility grows. Lord willing, it will contain a front room which would serve as an office. Behind that there would be a kitchen/dining hall for feeding the children. And along side of those two rooms a classroom would serve as classroom/library. A possible fourth room could be located above the first floor which would be an open room to house boys, or it could be placed behind the kitchen/dining hall. It is important to note, feeding students is a custom in India. It would be equivalent to a school in America not having a cafeteria. The school cannot exist without feeding the children.

For now we have started this project in my house by constructing two temporary rooms where he purchased some land by the side of his home. This school has been made possible only by the generous contributions of my' supporters. This school will not continue to exist without support. It is beyond the financial capabilities of the lower caste people to sustain this facility. I needs continual support in order to maintain this work. If you would like to be a part of this work and help the poor children of India in this area receive a basic education, We need your praters.

Thank You for your interest.

www.churchofchristindia.com

The 7th National Medical Banking Institute Kicks Off

I'll be blogging over at MBlog and tweeting @mbproject ( http://twitter.com/mbproject ) using #medbanking hash tag.

Don't forget to check out the International Journal of Medical Banking

7th National Medical Banking Institute, March 11-13, 2009, Nashville, TN

Details over at MBlog

Ontolog Forum Series Transcript: Semantic Wikis: The Wiki Way to the Semantic Web Session 6: The Future of Semantic Wiki: Trends, Challenges and Outlook

PeterYim: Welcome to the SemanticWiki mini-series Session-6 - Thu 5-Mar-2009

* Mini-series Title: Semantic Wikis: The Wiki Way to the Semantic Web
* Session-6 Topic: The Future of Semantic Wiki: Trends, Challenges and Outlook
* Session Chair: Prof. Dr. RudiStuder (FZI & Institut AIFB, Universitt Karlsruhe) & Dr. MarkGreaves (Vulcan)
* Panelists:
 o Chairs of previous sessions in this mini-series to summarize the outcome from their sessions, and to make their short statements on today's topic (5 min. each)
 + Dr. SebastianSchaffert, Mr. HaroldSolbrig, Mr. MaxVoelkel, Mr. MarkusKroetzsch, Mr. MikeDean, Mr. PeterYim, Dr. LiDing & Dr. JieBao
 o Speakers from previous sessions of this mini-series to each deliver short statements regarding the future of semantic wikis as they each see it (2 min. each)
 + Mr. ChristophLange, Mr. DanielHansch, Professor DanielSchwabe, Mr. HaroldSolbrig, Mr. JoelNatividad, Professor KeiCheung, Mr. MarkusKroetzsch, Mr. MikeDean, Professor Dr. PeterDolog, Mr. PeterYim, Dr. SebastianSchaffert, Mr. TobiasKuhn & Mr. YaronKoren

PeterYim: See details on the session page at: http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ConferenceCall_2009_03_05

PeterYim: .

anonymous morphed into Daniel Schwabe

anonymous morphed into Daniel Schwabe

Daniel Schwabe: Hi Peter, just checking. I thought the conference would start at 3 (my time), but I just noticed it got pushed back 30m

anonymous morphed into Rudi Studer

Rudi Studer1 morphed into Markus Kroetzsch

anonymous morphed into Son Doan

Rudi Studer: We are having problems dialing in. The German telecon service says that the conference ID is not valid

Peter Dolog: hi all

Markus Kroetzsch: We are now using the UK line to dial in.

anonymous morphed into Yaron Koren

Markus Kroetzsch: Hi Yaron.

Yaron Koren: What's up, Markus.

Markus Kroetzsch: We are still waiting for Peter to dial in ...

Daniel (ontoprise): Hi everybody!

PeterYim: Sorry guys ... I am slightly delayed ... I will be over in a couple of minutes

PeterYim: slides just posted ... please refresh session page

Please change your name from 'anonymous' using the Settings button

anonymous morphed into EdDodds

Lars Ludwig: Hello there

Yaron Koren: Looking through the presentations, it looks like Markus and Max's is an old one.

anonymous morphed into Jesse Wang

Yaron Koren: From the 3rd session.

Sebastian Schaffert: Hi, I dialled in via the German line just fine

Markus Kroetzsch sees two people with their hands up. You can put them down agfain with the hand button at the bottom right, I think.

Markus Kroetzsch: We will try that too, back in a minnute.

Sebastian Schaffert: yes, I could if I had not loggen in again

Sebastian Schaffert: -n+d

Markus Kroetzsch: ok, we are back via the German line

anonymous1 morphed into Christoph Lange

Christoph Lange: hi, sorry for coming a bit late...

Markus Kroetzsch: Hi, we are just starting

anonymous morphed into Tim FInin

anonymous morphed into Mike Lang

Sebastian Schaffert morphed into SebastianSchaffert

SebastianSchaffert morphed into Sebastian Schaffert

anonymous3 morphed into DanielRedmon

Markus Kroetzsch morphed into Markus Krötzsch

Daniel Schwabe: Bullets for those w/o slides should are at http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?SemanticWiki/Future

anonymous morphed into JieBao

EdDodds: Thanks to the conveners!!!

anonymous1 morphed into John Pacheco

anonymous2 morphed into Bobbin Teegarden

anonymous morphed into Christoph Lange

Sebastian Schaffert: there is also the 4th SemWiki workshop at ESWC2009

Yaron Koren: I submitted a talk for the SemTech conference, but they never responded, which I guess means that they rejected me.

Yaron Koren:

Markus Krötzsch: You should inquire anyway.

Sebastian Schaffert: ero-training is the goal of every software developer, or should be

Yaron Koren: I did, actually, about a month ago - they didn't respond to that either.

Markus Krötzsch thinks they filter "Yaron" in email headers

Yaron Koren: I knew it!

Yaron Koren: ...or "forms".

EdDodds: Is there a knowledge engineer job posting resource, either on Ontolog or else place?

Tim FInin: we'll continue to need knowledge engineers just as we programmers and database specialists

Sebastian Schaffert: but hard to convince companies that they need one, at least that's my experience

Sebastian Schaffert: thanks Rudi

Markus Krötzsch: There will also be another SMW user meeting, maybe Daniel (ontoprise) can say something on that.

Daniel (ontoprise): Peter, would you be so kind and show my updated slide later? (v1.1)

Mark Greaves: Tim: I agree that we will need KEs in many cases; the question is the degree to which semantic wikis can socialize some of the lower-end schema design applications.

Daniel Schwabe: I don't believe there will be a single "user interface" that is universally "good" for all

Markus Krötzsch: Right, see item 2

Daniel Schwabe: therefore, we really need environments that make it easy to create customized interfaces

Lars Ludwig: we need one environment to customize, maybe

Daniel Schwabe: perhaps some communities may reach a consensus on some interface model that suits them

Markus Krötzsch: Wrongs slide!

Markus Krötzsch notes that slide numbers are not equal to topic numbers

Daniel Schwabe: Why access only from other wiki *systems*, and not from any data source?

Markus Krötzsch: Didn't he say this?

Daniel Schwabe: I heard Rudi say "accessing data from other wiki systems"...

Mark Greaves: DanielS: I agree about the multiple UIs; we don't expect a single best interface to a RDBMS, so why should we expect a single best interface to semantic data? Your M-V-C work is quite cool in this regard.

PeterYim: @DanielHansch: I've got your updated slide online

Markus Krötzsch: ok, we can check on the recording, I was more focussed on the slide

Daniel Schwabe: MarkG - ok, but the actual challenge of good UI design remains

Yaron Koren: No, he talked about other data sources before, including desktop-only data.

Daniel Schwabe: ok, my mistake...

Markus Krötzsch: The slides are here: http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/work/SemanticWiki/SWiki-06_Future-of-SemanticWiki_20090305/SemanticWiki-Future--RudiStuder_20090305.pdf

Yaron Koren: That was early on in the talk.

Daniel Schwabe: yes, there is the URL to all the slides earlier in the transcript

Daniel Schwabe: I think this definition is missing collectively produced content. To me this is one of the defining notions of "wiki"

Yaron Koren: Sure.

Sebastian Schaffert: we had a definition of "Wiki Philosophy" in the first session

Sebastian Schaffert: it included "everyone can edit"

EdDodds: Anyone using twitter here? What hash tags do you use for Ontolog Forum related tweets?

Mark Greaves: DanielS: I think there is enough diversity between SMW+, Knoodl, AceWiki, IkeWiki, SWiM, and the other semantic wikis that our community is not well served by drawing bright inclusion lines or debating terminological scope, even around a fundamental property like collaboration. The marketplace is redefining our term anyway. I'd rather see us be inclusive about the term "semantic wiki", leave it hazily defined, and let our various pieces of software speak for themselves.

Sebastian Schaffert:

Sebastian Schaffert: research has to be fun;.)

Markus Krötzsch: +1 to Mark

Yaron Koren: I would think a definition of semantic wikis that doesn't include collaboration is not a definition at all.

Daniel Schwabe: +1 to Yaron - and that's true for Wikis, not just Semantic Wikis...

Mark Greaves: YaronK: I use a semantic wiki in a noncollaborative way for my own personal information management, for example.

Markus Krötzsch: Actually, my hoempage is a semantic wiki, but I am the only editor

Sebastian Schaffert: BTW, first KiWi open source prerelease: http://www.schaffert.eu/2009/02/27/first-kiwi-open-source-release/ (sorry for advertisement, couldn't resist)

Daniel Schwabe: MarkG - I agree with the overall approach to the problem; I also don't believe in very strong categorizations that serve no purpose.

Yaron Koren: Yes, I'm aware of single-user wikis, but the tools are in place for collaboration.

Markus Krötzsch: Sure

Sebastian Schaffert: not necessarily

Daniel Schwabe: The issue is that if you really take away the collaboration infrastructure, the problem becomes much simpler.

Sebastian Schaffert: it always becomes simpler without cocurrency

Daniel Schwabe: exactly

Sebastian Schaffert: but still, wikis are not about collaboration primarily, they are about creating web content quickly

StephenDavies: (what slide are we on now?)

Mark Greaves: "Database" doesn't have a very tight definition, nor does "word processor" or other common classes of software -- they more have a family resemblence and hazy boundaries. No one has an issue with this. So I'd hope this approach is part of our semantic wiki community as well.

Daniel Schwabe: Hmmm, then wysywig HTML editors would be wiki tools!

StephenDavies: (ah, okay)

Sebastian Schaffert: there is tiddlywiki

Sebastian Schaffert: http://www.tiddlywiki.com/

Yaron Koren: Slide 11 - interestingly, it's about "what is a wiki".

Sebastian Schaffert: a kind of wysiwyg editor if you like

Sebastian Schaffert: but a wysiwyg editor does not create a website, it just creates HTML

Lars Ludwig: take a CMS

Daniel Schwabe: Ok, some CMSs or tools do that - create the page, publish right away. One of the really enabling factors in wikis is easy *linking* (not so much formatting, imho)

Tim FInin: FB and youtube don't seem to be wikis to me.

Sebastian Schaffert: yes, linking is crucial

Sebastian Schaffert: and then there is versioning

Yaron Koren: You can't edit other people's contributions in FB, YouTube, etc.; that's the issue.

Sebastian Schaffert: and (you can debate that) everyone can edit

Daniel Schwabe: So that's why some of the social software sites/tools mentioned in slide 11 would not really count as wikis (from the easy linking pov). And, of course, editing other people's contents, sure.

Tim FInin: more like forums, then

Sebastian Schaffert: yes, but there are nowadays many corporate wiki installations where *not* everyone can edit

Sebastian Schaffert: but still they are wikis

Tim FInin: bossWiki

Daniel Schwabe: it's ok if you have some editorial control on who is allowed to publish...

Daniel Schwabe: functionally speaking, it's still collaborative content AND linking

Harold Solbrig: I think the history component is an important aspect as well.

Sebastian Schaffert: I often summarise the wiki characteristics as follows:

Sebastian Schaffert: - On a wiki, anyone can edit

Sebastian Schaffert: - Wikis are easy to use (buzzword!)

Sebastian Schaffert: - Wiki content is linkable

Sebastian Schaffert: - Wikis support versioning

Sebastian Schaffert: - Wikis support all media (that one is an extension of the old idea of web page)

Sebastian Schaffert: http://www.kiwi-project.eu/index.php/kiwi-vision/21-wiki-philosophy

Lars Ludwig: hm, I could think of a virtual wiki integrating personal statements without direct editing

Christoph Lange: I wouldn't call the feature "versioning" -- IIRC it was originally called "easy undo" = it's easier to undo a mistake than to mess up sth. (and versioning is one solution for that)

Sebastian Schaffert: true

Daniel Schwabe: my definition - easy content and linking; collaborative creation. Versioning is really just a way to overcome lack of concurrency control - leave to the users to undo inconsistent updates, simplifies implementation.

Sebastian Schaffert: @Lars: Twitter?

Sebastian Schaffert: Daniel: versioning is much more important

Sebastian Schaffert: it is about taking away fears

Sebastian Schaffert: the fear of breaking things

Lars Ludwig: why not integrating twitter messages into a wiki

Yaron Koren:

Daniel (ontoprise): The "rule knowledge in SMW"-prototype is online: http://ruledemo.ontoprise.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

Daniel Schwabe: ok, but I consider that as part of "collaborative content creation" support

Sebastian Schaffert: if I know that I can undo my changes in a Wiki, I feel much more easy to actually contribute

Sebastian Schaffert: @Lars: yes, of course (KiWi)

Yaron Koren: I was smiling at the "breaking things", BTW.

EdDodds: Isolated components will be available to link with electronic medical records and financial reporting increasingly done in extensible business reporting language (xbrl) as well. Anyone looking at the medical banking implications of this yet?

Harold Solbrig: The versioning isn't just being able to undo - it carries the evolution of how the idea was formed. Interestingly, discussions should probably be linear - time flows down the page, but core pages need history.

Markus Krötzsch: The "Ask The Wiki" demo is still found at http://semanticweb.org/wiki/Special:ATWSpecialSearch (URL not on my slides)

anonymous1 morphed into John McClure

Peter Dolog: just some thoghts based on above discussion. I think we probably need some kind of a metaphor for semantic wiki. Looking at what the other wrote: Sebastian - quickly update content -> I think this is historically wiki; Daniel: collaborative editing of content was probably added after when CSCW peaple entered, knowledge evolution goes towards semantics a bit (versioning vs. evolution? probably a discussion point too)

EdDodds: >>Lars Ludwig: why not integrating twitter messages into a wiki - Indeed, saw this a.m. http://www.kmworld.com/Articles/News/Breaking-News/Wikis-get-social-52891.aspx on a product (eTouch announces SamePage Version 4.1) that "functionally" attempts this, although not actually with twitter or identi.ca/laconi.ca

Daniel Schwabe: @PeterD - No, collaboration was there since the beginning in Ward Cunninghams first wiki

Peter Dolog: OK, I am not excluding it. I think we just probably miss some kind of methaphor we could all ground too.

Markus Krötzsch: A core aspect of Ward's Wiki was simplicity -- hardly any markup.

Harold Solbrig: As was the original HTML

Lars Ludwig: EdDodds: next step: integrate 'semantic' messages

Peter Dolog: ok, so what would be an equivalent simplicity to semantic wiki

Markus Krötzsch: As Ward said himself, Wikipedia and others have moved away from this part a lot, but I think he is okay with this

Peter Dolog: simplicity in editing beyond content - knowledge?

Daniel Schwabe: I translated these into "easy content creation and linking"

Daniel Schwabe: So I really don't care what is the underlying representation - if I have a tool that makes it very easy to create content, that's fine.

Markus Krötzsch: Ward's wiki was not just "easy" (to use), its whole data model was extremely simple. There was hardly any structure in the data it contained. Mostly links.

LiDing: the notion of easy is hard to say

Daniel Schwabe: Hence, with wysiwyg HTML enable wiki content to be HTML, so long as people don't have to edit the source...

LiDing: even editing with wiki require training

Harold Solbrig: Interesting now that I think about it. HTML 1.0 was more semantic than syntax. The XML community argues that it "got off track" with the images and formatting information rather than the semantics of the message itself. XML, on the other hand, made it *too* easy for everyone to say whatever they said their own way. RDF & OWL etc. are attempts to agree on semantics, but WIKI, in a way, is a return to the original HTML principles.

Mark Greaves: LiD: very well said, "the notion of easy is hard to say"

LiDing: furthermore, editing in English is not that easy

Daniel Schwabe: Besides content itself with the simple markup, the real winner was the simple linking mechanism - reference by name

Markus Krötzsch: but maybe maintaining a basic data model with as little strucutre as possible is not actually our goal these days ...

Daniel Schwabe: at that time, this was the difficult part to achieve in a simple way

Harold Solbrig: Agreed - especially the link to a yet to be created page.

Markus Krötzsch: indeed

John McClure: Core & definitional to wikis -- which seems not to have received alot of attention -- are '''namespaces'''. I believe that public understanding of wikis needs to evolve, not be a revolution with too many concepts. Thus, I suggest that the concept of namespaces -- as a form of strong typing -- is the next crucial atom of info to be communicated.

Daniel Schwabe: @Markus - sure, I would not focus so much on a "data model"

Daniel Schwabe: @johnM - interesting point...

EdDodds: @Lars Ludwig: next step: integrate 'semantic' messages >> yes, I wonder if the open ontology registry (Ontolog Project) might be utilized to connect with tagging a la delicious, folksonomies, twit hash tags, etc. to help give context to these semantic messages...

Peter Dolog: @DanielS: so our ultimate goal is then, what is now difficult on the content in the wikis which semantics can make it simple

Markus Krötzsch: @Daniel: I mean the basic structural model of the wiki content. In spite of all freedom that users should have, technically there must be some basic "model".

Daniel Schwabe: that's part of it. Then there is the "consuming the information" part. No good to be easy to create if it is hard to consume! which leads us to customizable interfaces

Markus Krötzsch: s /Daniel/DanielS/

John McClure: I suggest that IF ontologies are calibrated with (inter)wiki namespaces, THEN ontology metadata can be reasoned, leading to interoperability

Daniel Schwabe: @MarkusK - sure

Markus Krötzsch: we see it!

Yaron Koren: SMW mostly uses categories and not namespaces.

Markus Krötzsch: Well, it uses both but for very different things.

Harold Solbrig: We had to splice namespaces in...

Lars Ludwig: document annotation is no solution

Harold Solbrig: e.g. RDF_type or WINE_cabernet

Markus Krötzsch: @PeterYim: my lightning slide is not linked online -- did you get it?

John McClure: Yaron, yes I agree, but that doesnt distress me. The essential point is that SMW needs to develop an ontology that describes NSs.

Yaron Koren: Markus - a minority of people use namespaces for data. Like Harold.

Markus Krötzsch: Oh, I would not encourage this, from a technical viewpoint

Yaron Koren: Talk to Harold. And John.

John McClure: because...?

Yaron Koren: John - I don't see why usage of namespaces is that important to you.

John McClure: Because it is a '''container'''. Because it's already in MW. Because it is not new

Yaron Koren: You could say the same for categories.

Harold Solbrig: Two different notions of namespace. One is the Mediawiki ns (Category, Template, Property, and talk analogs) and the second is ontology namespace (URI)

Markus Krötzsch: Ah, that is indeed different

Jesse Wang: Yaron: I believe one reason people use namespaces is to avoid name conflict: say, two pages: NS1:MembersList vs NS2:MembersList.

Daniel Schwabe: I already hit *2 on mine

John McClure: Harold, agreed. What is the difference my friend?

Markus Krötzsch: @Harold: Of course, namespaces in ontologies often have no semantic significance. They are specific to some serializations, but not part of the ontological content.

Sebastian Schaffert: and they don't say anything about the ontology

Sebastian Schaffert: they are about the URIs and not suitable for grouping ontologies

Markus Krötzsch: (opening a file in an ontology editor and saving it again may sometimes change the namespaces that are used)

Markus Krötzsch: The notion of "URI" does not involve namespaces either.

Markus Krötzsch: They only come in in XML and some other file formats.

Daniel Schwabe: I guess what is meant is some facility to help "distributed vocabulary management"

LiDing: isn't wiki a place forcing people to converge?

Markus Krötzsch: @DanielS: Yes, the problem is that semantic technology standards are pretty poor on this task.

Daniel Schwabe: @MarkusK - sure, I was just trying to give my interpretation of the remark on using NSs

Markus Krötzsch: yes, and I think it is a valid remark, just hard to implement properly using standards

Daniel Schwabe: @LiDing - yes, but converge != merge

John McClure: What is meant is a hook to define context, the 'frame' through which a particular wiki, or namespace within a wiki, is constructed. Where else to define such context *in the existing framework*?

LiDing: @daniel, right we do forced-converge or merged by mapping

John McClure: Frankly I am most concerned with making swikis palatable as possible
- Start with existing concepts, like namespaces (aka context) and pages (aka resources)

Daniel Schwabe: @LiDing - I believe merged by mapping is more acceptable, hence the use of NSs to help that

John McClure: we can all agree semantically what the 'talk' ns is for. Why stop there?
Am suggesting some additional ''foundational namespaces'' in addition to the
fourteen (14) standard ns's.

Tim FInin morphed into Tim Finin

Daniel Schwabe: Shameless plug - partial answer to point 2 (interface between dbpedia and semantic wiki) - Explorator: http://www.tecweb.inf.puc-rio.br/explorator. First step, exploring data; second step, create/add/edit content (coming)

Yaron Koren: @KeiCheung - well, some might say that a semantic Wikipedia might replace DBPedia entirely.

John McClure: e.g., put one's formal ontology in a 'term' ns, controlled by KEs
Leave folksonomies in the 'category' ns -- potential terms adoptable by KEs

Daniel Schwabe: @yaronK - sorry, I really don't believe that. They serve entirely different purposes. I could see Semantic Wikipedia being based on top of dbpedia...

Sebastian Schaffert: @Yaron: which would make sense, why are they separate in the first place ...

Sebastian Schaffert: well, at the moment, DBPedia is based on Wikipedia

Daniel Schwabe: @YaronK (perhaps that's what you meant?)

Sebastian Schaffert: adding the DBPedia-way of querying data to Wikipedia would make sense

Yaron Koren: No, I'm talking about adding SMW (for instance  ) to Wikipedia.

Yaron Koren: Wikipedia could then be queried directly.

Sebastian Schaffert: same result, isn't it (or even better)

Sebastian Schaffert: that's what I meant

Daniel Schwabe: @sebastian - one of the advantages of dbpedia is having a sparql endpoint. It enables powerful interfaces such as the Explorator I mentioned above

Markus Krötzsch hears echo

Sebastian Schaffert: yes, but Wikipedia could offer the SPARQL endpoint

Daniel Schwabe: In addition, you could always have the (Semantic) Media Wiki interface, as you said

Sebastian Schaffert: instead of having it separate

Sebastian Schaffert: I disagree with Mike - OWL must prove that it is useful or otherwise we dump it

Sebastian Schaffert: (my challenge ...  )

Christoph Lange: one more thought about namespaces: I think they are needed if links should remain easy to author. LinkByName actually requires one flat namespace, wich is not practical for structuring knowledge, but full URIs are hard to author

Daniel Schwabe: +1 to ChristophL

Sebastian Schaffert: @Christoph: link lookup can be done differently

Harold Solbrig: @Markus (wrt namespaces) - indeed, namespaces have no semantic significance, which is why they work out ok as a part of the name itself. The key, however, is disambiguation - especially when you are referencing outside resources that have not coordinated their names. The classic example is the NCI has a class called "Agent", which includes drugs and other delivery mechanisms. NCI_Agent is needed...

Sebastian Schaffert: I'll maybe discuss with you separately how we now do it in KiWi

Markus Krötzsch: I agree with Sebastian, but I don't think OWL is just useful if it is useful in wikis; actually, we would have very advanced swikis indeed if they are able to leverage a technology as powerful as OWL. Maybe we are not there yet.

KeiCheung: Yaron, my chat room page was blocked by other windows so I didn't see your comment. wikipedia started with free text, so it's not a natural fit to semantic web even dbpedia addresses some of the issues. If we start right using semantic mediawiki (instead of mediawiki), we might be able to create a better dbpedia (neurodbpedia in my case).

Yaron Koren: Well, as far as I know DBPedia just uses Wikipedia's infobox data, which could be relatively straightforwardly semantic-ized.

Sebastian Schaffert: ... or create a flop because people are reluctant to use it

Sebastian Schaffert: if it is too complex

Sebastian Schaffert: difficult act of balancing

Markus Krötzsch: @Harold: yes, I agree; I am not sure how well this is supported by current tools, though

Harold Solbrig: @Markus I disagree. OWL, while it may not appear directly, is an important component when defining the intended meaning of the semantic components. With OWL, RDF, ... we have "Category" and "Property". That said, OWL should be under the covers.

Daniel Schwabe: I think we can build special purpose interfaces to create, edit and navigate data for which we KNOW the (meta) schema.

Sebastian Schaffert: people absolutely don't care about semantics

Sebastian Schaffert: they have to be added in a natural way

Sebastian Schaffert: forms are one way

Markus Krötzsch: in addition, people absolutely don't care about wikis

Sebastian Schaffert: tagging might be one

Sebastian Schaffert: exactly

Yaron Koren:

Yaron Koren: So what are we doing here?

KeiCheung: faviki?

Daniel Schwabe: @MarkusK, unless you are saying this "tongue in cheek", people DO care about wikis...

Harold Solbrig: @Markus: We had to roll our own for the time being. Not only do we have the namespace issue, but, one way or another, we have to know that "Wine" and "Wein" map to the same core resource, so we need a notion of identity.

KeiCheung: owl:sameAs?

Sebastian Schaffert: @Yaron: we care about positioning semantic wikis as a tool that people really like to use without noticing that they are using a wiki or semantics

Harold Solbrig: I want to get to the same page in the end.

Sebastian Schaffert: @Harold: this becomes very difficult

Sebastian Schaffert: think of "Snow"

Markus Krötzsch: @Yaron: That is why I think we should step back and consider the goal we have. We gather valuable experience in supporting structured and unstructured content, for trained and untrained users, in groups or alone -- we can define "CMS" or at least contribute significantly to its future definition.

EdDodds: Folks don't care about "semantics" but they do care about "context" -- they just don't realize they can be the same thing

Sebastian Schaffert: in Bavaria, we have about 5-10 notions of snow, in Iceland they have about 15

Daniel Schwabe: Good user interface are crucial to ANY interactive application...

Sebastian Schaffert: and in Saudi Arabia they probably have only 1

Sebastian Schaffert: +1 to Daniel

Sebastian Schaffert: user centred design

Daniel Schwabe: @SebastianS (Ha, in Brazil we have may .5 notion of snow, none real! :-Q)

Markus Krötzsch: @DanielS: The people from the street care about the label "wiki" as they care about "Web 2.0", but the cateogrization as one or the other type of CMS is not essential to them as long as it works

Daniel Schwabe: @MarkusK - ah, ok

Harold Solbrig: @Sebastian: What we've done is created a 3 part identifier (NS_designation(code)). NS is namespace ID, designation is language specific and possibly changeable name and code is immutable. Note that links don't just come from other wiki pages (!). If we don't find NS_designation(code), we look up NS(Code). If found, we build a redirect page.

EdDodds: A simple case is job matching a la hr-xml. HR still refuses to use "context" to match "job description" with "resume" -- job seekers, however, do wish they would

Markus Krötzsch: @Harold: I think I understand what kind of problems you would encounter there. You want to work on syntax, when all SemWeb standards work on semantics (i.e. letting you identify the entities you model, but not the names that you use for them).

Markus Krötzsch wonders how many parallel side chats one can have while still being an attentive listener ...

EdDodds: Another case is the White House Forum on Health Reform Event on now http://www.whitehouse.gov/live2/ where about of the jawing is about differing definitions and cross talk

EdDodds: alot of

John McClure: Special purpose interfaces (@Daniel) could be bound each to a namespace.
People 'get' that pretty easily, and understand that

Sebastian Schaffert: @Harold: but how does it solve the problem of owl:sameAs redirecting to the same page?

John McClure: place:White House is SURELY different than article:White House and talk:White House

Sebastian Schaffert: concepts are slightly different in different cultures

Daniel Schwabe: @JohnM - sure, that's one of the primitive mechanisms we use in HDEWiki (and more general in HyperDE tool)

John McClure: each requiring a wholly different set of tools to make the goal (completing content) faster, better, cheaper

Daniel Schwabe: @JohnM - there is a builtin notion of "context", and a way to customize the interface depending on the context.

Joel Natividad: Following up on my point about word processors - has anybody looked into using the new document formats - Open XML and ODF in particular as a jumping point

Joel Natividad: for capturing semantically annotated data when creating documents

Joel Natividad: ODF has a metadata Technical Comittee

smishra morphed into Sunil Mishra

Sebastian Schaffert: yes, we even have an open bug tracker issue on this

Sebastian Schaffert: still open

Daniel Schwabe: @YaronK, can you post the URL to the website you mentioned?

Yaron Koren: Sure - http://opencongress.org/wiki

anonymous1: How is the UI problem related to the non-specific spirit of the wiki paradigm? For instance, from my experience working within the biomedical domain I have see that tools such as WIKI-Proteins do not facilitate any specific tool for the kind of information they are meant to support. How could having more specific UIs help solving the UI problem?

Bobbin Teegarden: Has anyone tried to move the wiki ui from words and bullets to an interactive graph (with GIS overlay) more like Gelernter's Mirror World?

Sebastian Schaffert: because specific is always better for the user than generic

Markus Krötzsch: anonymous1, you can use "Settings" at the top panel to get a name.

Daniel Schwabe: @anonymous1 - that's precisely the point I was making in my earlier interventions!

Lars Ludwig: name space? -- I call it mind space

Harold Solbrig: @Sebastian: Even with owl:sameAs, we still have to get folks from whatever historical or language specific hyperlink they've got to the SMW page that defines the category or property. The advantage of the identifier approach is we don't have to carry a history of all names that have been used.

Markus Krötzsch: oops, I misinterpreted the text field next to the hand button

Sebastian Schaffert: response:

Sebastian Schaffert: namespaces are not for semantics

Daniel Schwabe: @YaronK - is there some sort of schema underlying the "structured" portion of this website? Is there a way to access the "raw" underlying data?

Sebastian Schaffert: @Harold: that's fine - my concern is only that it is not so easy to use the same concept in multiple languages

Sebastian Schaffert: we had this in IkeWiki

Yaron Koren: @DanielS - not really, no.

Sebastian Schaffert: but didn't to it in KiWi after a long discussion

Sebastian Schaffert: did the conference break? I was kicked out

Sebastian Schaffert: and cannot log in again

Markus Krötzsch: we are still on

anonymous1: I suppose that also has to do with being able to define atomic components of a wiki page, the page is the atomic unit of the wiki.

PeterYim: @Sebastian ... was that for voice or for the chat room?

Harold Solbrig: @Sebastion: agreed that it isn't. There are attempts and claims to be able to do this, however, in Medical "ontologies" such as Gene Ontology and SNOMED-CT. Also, what of Dublin Core and good ol' RDF?

Sebastian Schaffert: @peter: voice, but back again

PeterYim: glad you are able to get back in .. sorry for the mishap

Sebastian Schaffert: @anonymous1: not necessarily, we also discussed heavily in the community how to annotate parts of pages

Sebastian Schaffert: take the Wikipedia page about the computer mouse

Sebastian Schaffert: it would be useful to annotate each section differently, because it is about many historical mice

Joel Natividad: @Tim: Great stuff! Would love to see what your team put together.

Joel Natividad: @Tim: Great stuff! Would love to check out the work that your team did

anonymous1: can u track changes over anything else but pages?

Sebastian Schaffert: @anonymous1: yes, in KiWi we implemented versioning and transactions for metadata

Sebastian Schaffert: not 100% solved, but mostly

Joel Natividad: Actually, I'm currently working on embedding semantic metadata in the SVG XML files that SRF-Ploticus produces.

anonymous1: is there any literature on that?

John McClure: Markus' concern is that an ns organization conflicts with
one's ability to 'categorize' things in multiple ways.
There are several responses to this. First, don't overlook the
impace of REDIRECTS. Second, consider closely whether the structure
of the ontology is ill-fitting wrt the implemented namespaces.

Christoph Lange: @anonymous1: the page can remain the atomic unit, but then we need good refactoring workflows in case a page grows more complex (and subconcepts emerge within a page)

Sebastian Schaffert: on the versioning? we are working on an article

Sebastian Schaffert: should be finished next week

Yaron Koren: Sorry, what was the question? I couldn't hear it.

Markus Krötzsch: @John: My point is: categories already do that, are well known, and have suppor by advnaced UIs even for searching. So why try to use MW namespaces?

Sebastian Schaffert: @John: never forget the user

Sebastian Schaffert: who would find this useful? I would find it awkward

Markus Krötzsch: @John: I agree that it could be conceived, even though it would not play well with the technical use of namespaces now (e.g. namespaces cannot be added from the wiki but only server-side)

Daniel Schwabe: @anonymous1 - there is a whole series of work on model-based interface specification. If you want to get a flavor of what's possible, some is exemplified in our HDEWiki demo: http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/work/SemanticWiki/SWiki-02_Technology-1_20081120/HDEWiki--DanielSchwabe_20081120.html

John McClure: I don't believe there is any ontology for defining a category.
(Unless you wanna raise Topic Maps v Ontology debate)

Sebastian Schaffert: SKOS

Markus Krötzsch: well, I think we are talking of different things here

Joel Natividad: In my ideal world, users will work on their documents using familiar interfaces and then the knowledge is published on Semantic Wiki

Sebastian Schaffert: +1 to Joel

Sebastian Schaffert: intuitiveness means known patterns of use

John McClure: yep, skos.
Further, mw searching does understand ns's and categories.
Certainly I acknowledge that there's a break with categories in some sense.
But this is called 'emerging ke' right

anonymous1: Hi Christoph, how could the re-factoring be done?

Joel Natividad: and other users can further annotate on Wiki, and if it can be done, the annotations are round-tripped down to the document

Daniel Schwabe: +1 to Joel too

Joel Natividad:

Guoqian Jiang: @Markus, We are using RDF output from SMW for processing proposals generated from LexWiki

Peter Dolog: @Joel: And this is exactly also a big challenge for us as researchers

Peter Dolog: i.e. how to make it simpler to make

Jesse Wang: We are doing something at Vulcan.

Peter Dolog: because program we can always

Jesse Wang: Mark is talking on that.

Peter Dolog: but how everybody can do that?

Christoph Lange: @anonymous1: in Wikipedia it is done manually. Whenever a subsection (e.g. history of Italy) grows too large, somebody first puts a warning there (this should be rolled out to an article of its own), then somebody else does that, and replaces the former section by a short summary, and fixes links on other pages pointing to the subtopic

Markus Krötzsch: we are also working on solutions for inter-wiki data exchange and integration -- I would like to collect input on what people need

Christoph Lange: @anonymous1: Now assume semantic structures on pages (e.g. saying this paragraph is a subconcept of type T), then a semantic wiki could assist with that

Tim Finin: gotta go. Thanks for all the fish

John McClure: @Sebastian - Users find it useful that [[place:White House]] involves its own set of tools

Markus Krötzsch: we plan to release software for exchanging data between wikis (instead of copying it from one wiki to the other by duplicating pages); use cases could affect our desing choices

Guoqian Jiang: @Markus, we are really interested in the future plan for RDF/OWL backend of SMW

Markus Krötzsch: well, feel free to write an email

Markus Krötzsch: (I think the session stops rather soon)

Guoqian Jiang: @Markus, yes, talk to you later by email

Sebastian Schaffert: @John: how about the page about the place which is called "White House" involving their own tools instead of placing it on the link?

Markus Krötzsch: ok, just bear with me being slow processing mails; quite some of them these days ...

Guoqian Jiang: OK, I see.

Daniel Schwabe: @MarkusK - why not use LOD as the underlying basis to share content between wikis?

anonymous1: @ Joel: having a semantic structure supporting the generation of documents could make it possible to produce scientific papers, for instance, fully annotated. This could deliver an OLD environment over the paper. I think that when supporting the generation of documents the annotation should happen naturally and without any effort, the document being generated should be immerse in the web by means of relationships over those data types contained in the paper.

Markus Krötzsch thanks Mark and Rudi for chairing this session, and Peter for setting this up

Joel Natividad: plaudits to the all the conveners, Peter in particular!

Sebastian Schaffert: @Daniel: done by KiWi and planned for extension

John McClure: Users find it useful that [[place:*]] is in effect, a geo database
That [[:White House]] is an article ABOUT something (like the [[place:White House]]
that [[place_talk:White House]] is an article ABOUT [[place:White House]], etc etc
Of course, you can see metastatements abound

anonymous1: Thanks everybody

Sebastian Schaffert: yes, thanks!

Guoqian Jiang: Thanks all

Peter Dolog: thanks everybody

Daniel Schwabe: @SebastianS - great, will take a closer look!

Daniel Schwabe: Thanks all!

Christoph Lange thanks the organizers and all participants

Joel Natividad: any news about 2nd User Group Meeting of SMW?

Daniel Schwabe: Bye all, thanks for the interesting exchange!

Markus Krötzsch: bye

Peter Dolog: bye to all

Sebastian Schaffert: @Daniel: essentially, if you access the KiWi system with a client that sends "Accepts: application/rdf" it redirects to http://showcase.kiwi-project.eu/KiWi/linkeddata.seam?http://showcase.kiwi-project.eu/KiWi/content/FrontPage

PeterYim: Great session ... Mark, Rudi and everyone! Thank you all for a most wonderful mini-series!

Sebastian Schaffert: or something similar

Yaron Koren: @Joel - I guess there's no news.

Joel Natividad:

Yaron Koren: The plan was to have one in Germany in May or so...

Sebastian Schaffert: @Daniel: the key is to use URIs that are "local" to the server domain

Sebastian Schaffert: which can be problematic if you want at the same time use ontologies

Yaron Koren: We could have one instead in the U.S., if there's interest.

Joel Natividad: Count me in, perhaps we can time it with SemTech

Yaron Koren: Yeah... although I'm not going to that one.

Yaron Koren: Is anyone from SMW presenting there, do you know?

Sebastian Schaffert: Markus apparently tried to submit a presentation

Yaron Koren: That was me. Unless Markus did too.

Joel Natividad: I also submitted one but the passed on it as well

Yaron Koren: Oh. Maybe it's a trend.

Joel Natividad: like Markus said

Joel Natividad: mail filters

Yaron Koren: So, are you still planning to go?

Joel Natividad: I am. Particularly since Mark said they were planning to host some SMW sessions

Yaron Koren: Hm.

Yaron Koren: Well, I guess that's where the 2nd SMW user meeting will be, then.

Joel Natividad: Great! Maybe we should continue the planning on semediawiki-user mailing list

Yaron Koren: Sure, feel free to send an email. I still don't think I'm going.

Joel Natividad: k. bye all!

PeterYim: bye everyone! a big THANK YOU to all, once again!

anonymous1: bye everyone

Continua Health Alliance Announces the formal release of its Version One Design Guidelines

After two years of work from more than 175 companies around the world, Continua Health Alliance is proud to announce the formal release of its Version One Design Guidelines and the Continua Certification Program. These guidelines encompass connectivity for vital sign devices (pulse oximeter, blood pressure cuff, thermometer, weight scale, glucose meter), cardiovascular fitness equipment and independent living activity monitors.

“I’m proud to welcome the first Continua Certified product to the global marketplace from industry leader and Continua Promoter member Nonin Medical, Inc.,” said David Whitlinger, Continua Health Alliance President. “Nonin Medical’s engineers have worked diligently with other telehealth leaders in the alliance to produce the Continua Version One Guidelines, with the goal of building Continua’s vision for interoperable and personal healthcare.”

In addition to the Continua Version One Design Guidelines, Continua also provides its members with a large library of reference software that represent all of the connectivity interfaces in Version One. The Continua Enabling Source Code Library (CESL) represents an investment of nearly $1 million to accelerate member companies’ product development.

These accomplishments come at a time of high momentum for Continua, as the alliance prepares to welcome hundreds of its members to its upcoming international summits in Tokyo and Barcelona. Held across the world, these summits give Continua members the opportunity to network during face-to-face working group meetings. These events also include keynotes delivered by industry thought leaders, product demos, networking activities, and updates on recent accomplishments and roadmaps.

Tim O'Reilly on Open Publishing

Tim O'Reilly makes the argument for Open Publishing @ TOC 2009 from Open Publishing Lab @ RIT on Vimeo.

Repentance, Prayer and Stimulus Packages

<ed.note>Listening to President Obama's Stimulus Package speech recently it struck me how fickle as citizens we are. It is so difficult for politicians to be leaders if we are not willing to be lead. I've often said that we have a crisis of leadership brought on by the crisis of followership. One of the toughest jobs for a leader is to point out the need for repentance. Obama broached the subject that we, as consumers -- not just the bank leadership,  have acted imprudently and for that I'm grateful. It brought to mind the time of Solomon's Prayer of the Dedication for the Temple of Yahweh. In a nutshell, he acknowledged that the people would walk willing into sin and begged God that when they had turned back to Him that He would hear their prayers. The people of Israel had pretty much the same challenges* as we do today. I'd urge us to learn from their experience and pray for our leaders and for each other -- as well as those in other nations.</ed.note>

*A summary list (of the Second Chronicles account) I found on a site I googled by a Paul J. Bucknell:

1) Sin against a neighbor (6:22-23)
2) Defeated before an enemy because of sin (6:24-25)
3) No rain because of sin (6:26-27)
4) Famine, pestilence, blight, mildew, locust, grasshopper, enemies, whatever plague or sickness (6:28-31)
5) For God-fearing foreigner who pray (6:32-33)
6) Wage war against enemy (6:34-35)
7) When they sin and taken captive (6:36-39)

8th Annual Fiber to the Home Conference Call for Papers - September 27-October 1, 2009, Houston, TX

Lake Oswego, OR - February 9, 2009. The Fiber to the Home (FTTH) Council has issued a Call for Papers for its 8th annual conference to be held from September 27-October 1, 2009 in Houston, TX.  The 2009 FTTH Conference & Expo is the only gathering of its kind dedicated to the advancement and deployment of FTTH technologies and benefits. This year's theme, Building the Business of FTTH, will bring leaders, visionaries and decision makers to the Hilton Americas-Houston and the George R Brown Convention Center to share success stories and lessons learned about the business elements needed to generate revenue with FTTH.

With considerable investments in fiber to the home deployment, the pressure is on for operators to add subscribers and to generate revenue from the subscribers they serve. The stakes are high and so are the expectations. The 2009 program will offer attendees an overview of best business practices for advancing of high speed broadband over fiber optic networks.

The FTTH Council is seeking papers in the following target areas:

Conference Tracks

1.    Building FTTH Revenues: Explain how to build the top line as an FTTH service provider. Describe your marketing and service packages and how they attracted subscribers.  Provide an overview of the video content and internet packages that were considered and selected, and how to increase market share away from the competition. Experience-based service provider submissions are requested.

2.    Success Stories: Share your experiences as a provider of FTTH services to help others build successful FTTH based businesses. Explain the benefits realized from linking your customers and community to FTTH, to better quality of life and prosperity.  Experience-based service provider submissions will be given first consideration.

3.    New Technology: Educate prospective and practicing network builders on new technologies that enable profitable FTTH services. Target topics include MDU technologies, in-home connectivity, video and IP video, green benefits, and new electronic and optical systems. Special consideration will be given to system-level papers that help decision-makers improve the business case for FTTH.

4.    Advanced Network Design, Construction and Management: Explain innovations in efficient network design, construction, installation and testing. Describe new options for efficient management of the network and subscribers. Target topics include network design cost modeling, construction techniques and equipment, testing and tools for managing subscribers.

5.    Finance and Regulatory:  Elucidate the new funding and financing options available, and teach how to access capital.   Explain how to navigate through the application process to reach government loans and grants. Clarify the latest regulatory changes and implications to FTTH service providers.

Abstract Guidelines

Abstracts should be a maximum of 500 words, without pictures, and must be commercial free. The abstract should describe the primary conclusion or results of the paper including pertinent details of the work indicating the significant findings. Learner outcomes must be included. Papers must contain significant new material not presented or published previously.  Papers may range from introductory to advanced, but bear in mind that your audience may be just getting started in this field. As such, "FTTH 101" papers will also be considered within each category.*

NEW for our 2009 Program...we will be offering a few repeated track sessions in Spanish.  As a perspective speaker, you may wish to indicate that you wish to repeat your presentation in Spanish during the online submission process.

For complete information on deadlines and submission guidelines, please visit www.ftthconference.com...Become a Speaker. 

*FTTH 101 Papers do not need to meet the new or unpublished requirement.

About the Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Council

The Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Council is a non-profit association consisting of companies and organizations that deliver video, Internet and/or voice services over high-bandwidth, next-generation, direct fiber optic connections - as well as those involved in planning and building FTTH networks.  The Council works to create a cohesive group to share knowledge and build industry consensus on key issues surrounding fiber to the home. Communities and organizations interested in exploring FTTH options may find information on the FTTH Council web site at www.ftthcouncil.org.

About Legend Conference Planning

Legend Conference Planning is the official project management and event planning firm for the 2009 FTTH Conference & Expo and the FTTH Council Secretariat. For further information, email at info@legendconferences.com.

Contact:
Speaker Liaison, Jennifer Cakir
Legend Conference Planning
Tel: 613-226-9988 x4
Email: speakerliaison@legendconferences.com

 

Ignacio Valdes: Call for ban on Federal Money for proprietary EMR's, Open Letter to Don Detmer

From the American Medical Informatics Association Open Source Working Group Listserv:

I am calling for an amendment/ban on the expenditure of any federal money for the purpose of purchasing proprietary Electronic Medical Record software. I am calling for an amendment to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that states that any federal money for the purpose of purchasing of Electronic Medical Record software must be licensed under the Affero General Public License.

Why? The taxpayer is going to be soaked at least twice if the money is used to purchase proprietary EMR software. All those billions expended will create a huge, expensive, proprietary mess that has very weak provisions for privacy and security. Certification and the current law does not address at all software sustainability.  This could easily result in a proprietary cartel or monopoly at great expense that stifles innovation and does not achieve shared objectives of large scale improvement of healthcare quality and reduction of expense.

Current proprietary vendors need not go out of business. They are free to dual-license their current software with both Affero GPL and proprietary licenses. I am aware that current proprietary vendors will fight or water down attempts to ban federal money for proprietary/Non-Affero GPL licensed systems for many reasons, mostly selfish ones. Specifically that proprietary licensing shields them from real competition and threatens their proprietary business models that create instant mini-monopolies, and stifle innovation at everyone's expense.

I hope you and AMIA will join me in this effort for I know not the way to get the politicians to make wise use of your tax dollars.

-- IV

# # # #

Open Letter to Don Detmer

Dear Doctor Detmer,

Thanks for your efforts on our behalf. This is an open letter to you that I am posting to the AMIA Open Source Working Group list.

Unfortunately it seems that crucial and difficult decisions remain unmade in this legislation and make this massive spending have little guarantee of a high-performance, secure, Health IT infrastructure.
This legislation seems to be mostly saying to just do more of the same failed plans only this time throw massive amounts of money at the problem in an un-sustainable way. Further, it does so in ways that do not guarantee rights of patients and practitioners or guarantee privacy, safety and security. We can argue these statements but at the end of the day if medicine is practiced with proprietary EMR software, no one except proprietary vendors can really know if our medical data is garbage and our privacy, safety or security is guaranteed. Trusting our medical data, privacy, safety and security to proprietary vendor 'black box' software is not a risk I wish to take with anyone's money, much less the taxpayers.

I call on you and AMIA to ask lawmakers for a ban on any federal funding for the purchase of proprietary licensed Electronic Medical Record software and to only fund software that is licensed with the Affero General Public License version 3 (AGPL) as published by the Free Software Foundation. Other Free/Open Source licenses, while laudable, suffer from inadequacies that are not a good fit for medicine. Proprietary Electronic Medical Record software is bad for everyone, including the vendors. AGPL software makes what everyone wants: a high-performance health information infrastructure that safeguards privacy and security possible. Proprietary EMR software is a major impediment to those shared goals.  Existing vendors need not go out of business, they can dual-license their proprietary offerings under the AGPL to receive federal funding.

This is not something that we can compromise on. If federal funds can be used to purchase proprietary EMR's, it will only exacerbate the current problems, have a high possibility of failure, and will not secure the performance, privacy and security that is desired by all. Worse, without a ban on federal funds for proprietary EMR software it will make the taxpayer pay multiple times for essentially the same thing. It will make the nation and its practitioners renters of its software infrastructure that they have paid top-dollar for and that is generally speaking, un-examined and un-examinable by the public or 3rd parties for fitness, performance, privacy and security.

I am aware that the ARRA of 2009 contains a provision for studying Free/Open Source. I do not want public rights to software dearly paid for by the taxpayer to be decided solely on the basis of a study or studies. No study and certainly not one done in one or two years can adequately decide the real question which is should our Health IT infrastructure purchased by taxpayers be a public good like a lighthouse (which it is) or a private good like cars or furniture (which it is not). No study can decide whether we live in a society in which patients and practitioners retain rights and freedoms to the Health IT infrastructure of the nation that the public purchased or whether we become controlled by an expensive, unresponsive cartel or monopoly full of 'black-box medicine' with our own money.

Dr. Detmer, I call upon you, AMIA, our lawmakers and our nation to make a stand now for wise use of taxpayer money, a stand for rights and freedom that will ensure that a high-performance, privacy and security safeguarding health IT infrastructure can occur now and for future generations. This can only be done by banning federal funding for proprietary EMR software and mandating that all federally funded EMR software purchases be licensed with the Affero General Public License version 3.

Sincerely,

Ignacio Valdes, MD, MS
Chair AMIA Open Source Working Group

Ken Rubin on Practical Guide to SOA in Healthcare

From SOA Consortium

The Practical Guide to SOA in Healthcare, an output of the Healthcare Services Specification Project (HSSP), is a collaborative work of the OMG Healthcare Task Force & Health Level 7 (HL7). The goal of HSSP is to develop SOA specifications for health, specifically defining healthcare business services to enable interoperability between organizations across the health domain.

While not a standard, the practical guide provides context and guidance for healthcare IT organizations and professionals considering SOA. Using a fictitious example, the practical guide presents an 8-step process to establish a healthcare SOA, from enterprise architecture through sustainment, and includes valuable lessons learned.

During his talk, Rubin spoke of the current state of global healthcare, and anticipated changes with the new U.S. administration and Health IT programs. Walking through the practical guide, meeting attendees were keenly interested in the healthcare function to service mapping and the reference architecture. Rubin emphasized that the reference architecture is a starting point for people to think about the problem, and extend and amend for their own situations.

3rd Annual Demonstrating Open-Source Health Care Solutions, February 20th

Los Angeles Westin LAX (Don’t forget to also check out the SCALE Open Source conference taking place the 21st and 22nd)

Time	Presentation	Speaker(s)
9:00-9:30 AM	Event Check-in & Registration Open
9:30-10:30 AM	Industry Leaders Take on Open Source Healthcare Panel Discussion	Akaza Research (OpenClinica), ClearHealth (ClearHealth & WebVista) , Medsphere (OpenVista), WebReach (Mirth)
10:30-11:30 AM	The Health of the Source A completed roundup of 2008 Open Source Healthcare projects and people.	Fred Trotter
11:30-12:30	The promise and limitation of health information technology in national health reform. Health information technology is often considered the critical component needed to fix the American health care system. While it’s role in supporting clinical decision making, efficient service delivery and the provision of safe, high-quality care are important, more fundamental shifts are required to transform the US health care system.	Jonah Frohlich, Senior Program Officer, California Health Care Foundation
12:30-1:30 PM	Lunch Break
1:30-2:30 PM	Open Source Odyssey for Sharing Medical Records concepts and lessons learned. An Overview of the 50 site Montgomery County Maryland/Primary Care Coalition CHLCare (ClearHealth) system providing practice management, electronic medical records and health information exchange.	Guy Fisher, WESP Consulting LLC
2:30-3:30 PM	A Practical Application of Open Source Strategies in a Not-So-Conventional Health Care Company A presentation on the the four critical components for consideration in the framing of an Open Source strategy and what must be considered in the creation of an Open Source strategy in a traditionally closed source health care company.	Timothy Elwell & Alesha Adamson of Misys
3:30-4:30 PM	It’s all about the Community Evidencing the important roles domain experts have in an open source healthcare and life science project.	Neil Cowles of Tolven Health
4:30-5:30 PM	Security and Health Care Security common sense and securing VistA and other health care systems.	Jon Tai of MedSphere and K.S. Bhaskar of Fidelity Information Services

The 'Role of Telcos in Open Innovation' Symposium

The online symposium is a FREE and informal 24 hour global event scheduled to run from 20:00 GMT Monday 23rd Feb to 20:00 GMT Tuesday 24th Feb 2009. (Check the World Clock for GMT times in your location)

Participants can join the symposium at different times from around the world, for as long as they wish, throughout the 24 hour period.

The symposium will include:
- Online discussion forums
- Live presentations in a virtual world
- Interviews
- Podcasts
- A glossary of sites of interest and links to relevant webinars and case studies

SYMPOSIUM OBJECTIVES

    * To better understand the evolution of Open Innovation as it relates to telcos (see Wikipedia definition for Open Innovation)
    * To gain insights into how to successfully engage in Open Innovation and the pitfalls and roadblocks to look out for
    * To identify potential collaboration partners to engage in future dialogues and/or develop partnerships for potential open innovation
    * To look at successful case studies of Open Innovation

BENEFITS OF INVOLVEMENT IN THE OPEN INNOVATION SYMPOSIUM

INSIGHTS:

    * Understand how Open Innovation is being approached by other organisations
    * Gain practical ideas you can apply to your organisation
    * Learn how to optimise performance in your own organisation
    * Identify your position in the wider ecosystem

NETWORK:

    * Identify people with similar issues to engage in further communication
    * Develop alliances with potential partners
    * Expand your network and foster existing ties
    * Form collaborative groups around areas of interest

CONNECT:

    * To case studies, discussions, presentations and talks, websites of interest, other global forums, conferences, and research in the area of Open Innovation.

FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS

Gerd Leonhard - Switzerland
Media Futurist and Author
CEO at MediaFuturist.com
Deborah Lawler-Dormer - New Zealand
Executive Director at Moving Image Centre Toi Rerehiko and Director of Co-Lab
Brian Landers - US
Sr. Manager, Design at Sprint Nextel Corp.
Philip Sugai - Japan
Dean, Professor of Marketing & Director of the Mobile Consumer Lab, International University of Japan materials on 'Enabling and Open Development'
Jörg Heuer - Germany
Leader Enabling Technologies & Exploration, Innovation Development, Deutsche Telekom Laboratories
Alan Quayle - US
Owner, Alan Quayle Business & Service Development
Dr Mary Ellen Gordon - New Zealand
Managing Director, Market Truths Limited
Michael Davies – US / UK
Chairman, Founding Partner, Endeavour Partners
Senior Lecturer, MIT USA and Sloan School of Management, UK

And many more to come ...

REGISTER NOW!

If you would like to be a featured contributor or have questions, please contact John Eyles the Symposium Organiser. john@futuretelco.net

The first African Virtual Conference on Bioinformatics (Afbix '09), Online at Bioinformatics.Org, February 19-20, 2009

TARGET AUDIENCE:
Graduate students and researchers in computational biology, molecular biology and medicine.  The conference theme is "Tropical Bioinformatics."  While most of the presenters are either in Africa or studying African species, attendance is open to everyone.

MOTIVATION:
In addition to research on tropical diseases, pathogenesis and their vectors, the field of bioinformatics has become an important part of life science studies in Africa.  But, with the great geographical expanse of the continent, it is often impractical or uneconomical for African researchers to come together for conferences.  That is, in person.  The Bioinformatics Organization (Bioinformatics.Org) has therefore collaborated with the African Society of Bioinformatics & Computational Biology (ASBCB) and Regional Student Groups (RSGs) in Africa to develop a bioinformatics conference that utilizes local institutions in Africa as "virtual hubs."

Participating African RSGs and the hub institutions:

- RSG East Africa (ILRI)
- RSG East Africa (ICIPE)
- RSG South Africa (SANBI)
- RSG Morocco (SMBI)
- RSG West Africa (Covenant University, Ota)

Other hub institutions:

- Notre Dame University, Indiana, USA

VIRTUAL ATTENDANCE:
Individual registrations cost only $10-30, depending on location.  Please see the conference description page (URL below).

PHYSICAL ATTENDANCE:
For more information about attending this conference via one of the aforementioned hubs, please contact afbixx@gmail.com.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Please visit the conference description page: http://wiki.bioinformatics.org/Afbix09

Looking for new opportunities in the Nashville MSA

... or remote if you know of a firm mature enough to support results-only work environments.

http://tinyurl.com/ed-dodds-resume
http://www.linkedin.com/in/ed_dodds
http://twitter.com/ed_dodds
http://blog.conmergence.com

Entrepreneurship Week at Stanford in February, 2009

Entrepreneurship Week at Stanford is generously supported by Deloitte

Check in periodically for updates. We welcome your requests and suggestions for events (belen@stanford.edu).

2/18	Wednesday Entrepreneurship Week Kickoff 4:30-6:00 PM, Kresge Auditorium A special presentation of the Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Lecture Series: "Entrepreneurial Leadership" Featured Speaker: John Hennessy Join us for a thought-provoking, inspirational talk about entrepreneurial leadership by Stanford President, John Hennessy. His insights come from leading Stanford University, as well as his prior experiences as a successful entrepreneur and his current role as a board member for several high-technology ventures, including Google, Cisco Systems, and Atheros Communications. As part of the festivities, we will launch Entrepreneurship Week at Stanford and give out audience prizes. Hosts: Stanford Entrepreneurship Network (SEN), Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), and Business Association of Entrepreneurial Students (BASES)
2/19	Thursday Careers in Product Creation and Manufacturing for New Graduates 6:00-8:00 PM, Hartley Conference Center, Mitchell Building, School of Earth Sciences Itching to invent new products and be an innovator after graduation? Enjoy a light dinner while learning about career opportunities with established manufacturing companies looking for entrepreneurial talent. Stanford alumni and other representatives from blue-chip companies will talk about how manufacturing companies can offer all of the excitement of a start-up without all of the risk. Representatives from the Career Development Center will also be on hand to share resources and offer career planning advice. This will be a highly interactive session, with plenty of opportunity to ask questions of the panelists. (This session is open to Stanford students only. Space is limited. First come, first served) Host: Product Realization Network (PRN)
2/20	Friday Pitchfest: Venture Capital Speed Dating 1:30-5:00 PM, Wallenberg Learning Theater, Building 160 Stanford students: Pitch your business ideas to Silicon Valley venture capitalists (VCs). Apply in advance for 3-4 opportunities to give three-minute pitches to VC pairs and receive three minutes of feedback. This portion of the event is restricted to pre-registered students and VCs. At 4:00, the event opens to the public for a networking mixer. Come join us to meet entrepreneurial students and VCs. Host: Asia-Pacific Student Entrepreneurship Society (ASES)
2/21	Saturday Pitching and Presenting Workshop: How to Make Your Story Compelling 10:00-12:00 PM, Hasso Plattner Institute of Design ("d.school"), Building 524 Learn how to tell your story in a way that will hold your audience captive, whether you're pitching ideas, products, your company, or yourself. Feel free to arrive with a pitch in mind that you'd like to work on. You'll find out how to structure your message, make it irresistible, and WOW them with visuals. Apply these principles and tips to pitches of any length and to any audience, whether it be investors, customers, partners, employees, employers, the media or others. This fast-paced, hands-on workshop will be led by marketing expert, Theresa Lina Stevens, and design guru, Forrest Glick, both of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. A complimentary light brunch will be served. Space is limited to the first 30 people. Arrive early. Host: Stanford Technology Ventures Program "Bring Your Product to Life" Workshop 1:00-3:00 PM, Hartley Conference Center, Mitchell Building, School of Earth Sciences Ideas to prototype to market - Entrepreneurs are those that can successfully navigate this path. Bringing Products to Life is about taking the necessary steps so that products can scale in the market, sustainably. Led by Marc Theeuwes, Consulting Associate Professor, Stanford's Mechanical Engineering Design Division, this is an interactive workshop with a world class panel that brings practical insights from over 100 years of collective experience with leading products and services. Entrepreneurs, bring your product ideas to this workshop and learn from the experts. Host: Product Realization Network (PRN)
2/22	Sunday Starting & Growing a Social Enterprise: Panel and Showcase 3:00-5:00 PM, Wallenberg Hall Learning Theater, Building 160 Join us for a lively panel discussion with local social entrepreneurs at an event sponsored by the Center for Social Innovation. The panel - which includes Jane Leu, founder and executive director of Upwardly Global, Chuck Slaughter, founder and president of LivingGoods; and Morgan Simon, cofounder and executive director of the Responsible Endowments Coalition - will talk from 3-4 pm about key success factors for starting and growing a social enterprise. Regina Starr Ridley, publishing director of the Stanford Social Innovation Review, will moderate. Afterwards, mingle with entrepreneurs at a fair showcasing their intriguing early-stage social ventures, sponsored by the Stanford Media X Program. Hosts: Center for Social Innovation, Graduate School of Business, and Stanford Media X Program
2/23	Monday "Solving the Global Leadership and Talent Equation" Eric Benhamou, David Chao, Kyung Yoon, Michael Zhao. Panel and Reception 4:00-6:00 PM Bechtel Conference Center, Encina Hall Come hear four successful entrepreneurial leaders share insights about the crucial element of talent for start-ups in a global environment: how to build a team, recruit the best people, and manage across borders. Draw on their wealth of experiences: they have founded, funded and led many firms, pioneered technologies and business practices, led start-ups and Fortune 500 firms, and recruited and mentored scores of company leaders. The discussion will be followed by Q&A and a networking reception over appetizers. Host: Stanford Program on Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SPRIE)
2/24	Tuesday "Startup 101" Job Fair Noon-4:00 PM, Tresidder Union Explore job opportunities with startups and larger companies looking for entrepreneurial talent. Employers represent a wide range of industries, from Web 2.0 to cleantech, medical devices, and biotech. Raffle prizes will be given away throughout the event. Employers should register here for an exhibition space. Host: A partnership of several student entrepreneurship groups on campus and The Career Development Center Entrepreneurship Mixer 5:00-7:00 PM, Graduate School of Business (GSB), South Building, Lower Arbuckle Lounge Network with students, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and other members of the entrepreneurship community, while enjoying complimentary hors d'oeuvres and beverages. This loosely structured event will help ensure that you get an opportunity to talk to others in your field of interest. Host: GSB Entrepreneur Club Creativity Challenge: James Bond Casino Caper 7:30-9:30 PM, Top Secret Location Dress as your favorite James Bond character (or not) and join us for a glamorous soiree while mingling with the stars and enjoying Blackjack, Craps and other casino favorites. Sometime during the evening your entrepreneurial spirit will be put to the test, and you may just be blown away. Come armed with your creativity and sense of adventure. Space is limited to the first 35 people. Host: Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP)
2/25	Wednesday Annual GSB Entrepreneurship Conference 11:00 AM-4:00 PM, Graduate School of Business This intensive session addresses practical issues associated with creating sustainable businesses. It features speakers and panels for aspiring and early stage entrepreneurs. There is a fee for this event, and registration is required (http://www.econference.org/). Host: Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, Graduate School of Business "The Next Big Thing": A special presentation of the Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Lecture Series 4:30-6:00 PM, Kresge Auditorium Featured Speakers: Tim Draper, Founder and a Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson Tony Perkins, CEO, AlwaysOn Michael Moe, Founding Partner, ThinkPanmure, and Author (Finding the Next Starbucks: How to Identify and Invest in the Hot Stocks of Tomorrow) As part of the Entrepreneurship Week closing finale, find out what the hot entrepreneurial opportunities are today and tomorrow, as three of the most forward-looking and insightful thought leaders in Silicon Valley weigh in. They'll debate, argue and discuss their way through an analysis of where technology is going and where to start placing your bets. An audience Q&A will follow. We'll also announce the winners of the 2008 Bike Safety Invention Challenge and feature special highlights from throughout Entrepreneurship Week. Host: Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) and Business Association of Stanford Entpreneurial Students (BASES), the Stanford Biodesign Program Networking Reception and SEN Fair 6:00-7:30 PM, Kresge Lobby Immediately following the debate, network with entrepreneurial students, alumni and others in the Stanford community. Also enjoy a tradeshow-style showcase to learn about entrepreneurship groups on campus. You can also view winning entries from the 2008 Bike Safety Invention Challenge and talk to the inventors. Everyone is welcome. Host: Stanford Entrepreneurship Network (SEN), Stanford Biodesign Program

Ignacio Valdes thread from the American Medical Informatics Association Open Source Working Group Listserv on Healthcare under the Obama Framework

<ed.note>Ignacio edits LinuxMedNews.com, where he is also posting on this meme.</ed.note>

'Rockefeller Amendment' for Studying Open Source in Stimulus Bill

About page 701 of the
http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/leg/LEG%202009/020209%20complete%20legislative%20text%20of%20American%20Recovery%20and%20Reinvestment%20Act.pdf
stimulus bill  is a provision for studying Open Source: "...(A) the
current availability of open source
6 health information technology systems to Fed
7 eral safety net providers (including small, rural
8 providers);
9 (B) the total cost of ownership of such sys
10 tems in comparison to the cost of proprietary
11 commercial products available;
12 (C) the ability of such systems to respond
13 to the needs of, and be applied to, various pop
14 ulations (including children and disabled indi
15 viduals); and
16 (D) the capacity of such systems to facili
17 tate interoperability...'

# # # #

Brief Analysis: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

After reading the parts of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
of 2009 that relate to health IT, here are my conclusions: 1) More of
the same. The current plans and all the same players for Health IT as
before only now there is a lot more money involved and a brief time to
accomplish all of this in terms of health care time: 2014. 2) A
chicken in every pot approach, everyone gets money: education, Health
IT schools, some physicians get money for implementation on a
descending rate. Some talk of free/open source but the usual political
favorites AHIC, etc. are all still there as well only they get a lot
more money now. 3) No clear plan as to how to do all this. No clear
plan for dealing with issues such as 20 year veteran clinicians and
nurses with no computer experience. No plan for enabling the
proliferation of innovative software with existing systems. No penalty
or plans for dealing with proprietary software stonewalling.

Complete brief article: http://linuxmednews.com/1234372142/index_html

# # # #

Brief Analysis: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of2009

Well, I didn't want to say some of the things that are in the HIMSS
analysis, especially given the near silence of AMIA on any of this. I
cannot argue with its conclusions. The ARRA of 2009 appears designed
to remove competition, unfortunately all competition, even healthy
competition except for a select few who will form a cartel or a
monopoly. It looks as though legalized robbery and absolute control of
medical data at great expense by a few wealthy corporations may be at
hand. I will not be surprised when doctor and personnel scapegoating
will begin when much of this doesn't work very well and billions have
been spent. Then comes the criminal penalties for non-use of CCHIT
certified systems. If all this occurs, then goodbye privacy, goodbye
rapid innovation, and the traditional role of physicians as custodians
of medical data. That nearly everyone except a select few were shut
out of the debate on this in Congress and how quickly it has been done
so that organizations like AMIA can only stand by in stunned silence
speaks volumes.

>From the HIMSS analysis:
"e)    The shrinking number of vendors that are capable of meeting CCHIT
certification exposes a fundamental flaw in its current organizational
structure - CCHIT is funded by the very vendors it certifies. In order
for it to maintain revenue, it needs to provide a reason for vendors
to continue to either:
i)    re-certify on a regular basis
ii)    apply for new certifications
The problem with this model is that, in order to justify ongoing
re-certification, CCHIT must continue to add new certification
requirements year-to-year. The driver for more requirements is not
necessarily the needs of customers or the best interest of the
healthcare system, but the need to have new requirements against which
to certify vendors. This is illustrated by the fact that CCHIT has
recently reduced the length of the certification from three to two
years, and is adding numerous supplemental certifications in areas
like child health, cardiovascular, etc. There is no end to the number
of requirements to which this could lead, but there is no evidence it
will serve anyone well in the long run, other than the few large
vendors with the resources to keep up with this process, and CCHIT
itself.
f)    Although in theory vendors can apply jointly for CCHIT
certification, in practice the monolithic certification process will
limit the ability for vendors to provide component solutions from
which customers can choose to create best-of-breed, low cost solutions
that best fit their needs. For instance, in the ambulatory arena, this
might typically be a combination of Practice Management, EMR and
e-Prescribing solutions.
g)    Certification of Practice Management systems in other markets
(e.g., UK) has arguably reduced innovation and investment, increased
the total cost of ownership and consolidated the market to such a
point that there is limited choice and the barrier to entry for new
entrants into the marketplace is unaffordable."

-- IV

# # # #

Brief Analysis: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of2009

Item 3 pretty much says it all: "CCHIT works to the benefit of a small
number of large EMR vendors that can command a high price from the
relatively small segment of the market able to currently afford their
products. It is essentially anti-competitive, and establishes a major
barrier to entry by new vendors and open source projects (where the
majority of innovation will take place)."

-- IV

# # # #

For the record, I am not anti-corporation, anti-big corporation,
anti-business or anti-government. I am for real solutions that will
solve these problems with fairness, and without needless, massive
expense, disenfranchisement, or loss of rights. I agree that there are
massive opportunities, but it looks like the federal government has
already essentially picked who gets the massive opportunities, who
gets crumbs and who gets nothing. That specifically appears to be the
incumbents who get the massive opportunities. That there is little
public rhetoric or any meaningful public vote or say at all on such
massive unfocused Health IT spending bill, good or bad on this is
concerning to me. Three to five billion dollars were floated around in
very recent years for doing this and it was considered a
insurmountably large sum of money to spend by the government. It is
now a fait accompli that we will quadruple that and this is being done
with little or no public discussion vote or consent on a crash basis
with little in the way of guaranteed or even reasonably researched
results. The bill is very vague or things not addressed at all for
solving difficult, crucial problems that I see on a daily basis in the
trenches. Who is driving the language in the bill? I do not know. I
can only conclude that large health IT corporations with lobbyists or
'board members' are driving it by its language. Physicians, patients
and small innovative companies like Webreach that have done wonderful
things for interoperability without any federal money appear to be
utterly disenfranchised in all of this.  The historic propensity of
the US to form expensive corporate cartels whether they are needed or
not and that become government favorites is of great concern as well
as this being HMO's all over again? I can easily see a massive
bureaucracy accomplish very little, then throw this into the hands of
the 'savior' large corporations. It has happened many times before.

Someone else said that this is a "Hurry up and pass this before things
get better on their own" bill.

-- IV

# # # #

Links to: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 text.

Original Link: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bi...
TinyURL: http://tinyurl.com/h1as2-pdf

I'm not sure that this will be the final. I am told that the final
will be out possibly Friday.

-- IV

# # # #

Links to: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 text.

The health IT stuff begins about page 230.

Page 249:

''(iii) The utilization of a certified electronic health record for
each person in the United States by 2014."

This is a extraordinarily provocative clause with very large
ramifications. That means that essentially the US government has just
taken over Health IT and is now in complete control. As I understand
it, it means that if an entity cannot pony up $70K every 2 years to be
re-certified until everyone that cannot do this is driven out of
business. That means the only ones that can survive this are the
Epic's and the Cerner's. Along with the reporting requirements, your
privacy and your records especially in a proprietary system is now in
the hands of both a large corporation and subject to what a large
government bureaucracy thinks is the definition of your medical
privacy. Joy.

Comfortable? I am VERY uncomfortable with this. This appears to be a
very invasive action by the federal government that, by the way, you
must have permission to sue.

-- IV

# # # #

Links to: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 text.

Page 252:

''(x) Any other technology that the HIT Policy Committee finds to be
among the technologies with the greatest potential to improve the
quality and efficiency of health care."

Hmmm, how is that going to work?

Next, check out Page 253 on what the Policy Committee is composed of.
I will describe it only in one word: vast.

-- IV

# # # #

Links to: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 text.

I will close with apologies to Arthur C. Clark when I say:

I for one welcome our multi-billion dollar spending, bureaucratic,
vast policy committee, cartel favoring, certification-wielding
overlords.

-- IV

# # # #

Links to: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 text.

That is: Original Link:
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h1as2.txt.pdf

# # # #

Links to: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 text.

Others have pointed out that the certification is now no longer CCHIT
that it is in flux with NIST and somewhat unclear if that will be son
of CCHIT or what? The Free Medical Software Foundation (501c3 pending)
director Fred Trotter has discussed with me the possibility of it
having its own certification for F/OSS systems.

A Canadian friend has said: "...we are setting up some group therapy
clinics for American socialism-dodgers in Niagara Falls...probably one
of the casinos... we will accept American dollars and any rounding
errors from your multi-billion dollar socialist makeover." I replied
that I'm in as long as it uses standards-based slot machines that pay
double whenever government committee meetings run overtime.

-- IV

# # # #

How is the US Experience Going to be Different than the UK?

A little food for thought on how the British are doing with their
multi-billion effort:

http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/01/27/234448/public-accounts-committee-criticises-npfit.htm

AlwaysOn OnMedia NYC 2009 Presentations

From AlwaysOn

Time	Session	Video Archive
Monday, January 28th
6:30PM - 6:40PM	Opening Night Welcome Tony Perkins, Founder, AlwaysOn Bill Cleary, Founder, Cleary & Partners	view archive
6:40PM - 6:45PM	Move Networks John Edwards, CEO, Move Networks	view archive
6:45PM - 6:55PM	OnMedia 100 Awards Brian Hughes, Partner, Venture Capital Group, KPMG	view archive
6:55PM - 7:15PM	Analysis of the OnMedia 100 Tolman Geffs, Managing Director, The Jordan, Edmiston Group	view archive
7:40PM - 8:15PM	Silicon Alley Meets Silicon Valley Henry Blodget, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, Silicon Alley Insider Seth Sternberg, CEO, Meebo David Kidder, CEO, Clickable John Edwards, CEO, Move Networks Waikit Lau, Co-Founder, ScanScout Frank Addante, CEO, The Rubicon Project	view archive
Tuesday, January 29th
9:00AM - 9:15AM	KPMG/AlwaysOn VC Survey - What You're Telling Us Michael Monahan, Partner, KPMG	view archive
9:15AM - 9:30AM	Why I am Bullish on Investing in Media Tim Draper, Founder and Managing Director, Draper, Fisher, Jurvetson
9:30AM - 10:00AM	Report Card: VC Investment in Content Companies Sam Angus, Partner, Fenwick & West Eric Hippeau, Managing Director, Softbank Capital Jonathan Miller, Co-Founder, Velocity Investment Group Drew Lipsher, Partner, Greycroft Partners Tim Draper, Founder and Managing Director, Draper, Fisher, Jurvetson Rick Heitzmann, Partner, First Mark	view archive
10:15AM - 11:00AM	Cracking the Code for Online Branding Bill Cleary, Founder, Cleary & Partners Jean-Phillippe Maheu, Chief Digital Officer, Ogilvy North America Tom Bedecarre, CEO, AKQA Sean Finnegan, Chief Media Officer, Vibrant Media Ben Bajarin, President, Creative Strategies	view archive
11:10AM - 12:00PM	Technology and Advertising: A Year of Digital M&A David Moore, CEO, 24/7 Real Media Saul Berman, Partner, IBM Global Business Services, IBM David Morgan, EVP, Global Advertising Stategy, AOL Jim Spanfeller, President, Forbes.com Imran Khan, Analyst, JP Morgan Joshua Tanzer, Managing Director, Revolution Partners	view archive
12:00PM - 12:45PM	CEO Showcase Lon Otremba, CEO, Access 360 Media Amir Ashkenazi, CEO, Adap.tv Jay Bean, Founder and President, OrangeSoda Campbell Corfe, CEO, 5th Finger Sean Morgan, CEO, ClipSyndicate Frank Addante, CEO, The Rubicon Project	view archive
1:30PM - 2:15PM	The New, New Network Strategy Tony Perkins, Founder, AlwaysOn Kevin Magee, EVP, Fox Business Network	view archive
2:15PM - 3:00PM	When Will Online Advertising Dollars Catch Up With Online Viewership? Tolman Geffs, Managing Director, The Jordan, Edmiston Group Penry Price, VP Advertising Sales, Google Bob Jeffrey, Chairman & CEO, JWT Worldwide Michael Leo, President & CEO, Operative Jacqueline Corbelli, CEO, Brightline iTV Marketing Specialists Bruce Nelson, Vice Chairman, Omnicon	view archive
3:00PM - 4:00PM	CEO Showcase David Koretz, CEO, BlueTie Athan Stephanopoulos, CEO, GorillaSpot Marketta Silvera, CEO, Apptera Anthony Franco, President, EffectiveUI Jack Jia, CEO, Baynote	view archive
4:15PM - 5:00PM	OnMedia 2007's Top Companies: One Year Later Jay MacDonald, Partner, DeSilva & Phillipps Michael Yavonditte, Former CEO, Quigo (AOL) Paul Martino, CEO, Aggregate Knowledge Russ Fradin, CEO, Adify J. Scott Hamilton, Founder & CEO, VooDooVox Anjula Acharia-Bath, Founder & CEO, Desi Hits!	view archive
5:00PM - 5:45PM	Introducing the Madison Avenue IT List David Carlick, Managing Director, VantagePoint Venture Partners Tom Bedecarre, CEO, AKQA Jacqueline Corbelli, CEO, Brightline iTV Marketing Specialists Sean Finnegan, Chief Media Officer, Vibrant Media Michael Leo, President & CEO, Operative JP Maheu, Chief Digital Officer, Ogilvy North America	view archive
5:45PM - 6:30PM	Presenting the Best of Broadband Advertising Awards Tony Perkins, Founder, AlwaysOn Bill Cleary, Founder, Cleary & Partners Matt Bowman, Managing Editor, AlwaysOn	view archive
Wednesday, January 30th
9:00AM - 9:45AM	So You Have a Cool Internet Video Technology: How Do You Monetize It? James Montgomery, CEO, Montgomery & Co John Edwards, CEO, Move Networks Adam Berrey, SVP Marketing & Strategy, Brightcove Iain Scholnick, CEO, ImageSpan	view archive
10:00AM - 10:45AM	CMO Strategies in an Integrated-Media World David Carlick, Managing Director, VantagePoint Venture Partners Bill Cleary, Founder, Cleary & Partners Roger Wood, Former CMO, Reebok	view archive
10:45AM - 11:30AM	Unleashing Mobile Advertising Adam Zawel, Chief Collaboration Officer, INmobile Cyriac Roeding, SVP , CBS Scott Kelliher, Director of Mobile Advertising, Virgin Mobile USA Dan Hodges, Head of Global Sales, Nokia Dan Oleschwang, CEO, JumpTap Are Traasdahl, President & CEO, Thumbplay	view archive
11:30AM - 12:15AM	Success Stories in Corporate Partnerships Mark Stevens, Partner, Fenwick & West David Horowitz, Principal, Comcast Interactive Capital Seth Haberman, CEO, Visible World Dan Beldy, Managing Director, Steamboat Ventures John Edwards, CEO, Move Networks Andrew Cleland, Executive Director, Investments, Time Warner	view archive
1:00PM - 1:10PM	WePlay - First Look Steve Hansen, CEO, WePlay	view archive
1:10PM - 1:45PM	The Social Network Niche Opportunities Youssef Squali, Managing Director, Jeffries & Co Adam Bruce, CEO, Streetfire.net Roman Tsunder, President, Access 360 Media David Birnbaum, CEO, TAKKLE Steve Hansen, CEO, WePlay	view archive
1:45PM - 2:45PM	CEO Showcase David Saad, CEO, Clupedia Don Mathis, President, AzoogleAds Anne Bezancon, CEO, 1020 Placecast Guy Piekarz, CEO, Unisfair Iain Scholnick, CEO, ImageSpan Toby Gabriner, CEO, Adzilla Robert Tas, CEO, Active Athelete Jonathan Cobb, Founder & CTO, Kiptronic	view archive
3:00PM - 4:00PM	Big Media Online. Now Comes the Hard Part: Sustaining Growth Jeff Jarvis, Blogger, BuzzMachine Gordon McLeod, President, Sports Illustrated Digital Alisa Bowen, Reuters Jeff Price, President, Sports Illustrated Digital Caroline Little, CEO and Publisher, Washington Post, Newsweek Interactive David Kirkpatrick, Senior Editor, Internet & Technology, Fortune	view archive
4:00PM - 4:30PM	Closing Remarks	view archive

10 Powerful open source e-Learning Systems

<ed.note>I've been becoming familiar with Open Journal Systems in my avocational time so when I saw this following article it caught my attention. If you are an educator in Tennessee (or anywhere, for that matter) and you use any of these tools I'd love to hear about your experiences. Tweet me at http://twitter.com/ed_dodds</ed.note>

Surely students are spending more time on their social network site than any other educational websites like wikipedia, howstuffworks, discovery etc, and there’s no way on earth anybody can stop them from doing so.

But the least any school can do is while those students are online is to give them little bit touch of education from their teachers or fellow friends. We can do this by getting the e-learning system up and running where teacher share learning materials, quiz, discussion, chat, document management and perhaps some social activities between friends.

These are some of the most powerful open source learning management system that can easily adopt by any school, institution or any communities. Most of the systems support SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model - a collection of standards and specifications for web-based elearning).

UCP Executive Director Post to Change.Gov

The inauguration of a new president takes place tomorrow. Like many Americans, I am proud that our country is an example to the world of what peaceful and orderly change in government means in a democratic society. The Obama Administration has developed a website called Change.Gov, where they are asking for input from indivdual citizens on how to change government. Following is the post I entered today:

I work for United Cerebral Palsy of Middle Tennessee. In our state, people with cerebral palsy and developmental disabilities other than mental retardation do not receive dedicated DD services. In fact, our State Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities doesn’t even serve people with Developmental Disabilities. In my job, I interact daily with young families who need intensive home and community based supports that are not available to them. To make matters worse, because our state has no intention of serving this population, their critical needs are not even registered on a waiting list.

More here.

OntologySummit2009: "Ontologies as the Next Generation of Information Standards", 2009_01_15

This summit will address the intersection of two active communities, namely the information standards world, and the technical community of ontology and semantic technologies. This intersection is long overdue because each has much to offer the other. Ontologies represent the best efforts of the technical community to unambiguously capture the definitions and interrelationships of concepts in a variety of domains. Information standards are intended to provide unambiguous specifications of information, for the purpose of error-free access and exchange. If the standards community is indeed serious about specifying such information unambiguously to the best of its ability, then the use of ontologies as the vehicle for such specifications is the logical choice.    (1Q35)

Conversely, the information standards world can provide a large market for the industrial use of ontologies, since ontologies are explicitly focused on the representation of information. This will be a boost to worldwide recognition of the utility and power of ontological models.    (1Q36)

The goal of this Ontology Summit 2009 is to articulate the power of synergizing these two communities in the form of a communique in which a number of concrete challenges can be laid out. These challenges could serve as a roadmap that will galvanize both communities and bring this promising technical area to the attention of others. Exactly what challenges are chosen is the subject to be debated and decided upon during the electronic discussion period leading up to the face-to-face meeting in April of 2009.

Open Post To Senator Tom Daschle

<ed.note>Senator Tom Daschle was before the Senate in hearings recently re: his probable future role in national healthcare. He talked about encouraging Healthcare Professionals and then about encouraging Health Information Technologies. Noone seems to get that while there are incentives for the first class of workers there are few for the second. So I submitted this thought to Change.gov:</ed.note>

Expand eligibility of the "Contract Amendment Application for Loan Repayors" (http://nhsc.bhpr.hrsa.gov/applications/lrp_ca2009.asp) to include Health Information Technologies (HIT) professionals. Please forward this to Senator Tom Daschle.

1st International Enterprise X.0 Workshop: From Web 2.0 in Enterprises towards a Corporate Web X.0, Poznan, Poland, April 27, 28 or 29, 2009

In conjunction with 12th International Conference on Business Information Systems (BIS 2009)

http://bis.kie.ae.poznan.pl/12th_bis/wscfp.php?ws=entX2009

Deadline for submissions: February 1, 2009

After the first generation Web which started with handwritten HTML pages, the second generation made the step to machine generated and often active HTML pages. Since these first two generations were meant for direct human processing (reading, browsing, form-filling) the third generation Web, the "Semantic Web" and Web 2.0 provide machine processable information and social (horizontal) collaboration, respectively. Furthermore, since over the last decades, the World Wide Web has rapidly evolved into a vast repository containing huge amounts of decentralized information on all matters of interest and is now evolving from the medium intended for human utilization into a medium for collaborative knowledge generation and intelligent knowledge exchange achieving the time-to-market demanded in a competitive environment, we think the time is ripe for the next visionary view and question: What is the next, logical step after the use of the Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and semantic technologies in business settings?

In this context we are organizing a workshop that addresses visionaries (researchers and practitioners) who are working not only on Web-based information systems using Web 2.0 and Semantic Web technologies in the business context but are looking forward to exploiting the next wave of Web developments - Corporate Web X.0. The audience will get an overview how new trends in and after the Web 2.0 and Semantic Web era can influence corporate processes and where benefits for the business world are to be found.

TOPICS OF INTEREST

• Enterprise 2.0 & X.0
• Business Models for Enterprise X.0
• Convergence of Web 2.0 and Semantic Web in the corporate context
• Best practices & guidelines for application of Web 2.0 and Semantic Web technologies in corporate contexts:
• Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)
• Business Process Modeling (BPM)
• Enterprise Information Integration (EII)
• Enterprise Content Management (ECM)
• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
• Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)
• Human Resources Management (HR)
• SOA and Semantic Web Services in business
• Corporate Semantic Web & Corporate Web X.0

SUBMISSION

Papers must be submitted in PDF format according to Springer LNBIP template available from http://www.springer.com/east/home/computer/lncs?SGWID=5-164-7-487211-0. We invite submissions of papers no longer than 12LNBIP pages (including figures, references and appendices).

Submission system is available at http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?track=11990;conf=enterprisex02009.

Papers approved for presentation at the workshop will be published in BIS 2009 workshop post-proceedings, as a volume in Springer's Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing (LNBIP) series.

WORKSHOP FORMAT

All authors of accepted papers as well as other participants will be asked to read accepted papers abstracts before the workshop (papers will be available on-line in advance) to facilitate discussion. Workshop participants will be also invited to take part in the BIS conference and other BIS workshops.

IMPORTANT DATES

February 1, 2009 - submission of papers

March 1, 2009 - notification of acceptance

March 15, 2009 - camera-ready

April 27, 28 or 29, 2009 - Enterprise X.0 Workshop

ORGANIZERS

Malgorzata Mochol, Free University of Berlin, Germany

Lyndon JB Nixon, STI International Wien, Austria

Markus Luczak-Roesch, Free University of Berlin, Germany

PROGRAM COMMITTEE (to be extended)

• Diego Burrueta, CTIC, Spain
• Christoph Bussler, Merced Systems, Inc., USA
• Orri Erling, OpenLink Software, UK
• Agata Filipowska, The Poznan University of Ecomonics, Poland
• David de Francisco, Telefonica, Spain
• Marko Grobelnik, Josef Stefan Institute, Slovenia
• Tudor Groza, DERI Galway, Ireland
• Thomas Hoppe, Ontonym GmbH, Germany
• Ora Lassila, Nokia, USA
• Alain Leger, France Telekom, France
• Dickson Lucose, MIMOS, Malaysia
• Jeff Pan, University Aberdeen, UK
• Tassilo Pellegrini, Semantic Web Company, Austria
• Kai-Uwe Schmidt, SAP, Germany
• Pavel Shvaiko, TasLab, Informatica Trentina, Italy
• Vojtech Svatek, University of Economics Prague, Czech Republic
• Robert Tolksdorf, Free University Berlin, Germany
• Hannes Werthner, Technical University of Vienna, Austria

Call for papers and contributions: D4PL - Designing for participatory learning workshop at OSS2009 conference

Dear all

We are organizing a workshop on "D4PL Designing for participatory learning - Building from open source success to develop free ways to share and learn" to be co-located with the OSS2009, 5th International Conference on Open Source Systems, June 6, 2009, Skövde, Sweden (http://oss2009.org).

The Open Source world shows how volunteer collaboration can lead to great products and to great learning. We want to further explore at this workshop what happens using approaches from that community to break barriers between teachers and learners for today's Internet-savvy young people to design and co-construct sites for participatory learning.

The aim of this workshop is to explore the barriers for this type of learning in higher education settings. Content creation, knowledge exchange, community dynamics, and the impact on the boundary between formal and informal education are key subjects of this workshop!

The CALL FOR PAPERS AND CONTRIBUTIONS is now open and we would like to ask you to express your intents to submit a paper / contribution until 15th of February 2009 by mail to a.meiszner@open.ac.uk.

The workshop will allow for both, paper presentations and tutorials, panels or demonstrations within the three envisaged Knowledge Café sessions.

For more details please visit the website.

Organizing Committee
Andreas Meiszner
Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University,UK
Ioannis Stamelos
Department of Informatics, Aristotle University Campus,GR
Sulayman K. Sowe
Collaborative Creativity Group, UNU-MERIT,NL

Program Committee
Greg Dekoenigsberg
Red Hat, Inc.,US
Rüdiger Glott
UNU-MERIT,NL
Imed Hammouda
Tampere University of Technology,FI
Alexey Khoroshilov
Institute for System Programming
Russian Academy of Sciences,RU
José L. Redrejo Rodríguez
Junta de Extremadura, ES

--

With kind regards,
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Com os melhores cumprimentos
Andreas Meiszner
_________________________________________

Institute of Educational Technology

The Open University
Milton Keynes
MK7 6AA
United Kingdom

Ben White on Venture Capital and Private Equity in Africa group on Ning

Knowledge is power. Information and data are the tools needed to navigate today’s increasingly complex and globally linked marketplace. Unfortunately, too many of Africa’s best projects remain undiscovered - its entrepreneurs relatively unconnected when compared to other parts of the world.

At the same time, the social and economic contribution of SME projects is too often underestimated by government bodies, banks, investors, equity partners, and related institutions that could otherwise assist in the development of local business. Given this context the African entrepreneur is too often left to navigate alone.

In contrast to this reality, entrepreneurs are increasingly recognized as an important key to economic development. An increasing body of research argues that entrepreneurs, and their small to medium size enterprises, hold great potential for the continent’s continued advancement. Entrepreneurs are vital to building a healthy and stable society. They help to create an important middle class and are an invaluable source of jobs, tax revenue, foreign currency and a number of tertiary benefits.

In working to address some of these issues ICTs can act as an empowering agent. The objective of this project is to create and share the knowledge needed to make use of these new tools. In this way, the entrepreneur and the investor are in a better position to use ICTs as a means of collecting, organizing and distributing data and information needed to make valuable business decisions.

Robinson Mitchell on Dying Churches

A friend posted a message on a discussion list and mentioned he was part of a dying church.

I was an elder in a dying church at one time, and God used that experience to change me and move me in my theological journey.  While I was there I was asked to be on the outreach committee.  I knew practically nothing about the topic and had very little interest in it, but I also believe that God uses the local church as one of his instruments to shape us in the direction he wants us to go, so I agreed to join, and later chair the committee.

More here.

The Christian Chronicle Editorial Council on "Addressing a crisis of empty pulpits"

In some parts of the world, a preacher shortage is something to celebrate. Across Africa and Latin America, for example, people are being baptized at a rate that makes it difficult for preacher training schools to keep up with demand.

But here in the U.S., our assessment of the pulpit deficit tends to be grim. Across the nation, churches seek to fill empty pulpits. Many small congregations struggle to find enough money in their budgets to attract and retain a talented minister. - The Christian Chronicle Editorial Council

<ed.note>Flavil Yeakley was commissioned to study one school from which he found approximately 25% of Bible students could not begin preaching due to the debt burden they carried graduating from that Christian institute of higher education. I'd really encourage the Chronicle to work with the Christian Higher Education Foundation to do an online survey to determine how pervasive this is and their suggested remedies, if necessary.

Regardless, the Bible students need to be told of the possibility before entering the programs (counting the cost, I believe, is a Biblical admonition) -- Is there a Churches of Christ Virtual Student Union which advocates on behalf of the economic best interests of the students -- Facebook App, maybe?

Also see some of the earlier Letters to the Editor on similar themes (especially Ben Wiles and Darren Ray Reynolds). </ed.note>

Results-Only Work Environments vs. Off shoring Paradigms in Tension

<ed.note>I got a tip that Tech Ed is opening a post on Dailykos.com to give the KOS audience concrete examples of off shoring. It will open tomorrow at 12:30 Central. If you'd care to participate tomorrow you must create an account today http://www.dailykos.com/newuser

The paradigms in tension here can be represented by Donna Conroy at http://www.brightfuturejobs.com/blog/, who is a strong proponent that local US talent should be considered for technology employment before H1b visa holders and the Results Only movement represented by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson of http://caliandjody.com/blog/ who are strong proponents that only the metric which matters is the work product end result.

I have heard it suggested that the same arguments made to justify/promote ROWE in the technology sector also build the case for off shoring (although to make a point: the folks in off shore scenarios are actually often required, either by management or the state of infrastructure, to commute in to "centers" so they aren't actually ROWEing). What is of interest to me is the concept of work being done anywhere (as long as it is sensible to complete it from there).

I'd like to hear some rational arguments on this tension so I hope you'll consider posting at the KOS (or here).

Venture Nashville: Bart Gordon announces Sci-Tech priorities

I replied at the DNJ link saying (after seeing the Venture Nashville blog post):

One thing we need to consider is making a Results-Only Work Environment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROWE ; http://www.culturerx.com ; http://caliandjody.com/blog ) the DEFAULT work condition in both schools and businesses. One should have to make a business case for being required to "drive into work". With so much employment moving toward knowledge work, the costs of not promoting telecommuting (Net-Working) have not been studied by area CEOs and they would be astounded how much money they are wasting on real estate, etc.; costs which were necessary in 1980 -- but not today. That is not to say that their competitors are also wasting these resources unnecessarily -- think about why cloud computing and virtualization have been in the IT press lately. ROWEs are not a panacea -- but definitely an option that very rarely shows up on the C-Suite table.

What think ye?

Alliance for Distance Education in California Group on LinkedIn

Heidi Maston, ADEC President announces the creation of the LinkedIn Group for the Alliance for Distance Education in California. The Alliance is an association of over 200 professionals dedicated to the development of distance learning. ADEC is the only California-based organization which emphasizes cooperation between all segments of education, Kindergarten through university, lifelong learning, and business training, and represents a continuation of ADEC's goal to promote partnerships and collaborations among all levels of education and training. ADEC was founded in 1989. Through the ADEC Summit and other sponsored events during the year, ADEC strives to provide quality collaboration opportunities for all segments of the California distance learning community. ADEC projects, such as Matrix California, bring innovative educational opportunities to students in California and beyond.