"REFOCUSING IT TOWARDS INNOVATION"
Moderated by: Cara Pietrowski, Director Support Services, Office of
Information Technology, West Chester University
Panelists:
Dave Aynardi, CIO, Westinghouse Electric
Peter Schay, EVP & COO, The Advisory Council (TAC)
Discussion: This panel will look forward and discuss the issues facing
CIO including Real Time Infrastructure, Web 2.0 and how the design and
delivery of software will change over the next few years including Open
Source, Software as a Service and thin clients. Additional topics for
discussion include Obtaining Value from Decades old Legacy Systems
including ERPs, Is SOA Real or a Marketer's Delight?, Risk Management
as it pertains to both Security and Compliance, Mobility and
Collaboration for Flexibility, IT Governance for Business Alignment,
Outsourcing/Offshoring and Globalization-Are there limits?, Impact of
Virtualization, New directions in the Internet and others. Come join us
for a look at your future and to enjoy the extensive audience
interaction.
Real Time Infrastructure
The infrastructure seems to be one of the big challenges facing the
CIO. For example, in an educational environment the ability to maintain
a set of standards, both hardware and software is critical to providing
support. I am not particularly qualified to answer this question
although I have a general idea about what infrastructure is needed for
future of computing, processing power, mobility, connectivity and
remote storage are all important. We need content packaging and storage
standards. Also I feel that more facilities towards custom publication.
More XML content standards are necessary including authoring tools and
content assembly tools are necessary for any organization. Lack of
standards for archiving is a real issue. People must be able to do
automated backups.
Web 2.0
Web 2.0 is nothing but trying to implement new types of applications
for web. More and more, the community based applications are becoming
the norm. It is important for us to be connected to communities and
create applications that are community oriented. Applications like
YouTube, MySpace, FaceBook, Flicker all provide community based
services and free space for all. All have different marketing models.
Web is a platform for Akamai. Ease the bandwidth congestion. A platform
beats the application everytime. Web 2.0 System without owner tied to
standards and running open. Communication required system requires
interoperability. Standards like SCORM and XML are critical.
Harnesss the power of web by designing applications that takes the
intelligence of a group.
How Design and delivery of software will change over the next few years
First We do have a real threat facing the software industry. The
interest for science and engineering is going down and women in
computer science is declining. Few ways to solve the problem. Creating
CS programs that are more friendly towards women and minorities. And
allowing talented foreigners to settle in US. Leave the low level
coding jobs to China and India, train IT people who are desgining
usable architectures. Train people to understand the science of
desgining products using HCI principles.
Personalization and adaptivity and usability is the key to design in
future applications. We expect software to be customized to fit our
needs and easy to use. There are also challenges designing software for
dual core machines of today. Although hardware is optimized for running
multiple applications, it is not optimized for future applications that
may require complex memory management and processing power. Requires
techniques from parallel computers.
We look forward to a
of memory on them so
Despite heralding in
is also a big fan of
construct because it
day to a day when chips will come with a terabyte
systems will no longer need disk drives.
the age of the personal computer, Wozniak said he
the emerging SAAS (software-as-a-service)
makes it easier to manage for users.
"Personally, I switched to Google Calendar because I just got sick and
tired of dealing with all the applications and the operating systems
being out of sync," said Wozniak.
But Wozniak added that as long as memory and disk storage remains
inexpensive, there will always be demand for local computing resources
so users should expect to live in an era where both computing models
are blended together.
The dream of building computer chips that use light signals rather than electricity has entered the
realm of serious research in recent years with the advent of photonic crystal, a material that
blocks and channels light within extremely small spaces.
We will design systems that will use “human computing” (image labeler on Google) to make them
smarter. For example, we worked on a markup manager system that allows users to review a
textbook by collaboratively annotating them. Humans can point out places of importance in a
document a lot faster than machines. So we need to use more human power to compute things.
The models like wikipedia has proven to be effective. Wikipedia is one of top sites visted on the
web and soon it will be one of top 10. People like to do things that is fun for them (watching a
video on youTube) and then people like to spend time posting things that they think other people
are willing to watch. I think all software we design must have some kind of a fun component to get
users actively involved and make them come back to the site again and again. Or we need to
design software and business models where micro transactions are made on the web (eBay) and
users and providers benefit financially.
Open Source
I am excited and support the open source movement although I need to
admit that I am more of looking for benefits in some level. But open
source is great for a lot of people. Especially, young people with lot
of time in their hand to contribute to these projects. There are lot of
people who work for the benefit of the others.
I think communities can really benefit from OS software. However, there
are limitations to open source. The biggest one I see is lack of a
service model. Software need service and w/o a help desk and people
feeling secure about application it is difficult to deploy this in a
real serious application. Having said that I know we can use firefox
etc. But they are alternate applications. When the firefox does not
work, I switch to IE and vice versa. So OS I see as a supplementary
model of software development. But never a major model. I think, I can
only speculate about this, only young people are interested in spending
the time to do this.
Software as a Service and thin clients
Software must be a service model for businesses and thin client model
for individuals. No one wants to pay for a piece of code anymore
although it takes an enormous effort to write and maintain good code.
However, w/o a service model, be it the online storage or customer
service or data analysis services provided by the vendor that a
software may become not that valuable. People define thin clients as
programs that does relatively little work at the client side. But I
prefer a thin client model where some processing occurs at the client
side supported by a small amount of backup memory when users are not
online. Again my thinking is somewhat guided by the fact that in the
future computing may happen mostly in a mobile environment and
reliability of the network will be an issue for years to come. One of
the advantages of this kind of a thin client model is allowing users to
work even when they are not online. I think this is very important.
Especially in mobile environments etc. The software infrastructures we
developed at CMU always worked with this offline thin client supported
by an online DB that is synchronized.
I also prefer for software models where applications are hosted
remotely and the businesses (with good connectivity) are able to use
this software without thinking about all the issues associated with
software upgrades etc. Clearly part of the industry is moving in that
direction, and in my own work we are building a system where small
publishers can manage the whole life cycle of a book building process
using remote application software. There may still be specialized
software programs like Quark on desktop, but with bridges built into
this file management, version control, book building is done online.
Obtaining Value from Decades old Legacy Systems including ERPs, Is SOA
Real or a Marketer's Delight?
I don’t have much insight into this. I can only speculate. Service
oriented architectures from IBM seem promising. IBM is trying to push
service as a science. As far as I know little buy in yet from places
like CMU.
Risk Management as it pertains to both Security and Compliance
Not very knowledgeable in the area. I will find some sources.
Mobility and Collaboration for Flexibility
I strongly believe in mobile applications supported by a web-based
backend. My research is around pen-based computing where we study,
design and evaluate mobile systems that are easy to use on the go. For
example, we cannot assume the presence of a mouse or keyboard and
applications must have touch screen and pen input capability. We have
designed mobile patient information systems and designing pen-based
systems to reduce error rate in doctor’s transcription. We have also
designed and deployed systems for learning at high school levels.
Mobile systems provide flexibility in terms of connectivity and other
issues. RFID tags and GPS locators will become important part of the
mobile experience.
Collaboration is a big issue. We like to own things and don’t like to
share things too much. Especially IP takes time to create and you don’t
want to put that on the public domain for people who will steal your
idea w/o giving credit. I think we need to create software and
situations where there is more willingness to collaborate. In many
domains we create things that are not being shared either because there
is no willingness to share or there is no way to find what we need.
Sure there is google and all that. But one feels uncomfortable placing
good stuff on the web
IT Governance for Business Alignment
I don’t really know what this means. Will think about this later.
Outsourcing/Off shoring and Globalization-Are there limits?
I have 6 years experience dealing with this issue. The company we
started TCI, we started with an off-shoring model from the beginning.
It was a gutsy move as we did now know all of the issues American
companies face trying to maintain a majority owned subsidiary in Sri
Lanka. We did receive the Board of Investment (BOI) tax holidays in Sri
Lanka and local investment money. The major problem we faced with the
model is the time difference. TCI SL was considered an extension to TCI
US. In terms of customers it was great. Customers were happy since we
could provide a 24-hr service. But it was difficult to manage a fully
owned subsidiary from here. Local issues in SL became issues here as
well. I was thrilled about off-shoring, but not as much anymore. For
one thing, writing code has become easy. I was able to develop a
complete system with just few people compared to what I did with many.
Even when we tried to provide service by bringing overseas employees to
US for short periods, the overhead was so high perhaps because we did
not have a large enough infrastructure to support this. Without their
families employee productivity was down and we did not get as much we
expected. We also had to pay per diem and deal with lots of HR issues.
I think going forward; a method that can work is maintaining a unit of
programmers inside an IT organization overseas. If the US company can
assure a continuous supply of work, that can work. As for outsourcing
projects, I think we need to look here to see what can be done first.
There are risks such as low quality (documentation, knowledge transfer
etc) and communication difficulties.
There are limits to globalization.
Globalization is a great concept. But each nation has its own set of
needs, cultural and religious differences etc. For globalization to
fully work countries need to share a lot of things. It can work in
similar countries. It is easy for Canada and US to develop business
models and benefit from each other.
I think culture and other factors play a major role in globalization.
It took me sometime to understand how middle east businesses works when
I lived there as part of CMU program. It takes a whole new set of
skills to succeed business wise in a global market.
Impact of Virtualization
Virtualization is great. We can experience the virtual world from
anyplace (second world). We can send our agents into the internet while
we are sleeping and collect things that are necessary for us to
function better tomorrow. I see many algorithms and techniques
developing to allow us to function better. Our biggest problem seem to
be we spend a lot of time trying to get organized and keep ourselves
organized
IT and Innovation
 IT innovations will dominate next 20 years
o Short term
 Things that makes our lives easy/better
 Personal agents
 Adaptive Tutors
 GPS locators
 RFID
 $100 laptop
o Long term
 Revolutionary ideas
 Nanotechnology
 Photonic chips
 Multicore processing and programming
 Innovation can be taught and encouraged
 Innovation also needs revamping of old curriculum and teaching
new things
o For example dual core machine architectures
o Applications first in some cases – theory courses are
still critical – but need to motivate students with
applications first
o Everyone can make a difference in the world. Everyone can
invent new things
o Secret – always asking how can I make this product or
process better
 Innovation is encouraged in classroom. Courses I teach are
practical. We apply solid theoretical principles and build
practical applications.
 Lots of opportunities in mobile applications
o Mobile patient information systems
 There are many opportunities for innovation
o Customization and personalization
o Adaptability
o Nanotechnology – medical and other smart devices
o Learning aids
 Standards are critical
o SCORM and XML are very important standards to enforce.
o Proprietory data formats should be outlawed
o Rights and royalty must be managed
 Interoperability of documents from multiple sources
 What are some of the revolutionary products in the future
o Nanatecnology – multidisciplinary field – but information
technology will play a major role
o Photonic Chip
 All optical computer processes
 Uses light signals rather than electricity
 photonic crystal, a material that blocks and channels light within
extremely small spaces.
 Create tools that allows anyone to be a programmer
o User friendly API’s to complex backend software




o We are still teaching CS fundamentals the same way
o Take an application first approach – introduce theoretical ideas next
Transformation of IDE’s
o IDE have allowed us to create good software in no time
o Something that took 10 people overseas now can be done by one person
o One of my students interned at Mozilla, their mail client used by hundreds of
thousands of people is maintained by just two programmers
o My students write projects that are very powerful
 Perl script to download images from Flicker, organize and create easy
personalized search capabilities
 Applying techniques to manipulate images
 Show how computer science plays a key role in our lives
We all need to understand IT at all levels
o Computational Thinking is key
o Computational thinking is a way of solving problems,
designing systems, and understanding human behavior that
draws on concepts fundamental to computer science.
Computational thinking is thinking in terms of
abstractions, invariably multiple layers of abstraction at
once. Computational thinking is about the automation of
these abstractions. The automaton could be an algorithm, a
Turing machine, a tangible device, a software system –or
the human brain. Recursively, it could be a network of
these. Computational thinking gives us the power to scale
beyond our imagination
Things that worry me
o Funding – DARPA funding is reducing, NSF funds small
projects. Lot of focus on short term success
o Not a lot of funding for large scale, or risky projects
o Lack of interest in kids about science and technology
 Used to carry science books to impress girls
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF)
o Formulate and promote public policies to encourage and
promote IT innovation and productivity worldwide
ACM TechNews; Monday, September 24, 2007
************************ Headlines ************************
"Software Design Research Adds New Perspective to High-Tech Gender Gap"
"Where Have All the Techies Gone?"
"Collecting of Details on Travelers Documented"
"Buy a Laptop for a Child, Get Another Laptop Free"
"Opening Up the Patent Process"
"The IT Godfather Speaks: Q&A With Charles M. Herzfeld"
"Folmer Believes a Virtual World Doesn't Have to Be a Visual One"
"Internet Pipes Not Ready to Burst, Researcher Says"
"Apple Co-Founder Looks to Robotics and Artificial Intelligence"
"Tripedal Robot Swings Itself Into Action"
"An Oracle Part Man, Part Machine"
"Summit to Address Online Threats to Security"
"A Global Climate of Change"
"When the Numbers Crunch"
"Coding and Computing Join Forces"
"Countervailing Forces Propel Patent Reform"
"Election '08: Seeking a 'Tech President'"
CM TechNews; Friday, September 21, 2007
************************ Headlines ************************
"NSA to Defend Against Hackers"
"U.S. Facing Tech Labor 'Brain Drain' Due to Immigration Law, Study
Says"
"HP Labs to Narrow its Research Focus"
"Industry Experts to Showcase Innovative HPC Applications"
"Is the U.S. at Risk From Cyberwarfare?"
"'Pulp-Based Computing' Makes Normal Paper Smart"
"ACM Joins MentorNet Partnership to Expand Career Resources"
"International Blue Ribbon Task Force to Address Critical Challenge of
the
Information Age"
"Instructors Anticipate Computer Science Revival"
"RIT Joins Library of Congress Partnership to Preserve Online Games and
Virtual
Worlds"
"Does Antivirus Have a Future?"
"Carnegie Mellon Building Robot for Lunar Prospecting"
"Artists 'Draw on Air' to Create 3D Illustrations"
"Virtual Worlds Open Up to Blind"
"Computer Program Traces Ancestry Using Anonymous DNA Samples"
"Of Greed and Ants"
"What's So Super About Supercomputers, Anyway?"
"Bet on It!"
************************ Headlines ************************
"Big Future Beckons for Tiny Chips"
"Group Says E-Voting Paper Trail Wouldn't Improve Security"
"CS Profs and the DOD"
"House Committee Chair Wants Info on Cancelled DHS Data-Mining
Programs"
"Clock to Tick Down U.S. Privacy"
"Penn Engineers Design Electronic Computer Memory in Nanoscale Form
That Retrieves
Data 1,000 Times Faster"
"The Singular Question of Human vs. Machine Has a Spiritual Side"
"Reverse-Engineering the Brain for Better Computers"
"New Research Seeks to Enhance Quality and Security of Wireless
Telemedicine"
"Multi Robot Underground Pipeline Explorer Being Developed at Louisiana
State
University"
"Click Go the Votes, Click, Click, Click..."
"Japan Eyes Robots to Support Older Population"
"Employers Back Initiative to Turn Youngsters on to IT"
"Copyright Office Chief: I'm a DMCA Supporter"
"Business by Numbers"
"If RSA Is Cracked, Here's Plan B"
"Peer to Patent Project Sees First Submissions"
"Cultural Modeling in Real Time"
***********************************************************
ACM TechNews; Monday, September 17, 2007
************************ Headlines ************************
"Google Calls for International Standards on Internet Privacy"
"Robots That Sense Before They Touch"
"CHI 2008 Conference"
"Weight Loss Game Looking for 'Neat-O' Results"
"Technique Links Words to Signing"
"New Entanglement Findings Advance Quantum Computing Research"
"NSF Researchers Produce RFID Random Number Generator"
"Software Transforms Digital Photos Into Old-Fashioned Paintings"
"Microformats Hop on Semantic Web 'Griddle'"
"Researchers Improve Ability to Write and Store Information on
Electronic Devices"
"Leading-Edge Body Sensor Could Help Produce Sporting Champions"
"University Program Targets Online Security"
"Computerized Treatment of Manuscripts"
"Internet Governance Forum to Meet in Brazil, 12-15 November"
"Quantum Threat to Our Secret Data"
"Checkers Is Solved"
"Services at UCSC"
***********************************************************
CM TechNews; Friday, September 14, 2007
************************ Headlines ************************
"Gary Smith to Receive ACM Award"
"Presidential Advisors Report on NITRD Program"
"UM Software Tools May Key Successful Antiterrorism, Military and
Diplomatic Actions"
"Software Turns Photos From Bad to Good"
"LIKES Project Awarded Grant From National Science Foundation"
"IBM and Association for Computing Machinery Announce Global 'Battle of
the Brains'
Software Competition"
"Patenting The Co-ed Code"
"Image-Search Tool Speaks Hundreds of Languages"
"Web Users Could Slash Cost of Putting Video Online"
"Scientists Use the "Dark Web" to Snag Extremists and Terrorists
Online"
"Computer Models Help Raise the Bar for Sporting Achievement"
"Rice, Nanyang Tech Collaborate on Sustainable Nanoelectronics"
"Artificial Intelligence Under the Spotlight at BA Festival"
"'Wiki City Rome' to Draw a Map Like No Other"
"Graduate Enrollment in 2005"
"Computer Gaming Requirements Spurring Scientific Advances"
"Everything Must Stay!"
"Toward a World With Quantum Computers"
***********************************************************
ACM TechNews; Wednesday, September 12, 2007
************************ Headlines ************************
"Who Needs Hackers?"
"China's Eye on the Internet"
"NASA Building Silicon Chips That Can Handle Massively High-Heat and
Then Some"
"U.S. Patent Bill Still Faces Obstacles"
"Redefining the Architecture of Memory"
"Primate Behavior Explained By Computer 'Agents'"
"A New Way to Read Hard Disks"
"EAC to Release Draft Voting-System Guidelines"
"Governors Throw Support Behind H-1B Increase"
"Helping Computers to Search With Nuance, Like Us"
"Researchers Investigate Tracking, Sensors to Assist Air Force"
"Coming Soon: A Supercomputer for the Rest of Us"
"'Smart Homes' Could Track Your Electrical Noise"
"Rogue Nodes Turn Tor Anonymizer Into Eavesdropper's Paradise"
"Spelman College Receives $2.5 Million National Science Foundation
Grant to Create
'Next-Level' STEM Disciplines"
"Ready, Set, Go"
"The Promise of Parallel Universes"
"Toward Recommendation Based on Ontology-Powered Web-Usage Mining"
***********************************************************
ACM TechNews; Monday, September 10, 2007
************************ Headlines ************************
"House Puts Off Voting Bill, Most Other Business Next Week"
"F.B.I. Data Mining Reached Beyond Initial Targets"
"House Approves Comprehensive Patent Overhaul"
"Techies Ponder Computers Smarter Than Us"
"Tapping the Promise of New RPI Supercomputer"
"Google's Director of Research Talks AI"
"Science Fiction Becoming Science Fact"
"SDSC Launches User-Settable Supercomputer Reservations"
"Social Networking Software Tracks Zebras and Consumers"
"Storm Worm Botnet More Powerful Than Top Supercomputers"
"Perfect Projections on Surfaces of Any Shape"
"Debate Rages Over German Government Spyware Plan"
"Zeno Could Be Next Robot Boy Wonder"
"Personal Data: Up Close and Impersonal"
"Virtual Reality Will Enhance Real-World Experiences"
"The Trouble With Computers"
"Career Watch: Back-to-School Edition"
*********************************************************
ACM TechNews; Friday, September 7, 2007
************************ Headlines ************************
"House to Consider E-Voting Reform Bill"
"Coming to Grips With Intelligent Machines"
"DHS Ends Criticized Data-Mining Program"
"Programming Grads Meet a Skills Gap in the Real World"
"Animation for the Masses"
"U. Illinois to Build Computer Faster Than IU's Big Red"
"Congress Pushes Back on H1-B Visas"
"UTEP Works to Bridge Language Gap Between U.S. Soldiers, Iraqis"
"Justice Opinion Opposes Idea of Net Neutrality"
"Venture Capitalist: We Need to Prepare for Artificial Intelligence"
"DHS Head: Cybersecurity Remains a Concern"
"Lecture to Explore Future Uses of Synthetic Voices"
"Cyber Crime Tool Kits Go on Sale"
"CSI Could Benefit From Computer Sidekick"
"Prof Receives NSF Grant for Supercomputer"
"Internet Pipes Can't Keep Up in YouTube Age"
"Future Looks Bright for Supercomputers"
"Is It Live or Is It AR?"
***********************************************************
ACM TechNews; Wednesday, September 5, 2007
************************ Headlines ************************
"Computer Scientists Take the 'Why' Out of WiFi"
"Japan to Challenge Google in Search Technology"
"Direct Brain-to-Game Interface Worries Scientists"
"Digital Dandelions: The Flowering of Network Research"
"Princeton Engineers Develop Low-Cost Recipe for Patterning Microchips"
"HPC Challenge Awards at SC07"
"Faster Wireless in Works to Transfer Movies, Other Large Files From
Gadget to Gadget"
"Sensor Rise Powers Life Recorders"
"Q&A: Researcher Says Skilled Foreign Nationals Need Green Cards, Not
H-1B Visas"
"IT Workers Second-Guess Career Choice"
"EU Project Builds Artificial Brain for Robots"
"Software Via the Internet: Microsoft in 'Cloud' Computing"
"A High-Tech Helping Hand for Soldiers"
"ICANN's Whois Privacy Reforms Stalled Again"
"UTEP Awarded $5 Million to Create Cyberinfrastructure Center"
"Software Relies on Many Chefs"
"Robots Surf the Web to Learn About the World"
"Toward a PeopleWeb"
***********************************************************
ACM TechNews; Friday, August 31, 2007
************************ Headlines ************************
"I.B.M. Researchers Advancing Computer Processing Ability"
"Student, Prof Build Budget Supercomputer"
"Special Military Group Looks Ahead to Fight America's Future Wars"
"Creating a Computer Currency"
"Saving Power in Handhelds"
"Controlling Bandwidth in the Clouds"
"Freedom Key to Web Evolution, Says Guru"
"'Touching' Research at Queen's"
"Molecules Line Up to Make the Tiniest of Wires"
"Digital Detectives Discern Photoshop Fakery"
"UT Arlington Computer Science Researchers Awarded $450,000 NSF Grant"
"NSF Awards SDSU With Hefty Research Grant"
"Ad-Hoc Network Probes Links for Smoother Calls"
"Statistics Professor Says Databases Must Balance Privacy, Utility"
"Louisiana Tech Researchers Work on Cyber-Attack Defense"
"Green-Card Red Tape Sends Valuable Engineers Packing"
"Horizon Awards 2007: Bitty Bytes"
"Squashing Worms"
***********************************************************
ACM TechNews; Wednesday, August 29, 2007
************************ Headlines ************************
"Japan's Warp-Speed Ride to Internet Future"
"Point, Click ... Eavesdrop: How the FBI Wiretap Net Operates"
"ooPSLA 2007 Speakers -- An Embarrassment of Riches"
"Research at K-State, Partner Institutions, to Help Homeland Security
Make Sense of
the Abundant Information in the Public Domain"
"US Suspends Vast ADVISE Data-Sifting System"
"C.U. Researcher Develops Info Sharing Application"
"Networking the Hudson River"
"Are Drivers Ready for High-Tech Onslaught?"
"The Next Dimension of Digital"
"Feds Seeking Input on Networking Research Plan"
"Stereotypes Turn Girls Off to Math, Science"
"A Computer Simulation Shows How Evolution May Have Speeded Up"
"Microsoft's UI Ambitions Not Limited to Tables: A New Windshield HUD
Patent"
"Metasearch Engine Digs Deeper, Faster for News"
"NSF Grant Funds UNT Study of Global Software Development Teams"
"The Color of Trustworthiness"
"The Tech Lab: Vint Cerf"
"The Bytes Behind Biology"
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