Fun at Showcase Tacoma

My family and I had an excellent time at Showcase Tacoma last weekend. We came out on a Saturday in the early afternoon and walked around in the sporadic rain. It was not very crowded at the time, which I would expect, as we came through at a quiet time of the day. Still we ran into many friends.

One thing I saw that was interesting was a group of students who were fund raising with some origami. The folks they were working with made packages of paper balloons sized to fit over holiday lights so that they created a festive feel.

Another thing that I thought was very cool, along with the Lava Tube, the various glass art booths, the bands and the chalk art was the wonderful putting course put together by the Fulcrum Gallery.

From a distance you might mistake it for a topical map of the South Sound, but when you approached it their was unmistakably a putter and golf ball in the exhibit ready to put to use.

Both my son and youngest daughter walked across the spongy islands and covered concrete inlets to try their hand at it, both enjoying the challenge. Hard to believe, but apparently a gentleman had earlier made a hole in one all the way from Vashon Island.

DDOS Before Georgia Invasion?

The technology section of the New York Times carries an interesting piece by John Markoff on cyberattacks on the infrastructure of Georgian government sites, including Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili's web site prior to the Russian invasion.

DDOS, distributed denial of service attacks with messages containing "win+love+in+Rusia" were sent in the millions in what he characterizes as a dress rehearsal to an all out cyber attack.

Cybersecurity and cyberwarfare exercises have been conducted here in the US and locally as part of defensive training and military preparedness, but this is the first time I am aware of a cyberattack preceding a true military assault.

Check the article out here.

UPDATE: It looks like the attacks are not abating.

Move Over Web 2.0, Here comes Web 3.0

Forget trying to pin down what Web 2.0 is...er, was. Just give a flip of the hand in a dismissive way and say it was about social networks and web services. There, done with. Like the old phrase used to define the threshold of obscenity, you can say, “I know it when I see it”.

My favorite "go to" explanation is still this great video by Mike Wesch, Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us. You might still be one of the people who has watched from the over 6 million views of it so far. Also, catch his anthropological discussion of YouTube off of his main page there.

More importantly, we now must discuss what Web 3.0 is. How can we talk about 3.0 when we haven’t nailed down 2.0 as either marketing or venture fundraising lingo fastened to some general concepts? (insert dismissive hand gesture here).

OK, back to 3.0.

In a Trendwatch post today titled Mozilla Labs and Aurora: Envisioning a Web 3.0 browser it states off the top:

Mozilla, developer of the Firefox web browser, is asking people from around the world to participate in the creation of what could become a next-generation browser. The first ideas posted on the website include AdaptivePath’s Aurora idea, which is - to our knowledge - the first concept to describe Web 3.0 capability in a web browser.

Sweet. The first descriptions of 3.0 capabilities, though it turns out that they are looking at the Semantic Web as being the next versioning of online interaction. Tim Berners-Lee has been stating the Semantic Web as the next major iteration of the web experience for some time now.

If you would like an animated presentation of what that experience might be like, here is Aurora’s take.

Compound Origami and a Workshop

I like to fold with a single sheet of paper. No cuts, no glue. That being said, I will be gluing and in one small exception, cutting, origami models in order to create modular origami flowers and arrangements this Thursday.

Modular origami can be rewarding in the detail of the model and is also interesting and challenging. There are some great books on the subject, such as "Unit Origami: Multidimensional Transformations" by Tomoko Fuse.

As defined by Wikipedia, modular origami, or unit origami, "is a paperfolding technique which uses multiple sheets of paper to create a larger and more complex structure than would be feasible using single-piece origami techniques. Each individual sheet of paper is folded into a module, or unit, and then modules are assembled into an integrated flat shape or three-dimensional structure by inserting flaps into pockets created by the folding process. These insertions create tension or friction that holds the model together."

I have created a few Kusadama's in the past with the largest using 175 sheets of paper. Kusadama's are paper models "that is usually (although not always) created by sewing multiple identical pyramidal units (usually stylized flowers folded from square paper) together through their points to form a spherical shape."

This Thursday I will be giving a workshop on ornamental floral origami at the University of Washington, Tacoma's Library from 10am - Noon in the upstairs conference room LIB 222A.

At this time my plans are to talk about single sheet origami and compound origami. Though I would like to fold the traditional Lily, I think we will start with a simple two piece tulip. From there we will create the six piece rose from Hiromi Hayashi's Origami Flowers: Popular Blossoms and Creative Bouquets and if there is time, back to the lily.

I would also like to do the Dahlia from Hiromi's book, but it has one collapse that I don't think a novice or early origami folder can do themselves.

If you are in the area and would like to join in, please do.

Artistic Web Visualization of Electronic Debris

Web visualization for understanding connections, influence and search have all been discussed on this blog at one time or another.

Visualization tools include the idea of what virtual communities look like, can give an overview of data from an aggregate perspective and sometimes just look really cool.

WIRED magazine ran an article a few months ago that someone recently passed on to me via a link. In it the feature discusses and shows the efforts of individuals who are create web visualizations of SPAM and harnessing the power of many hands to create works of art.

The pieces may be interactive, real-time measures of blog posts about "feelings" or a collection of contributions of thousands of net micro-workers. The graphics are cool and the video interview informative.

It can be found here.

South Sound Technology Conference 2008

UPDATED AGENDA: FROM November 19th, 2008

Save the date:

On November 21st, on the University of Washington, Tacoma campus, we will be holding the South Sound Technology Conference for 2008. The format will be similar to last years with the following structure:

Introductions

Keynote Address

Panel One

Break

Technology Overview

Panel Two

Break out to a self organizing birds of a feather

If you are planning on joining us for the day and are interested in a particular topic then you may want to start discussions with others by taking advantage of the birds of a feather format. If you have enough folks that you don't think one of our five local coffee establishments can't handle the conversation, let me know and I will try to accommodate.

The umbrella topic this year will be "Innovation and Technology".

If you want a guiding principle:

If we all did the things we are capable of doing we would literally astound ourselves.

Thomas Edison (called the "archetype for every high-tech entrepreneur." by Peter Drucker)

The conference will once again have Congressman Adam Smith and Congressman Norm Dicks as the honorary co-chairs. The program is being built and more information will be coming in the next month or so, including location on campus, times and speakers.

A Juxtaposition of Tech Transfer and Non Tech Farm and Food

So I missed the Chalk Off this Friday. I wasn’t even able to stop by and that is too bad given the great work that was done this week.

However I did get a very clear juxtaposition of no tech and tech talk in the space of a week.

First, on the no tech front I accompanying one of my daughters on a goodwill mission trip to set up a food bank and distribute goods to families in need. Sponsored by Agape, this entailed walking a neighborhood to collect food and clothing (following a flyer distribution that announced that a canvassing would occur), stationing outside several grocery shopping centers to ask for food donations, a day of work farming, and the setting up of the bank for distribution.

Along with this came several organized sessions for the middle and high school kids who were participating, one of which included shopping for food. They were given family scenarios and a days wage for the work they did on the farm and needed to purchase, cook and feed themselves based on the money they earned.

A enjoyed the farming day. But it was hard work and I wouldn’t want my lively hood to depend on it. The family whose organic farm we were helping on were very nice, informative and gave me a chance to use some of my rusty Spanish.

We sleep on the floor and had one shower at the YMCA during this time. The kids were great. Their attitudes were unfailingly positive and for the most part were a joy to be around. I was very proud of them and of my daughter in particular.

I don’t like being disturbed by that knock on the door and I am not comfortable with the solicitations outside storefronts (whether they be girl scout cookies, bell ringing Santas or other donations). This made being on the other end of it even tougher.

In the end, it gives me greater appreciation for the desire to do good that these folks have, and the hard work that they put in.

After that, it was back to work, which meant attending a conference in Seattle put on the Executive Summit Series in Technology Transfer: Crossing the Valley of Death, “the vast desert filled with the carcasses of great innovations that became literally cash-starved before reaching the oasis of commercial viability.”

They keep the numbers attending to a manageable size, and for two days we listen and talk about how to advance industries and the economy through focused collaboration.

As the ESS team explains, “Technology, policy, economics, trade and the environment are all major factors impacting our business and personal lives. Understanding these forces and practical business applications around them leads to better decisions for organizations and industries in all sectors of the economy. ”

Dr. John Parmentola, Director of Research and Laboratory Management, U.S. Army Research Labs was very clear about the difficulties of working with the military in an entrepreneurial start up fashion, but was also succinct and helpful in offering ways in which to make it more feasible.

Mr. Brad Buswell, Deputy Undersecretary, Department of Homeland Security, Science and Technology Directorate was interesting and helpful in pointing out where the pitfalls of technology transfer to working product in the first responder sector were and what conditions were necessary for success. He also provided a high technology needs list and operational requirements information.

Others in attendance were also engaging and refreshingly straightforward about what worked and didn’t work based on the nature of the federal and political infrastructures that they were dealing within.

Peter Erickson, the CEO of Executive Summit and the co-producer of the series Mike Provance, will be constructing a white paper out of the discussions. When completed I will provide a link to it from this entry.

Overall a real swing in the conversation from Monday to Friday. Sometimes it is good to stretch the body, but also the mindset, in order to stay limber.