FoltIt is a protein folding video game. Proteins are chains of amino acids, and they form a unique 3D structure which is key to their function. Distributed computing isn’t enough to understand protein structures. Game where you try to fold the protein yourself. Game design is difficult, but even more difficult when constrained by the scientific problem you are trying… Read more →
Quake-Catcher Network: Using distributed sensors to record earthquakes, to put that data into existing regional seismic networks. Aim: To better understand earthquakes and mitigate seismic risk by increasing density of seismic observations. Uses new low-cost sensors that measure acceleration, so can see how much ground shakes during earthquakes. Using BOINC platform. Need volunteers to run sensors, or laptop with sensors…. Read more →
GridRepublic, trying to raise awareness of volunteer computing. Provide people with a list of BOINC projects, can manage all your projects in one website. Progress Thru Processors, trying to reach people in Facebook. Join up, one click process, projects post updates to hopefully reach volunteers’ friends. Distributed thinking – what can be done if you draw on the intellectual resources… Read more →
Interested in observation, and particularly extreme weather such as torrential rain, storms. Morning of 16 Oct 1987, Great Storm in SE England, have weather records for that day, coloured by pressure. Low pressure – storminess. Can we understand its dynamics, can we predict it? Take observations and model them. Previous big storm was 1703, so if we’re interested in climatology of… Read more →
Archives, physical or digital. All sorts of documents, but many are important to historians, e.g. scraps of paper from early days of computing can be very important later on. Time consuming to find things. Dangers to sustainability – stuff gets lost, thrown away, destroyed by accident or fire. Digital archives, easier to access, but often funding runs out and we… Read more →
Looks at a number of projects, including spatialepidemiology.net which tracks MRSA spread, and Bd-Maps which looks at amphibian health. Have been developing a smartphone app so that people in the field can add data. Use GPS so location aware, can take in stills/video. EpiCollect, can submit info and access data others have submitted, and do data filtering. Android and iPhone… Read more →
Sudoku comes from the Latin Square, invented in middle age, Leonhard Euler. But Sudoku related to the Colouring Problem, how do you colour each node in a pentagram/star so none have a neighbour the same colour. Think of Sudoku numbers as colours, each square must be different to its neighbour. Solving sudoku for all sizes – it’s not just 9… Read more →
CAS researcher focuses on where volunteer computing and thinking can help. Well known in China, and well trusted. Chinese volunteer demographics, 42k BOINC users, 420m total internet users, 1.33bn total population. Most volunteers come from eastern developed part of China. Ave age around 27, 90% male, most are students, IT pros, mid-income workers. EQUN.com, project started in 2003 to translate… Read more →
LHC accelerates protons and particles, analysis of resulting events is helping understand the nature of matter, origin of the universe etc. LHC@home is based on BOINC, to allow volunteers to lend their computers, started five years ago. Was a tool to help design and tune the accelerator itself. Beams circulate and collide many times per second. Objectives were to raise… Read more →
A lot has been said about maps, but old maps no longer relevant. Need maps that reflect people’s real-world needs. There’s a lack of data and geo-information. UN geographic data in different formats on different platforms. Details that are required to make the map useful are just missing. Maps look good at scale of 2000 ft, but at 200 ft… Read more →
Suw is one of the UK’s social media pioneers. With over a decade of social media experience, Suw has helped clients worldwide use social tools for collaboration and communication internally and to build customer relationships externally. She has a comprehensive understanding of strategy, implementation and social functionality design (building social interaction into the heart of a website or application).
She writes regularly for Forbes.com on publishing, self-publishing, crowdfunding and alternative business models for authors.
Suw is herself a self-published author. Her first novella, Argleton, was described as "an absorbing and satisfying story" and comes "highly recommended, especially if you like maps or are a computer geek". She is currently finishing up her second novella which will be out early summer 2013.
Chocolate and Vodka is her personal blog where she writes about writing and any $random_subjects that catch her eye. And yes, she's married to Kevin.
Kevin Anderson is the editor of the Media Development Investment Fund's Knowledge Bridge site and newsletter. The Media Development Loan Fund invests in independent news organisations in emerging democracies, and the Knowledge Bridge project is designed to help these news organisations make the digital transition.
Kevin brings almost 20 years of journalism experience to his work. Since 1996, he has been focused on digital journalism, working for a wide range of news organisations. He brings a depth of experience in reporting, editing and digital development to his work. In 1998, he joined the BBC and became their first online journalist based outside of the UK, covering the US for its award winning news website. After coming to the UK in 2005, he developed a blogging strategy for BBC news, helped launch a programme on the BBC's 5Live covering weblogs and podcasts and was on the team that launched the interactive radio programme World Have Your Say on the BBC World Service.
From 2006 to 2010, he worked at The Guardian as its first blogs editor and then as its digital research editor. As digital research editor, he was responsible for monitoring key developments in digital media and evaluating their value to Guardian journalists and our audiences. From 2010 until he joined MDLF in 2012, he worked as a freelance journalist and with Suw as a digital media consultant and digital journalism training working with news organisations including Al Jazeera, Reed Business Information, Czech TV and CNN.
