Paper City Goes Green High Performance Computing - Holyoke, MA

I've been swamped with proposal work - the end of this week is a a major National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education submission deadline - and have not had a chance to write about the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center groundbreaking in Holyoke, MA held on October 5.

I've written about this project in the past - the idea was launched over a year ago by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Massachusetts, Harvard University, Boston University, and Northeastern University. Each school kicked in $10 million and Massachusetts kicked in $25 million from a state fund that provides money to improve roads and other public works to support economic development. At the groundbreaking both Cisco and EMC announced $2.5 million contributions to the project for a total of $80 million committed.

I've been fortunate to have been involved with the planning process (on a technician / workforce / education / economic development level) and it's been interesting to watch the process and progress of the center. Some said it would never happen but - the ground was broken a couple of weeks ago so...... it's happening!

The center has the potential to turn around the first industrially designed city in the U.S. Holyoke was built around a series of man-made canals extending from the Connecticut River that were designed to provide water power to run paper mills. Holyoke once had so many paper mills it's nickname was (and still is) "Paper City". Most of those mills shut down years ago but now - new life for an old New England mill town.

Governor Deval Patrick missed the ground breaking because he was out on Cape Cod, attending the funeral of PFC Clinton E. Springer II who had died in Kabul, Afghanistan on September 24.

The Governor did come to Holyoke after the funeral though and got the chance to attend a Town Meeting following the groundbreaking. We had John Reynolds there with his camera and he got some great video of the Holyoke Mayor Elaine A. Pluta and Governor Patrick.

I don't think I've ever been this excited about a technical project - computers, networks, high-performance research including microbiology, genetics, chemistry, physics..... all performed in a green environmentally friendly way. The economic development potential and the kinds of companies and people the center will attract are potentially huge. It will be very interesting to watch. Pretty cool stuff!

To see more pictures, here's a link to my October 5 event Flickr photo set.

SharePoint As An Academic Learning Management System (LMS)?

Over the weekend I had an interesting email exchange with a business owner who runs one of the larger IT companies in Western Massachusetts. He's looking to hire some student interns from our college with Microsoft SharePoint experience. I've been a SharePoint fan for a while now and currently use it as a collaboration/file sharing/communications/etc tool for a national economic development project managed by the American Association of Community Colleges.

I got to thinking after that email exchange - with some added pieces (including a FERPA compliant gradebook), SharePoint has the potential to be a pretty nice Learning Management System (LMS). A few minutes and a quick web search later I found it is already being done by companies like SharePointLMS.

I'm not an LMS design expert but I do use one almost every day. I am sure there are shortcomings using applications like SharePoint as an LMS but - there are strengths and weaknesses with any software based application including the current crop of academic LMS's.

It makes sense to take a look at products like SharePoint and their classroom potential. The more real-world skills and experience our students graduate with the better when it comes to getting that first job.

Why Broadband Service Is So Poor In The U.S.

In an October 4, 2010 editorial titled Why Broadband Service in the U.S. Is So Awful And one step that could change it, Scientific American discusses the poor condition of U.S. broadband service when compared to much of the rest of the world. Here’s a couple of key points (we’re all way too familiar with) from the piece:

• The U.S. came in dead last in a recent study that compared how quickly 40 countries and regions have been progressing toward a knowledge-based economy over the past 10 years.
• A decade ago the U.S. ranked at or near the top of most studies of broadband price and performance.

From the top of the list to the bottom – what happened in the last 10 years? Scientific American traces the start of our problems back to 2002 when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reclassified broadband Internet service as an “information service” rather than a “telecommunications service.” This reclassification allowed infrastructure owners (essentially telco and cable companies) to keep their infrastructure private (some would say monopolize), stifling competition.

How are places like Japan and Korea different? Countries that are beating the pants off us require infrastructure companies to wholesale access to independent providers. This means consumers in these countries have many options from companies competing on price and service. Simply said, broadband competition is good but unfortunately, we don’t have it.

Can we fix it? The Scientific American editorial also discusses the net neutrality debate. Here’s another piece:

A separate debate—over net neutrality, the principle that Internet providers must treat all data equally regardless of their origin or content—has put the broadband crisis back in the spotlight. Earlier this year a federal appeals court struck down the FCC’s plan to enforce net neutrality, saying that because the FCC classified the Internet as an information service, it does not have any more authority to ensure that Internet providers treat all content equally than it does to ensure that CNN treats all political arguments equally.

In response, the FCC announced its intention to reclassify broadband Internet as a telecommunications service. The move would give the FCC power to enforce net neutrality as well as open broadband lines up to third-party competition, enabling free markets to deliver better service for less money.

Sounds great but…. current FCC chair Genachowski has said that although he regards the Internet as a telecommunications service, he does not want to bring in third-party competition. The Scientific American editorial speculates this move may have been intended to avoid criticism from policy makers, both Republican and Democrat, who have aligned themselves with large Internet providers such as AT&T and Comcast that stand to suffer when their local monopolies are broken.

The Scientific American editorial is an excellent read along with the growing number of reader comments. Check it out.

Verizon Wireless - 4G LTE In 38 Major Metropolitan Areas By The End Of The Year

Yesterday, at the CTIA Enterprise & Applications™ 2010 conference, Verizon Wireless president and chief operating officer Lowell McAdam reviewed the companies launch plans for 4G LTE in 38 major metropolitan areas along with about 60 commercial airports in the U.S. The company has a nice coverage map, shown and linked here.

According to a Verizon Wireless press release, expect 4G LTE average data rates to be 5 to 12 megabits per second (Mbps) on the downlink and 2 to 5 Mbps on the uplink in real-world, loaded network environments.

As an educator, this piece of the press release really excites me: In addition to the 38 major metropolitan areas, Verizon Wireless is launching its 4G LTE network in West Lafayette, Ind., home of Purdue University. The public university is using several innovative software applications on Verizon Wireless’ 3G network that improve student engagement and success, and Verizon Wireless is working with Purdue to explore the next phase of how 4G LTE technology can improve e-learning across the nation.

Google TV Minisite Launches

Google has launched their Google TV minisite and it looks pretty slick - especially when you take a look at (and think about) the apps potential. Matt Burns has an excellent post over at CrunchGear on the launch. Here's a nice list of what he's found so far:

• Apps are going to be a key feature and will include Pandora, Chrome, Twitter, Amazon, Android Gallery, and “starting early next year,” apps from the Android Market.
• Major TV networks such as HBO, TNT, TBS, CNN will have some sort of swanky video portal. This could possible be the device’s killer function.
• Fling, play audio or video on your phone on Google TV “with the press of the button.”
• YouTube is properly formated for a larger screen. Possibly a version of Leanback.
• You’ll be able to browse the web — or use apps — while watching TV. Think picture-in-picture.
• Google TV doesn’t launch to live content, but rather a customizable homepage with shortcuts.
• Google Queue: A DVR for the web. Build a list of websites, video podcasts, YouTube videos and watch them later — okay….
• “Over-the-air updates” Really? As opposed to updates via the constant Internet connection?

Here's a short Apps for Google TV video.

Love the Google TV line Your smartphone has apps. Now your TV does too.

The 10 Best IT Certifications Podcast

Over the weekend, Mike Q and I recorded a podcast discussing Erik Eckel's 10 Best IT Certifications for 2010 post along with Mike's recent blog posts on IT certifications. You can listen to the 35 minute podcast in your browser by clicking the play button below:

If you have iTunes installed you can subscribe to our podcasts by clicking here.

Better Internet Wiretapping?

The New York Times today posted an interesting article titled U.S. Wants to Make It Easier to Wiretap the Internet. The article discusses a bill the Obama administration plans to submit to Congress next year. Here’s a quote from that NY Times piece about the bill.

Essentially, officials want Congress to require all services that enable communications — including encrypted e-mail transmitters like BlackBerry, social networking Web sites like Facebook and software that allows direct “peer to peer” messaging like Skype — to be technically capable of complying if served with a wiretap order. The mandate would include being able to intercept and unscramble encrypted messages.

We’ve actually got a rather dated law like this in place right now. Back in 1994 the federal government passed the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). Under the law, telecommunications providers must have hardware and/or software installed that will allow law enforcement agencies real-time surveillance of any telephone or Internet traffic.

Originally, CALEA only applied to telephone networks, but in 2004 several federal organizations filed a joint petition with the FCC to expand the ability to monitor voice over IP and broadband Internet connections. Lawsuits challenging that the ruling was unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment were filed by organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Council on Education.

There are several gaps in CALEA that the Times piece discusses including the use of offshore services and “freeware” applications created and maintained by volunteers. These are some of the holes the new law will try and address. The Times piece claims officials are coalescing around several of the new proposal’s likely requirements:

• Communications services that encrypt messages must have a way to unscramble them.
• Foreign-based providers that do business inside the United States must install a domestic office capable of performing intercepts.
• Developers of software that enables peer-to-peer communication must redesign their service to allow interception.

My biggest concern is technology backfire - hackers taking advantage of wiretapping holes. I understand the need to monitor traffic in some cases but based on the way the Internet has been put together and works I don’t see how real-time surveillance can technically be accomplished without eventually exposing holes that could (and would) be exploited by hackers. Be sure to read the entire New York Times piece linked here.

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Update 9/27/10 - I received the following message from Kyle at newsy.com

Hello Gordon,

I just finished reading your take on how federal officials want to improve internet wiretapping in the very near future. I really enjoyed how you citied the New York Times as well as offered your own opinion on how this opens the door for a different kind of security risk: hacking. It's kind of interesting that by increasing monitoring of the internet, the government could also open doors as you say for hackers to exploit. In terms of security, that's a pretty big issue to deal with right there.

I think you would enjoy this video from newsy.com, it analyzes what the national media is saying about this possibility in a 2:30 video. The video actually references the same Times article that you talk about with mention to the three major requirements the bill will request.

Here's the newsy.com video:

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

Thanks for passing this along Kyle.