HPC in the News
PRACE Women in HPC Magazine Debuts
The Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE) today published the first edition of PRACE Women in HPC Magazine 2015, part of PRACE’s ongoing effort to advance gender and diversity issues within the HPC community. The opening editorial by Dr Sylvie Joussaume, the Chair of the PRACE Scientific Steering Committee, perfectly captures intent of the new publication: “…PRACE, in collaboration with the Women in HPC initiative, is embracing a year celebrating the contribution women make to HPC and computational science. This magazine puts the spotlight not just on the scientific advances made by PRACE, but also on the women that contribute to make PRACE a world-leading force in HPC- enabled science and in the move towards Exa-scale computing. To learn more, please visit http://www.hpcwire.com/off-the-wire/prace-women-in-hpc-magazine-debuts/.
XSEDE15 to Include Visualization Showcase
Deadline for Submissions - May 31, 2015
XSEDE15 is proud to announce the conference—to be held July 26-30 in St. Louis—will now include a daylong visualization showcase. This will allow attendees to view the visualizations at their convenience, while still giving the presenters an opportunity to interact with attendees during the reception. The visualization showcase is a forum to feature innovative and compelling research that utilizes visualization. Submissions must include a video (up to 5 minutes) and a document (up to two pages) describing the research, visualization techniques, role of visualization in supporting or advancing scientific inquiry, and brief information about the underlying data and hardware resources. When appropriate, submissions should also include any challenges that were overcome during the visualization process. The submissions are not limited to XSEDE projects or resources, and may be featured by the NSF in the organization’s spotlight on visualizations via the social media hashtag campaign #BeautyOfComputing taking place on various platforms June through August.
For more information, please visit http://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/news/story/xsede15_viz_showcase_deadline_is_may_31.
| 22 Students Selected for Blue Waters Student Internship Program | |
Shodor and the Blue Waters project have selected 19 undergraduate students and three graduate students from across the country to participate in the Blue Waters Student Internship Program for 2015-2016. Interns will learn to apply high-performance computing to problems in science, mathematics, and engineering through the yearlong program. Their experience will begin later this month with a two-week Petascale Institute at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).
Up to 1 percent of the computing capacity of Blue Waters is available for education and workforce development efforts aimed at preparing the next generation of students and teachers to tackle challenges with advanced computing power. To read further and view the student slections, please visit http://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/news/story/22_students_selected_for_blue_waters_student_internship_program.
Online Fact-Checking Tool Gets a Big Test With Nepal Earthquake
MIT Technology Review
Standby Task Force is a group of volunteer "digital humanitarians" that takes action after disasters at the request of international agencies and local relief organizations. The group is using Verily, an experimental Web platform, to crowdsource rumor verification as quickly as possible in response to the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit Nepal on Saturday. Users go to Verily's website and read short tutorials on simple, established ways to verify data such as the source of an image or the date and location of a report on a social network. Users answer yes-or-no verification questions about reports, provided they supply evidence supporting their answer. The Standby Task Force uses the evidence posted by Verily users to pass along confirmed information to relief organizations. However, tools such as Verily are only powerful if a lot of people use them. Building a large user base has been the biggest challenge in the wake of the Nepal disaster, according to Standby Task Force president Justine Mackinnon. To read further, please visit http://www.technologyreview.com/news/537036/online-fact-checking-tool-gets-a-big-test-with-nepal-earthquake/.
A Look Back at Last Year’s News: XSEDE's XCBC Software Bolsters Research, From Big Data to Small Campuses
Researchers across the US now have faster and easier access to top computing resources, thanks to XSEDE's software suite, created by IU Research Technologies (RT) Campus Bridging team. The XCBC software allows a campus to create a cluster, based on open-source tools, that operates much like a cluster within XSEDE. Commands on an XSEDE cluster work the same way on local clusters. XCBC also includes software that aids moving and integrating data with XSEDE, notably software used on Globus Online, XSEDE's most widely used campus-bridging data movement tool. XCBC also means educators can use and adapt XSEDE-developed training materials for use on their campuses. To read further, please visit http://itnews.iu.edu/articles/2014/xsedes-new-cluster-compatibility-concept-bolsters-research,-from-big-data-to-small-campuses.php.
Big Data Must Haves: Capacity, Compute, Collaboration
Government Computer News
Big data researchers, network engineers, CIOs, and technology leaders are set to discuss ways to collaborate to advance research capabilities in IT infrastructure and applications this week at the Internet2 Global Summit, which takes place in Washington, DC. Clemson University professor Alex Feltus will showcase how his research team is leveraging the Internet2 infrastructure, including its Advanced Layer 2 Service high-speed connections and perfSONAR network monitoring, to accelerate genomic big data transfers and transform collaboration. Feltus says the way data is stored and transferred will need to change as DNA datasets get bigger and research increases. He notes bigger boxes are needed as well as faster ways to put content into them. "There is a serious data transfer bottleneck at the network-hard-drive interface," Feltus says. "Thus, we need faster, reasonably-priced storage that can keep up with the advanced networks such as the Internet2 network." To read further, please visit http://gcn.com/articles/2015/04/23/big-data-infrastructure.aspx.
XSEDE NEWS FROM PARTNERS AND FRIENDS
Two Illinois Professors Receive 2015 Guggenheim Fellowships
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has awarded 2015 Guggenheim fellowships to two University of Illinois faculty members: Wendy K. Tam Cho, professor of political science and of statistics, and Philip W. Phillips, professor of physics.. Cho and Phillips are among 175 fellows chosen for “prior achievement and exceptional promise” from a group of more than 3,100 applying scholars, artists and scientists. To provide creative freedom, fellows are awarded unrestricted grants that they can apply to work of their choosing. To read further, please visit http://news.illinois.edu/news/15/0410Guggenheim2015.html.
Ohio Supercomputing Center Statewide User's Group Meeting
June 4, 2015 – Columbus, Ohio
The purposes of the SUG meeting are to highlight new scientific developments produced using OSC resources, foster connections between OSC staff and the SUG members, and get constructive feedback as to the future of OSC and its role in supporting science across Ohio. During the meeting in the morning (starting at 10:30 a.m.), there will be a ‘Face OSCHelp’ session, enabling interactions between the current/potential OSC clients and OSC staff. In the afternoon, we will host two half-hour keynotes on areas of interest to OSC clients. Free lunch and snacks will be provided. After the SUG meeting, we will reconvene in one of the active social neighborhoods of Columbus for drinks, dinner and networking. For more information and to register, please visit https://www.osc.edu/calendar/events/statewide_users_group_meeting_0.
Washington Post Calls UC San Diego’s CalIT2 Director Larry Smarr ‘Unlikely Hero’ of Global Movement
Calit2 Director Larry Smarr made the front page of The Washington Post. The May 9 article, “The Human Upgrade: The Revolution Will Be Digitized” by technology writer Ariana Cha, explores the movement to quantify consumers’ health and lifestyles, spearheaded by a flood of wearable devices such as the FitBit and Apple Watch. The article calls Smarr “the unlikely hero of a global movement among ordinary people to ‘quantify’ themselves” using an estimated 211 million wearable monitoring devices to track their own health statistics (68 million devices shipped this year alone) – and using the knowledge to approach their physicians in new ways. “From the instant he wakes up each morning, through his workday and into the night, the essence of Larry Smarr is captured by a series of numbers: a resting heart rate of 40 beats per minute, a blood pressure of 130/70, a stress level of 2 percent, 191 pounds, 8,000 steps taken, 15 floors climbed, 8 hours of sleep,” is how Cha opens her feature article, adding: “Smarr, an astrophysicist and computer scientist, could be the world’s most self-measured man. For nearly 15 years, the professor at the University of California at San Diego has been obsessed with what he describes as the most complicated subject he has ever experimented on: his own body.” To read further, please visit http://www.calit2.net/newsroom/release.php?id=2529.
Call for Papers and Participation
Women in HPC Workshop and BoF - Call for Participation and Papers
July 14 and July 16, 2015 - Frankfurt, Germany
Submission Deadline - June 1, 2015
In collaboration with ISC High Performance 2015
This event will bring together female early-career researchers with a focus on European participation, providing them with an opportunity to showcase their work and to meet role models and peers in an environment designed to move beyond the stereotype of HPC as a male-dominated field. It will open with an introduction to current research by the Women in HPC network, the demographics of the HPC community and the different experiences of men and women in the field. Building on our first workshop at SC14, we will also host a panel discussion, focusing on “How can women fulfill their dreams in HPC, combining work with having a family and working in a male-dominated environment?” If you wish to participate, please visit http://www.womeninhpc.org.uk/events/women-hpc-isc-2015.
2015 Federated Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems (FedCSIS)
September 13-16, 2015 - Lodz, Poland,
Submission Deadline - June 1, 2015
Notification Date – June 15, 2015
The FedCSIS 2015 Federated Conference invites submissions of POSITION PAPERS to its respective events. Position papers must not exceed 8 pages and they should relate to an ongoing research or experience. Position papers will be presented by the authors alongside regular papers. Position papers may be also submitted as DEMO PAPERS and presented as demonstrations of software tools and products. They should describe non-for-profit software tools in a prototype-, alpha-, or beta-version. For complete information, please visit https://fedcsis.org/.
Call for Papers: NASA Living With a Star Institute
Proposal Deadline – June 1, 2015
The goal of the NASA Living With a Star program is to “Develop the scientific understanding necessary to enable the U.S. to effectively address those aspects of the connected Sun-Earth system that directly affects life and society.” Thus, the LWS program with its focus on the basic science underlying all aspects of space weather and climate, acts as a catalyst to bring the many research disciplines and applications communities together to deepen the understanding of the system of systems created by the Sun Earth connection. To that end, the LWS Institute Working Groups will provide an opportunity for research and engineering community from academia and industry from all over the world to contribute to the evolution of Heliophysics. The LWS Institutes are designed to facilitate a bridge between cutting-edge heliophysics research and a societally relevant technology area that is affected by space weather. For more information, please visit http://www.vsp.ucar.edu/Heliophysics/lws-institute-apply.shtml.
Upcoming Conferences, Webinars, and Seminars
BRIGHTE Workshop Series
June 24-26, 2015 – Boulder, Colorado
GIS education at the science-society interface is an important component of the GIS program. weather events, such as droughts, floods, hurricanes, and extreme heat events affect communities across the world. Addressing these complex and challenging problems requires an integrated, interdisciplinary research as well as broad participation of researchers, educators and decision-makers, especially from traditionally underrepresented populations and communities. BRIGHTE workshop series provide an opportunity for participants to embrace an interdisciplinary approach to these scientific and societal challenges. Workshop training materials typically focus on integration of atmospheric science and data with traditional GIS data and spatial analysis to facilitate interdisciplinary research and decision-making. For more information, please visit https://gis.ucar.edu/projects/brighte?_ga=1.255188808.1516765081.1432295852.
27th International Conference on Scientific and Statistical Database Management
June 29 – July 1, 2015 – San Diego, California
Registration Deadline – June 7, 2015
This conference is designed to be hands-on so participants are expected to bring a laptop computer to follow along with demos and hands-on instruction throughout the program. Special topic: biomedical data management in the wireless era. This year we are encouraging submissions consisting of case studies related to the Special Topic including but not limited to: Quantified Self Movement, Wearable Sensor Data, Big Data in E-Health. For more information, please visit http://ssdbm2015.org/index.html.
SDSC Summer Institute (SI) 2015: HPC for the Long Tail of Science- Apply Now!
August 10 – 14, 2015 – La Jollla, California
Applications are being accepted for the SDSC Summer Institute (SI) 2015: HPC for the Long Tail of Science. The Summer Institute will provide a weeklong education and training program in High Performance and Data Intensive Computing. The first half of the Summer Institute will consist of plenary sessions covering essential skills including data management, running jobs on SDSC resources, reproducibility, database systems, characteristics of big data, and techniques for turning data into knowledge, software version control and making effective use of hardware. This will be followed by a series of parallel sessions that allow attendees to dive deeper into specialized material that is relevant to their research projects and covering topics in SPARK, Parallel Computing, Performance Optimization, Predictive Analytics, Scalable Data Management, Visualization, Workflow Management, GPUs/CUDA and Python for Scientific Computing. To register, please visit https://www.etouches.com/ehome/125694.
SC15
November 15-20, 2015 – Austin, Texas
HPC is transforming our everyday lives, as well as our not-so-ordinary ones. From nanomaterials to jet aircrafts, from medical treatments to disaster preparedness, and even the way we wash our clothes; the HPC community has transformed the world in multifaceted ways. SC15 will yet again provide a unique venue for spotlighting HPC and scientific applications, and innovations from around the world. SC15 will bring together the international supercomputing community—an unparalleled ensemble of scientists, engineers, researchers, educators, programmers, system administrators and developers—for an exceptional program of technical papers, informative tutorials, timely research posters and Birds-of-a-Feather (BOF) sessions. The SC15 Exhibition Hall will feature exhibits of the latest and greatest technologies from industry, academia and government research organizations; many of these technologies making their debut in Austin. For more information, please visit http://sc15.supercomputing.org/.
Research News From Around the World
Research into Nanoparticles Reveals Potential First Step in Impeding HIV
NICS
Since the time the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) first swept into America’s social consciousness in 1982, HIV has been misunderstood. But research conducted with the support of supercomputer allocations from the eXtreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) and grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) reveals a potential breakthrough in the way scientists pursue treatment—it’s all about the nanoparticles. A nanoparticle is microscopic and so small it exhibits size-related qualities. Most definitions specify that, to be considered nano, the particle must measure between 1 nanometer and 100 nanometers (for reference: a human hair is about 60,000 nanometers wide). Scientists are particularly interested in the properties and function of carbon-based nanoparticles called fullerenes, and researcher Jerzy Leszcznski and colleagues at Jackson State University through their XSEDE–NSF project titled “Multiscale Research in Nanotoxicity” have discovered that fullerenes block a key function of HIV. To read more, please visit https://www.nics.tennessee.edu/leszcznski-fullerenes
Supernova Hunting with Supercomputers
Type Ia supernovae are famous for their consistency. Ironically, new observations suggest that their origins may not be uniform at all. Using a “roadmap” of theoretical calculations and supercomputer simulations, astronomers observed for the first time a flash of light caused by a supernova slamming into a nearby star, allowing them to determine the stellar system from which the supernova was born. This finding confirms one of two competing theories about the birth of Type Ia supernovae. But taken with other observations, the results imply that there could be two distinct populations of these objects. The details of these findings will appear May 20 in an advance online issue of Nature. In 2010, Kasen predicted a new way to test the origins of supernovae. Using theoretical arguments and simulations run on supercomputers at the Department of Energy’s National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), he showed that if a supernova is born in a binary star system, the collision of the debris with the companion star will produce a brief, hot flash of light. To read more, please visit http://cs.lbl.gov/news-media/news/2015/supernova-hunting-with-supercomputers/.
AI Points to Better Decision-Making Despite Poker Match Loss
We often approach life as if it were a chess match, assuming every piece is visible. But that’s seldom true. As Tuomas Sandholm of Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science sees it, life is more like a hand of poker. Other players have cards we can’t see, and they often try to trick us. Could our decisions be better if we leveraged artificial intelligence (AI)? That’s the question Sandholm and graduate students Noam Brown and Sam Ganzfried set out to answer. Using the Blacklight system at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC), they built Claudico, an AI poker player. “We really didn’t write a program called ‘Claudico,’” Sandholm is quick to point out. “Claudico emerged from general-purpose algorithms we developed for solving incomplete information games.” TO READ FURTHER, PLEASE VISIT http://www.isgtw.org/spotlight/ai-points-better-decision-making-despite-poker-match-loss#.
Connect4Learning Jumpstarts Science and Math for Preschoolers (video)
Preschoolers engaged, teachers enthusiastic about moving math and science to the head of the class The 4-year-olds at All Souls School in Englewood, Colo., are learning their shapes and numbers within a science lesson about sea creatures. It's a new approach to early childhood education that focuses more attention on science and math while incorporating important literacy connections along the way. With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), University of Denver education professors Julie Sarama and Douglas Clements are part of the team that developed the research-based Connect4Learning (C4L), which blends academics, social and emotional development, and play for the pre-K set, with high expectations for learning for teachers and kids alike. To read further, please visit http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/science_nation/connect4learning.jsp?WT.mc_id=USNSF_51.
Making a Societal Difference: Using Smartphones to Avoid Spatial Disorientation of Elderly
Technical University of Madrid
Researchers at the Technical University of Madrid (UPM) have turned to network operating technologies to locate and send alerts to elderly people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) during episodes of disorientation. The UPM researchers developed a location-awareness service using smartphones that examines such information as seniors' proximity to their homes or places of interest, whether that person is with a relative or using public transport, and certain time intervals. When a disorientation episode occurs, the service puts the person in touch with their nearest contact to verify if they require help. In the study, researchers established safety areas for each user consisting of a series of geographical locations called hotspots, which include the home of the person with MCI or places they typically visit. To read further, please visit http://www.upm.es/internacional/UPM/UPM_Channel/Research_News/8e813865ecfdc410VgnVCM10000009c7648aRCRD.
Educator News, Conferences, and Opportunities
What Is Being Learned From MOOCs? New Report Takes Stock
The Chronicle of Higher Education
A new report released this week lays out the current state of research into massive open online courses (MOOCs). The report is the work of the MOOC Research Initiative, which has funded 28 research projects with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. George Siemens, an academic-technology expert at the University of Texas at Arlington and an author of the report, says the early years of MOOCs were dominated by frenzied enthusiasm for the technology that, in retrospect, seems foolish. "It's almost like we went through this sort of shameful period where we forgot that we were researchers and we forgot that we were scientists and instead we were just making decisions and proclamations that weren't at all scientific," Siemens says. The goal of the new report is to offer insight into what is known about MOOCs and how they perform in the real world. To read further, please visit http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/what-is-being-learned-from-moocs-new-report-takes-stock/56487.
Could Video Games Measure Skills That Tests Can’t Capture?
Imagine you’re playing a computer game that asks you to design a poster for the school fair. You’re fiddling with fonts, changing background colors and deciding what activity to feature: Will a basketball toss appeal to more people than a pie bake-off? Then, animal characters — maybe a panda or an ostrich — offer feedback on your design. You can choose whether to hear a compliment or a complaint: “The words are overlapping too much,” or, “I like that you put in the dates.” You can use their critiques as guides to help you revise your poster. Finally, you get to see how many tickets your poster sold. This little Web-based game isn’t just a game. It’s a test, too. “In our assessments we make little fun games, and to do well at the games you need to learn something,” says Dan Schwartz, the director of the AAA Lab at Stanford University. “So they’re not just measures of what the student already knows, but attempts to measure whether they are prepared to continue learning when they’re no longer told exactly what to do.” To read further, please visit http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/08/11/could-video-games-measure-skills-that-tests-cant-capture/.
How Libraries are Advancing and Inspiring Schools and Communities
It’s well known that public libraries are no longer just about the books — even e-books. Many community libraries are receiving 21st century digital-age makeovers: Numerous digital technologies, maker spaces to invite creation, even video production suites and 3-D printers now inhabit many libraries across the country.
But a report just released by the Aspen Institute Dialogue on Public Libraries asks us again to reconsider how the library can serve communities in the 21st century. “Rising to the Challenge: Re-Envisioning Public Libraries” aims to “capture the momentum and excitement of the innovations taking place in public libraries across the country, and the impact these are having on communities,” said the group’s director, Amy Garmer. The report asks: With all the new technology and layered networks, what can be done beyond current advancements? To read further, please visit http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/11/20/how-libraries-are-advancing-and-inspiring-communities/.
Student Engagement and Opportunities
University of San Diego Accelerated Summer Program for HS Students
June 22-Jul 31, 2015 – San Diego, California
Why Coding Is Your Child's Key to Unlocking the Future
The Wall Street Journal
An increasing number of educators and activists are pushing to make programming a part of all children's basic education. Most argue programming should be viewed as a foundational element of a modern education, the same as math or reading. Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Mitchel Resnick, who is leading the effort to develop the child-friendly Scratch programming language, says in addition to granting them an important and marketable skill, coding helps children learn to think about processes in the world. Hadi Partovi, co-founder of Code.org, says computer science helps promote analytical skills, problem solving, and creativity. Many activists point to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projection that there will be 1 million unfilled programming jobs by 2020 as evidence of the growing market for such skills. Partovi thinks this could be a significant underestimate. However, programming is still not taught in the vast majority of U.S. schools, so many are looking to find ways of teaching children to code outside of the classroom. To read further, please visit http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-coding-is-your-childs-key-to-unlocking-the-future-1430080118?mod=LS1.
The UC Berkeley Miller Scholars Program for Incoming Transfer Students
Application Deadline – May 26, 2015
The George A. Miller Scholars Program is designed to provide outstanding community college transfer students with a scholarship and research/community service stipend. The students spend an entire academic year developing research and leadership skills while they plan an academic research or community service project, which they conduct under the guidance of a faculty mentor during the summer and throughout the following academic year. Each year, the George A. Miller Scholars Program will select up to twelve outstanding low-income and first-generation college students who have transferred to UC Berkeley from one of California's community colleges. Students are selected based on their leadership potential, academic excellence, and their commitment to community service and education. For more information, and to apply please visit http://www.aap.berkeley.edu/miller-scholars-program.
Coding with Colorful Cards: Kids Learn Arduino-based Code with Tinker the Robot
UC San Diego
Meet Tinker the Robot. UC San Diego mechanical engineering alumnus (2007) Kay Yang created him to teach and inspire children (ages 8-14) to play with robots. As a little girl, Kay loved taking things apart and learning how they worked – except electronics. She couldn’t understand how an electronic circuit could bring an object to life.
It wasn’t until she came to UC San Diego and enrolled in mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Nate Delson’s Introduction to Engineering Graphics and Design (MAE3) course – where students design and produce robots from scratch for a competition – that she began to understand how electronics and code work together.
To read further, please visit http://www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/news/news_releases/release.sfe?id=1740.
No Boys Allowed: Tackling the Coding Gender Gap
U.S. News & World Report
Girls Who Code, a nonprofit established in 2012, aims to close the gender gap in the technology and engineering fields by teaching girls computing skills and encouraging them to pursue opportunities in computer science. Of all the full-time, year-round employed civilians 16 years and older, women comprise 27.5 percent of computer and information systems managers, according to the 2013 American Community Survey. The same data shows 25.1 percent of all computer and mathematical occupations are filled by women, and within that category, 20.3 percent of computer programmers are female. Girls Who Code runs seven-week summer immersion programs for girls at companies and university settings across the country. The summer immersion program "[has] almost been kind of like an incubator for an incredibly diverse 21st century female workforce in tech and engineering," says program organizer Suzanne Kennedy. During the last two weeks of the program, students designed a final project. To read further, please visit http://www.usnews.com/news/stem-solutions/articles/2015/04/22/girls-who-code-takes-on-gender-gap-in-computer-science.
Computational Science News of Interest
User Creativity Made YouTube the World's Biggest Music Service
Aalto University researchers studied the popularity of music videos on YouTube and found one reason why video views and search activity is high is due to users' own videos. Alternative videos that re-use the music of popular artists can reach an audience of millions. These cover versions, parodies, and other user-appropriated videos are readily available and well promoted on the site. Moreover, users are willing to listen to music with rolling lyrics over a still photo, which ranks highly in YouTube search results. Aalto researcher Antti Salovaara reports the team found three primary music video types: traditional, user-appropriated, and derivative music videos. "Earlier studies ignored music's tremendous pull, even though it must have been obvious to everyone using YouTube," says Aalto researcher Lassi A. Liikkanen. He notes over the years, "the artists have changed, but music has remained on top of the charts." To read further, please visit http://www.aalto.fi/en/current/news/2015-04-21-002/.
Social Media
Facebook's Goals for Internet.org and Why It's Facing Criticism
eweek
Internet.org was supposed to be a great way for people around the globe who live in remote areas where the Internet is not readily available to get on the Web. The service, led by Facebook, has already connected millions of people, and the company hopes a billion people will eventually come online via Internet.org. But lately Facebook's brainchild is coming under fire around the world. A collective of 65 advocacy organizations from 31 countries has released an open letter arguing that Internet.org is not serving its purpose and actually violates the core tenets of a free and open Internet. The adverse publicity has cast Internet.org in a negative light, and critics are questioning whether the service is being developed in the interests of those who can't get Internet service or Facebook itself. To read more, please visit http://www.eweek.com/cloud/slideshows/facebooks-goals-for-internet.org-and-why-its-facing-criticism.html.
Google Now Displays Real-Time Tweets in Mobile Search Results
The next time you search for something via Google's mobile app or your mobile browser, you may find related tweets popping up. As of Tuesday, real-time tweets began showing up in the search results that appear on your mobile device, assuming you use Google's app, Google.com or your mobile browser with Google set as the default search engine. Google and Twitter each announced the tweak in separate blog posts that explained how to discover relevant tweets in search results. For example, search for "Obama" on your mobile device, and the latest tweets from the president's Twitter account pop up in your search results. You can also include a hashtag to find tweets on trending topics. Search for "#madmen," and you'll find tweets that discuss the finale of the popular series. As an alternative, you can specify the word "Twitter" as part of your search. For example, search for "CNET Twitter," and among Google's search results will be tweets that point to recent CNET stories. To read more, please visit http://www.cnet.com/news/google-now-displays-real-time-tweets-in-its-mobile-search-results/.
