Ed Lazowska and Peter Lee on November 4 proposed a brainstorming exercise to identify about a dozen game-changing advances in computing research over the past 20 years. A large number of people responded, as summarized in a November 30 post. The CCC has organized a really important symposium on March 25 that has short talks on 12 such advances. Check out http://www.cra.org/ccc/locsymposium.php for details. I think that this symposium is really important because with a new administration in Washington, we have people who appreciate the importance of fundamental research. If we increase the size of the funding pie, all of us will benefit. The best way to increase the size […]

Last week the New York Times printed an article by John Markoff entitled, Do We Need a New Internet? In the article, Markoff states, “…there is a growing belief among engineers and security experts that Internet security and privacy have become so maddeningly elusive that the only way to fix the problem is to start over.” Stanford’s Nick McKeown is quoted in the article, “Unless we’re willing to rethink today’s Internet, we’re just waiting for a series of public catastrophes.” The article speculates that in a new network architecture, some users would “give up their anonymity and certain freedoms in return for safety.” It’s certainly exciting to see core computer […]

Ruzena Bajcsy (University of California, Berkeley) and Klara Nahrstedt (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) have provided the following argument for the development of broadband information-rich immersive interfaces, to support collaboration and research activities. The United States of America has steadily fallen further and further behind Asian and European nations with respect to broadband penetration and related services. This is impeding the development of new consumer applications (and related new industry and services) and limiting communications in an economy where knowledge exchange is vital in order to be to be a major player of the emerging , seamless and unobstructed global market. Reversing this trend may be of high interest to […]

Ellen Zegura is Professor and Chair of Computer Science at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She writes to us today in her role as chair of the NetSE Council. What is a “better Internet”? The current Internet has been a remarkable success, providing a platform for innovation that far exceeds its original vision as a research instrument. It is well documented that the Internet has transformed the lives of billions of people in areas as diverse as education, healthcare, entertainment and commerce. Yet many of these successes are threatened by the increasing sophistication of security attacks and the organizations that propagate them. A materially more secure Internet would be “better”. […]

An op-ed by the University of Washington’s Ed Lazowska and Sun Microsystems’ Bob Sproull appears today on the website of Scientists and Engineers for America.  They write: “Congress is now debating the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Included in this package is over 10 billion dollars for science facilities, research, and instrumentation. “The reason for this inclusion is simple: today’s research is tomorrow’s infrastructure. “When our nation faces immediate challenges, the feasible solutions depend upon the ideas, resources, and designs that are “on the shelf,” ready to deploy … “Increasingly, information technology is the cornerstone of America’s infrastructure. Today’s information technology research is a cornerstone of tomorrow’s infrastructure.” […]

Today’s main message is: Check out http://www.cra.org/ccc/initiatives. Please! And tell your friends and colleagues! (Any reactions or suggestions can be posted here as comments on this article.) Now, the full story: The CCC’s mission is “to foster exciting new research visions in the computing community which attract support.” Looking back at what has transpired over the past year, community participation has been tremendous. Many dozens of people have stepped up to propose workshops, make presentations, write articles for this blog, and chip in with thoughtful feedback and ideas. It’s been productive and, well, fun. Of course, the name of the game is to turn research visions into reality, and one […]