The Free/Open Source Software workshop wrapped up today.  Discussion focused on a number of topics, including: – Translation into other domains of software – Software engineering practice – Collaboration issues in FOSS – Learning and education challenges/opportunities – Evolution of products, projects, practices and processes – Research infrastructures A report from the workshop will be developed in the coming weeks and posted on the CCC Web site. John L. King, CCC Council Liaison

The attendees at the CCC-supported workshop on Free/Open Source Software met today at UC Irvine’s Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences to work in break-out groups on a refined classification scheme for open-source software development.   The group will work tomorrow morning to synthesize the results of today’s efforts into elements that can be reported out. John L. King, CCC Council liaison

Forty-five people met today in Newport Beach, CA for the first day of a three-day workshop supported by the CCC on Free/Open Source Software.  For more background information, see http://www.cra.org/ccc/foss.php  (Note that about five participants who were supposed to come were snowed in by the big storms in the east, and couldn’t make it.) Today’s discussion was structured around four perspectives on FOSS, with moderators, main presenters, and discussants: Users/Producers: Moderator — Greg Madey (Notre Dame University); Main Presenter — Ralph Morelli (Trinity College); Discussants — Stormy Peters (GNOME Foundation), John Wallin (George Mason University). Human-Centered Computing: Moderator — Walt Scacchi (UC Irvine); Main Presenter: Chris Kelty (UCLA); Discussants — […]

The New York Times reports that President Obama’s proposed budget includes substantial increases for science research, including an 8% increase for the National Science Foundation from last year’s budget, rising to $7.4 billion.  The Department of Education is also targeted for an increased discretionary budget to $49.7 billion from $46.2 billion in 2010.

Every second year, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics provides a ten-year forecast of job growth in all fields of employment.  The most recent forecast, released in November 2009 and covering the period 2008-2018, may be found here (pdf).  Among the highlights: Among the 10 major BLS occupational groups, the “Professional and related” category (which includes computer science occupations) is projected to grow by the largest percentage between now and 2018 — by 16.8%.  (The average growth projected across all occupations is 10.1%.) Focusing in on the “Professional and related” occupations, of the 8 occupational clusters that are included, “Computer and mathematical” occupations are projected to grow by the largest […]

There are many reasons for research funding agencies (DARPA, NSF, etc.) to invest in the education of students. Producing the next generation of innovators is the most obvious one. In addition, though, there are an impressive number of instances in our field in which undergraduate and graduate students have made truly game-changing contributions in the course of their studies. The inspiring list in the attached PDF was compiled by the following individuals and their colleagues: Bill Bonvillian (MIT), Susan Graham (Berkeley), Anita Jones (University of Virginia), Ed Lazowska (University of Washington), Pat Lincoln (SRI), Fred Schneider (Cornell), and Victor Zue (MIT). We solicit your suggestions for additional student contributions of […]