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January 31, 2006

Detroit gets salty

Who knew that Detroit had it's own salt company and salt mine?  Not me.  And one that's family owned with Detroit Pride too.  The Detroit Salt Company claims to be as much a part of Detroit as Vernors or Ford (though apparently their products aren't for sale to the general public--this might explain the lack of publicity).

It's funny when you find out about little things like this that don't really have an impact on your life but are neat to know about, and make sense.  With all the snow and ice we get it seems logical, but who thinks about those things?  Also, did anyone else ever use road salt in 7th grade biology to make ice cream?  Think how much ice cream we could make with those piles of salt...

Random thoughts tonight
~bEckY

Originally posted by beisen in Corporate Social Responsibility?, Jan 31, 2006 at 10:37 PM | Comments (0)

U of M catches on...

In addition to starting MBlog, the University of Michigan has been experiencing a sort of "blogging revolution" in many of its departments and student groups, including the library and the school newspaper.

The Michigan Daily has its own Blogosphere where you can get RSS feed from many of it's columns.  read the whole story about the U of M blogging revolution from their webpage:
"Blogging Revolution Reaches University" - Michigan Daily

The one question I have is, will creating and promoting a university blogg program, where only University students have access to create blogs, simply create a complementary insular community  to the already insular U of M experience?  Will most of the 'back and forth' happen between students, or will outside members of the blogging community be able to join in?

~bEckY

Originally posted by beisen in Corporate Social Responsibility?, Jan 31, 2006 at 10:37 PM | Comments (0)

Give it away, give it away, give it away now

Originally in Perpetual Flux, Jan 31, 2006 at 10:37 PM | Comments (0)

Doctors still resisting technology

Originally in Perpetual Flux, Jan 31, 2006 at 09:52 PM | Comments (0)

The CTSA and its implications

I have been meaning to write about the Clinical Translational Science Award competitive application process and its implications for a while now. I did a search this morning and found a post in Dr. Andrea Gaggioli's blog, the Positive Technology Journal, entitled Positive Technology Journal : NIH starts program to improve clinical and translational science which quotes from an article by Dr. Elias Zerhouni, Director of the NIH in the New England Journal of Medicine, describing the aims of the CTSA.

His post has an excerpt which provides an adequate description, so I won't repeat that here. (You should check out his blog anyway, so go read it and come back!) I did want to focus on the last few sentences of his excerpt:

by 2012, 60 CTSAs will receive a total of approximately $500 million per year. The CTSA program is an NIH Roadmap for Medical Research initiative and will be administered by the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a component of the NIH. Funding for the new initiative will come in part from the Roadmap budget and existing clinical and translational programs. This will be accomplished entirely through redirecting existing resources, including Roadmap funds.

What is not stated here are the full implications of the radical change the NIH is proposing. NIH is phasing out the various comprehensive clinical research training grant programs - M01 (aka General Clinical Research Centers or GCRCs), K12, K30, and Roadmap programs K12 and T32 - by 2012. 

This is huge. GCRCs have been around forever, at least 50 years. $500 million is a big slice of the entire current NIH budget for clinical research, which mostly goes to grants that fund scientists doing research rather than training scientists to be clinical researchers.

Admittedly, research of any kind is a small part of the world of Health IT, and clinical research is well behind basic science in both funding and panache. I work on an NIH Roadmap contract, so any change this radical looks huge to me.

What is interesting to me right now are the social effects of the CTSA. The RFA calls for cross-institutional commitment, which in the world of academic health centers means that the med school must work and play well together with the other parts of the university; the educational, clinical, and research missionaries must sing in harmony; and the ivory tower folks must mingle with the entrepreneurs in related industries. Most of these already occur to some degree in every institution, but now the stakes are high enough to make the game interesting for everyone.

What this really portends for the future of clinical research is hard to discern this early in the process, but no matter what happens, it will be a different world in 2012.

Originally posted by Hunscher in FutureHIT, Jan 31, 2006 at 06:46 PM | Comments (0)

Groupware and Social Dynamics: Eight Challenges for Developers

A quick note: I just ran into a situation that brought to mind Jonathan Grudin's paper entitled Groupware and Social Dynamics: Eight Challenges for Developers. It is a seminal paper in the fields of usability and computer-supported cooperative work. I first encountered it in a CSCW class with Dr. Gary Olson, one of the fathers of the CSCW field.

Lack of the knowledge contained in this paper is the single biggest reason for the generally abysmal usability of health IT software in general and research software in particular.

Originally posted by Hunscher in FutureHIT, Jan 31, 2006 at 06:46 PM | Comments (0)

Conversion experience

Another short note: while poking around trying to find a link to Jonathan Grudin's blog for use in the previous post (I never did find it), I found this post in another Microsoft researcher's blog entitled Lili's Weblog. It had this quote from Jonathan Grudin about his conversion experience with blogging:

"I don't see any disagreement about the data around today's overall use pattern. [e.g., mostly email-DH] The issue is what will be the situation in ten years, when the millions of bloggers aged 18-22 are in the workforce. No way of knowing. We could get a hint by looking at their current communication patterns, or by continuing to look at the adoption trends inside and outside corporations. " My conversion occurred when a grad student in the midwest who I didn't really know invited me to look at her blog a year ago and I came in early one morning and did so, spending about two hours going down her blog, reading comments, leaping from those to examine the blogs of the commenters, looking at the comments on their blogs, looking at the use of graphics on the blogs, following links to web pages they thought were cool, and so on. After two hours I thought I had incredible insight into this whole dense network of people that spread across the country. "

This is so well put. The issue for IT strategists concerned about computer-supported cooperative work over the next decade is not what we are using now, it is what the world will be like ten years from now. Too many CIOs believe they are planning long-term when they are actually thinking short-term. Technologies in use now will evolve dramatically over the next decade. It is clear that social networking technologies like blogging are going to be key components of work in the next decade or so. They are disruptive technologies that are part of a paradigm shift of the sort I described in my Rogue Wave scenarios back in 2002.

Another point from that post:

"The underestimated strength of blogs is the chronological ordering. The single voice, the public visibility that leads to more care in most blog construction, the feedback are all significant too, but they are remarked upon. Human beings have a tremendous ability to reason instantly and unconsciously about information organized chronologically."

This resonates with the thinking of David Gelernter of Yale, who proposed replacing the current desktop/file cabinet GUI metaphor with a chronologically based approach. I'm still trying to figure out the implications of such an approach.

Originally posted by Hunscher in FutureHIT, Jan 31, 2006 at 06:46 PM | Comments (0)

Nokia 770 Internet Tablet

I just ordered a Nokia 770 Internet Tablet (this is the USA link - you may want to go to your country's Nokia page if you are not in the US). I expect it will be an example of the disruptive technologies I was talking about in my last post.

I really think it will be a disruptive technology, a product not good enough for the current market, but satisfactory to tech enthusiasts and early adopters. To see why I think this without having it in hand, read the review from Steven Frank's blog: ~stevenf: Nokia 770 Review. From what I have seen so far (and I actually have had one in hand for a few minutes), it will not be a polished commercial product.

I want to test it out as an alternative to heavy laptops, overly expensive tablet PCs, and overly tiny PDAs for carry-around data entry in a healthcare environment. I expect the capabilities in this regard will be truly abysmal at present. For one thing, its target applications are email and Web browsing. From the review and from a friend's experience using one, its Web interface is not bad but the email client is abysmal. The Web interface uses a really tiny font to get as much page on the screen at one time as possible. This will make it difficult to use for data entry generally, but especially in low-light and/or chaotic conditions.

It also has limited RAM, which means Web forms will need to be very lean. Most form developers write verbose HTML and Javascript code, and and most HTML editors don't help much in this regard.

However, it is a start, a first step on the disruptive trajectory underlying the laptop, tablet, and PDA market trajectories, which are already in "feature overkill" mode for many users.

It is a Linux system, and is already accumulating a developer community (e.g., see the Internet Tablet Talk site) though it has only been on the market for a little while. 'Twill be interesting to see what gets developed for it. I haven't explored what is already available yet, so maybe there are already some useful apps out there. Maybe even a development environment specifically targeted at developing Web apps for this platform? (he said hopefully...)

I will post my experiences with it here as they happen and as I get time.

Originally posted by Hunscher in FutureHIT, Jan 31, 2006 at 06:46 PM | Comments (0)

3rd Generation User Interfaces

A little while ago I posted something about an entry in Irving Wladasky-Berger's blog that mentioned the work of Carolyn Watters, who is working on using gaming interfaces as a way to reach and work with children in pain. I mentioned I was having a hard time finding references that would tell me more about her work, and she graciously chimed in with an updated URL. I am reading items from her site and hope to comment more soon, but in the meantime I did a few searches on the concept of gaming interfaces used for applications other than gaming, and came upon this entry from Wladawsky-Berger from last year on the same subject. I just wanted to pass it on, for anyone who is interested. More when I get time...

Originally posted by Hunscher in FutureHIT, Jan 31, 2006 at 06:46 PM | Comments (0)

the Internet is good for community

I just noticed an article in the Communications of the ACM entitled A computer network is a social network by Dr. Barry Wellman of the University of Toronto. I haven't read it all, but it seems like it is mostly an opinion piece by a very well-informed expert, plus some insights into the work his lab is doing that supports his viewpoint. I took this quote from the end of the article to give you a feel for his premise:

Pundits worry that virtual community may not truly be community. These worriers are confusing the pastoralist myth of community for the reality. Community ties are already geographically dispersed, sparsely- knit, connected heavily by telecommunications (phone and fax), and specialized in content. There is so little community life in most neighborhoods in western cities that it is more useful to think of each person as having a personal community: an individual's social network of informal interpersonal ties, ranging from a half-dozen intimates to hundreds of weaker ties. Just as the Net supports neighborhood-like group communities of densely- knit ties, it also supports personal communities, wherever in social or geographical space these ties are located and however sparsely-knit they might be. Even as the Net accelerates the trend to moving community interaction out of public spaces, it may also be integrating society. Its architecture supports both weak and strong ties that cut across social milieus, be they interest groups, localities, organizations or nations. As a result, cyberlinks between people become social links between groups that otherwise would be socially and physically dispersed.

Interesting... I'm not sure what the implications are yet, but certainly there are implications for the world at large, and no doubt for health IT as well.

Originally posted by Hunscher in FutureHIT, Jan 31, 2006 at 06:46 PM | Comments (0)

Clinical Research Forum

I am on the IT Steering Committee of a lobbying and advocacy organization called the Clinical Research Forum. We are working on a strategic vision of the realm of clinical research from an IT perspective five years from now. There are a lot of evolutionary factors at work, but I think there is much more. In an email I just posted I wrote:

I believe with good evidence at hand that we are on the cusp of yet another paradigm shift in IT, because of the convergence of many factors, including but not limited to the ongoing effects of Moore's Law and Metcalfe's Law, the rapid adoption of Semantic Web technologies, the emergence of new communications technologies and media, and the reach of the Internet into every corner of the globe and every economic stratum.

Perhaps the most important change agent will be the emergence by 2010 of a generation of clinicians who have grown up taking for granted that IT is a communications and knowledge management medium rather than a data processing tool. This generation will have no understanding of and little tolerance for our ongoing struggles with the mundane data processing and integration issues that so dominate our generation's view of IT (not to mention our budgets and life energies).

I am trying to steer the group's vision in a direction that takes into account the above-described factors. I don't have a lot of leverage on a committee that includes the CIOs of several top-ten academic health centers, but I try to speak my piece when I can.

Just thought I would post it here too, since it expresses some of the reasoning behind starting this blog in the first place.

Originally posted by Hunscher in FutureHIT, Jan 31, 2006 at 06:46 PM | Comments (0)

GameTomorrow

I have been researching Carolyn Watters' use of online games in providing remote care to children with cancer, and decided to look into the uses of gaming for serious purposes. First I needed to understand something about online games. I figure the action would be in multi-player online role-playing games (MPoRPG), and started with IBM people's blogs, since they have been a reliable source for sniffing the leading edge of new trends in IT. There I found a blog called GameTomorrow which had an entry in which the blogger interviewed a member of one of the two finalist teams in the Batttlefield 2 Tournament, a MPoRPG contest with a $250,000 prize. (That's right, grownups - your child might be playing for big bucks, unbeknownst to you.)

This isn't a game that's really in the same category of Carolyn Watters' work - Battlefield 2 is something like the game equivalent of "splatter films" like the 1974 film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (which was remade, as if we asked them to, in 2003). The game is not the interesting part here, though - it's the depiction of how the team got to the point they are at in the tournament.

What struck me most about the interview is summed up in these quotes. I have taken the liberty of removing the Battlefield 2 aspects to focus on their approach to what amounts to computer-supported collaborative work.

1. What is the number one special tactic that you used during this competition so far?

REAL TIME strategy change. When it appears that the strategy being used is not working we, have made all attempts to have back up strategies ready to deploy with smooth transitions. That in itself is a strategy.

...

3. What is the first thing you will do if you and your team wins this competition?

The team has thought about meeting in person and throwing a party.

...

7. What is the best experience you got out of this competition?

TEAMWORK

8. What, in your opinion, is the most important thing about ... being in [a collaborative workgroup]?

Learning each other’s strengths and weaknesses and adjusting the strategies to compensate for them.

...

10. What motivated you the most ... [in this endeavor]:

...Our whole team is competitive by nature and really needed a fresh game to play from the previous game we were playing. The competition came to be a way to prove that we were who we thought we were, the best ...[in] the game.

Here are a handful of individuals who have never met face-to-face, who could be anywhere in the world, but have formed a successful team and are exploring the issues in CSCW. Re-read the above interview with a picture in mind of the leader of a worldwide multi-site Phase III clinical trial for a vaccine for AIDS, a team that is competing with another group that is engaged in a similar endeavor. You will see why I am so impressed.

This gives me a lot of hope that the generation ahead of us, who has takes online communications and relationships for granted all their lives, will be able to break through the cultural barriers that limit the kinds of clinical research endeavors we can undertake and/or the ease with which they can be organized and run. It is possible to envision a time in the not-too-distant future when researchers will think nothing of initiating collaborative research of all kinds on a worldwide basis with colleagues they have never met except online and a subject pool that spans the many races and ethnicities of our little planet. Pervasive computing technologies will make this feasible technically, but it may take a new generation of researchers to fully exploit the possibilities.

And on the day when AIDS, leukemia, or some such terrible disease has been permanently laid to rest by some such enterprise, the team members can all meet in person and throw a party. I hope I live long enough to crash it. ;-)

Originally posted by Hunscher in FutureHIT, Jan 31, 2006 at 06:46 PM | Comments (0)

Storytelling and Systems Development

Storytelling is a great way to communicate the essence of an innovative but yet-to-be-built system to its potential non-IT end users. It is used in this fashion by practitioners of contextual design and HCI, for example this page from boxesandarrows. I believe it's not just for end users, though - it is also a great way to communicate the non-technical requirements of a system to its developers.

Storytelling has long been used in community organization and organizational development (for recent examples, see Chris Corrigan's work and the Story At Work site) but it has only recently begun to take hold in the world of software engineering. (BTW, thanks to the crossimpact site and to Google for making me aware of Chris and Story At Work.) I'll write more on this storytelling and its application in clinical research informatics as I get time...

Originally posted by Hunscher in FutureHIT, Jan 31, 2006 at 06:46 PM | Comments (0)

Plug for APIII 2006

I just received a note saying that the  Advancing Practice, Instruction and Innovation Through Informatics | APIII conference for 2006 has been announced. There are three reasons to go.

1. It is a major opportunity to mingle with leading biomedical informatics innovators. The scope of the talks is said to be limited to pathology and oncology informatics, but it should not be a surprise that much of what you learn there will be applicable in any other biomedical research domain. Pathologists and oncologists are the early adopters of high technology in the world of medicine. There is a heavy emphasis on bioinformatics and lab-related informatics, but there's also content related to controlled vocabularies, business process integration, and human-computer interaction. Last August Linda Yu and I presented a poster about usability evaluation which got a fair amount of attention.
2. It is Vancouver, BC, one of the most beautiful and sophisticated cities in the world. (Caveat: I've only ever been to the US, Canada, England and Peru, so I'm judging on limited firsthand experience and a lot of hearsay.)
3. It is organized by Dr. Mike Becich, who is one of the most knowledgeable, dynamic, capable, and kind people I have ever had the honor to meet. Fun to tip a glass with, too.

I hope to be there this year too. I may describe some aspects of the requirements analysis work I've been doing on a collaboration between UMHS and Velos, Inc. in which I introduced a storytelling component as part of the list of deliverables.

Originally posted by Hunscher in FutureHIT, Jan 31, 2006 at 06:46 PM | Comments (0)

Information organization and perception

One thing I would like to examine during this course and this project is the ways that people understand information differently on the web than they do on paper. Online information is organized in a stacked way—vertically—rather than in a wide field—horizontally. It's much more difficult to look at more than one peice of information at the same time, the way you do when you have books or papers spread out on a table in front of you, but you can jump more quickly from point to point. Surely this difference in context must influence how we perceive and understand the information.

I often wonder, too, if there's a physiological difference between older generations, whose brains developed through learning horizontally organized information, and younger generations, who have learned vertically.

Originally posted by 734elizabeths in Ublog, Jan 31, 2006 at 06:45 PM | Comments (0)

Short but sweet information transfer

One of the appealing things about blogs is that they change frequently - there's always something new to read, and even if a post isn't particularly interesting, it's usually short enough not to be tiresome. There are a few blogs that I read everyday, not because they're so compelling, but because it makes for a short, low-commitment routine while I'm drinking my coffee. If I assume that other people are like me, then the implication for marketing is that you have a cheap and easy way to get people to come back to your message again and again. For a very complex product (such as a university education), a blog can give you a way to show prospects many, many different aspects of the university experience without subjecting them to a barrage of boring rhetoric about "world-class resources" etc. etc. You can offer information in tasty little bite-size pieces.

Originally posted by 734elizabeths in Ublog, Jan 31, 2006 at 06:45 PM | Comments (0)

looking at pop blogs

I spent more time than I meant to today looking at the Technorati "100 Most Popular Blogs," as measured by the number of links to each one. Top of the list is Boing Boing, which isn't too surprising - it's kind of a "something for everyone" spot, with the low time commitment appeal that I was talking about yesterday. Same with PostSecret. And the sites that focus on technogadgetry and political punditry are not surprising either - these are communications early-adopter populations that gravitate naturally to blogging (so much so that maybe instead of "gravitate" I should say "sprout out of the earth" or "spring fully formed from the head of"). It is surprising, though, to find Dooce in spot #11 - it's a daily personal blog, that, while amusing and well-written, isn't particularly unusual these days. Why is it on the list? Was she the first to be fired for blogging about work? I'll have to find out. And tomorrow I'll add links to these blogs, ironically (and minimally) increasing their popularity measure.

Originally posted by 734elizabeths in Ublog, Jan 31, 2006 at 06:45 PM | Comments (0)

On the other hand

When I was in graduate school, I spent a lot of time, of course, in the university library. Standing in the stacks in the linguistics section, I would breath in the smell of dust and paper and look at row after row of books about topics so obscure I didn't know what they were even after five years of graduate study, and topics so dull you couldn't open the book without falling into a death-like sleep, and topics so trivial that it was a miracle someone could find anything at all to say about them, let alone a whole book's worth. Remember the expression "I could write a book about that!!!"? Apparently someone did. The result is that the libraries of the world (and the dumpsters behind them) are overrun with published books full of information that nobody needs. But that's nothing compared to the uselessness of knowledge that can be spread throught the Internet. With published books, in the main, there's at least some review and thought that goes into the decision to publish: will this be of enough value to someone that they will be willing to pay money for it? But with blogging in particular, no thought need go into it at all—everything is flung out on the table. This both bleaches out any credibility the text may have, and enhances it.

Originally posted by 734elizabeths in Ublog, Jan 31, 2006 at 06:45 PM | Comments (0)

Daily commitments

Students are really busy - they're scheduled to a fare-the-well, and have homework on top of it, and a social life, and they have to sleep sometime. One of the problems I foresee with student blogs is helping the students maintain their commitment to post regularly. I'll have to put some thought and research into managing that; nothing springs to mind other than the fact that I myself have only been trying to keep this blog going for five days and it's already getting painful.

Originally posted by 734elizabeths in Ublog, Jan 31, 2006 at 06:45 PM | Comments (0)

Med School Student Journals

The U-M medical school has just launched its own student journals: "A Dose of Reality" (www.med.umich.edu/medschool/reality). Ironically, they asked me for pointers when they first thought of the idea - and here they are implementing it before me! On the other hand, if they can get med school students to take the time for this, I think I can get undergraduates to volunteer.

Originally posted by 734elizabeths in Ublog, Jan 31, 2006 at 06:45 PM | Comments (0)

What's the Goal?

The first step in setting up a student recruitment blog is to figure out exactly what you want it to do. I think it should do what all the marketing and communications from a university admissions department do: it should give prospective student true information about what kind of education and experience they might expect at your school. If this information leads them to decide that the school is a good match for their abilities, interests, and personalities, it should prompt them to apply. If they apply and have been accepted, it should prompt them to enroll.

There area couple of aspects to blogging that make it ideal for this purpose. First, if blogs are written by students and are clearly unedited, it makes the information much more real and true. Second, admissions office blogs can give a candid, behind-the-scenes look at a process that often seems to outsiders to be arbitrary and impenetrable - which can build confidence in the application decision goals of the office and the university. Third, it can give a level of detail that isn't really appropriate for other marketing pieces. For example, students from Southern California may wonder what it's really like to live through an Upper Midwest winter; an official university website couldn't really answer that, but a blogger could.

Originally posted by 734elizabeths in Ublog, Jan 31, 2006 at 06:45 PM | Comments (0)

Protecting the Student

If undergraduate students, especially freshmen, participate in an online student journal project, it is very important that they understand from the outset how to protect their privacy online. The freshman year can be a confusing time for students. Msot of them are living away from home for the first time, and typically coincides with their eighteenth birthday, when they become legal adults. It's necessary for them to take on much more responsibility for their own actions and their own safety than they ever have before. Most colleges and universities are very serious about protecting their students as much as possible, but their rights to protect students are limited. In addition, many people of all ages don't realize that putting any information of any kind anywhere in the blogosphere makes that information available to whoever finds it. It's necessary to start a student blogging project with a firm understanding of the following principle:
-Do not include any information that makes it easy to find your dorm room, your phone number, or your home address. This would include things like your (or anyone else's) last name, photos of the door to your room or your car's license plate, or your university computing name.

Originally posted by 734elizabeths in Ublog, Jan 31, 2006 at 06:45 PM | Comments (0)

Interactivity

I wonder whether making a student blog participatory like Slashdot (http://slashdot.org) would be appealing. Maybe something done independently from an official university site - sort of a college search forum blog. Hmm. I bet it would get popular fast.

Originally posted by 734elizabeths in Ublog, Jan 31, 2006 at 06:45 PM | Comments (0)

Enthusiasm

It's kind of amazing to me that so many students are willing to spend their time recruiting for their own college. For me, it's just one more example of the exceeding energy of this generation, and the lethargy of mine.

Originally posted by 734elizabeths in Ublog, Jan 31, 2006 at 06:45 PM | Comments (0)

ann arbor is overrated?

In the "ann arbor is overrated" blog (ann arbor is overrated. ? Blog Archive ? A^2^n) I found this comment:

"It is no revelation that here, there are no salad bars or decent places to get healthy, cheap food that doesn’t give bacterial stomach infections.
The best food we’ve had here for under $40 a plate was made in our house. Contrasting this with every other place we’ve lived and we weep. "

I don't mind people bashing Ann Arbor or its food generally, but this was the last straw. Assuming the author does not live in a household of gourmands, he must simply be oblivious to the many fine restaurants here. Therefore, I am starting this blog. Its mission: to help people find the best Ann Arbor area food at the cheapest price.

Originally posted by Hunscher in eatout-annarbor, Jan 31, 2006 at 06:42 PM | Comments (0)

Café Verde

The person quoted in the previous post can be forgiven on one basis, which is that s/he was writing in 2003, before the Food Bar at Café Verde on Fourth Street hit its stride. At this point, is is a great place to get decent, cheap food, including a reasonably diverse salad bar, two or three excellent soups, and hot bar items ranging from organic roast chicken to vegan/macrobiotic dishes.

Blatantly stealing from the current-as-I-write-this version of their Web site, here is their description of what they offer at the Food Bar:

Sample Sunday Brunch Menu:

Smoked Mozzarella Frittata, Cinnamon French Toast, Buttermilk Pancakes, Tofu Scramble, Herb Roasted Potatoes, plus oatmeal, granola, yogurt, cottage cheese, organic fruit salad, and more.

Sample Lunch & Dinner Menu:

Soups: Chicken Noodle; West African Peanut; Potato, Leek & Celery Root
Entrees: Linguine with Tuna,Capers and Olive Oil; Szechuan Tofu and Broccoli
Side Dishes: Organic Herb Garlic Potatoes; Brussels Sprouts; Organic Kale; Organic Brown Basmati Rice; Black Beans; Baked Chicken Pieces (Antibiotic- & Hormone-free Free-range)

Typical Salad Bar Items:

mixed greens spinach parsley red onion sprouts celery bell pepper

radish cucumber tomatoes broccoli red cabbage carrots green onions

feta cheese hummus baba ganouj pasta salad barley salad lentil salad yogurt

marinated tofu sesame sticks peanuts raisins sunflower seeds pumpkin seeds garbanzo beans

kalamata olives pickled beets parmesan cheese cottage cheese pita chips croutons

Because the food is mostly organically grown and very fresh, a meal there is not what I would call cheap. I reserve that term for meals at fast food restaurants; for example, at Wendy's you can get a junior bacon cheeseburger, medium fries and a frosty for a little over three bucks. The only problem is, after you buy it, you have to eat it.

I confess to having done so on numerous occasions, especially when on the road, and to have been satisfied with what I got for what I paid. However, when I compare this to a meal that costs a little over twice the price at Café Verde, there is no comparison. A huge fresh organic salad and a bowl of West African Peanut soup with a nice hunk of bread might set you back $7-8.00, but the quality of the ingredients is very high, the meal is both filling and a delight to eat, and it's good for you to boot.

To offset that effect, if you find it undesirable, head to the espresso bar up front and get yourself a large latté made with whole milk and double vanilla flavoring, and a completely unhealthy dessert. The coffee is all Fair Trade, soy creamer is available, and almost-completely-unhealthy vegan desserts are available.

The atmosphere is on the crunchy-granola side, which suits my taste as an aging Boomer, but the crowd is very diverse. The wireless access is free and as fast as any I've found around town. Computer geeks from the Menlo Institute next door wander in and out, including their generated and veneered leader, Rich Sheridan, who can entertain you with lengthy and animated renditions of old Firesign Theater acts. Now that's something you can't get at the $40-a-plate places. Each to his taste, but this place has everything I need in the way of cheap, healthy eats.

Originally posted by Hunscher in eatout-annarbor, Jan 31, 2006 at 06:42 PM | Comments (0)

Tip Jar

If you give a large enough gift, I will cure cancer and create a peaceful world in which everyone has everything they need, and nobody gets two cookies until everybody gets one. Smaller gifts will be spent on cigars, port-barreled Glenmorangie single-malt scotch, late-bottled-vintage port, and donations to Food First. Not necessarily in that order.

Originally posted by Hunscher in eatout-annarbor, Jan 31, 2006 at 06:42 PM | Comments (0)

Oasis Grill

You can find the Oasis Grill at 1104 South University, next to the National City ATM at the corner of East University.  It is the descendant of the hole-in-the-wall Oasis snack bar that is now a candy shop.  Both the new Oasis Grill and the candy store are owned and run by the same folks who do the Rendezvous just east of the candy store.

My wife and I used to love getting food from the Oasis and eating outside on the picnic table in front in warm weather. We'll see if that still will be possible next spring. The new place has most of the same food, but a bit upgraded in my opinion. I love Middle Eastern food because it is so healthy compared to the grease-laden fast food alternatives. Some of my favorites there:

• Tabbouli, a salad made from parsley and cracked wheat (aka bulgur), along with lemon juice, a bit of tomato, and some additional herbs. Sounds jarring from a traditional American perspective, where parsley is a decoration on the edge of the plate that we throw away after eating the meat and potatoes.
• Fattoush, a salad with bits of pita bread and yummy dressing.
• Felafel, a deep-fried croquet sort of thing made from chickpeas ground up and mixes with spices. Typically you eat felafel wrapped up in a pita with lettuce, tomato, and sesame tahini sauce, but felafel can be put on top of any of their salads (as can chicken or beef shawarma).
• Chicken or beef shawarma, usually eaten in a pita bread sandwich but also available as an entrée. Spicy but not hot-spicy.

The one thing we miss is the tofu fapita, which was a kind of pita sandwich with cubed tofu simmered in a spice sauce. It was totally not Middle Eastern, but amazingly good and nutritious.

I don't know if you can take food from here over to Rendezvous, as you used to be able to do with the food from the hole-in-the-wall place.  It was nice in the winter to take a felafel sandwich or tofu fapita over to Rendezvous to eat with an espresso.

All in all, a new favorite fast-food place for me.

Originally posted by Hunscher in eatout-annarbor, Jan 31, 2006 at 06:42 PM | Comments (0)

Best Beer in Town

My vote: Leopold's, just south of Downtown on Main. The beer is microbrewed on-site, excellent, and organic to boot to satisfy your inner granola-child. The place is a bit like an airplane hangar, but the food is pretty good and it is a great place to take a big bunch of your friends. The picnic table seating works well, and they have all the usual bar games, plus a living-room like area with stuffed chairs and couches and whatnot. But you're there for the beer.

Students (and everybody else): don't drink and drive. It's an easy walk from campus.

Originally posted by Hunscher in eatout-annarbor, Jan 31, 2006 at 06:42 PM | Comments (0)

Will Super Bowl momentum continue?

The Super Bowl is expected to bring $300 million dollars into the city of Detroit.  While this city has been going through a revival for several years, can an event like the Super Bowl sustain the energy and growth in the city?  Can this momentum of new commerce and so-called tourism continue on February 6 and beyond?

I hope so, but the cynic in me thinks that Detroit will continue to be a commuter city.  It'll take a lot more than the Super Bowl to keep the people from the suburbs downtown.  Truthfully, I am ready as the next person to head downtown for the sports, parties, restaurants, work, but I'm not ready to look for an apartment downtown. 

-Jovina

Originally posted by jovinaj in Jovina Jasa, Jan 31, 2006 at 05:37 PM | Comments (0)

Big City Small World Bakery

I love this place so much, I've posted my comments on 2 different websites!  See nicetaste.com or yelp.com for my reviewss

Originally posted by blockcolors4 in PsychTree Auxin, Jan 31, 2006 at 02:52 PM | Comments (0)

User Requirement

Originally in Tony Chan Weblog, Jan 31, 2006 at 12:22 PM | Comments (0)

Looking for used

While out looking for interesting news in the tech space I came upon a blog called Book Of Joe. Two of the most recent of Joe's posts talk about new websites.

The first is a site that helps you track the price of items on Amazon. You simply load in the ISBN and the site will track Amazon's price, the used price on Amazon, and the change since the last update. I am dissapointed by this site only in that it didn't come out sooner. This would have been great for helping me decide when to buy my books for school. However, now that I am in my last semester it won't help much for text books. Check it out here: I Feel So Used.

The second site is a bit of fun. MyHeritage.com is run by a group of people with a strong passion for genealogy. This site allows you to upload a photo which it then scans and compares to its database of celebrity photos to find up to 10 celebrities whom you most closely resemble. It will also give you the accuracy of the match. I tried two different photos. The first returned a match of approximately 65% with Henry Fonda, the second a match of 52% with Michael Crichton. According to the site my wife has a 68% match with Beyonce Knowles. Lucky me! Who do you resemble?

Originally posted by huffy in Huff's Blog, Jan 31, 2006 at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)

The joy of follies

A highlight of my first year in business school was my participation in Follies. Last year, I was a part of the opening medley and I got an opportunity to moonwalk across stage as Michael Jackson and then render a modified version of ‘We are the world’. The experience was a blast as much for the camaraderie during the practices as it was for the final show itself. Follies is a great way for the business school community to poke harmless fun at itself and blow off some steam.

I’ve been looking forward to Follies this year, though it is something of a bittersweet feeling because it marks the beginning of the end of my business school experience. I’ve ratcheted up my involvement this time and co-written and co-directed a skit along with being a cast member. I can’t tell you more than that for we’re in triple secret lock down. Seriously. Follies will be staged on February 10th and 11th 2006 at 6:30PM at the Michigan theater. This is one show not to be missed!

Originally posted by dhamdhere in Aashish's Blog, Jan 31, 2006 at 11:22 AM | Comments (0)

Links for 2006-01-30 [del.icio.us]

• THE ANTI-BUSH VIDEO GAME
• WorkingForChange : About Us
• World's leading source for promising new business ideas, concepts and innovations.
• TRENDWATCHING.COM: now the world's most visited source for Consumer Trends and Insights.
• Rajesh Jain's Weblog on Emerging Technologies, Enterprises and Markets
• Return of Design - Web Color Schemes
• Web Design Tutorials, Web Development Development tutorials, references and guides
• NASA - Science@NASA

Originally in Things I've Noticed, Jan 31, 2006 at 01:22 AM | Comments (0)

Free Wi-Fi Hotspots out there?

Yes, this is where you find that.

wififreespot.com is a nifty website that provides a list of free wifi spots around the world. Though they try to keep the list upto date, it could have some faulty information.

Steve Lokam

Originally posted by slokam in Steve Lokam Blogs, Jan 31, 2006 at 12:22 AM | Comments (0)

January 30, 2006

Have trouble remembering things? Its because you're too smart!

This is the best news since I found out I was overweight because of my gene's. Finally I know why I can never remember anything, it must be because I am really really smart !!  Don't believe me? Check out this article.  It conclusively proves that....uhh, what were we talking about? 

Link via Digg

Originally posted by SaltRose in Anant's WebLog, Jan 30, 2006 at 11:37 PM | Comments (0)

Do people really care about the environment?

There's a new Washington Post article that cites recent market research as proof that people don't really care about fuel economy, even if resources are becoming scarcer, prices for fuel are...

25% Humor, 25% Philosophy, 25% Sociology, 25% Politics, oh and I am a car fanatic

Originally in Things I've Noticed, Jan 30, 2006 at 08:37 PM | Comments (0)

Welcome to Detroit: it's more than meets the eye

The old, ugly images are the easiest ones to recall, to ridicule, so people do. All we're saying is, plenty has changed, if anyone dares to look. - Bob Wojnowski

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060130/SPORTS08/601300352

Bob Wojnowski made a great point in the Detroit News today.  While parts of Detroit are a sight for sore eyes (abandoned buildings, broken windows, empty lots) much has changed in this city.  We have a lot to be proud of and shouldn't look at the negtive aspects of our city. 

True Detroit does not have the glitz and glamour of Miami or LA, or even the excitment in NYC. But, Detroit has the original blue collar ethic that hard work and effort will lead to rewards.  We've got great sports and great teams who capture the blue collar ethic.  Even the Piston's team motto is "Goin to Work."  The white collar jobs in this city have a blue collar tone too.

The past few years we've seen a new Ford Field, Tiger's Stadium, increase in downtown commerce (Compuware building, Ernst and Young, etc.) new lofts, new restaurants, new retail outlets, new, new, new.....  We were proud to have the Amistad dock it's historic ship on our waters, proud to celebrate 300 years of Detroit, proud to be home to the Big Three, and are proud to host Super Bowl XL. 

I work downtown and I feel change in the air as I walk around the town.  There's a feeling of excitement and revival.  I know it's been a long, slow process, but it's worth the wait.

We have a lot to be proud of Detroit.  And the world may talk about the negtives, but they will for sure see many of the positive. 

-Jovina

Originally posted by jovinaj in Jovina Jasa, Jan 30, 2006 at 08:37 PM | Comments (0)

New Lions Defensive Coordinator Announcement

Lions News:

Photo Credit: Bill Haber/AP file

Donnie Henderson is the new defensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions.  He recently spent two seasons with the New York Jets and has been credited with the Jet's return to the playoffs in 2004.

see article on MSNBC for more info:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11090266/

As I stated before, it's going to take a lot to turn the Lions around.  But I'm hoping that the shake-up in the coaching staff is a step in the right direction. 

-Jovina

Originally posted by jovinaj in Jovina Jasa, Jan 30, 2006 at 06:07 PM | Comments (0)

GameTomorrow

I have been researching Carolyn Watters' use of online games in providing remote care to children with cancer, and decided to look into the uses of gaming for serious purposes. First I needed to understand something about online games. I figure the action would be in multi-player online role-playing games (MPoRPG), and started with IBM people's blogs, since they have been a reliable source for sniffing the leading edge of new trends in IT. There I found a blog called GameTomorrow which had an entry in which the blogger interviewed a member of one of the two finalist teams in the Batttlefield 2 Tournament, a MPoRPG contest with a $250,000 prize. (That's right, grownups - your child might be playing for big bucks, unbeknownst to you.)

This isn't a game that's really in the same category of Carolyn Watters' work - Battlefield 2 is something like the game equivalent of "splatter films" like the 1974 film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (which was remade, as if we asked them to, in 2003). The game is not the interesting part here, though - it's the depiction of how the team got to the point they are at in the tournament.

What struck me most about the interview is summed up in these quotes. I have taken the liberty of removing the Battlefield 2 aspects to focus on their approach to what amounts to computer-supported collaborative work.

1. What is the number one special tactic that you used during this competition so far?

REAL TIME strategy change. When it appears that the strategy being used is not working we, have made all attempts to have back up strategies ready to deploy with smooth transitions. That in itself is a strategy.

...

3. What is the first thing you will do if you and your team wins this competition?

The team has thought about meeting in person and throwing a party.

...

7. What is the best experience you got out of this competition?

TEAMWORK

8. What, in your opinion, is the most important thing about ... being in [a collaborative workgroup]?

Learning each other’s strengths and weaknesses and adjusting the strategies to compensate for them.

...

10. What motivated you the most ... [in this endeavor]:

...Our whole team is competitive by nature and really needed a fresh game to play from the previous game we were playing. The competition came to be a way to prove that we were who we thought we were, the best ...[in] the game.

Here are a handful of individuals who have never met face-to-face, who could be anywhere in the world, but have formed a successful team and are exploring the issues in CSCW. Re-read the above interview with a picture in mind of the leader of a worldwide multi-site Phase III clinical trial for a vaccine for AIDS, a team that is competing with another group that is engaged in a similar endeavor. You will see why I am so impressed.

This gives me a lot of hope that the generation ahead of us, who has takes online communications and relationships for granted all their lives, will be able to break through the cultural barriers that limit the kinds of clinical research endeavors we can undertake and/or the ease with which they can be organized and run. It is possible to envision a time in the not-too-distant future when researchers will think nothing of initiating collaborative research of all kinds on a worldwide basis with colleagues they have never met except online and a subject pool that spans the many races and ethnicities of our little planet. Pervasive computing technologies will make this feasible technically, but it may take a new generation of researchers to fully exploit the possibilities.

And on the day when AIDS, leukemia, or some such terrible disease has been permanently laid to rest by some such enterprise, the team members can all meet in person and throw a party. I hope I live long enough to crash it. ;-)

Originally posted by Hunscher in FutureHIT, Jan 30, 2006 at 02:07 PM | Comments (0)

Now a 5-blade razor from Gillette..

Originally in Dany Kurian's Blog, Jan 30, 2006 at 01:22 PM | Comments (0)

Links for 2006-01-29 [del.icio.us]

• Detroit Style Pride
• Holophonic Sound - Audio So Real It's Scary
• IrfanView - one of the most popular viewers worldwide
• [arbinger:systems] home
  A sound sampler of anything coming through the PC speakers
• ESPNsoccernet.com - The World's Site for the World Game
• Mark Ridley's Comedy Castle - Metro Detroit's Premier Comedy Club
• Music Downloads - Download Music - Digital Music Downloads - Download Online Music
• RedOrbit - Space, Science, Technology News & Information
• Saab 9-3 and 900(GM) : Technical help: Mechanical, electrical, gearbox, body and more - Saab Central
• Shopzilla - Product Reviews and Price Comparison on Computers, Electronics, Clothing, Furniture & More!
• Standardshift.com :: Index
• TechnoRide - The Car Site for Tech Fans
• The Truth About Cars
• Unreal Pics
• Ward's Auto World
• Daily New Car Reviews By CarReviewsOnline.com
• Saab's Global 9-3 SportCombi Website
• Inside Line: Forums by Edmunds
• www.airtab.com - The smart way to cut the cost of your highway fuel costs
  An aero aid that helps reduce drag for vehicles, especially trucks, helps save fuel
• TYPEDRAWiNG | created by storyabout.net
  Cool site to make drawings with words, lots of fun
• Census 2000 Summary Data for: City of Royal Oak, Michigan
• FEEL Saira.com
  Just an amazingly cool site by an Indian model
• WORDCOUNT / Tracking the Way We Use Language /
  Another really cool site that will show how often any word (including names) is used in the English language
• YouSendIt: The Leader in File Delivery.
  Utility to send large files, up to 1 GB
• Tata Motors - HomePage
  Indian Car Company Website
• Welcome to The Simpsons.com
  Simpsons episode guid
• Web compilation
  Site that lets you feed other sites into one

Originally in Things I've Noticed, Jan 30, 2006 at 01:07 AM | Comments (0)

Littering

So there is an article about Detroits efforts to clean up before the SuperBowl. (See the trackback below). I was neutral about the whole thing there, but I have to vent here. It's amazing how many...

25% Humor, 25% Philosophy, 25% Sociology, 25% Politics, oh and I am a car fanatic

Originally in Things I've Noticed, Jan 30, 2006 at 12:22 AM | Comments (0)

Water doesn't drain backward in the Southern Hemisphere and other myths debunked

All those things about science that you assumed to be true, well they're not all true. This article has a list of the Top 10 Science Myths and it clarifies which ones are true and which ones aren't....

25% Humor, 25% Philosophy, 25% Sociology, 25% Politics, oh and I am a car fanatic

Originally in Things I've Noticed, Jan 30, 2006 at 12:22 AM | Comments (0)

January 29, 2006

Shogi#6

This is the last post for Shogi and I will explain "draws" and introduce a good link which covers Shogi terms very well.                                                                                                                                                                                              

Draws

The game of Shogi has very few draws, mainly because of the possibility to drop pieces. Draws cannot be offered and can arise from two situations:

·       A position (including the pieces in hand) occurs 4 times with the same player to move ("Sennichite"). However, if this is caused by consecutive checks (direct attacks on the King, threatening to capture it on the next move) by one side, the player giving these checks loses the game.

·       Both players have moved their King into the the promotion zone (or they cannot be prevented to do so) and the Kings cannot be checkmated. In that case the players may decide to count their pieces where the King does not count, the Rook and Bishop count as 5 points, and all other pieces as one point. Promotion is disregarded. If both players have at least 24 points the game is a draw ("Jishogi"). If a player has less, he loses the game. But in fact, this rule is not strictly applied except official conventions.

Terms

·       Here click

The talking about Shogi is finished here. I hope any comment on Shogi and am looking forward to playing Shogi with someone who look this blogs...

See you again!

Originally posted by interneths in Searching weblog, Jan 29, 2006 at 11:52 PM | Comments (0)

UN Backs the sub $100 laptop

The $100 laptop is an admirable effort to share technology with those that need it the most.  Developing nations without the infrastructure available in western countries really need the ability to get on the tech bandwagon. Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Nicholas Negropont has developed the laptop that will cost less then $100.  It will have a crank for power and the ability to network with laptops around it, allowing for mini-networks in remote schools located in areas without the benefit of wi-fi.

Link via Gizmodo

Originally posted by SaltRose in Anant's WebLog, Jan 29, 2006 at 10:52 PM | Comments (0)

Ramen #1

Originally in My life in Ann Arbor, Jan 29, 2006 at 06:07 PM | Comments (0)

Detroit Artists Market

This Tuesday I am totally going to check out the Detroit Artists Market.  Anyone want to join me?  Cause they sound fantastic, self described as an organization that "educated the Detroit Metropolitan Community about the work of emerging and established Detroit and Michigan artists through exhibitions, sales and related programs."

Right now through Feb. 5th they are hosting the "Detroit Design Show" which is a group show, featuring the work of both furniture and fashion designers.  They also promise motorcycles and a live runway for the opening night, but sadly I think I have missed that.  Maybe afterward we can pop on over to Governor Jennifer Granholm's house in Lansing to check out the Governor's residence Michigan Artists Program.  Do you think we can just ring the doorbell and she'll let us in?

Artist artist artist artist Detroit Detroit Detroit Detroit Fashion fashion fashion fashion 

Gallery Hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 11 am - 6 pm

Artist artist artist artist Detroit Detroit Detroit Detroit Fashion fashion fashion fashion 

Originally posted by beisen in Corporate Social Responsibility?, Jan 29, 2006 at 05:22 PM | Comments (0)

More Chocolate on the Paintbrush

While the previous painting effort seems a little too abstract, here is something which is more easy to figure out.

Image courtesy: About.com

Originally posted by ankita_k in MBAByte, Jan 29, 2006 at 05:07 PM | Comments (0)

Chocolate on a Paintbrush

Apparently Nutella, that goo-ey chocolate-y hazelnut spread, has uses beyond eating. Namely, Body or Action Painting with Nutella.

Image courtesy: gigipadovani.it

Originally posted by ankita_k in MBAByte, Jan 29, 2006 at 05:07 PM | Comments (0)

Sustainable Golfing

Originally in Perpetual Flux, Jan 29, 2006 at 03:07 PM | Comments (0)

IBM Exec Challenges B-School Students

Originally in Perpetual Flux, Jan 29, 2006 at 02:22 PM | Comments (0)

Should Municipalities run their own wireless networks? (Post 1 of 3)

This is a follow up post to the one that I posted regarding Oakland county becoming wireless soon. However, there is a big debate going on in the wireless world. Should counties like Oakland County in Michigan, municipalities and local governments install and run their own wireless networks.

Ed Vielmetti in one of his posts (YI-Tan call on Municipal Wireless) says that there is a big debate among local carriers and the local governments about this topic.

More on this in posts to follow.

Steve Lokam
http://stevelokam.typepad.com

Originally posted by slokam in Steve Lokam Blogs, Jan 29, 2006 at 12:07 PM | Comments (0)

Blog Structure

Strategy to Join Together the Group Blogs (Draft 1)

Main Blog: www.nicetaste.com 

This is our main blog facing target audience where the entire restaurant reviews, images and comments reside. This will also be where the future advertisement spots reside, our main revenue source.

Each team member can post to this blog with contents written by themselves or source from friends and others.

Hub Blog: http://hunscher.suprglu.com/

This is the blog for internal communication between the team members regarding the progress of the project, new ideas, status, experience and lesson learned, etc.

This blog is built using Suprglu to join together all four personal blogs where each member can personally post their communications on their own blog and the information will flow into this center blog.

Personal Blog: (one from each team member)

http://hunscher.typepad.com/eatoutinannarbor/

http://psychtree.typepad.com/psychtree_auxin/

http://shawnye.blogs.com/my_weblog/

http://www.htchan.com/tony/

Personal blogs also serve as feeder blogs including the personal blogs should help to drive traffic to the hub, and each such related blog entry should be written as a “teaser”, or summary, then link to the entry in the hub blog.

Here is the structure:

Originally posted by shawnye in Shawn's Weblog, Jan 29, 2006 at 11:37 AM | Comments (0)

GameTomorrow

I have been researching Carolyn Watters' use of online games in providing remote care to children with cancer, and decided to look into the uses of gaming for serious purposes. First I needed to understand something about online games. I figure the action would be in multi-player online role-playing games (MPoRPG), and started with IBM people's blogs, since they have been a reliable source for sniffing the leading edge of new trends in IT. There I found a blog called GameTomorrow which had an entry in which the blogger interviewed a member of one of the two finalist teams in the Batttlefield 2 Tournament, a MPoRPG contest with a $250,000 prize. (That's right, grownups - your child might be playing for big bucks, unbeknownst to you.)

This isn't a game that's really in the same category of Carolyn Watters' work - Battlefield 2 is something like the game equivalent of "splatter films" like the 1974 film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (which was remade, as if we asked them to, in 2003).

OK, to the point. What struck me most about the interview is summed up in these quotes. I have taken the liberty of removing the Battlefield 2 aspects to focus on their approach to what amounts to computer-supported collaborative work:

1. What is the number one special tactic that you used during this competition so far?

REAL TIME strategy change. When it appears that the strategy being used is not working we, have made all attempts to have back up strategies ready to deploy with smooth transitions. That in itself is a strategy.

...

3. What is the first thing you will do if you and your team wins this competition?

The team has thought about meeting in person and throwing a party.

...

7. What is the best experience you got out of this competition? Pro $kills: TEAMWORK

8. What, in your opinion, is the most important thing about ... being in [a collaborative workgroup]?

Learning each other’s strengths and weaknesses and adjusting the strategies to compensate for them.

...

10. What motivated you the most ... [in this endeavor]:

...Our whole team is competitive by nature and really needed a fresh game to play from the previous game we were playing. The competition came to be a way to prove that we were who we thought we were, the best ...[in] the game.

Here are a handful of individuals who have never met face-to-face, who could be anywhere in the world, but have formed a successful team and are exploring the issues in CSCW.

This gives me a lot of hope that the generation ahead of us, who has takes online communications and relationships for granted all their lives, will be able to break through the cultural barriers that limit the kinds of clinical research endeavors we can undertake. It is possible to envision a time in the not-too-distant future when researchers will think nothing of initiating collaborative research of all kinds on a worldwide basis with colleagues they have never met except online. Pervasive computing technologies will make this feasible technically, but it may take a new generation of researchers to fully exploit the possibilities.

And on the day when AIDS, leukemia, or some such terrible disease has been permanently laid to rest by some such enterprise, the team members can all meet in person and throw a party. I hope I live long enough to crash it. ;-)

Originally posted by Hunscher in FutureHIT, Jan 29, 2006 at 11:37 AM | Comments (0)

Links for 2006-01-28 [del.icio.us]

• Cleveland Indians : The Official Site
• Cleveland Browns
• THE OFFICIAL SITE OF THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS

Originally in Things I've Noticed, Jan 29, 2006 at 01:07 AM | Comments (0)

January 28, 2006

Perfect combination beer and technology!!

Life doesnt get any better then this, an example of technology at its finest.  If only they had things like this when I was in college, the sheer productivity gains would have allowed me to graduate in 4 years instead of the 7 it took me.  A beer pouring, chilling storing robot!!

Link Via Gizmodo

Originally posted by SaltRose in Anant's WebLog, Jan 28, 2006 at 10:37 PM | Comments (0)

The Detroit Project

If you are interested in getting involved in revitalizing the city, doing volunteer work and connecting with the Detroit community, you should check out the student-run service learning organization:   The Detroit Project.

Their mission statement is:

"We, The Detroit Project, exist to unite the University of Michigan and greater community with the Detroit community, to create lasting change, and to maintain fulfilling partnerships by addressing social issues surrounding Detroit through active service learning."

What I think is fantastic about this organization is the variety of volunteer opportunities it offers.  You can do a one-time project (mostly on the weekend or on Fridays) or volunteer for weekly projects such as mentoring or neighborood clean-up.  They do most of their work in the same 2 communities which allows you to build a connection with the people and community with whom you are working, rather than dropping in to a random and less fortunate neighborhood for a day of "good deeds."

The mass meeting in MONDAY, JANUARY 30th in the Michigan Union

volunteer volunteer volunteer volunteer volunteer volunteer volunteer volunteer volunteer volunteer

volunteer volunteer volunteer volunteer volunteer volunteer volunteer volunteer volunteer volunteer

volunteer volunteer volunteer volunteer volunteer volunteer volunteer volunteer volunteer volunteer

volunteer volunteer volunteer volunteer volunteer volunteer volunteer volunteer volunteer volunteer

Official website of The Detroit Project

http://www.umich.edu/~thedp/

Detroit culture museum sports Masonic Detroit culture museum sports Detroit culture museum sports Detroit culture museum sports Detroit culture Detroit culture Detroit culture Detroit culture Detroit culture Detroit culture Detroit Culture Detroit culture Detroit culture Detroit culture Detroit culture Detroit culture Detroit culture Detroit culture Detroit culture Detroit Culture Detroit culture Detroit culture Detroit culture Detroit culture Detroit culture Detroit culture Detroit

Originally posted by beisen in Corporate Social Responsibility?, Jan 28, 2006 at 05:07 PM | Comments (0)

Conversation partner

I got conversation partner. Hope have a lot of fun!

See you soon...

Originally posted by interneths in Searching weblog, Jan 28, 2006 at 03:07 PM | Comments (0)

Another challenger for Google

There was a time when I used many different search engines. I even used Dogpile, a metasearch engine for my online results. However, over time I have migrated to using Google almost exclusively. Occasionally I'll bounce around to other search engines such as Ask.com or MSN, but those instances are few and far between. From time to time I hear news about a new approach to search or a new competitor for Google, but I rarely even give the new site a try.

Yesterday, SiliconBeat had a post on the latest in efforts to compete with Google. The story, Kosmix raises cash for a new search engine -- to compete with Google, talks about Kosmix' new approach to search. This one caught my eye. The problem with search engines is they often return irrelevant results mixed in with the relevant results. Depending on your search term, you could end up browsing through page after page of search results before finding the site you are looking for. Here's the SiliconBeat summary of Kosmix.

They are making an audaciously risky bet that they can crack the code on a vexing problem in search: finding the meanin