Microsoft | Shepherd's Pi

Gunning the Microsoft Semantic Engine

Posted on December 15, 2009 by lewisshepherd

New Bing Maps Beta with embedded data layers from Twitter and other social feeds, click to enlarge screenshot

There’s a lot of information on the Internet already. Every day, more is added – a lot more. And while there are a concomitant number of new analytic or sense-making tools on the web, they butt up against the fact that the data – the all-important data – is held in multiple places, formats, and platforms.

How are we going to deal with all this? One approach is almost mechanical: ensuring that datasets can be accessed commonly, as in our new Microsoft Dallas platform associated with the Windows Azure cloud platform. In the government realm, the anticipated reliance on “government-as-a-platform” (a meme popularized by Tim O’Reilly) holds promise in allowing somewhat aggregated datasets, openly accessible.

Continue reading →

Filed under: innovation, Microsoft, R&D, Technology | Tagged: Alien, API, BI, Bing, Bing Maps, data, database, desktop search, developer, Duncan Davenport, GAAP, Google, Government, IDC, information work, information worker, Intelligence, internet, KM, knowledge management, Los Angeles, Microsoft, Microsoft Semantic Engine, MSE, Naveen Garg, PDC, REST, search, search engine, semantic, SQL, SQL Server, T-SQL, text, Tim O'Reilly, UI, unstructured data, UX, web, Windows 7, www | 3 Comments »

Why a Cloudlet Beats the Cloud for Mobile Apps

Posted on December 13, 2009 by lewisshepherd

Sure, you know cloud computing. You also know a bit about so-called “private clouds,” which enterprises and government agencies are exploring as an option to combine the power and scale of virtualized cloud architectures with security and control over data.

But what do you know of Cloudlets? They may just be a key to the future of mobile computing.

That’s a possible conclusion from the results so far of a Microsoft Research family of projects called MAUI, short for Mobile Assistance Using Infrastructure. The MAUI approach is to enable a new class of CPU-intensive, and data-intensive, applications for mobile devices – but enable them in a new way. Today’s mobile devices can’t run such apps, at least not well. And if they stick to the cloud they may never do so.

I’ve just read a fundamental MAUI paper published last month in the IEEE’s Pervasive Computing journal: “The Case for VM-based Cloudlets in Mobile Computing” (November 2009, co-authored by MSR’s Paramvir Bahl along with colleagues from Carnegie Mellon University, AT&T Research, and Lancaster University).

Continue reading →

Filed under: innovation, Microsoft, R&D, Technology | Tagged: AT&T, bandwidth, Carnegie Mellon, cellphone, cloud, cloud computing, cloudlet, CMU, internet, IT, Lancaster University, latency, Microsoft, Microsoft Research, mobile, mobile computing, MSR, Parambir Bahl, private cloud, R&D, research, smartphone, tech, Technology, virtual, virtual machine, virtualization, VM, VMs, wan | 8 Comments »

Undercover Grrl Band Techno Rave

Posted on December 12, 2009 by lewisshepherd

Friday I had an interesting meeting with Dawn Meyerriecks, who has just begun her new role as the Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Acquisition and Technology. (Read the DNI’s statement on her appointment here in pdf, her bio here, and some reaction – all positive – here and here.)

Never mind what we actually were talking about, she asked me in so it isn’t appropriate to write about that. But to be honest I spent my drive home thinking about the atmospherics and significance of her holding that post in any case. In a companion post later (“The Purple History of Intelink“) I’ll comment on the significance of her prior background in the Defense Department.

But more striking, right off the bat, is the fact that DNI Dennis Blair has an impressive number of women in high-ranking senior leadership positions. And it’s not just the number, but the particular positions they hold that I like: Dawn Meyerriecks is DDNI/A&T, Priscilla Guthrie is Assistant DNI and Chief Information Officer, Marilyn Vacca is Assistant DNI and Chief Financial Officer. Lisa Porter leads the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency IARPA (I’ve written about her before). Continue reading →

Filed under: Government, Intelligence, Society, Technology | Tagged: acquisition, Carol Bartz, ceo, CFO, cio, Clara Raubertasa, COBOL, computer, computers, Danah Boyd, Dawn Meyerriecks, Defense, Defense Department, Dennis Blair, Department of Defense, DNI, DoD, engineering, espionage, Esther Dyson, Fast Company, female, feminism, feminist, finance, financial, gender, Grace Hopper, grrlpower, IARPA, IC, Intelligence, Intelligence Community, Jennifer Chayes, Kim Polese, Lili Cheng, Lisa Porter, male, man, Marilyn Vacca, math, Maui, men, Microsoft, Microsoft Research, Natasa Milic-Frayling, newfeminism, newfeminist, ODNI, Palin, postfeminist, Priscilla Guthrie, Sarah Palin, SBTV, science, sciences, Silicon Valley, Society, spies, spy, spying, STEM, Stemming.org, tech, Technology, Telle Whitney, WITI, woman, women, zephoria | 6 Comments »

A-Space Past and Future

Posted on November 24, 2009 by lewisshepherd

This week marks the second anniversary of the first live internal demo of the intelligence community’s A-Space project, groundbreaking for the IC in its goal of collaborative use of social media across agency lines. Somewhere in Maryland, a remarkable government employee and friend named Mike Wertheimer should pause and quietly celebrate the fruition of his early evangelism for it.

I was still a government employee then, but wrote about the effort at the time here on Shepherd’s Pi (“A-Space: Top-secret social networking“). It makes me chuckle to remember back to those days when it was still mostly unheard-of for IC employees to blog openly on the public web about current technology projects. Now you can’t shut ’em up! 🙂

It made sense, I thought, to set down a few notes at the time for several reasons: Continue reading →

Filed under: Government, innovation, Intelligence, Technology | Tagged: A-Space, Ahmad Ishaq, analysis, ASpace, Chris Dorobek, Chris Rasmussen, CIA, collaboration, computer, computers, DHS, DIA, DNI, Econsultancy, enterprise, espionage, Facebook, FCW, Flickr, GCN, Gizmodo, Google, Google Wave, gov20, Government, government 2.0, Homeland Security, IC, Intelligence, Intelligence Community, Intellipedia, IT, Joab Jackson, Mark Drapeau, Microsoft, Mike Wertheimer, ODNI, Office 2010, semantic, semantic web, SMS, social media, social network, social networking, social networks, social software, software, spies, spy, tech, Technology, transparency, Twitter, Wall Street Journal, Web 2.0, web20, Wikipedia, WSJ | 14 Comments »

Data in the Cloud from Dallas to Mars

Posted on November 17, 2009 by lewisshepherd

There’s a lot going on at this week’s Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC 09); it’s a traditional launchpad for cool new stuff. I thought I’d point out several of the government-relevant announcements and technology roll-outs.

I specifically want to spotlight something called Codename Dallas, and how NASA and others have begun using it. In the keynote this morning Microsoft’s Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie told PDC attendees (and his streaming-video audience) that a landslide of new sensors and observational systems are changing the world by recording “unimaginable volumes of data… But this data does no good unless we turn the potential into the kenetic, unless we unlock it and innovate in the realm of applications and solutions that’s wrapped around that data.”

Here’s how we’re addressing that, with a bit of step-by-step context on the overall cloud-computing platform enabling it. The steps are: 1. Azure, 2. Pinpoint, and 3. Dallas.

Continue reading →

Filed under: Government, innovation, Microsoft, R&D, Technology | Tagged: AP, Azure, browser, cio, Citysearch, cloud, cloud computing, cloud services, computing, Dallas, data, data as a service, data services, Data.gov, database, Eclipse, ESRI, Excel, financial, Google, GUI, infoUSA, internet, IT, java, Mars, Michelle Viotti, Microsoft, Microsoft Semantic Engine, NASA, National Geographic, Navteq, news, PDC09, Pinpoint, PowerPivot, Ray Ozzie, RiskMetrics, semantic, semantic computing, semantic web, semantics, SKD, SQL, tech, Technology, Tim O'Reilly, TOPO, UN, Vivek Kundra, WaveMarket, weather, web, Windows Azure, Windows Dallas | 4 Comments »

Para Bellum Web

Posted on November 17, 2009 by lewisshepherd

Tim O'Reilly, Ray Ozzie

Tim O’Reilly created a bit of a stir last night in the tech world by writing a thoughtful essay entitled “The War for the Web.” He’ll be expanding on his thoughts in his keynote address today at the Web 2.0 Expo in New York. From the essay, here’s the core argument:

“[W]e’ve grown used to a world with one dominant search engine, one dominant online encyclopedia, one dominant online retailer, one dominant auction site, one dominant online classified site, and we’ve been readying ourselves for one dominant social network. But what happens when a company with one of these natural monopolies uses it to gain dominance in other, adjacent areas? I’ve been watching with a mixture of admiration and alarm as Google has taken their dominance in search and used it to take control of other, adjacent data-driven applications.

It could be that everyone will figure out how to play nicely with each other, and we’ll see a continuation of the interoperable web model we’ve enjoyed for the past two decades. But I’m betting that things are going to get ugly. We’re heading into a war for control of the web. And in the end, it’s more than that, it’s a war against the web as an interoperable platform. [emphasis added] Instead, we’re facing the prospect of Facebook as the platform, Apple as the platform, Google as the platform, Amazon as the platform, where big companies slug it out until one is king of the hill.

… P.S. One prediction: Microsoft will emerge as a champion of the open web platform, supporting interoperable web services from many independent players, much as IBM emerged as the leading enterprise backer of Linux.

Continue reading →

Filed under: innovation, Microsoft, R&D, Society, Technology | Tagged: Amazon, ancient, Apple, data, eBay, enterprise, Facebook, Flavius, FOSS, future, Google, Google Wave, innovation, internet, interop, interoperability, interoperable, Latin, Microsoft, military, open, open software, OSS, Ozzie, PDC, PDC09, Publius, Ray Ozzie, Renatus, Roman, Rome, strategy, Sun Tzu, tech, Technology, Tim O'Reilly, Twitter, Vegetius, w2e, Wave, web, Web 2.0, web services, web20 | 3 Comments »

Once you get past Filter Failure

Posted on October 13, 2009 by lewisshepherd

How do intelligence analysts handle the long-discussed problem of information overload? (The same question goes for information workers and government data of any kind.)

Continue reading →

Filed under: Government, innovation, Intelligence, Microsoft, R&D, Technology | Tagged: 3D, ACM, Alexandria, analysis, analyst, CHI, Clay Shirky, collaboration, Columbia Journalism Review, computer, data, data visualization, dataviz, displays, filter failure, gesture, Google, Google Wave, HCI, information, Intelligence, keyboard, laptop, library, Microsoft, Microsoft Research, Minority Report, monitor, mouse, MSR, multitouch, R&D, research, tech, Technology, Tom Cruise, touch, Twitter, UI, UIST, USB, widgets, Windows, Windows 7 | 5 Comments »

Tellme what you want

Posted on October 12, 2009 by lewisshepherd

The future of social computing is in the integration of various services and technologies – but the fun is already available now. Here’s a nifty demo of the integration of cloud computing’s services with increasingly powerful mobile computers (smartphones or netbooks). Developers can take advantage of far more computational power both locally on the device – faster, cheaper processors thanks to Moore’s Law – and computational power residing on networked data centers. Think of a business or social activity, and thanks to platforms like the iPhone, Android, and the new Windows Phones, “There’s an app for that.” Or there soon will be.

This quick little demo feels like nothing fancy today – but ten, even five years ago it would have seemed like sci-fi. In fact it’s available now, and uses a new Windows Phone, in this case a Samsung Intrepid, making use of Tellme software from Microsoft integrated with Bing Search web services. The demo intregrates some longtime technologies in their state-of-the-art condition today using cloud-services delivery:

Speech-to-text
GPS-enabled location-based services
Web search
Voice-enabled dialing
Social media (crowdsourced ratings integrated in search results)
Hardware UI (a dedicated TellMe button on the Samsung Intrepid phone)

Share this post on Twitter

Email this post to a friend

Filed under: innovation, R&D, Society, Technology | Tagged: Android, Apple, Bing, cellphone, cloud, cloud computing, computer, Google, Gphone, GPS, iPhone, LBS, Microsoft, mobile, Moore's Law, search, SOA, social media, Society, speech, speech-recogntion, speech-to-text, STT, TellMe, TTS, UI, web services, Windows Mobile, Windows Phone | 1 Comment »

The So-Called Secret Courier Video

Posted on September 23, 2009 by lewisshepherd

What is the “user interface of tomorrow”? In the past I have chronicled some cool Microsoft Research prototypes of flexible touchscreen interfaces – and even touchless interfaces! And now this month one of my friends in MSR, Mary Czerwinski, has written in Venture Beat that “those types of interfaces could be the tip of the iceberg”:

A whole new set of interfaces are in the works at various stages of research and development… I have colleagues working on tongue-based interaction, bionic contacts lenses, a muscle-computer interface, and brain-computer interaction.” – Mary Czerwinski

Not bad! But working devices along those lines are several years away, so for now we’re stuck with the tablet form-factor as the primary basis for natural input. I’ve used a tablet PC on and off for the past five years, happily. My wife now uses an HP tablet.

So I’ve been eagerly following the blogosphere’s hyperventilation about the much-rumored, still-unseen Apple tablet computer, which has been variously described as being close to launch, far from launch, and non-existent.

Continue reading →

Filed under: innovation, Microsoft, R&D, Technology | Tagged: Apple, Apple Tablet, bionic, blogosphere, brain-computer, camera, computer, Courier, enGadget, Gizmodo, GUI, HP, inductive, info-viz, information visualization, infoviz, interface, Mary Czerwinski, Microsoft, Microsoft Courier, Microsoft Research, MSR, multi-touch, multitouch, muscle-somputer, natural user interface, NUI, Palm, Palm Pre, Palm Touchstone, Pre, prototype, R&D, research, secret, skunkworks, tablet, tech, Technology, touch, Touchless, UI, video, visualization, web, youTube | 2 Comments »

Webcast interview from the Government 2.0 Summit

Posted on September 9, 2009 by lewisshepherd

I’ve been attending the Government 2.0 Summit in Washington this week, along with a lot of friends and colleagues from various spots in Silicon Valley, the international tech world, and federal, state, or local government agencies. If you want to follow along on Twitter, there’s a great number of attendees posting real-time notes and comments throughout the sessions.

Over the past couple of months I’ve participated with many colleagues planning the kick-off Gov 2.0 Expo Showcase, which highlighted fantastic new-technology projects from government agencies across the country. One of the great projects showcased is www.NeighborsforNeighbors.org, a collaborative website of rich services run by Joseph Porcelli (on Twitter he’s @josephporcelli). Among the other services on the site is a webcast series of great interviewst all levels, from across the country. , and this afternoon I sat down for a chat.

You can watch it below, on their site, or over on the archived kyte.tv site – lots of laughs as we talk about my varied experiences in government, and why Microsoft is focusing intently on enabling enterprise Government 2.0 capabilities. Fun stuff!

[kyte.tv appKey=MarbachViewerEmbedded&uri=channels/202174/553690&tbid=k_168&p=p/s&height=436&width=416]

Email this post to a friend

Filed under: Government, innovation, Microsoft, Society, Technology | Tagged: bureaucracy, DC, g2s, gov20, Government, innovation, media, Microsoft, neighborhood, neighborhoods, new media, Ning, O'Reilly, open government, opengov, openness, podcast, RIA, Silicon Valley, tech, transparency, Twitter, video, Washington, web, web20, webcast, website, www | Leave a comment »

« Previous Page — Next Page »

Shepherd's Pi

Subscribe to Shepherd's Pi

Bookmark / Share

Recent Posts

Most-Read Today

Gunning the Microsoft Semantic Engine

Undercover Grrl Band Techno Rave

Para Bellum Web

Once you get past Filter Failure

The So-Called Secret Courier Video

Webcast interview from the Government 2.0 Summit