Episode 0022, 11/04/2007
Title: DARPA Urban Challenge, Google's OpenSocial, Movies to Go, Wiki Term Paper
Welcome to Course Technology's CourseCast of the WEEK, Episode 22, recorded November 4th, 2007.
This is Ken Baldauf bringing you this week's technology news and information.
This CourseCast is brought to you by Course Technology. Check out www.course.com for innovative textbooks and creative electronic learning solutions.
Story 1 - The DARPA Urban Challenge
An important car race took place this last Saturday through the streets of a deserted California military base. What made this road race unique and important is the fact that the cars were piloted by robots rather than humans. Spectators gasped as driverless cars zoomed past, rooftop sensors whirring and steering wheels turning to guide the cars around obstacles and turns. The cars stopped at a stop sign, honked, and proceeded following the guidelines of the race. These fully autonomous cars were controlled by AI software, which received information from cameras and sensors mounted on the cars body, to control the cars acceleration, braking, and steering and guide the vehicle safely and quickly to the finish line. Stanford University’s vehicle was the first to cross the finish line, followed by vehicles from Carnegie Mellon and Virginia Tech. Judges will decide the winner of the race based on safety and speed. The annual race is sponsored by DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. DARPA puts up the two million dollar prize in hopes of inspiring technology that will assist soldiers in the field.
Source: "No driver, no problem as robot cars finish race" (Reuters)
Story 2 - Google's OpenSocial
If you use Facebook you are well aware of the recent popularity of Facebook Apps. There are over 7,000 applications that perform various trivial functions, available to add to your Facebook page. There are apps that show what music you are currently listening to, who your most favorite friends are, and one that allows you to start an online food fight. Facebook Apps are created by independent software developers using free programming tools provided by Facebook - you can find them at developers.facebook.com. The addition of third party apps to its site helped boost the Facebook user base to 48 million people. The success of the move has inspired other social networks, including YouTube to consider offering similar services. The problem that arises from this scenario is that for each social network, developers have to learn a different API (Application Programming Interface).
Google to the rescue! This week Google has released "OpenSocial," an API for developing Social Apps to run on most social networks. Many Social Networks have signed on to the new programming standard, including MySpace, Friendster, LinkedIn, and others but not including Facebook. Last week Facebook turned down an offer from Google to buy into its company accepting a partnership with Microsoft instead. Now Facebook must decide if it wants to join the majority of Web 2.0 companies and adopt Google's OpenSocial platform, or compete with it. Google is valued at $60 Billion and Facebook at $15 Billion. The battle of these two giants over dominance in Social Network API's, points to the value of this commodity. Just as social networking and Web 2.0 has brought online power to the people, Social API's will bring power to independent software developers, and a wealth of new online services to users.
Sources: "MySpace and Google join to launch new social platform" (Computerworld)
Story 3 - Movies to Go!
Last month, the DVD Copy Control Association changed its policies to allow additional distribution streams for motion pictures. One result of that decision is the soon-to-be-deployed Walgreen's DVD Kiosk. Over the next few months, many of the 6,000 Walgreen's stores across the country will be installing kiosks that allow customers to select a movie from a catalogue and have the movie burned to DVD while they wait. It is expected that the kiosks will be initially used for older movies in order to extend shelf-life. The service that many call on-demand DVD, is being considered by many retailers including Wal-Mart and Blockbusters.
Source: Walgreen sees movie-burning DVD kiosks at stores (Reuters)
Story 4 - Wiki Term Paper
Professor Groom at the University of Washington has applied an interesting twist to her student's term paper. Rather than investing days of research for a paper that only the teacher would read, she is having her students create Wikipedia entries that will benefit the world. The 48 students who created Wikipedia entries on topics about globalization and sustainable development found it a valuable experience. Professor Groom found the quality of work superior to any previous term paper project she had graded. Unfortunately the Wikipedia community did not completely agree. Several of the articles were removed, merged, and edited.
Source: Prof replaces term papers with Wikipedia contributions, suffering ensues (ars technica)
New Briefs
That's it for this week's CourseCast. Links to this week's stories and many more news and information resources are provided at the CourseCast Web site at www.course.com/coursecasts. Until next time have a great week and be sure to take advantage of the Power -- of Technology!