Truth About Tech

After making a post or two on Facebook about working conditions in factories that produce a lot of our technology, some Masters students contacted me about some work that they are doing. I found it very interesting, and wanted to get some perspective on this topic from others.

The one issue that I was thinking of had to do with where Apple makes most of its products in China. There were a rash of suicides, people live 8 to a room in worker housing, they don’t talk much, they work outrageous hours for low pay, etc… But then when chatting with someone in the lab where I work, they were saying that it has more to do with management, and the worker’s bosses then anything else.

Some people say that they need to use these technologies in order to stop all of these harsh conditions. But do the ends justify the means? Or is it the way that we live our lives? What if we found alternatives? Computers that were made in good conditions, where people make a decent wage related to where they live, where they are allowed to organize, where they have good working conditions, no human rights violations, and decent worker rights.

So here it is, the work that the Master’s students have done. I’d love to have a good discussion about this.

http://www.mastersdegree.net/truth-about-tech/

Created by: Masters Degree

AGU 2011

AGU 2011 has come and gone. Probably my most hectic conference yet. Lots happened this year. This year I helped organize an RPI table in the academic section, I put together, along with Evan Patton, and presented a poster for our work so far on utilizing content management systems in the semantic web, and I presented the work I’ve been doing with OPeNDAP and the Earth System Grid Federation. I had prepared an abstract related to our work with NEON and the non-specialist use case, but messed up the submission and didn’t get it in on time. I would have REALLY liked to have presented that work.

In my opinion the table was a success. We had quite a few people interested in graduate work at RPI and took pamphlets. It was a great launching point for all of us who attended ( Professor Fox, Professor McGuinness, myself, Stephan Zednik, Le Nguyen, Eric Rozell, Han Wang, and Ping Wang from Tetherless World, and a few others from around the campus.) We also had a few alumni stop by the table to tell us how happy they were to see us. We had a graduate from 1958 stop by. Maybe next year we might have an RPI dinner or gathering. The table was also a good meeting place with collaborators (NEON, NASA GSFC, NCAR, OPeNDAP, WHOI, and more)

The poster was really good. Thanks to Evan for helping to put it together. There was a bit of interest in our work with Drupal. We have one project that we will collaborate on related to content management systems, and another person interested in learning more about what we did. We also need to begin our evaluation of Drupal 7 and test out its semantic capabilities.

The presentation I gave was not very good, at least that’s how I felt about it. I did get some positive feedback on the presentation, but I was not happy with it at all. Granted I’m my worst critic, and I can be rather hard on myself, but I felt that it was rushed, that I tried to put too much information into the presentation, and I had two slides that were really irrelevant to the point I was trying to get across. And that point is that there is still a lot of work that needs to be done with server-side data evaluation, analysis, translation, transformation, and manipulation, specifically within the OPeNDAP framework, but in general in any system out there. Too many times a user is required to download the datasets in order to work on or with them. In this age where more and more data is becoming available, and that data is getting bigger and bigger, downloading the data is going to become more and more problematic.  I do not feel that I got that point across very well. Very frustrating experience. But still, I learned quite a bit. And I did have a few conversations afterward outside the presentation room about collaboration and future work.

Citation and attribution is a topic that I am getting very interested in. It was great to sit in on some sessions regarding this topic. Unfortunately, there were a lot of “This is what needs to happen.” but not much in terms of solutions or active work. And there are already projects that we could be researching this topic. For starters, our very own web site, document maintenance, publications, presentations, etc… Our SeSF project is another one, where one component of the framework needs to be citation and attribution. Data.rpi.edu is another, storing RPI data, metadata and semantic information about the data, how to cite the data, proper attribution, etc… OPeNDAP server side semantic encodings of citations to other data, for example an aggregated dataset citing the datasets they came from, and other possible solutions within the OPeNDAP framework.

I would have loved to have attended more educational sessions and see more of the educational posters. I’m finding this area of research very fascinating, especially with our collaboration with NEON. Next year for sure I will do more in this area. It’s amazing, the amount of knowledge that is “stuck” in the minds of the researchers. This information could definitely be made available to scientists and non-scientists. The information would be greatly beneficial to future generations of researchers, or people who are just interested or curious about the work. With the issue of Global Climate Change being so prominent in the minds of so many, making sure that the data is properly cited, attributed, annotated with knowledge, and made available to anyone who wishes to see the information will become more and more important.

Perspective

Some people sure do have a skewed perspective of our existence in this Universe. I’m sure you’ve seen it before. A video, where you’re in the center of the frame. Then it pans out and shows you inside your home with your family, but you’re not the center anymore. Then it pans out again to your neighborhood, and your house isn’t even at the center, then your town, then the city you live in, then the state, then the country. You’ve gotten really small at this point, just a little dot, and you’re definitely not at the center. Then it pans out even more to the earth, oops … cloud cover, can’t even see where you are anymore. Then it pans out to the Milky Way … you’re really small now, then it pans out further and further and further and further until it shows the entire universe, there’s an arrow where you are (off center and completely insignificant) with the words “You Are Here!” A small spec in the grand scheme.

Kinda puts it into perspective now, doesn’t it?

But here’s the other part too. Time! You take up such an minute part of the time that the Universe has existed and will exist into the future. Blink of an eye you’re born and you die. What’s the saying? If you put the entire existence of the Universe on a clock, humans have been around for the last second of the last minute of the last hour on the clock. And that’s the entire human existence. You’ve been around for an even smaller part of that.

But you are definitely not insignificant, despite these concepts. You were created in Gods image, right? And God is perfect. God is Love. God is the Universe. God is all that exists in the Universe. And you were made in God’s image … so you have a purpose, you have meaning, you are significant. And I’m not talking about a specific God, however you decide to interpret your existence. Christian God, Muslim God, Jewish God (all three the same, by the way, let’s not forget that), Buddha, God of your Heart, Mother Nature, Pure Love … God transcends religion, after all.

Anyway …

Everything you do, everything you say, everything you think effects all that exists in the Universe. Yes … you have that much power. Your thoughts define your reality, they define what you say and what you do. AND THEY IMPACT ALL ELSE THAT EXISTS IN THE UNIVERSE. You are not the center. It’s not all about you! You are a part of the whole!

Let’s take an example here. Me! I know it’s definitely not all about me. I could die tomorrow and life would continue on. There are times when I would welcome it, in fact. I’m not the center, but I am significant. My death itself will have meant something just as my life has meant something.

I’m 44 years old. My life still, more than likely, has another 44 years to go. Pretty cool huh. A year of that time, pretty small compared to 88 years. Even two years is pretty small. Might not seem like it to some, or even to me at times. But in the grand scheme, a pretty small amount of time. And a pretty significant amount of time. A lot can happen in two years. People can grow and learn and have new experiences if I decided to move to a different city (which I did). The people I know in Boulder, Colorado are growing, learning, having new experiences while I’m gone, or even because I’m gone. And the people here in Troy, NY are growing, learning, having new experiences while I’m here, even because I am here. A short time, relatively speaking, but still a significant time for all involved.

Can you wait for a few months for something to happen? Can you wait a year for something to happen? Two years? Can you grow in that amount of time? Can you learn new things in that amount of time? You will certainly have new experiences. Even gain a new perspective. Your whole life could drastically change in that amount of time. Amazing to think about, isn’t it. Mistake made? Lesson learned!

Could you finish out a semester in school, completing your obligations and responsibilities and promises to others, and wait to see someone? It’s only a few months. But it’s worth thousands of dollars. It means a lot to people. It shows that you are trustworthy and committed to your future. I mean look, you still have 70+ years to go, so what’s a few more months? If it’s meant to happen, then it will still happen. But you eliminate a lot of hardship. It’s not all about you, it’s about all of us. You’re not the center. We’re all the center. The entire Universe is the center of our focus, or should be.

So … puny, but significant.

Summer 2011 … done already?

Wow … this summer sure did go by quickly. Schedules were spastic. Lots of trips. Some vacation time. Lots of hours worked. Lot’s going on in the world.

Doesn’t seem like I got a lot done, to tell you the truth. But I did do a lot. New machines ordered, received, configured, installed. Hired a new software engineer, Le Nguyen, who started four weeks ago. And Friday, August 19th, the very first Ph.D. Thesis defense for a student in the Tetherless World Constellation. Medha Atre has successfully defended her Thesis and is the first graduate of the Tetherless World Constellation.

Undergraduates

We had eight undergrads working within the Tetherless World Constellation this summer, one for a short period (June only), but the other seven throughout the whole summer.

Alexander Lahuerta was a big help over the summer. Working mainly on the OrgPedia project with Xian, but also helping me with setting up the backup system and monitoring system. We chose Bacula for our backups, and Zenoss for our monitoring system. So thank you Alexander.

Rob Greer and Bo Jin working on BCO-DMO activities, displaying information from the bcodmo ontology and knowledge base on drupal pages. This entailed writing queries against the SPARQL endpoint, getting the results back in RDFs/XML, and translating these responses using XSLT into XHTML pages with RDFa to be displayed in Drupal using our TW SPARQL module (thanks Evan Patton).

Cameron Helm continued the work that he started during the Spring semester while working in California. You can find all of his information in his blog at http://helmc2.wordpress.com/

Isaiah, Parker and Deon all worked on the Wine Agent for Evan Patton.

Check out the undergraduate page at http://tw.rpi.edu/web/undergradlab to find out more about our undergraduate lab for this past summer.

My Work

ESG (Earth System Grid), BCO-DMO (with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), OPeNDAP (open source data access software), JGOFS (flat data format), VSTO (Virtual Solar Terrestrial Observatory), SeSF (Semantic eScience Framework), NEON (non-specialist use case), SPCDIS (Semantic Provenance Capture in Data Ingest Systems), HAO-CI (High Altitude Cyber-infrastructure Project), and more. That was my work over the summer.

Well … then there was system administration, undergraduate lab coordinator, Tetherless World Drupal Site (which took up a ton of my time), user access to machines and sites through ldap, setting up our backup system and monitoring services, meetings with collaborators, setting up meetings, and other things unrelated to being a senior software engineer, but having a lot to do with being a coordinator for a lab at a university.

The web site took up the bulk of my time over the summer. Creating new instances. Making the pages look good. Issues with translation (XML to XHTML). Issues with the caching system. Issues with authentication and authorization. Moving from content types to page taxonomy. And more.

Quite frankly, it’s been a challenging summer not technically, but personally. Half the time I enjoy the work … and the other half … well …

On to the Spring Term

And so it is about to begin, another semester in the Tetherless World Constellation. More graduate students, more undergraduate students, 23 or so projects, 18 servers, a multitude of other infrastructure equipment, new mail server to deal with, new equipment for 1140, coding for projects, project management, and more.

Let’s begin!!!

Personal Ramblings

The following does not necessary represent the views and opinions of the Tetherless World Constellation, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, or anyone associated with either organization.

The world seems to be going to hell in a hand basket. I have so many questions that never seem to get answered. The answers either aren’t out there, nobody wants to talk about the questions, or nobody wants to hear about it. Out of site, out of mind. Seems to be the way of things in our society these days. The things we eat. The things we use. All of electronics. Etc…

Nobody wants to know how their food is created. The inhumane treatment of the animals that go into their favorite hamburger or chicken dish. That over 5 billion animals are slaughtered every year for our consumption. The impact that it has on our health, our environment, our economy, how inhumane and immoral the treatment of these animals are. And we all contribute to it. Even me, now that I consume dairy and eggs. Might not seem like it, but ask me sometime.

Then there’s the consumption of electronic equipment. How’s it made? Where does it go after we’re done with it? Is there really environmentally safe ways of dealing with the waste? So this summer I learned about the manufacturing facility in China where multiple workers committed suicide, about how the small little fishing community grew into a massive city with high-rise buildings to house the workers who build most of our equipment. The poor working conditions. The poor labor practices. The environmental damage being done in this community and the surrounding areas. Child labor practices. And more.

And then there’s the question of what happens with the electronic products  after we’re done with them. These small little villages in China and third world countries where open fire pits are used to melt down the boards to extract the raw materials that can be used again. How it’s causing massive health problems to the villagers, the surrounding environment, the squalor that people live in around all of our junk, the massive pollution of waterways, etc… All so we here in the west can have our nice little electronic gadgets.

And then there’s the question of how much impact does an environmental scientist have on the very topic that they are researching? From traveling here and there for conferences and workshops, collaborating with people from far off labs, countries, governments, etc… For example, the AGU conference attracts close to 20,000 people every December to San Francisco. I wonder what the environmental impact is of this conference, from all the travelers flying in from all corners of the earth, to the greater demand for food, water, beverages, hotel services, printing, electrical usage, cab rides, and more. How much impact is it to run that convention center for the week that AGU is taking place. And this is just one conference of the hundreds that take place every year. I wonder?

And directly or indirectly … I am part of the problem. And that doesn’t sit very well with me.

Related to working for TWC. This summer has been quite frustrating. Actually, started in the spring. Many very interesting topics that I am interested to cover in a research role, but am not being given the opportunity to participate. Specifically, discovery and data citation/attribution/annotation. So it is at the TWC for me.

 

AGU 2010 Experiences

Originally posted December 2010

AGU experiences 2010

This is at least my fifth trip to San Francisco for the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, and by far and away, this one was the absolute best experience I’ve ever had. From arrival to departure. The weather was great, the company was great, the posters were great, the sessions were great, the talks were great, the meetings were great, and the social events were great.

Attending from the Tetherless World Constellation were professors Peter Fox and Deborah McGuinness; software engineers and researchers Stephan Zednik, Cynthia Chang, and myself; and graduate students Evan Patton and Eric Rozell.

As with any conference like this, we took some time to meet with colleagues and collaborators. We were able to meet with the folks at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, mainly on Monday morning, but also throughout the week. We also had meetings with the folks from Goddard Space Flight Center and folks from the University of Texas El Paso Cybershare group. We made a lot of good new connections and built up some possible collaborations with new groups. So look for some new projects in the TWC.

This AGU was the first time that I’ve given a presentation at a conference of this size. I’ve given shorter talks at other, smaller gatherings, but nothing like this. It was a great experience. Great feedback from folks in the audience, good questions. I look forward to doing more presentations in the future. Thanks to James Michaelis for doing most of the writing for this presentation. I look forward to working on this project with him.

My big focus this time, more that I heard more talks and saw more posters on the topic, was data citation and attribution. Peter Fox posted to the TWC blog on this topic earlier. Data citation and attribution, as well as document citation and attribution and other forms of media and data, is something that people are interested in. As Peter mentioned, more from the standpoint that people want their work to be cited, to get credit for all the hours and resources that they put into their work. And I can certainly appreciate this. I’ve been looking at it also from the standpoint of data storage, persistence, and metadata associated with the data. We have even been chatting with folks from the RPI library about this, making sure that RPI resources are in a common place with common access methods, proper attribution and citation. Instead of each department, or each constellation, or each class, or each professor and student keeping track of their own work and storing them on their own machines, it would be nice to have a single location for the university where anyone can post their data, add semantic information about the data, and have that data searchable using varying means. Of course, it would be nice to utilize the semantic tools that are are creating at the lab.

So, I went to some of these sessions, found some of the posters, had some conversations with people, and brought back some business cards and scaled down versions of posters. I look forward to continuing our work with the library and with Jim Myers up on campus with this topic, and possibly bringing in other collaborators.