BBC Radio 4 - Viewpoint: Computer code frees us to think in new ways

BBC Technology Website and Radio 4 - Four Thought 8.45pm 26th December.

Viewpoint: Computer code frees us to think in new ways -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20764273 - By Tom Armitage - Technologist

'At the start of 2012, Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York tweeted: "My New Year's resolution is to learn to code with Codecademy."


And throughout the year, "learning to code" seems to have been a hot topic in the media.

Around the same time as Bloomberg's tweet, in the UK the Education Secretary Michael Gove was announcing plans to replace the schools ICT curriculum with a "computer science" programme.

Existing ICT courses often focus on "digital literacy" - teaching particular software packages such as popular spreadsheets and word processors.

The changes are an attempt to reach a more balancing sense of literacy - not just being able to "read" technology, by using it - but also to "write" with it.

And in computing, writing with it means exploring the world of programming: creating with computers.'

'This is an edited version of The Coded Word - a talk delivered by Tom Armitage for BBC Radio 4's Four Thought. It will be broadcast at 2045GMT on 26 December.'

Tom Armitage: The Coded World - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pg54z

BBC News - Alan Turing: Scientists call for pardon for codebreaker

BBC News - Alan Turing: Scientists call for pardon for codebreaker - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20722581

'Some of Britain's leading scientists have called on the government to grant a posthumous pardon to Bletchley Park codebreaker Alan Turing.


Turing was convicted of gross indecency in 1952 after acknowledging a sexual relationship with a man.

Professor Stephen Hawking, Astronomer Royal Lord Rees and the Royal Society's Sir Paul Nurse are among 11 signatories to a letter in the Daily Telegraph.

They urge David Cameron to "formally forgive this British hero".

The scientists said: "We write in support of a posthumous pardon for Alan Turing, one of the most brilliant mathematicians of the modern era.

"He led the team of Enigma codebreakers at Bletchley Park, which most historians agree shortened the Second World War.

"Yet successive governments seem incapable of forgiving his conviction for the then crime of being a homosexual, which led to his suicide, aged 41."'

VivaSurvivorsPodcast

VivaSurvivorsPodcast


@VivaSurvivors

A podcast featuring PhD graduates, asking them about their research, their viva and life after the PhD. http://www.viva-survivors.com - by @DrRyder

In Episode 12 Dr @DawnLlewellyn talks about her research, #viva and life after the #PhD - http://buff.ly/RUTycK  - some great viva prep advice

"In this episode I talk to Dr Dawn Llewellyn, who did her PhD at Lancaster University and now lectures at the University of Chester. Dawn’s research was in Christian and Post-Christian women’s spiritual reading practices, and as always it was fascinating to hear about someone who has had such a radically different experience of research to me. Dawn had some great advice about preparing for the viva, and had an interesting story to tell about her viva. She is on Twitter, and you can find her at @DawnLlewellyn."

BBC News - UK universities in online launch to challenge US

UK universities in online launch to challenge US

By Sean Coughlan


BBC News education correspondent

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-20697392
"A partnership of UK universities is launching an online project, challenging US universities that have dominated this emerging market.


They will aim to give the public access to higher education courses via computers, tablets or smartphones.

The partnership will include the Open University, King's College London, Bristol, Exeter, Warwick, East Anglia, Leeds, Lancaster, Southampton, Cardiff, Birmingham and St Andrews.

Courses will be offered from next year."

The 4Growth Campaign Event London - What has science ever done for us?

Interesting Event -

The 4Growth Campaign


Campaign for Science & Engineering

Tuesday, December 11, 2012 from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM (GMT)

London, United Kingdom   CaSE - Campaign for Science  Engineering, NESTA   http://4growth.eventbrite.com/   "At the beginning of next year, the Government will auction the UK's 4G mobile spectrum netting up to £4 billion for the Treasury. The 4Growth campaign, launched by the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE) and Nesta calls for the Government to reinvest the proceeds back into science, engineering, technology and innovation.

Join us for a free evening of discussion on Tuesday 11th December, kindly hosted by the Institution of Engineering and Technology, to discuss the campaign as well as the wider role of science and technology in our society and economy."

Open Data Institute - News from official opening

Open Data Institute - News from official opening - http://www.theodi.org/news/odi-signs-agreement-world-bank-cabinet-ministers-herald-official-opening

"The Open Data Institute was opened by Cabinet Ministers, Francis Maude and David Willets today as news emerged of the Institute’s second formal affiliation. The ODI has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the World Bank, following news on Monday that the Omidyar Network will be the Institute’s first investor, bringing with it $750k over two years.


During the event, held at the Institute’s London HQ, Francis Maude praised the work of ODI co-founders, Sir Tim Berners Lee and Prof Nigel Shadbolt and its leadership team. He said:

'Open data serves three objectives. They are all complimentary and overlap. Firstly, for the public to scrutinise what we do, where we spend the money and how we fail. Second, to inform choice in public services. And thirdly, to encourage economic growth by incubating data orientated business. Data is a raw material and it fuels social and economic growth to enrich communities and citizens'.

...

Science and Training

The Technology Strategy Board (TSB) is seed funding the ODI with £2m a year for 5 years. The minister in charge of the TSB, David Willets said the ODI’s mission to train a new cohort of open data developers through its post-graduate diploma and other courses will be crucial:


'We need cutting edge scientists to write systems for the very large data sets that we have, making them more usable and adding to the flow of data. We need to generate skills to analyse data, this isn’t something you can’t do without education and training'."

2 Science and Engineering Events - Bristol

INCOSE UK (International Council on Systems Engineering)
The Bristol Local Group Presents

Festive Fun – An interactive evening with a systems twist

Date: Wednesday 5th December – 6.30pm for 7pm till 9pm.

At University of the West of England

http://www.incoseonline.org.uk/EventBooking/AutoBooking/MainPage.aspx?CatID=Events&EventID=243


HP Labs Science Lecture Series - Maggie Adarin-Pocock


Wednesday, December 12, 2012 from 5:00 PM to 7:30 PM (GMT)

Bristol, United Kingdom   Life in the Universe: Can We Reach the Stars?

http://hplecture-adarin-pocock-estw.eventbrite.com/
Dr Maggie Adarin-Pocock, MBE
Abstract

As a child Maggie dreamed of travelling to the stars and meeting strange creatures, but current manned space missions are focused on the International Space Station (ISS) a mere 300 miles above the Earth’s Surface. What if one wanted to travel further, to the very stars themselves? Is this possible with current technology and if not what is in the pipeline now that would enable such a journey in the future? Can such travel ever be worth the expense and risk and what will we find out there?

University of Bristol - TRUST ME, I'M A SCIENTIST, CENTRE FOR SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY LAUNCH - 3rd and 4th Dec

Please see details below re two forthcoming events hosted by the University of Bristol



TRUST ME, I'M A SCIENTIST

A panel discussion on scientists and public policy

MONDAY 3 DECEMBER 2012, 6PM

Wills Memorial Building, Queens Road, BS8 1RJ
Publicly funded scientific research is inevitably influenced by Government priorities and scientific research continually raises questions about the viability of current policy. Meanwhile, funding bodies are increasingly committed to leading and directing research in the sciences, framing its questions and targeting funds at 'key areas'.

This panel brings together eminent academics, scientific advisers, and those involved in policy-making to share insights into how science and scientists respond to – or remain detached from – the public policy that surrounds their work.

Free entry, but booking is required: http://ias-discussion.eventbrite.com/#
For further information

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/ias/diary/2012/181
Download poster: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/ias/images/science-policy-poster.pdf
******************

CENTRE FOR SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY LAUNCH

TUESDAY 4 DECEMBER 2012 6-8pm

Wills Memorial Building, Queens Road, BS8 1RJ

The Centre will host four expert speakers from diverse areas in the philosophy of science. They will each give a 30 minute talk on their

specialism: from philosophy of physics and mathematics to the philosophy of cognitive science
Free entry, but booking is required: http://scienceandphilosophyevent.eventbrite.com/#
http://bristol.ac.uk/philosophy/department/centre/news/#launch

Scientists analyse millions of news articles - Bristol Uni/Cardiff Uni

This article that was just published of interesting research about the media -


Scientists analyse millions of news articles - Press release issued 26 November 2012 -http://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2012/8970.html

"A study led by academics at the University of Bristol’s Intelligent Systems Laboratory and the School of Journalism at Cardiff University has used Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms to analyse 2.5 million articles from 498 different English-language online news outlets over ten months."

There are also links to the full paper. - https://patterns.enm.bris.ac.uk/files/DigitalJournalism.pdf

and to further information about the study - http://mediapatterns.enm.bris.ac.uk/AnalysisOfMillionsOfArticles

Tweets - Vitae Internments, Biosciences Workshop

2 tweets one on advice for secondments, placemnts, and internships, the other on a workshop for Biosciences.

@Vitae_news/status/271586949830160385
Preparing #researchers 2 get the most out of #secondments, #placements & #internships http://bit.ly/UYMEEi 4 researcher developers #vitae12.

@Vitae_news/status/270852868083417090

MT @GdnHigherEd: #Postdoc researchers wondering how 2 further their career in #Bioscience interesting workshop http://bit.ly/d3flHU #ecrchat.

Web Design and Web Application ASP.net

I'm on 2 courses Web design where I'm using Adobe Fireworks and Dreamweaver CS5, and Web Applications where I'm using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010.

My prototyoes are based on my membership of the Bristol Active Life Project (BALP) which assists people with their mental and physical health through exercise activities. These activities for example are for example Football, Walking, Badminton, Tennis, Indoor Cricket.

My aims are first to submit my coursework, for both courses this is due this month. Then my next aim will be to create a design website, and an ASP.net data driven website mockup to be publicly accessible. Then I will link the 2 websites.

Below is an example that shows the Data driven website Mockup, this links to a database (it will need a login when fully implemented). This allows the user to choose options to 'follow', then resulting in 1 or more sub pages (panels) becoming visible. So the website is just 1 page but this page will show different content according to the wishes of the user. Then also this page will link to different more detailed design pages that I'll create for the web design course according to which options the user has checked.

Below is the first stage of the Data driven mockup. This is linked to a SQL Server database.

Raspberry Pi Event - British Computer Society BCS Bristol Dec 6th

Raspberry Pi Event - British Computer Society BCS Bristol Dec 6th -

"Our Xmas event for all is at @Bristol on the 6th of December and the whole family is welcome.


Details and booking are here. http://bcsbristolraspberry.eventbrite.co.uk
Booking is essential for this event!

Doors open at 18:00 with a chance to look around @Bristol with the talk starting at 19:00 with the event finishing at 20:00

This event is aimed at children of all ages, though adults are welcome as well.

Come along to hear Rob Bishop, 22, from the Raspberry Pi Foundation talk about the joy of making using the Raspberry Pi. Rob will discuss how he got involved in the project as an intern at Broadcom and why a career in engineering or computer science is awesome. There will also be a chance to get hands-on with a Raspberry Pi and to ask him any technical or non-technical questions you might have about engineering, computer science and the Raspberry Pi.

About Rob Bishop: Developer, Product Engineer & Evangelist for Raspberry Pi Foundation

One of the earliest engineers involved with the development of the Raspberry Pi and currently the only full-time paid employee in the Foundation.

The event starts at 1800 with the chance to have a look around @Bristol followed by the talk starting at 19:00.

Both BCS Members and Non Members are welcome.

Simon Thorp, Social Media, BCS Bristol Branch"

Web Design Tutorials - Youtube

I'm on a Web design course I've just watched 3 videos on web design, they are helpful - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-jlTpss5pw - Michael Locke.


2nd video on web design that I've watched for course - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70XwnXB1nXw - How To Design a Website using Adobe Fireworks - Michael Locke.

3rd video on web design - Adobe Fireworks: Exporting CSS - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrJmyYfNu1M - also really helpful for web portfolio development.

My blog looks different now because I updated it to Google+ (don't know much about this except that it's for sharing information). My web design tutor said it's good to update the look and feel of websites every couple of years. The new colours are white and sky blue. One of the above tutorials suggests that these colours remind people of the outdoors, also I like that it's easy to read.

I had a comment asking if it's OK to re-use content from this blog. I can't find that comment to reply to. It is OK to re-use any of the content, that's what it's for.

Organic chemicals on Mars? - Universe Today

Yesterday Mars Science Laboratory principal investigator John Grotzinger set the entire space science world abuzz with a tantalizing promise of “earthshaking” news on the horizon — literally “one for the history books,”

“We’ve got a briefing on Monday [Dec 3] where we’ll discuss our results,” John Grotzinger told me.
Has Curiosity Made an ‘Earth-Shaking’ Discovery?

by Nancy Atkinson on November 20,

Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/98596/is-historic-discovery-imminent-concerning-martian-organic-chemistry/
  http://www.universetoday.com/98599/i-am-sam/  

My PhD Thesis published - freely available - http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/17918/

My PhD thesis is now published on the UWE (University of the West of England) Research Repository at - http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/17918/ -

User driven modelling: Visualisation and systematic interaction for end-user programming with tree-based structures
- It's an Adobe PDF file.

This is the abstract -

This thesis addresses certain problems encountered by teams of engineers when modelling complex structures and processes subject to cost and other resource constraints. The cost of a structure or process may be ‘read off’ its specifying model, but the language in which the model is expressed (e.g. CAD) and the language in which resources may be modelled (e.g. spreadsheets) are not naturally compatible. This thesis demonstrates that a number of intermediate steps may be introduced which enable both meaningful translation from one conceptual view to another as well as meaningful collaboration between team members. The work adopts a diagrammatic modelling approach as a natural one in an engineering context when seeking to establish a shared understanding of problems. Thus, the research question to be answered in this thesis is: ‘To what extent is it possible to improve user-driven software development through interaction with diagrams and without requiring users to learn particular computer languages?’ The goal of the research is to improve collaborative software development through interaction with diagrams, thereby minimising the need for end-users to code directly. To achieve this aim a combination of the paradigms of End-User Programming, Process and Product Modelling and Decision Support, and Semantic Web are exploited and a methodology of User Driven Modelling and Programming (UDM/P) is developed, implemented, and tested as a means of demonstrating the efficacy of diagrammatic modelling. In greater detail, the research seeks to show that diagrammatic modelling eases problems of maintenance, extensibility, ease of use, and sharing of information. The methodology presented here to achieve this involves a three step translation from a visualised ontology, through a modelling tool, to output to interactive visualisations. An analysis of users groups them into categories of system creator, model builder, and model user. This categorisation corresponds well with the three-step translation process where users develop the ontology, modelling tool, and visualisations for their problem. This research establishes and exemplifies a novel paradigm of collaborative end-user programming by domain experts. The end-user programmers can use a visual interface where the visualisation of the software exactly matches the structure of the software itself, making translation between user and computer, and vice versa, much more direct and practical. The visualisation is based on an ontology that provides a representation of the software as a tree. The solution is based on translation from a source tree to a result tree, and visualisation of both. The result tree shows a structured representation of the model with a full visualisation of all parts that leads to the computed result. In conclusion, it is claimed that this direct representation of the structure enables an understanding of the program as an ontology and model that is then visualised, resulting in a more transparent shared understanding by all users. It is further argued that our diagrammatic modelling paradigm consequently eases problems of maintenance, extensibility, ease of use, and sharing of information. This method is applicable to any problem that lends itself to representation as a tree. This is considered a limitation of the method to be addressed in a future project.

BBC News - Millions in UK 'lack basic online skills'

This is an interesting story about the digital divide. It's important that unemployed and retired as well as employed are included in any plan to close this divide.

Millions in UK 'lack basic online skills' - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20236708 - 8 November 2012 -

"Some 16 million people in the UK lack basic online skills, a survey suggests.


The report, conducted by consultancy firm Booz & Company, defines basic skills as using a search engine, sending and receiving emails, completing online applications and accessing information online.

Go ON UK, a charity chaired by the UK digital champion Martha Lane Fox, commissioned the report.

The organisation aims to do more to improve digital literacy in the UK."

IT and the curse of managerialism - British Computer Society

This is an interesting blog post - IT and the curse of managerialism - British Computer Society - Future Tech Blog - 31st Oct 2012 -

"What is the biggest barrier to innovation in your organisation? Each year, I am involved in around 10-20 workshops on innovation in both the public and private sector. I ask that question every time.IT and the curse of managerialism."

Journal paper - User-driven modelling: Visualisation and systematic interaction for end-user programming

I've submitted my version of this paper to the University of the West of England Research Repository this is the link - http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/17817/. There is a downloadable word document.

I'm lead author - Hale, P., Solomonides, A., Beeson, I., 2012. Journal of Visual Languages and Computing Volume 23 Issue 6 December 2012 354–379 - 'User-Driven Modelling: Visualisation and Systematic Interaction for end-user programming'.

The official version of the paper is here -http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1045926X12000572.

The abstract and figures are available to all. Access to the full text depends on your personal or institutional entitlements.

Treat social media as a shop window for employers, but be careful

This BBC Technology/business article is useful - Treat social media as a shop window for employers, but be careful - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20155192 - By Raj Samani, Chief technology officer, Europe, Middle East and Africa, McAfee.

This explains how online social media can be used to promote yourself to potential employers.

"Hiring practices within many modern organisations today are placing greater emphasis on the social networking presence of candidates.


This tactic may be used to uncover potential indiscretions, or an attempt to assess the true 'value' of the candidate."

BBC News - Government IT projects: UK adopts open technology standards

This BBC technology article discusses a UK Government plan to ensure it's department uses open standards :-

Government IT projects: UK adopts open technology standards - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20178175 - 2 November 2012 -

"The UK government is drawing up a set of open technology standards all future IT projects must comply with.


The standards will dictate how data should be formatted and the ways that software should interoperate.

The push for open standards builds on earlier work to standardise the hardware on which government services are built.

The decision to mandate the open standards follows a four-month consultation exercise."

Green Unconference - Long Ashton (near Bristol), 27th Oct

Event - Green Unconference - This is an interesting event. I can't make it, but here's the home page -http://allsaintsla.org.uk/greenunconference2012/ - Saturday 27th Oct 10am - 6pm.

'Where - All Saints Church, Church Lane, Long Ashton, North Somerset. BS41 9LU


When - Saturday 27th October 2012 between 10am and 6pm (BST) Chief Organiser - Daniel Lewis (Email: danieljohnlewis@gmail.com ) Assistant Organiser - Beki Lewis Category - Unconference, Green, Environmentalism, Conservation, Sustainability   What is an Unconference?

An unconference is an informal meeting that is driven by its participants. Unconferences are always free to attend, they will try to form themselves without much funding and so are driven by the passion of a topic rather than money. They will often have talks & how-to's, stalls and a chance to do a little bit of new-contact meeting. They aren't attached to any particular organisations, and are usually not related to each other.'"

Journal Paper - Driven Modelling: Visualisation and Systematic Interaction for end-user programming

A paper is being published on my PhD research, I'm lead author - Hale, P., Solomonides, A., Beeson, I., 2012. Journal of Visual Languages and Computing Volume 23 Issue 6 December 2012 354–379 - 'User-Driven Modelling: Visualisation and Systematic Interaction for end-user programming'.

The paper is online today - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1045926X12000572.

The abstract and figures are available to all. Access to the full text depends on your personal or institutional entitlements.

I've submitted my version of this paper to the University of the West of England Research Repository and will include the link to it in this post when it's available.

Web access problems for unemployed and mentally ill

Over time as an activist in this aspect of health and computing I've noticed that the level of access of unemployed people of all ages, especially those that are unemployed or underemployed is very poor.

Both unemployed and mentally ill are at risk of having poor levels of web and technology access and use. The combination of both issues maximises this problems.

Charities do run schemes to try to tackle this issue but are overstretched for funding. Work programmes also look at these issue but only from the point of view of getting people ready for work. There are likely to be large numbers of mentally ill people (and those with other disabilities) that are not ready for work focused training. This group should not be left out of having training and assistance in getting and using technologies to access the web.

Isolation can make many mental health conditions worse. Web access would not solve this issue on it's own, what it does do however is to enable the sufferer to access websites of geoups that provide support and group based activities which can assist in tackling lonliness and depression.

Without more effort on the above solutions the at risk groups described above will be left as an isolated underclass.

Tim Berners-Lee Interview - My Web course homework

This is an interesting interview by the BBC as part of their Virtual Revolution programme with Tim Berners-Lee - the inventor of the Web.

Video Clip - from The Virtual Revolution - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p005cbgp - The Digital Revolution - Duration 12mins 13 secs - 27th Nov 2009.

"Tim Berners-Lee invented the web, 20 years ago. Since then he's been at the forefront of efforts to create web standards that mean we have one web worldwide. He's also a Director of the World Wide Web Foundation, which strives for more widespread use of the web globally. Here he discusses how people think when using the web, and the 'spirit of the web'."

Research Highlights for Journal of Visual Languages & Computing

These are the Research Highlights I've provided for the Journal of Visual Languages & Computing - User-Driven Modelling: Visualisation and Systematic Interaction for end-user programming - paper.

These research highlights sum up my research so far.

Research Highlights

•       The research question is the extent to which diagrammatic programming is possible.
•    The technique investigated is User Driven Modelling. 
•       A survey provides feedback for this technique. 
•      The technique is illustrated with examples.
•      The technique is most suitable to tree-based problems.

Journal Paper Accepted - Journal of Visual Languages & Computing

The paper - User-Driven Modelling: Visualisation and Systematic Interaction for end-user programming - has been accepted for - Journal of Visual Languages & Computing - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/1045926X.

I'm the lead author on this paper and it's based on my PhD research, the other authors are my supervision team from University of the West of England - Tony Solomonides and Ian Beeson.

I'll post a link to this paper when it's published.

Olympic Ceremony, Tim Berners-Lee, CNET

This article from CNET discusses the representation of British innovation in the Olympic opening Ceremony, including that Tim Berners-Lee made an appearance. -

Olympic opening ceremony made tech history for me - By Rich Trenholm on 30 July 2012 - http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gadgets/olympic-opening-ceremony-made-tech-history-for-me-50008746/

UK science to be freely available

This post summarizes a BBC article about funding of journal publishing -

"Under new proposals the government will pay publishers a fee each time a paper is published."

UK science to be freely available - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18860276 - By Pallab Ghosh Science correspondent, BBC News - 16 July 2012.

"The government is to develop plans to make publicly funded research results freely available to all.

Currently, scientists and members of the public have to pay the leading scientific journals to see research that has already been paid for from the public purse.

Under new proposals the government will pay publishers a fee each time a paper is published.

In return the research will be available to those who wish to see it.

The total cost of the subsidy is estimated to be £50m a year which will be taken from funds that would otherwise have been spent on research."

Related article - Berkeley signs up online with Harvard and MIT - By Sean Coughlan BBC News education correspondent - 24 July 2012 - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-18972376.

UK university joins US online partnership

I studied one of these courses, this was from Stanford University -

This is an interesting article about the first British university to join the online university project.

"Edinburgh University is to be the first UK institution to join an influential US-based online university project. Edinburgh is part of a major expansion in the Coursera project - which is going to see 12 more universities providing online courses. The online platform was set up this year with content from US institutions including Stanford and Princeton."

UK university joins US online partnership - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-18857999 - By Sean Coughlan BBC News education correspondent - 17 July 2012.

"An important part of this online development is its global reach - and the Coursera project is announcing three partners outside the US - Toronto in Canada and the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland, as well as Edinburgh."

"In terms of profile-raising, it means that Edinburgh's online courses will be available alongside some of the biggest names in US higher education."

BBC News - Top US universities put their reputations online

This is an interesting story about the latest developments in US online provision of education. These courses aren't just available in America. I've studied one of them, Stanford University - Databases.

20 June 2012

Top US universities put their reputations online
By Sean Coughlan BBC News education correspondent

"This autumn more than a million students are going to take part in an experiment that could re-invent the landscape of higher education.

Some of the biggest powerhouses in US higher education are offering online courses - testing how their expertise and scholarship can be brought to a global audience.

Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have formed a $60m (£38m) alliance to launch edX, a platform to deliver courses online - with the modest ambition of "revolutionising education around the world".

Sounding like a piece of secret military hardware, edX will provide online interactive courses which can be studied by anyone, anywhere, with no admission requirements and, at least at present, without charge.

With roots in Silicon Valley, Stanford academics have set up another online platform, Coursera, which will provide courses from Stanford and Princeton and other leading US institutions."

- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18191589

Survey - Usability Evaluation

This usability evaluation survey was published in my PhD. At that date there were 91 responses. Now there are 97. The 6 extra responses will also contribute because the updated survey will be published in a journal paper - Journal of Visual Languages and Computing - http://ees.elsevier.com/jvlc/. I've completed minor changes to the paper today which is called - User-Driven Modelling: Visualisation and Systematic Interaction for end-user programming. I'm the main author on that paper - much of which is based on my PhD.

The survey can be accessed at - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=A8Z1u2o5WlIphAPdzNCoeA_3d_3d

The survey is based on 2 user interface examples - http://www.cems.uwe.ac.uk/~phale/ELearning/ELearningDemonstration1.htm and

http://www.cems.uwe.ac.uk/~phale/ELearning/ELearningDemonstration2.htm

The summary of the results that has been submitted to the Journal is below :-

A survey of 97 people was conducted focused on the prototype implementations. This supplemented the feedback obtained from Airbus and Rolls-Royce. This survey was conducted in order to determine what kind of diagrammatic interface might be most appropriate. Extensive consultation with engineers at Airbus and Rolls-Royce helped establish the possible interfaces that needed evaluating, as these interfaces were useful to and understood by these engineers. These possible interfaces were taxonomy, CAD style diagrammatic, flow chart (or activity diagram), UML style (entity relationship). Which was preferred depended partly on the skills and type of work of the engineers, and others surveyed, and on the type of problem to be modelled/programmed :-

Which would you consider yourself to be?

answered question 93

skipped question 4

An End-User (anyone else, familiar with computers but not in categories below) - 29.0% - 27

An Experienced Developer - 28.0% - 26

A Researcher - 32.3% - 30

Other (please specify) - 10.8% - 10

What type of visualisation is best for enabling end-user programming?

answered question 78

skipped question 19

Taxonomy (tree view) - 26.9% - 21

Diagrammatic - 37.2% - 29

Flow Chart - 37.2% - 29

Unified Modeling Language (UML) - 14.1% - 11

Other (please specify) - 12.8% - 10

Which example Program have you used?

answered question 81

skipped question 16

Taxonomy viewer -  http://www.cems.uwe.ac.uk/~phale/ELearning/ELearningDemonstration1.htm

- 17.3% - 14

Diagrammatic Viewer -  http://www.cems.uwe.ac.uk/~phale/ELearning/ELearningDemonstration2.htm

- 17.3% - 14

Neither - 43.2% - 35

Both - 22.2% - 18

Which example interface do you prefer?

answered question 75

skipped question 22

Taxonomy (tree) viewer - http://www.cems.uwe.ac.uk/~phale/ELearning/ELearningDemonstration1.htm - 26.7% - 20

Diagrammatic Viewer - http://www.cems.uwe.ac.uk/~phale/ELearning/ELearningDemonstration2.htm

- 17.3% - 13

Neither - 9.3% - 7                                                 

Both - 13.3%- 10

No opinion - 33.3% - 25

As a result of all the feedback from engineers and others, the main problem needing to be tackled is provision of a system that moves this theoretical and prototyped work on to a fully fledged end-user modelling system, available and usable by a wide range of people.

Bristol IT MegaMeet - UWE - British Computer Society (BCS)

This is a BCS event on Saturday 19th May at University of the West of England (UWE). These are the details and web link -

http://www.itmegameet.co.uk/

"All of the major IT & Developer community groups in and around Bristol are coming together for an event at the UWE. Essentially the event is one big meet up, open to the public. Each group will be doing a presentation on themselves, what they are about, and what they offer the local community. Several groups will be putting on a technical presentation in their chosen area. How-to workshops will be running alongside the main presentations. The event concludes with 5 minute lightning talks on a variety of subjects.

Attendee places are limited, so registration is required. Register early so as not to miss your space, and notify us if you can't make it so as to free up the space for someone else."

BBC News - Coding the future: HTML5 takes the internet by storm

This is a very interesting technology and business article about HTML 5 an important development for the Semantic Web and Web 3.0 -

Coding the future: HTML5 takes the internet by storm
By Ian Hardy BBC News, New York - 8 May 2012 - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17931814.

"The BBC's Ian Hardy looks at why companies have been rushing to embrace HTML5 - and the innovative ways it is being used

It's hard to imagine now, but original sites on the world wide web, written in HTML code or hypertext mark-up language, were made up of little more than text.

Corporate web designers were well aware that most of their customers had slow connections and would not tolerate much of a wait. 

Even a simple black and white image could irritate a user, as it gradually appeared on the screen revealing itself one painful line at a time.

That began to change as modem speeds gradually crept up and content makers used more sophisticated methods to encode their multimedia content.

Macromedia's Flash, now an Adobe product, made all the difference when it arrived in the mid-nineties. Animations, video sequences and graphics became more sophisticated.

But since its invention in the early 1990s HTML has not supported video natively.

That is why HTML5 is being received so enthusiastically by businesses in particular. The latest version can perform all kinds of dynamic tasks and visual tricks. The web is progressing faster now than it has in a long time."

Nasa sets challenges for citizen scientists

This BBC article I'm linking to is a about very interesting idea from NASA covered by the BBC article.

Nasa sets challenges for citizen scientists - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17791091 - 21 April 2012 -

'US space agency Nasa has launched a competition to find "space apps" to aid space exploration and education.

The two-day event will bring programmers together on seven continents to see how creative they can be with Nasa's store of space data.
Problems Nasa wants solved include improving data sharing after disasters and spotting good lunar landing sites.
Coders on the International Space Station and at McMurdo base in Antarctica will join in.
The event runs from 21-22 April at more than 25 venues around the world. Hundreds of people have registered to go along and take part in the various challenges.'

I include other useful links here about this - 

NASA International Space Apps Challenge
12 March 2012 - On 21 and 22 April, NASA, along with the Met Office is convening an International Space Apps Challenge in Exeter. - 
www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/archive/2012/space-apps

International Space Apps Challenge
21-22 April 2012 -
http://spaceappschallenge.org/ - This has a world map with clickable links to locations of events.

International Space Apps Challenge
21-22 April 2012 - Oxford, United Kingdom
International Space Innovtion Centre - http://spaceappschallenge.org/location/isic

Publication of my PhD

When all admin of my PhD publication is complete and it's published in the UWE library it will also be published on the UWE repository. When this is done I'll post the link and add this also to the blog template. I want to make the PhD is available as possible.

In the meantime I'm also making final ammendments to a journal paper.

BBC News - Campaign calls for new teacher-training 'infrastructure'

This is an interesting article about shifting the focus of Computing teaching to include Computer Science and Programming

Campaign calls for new teacher-training 'infrastructure' - BBC News - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17190910 - 28 February 2012.

"The UK needs a new 'infrastructure' to support the teaching of computing in schools, the chancellor has been told.
Leading education and industry groups have signed a letter asking George Osborne to fund new computer training for teachers.
Next Gen Skills, which organised the call, said teachers would need support ahead of possible curriculum changes.
The government is consulting on a new flexible curriculum more focused on computer science and programming."

Digital Researcher Online 2012 - 20 February 2012

Digital Researcher Online 2012 - 20 February 2012 - http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/346891/Digital-Researcher-online.html.

This is an event organised by Vitae who provide support to researchers, and which is being run online as well as the meeting itself which is oversubscribed.

This is from Vitae's description -

"Designed for both postgraduate researchers and research staff within any UK institution, Digital Researcher Online is the online programme of the oversubscribed Vitae Digital Researcher event, offering all those who could not physically attend the event the opportunity to tune in and get involved with the day's activity.
Digital Researcher Online will explore how new technologies and tools (microblogging, RSS feeds, social networking and social citation sharing) can be used to enhance your research and raise your professional profile."

"What to expect as an online participant...
10:00 - Introduction
•A short interview with Dr Tristram Hooley on Digital Researcher 2012 and the current digital landscape.10:30 - 11:15 - Morning plenary
•Join us online and tune-in to the opening plenary of Digital Researcher. During this session we'll be covering academic practice, the role of social media and intellectual property.
15:45 - 16:30 - Keynote speaker

•Prof Martin Weller, Open University - 'Digital Scholarship'."

MIT launches free online 'fully automated' course - BBC News

This is a BBC article about a free MIT course that is part of an overall plan of theirs for in depth online learning. The first course to be made available is in Electronics.

This is a very interesting article and as with Stanford University's courses (http://userdrivenmodelling.blogspot.com/2011/10/stanford-university-free-computer.html) also MIT course this provides a good opportunity for online learning.

MIT launches free online 'fully automated' course - By Sean Coughlan BBC News education correspondent - 13 February 2012.

"Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), one of the world's top-rated universities, has announced its first free course which can be studied and assessed completely online.
An electronics course, beginning in March, will be the first prototype of an online project, known as MITx.
The interactive course is designed to be fully automated, with successful students receiving a certificate."

MP calls for pardon for computer pioneer Alan Turing - BBC News

This pardoning of Alan Turing is way overdue -

MP calls for pardon for computer pioneer Alan Turing - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-16833621 - 1 February 2012.

"A Liberal Democrat MP has tabled a motion calling for 'national hero' Alan Turing to be posthumously pardoned.
Manchester Withington's John Leech submitted the Early Day Motion and said people should sign an online petition protesting against Turing's conviction.
The gay computer pioneer was convicted for gross indecency in 1952, when homosexual acts were illegal in the UK.
Mr Leech said his persecution 'by the state for being gay is a scandal that shouldn't be allowed to stand'."

Systems Engineering - University of the West of England - Bristol

From booking page - http://www.incoseonline.org.uk/EventBooking/AutoBooking/MainPage.aspx?CatID=Events&EventID=206 - open to non-members.

INCOSE UK Booking System
Bristol Local Group
Event Date: 25/01/2012
Event Time: 18:30 for 19:00 to 21:00
Event Title: Understanding the Enterprise - how architectural principles help
Event Details A lot of effort has been put into developing ways and means of describing the architecture of systems, systems of systems, and enterprises, each of which has come from a different context, usually with a subtly different approach. This event will provide an overview of some of the more common approaches, and seek to understand the extent to which the various methods are interchangeable and interdependent as you move up and down from subsystems to enterprises and back again.