Web Development Live

“One thing stood out,” Singh said. “There was no easy way to do file systems.” So Singh decided to create one, even though he worked for Google’s search team at the time and wasn’t part of the company’s Mac development efforts.

The reaction of his bosses to this use of company time? Go for it.

Singh’s project, which became the open-source file-system utility MacFUSE, is just one of the many employee-driven efforts that go on within the walls of the search-engine and text-advertising giant all the time.

Google calls it “20-percent time,” encouraging its engineers to pursue other Google-related interests for up to 20 percent of their work hours—even if that interest has little to do with their regular duties at the search and software company.

Efforts such as 20-percent projects by engineers like Singh are par for the course at Google, a company that sees encouraging employees to pursue subjects they find interesting as a critical part of its own development goals.

“A lot of things that happen at Google are based on empowering people to come up with ideas and pursue them if [those ideas are] good,” said Sundar Pichai, Google’s director of product management.

Many 20-percent projects have wound up becoming major Google products: both Google News and Gmail, for instance, started that way. Among the Mac-specific efforts that began as 20-percent projects are Notifier, which offers Gmail and Google Calendar notifications, and the Google Mac Developer Playground, an online collection of open-source Mac projects created at Google.

Seeds of Hope plans to build a new 4,200-square-foot community center on Casa Grande’s west side and organizers have begun a capital campaign to raise the $600,000 needed for the project.

The campaign will be a focal point during Seeds of Hope’s annual fundraising dinner on April 25, as the nonprofit agency celebrates its history and future in Casa Grande. John Perkins, president of the John Perkins Foundation and the inspiration for Seeds of Hope in Casa Grande, will be the keynote speaker for the event.

“His message that evening will be on developing self-sufficiency in local neighborhoods,” said Mark Vanderheyden, executive director for Seeds of Hope. “He hopes to inspire pastors, churches, business leaders and individuals to become an active part in what Seeds of Hope is doing on the west side of Casa Grande.”

Seeds of Hope is a faith-based organization with a mission of breaking the cycle of poverty while strengthening communities. It started in Casa Grande in 1992 and operates out of an 1,100-square-foot, single-family house on Melrose Drive, where Web Development Software it runs an after-school program for neighborhood children between the ages of 5 and 12. Seeds of Hope also has a peer leadership program and literacy classes and provides activities and support for grandparents raising their grandchildren. It also operates a six-day-a-week hot lunch program for the homeless, disabled and working poor, serving up about 11,000 meals annually.

A new tax preparation assistance program, VITA, which started this year in partnership with United Way of Pinal County, helped 132 residents with free tax filing services. VITA resulted in an estimated savings of $13,200 in avoided tax preparation fees, according to Vanderheyden.

Through its various programs and services, Seeds of Hope impacts the lives of thousands of Casa Grande residents ranging from the homeless, school children and seniors, Vanderheyden said.

Establishing a facility in a neighborhood where it is needed is part of Seeds of Hope’s success, he added.

“The idea is go to those neighborhoods, rather than having people come to us, and have the people tell us what they need,” Vanderheyden said.

While community needs have increased over the years, Seeds of Hope’s resources have not and its current accommodations have become inadequate to efficiently serve its clients. A small kitchen at its current site makes it difficult to prepare snacks for children in the after-school program. The four bedrooms restrict the number of people who can participate in activities and an awkward layout makes it difficult for too many people to move around the house at one time. As well, being an older house, the current community center is in constant need of maintenance and repair, Vanderheyden said.

The new community center will be in Albert Cruz Park and Seeds of Hope has negotiated a 50-year agreement with the city of Casa Grande that allows the organization to pay a nominal fee to lease the land and construct the building.

It is to be designed with an open meeting area, a large kitchen with an adjoining dining area and four large classrooms, which will allow different programs to operate simultaneously. Its location in the city park will allow children at the center access to the playground and open space areas.

With those features, Web Development Software Seeds of Hope plans to add additional programs to accommodate broader community needs.

“This multigenerational facility will allow Seeds of Hope to expand and collaborate with other churches and organizations in bringing additional services to the west side,” Vanderheyden said.

The organization has raised about $100,000 toward the new building and hopes to raise another $500,000 by June. Vanderheyden knows the goal will be a tough one to achieve.

“There are other campaigns going on, other organizations trying to raise money,” he said. “We’re going along on faith.”

The theme for this year’s fundraising dinner is “Planting Seeds - Building Hope,” which Vanderheyden said illustrates Seeds of Hope’s wholistic approach to community development that not only attempts to lift people out of poverty but encourages young people to stay in the community once they have grown and to use their education and talents locally.

“Seeds of Hope is about building relationships and raising up leaders in the neighborhood,” Vanderheyden said.

To help celebrate the organization’s accomplishments, Perkins will return to Casa Grande and talk about how communities nationwide have come together in addressing community development and racial reconciliation through churches.

Perkins is an international speaker on racial reconciliation, leadership and community development. He has dedicated his life to ministering to the poor and in 1960 founded several community development projects including low-income housing, child care centers, adult education programs, cooperative farming programs, thrift stores, health centers and others. He is the founder and board chairman of the Christian Community Development Association and has written six books and many articles and has lectured at more than 150 colleges.

Vanderheyden said that the keynote speech is aimed at delivering a powerful message and encouraging cooperation in bringing about and sustaining changes in the community.

Music for the dinner will be presented by the Greater Evangelistic Temple Choir and the Seeds of Hope children’s choir directed by Mary Vandervort. Several businesses have donated door prizes for the event.

WEB 2.0 is well established, and sites such as YouTube, Flickr,
Facebook and Digg have turned the internet from a static source of
information into a huge, interactive digital playground. But where
to next? What will the next stage of web culture - which some
people call Web 3.0 - be like?
The expectation seems to be that profound changes are on the
way. If Web 2.0 is about generating and sharing your own content,
Web 3.0 will make information less free.
Privacy fears, new forms of advertising, and restrictions
imposed by media companies will mean more digital walls, leading to
a web that’s safer but without its freewheeling edge.
One reason for this is a new realism about personal information.
Most users casually store personal information on the web - email
on webmail servers, photographs on Flickr, appointment calendars on
Google Calendar, travel plans on Dopplr, and so on.
This openness is one of the defining features of Web 2.0. But
software specialist Nat Torkington, of high-tech publishing house
O’Reilly Media, predicts a backlash.
He argues that one serious leak or theft of private data could
change opinions overnight.
“It could be a Three Mile Island of the net,” he says, referring
to the 1979 accident that turned the US public against nuclear
power.
If this happens, users will start to remove their personal
details from web services, Mr Torkington believes, or at least
impose restrictions on it.
“We’ll see a hybrid model, with software that communicates with
the web while storing private information on your own computer,” he
says. So you might use Gmail to sort through your mail but download
personal messages to a more private spot.
Regions of the web now devoted to the unhindered exchange of
information, such as YouTube and Facebook, may evolve into gated
communities where only select people have access to specific
data.
Another factor that will restrict web freedom is advertising.
According to Brian Davison, a computer scientist at Lehigh
University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the influence of advertising
will continue to grow. Desperate to be noticed by people whose
attention spans are a mouse-click long, advertisers will invent
ever-more devious strategies to suck the punters in.
A few tricks are around already.
Say you are trying to reach Microsoft.com but you accidentally
type Macrosoft.com. That will take you to a page for a company
whose name has nothing to do with “Macrosoft” - they’re just parked
in that domain to get more exposure. You can find something similar
at Mycrosoft.com.
Web advertising is evolving quickly. The next generation will
sneak into search results, Mr Davison says.
For example, a website that sells movie posters might worm its
way into the results for a movie review. The link might look
useful, but clicking through will bring up an advertisement. The
danger is that such activity will gum up search results, stopping
people from finding what they need.
Web advertising is likely to balloon from another direction,
too. “Blogvertising” is expected to take off in the next five years
and produce a stark change in the medium. Already, ads are showing
up on blogs.
Bloggers stand to gain more of the advertising share because
they can create custom content for their advertisers, and that is
leading to a new style of blog on which the line between editorial
and advertisement is blurred.
Federated Media, a pioneer in the business of bringing bloggers
and advertisers together, helped Samsung advertise its HD TVs by
creating a blog called Defining Moment. Sports bloggers contributed
their posts about the best moments in sports in exchange for ad
money. All advertising on the site was by Samsung.
Neil Chase, a former editor at The New York Times and now with
Federated Media, doesn’t see this blurring of ads and content as a
problem. He argues that readers are adept at figuring out the
difference between ads and editorial. Such a model may be making
good on the old web dream of free media sharing for all; bloggers
can make their writing available for free but still be compensated
for it. Music and video content could go the same way,
incorporating advertisements to support the creators.
But wall-to-wall ads are not the only way to support media on
the web, says Michael Geist at the University of Ottawa. He says
another system can work for music and video: a media-sharing tax
that makes it legal to download anything you like.
Canada already has a version of this - a levy on blank CDs and
DVDs that allows Canadians to share music files without being sued
for copyright infringement.
“The developments we’re seeing (with media sharing) aren’t going
away,” Dr Geist says. “As more companies succeed with open business
models that could be stifled by copyright laws, they’ll seek to
have their voices heard.”
When people raised on file-sharing become politicians, Dr Geist
believes, they will support legislation that encourages models of
open media sharing online. For now, though, the name of the game is
restricting access.
Technological improvements mean that more and more content can
be delivered on the web, but with increasing control exerted by the
entertainment companies.
One way this is happening is through services such as Watch Now,
from DVD-rental company Netflix. It allows subscribers to watch
movies online without having to wait for them to download, but the
movies can only be viewed on Windows Media Player, severely
limiting where and how you can watch them.
The Netflix model represents the next step in media restriction
- part of a new, closed era when more content than ever is
available on the net, but only in limited ways.
Enjoy Web 2.0 - while it lasts.
NEW SCIENTIST

WEB 2.0 is well established, and sites such as YouTube, Flickr,
Facebook and Digg have turned the internet from a static source of
information into a huge, interactive digital playground. But where
to next? What will the next stage of web culture - which some
people call Web 3.0 - be like?
The expectation seems to be that profound changes are on the
way. If Web 2.0 is about generating and sharing your own content,
Web 3.0 will make information less free.
Privacy fears, new forms of advertising, and restrictions
imposed by media companies will mean more digital walls, leading to
a web that’s safer but without its freewheeling edge.
One reason for this is a new realism about personal information.
Most users casually store personal information on the web - email
on webmail servers, photographs on Flickr, appointment calendars on
Google Calendar, travel plans on Dopplr, and so on.
This openness is one of the defining features of Web 2.0. But
software specialist Nat Torkington, of high-tech publishing house
O’Reilly Media, predicts a backlash.
He argues that one serious leak or theft of private data could
change opinions overnight.
“It could be a Three Mile Island of the net,” he says, referring
to the 1979 accident that turned the US public against nuclear
power.
If this happens, users will start to remove their personal
details from web services, Mr Torkington believes, or at least
impose restrictions on it.
“We’ll see a hybrid model, with software that communicates with
the web while storing private information on your own computer,” he
says. So you might use Gmail to sort through your mail but download
personal messages to a more private spot.
Regions of the web now devoted to the unhindered exchange of
information, such as YouTube and Facebook, may evolve into gated
communities where only select people have access to specific
data.
Another factor that will restrict web freedom is advertising.
According to Brian Davison, a computer scientist at Lehigh
University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the influence of advertising
will continue to grow. Desperate to be noticed by people whose
attention spans are a mouse-click long, advertisers will invent
ever-more devious strategies to suck the punters in.
A few tricks are around already.
Say you are trying to reach Microsoft.com but you accidentally
type Macrosoft.com. That will take you to a page for a company
whose name has nothing to do with “Macrosoft” - they’re just parked
in that domain to get more exposure. You can find something similar
at Mycrosoft.com.
Web advertising is evolving quickly. The next generation will
sneak into search results, Mr Davison says.
For example, a website that sells movie posters might worm its
way into the results for a movie review. The link might look
useful, but clicking through will bring up an advertisement. The
danger is that such activity will gum up search results, stopping
people from finding what they need.
Web advertising is likely to balloon from another direction,
too. “Blogvertising” is expected to take off in the next five years
and produce a stark change in the medium. Already, ads are showing
up on blogs.
Bloggers stand to gain more of the advertising share because
they can create custom content for their advertisers, and that is
leading to a new style of blog on which the line between editorial
and advertisement is blurred.
Federated Media, a pioneer in the business of bringing bloggers
and advertisers together, helped Samsung advertise its HD TVs by
creating a blog called Defining Moment. Sports bloggers contributed
their posts about the best moments in sports in exchange for ad
money. All advertising on the site was by Samsung.
Neil Chase, a former editor at The New York Times and now with
Federated Media, doesn’t see this blurring of ads and content as a
problem. He argues that readers are adept at figuring out the
difference between ads and editorial. Such a model may be making
good on the old web dream of free media sharing for all; bloggers
can make their writing available for free but still be compensated
for it. Music and video content could go the same way,
incorporating advertisements to support the creators.
But wall-to-wall ads are not the only way to support media on
the web, says Michael Geist at the University of Ottawa. He says
another system can work for music and video: a media-sharing tax
that makes it legal to download anything you like.
Canada already has a version of this - a levy on blank CDs and
DVDs that allows Canadians to share music files without being sued
for copyright infringement.
“The developments we’re seeing (with media sharing) aren’t going
away,” Dr Geist says. “As more companies succeed with open business
models that could be stifled by copyright laws, they’ll seek to
have their voices heard.”
When people raised on file-sharing become politicians, Dr Geist
believes, they will support legislation that encourages models of
open media sharing online. For now, though, the name of the game is
restricting access.
Technological improvements mean that more and more content can
be delivered on the web, but with increasing control exerted by the
entertainment companies.
One way this is happening is through services such as Watch Now,
from DVD-rental company Netflix. It allows subscribers to watch
movies online without having to wait for them to download, but the
movies can only be viewed on Windows Media Player, severely
limiting where and how you can watch them.
The Netflix model represents the next step in media restriction
- part of a new, closed era when more content than ever is
available on the net, but only in limited ways.
Enjoy Web 2.0 - while it lasts.
NEW SCIENTIST

WEB 2.0 is well established, and sites such as YouTube, Flickr,
Facebook and Digg have turned the internet from a static source of
information into a huge, interactive digital playground. But where
to next? What will the next stage of web culture - which some
people call Web 3.0 - be like?
The expectation seems to be that profound changes are on the
way. If Web 2.0 is about generating and sharing your own content,
Web 3.0 will make information less free.
Privacy fears, new forms of advertising, and restrictions
imposed by media companies will mean more digital walls, leading to
a web that’s safer but without its freewheeling edge.
One reason for this is a new realism about personal information.
Most users casually store personal information on the web - email
on webmail servers, photographs on Flickr, appointment calendars on
Google Calendar, travel plans on Dopplr, and so on.
This openness is one of the defining features of Web 2.0. But
software specialist Nat Torkington, of high-tech publishing house
O’Reilly Media, predicts a backlash.
He argues that one serious leak or theft of private data could
change opinions overnight.
“It could be a Three Mile Island of the net,” he says, referring
to the 1979 accident that turned the US public against nuclear
power.
If this happens, users will start to remove their personal
details from web services, Mr Torkington believes, or at least
impose restrictions on it.
“We’ll see a hybrid model, with software that communicates with
the web while storing private information on your own computer,” he
says. So you might use Gmail to sort through your mail but download
personal messages to a more private spot.
Regions of the web now devoted to the unhindered exchange of
information, such as YouTube and Facebook, may evolve into gated
communities where only select people have access to specific
data.
Another factor that will restrict web freedom is advertising.
According to Brian Davison, a computer scientist at Lehigh
University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the influence of advertising
will continue to grow. Desperate to be noticed by people whose
attention spans are a mouse-click long, advertisers will invent
ever-more devious strategies to suck the punters in.
A few tricks are around already.
Say you are trying to reach Microsoft.com but you accidentally
type Macrosoft.com. That will take you to a page for a company
whose name has nothing to do with “Macrosoft” - they’re just parked
in that domain to get more exposure. You can find something similar
at Mycrosoft.com.
Web advertising is evolving quickly. The next generation will
sneak into search results, Mr Davison says.
For example, a website that sells movie posters might worm its
way into the results for a movie review. The link might look
useful, but clicking through will bring up an advertisement. The
danger is that such activity will gum up search results, stopping
people from finding what they need.
Web advertising is likely to balloon from another direction,
too. “Blogvertising” is expected to take off in the next five years
and produce a stark change in the medium. Already, ads are showing
up on blogs.
Bloggers stand to gain more of the advertising share because
they can create custom content for their advertisers, and that is
leading to a new style of blog on which the line between editorial
and advertisement is blurred.
Federated Media, a pioneer in the business of bringing bloggers
and advertisers together, helped Samsung advertise its HD TVs by
creating a blog called Defining Moment. Sports bloggers contributed
their posts about the best moments in sports in exchange for ad
money. All advertising on the site was by Samsung.
Neil Chase, a former editor at The New York Times and now with
Federated Media, doesn’t see this blurring of ads and content as a
problem. He argues that readers are adept at figuring out the
difference between ads and editorial. Such a model may be making
good on the old web dream of free media sharing for all; bloggers
can make their writing available for free but still be compensated
for it. Music and video content could go the same way,
incorporating advertisements to support the creators.
But wall-to-wall ads are not the only way to support media on
the web, says Michael Geist at the University of Ottawa. He says
another system can work for music and video: a media-sharing tax
that makes it legal to download anything you like.
Canada already has a version of this - a levy on blank CDs and
DVDs that allows Canadians to share music files without being sued
for copyright infringement.
“The developments we’re seeing (with media sharing) aren’t going
away,” Dr Geist says. “As more companies succeed with open business
models that could be stifled by copyright laws, they’ll seek to
have their voices heard.”
When people raised on file-sharing become politicians, Dr Geist
believes, they will support legislation that encourages models of
open media sharing online. For now, though, the name of the game is
restricting access.
Technological improvements mean that more and more content can
be delivered on the web, but with increasing control exerted by the
entertainment companies.
One way this is happening is through services such as Watch Now,
from DVD-rental company Netflix. It allows subscribers to watch
movies online without having to wait for them to download, but the
movies can only be viewed on Windows Media Player, severely
limiting where and how you can watch them.
The Netflix model represents the next step in media restriction
- part of a new, closed era when more content than ever is
available on the net, but only in limited ways.
Enjoy Web 2.0 - while it lasts.
NEW SCIENTIST

Boise has changed a lot since Sheila Lincoln became a nurse 11 years ago, and Lincoln’s job has changed accordingly. The proportion of low-income children in Boise has risen from 28 percent to 43 percent since the early 1990s, according to the Boise School District’s Web site. Lincoln said she sees a lot more children than she used to who don’t have insurance and don’t regularly visit a doctor. “We are the first health care professional, often, that most of the children see,” said Lincoln, who was chosen as this year’s Nurse of the Year by the state’s association of school nurses.Lincoln came to nursing relatively late in life; when she graduated with her nursing degree in 1992 from Boise State University, she said, she was older than the head of the department.Being a school nurse had been her lifelong dream. Lincoln loves her work, where her time is divided between Shadow Hills Elementary School and Cole Elementary. She’s also very active in the School Nurse Organization of Idaho. Lincoln has given a lot of thought to how the school nurse’s job has changed. “We’re seeing more of what we call English Language Learners,” she said, referring to children who speak a foreign language at home. “We have a lot more refugees coming, young people, some of whom were born and grown up in refugee camps. They come with huge medical problems of Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C.”Also, I think since the twin towers, we see more parents full of fear; children are not walking to school.” Parents tell Lincoln they don’t let their children ride the bus for fear of bullying. There are kids in the district who are HIV-positive. As medical technology changes, children with more fragile medical conditions are coming to school, a development Lincoln finds positive. “I want inclusion; I want them to spend part of their day in a regular classroom,” she said.Other things have stayed stable during Lincoln’s tenure, such as the number of abuse cases she sees. Lincoln’s award enables her to attend the national school nurses’ conference in Albuquerque, N.M., in June. More importantly, for her, “it is a vote of confidence by my peers” for her outside work, her teaching and her contributions to various association committees, such as one that looks for ways to encourage more kids to walk to school. Claudia Terrell, the past president of the state nurse’s association, nominated Lincoln for the award. “She’s willing to get on board with new things and help,” she said.Terrell and Lincoln both noted that school nurses do a lot more than treat playground scrapes and other accidents that happen at school. They also set up health maintenance plans for children with chronic conditions, and they help steer parents toward health care, either by finding a doctor willing to treat a condition for free; by contacting one of the clinics for the uninsured in the Treasure Valley; or by helping the parents do the paperwork necessary to qualify for low-income health insurance programs.”I have actually driven kids to the doctor,” Lincoln said, noting that a parent who couldn’t drive came along. The Boise School District has 15 elementary school nurses, some of whom divide their time between schools, and 13 secondary school nurses, said Terrell. Some Idaho districts don’t have the money to hire even one school nurse, she said. “The health coverage is good in Boise,” said Terrell. “It would be nice to see all schools in Idaho have school nurses.”Anne Wallace Allen: 377-6433