November 2013 - change - Mailing Lists

Reminder: No Change Seminar This Week
by Trevor Perrier 25 Nov '13

25 Nov '13

Hello, There is no Change Seminar this week or next week. We are currently trying to fill the schedule for next quarter, so if you or anyone you know would like to share their research with the Change community please let me know. Thanks, - Trevor

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Fwd: [TIER] Engineering Opportunities at Gram Power
by Yaw Anokwa 24 Nov '13

24 Nov '13

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Yashraj Khaitan <yashraj(a)grampower.com> Date: Sun, Nov 24, 2013 at 6:04 AM Subject: [TIER] Engineering Opportunities at Gram Power To: tier(a)tier.cs.berkeley.edu Hi Everyone, I'm Yashraj Khaitan from Gram Power. We're a young energy technology company out of UC-Berkeley that's working on innovative smart grid technologies and business models to address the 'energy access' and 'energy lost' problems in India. Just a quick background, India has 77 million households off the grid, and on the grid the country loses close to $50 Billion/year towards losses largely due to theft, pilferage and non-payment - the specific challenges that Gram Power is addressing. Our technical team is rapidly growing now. New openings are posted on www.grampower.com/careers. I request the members of this group to pass on the word and anyone interested, please reach out to me directly. Cheers, -- Yashraj Khaitan Co-Founder & CEO ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The information in this message, including any attachments, is the property of Gram Power, Inc. (discloser), is intended solely for the use of the individual(s) or entity to which this message is addressed, and contains confidential or privileged information. Therefore, the use or disclosure by a person who is not an intended recipient is prohibited. Use or distribution by the intended recipient is permitted if distribution is pursuant to an agreement with discloser authorizing distribution, or distribution is to those that have been previously approved by the discloser for sharing. If you are not the intended recipient, or the person responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, please notify the sender and immediately delete this message. _______________________________________________ TIER mailing list Website: http://tier.cs.berkeley.edu TIER(a)tier.cs.berkeley.edu https://www.millennium.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tier

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FW: Any one have a suggestion of an Internship for U Capetown 2nd Year student in Game Programming -Dec 2013-Feb 2014??
by Sherrilynne Fuller 19 Nov '13

19 Nov '13

Hello - If you have any suggestions for Jimmy please reply directly to him. Sherri Sherrilynne Fuller, Ph.D. Professor Department of Biomedical Informatics School of Medicine and Department of Health Services (Adj) School of Public Health and Information School Co-Director, Center for Public Health Informatics University of Washington SLU - BIME BOX 35-8047 Seattle, Washington, 98195-4985 206-616-4575 206-221-2671 (FAX) 360-440-7341 (Cell) sfuller(a)uw.edu SKYPE: sherrilynne_fuller From: Jimmy Macharia [mailto:kmacharia@usiu.ac.ke] Sent: Saturday, November 16, 2013 1:32 AM To: sfuller(a)u.washington.edu Subject: Internship for UCT 2nd Year student in Game Programming -Dec 2013-Feb 2014 Hi Friend Greetings. Might you know any one/company that might be interested to take one student in the name of Mwangi WANJOHI ( from university of Cape Town) for 3 months internship in Game Programming from December 2013 to Feb 2014? If so let me know. Thank you Jimmy Macharia, www.usiu.ac.ke DISCLAIMER: All the information contained in this email message is strictly confidential and may be legally privileged. Such information is intended exclusively for the use of the designated recipient(s). Any disclosure, copying or distribution of all or part of the information contained herein or other use of or the taking of any action in reliance upon this information by third parties is prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this email message in error please delete it immediately and notify the university through email at ulc(a)usiu.ac.ke

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Tom Ball: TouchDevelop - Productive Scripting on and for Touch-based Devices and Web Services
by Trevor Perrier 15 Nov '13

15 Nov '13

What: Tom Ball: TouchDevelop - Productive Scripting on and for Touch-based Devices and Web Services When: Tuesday, November 19th at 12 noon Where: The Allen Center, CSE 203 Please join us for this weeks Change talk by Tom Ball on TouchDevelop - a framework for creating touch based applications. TouchDevelop will be presented at an open session in the upcoming ICTD2013 conference. *Abstract* TouchDevelop <http://www.touchdevelop.com/> is a programming environment that provides high-level abstractions to enable the productive creation of scripts on and for touch-based devices that access web services. TouchDevelop has four main components: 1. A statically typed scripting language with novel abstractions to support (a) stateless GUIs with support for live programming and (b) replicated data for collaborative applications; 2. A browser-hosted touch-based integrated development environment that makes it possible to productively create small scripts with a single finger on a variety of devices. 3. A set of high-level APIs to make it easy to access device sensors/resources and web services; 4. A cloud back-end that enables a social approach to software development. In this talk, I'll first briefly demonstrate TouchDevelop and show how it is being used in education at various levels. I'll then dig into the language abstractions and run-time support for live programming and replicated data, as well as the research opportunities opened up by hosting a software environment in the cloud. *About the Speaker* Thomas (Tom) Ball is a Principal Researcher and Research Manager at Microsoft Research. From 1993-1999, he was at Bell Laboratories, where he made contributions in program visualization and profiling. His 1997 PLDI paper on path profiling with colleagues Ammons and Larus received the PLDI 2007 Most Influential Paper Award. In 1999, Tom moved to Microsoft Research, where he started the SLAM software model checking project with Sriram Rajamani, leading to the Static Driver Verifier (SDV) tool for finding defects in device driver code. A 2001 PLDI paper on SLAM's predicate abstraction procedure for C programs received the PLDI 2011 Most Influential Paper Award. Tom and Sriram received the 2011 CAV Award for SLAM/SDV. Tom is a 2011 ACM Fellow for "contributions to software analysis and defect detection". At Microsoft, he has nurtured research areas such as automated theorem proving, program testing/verification, and empirical software engineering.

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Fwd: Invitation for PhD students interested in future faculty positions at Ashesi
by Alan Borning 13 Nov '13

13 Nov '13

This is a great opportunity for students interested in teaching in Africa - I spent some time at Ashesi on my sabbatical some years ago. cheers, Alan ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Svandenbelt <svandenbelt(a)ashesi.org> Date: Wed, Nov 13, 2013 at 12:59 PM Subject: Invitation for PhD students interested in future faculty positions at Ashesi To: borning(a)cs.washington.edu Hi Alan, Marcia Grant<http://www.ashesi.edu.gh/news-and-events/news/1662-ashesi-welcomes-new-prov…>, Ashesi’s Provost, is coming to Seattle this month and is holding an open meeting on November 18 for Ghanaian/West African PhD students who are interested in learning about faculty opportunities at Ashesi. Do you know of anyone that might be interested? Please let me know and help us spread the word! The invitation is below. If you have any questions or ideas for how we can get the word out about the event, I would love to hear them. Please feel free to contact me. Best, Sara -- Sara Vandenbelt Donor Relations Coordinator Ashesi University Foundation 206-545-6988 www.ashesi.org *Ethical leadership and innovative thinking for a new Africa.* Learn more: Community Report<http://files.flipsnack.com/iframe/embed.html?hash=ft32hgg2&wmode=transparen…>– CNN Interview<http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/01/world/africa/patrick-awuah-ashesi-ghana>– *Forbes Interview <http://www.forbes.com/sites/skollworldforum/2013/10/14/educating-a-new-gene…>* Calling all potential faculty: An introduction to Ashesi University<http://www.ashesi.edu.gh/>in Ghana By Marcia Grant<http://www.ashesi.edu.gh/news-and-events/news/1662-ashesi-welcomes-new-prov…>, PhD, Ashesi University Provost Monday, November 18, 2-4 pm Café Allegro <http://seattleallegro.com/contact/> 4214 University Way NE RSVP to jbargeron(a)ashesi.org Dr. Grant is interested in meeting Ghanaian and West African PhD students to discuss faculty and teaching opportunities on campus. Areas of focus include engineering, business, computer science, mathematics, and humanities (African history, English, psychology). Join Marcia to learn about Ashesi’s curriculum, the educational community that makes it unique, and how you can be part of it. *About Ashesi*: Ashesi <http://www.ashesi.edu.gh/> is a world-class institution that combines a rigorous liberal arts core with in-depth majors in business and computer science, and a 4-year commitment to ethical leadership development. Our mission is to educate a new generation of ethical and entrepreneurial leaders in Africa; to cultivate within our students the critical thinking skills, the concern for others, and the courage it will take to transform their continent. Over 95% of Ashesi graduates have chosen to stay in Africa. 100% of Ashesi graduates have received quality placement offers. Ashesi and its leadership have received numerous awards<http://www.ashesi.edu.gh/about/awards-and-recognition-20.html>for their work improving higher education in Africa including recognition from the World Economic Forum, Aspen Institute, and UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. *Learn more*: Ashesi Catalog<http://www.flipsnack.com/FB8F8BAD75E/ftnlwm9p>-- Patrick Awuah’s TED Talk<http://www.ted.com/talks/patrick_awuah_on_educating_leaders.html> -- Ashesi on CNN<http://www.ashesi.edu.gh/news-and-events/publications/brochures/1675-millio…> *For questions, contact*: Ashesi University Foundation at 206-545-6988 or jbargeron(a)ashesi.org.

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[announce] TA3M-Seattle #3, Mon 11/18
by Blibbet 11 Nov '13

11 Nov '13

[BCC'ed Seattle Privacy, DC206, SASAG, Debian Seattle, UW Change, GSLUG, FreeGeek Seattle, LibrePlanet-US-WA, JigRen DaVinci. Sorry for duplicates. Feel free to forward to others.] What: TA3M-Seattle #3 When: November 18, 2013, 6:30-9:00pm Where: Adas Technical Books (425 15th Ave E, Seattle, WA 98112; <http://adasbooks.com/>) ====== TA3M-Seattle (Techno-Activism, 3rd Mondays) is a monthly event focusing on online surveillance and censorship, open access, and open technology. We focus on the open source tools that are used to combat it, and issues and initiatives associated with this area. We bring together software developers, activists, concerned citizens, and others, so we they can both educate each other, and share knowledge. TA3M events take place in dozens of cities worldwide; Seattle started in August 2013. For Seattle, please see the wiki and ta3m-seattle announce mailing list. https://wiki.openitp.org/events:techno-activism_3rd_mondays:seattle https://lists.openitp.org/pipermail/ta3m-seattle/ This month, we are lucky to have three speakers, lots of interesting things to learn! There are two Tor talks, the first is for developers (but users can also benefit from it), the second is for users. Note also the new location! [We could use A/V recording help, if anyone has the ability!] ====== New Location: Adas Books For the last two months, we've been very grateful to have been hosted by Black Coffee CoOp <http://blackcoffeecoop.com/>. Starting this month we'll be hosted at Ada's Technical Books, 425 15th Ave E, Seattle, WA 98112, <http://adasbooks.com/>. We started TA3M #0 in August at Ada's; since then they've moved to a new location with a larger event space. ====== Schedule: 6:30-7:00, pre-event networking: CryptoParty Handbook study group, or Swartz Hackathon projects 7:00-7:05, Chris, welcome to TA3M Seattle 7:05-7-20, Lisha Sterling, "Introducing Geeks Without Bounds and Random Hacks of Kindness" 7:20-7:25, break 7:25-?:??, Damian Johnson, "Tor Ecosystem: Developers Guide to Contributing to the Tor Project" ?:??-?:??, break ?:??-9:00, Lee Colleton, "Operating nodes in the Tor network" ====== Pre-event activity: Last month, we tried to start a study group for the Crypto Party Handbook, but only a handful were ready. This month, during the 6:30-7:00 pre-event networking period, we'll try to split into two groups: 1) Continue the Crypto Party Handbook study group. Please read chapter 2 in advance, and come with any open questions/comments. Or 2) Continue working on any projects started at the recent Aaron Swartz Hackathon. ====== Lisha Sterling, "Introducing Geeks Without Bounds and Random Hacks of Kindness" Our first speaker is Lisha Sterling. In this presentation, "Introducing Geeks Without Bounds and Random Hacks of Kindness", Lisha will tell us about how GWOB supports humanitarian open source projects by organizing hackathons like the semi-annual global RHoK events and by mentoring promising projects through their accelerator program. Lisha is the Developer Coordinator at GWOB and serves as one of the technical mentors in the accelerator. You can read her very short rants on Twitter at @lishevita or read her longer adventures in tech at <http://alwayssababa.com>. ====== Damian Johnson, "Tor Ecosystem: Developers Guide to Contributing to the Tor Project" Our second speaker is Damian Johnson, a local volunteer Tor Developer. In this presentation, "Tor Ecosystem: Developers Guide to Contributing to the Tor Project", Damian will describe the myriad of sub-projects in the Tor ecosystem and how you can get involved with development. Damian is has been a volunteer with the Tor project since 2009, and is the main author behind arm <https://www.atagar.com/arm/> and stem <https://stem.torproject.org/>. ====== Lee Colleton, "Operating nodes in the Tor network" Our third speaker is Lee Colleton. In this presentation, "Operating nodes in the Tor network" in the support and defense of free speech, free association and protecting anonymity online, Lee will be demonstrating the setup and operation of Tor on various platforms: on a desktop computer, on a tiny router and also on an Android device in the form of Orbot from The Guardian Project. Hardware will be given away free to attendees who agree to run a Tor node. Lee is a systems administrator and a member of the Seattle Privacy Coalition. ======

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Luis Fernando Baron: Social Media and Social Movements
by Trevor Perrier 07 Nov '13

07 Nov '13

What: Social Media and Social Movements: Facebook in the interactions of Social Movement Organizations When: Tuesday, November 12th at 12 noon Where: The Allen Center, CSE 203 Please join us next Tuesday for the Change Seminar. Luis Fernando will be presenting on his current research into social media and social movement organizations around immigration issues in Washington. *Abstract* Use of Social Media is transforming communication practices within and among organizations, with important consequences for social movement organizations seeking to benefit undeserved communities such as immigrants in the US. This work seeks to illuminate how Facebook has been entangled in the practices of Social Movement Organizations (SMO) that work on immigration issues in Washington State. I focus on three complementary areas of inquiry: (a) the SMO information and communication practices; (b) their processes for expressing and forging collective identities, and (c) their *performativity*, defined as an understanding of the SMO’s multiple and fluid interactions with individuals and collectives. Results of this research will expand understanding of the intersection of technology and society, and of social media and social movements in particular, and help social and grassroots organizations improve their actions and services on behalf of immigrants in the US and other parts of the world. *About the Speaker* Luis Fernando is a Ph.D. Candidate of Information Sciences at the University of Washington (UW). He has been leader in the study of relations of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and social movements, particularly, in the field of human rights and peacebuilding in Colombia. His research spans such diverse areas as memories, public opinion and audiences studies on violence and peace processes in Colombia, uses of media for social change, immigration and information, and alternative processes of organization for development. He is defending his dissertation this coming December: *Social Media and Social Movements: Facebook in the interactions of Social Movement Organizations*. His last book on public access to computers, coauthored by Ricardo Gomez, is going to be presented in Colombia next December as well.

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Fwd: FW: Invitation for PhD students interested in future faculty positions at Ashesi University in Ghana
by Yaw Anokwa 06 Nov '13

06 Nov '13

If you are interested in teaching in Ghana, Ashesi is an incredible place. Details below. Calling all potential faculty: An introduction to Ashesi University<http://www.ashesi.edu.gh/>in Ghana By Marcia Grant<http://www.ashesi.edu.gh/news-and-events/news/1662-ashesi-welcomes-new-prov…>, PhD, Ashesi University Provost Monday, November 18, 2-4 pm Café Allegro <http://seattleallegro.com/contact/> 4214 University Way NE RSVP to jbargeron(a)ashesi.org Dr. Grant is interested in meeting Ghanaian and West African PhD students to discuss faculty and teaching opportunities on campus. Areas of focus include engineering, business, computer science, mathematics, and humanities (African history, English, psychology). Join Marcia to learn about Ashesi’s curriculum, the educational community that makes it unique, and how you can be part of it. *About Ashesi*: Ashesi <http://www.ashesi.edu.gh/> is a world-class institution that combines a rigorous liberal arts core with in-depth majors in business and computer science, and a 4-year commitment to ethical leadership development. Our mission is to educate a new generation of ethical and entrepreneurial leaders in Africa; to cultivate within our students the critical thinking skills, the concern for others, and the courage it will take to transform their continent. Over 95% of Ashesi graduates have chosen to stay in Africa. 100% of Ashesi graduates have received quality placement offers. Ashesi and its leadership have received numerous awards<http://www.ashesi.edu.gh/about/awards-and-recognition-20.html>for their work improving higher education in Africa including recognition from the World Economic Forum, Aspen Institute, and UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. *Learn more*: Ashesi Catalog<http://www.flipsnack.com/FB8F8BAD75E/ftnlwm9p>-- Patrick Awuah’s TED Talk<http://www.ted.com/talks/patrick_awuah_on_educating_leaders.html> -- Ashesi on CNN<http://www.ashesi.edu.gh/news-and-events/publications/brochures/1675-millio…> *For questions, contact*: Ashesi University Foundation at 206-545-6988 or jbargeron(a)ashesi.org.

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FWD: RFA for CommTrack Proof of Concept Grants in India and Nepal
by Gaetano Borriello 05 Nov '13

05 Nov '13

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Gillian Javetski <gjavetski(a)dimagi.com> To: change(a)change.washington.edu Cc: "poc-applications(a)dimagi.com" <poc-applications(a)dimagi.com> Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2013 16:27:56 +0200 Subject: RFA for CommTrack Proof of Concept Grants in India and Nepal Hi everyone, Dimagi is pleased to announce that it will support five organizations from various sectors in India and Nepal to explore the use of mobile technology for logistics and supply chain management in low-resource settings. Each organization will be supported to launch a proof of concept of CommTrack<http://www.commtrack.org/home/>, an open source mobile logistics tool that leverages CommCare and is part of the MOTECH Suite. CommTrack was developed through related projects in three countries with John Snow International. With successful deployments of the first generation of CommTrack already reaching national scale in the health sector, we are pleased to announce this opportunity for organizations to use CommTrack to strengthen their supply chain in health or other global development sectors. Through this RFA, India-based Dimagi staff will support five organizations in India and Nepal to rapidly deploy a proof-of-concept CommTrack application within twelve months of the award date. The objectives of this RFA are to: Build capacity for organizations to implement mobile solutions for improved logistics and supply chain using CommTrack over either SMS or a mobile application. Develop open source mobile applications and content that will be useful for ensuring availability of goods for health or other global development sectors. Foster an environment for organizations to assess the costs and benefits of mobile phones for logistics and supply chain and help scale mobile programs where appropriate. Awardees will each receive 10 free phones to deploy a CommTrack application designed for their organization, free access to the CommTrack cloud-based server for one year, and one month of free support from Dimagi’s experienced, India-based Field Managers, including a 2 week on-site visit to help assess supply chain bottlenecks and launch CommTrack. For further information and to download the full RFA, please refer to our website (http://tinyurl.com/commtrackpoc) Applications are due by December 23, 2013. If you have any additional questions, please email poc-applications(a)dimagi.com. (cced). Sincerely, The Dimagi Team

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Tuesday Nov 5th: Kentaro Toyama: What should be our primary focus in international development?
by Trevor Perrier 01 Nov '13

01 Nov '13

What: Kentaro Toyama: What should be our primary focus in international development? When: Tuesday, November 5th at 12 noon Where: The Allen Center, CSE 203 Please join us for this weeks Change talk by Kentaro Toyama as he shares his views on what the longterm goals of technology in development should be and lessons that he learned working in both India and Africa. *Abstract* After several years of working on ICT-for-development projects in India and parts of Africa, I came to the conclusion that to first order, technology only amplifies underlying human forces. Amplification means that where human forces are corrupt or weak, there is little positive impact that technology can have - yet corrupt or weak institutions are exactly the challenge facing many developing-world environments. That raises the big question of what else development efforts might focus on, if not providing people the tools to help themselves. I have some preliminary ideas -- not necessarily friendly to a technological outlook -- and I look forward to an opportunity to discuss and debate with people who are also invested in development and social change. *About the Speaker* Kentaro Toyama (www.kentarotoyama.org) is a visiting researcher in the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley and a fellow of the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT. He is working on a book arguing that genuine human development, not technocratic intervention, should be the primary focus of international development activities. Until 2009, Toyama was assistant managing director of Microsoft Research India and founder of the Technology for Emerging Markets research group, which conducts interdisciplinary research to explore how the world's poorest communities might benefit from electronic technology. Prior to his time in India, Toyama did computer vision and multimedia research and taught mathematics at Ashesi University in Accra, Ghana. Kentaro graduated from Yale with a PhD in Computer Science and from Harvard with a bachelors degree in Physics.

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