bits and bikes

Damon Horowitz and Sepandar Kamvar recently published a paper — referentially entitled “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Social Search Engine” (PDF) — in which they nicely lay out the social search problem and the Aardvark solution. As I was reading this paper, one thought kept surfacing…

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I’m happy to announce that Grockit will be offering its paid summer research internship program for the summer of 2010. This is the second year that we’re doing this (thanks again, Angela!), and I think it’s a great opportunity for doctoral students to apply their own research experience to a system that a large (and growing) community of learners uses everyday. It’s worth mentioning that Grockit has a large and interesting set of educational data, a variety of research interests, a very talented team, and a fantastic work environment. I just posted details about this program (with an application form) on the 2010 Summer Research Internship, and I encourage you to check it out.

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Just a quick post to let you know that several hundred great new ideas on how we might reimagine learning have just been submitted to the Digital Media and Learning competition. This week only, you can contribute to the conversation by adding your own comments. Be sure to check out QuestionLab, which is a proposal outlining how we can leverage Grockit’s platform for live collaboration to create a new game that actively engages learners in asking questions and sharing their work with the world, in concert with our friends at Connexions.

I’d love to hear your feedback, so please leave a comment about QuestionLab on the DML site!

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I’ve recently been playing around with Etherpad, which was generously open-sourced by Google after they acquired AppJet. It is a fantastic piece of work, and I’ve enjoyed exploring the source code and brainstorming new applications for the technology.
My favorite find, so far, is this function in team_billing_control.js:

function _processPaypalPurchase() {
var domain = domains.getRequestDomainId();
[...]

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My bicycle has a flat tire, so I’ve recently been walking to work. I seem to end up spending much of this time thinking about how to be less late when commuting without a bike. While I always follow the same route when biking to work — one that balances total distance with hilliness — I have found no clear best route for commuting by foot. My path changes the most in the Mission, where the ground is flat and the streets are on a grid. I never walk any more than necessary to get there, but I hate the idea of standing still at an intersection while waiting for a light to turn green.

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My bike has had a flat tire for longer than I’d care to admit, so I’ve been commuting recently by foot and by bus. This leaves me with plenty of time to think, but mostly just thoughts about walking and/or taking the bus.

If you’ve spent time waiting for erratically-timed buses, you know this question well: Will I get there faster if I continue waiting or if I start walking? You can look to recent literature in recreational mathematics for some general guidance on this dilemma [1] [2]. But while waiting may pay off for the lazy mathematician, I like to get some exercise in the process. So here’s a twist on the problem: How far can I walk without missing the next bus? I’ll propose three practical solutions…

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Linux = Recumbent
via If Computers Were Bikes, What Bikes Would They Be? | Gadget Lab from Wired.com.

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I posted an entry on the Grockit blog today, about how aim to build a learning platform that we is both both peer-powered and data-driven. My goal is to contribute a new post each week or so, which you can find here: http://blog.grockit.com/author/ari/.

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Following my acquisition of these socks, I’ve actively been on the lookout for interesting opportunities in my field. I’m excited to have found something great in the works at Grockit, and will be joining Farb and his team there next month. More details in the weeks to come…

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I came across Jonathan Feinberg’s Wordle yesterday, and spent perhaps a bit too much time generating word clouds for Bits and Bikes. Here are a few of my favorites…

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