"Computing may someday be organized as a public utility."
- John McCarthy, computer scientist, MIT Centennial in 1961
As cloud computing is still a relatively new technology, it should come as no surprise that many people (76% of Americans, according to a study by Penn, Schoen & Berland, PSB , commissioned by Microsoft) haven't yet heard the term or have heard the term but know little at this point about what it really means.
This number becomes a little more surprising, however, when compared with the percentage of people already using cloud computing in one form or another. The same study quoted above found that 84% of Americans are using online email, 57% store or share information through a social media site, and 33% are already storing their photos online. And while these and countless other applications utilizing the so-called cloud already influence the way in which individuals use their computers in a significant way, an even larger revolution based on the same underlying principle is underway in the world of business computing.
"In 10 years, 80 percent of all the computing done in the world could be done in the cloud. This is that big."
- Michael Nelson, Brookings Institution Panel on the Future of Cloud Computing, 2010
This article introduces some of the already available applications and services based on cloud computing, highlighting the benefits anticipated from this new technology and discussing some the inherent challenges it presents to providers, consumers, and governments. This is followed by a brief summary of recent policy initiatives of American and European governments and a brief outlook on developments expected in the near future.
On the 4th of September in 1882, Thomas Edison turned on his Pearl Street power station in Lower Manhattan, New York, for the first time. It unveiled the possibilities of electricity by providing light and electric power to customers in an area of one square mile. The age of electricity had begun and a new era of power was brought to life.
Some 120 years later, on August 14, 2003, New York City and an additional 40 million Americans experienced what it feels like when the electricity we all rely on suddenly shuts down. This 2003 blackout was one of the largest in US history, and it gave proof that the aging US power grid is in need of an update. According to the White House, power outages cost American consumers more than $150 billion a year.
Originally the US electrical power grid was built to transfer a relatively small amount of electric power from monopolistic utilities to local customers by generating energy in large and centralized power plants. Today, there are more than 10,000 generation units (the vast majority of them over 30-years old) with more than 1,000,000 megawatts of generation capacity. These units are connected through more than 300,000 miles of transmission lines and cater to more than 300 million consumers in the US. And while the demand for electricity has increased by about 25 percent since 1990, construction of transmission facilities has decreased about 30 percent.
Another reason for upgrading the electrical power grid now is the goal of the US Administration to generate 20 percent or more of the country's energy from renewable sources by 2020. With nearly 40 percent of all energy sources used to produce electricity, those new renewable energy sources need to be integrated on a large-scale into the electric power grid.
As it does every other year, in January the National Science Board (NSB) published its nineteenth in a series of biennial science indicators reports: "Science and Engineering Indicators 2010 ." This publication is widely regarded as an authoritative source of "analyses of key aspects of the scope, quality, and vitality of the Nation's science and engineering enterprise in the context of global science and technology," as NSB Chairman Steven C. Beering put it in his memorandum to the President and Congress of the United States.
The bottom line of the 2010 report is that the US still remains the world leader in R&D, but its dominance has eroded in recent years, mainly because of the rapidly growing R&D capacities of the Asia-8 economies (China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand). The US accounted for about one-third ($369 billion) of the $1.1 trillion worldwide R&D total in 2007, followed by the Asia-8 ($338 billion), and the EU-27 ($263 billion).
After more than a decade of preparation, the first private international university of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) plans to open its doors this May, with 150 undergraduate and 60 graduate students to inaugurate this historic moment. The Pyongyang University of Science & Technology, or PUST, is the brainchild of Korean-American Dr. James Chin Kyung Kim, an entrepreneur turned educator. His vision and dedication led to an educational experiment that is not just about opening campus doors but hopefully about opening minds, too.
The PUST project is a poster child for an international higher education collaboration that demonstrates the potential and the power of science-based relationships with countries perceived to be internationally isolated.
Kim, who is the founding president of PUST, is clear about the university's mission: to reconcile the North and the South of Korea, and to train and educate a North Korean elite that will be ready to engage with international partners once that time comes. Since the fall of the Eastern Bloc some 20 years ago, options for educational exchanges with North Korean higher education institutions have become limited, to say the least. Kim was able to involve individuals and to engage donors from South Korea, the United States, Canada, the European Union, China, and other countries to work together to build this unique institution of higher education, which will serve as a window opening into the Western world and culture for young North Koreans.
Dr. James Kim in front of the PUST construction site, left, and the R&D Center, right.
Dr. Kim has some experience to draw on when it comes to such a challenging educational experiment as PUST: Eighteen years ago, in 1992, he founded the Yanbian University of Science and Technology (YUST) in Yanji. Yanji is the capital city of an autonomous Korean enclave in the Chinese province of Jilin that borders on North Korea (see map on right), with almost half its population of Korean decent. YUST was China's first foreign university, founded at a time when China was still a relatively closed society. Despite the many challenges and constraints that YUST has faced since its inauguration, it has become one of the top 100 universities of China. Within the last 18 years, YUST has grown into a science and technology school with nine colleges, 12 departments, and 35 research institutes that cater to about 1800 undergraduates and about 600 continuing education students. The international faculty of 300 instructors hails from 13 different countries, and the languages of instruction are Chinese, Korean, German and English. In addition to an English Department where students acquire and improve their mastery of the English language, YUST offers its students German language classes in its own German Department. Richard Maislinger, an Austrian language instructor from Ostermiething, a small village north of Salzburg, who has been teaching German at YUST for the last two years, describes his experiences as "sometimes challenging, sometimes amazing, and always an enrichment for my life. Chinese students seem to be more thankful and respectful to their teachers, which makes teaching much easier. On the other hand it requires more effort to make them develop their own ideas."
A Bright Alternative: Austro-Indian Solar Cooking Initiatives
bridges vol. 25, April 2010 / Feature Article
By Simone
Pötscher
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For centuries, humankind has worshipped the sun, but today we also harness it for energy. In India, the transition from worshipping Surya to also using its power for cooking was brought along by the technical expertise of Austrian physicist Wolfgang Scheffler, when he introduced his improved parabolic concentrator solar cooking concept to Deepak and Shirin Gadhia in 1994. Together with this Indian (solar) power couple, an amazing success story began, showing how technology transfer paired with hard work on the ground can improve the lives of many in rural India. A project that started by providing single solar cookers more than a decade ago led to the 2009 opening of the world's largest solar steam cooking system at the Shirdi Sai Baba Shrine, Maharashtra, where this environmentally friendly technology now cooks food for up to 50,000 people per day.
The dangers associated with daily meal preparation
Smoke and sooth development caused by cooking with fire wood.
Women cooking on mud stoves fueled by burning wood, dung, or crop residue, is common among three-quarters of the population in India, and some 2 billion people around the world, mainly in developing countries. According to the World Health Organization, 400,000 of India's population dies prematurely every year due to effects of biomass fuel used in households. Exposure to smoke and poisonous fumes from burning biomass in poorly ventilated homes is a major cause of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases in women and children. In addition to its devastating effects on health, using traditional cookstoves for meal preparation also has a negative impact on the environment:
In India, one major contributor to deforestation is the use of brush, branches, and trees for firewood. "We are currently using about three kilos of wood per person every day, which is a major problem," states Deepak Gadhia, founder of Gadhia Solar Energy Systems Pvt. Ltd., one of the leading manufacturers of solar systems in India.
After more than a decade of preparation, the first private international university of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (
Yanji is the capital city of an autonomous Korean enclave in the Chinese province of Jilin that borders on North Korea (see map on right), with almost half its population of Korean decent. YUST was China's first foreign university, founded at a time when China was still a relatively closed society. Despite the many challenges and constraints that YUST has faced since its inauguration, it has become one of the top 100 universities of China. Within the last 18 years, YUST has grown into a science and technology school with nine colleges, 12 departments, and 35 research institutes that cater to about 1800 undergraduates and about 600 continuing education students. The international faculty of 300 instructors hails from 13 different countries, and the languages of instruction are Chinese, Korean, German and English. In addition to an English Department where students acquire and improve their mastery of the English language, YUST offers its students German language classes in its own German Department. Richard Maislinger, an Austrian language instructor from Ostermiething, a small village north of Salzburg, who has been teaching German at YUST for the last two years, describes his experiences as "sometimes challenging, sometimes amazing, and always an enrichment for my life. Chinese students seem to be more thankful and respectful to their teachers, which makes teaching much easier. On the other hand it requires more effort to make them develop their own ideas."
