Core Patterns for Web Permissions
Google engEDU
56 min – Jul 19, 2006

Google TechTalks
July 19, 2006

Tyler Close

Visiting Scientist Hewlett-Packard Laboratories

Mr. Close is a researcher and developer, working in the field of secure, multi-user, distributed applications since 1998.

ABSTRACT
In Authorization Based Access Control (ABAC) systems built with object-capabilities, an access policy is expressed by the shape of a reference graph: what a user can do is determined by where they are in the reference graph and what other parts of the graph are reachable from that point. By applying some basic cryptography to create links that act as "webkeys", we can construct URL graphs that are compatible with today’s WWW infrastructure and additionally provide the properties of distributed capabilities. Webkeys enable users to achieve password-free fine-grain access control implicitly, simply by sending one another links to the pages they want to share. The webkey approach simultaneously provides developers with a powerful, and readily audited, access-control model.

In this talk, we’ll study the implementation of the CapWiki, which can serve as a private data space, a locally shared data space, a blog, and a wiki, simply by varying which links have been distributed to which people. Read the rest of this entry »

When is a Googol Not Enough?
Google engEDU
55 min – May 24, 2006

Google TechTalks
May 24, 2006

Washington Taylor

ABSTRACT
Recent developments in string theory, combined with the experimental observation that the rate of expansion of the universe is increasing, have led theoretical physicists to a radical (and controversial) new picture of the universe. In this new picture, the universe is enormously larger than our parochial observable region of radius 13.7 light years.

In other patches of the universe, the laws of physics may be quite different, though in each patch the local physics is governed by a metastable solution of string theory. Since there may be something like $10^{1000}$ or more distinct solutions of string theory giving physics roughly like that we observe, to make physical predictions we need to classify enormous numbers of possible solutions.

In this talk this new theoretical picture of cosmology will be described, and related computational problems will be discussed. Read the rest of this entry »

New Frontiers in Astronomy: Hubble and Beyond
Google engEDU
57 min – Apr 11, 2006

Google TechTalks
April 11, 2006

Alberto Conti
Carol Christian

ABSTRACT
A revolution is now underway in Astronomy and Astrophysics. The next decade will witness the completion of massive, wide-area, multicolor imaging and spectroscopic surveys of the local and distant Universe.

With its strong legacy of public outreach, Hubble’s Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) has been responsible for how most of the world views our universe. We recognize that, given the coming flood of information, the next step of this task is to allow users to actively explore the cosmos themselves. In this talk we hope to show some of the potential explorations of this wealth of data to help us all better understand and appreciate the universe in which we live. We will explore several facets of using the Multi-mission Archive at Space Telescope’s (MAST) along with other survey mission such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey can be combined with these holdings to do new and previously unattainable projects.

And finally we will discuss how the current trend of data source unification, as being explored by the International Virtual Observatory Affiliation (IVOA) members will help astronomy tackle the oncoming tsunami of data. Read the rest of this entry »

Towards Telesophy: Federating All the World’ s Knowledge
Google engEDU
1 hr 6 min – Jul 11, 2007

Google Tech Talks
July 11, 2007

ABSTRACT

The Net is the global network, which enables users worldwide to interact with information. As new technologies mature, the functions of the protocols deepen, moving closer to cyberspace visions of "being one with all the world’s knowledge". The Evolution of the Net has already proceeded from data transmission in the Internet to information retrieval in the Web. The global protocols are evolving towards knowledge navigation in the Interspace, moving from syntax to semantics. In the future, infrastructure will support analysis, for interactive correlations across knowledge sources. This moves closer towards "telesophy", (transparent infrastructure for) knowledge at a distance.

Getting from here to there will require a paradigm shift from central to distributed, from searching universal archives to navigating community repositories. Central archives partially survived the transition from a million repositories to a billion, but distributed indexing is necessary to scale to a trillion repositories in the next generation. Supporting scalable semantics requires divide-and-conquer to capture local context as an approximation to global meaning. Concept switches in the Interspace are the analogue of packet switches in the Internet, since user interaction is at the level of logical spaces rather than physical networks. This talk will describe the research technologies and trends creating the global infrastructure, with suggestions for hero experiments and hints at the new world of the near future.

Speaker: Bruce Schatz
Bruce Schatz is Director of the CANIS (Community Architectures for Network Information Systems) Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has been working on federating all the world’s knowledge by building pioneering research systems in industrial and academic settings. These include the first large-scale prototype for federating syntax (Telesophy at Bellcore in the 1980s), structure (DeLIver at UIUC in the 1990s), and semantics (BeeSpace at UIUC in the 2000s). During the 1980s, he was the member of the Internet Research Task Force focused on search and during the 1990s was the Principal Investigator of the Illinois project in the NSF Digital Libraries Initiative, the search flagship in the federal program that spun off Google. Read the rest of this entry »

2,3,5, Infinity!
Google engEDU
52 min – Aug 18, 2006

Google Tech Talks
August 18, 2006

Paul Hildebrandt founded Zometool Inc. with co-inventor Marc Pelletier in 1985. He organized the Zome team, raised capital and coordinated research and development of prototype tooling, production systems, packaging and collateral material, and continues as president and board chairman. He graduated magna cum laude in economics from the University of Colorado (1987); was Director of Research for Eco-Cycle, Inc., largest local recycling program in the U.S. (1982–1985); and founded Renaissance Community Press, a print shop for human service organizations (1976–1982). Several times he’s crossed the US by freight train for less than $20, and has ceased having out-of-body experiences since getting married in 1992 or ‘93.

ABSTRACT
Nearly 60 years after the first electronic digital computer was designed at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS), companies like Google are demonstrating the power of a world built from 1s and 0s. Zome is a system that models the world built from the numbers 2, 3 and 5. We will explore how these numbers are knotted together to form the structure of space, from the subatomic framework of the atom, to the geometry of life, to a recently proposed “shape” of the universe! Read the rest of this entry »