Saturday, May 2, 2020

Passion flower & Sword-billed hummingbird adaptation: Edd Wilder-James "Plain language views on technology, life, and other interesting thoughts as they occur" email and very first newsletter (from a Googler!) * * * 1) WUaS has been in Google for Education since 2015 - planning for speakers of all 7,117 known living languages, and to code for all 7.5 billion people on the planet, as potential wiki teachers and learners, 2) letter to MIT President Rafael Reif, 3) another Google-centric project - a WUaS realistic virtual earth for everything, 4) creating a realistic virtual Harbin Hot Springs (where actual Harbin is quite close to Santa Rosa) for actual-virtual ethnographic comparison, and both for actual <> virtual, physical <> digital, matter < > computery multimedia innovations and even with a film-to-3D application, 5) how best build our new WUaS web site out of Google Sites for matriculating registering students, eventually in all ~200 countries' official language - and with a good course platform (like MITx / edX)?



Thanks for your "Plain language views on technology, life, and other interesting thoughts as they occur" email and very first newsletter. It's a treat to read. 

And hearty congratulations on your nearly 3 years' anniversary at Google! Regarding your speaking engagements prior to this, I found edifying your 2017 lesson:

https://youtu.be/MhN2rm0Wb2c. 


"And for the next act...

Assuming, indulgently, it won't take me three years to write again, what should we discuss? Why on earth did you want to hear from me, kind reader? We could take this anywhere, from matters technical and computery, to the rambunctious ginger cats that share our lives, the amazing wines that are grown near our home in the Russian River valley (and stocked liberally in our closets), or my growing obsession with fountain pens. And let me know what is happening for you? Perhaps we can all share and learn and laugh!"

Having communicated with Peter Norvig, Denny Vrandečić, John Hennessy, and other Googlers about the following projects, I'd love to reply to your first newsletter's questions and explore open source CC-4 MIT OCW-centric wiki World University and School with you. 


First, 
WUaS has been in Google for Education since 2015 (and, indeed, this email is in Google for Education), and WUaS seeks to develop ~200 online universities offering online CC-4 OCW-centric Bachelor, Ph.D., Law, M.D. and I.B. high school degrees in each of all ~200 countries' official and main languages, building out of CC-4 MIT OCW in its 4 languages, and Wikidata / Wikibase in Wikipedia's ~300 languages. (World Univ & Sch donated WUaS for co-development to Wikidata in 2015, and received the WUaS Miraheze MediaWiki in 2017 as a consequence, but they aren't yet interoperable). And World University and School also seeks to build wiki schools for open teaching and learning in all 7,117 known living languages in The Ethnologue (and also potentially in 8,506 entries in languages in Glottolog, and similarly with the ISO 639). Matters computery ahead:  

In planning for speakers of all 7,117 known living languages - https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Languages (in these languages as wiki schools) - and in planning to matriculate our 2nd class of undergraduate students this autumn as we begin the licensing process with the state of CA's BPPE for Bachelor and Ph.D. degrees in English, and then, concurrently, accreditation probably with WASC, - and then for matriculating students in all ~200 countries' official languages - World Univ & Sch seeks to code for all 7.5 billion people on the planet, as potential wiki teachers and learners - https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/You_at_World_University. And in doing so, WUaS is seeking too, for all 7.5 billion people on planet, to plan for the following 5 items 

i) wiki Universitians in 7,111 known living languages, and matriculated students in all ~200 countries,

ii) Avatar Bot Electronic Medical Records, with genetic therapies, and for molecular tele-robotic surgery (and re Google / Stanford / Duke University's Project Baseline), for ex., 

iii) Universal Basic Income (UBI) experiments (and to alleviate poverty), and to DISTRIBUTE a single crypto-currency backed by some number of ~200 countries' central banks (perhaps with Stanford graduates' 'Mine Pi' digital currency)

iv) a single family tree for genealogy research as in WikiTree (https://www.wikitree.com), and for aggregating DNA samples too

v) Computer glasses for all 7.5 billion people on the planet
- https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2019/12/wild-pomegranate-burchellia-bubalina.html (with much about WUaS in the 'global university' label in my blog).  


Second, 
having recently written MIT President Rafael Reif - https://worlduniversityandschool.blogspot.com/2020/04/dear-mit-president-rafael-reif-possible.html - about exploring MIT-WUaS collaboration ideas, and as a consequence spoken for 30 minutes yesterday with MIT's head in the Office of Digital Learning, Sanjay Sarma,, WUaS is seeking innovative ways to transpose CC-4 MIT OCW into something like the MITx on the edX platform - but on the Google Platform. WUaS seeks to build from MIT OCW's 4 languages to all ~200 countries' official languages (possibly ~100 languages), and, even create excellent and engaging CC-4 OpenCourseWare, if helpful and needed, in all 7,117 languages. CC-4 licensing allows WUaS, for ex., to 1) share 2) adapt, but 3) non-commercially CC-4 MIT OCW, per MIT's Cecilia d'Oliveira, executive director of OCW for many years. WUaS adds these licensing clarifications - http://worlduniversityandschool.org/ - when we reach out about MIT OCW, and which allows us to use the MIT name. WUaS sees MIT OCW as gold mine, and its CC-4 licensing as competitive, because while the WUaS degrees will be free to students since WUaS can't ask for tuition or payment, yet we can and will seek reimbursement from departments of education in all ~200 countries (and perhaps with regard to the currency mechanism in our platform for distributing Universal Basic Income experiments).


Third, 
another Google-centric project WUaS seeks to facilitate is a realistic virtual earth for everything: 

Think Google Streetview with time slider, Maps, Earth, TensorFlow, Translate at the cellular & atomic levels, and with species and individuals, and with Minecraft for actual-virtual Lego robotics / Second LIfe for group buildability, and end user build-able avatar bots too, but realistic ones, not cartoonesque. This would involve building, for example, one realistic virtual earth with individual organisms' genetics for aging reversal research - https://twitter.com/hashtag/RealisticVirtualEarthForLongevity?src=hashtag_click and https://twitter.com/hashtag/RealisticVirtualEarthForCRISPR?src=hashtag_click (see, too: https://twitter.com/HarbinBook/status/1182013815308705792?s=20) with, for example, experimental animals, in something conceptually like Google Poly (which is a library of virtual objects), for clinical trials (https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Clinical_Trials_at_WUaS_(for_all_languages)), and for actual-virtual, physical-digital tele-robotic surgery for the proposed mission to Mars in the 2030s, as we map and model for further research the trillions upon trillions of stars in a single realistic virtual universe/galaxies at the atomic level. The millions' dollars grand challenge idea is to build this, eg see Marc Andreessen's article here - 

1 #RealisticVirtualEarth - it's time to build this - for EVERYTHING #ActualVirtual #PhysicalDigital Think Google Street View with TIME SLIDER, Maps, Earth, TensorFlow, Translate etc https://a16z.com/2020/04/18/its-time-to-build/ -https://economicstrategygroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Maintaining-the-Strength-of-American-Capialism-Can-Innovation-Policy-Restore-Inclusive-Prosperity-in-America.pdf MIT: https://technologyreview.com/2020/04/25/1000563/covid-19-has-killed-the-myth-of-silicon-valley-innovation/
@WorldUnivAndSch ~

( https://twitter.com/scottmacleod/status/1254069035206979585?s=20 )
In many ways one could see this single realistic virtual earth/universe/galaxies as vast data set real estate in unparalleled ways, which, eureka, is 'minable' or buildable in infinite ways, and potential for trillions + of dollars. Please see the related #RealisticVirtualEarth hashtags on Twitter. How best to develop single realistic virtual earth / universe / galaxies further as a millions' dollars grand challenge idea? And how might we best communicate further about this?


Fourth, 
and in thinking in terms of Google Street View with TIME SLIDER for creating a single realistic virtual earth at the cellular and atomic levels with AI / machine learning, and for brain research too, I'm also thinking in terms of creating a realistic virtual Harbin Hot Springs (where actual Harbin is quite close to Santa Rosa) for actual-virtual ethnographic comparison, and both for actual <> virtual, physical <> digital, matter < > computery multimedia innovations and even with a film-to-3D application. In their co-constitutionality there's so much remarkable creative potential for science, STEM and the social sciences, for example. You can visit ~ http://tinyurl.com/p62rpcg ~ https://twitter.com/HarbinBook ~ http://bit.ly/HarbinBook - http://www.scottmacleod.com/ActualVirtualHarbinBook.html - and for Ethno-Wiki-Virtual-World-Graphy https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/search/label/ethno-wiki-virtual-world-graphy as research - http://www.scottmacleod.com/research-group.html . 


Fifth, 
how best build our new WUaS web site out of Google Sites and in planning for all ~200 countries' official languages, based on - http://worlduniversityandschool.org/ - and for matriculating registering students, eventually in all ~200 countries' official language - and with a good course platform (like MITx / edX)? 

So, World Univ & Sch is very open course, very Google-centric, as well as MIT OCW-centric, and with enormous very large company potential too (since if possible, WUaS Corporation - would seek, under the wing of Alphabet / Google, to become listed on the emergent Silicon Valley long term stock exchange - https://worlduniversityandschool.blogspot.com/2020/04/wuas-corporation-business-plan-april.html and https://worlduniversityandschool.blogspot.com/2020/04/15-planned-wuas-revenue-streams-both.html).

A big play, with many acts, and many plays may emerge in the single realistic virtual earth for everything. And there's not really a last act due to the TIME SLIDER aspect of Google Street View into the future :) Regarding your "what should we discuss? Why on earth did you want to hear from me, kind reader?" I'd love to hear about creative computing thinking in exploring developing all of this. 

Sincerely, 
Scott 
- Founder, President, Professor 
- MIT OCW-centric wiki World University and School, which is like Wikipedia in ~300 languages, with MIT OCW in 4 languages, and planning major online universities in all ~200 countries' official / main languages, with wiki schools for open teaching and learning in all 7,117 known living languages. 

- WUaS is planning this realistic virtual universe / earth as STEM field sites, and as classrooms



*

It's been three years, but here's the first newsletter from Edd

On Sat, May 2, 2020 at 12:53 PM Edd Wilder-James <edd@ewj.me> wrote:

May 2nd, 2020. A letter from the future.
While history is being endured, I thought I might in actual fact write the first edition of my newsletter.
To those of you who wonderfully and kindly signed up to hear from me three years ago, I hope that, if this is a surprise, it is a welcome one. I appreciate the gesture of faith!
When you put up a sign-up form for a newsletter with no other direction, you have to assume that you are free to write about whatever you wish. So, that's what I'll do.
What I'm doing these days
Around the time I started the newsletter, I was about to move to a new job, and for the best part of three years, that's what I've been doing. For the first time in my life I am working at a Very Big Company, and so far, so good.
I feel very lucky to have landed an unusual and challenging job at Google, working in the open source programs office. My work is to help the company's key open source projects succeed.
Corporate sponsored open source is quite a different beast to the individually-motivated version we've had for the previous 15 or so years. Perhaps the most obvious difference is that the contributors are paid to contribute, rather than being driven by individual curiosity or altruism. So, we find that all the non-engineering parts need attention: how do you architect collaboration, how do you match up the project to your business goals, and so on.
It's a fun challenge, and I can't deny I still get a kick out of working for Google, a company that has defined most of our experience of the web for a long time.
Inevitably, this means my public persona has declined -- where I used to write, speak and tweet a lot, much of my attention is now focused inside the company. Being an individual public voice and working for a large company are more or less irreconcilable, and I've come to be OK with that.
What about the virus?
Every video call seems to start with "how are you?", and in recent days my answer is "about what you'd expect". That means we're lucky out here in Northern California. The outbreak is under control and mostly folks are responsible and doing the right things. With mortal peril at bay, the enemies are ennui, loneliness, and periodic bouts of horror. So, about what you'd expect.
If your experience through this is worse, you have my sympathy.
One of the most immediately stark consequences close to home has been the impossibility of industry conferences. Since 2001 I have been involved in organizing events, and most recently teamed up with O'Reilly Media to launch the first TensorFlow World in fall 2019. The virus quickly took in-person events off the table, and most tragically O'Reilly Media made the decision to get out of the conferences business, after 20+ years. Many friends lost their jobs, including those to whom I owe a great deal for my career being what it is. I know these folks are all smart and resilient, and in some ways I'm grateful it happened to them early, rather than a slow asphyxiation.
It wasn't the way it should have ended, without us being able to celebrate and pay our respects to a great run. But it was at least an unambiguous signal. The first of many things that won't ever be the same again.
And for the next act...
Assuming, indulgently, it won't take me three years to write again, what should we discuss? Why on earth did you want to hear from me, kind reader? We could take this anywhere, from matters technical and computery, to the rambunctious ginger cats that share our lives, the amazing wines that are grown near our home in the Russian River valley (and stocked liberally in our closets), or my growing obsession with fountain pens. And let me know what is happening for you? Perhaps we can all share and learn and laugh!
Cordially from Santa Rosa, Calif.,
Edd's signature


Edd Wilder-James' Newsletter by Edd Wilder-James 
226 Alderbrook Drive Santa Rosa, CA 95405 USA
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