Ji Ruan - Jimagine » Open Society http://ac.jiruan.net Information and Society Tue, 13 Dec 2011 11:24:37 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 Open discussions on an open problem http://ac.jiruan.net/2010/08/open-discussions-on-an-open-problem/ http://ac.jiruan.net/2010/08/open-discussions-on-an-open-problem/#comments Thu, 12 Aug 2010 01:59:28 +0000 Ji http://ac.jiruan.net/?p=601 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> With Web 2.0 tools, such as (micro)blog, wiki, we can reveal a lot of our thoughts and opinions in public, and get response from someone we have never met before. More importantly, Web 2.0 tools encourage open discussions. Here is a very good example.

I saw from twitter that someone had claimed P!=NP was proved, which is an open problem in computer science for around 40 years (see this wiki entry). Many people wanted to solve it but none was successful. I reposted this message on my twitter here. In a couple of days, I saw more posts about this claim, which led me to this blog. The owner of the blog is Dick Lipton, a Professor of Computer Science at Georgia Tech, who have worked in the area of theory of computation since 1973. He revealed his thoughts on the proof of the claim in these blog entries: 1, 2, 3. And in each entry, you can see more than 100 responses, including the ones from brilliant mathematicians such as Terence Tao:

Discussions on the P!=NP proof

Previously, such serious discussions in very hard theoretical problems may only happen in the small grounds of top talents via emails or letters, of which the general public might never learn. But I think Prof. Dick Lipton’s blog has changed this. I am very glad to see this development, and hope to see more scientists participating in open discussions of open problems like this. Overall, such effort will increase the awareness of scientific research in the general public, and even increase the speed of cracking very difficult problems.

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]]> http://ac.jiruan.net/2010/08/open-discussions-on-an-open-problem/feed/ 0 WoW, Whitehouse 2.0! http://ac.jiruan.net/2009/05/wow-whitehouse-20/ http://ac.jiruan.net/2009/05/wow-whitehouse-20/#comments Fri, 01 May 2009 23:03:19 +0000 Ji http://ac.jiruan.net/?p=280 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> The USA White House launched its strategy to reform the government in the Web 2.0 age. In this post:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/05/01/WhiteHouse/, it gives the information channels through which white house is reaching its citizens. These channels include:

  • Whitehouse.gov
  • Facebook.com/WhiteHouse
  • MySpace.com/WhiteHouse
  • Twitter.com/WhiteHouse
  • Flickr.com/WhiteHouse
  • Vimeo.com/WhiteHouse
  • YouTube.com/WhiteHouse
  • iTunes (videos & podcasts)

I would say this government is leading toward the right way. Well, my government, the Chinese government, is still using a communist version of web 1.0 tools. You see, my blog is still blocked from China Mainland. What a shame.

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]]> http://ac.jiruan.net/2009/05/wow-whitehouse-20/feed/ 0 My donations to two causes http://ac.jiruan.net/2008/12/my-donations-to-two-causes/ http://ac.jiruan.net/2008/12/my-donations-to-two-causes/#comments Sun, 21 Dec 2008 21:48:21 +0000 Ji http://ac.jiruan.net/?p=180 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> Just made my small annual donations to some great causes that I believe in:

  • Wikipedia ( the best knowledge base in this world )
  • Creative Commons ( the best supporter for an open culture in this information age )

The organisations behinds these causes are non-profitable ones, and they largely rely on volunteers’ work and public donations. The fact that they do not rely on commercial entities’ financial support makes them in an independent position, which is essential for  establishing the trust from public. 

I found that this year’s targets for them are harder to be met. I guess it is largely due to the global economic crisis. Here are the current statuses, respectively: 

Another year is over; maybe you could consider to donate an hour of your salary to such wonderful causes. Every little helps. 

Merry Xmas!

Dr. Ji Ruan

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]]> http://ac.jiruan.net/2008/12/my-donations-to-two-causes/feed/ 0 Science to 2.0 http://ac.jiruan.net/2008/01/science-to-20/ http://ac.jiruan.net/2008/01/science-to-20/#comments Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:04:23 +0000 Ji http://ac.jiruan.net/?p=4 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> I just read this interesting article from Scientific America: Science 2.0 Great New Tool, or Great Risk?, by M. Mitchell Waldrop.

The main idea is to explore the impact of Web 2.0 tools, like wikis, blogs, on the scientific research.

I was thinking about this for a while now. As you see, I started to do blogging 2 years ago, and I had my independent domain, jiruan.net, around half year ago. I think the openness via Internet really make the communication between me and this world much easier: people know my ideas through my web, and I get their comments from the web as well.

That’s why I started this blog: ac.jiruan.net, to communicate with the people, like you, who want to explore this world.

Yes, I need to put more effort to build this site up, and make it evolve along-side my research.

Ji
20080118

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