Introduction Information Technology New Information Spaces Social

Home , Open access in Spain

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC / Nº 7 / December 2011 / Published quarterly / Price: 9 euros |||||||||||||||||||| Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC / December 2011

4 12 40 62 Introduction Information New information Social Technology spaces impacts 07 LYCHNOS Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC

Nº 7 DECEMBER 2011 Executive Editor Reyes Sequera

Assistant Editor Sira Laguna

Page layouts DiScript Preimpresión, S. L.

Illustration Lola Gómez Redondo

Translation Duncan Gilson

Published by

President Rafael Rodrigo Montero

Director Javier Rey Campos

Address Príncipe de Vergara, nº 9 - 2ª derecha; Madrid 28001 www.fgcsic.es

© Fundación General CSIC, 2011. All rights reserved. Use by third parties of the contents of this journal without the prior written consent of the copyright holder may constitute a criminal offence under intellectual property law.

Printed by: DiScript Preimpresion, S. L. Legal Deposit: M-33022-2010. ISSN: 2172-0207 CONTENTS LYCHNOS Nº 7 DECEMBER 2011

01 Introduction ...... 4 Information Technology. Jesús Marco de Lucas ...... 6

02 Information Technology ...... 12 02.1 Artificial Intelligence.Vicenç Torra ...... 14 02.2 Scientific computing infrastructure.Isabel Campos ...... 20 02.3 Ten years of building a semantic web. Marco Schorlemmer ...... 26 02.4 Cryptography: if it didn’t exist, we would have to invent it. Gonzalo Álvarez ..... 33

03 New information spaces ...... 40 03.1 Time for new models for the communication and dissemination of science. 03.4 Agnès Ponsati and Isabel Bernal ...... 42 03.2 The digital contribution to the world of encyclopaedias. 03.4 José Antonio Millán ...... 50 03.3 The Future Internet and R&D. Tomás de Miguel ...... 55

04 Social impacts of Information Technology ...... 62 04.1 The cultural changes being driven by social software. 03.4 José Luis Molina ...... 64 04.2 Reinventing social practices on the Net. 03.4 Antonio Rodríguez de las Heras ...... 70 04.3 Mobile phones, maps, satellites and social networks: crisis management 2.0. 03.4 Marta Poblet ...... 75

05 Forum ...... 80

06 News ...... 84

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 6 | LYCHNOS | 3 01

Introduction

01 INTRODUCTION |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Information Technology

“Information technology (IT) is concerned with [...] the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications”. This definition, which dates back to 1958 and which Wikipedia reproduces in its article on “Information Technology” is as good a starting point as any from which to look at how the field has developed.

Jesús Marco de Lucas

Instituto de Física de Cantabria (CSIC and Universidad de Cantabria)

he story of IT (informa- ing a particularly fruitful period of microelectronics, made ials, photolithography, and tion technology) is, first of direct collaboration possible by another major electron microscopy. T and foremost, the story between mathematicians, technological and scientific of a technological revolution physicists and engineers, advance –the development of The exponential growth of which has had a huge eco- involving geniuses such as the transistor and integrated IT nomic and social impact and John von Neumann, Alan Tur- circuit technology– that made Computers are the basic drawn upon numerous contri- ing and Claude Shannon, who the IT revolution possible. And building blocks of any infor- butions from science. But it is together laid the foundations its incredible growth was mation system, and their not the story of a scientific for Information Theory and helped along by a multitude of power depends fundamentally revolution. In fact, most of IT’s Computer Science. But, as other concurrent advances, on the ability of their (micro) key concepts were conceived Wikipedia’s definition sug- such as the development of processor to execute internal between 1940 and 1960, dur- gests, it was the emergence laser technology, new mater operations. These operations

6 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| INTRODUCTION 01

Jesús Marco de Lucas

Jesús Marco de Lucas is a research professor at the Cantabria Physics Institute, a joint centre belonging to the CSIC and the University of Cantabria. He has a doctorate from the University of Cantabria, having written his thesis on high energy experimental physics, while working on the DELPHI experiment on the LEP (Large Electron Positron Collider) accelerator at the European Particle Physics Laboratory (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. At CERN he coordinated the experiment’s group searching for the Higgs boson, and was involved in combining the results of the LEP, which set the current lower limit for its mass at approximately 120 times that of a proton.

With the initial goal of addressing the computing needs of experiments at the next CERN accelerator, the LHC (Large Hadron Collider), he took part in setting up LHC Grid Computing, an international network of computers for scientific use, using “grid” technology. He also took part in the creation of the e-Science network in Spain, which is open to all research areas, and of the European grid infrastructure, EGI.eu, which currently processes over a million jobs a day in 50 countries, using more than 300,000 coordinated processors, and with a capacity of 100 million gigabytes (100 petabytes). He also coordinated the Interactive European Grid project, which developed tools allowing this infrastructure to be used interactively and execute parallel supercomputing applications.

He has held various management positions in the CSIC, including the post of director of the Cantabria Physics Institute from 2004 to 2007, and coordinator of the Physical Science and Technologies Area from 2008 to 2010.

Jesús Marco de Lucas.

are defined by the program after an Intel executive who the course of 40 years (220 = have also improved exponen- code the processor is execut- suggested that calculating 1,048,576). tially. They have gone from ing, and revolve around power would continue double being able to send hundreds manipulating data held in approximately every two years The increase in computing of bits (basic units of informa- memory. The processing thanks to reductions in tran- power has also been driven tion) per second over parallel speed is set by the frequency sistor size and increasing by the creation of supercom- cables in 1970, to transmitting of the processor’s internal clock speeds. The first micro- puters, which combine the hundreds of millions of bits clock, which defines its processor, the Intel 4004 power of up to a hundred per second over optical fibres “cycle.” Processing power launched in 1971, had a clock thousand processors in a sin- today. Again the jump has also depends on the number frequency of 740 kHz and gle system. This approach been of the order of a million and complexity of the internal consisted of around 2,300 allows computing powers of over the last 40 years. operations it is able to com- transistors. One of today’s the order of petaflops (trillions plete in each cycle, and the processors includes over a of operations a second) to be The ability to store information amount of data the computer billion transistors on a 2 cm2 achieved using processors has also experienced expo- is able to process at a time, all chip and can run at speeds of able to perform hundreds of nential growth: magnetic of which basically depends on up to 5 GHz (million kHz). gigaflops (hundreds of millions discs have gone from typical the number of transistors on Computing power has grown of operations a second). storage capacities of 2-3 the chip. Since 1970 proces- exponentially, doubling every megabytes or million charac- sor power has grown in line two years, which means it has Similarly, communications (i.e. ters (bytes) in 1971 to 3 tera- with a prediction known as increased a million-fold over the ability to transmit data bytes (3 million megabytes) in Moore’s law, which is named from one system to another) 2011.

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 7 01 INTRODUCTION |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Last but not least, the ability to One of the first and processes on all scales of the incredible growth in the gather external information nature: finding the expected power of the hardware of from instruments directly or most important results of colliding two pro- information systems, and the indirectly connected to com- uses to which tons in an accelerator; pre- relatively slow progress of the puters has also increased dicting behaviour of the applications running on them, exponentially. Almost all data computers were put plasma in a fusion reactor; i.e. the software. acquisition today is done elec- designing new materials on tronically and the information is was simulation the atomic scale; understand- The basis of any computer stored and processed by coming protein folding; testing application is the program- puter systems. The amount new drugs; understanding the ming language. This deter- of information is huge: for ex- evolution of an ecosystem; mines the way in which the ample, a digital video camera predicting the impact of a tsu- processor is given the instruc- can record images with 20 mil- nami; or analysing the expan- tions we want it to perform. lion pixels 50 times a second. sion of the universe. Firstly, the types of instruc- Researchers use computers tions processors are able to This “qualitative” expansion in as “in silico” laboratories, in execute have not changed terms of individual power has which to test out their hypoth- substantially over the past 40 been accompanied by a eses “virtually.” years. Many of the basic “quantitative” expansion in instructions have been terms of the number of sys- Data analysis is the second extended and optimised, and tems that exist. It is estimated key purpose for which com- the way and order in which that there are currently over a puters have been deployed. they are executed has been billion computers in use Today’s computers allow large modified to enhance perform- around the world, although volumes of data to be ana- ance. Specific new instruc- the vast majority are obviously lysed, and use highly sophisti- tions have also been intro- personal computers. Particu- cated techniques, such as duced to allow graphics to be larly noteworthy is the fact neural networks, to obtain generated efficiently, for that the world’s 500 most puters were put was simula- models with a high degree of example. But, in principle, we powerful supercomputers tion. The technique known as predictive ability. could execute many of today’s together account for over ten the “Monte Carlo” method applications on twenty-year- million processor cores. was developed in 1946 by The combination of these two old computers, although only Stanislav Ulam and John Von tools (simulation and data in the form of basic versions The impact of information Neumann at the Los Alamos analysis) enables a more holis- requiring minimal resources. technology on science National Laboratory (USA) to tic approach to basic but Research in practically all analyse neutron diffusion. This complex problems of science There has not been a para- areas of science and technol- method “simulates” inde- which it was not previously digm shift in programming. ogy has not just benefited pendent experiments using possible to analyse. The evolution of the first high- enormously from the possibil- random numbers, such as level languages, such as For- ities offered by IT: in many those obtained from a casino A glass ceiling in IT sys- tran, Cobol or C, towards cases IT has become an indis- roulette wheel, so as to tems? object-oriented languages pensable tool. approximate the solution of This does not refer to the ser such as C++ or Java, was to highly complex integrals. ious problem of the small some extent a natural pro- One of the first and most Nowadays, this simulation numbers of women working in gression. To date no popular important uses to which com- technique used to analyse IT, but the contrast between high level language has

8 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| INTRODUCTION 01

appeared that enables more able to beat the finalists in the It is safe to say that The World Wide Web, based direct and effective communi- game Jeopardy, this time on the HTTP protocol, the cation with IT systems, as using not just their calculating although computer HTML language, and the use some of the ideas in the artifi- ability but a natural language systems are not of URL identifiers to share cial intelligence field seemed processing and knowledge information on the network, to promise at one point. representation application that intrinsically more was the product of a scientific included an analysis of possi- environment, having been The most popular applications, ble alternative hypotheses, intelligent now developed at CERN in 1984. It such as data processing (e.g. drawing upon a substantial than they were 40 was popularised by NCSA’s using databases and spread- volume of information stored Mosaic navigator, the precur- sheets), simulation, displaying in its memory (equivalent to years ago, they are sor of today’s browsers, which data, word processing, sound around 400 million pages). nevertheless able to permitted access to pages of or images/video, have simply information incorporating both grown enormously in terms of Network revolution give better answers text and images. power and functionality, but The expansion of the Internet thanks to their their philosophy has not been over the last 20 years could be The development of the web radically altered. The biggest said to represent a genuine better performance on the Internet has enabled step forward has come in the revolution in the IT world. The computers to access, gather way in which computers inter- possibilities, challenges and and process public and pri- act with users, which has pro- risks of the Internet are still only vate information in a semi- gressed from the character- just beginning to be under- automatic way from a vast based command line to the stood. The Internet’s progress, array of computers all around high-resolution menu-based in terms of the number of con- the world. touch screen. nected systems and the cap abilities this connectedness Computers –as configured by It is therefore true to say that enables, is still in the early their administrators, of although computer systems stages. course– have therefore are not intrinsically more intel- become “social actors” in this ligent now than they were 40 The technology based on high network. The emergence of years ago, they are able to speed optical or wireless Google represents a water- give better answers thanks to communications is still devel- shed in this regard. Google their better performance. oping and constrains some of has positioned itself in the net- the possible applications, work as a system able to Is intelligence perhaps nothing although less so all the time. gather almost all the informa- more than just increasing But it is not just the capacity tion available in open web computer power ever further of these connections but the pages, but with sufficient so as to incorporate all the way in which they are estab- power to process it and offer answers in the right way? lished that affects key issues it up in useful form. Google IBM’s Deep Blue basically such as security and privacy. has therefore established a de used its calculating power to facto ranking of information by beat the reigning world chess Most users experience the “importance,” with all the champion, Garry Kasparov, in Internet via a web browser. implications this has. Google 1997. Recently, another IBM And in many cases they uses huge server farms dis- computer called Watson was access information passively. tributed worldwide, which

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 9 01 INTRODUCTION |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

The search engine Google is the leading example of the new global applications made possible by the Internet

IBM’s Watson computer. / Photo: Jesús Marco de Lucas.

copy and process information, that can be analysed based a white paper published in all types, from massive storage and then serve it up to users. on users’ activities, or coord 2004, is a reflection of a pro to supercomputing, on inated cyber attacks from cess of evolution that is now demand. Cloud technology also As a search engine, Google is hundreds of networked com- well underway. enables cost savings by consoli just the leading –and most puters, are two, different, but dating resources in large, highly important– example of the not unrelated, examples of From the technological point efficient, data centres. new global applications the what can be done using the of view, as well as improving Internet has made possible, Internet today. network connectivity, in recent The main companies in the IT and it is made available to the years new technologies have and Internet world (Amazon, user via an interface (the e-Science been developed to support Apply, Google, and IBM) offer browser) which has only limit- “E-Science is the set of scien- this process. this type of solution on various ed features. tific activities carried out using levels. distributed resources accessi- “Cloud computing” technolo- The way social networks are ble over the Internet.” This gies make it possible for users Grid computing, an earlier, building up huge databases definition, which was given in to access remote resources of but technologically more

10 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| INTRODUCTION 01

ambitious initiative, makes it including ubiquitous sensors, haps worth pausing for a even lead to new computer feasible to share resources at against the backdrop of the moment of reflection. This architectures. Quantum com- different computing centres emergence of what is known reflection should start from puting could solve certain dynamically, allocating as the “Internet of Things”. very basic, but important calculation problems much resources around the world to The extension of the Inter- questions, such as: faster and with lower energy “virtual” organisations. This net’s reach to almost any consumption. philosophy makes it possible region, using different types Do we control the impact of IT to tackle major computing of link, such as Wi-Fi/Wi-max on our daily lives? One area where we still have problems in a coordinated and 3G, and particularly its time to bring about change and intensive way. For low cost, is enabling an Are current trends sustain is the use of the Internet, instance, during the 2006 bird explosion in the installation of able? Particularly considering especially in terms of the flu crisis, computers in the sensors of all kinds that will the amount of energy used by information circulating European Grid initiative ana- enable new insights into both ever larger data processing around it and way in which it lysed over 300,000 chemical the natural (atmospheric and centres, and in the recycling is controlled. compounds in the search for environmental quality sen- and use of exhaustible mater an inhibitor of the N1 enzyme sors, cameras) and social ials? The most important and per- that the virus contains. This environment (cameras, GPS haps most delicate business task, which would have taken positioning). Integrating this Are we aware of the extent of in the years ahead will relate over 100 years on a research- information requires new our current dependence on to the handling of our data, er’s desktop PC, was com- tools and massive databases, this technology, on all levels, at the level of society and pleted in less than a month. with correspondingly large and of its economic, social the individual. This includes Today’s Grid infrastructure storage and processing and political implications? professional and personal would allow a similar analysis capacity. Moreover, integra- data, consumption habits, to be completed in less than a tion with information provided Very positive answers may be relationships, opinions, etc. day. Moreover, Grid centres by a multitude of increasingly found to some of these ques- The work we do is often are able to automatically powerful remote instruments, tions over the next few years reflected in documents that transfer large volumes of such as images from satel- through new scientific and are stored online. It is grad- information (thousands of lites, is required. technological progress. For ually getting harder to man- gigabytes of data a day) over example, the impact of nano age or even track the data the high-speed networks link- For IT at the service of sci- technology with new mater we produce. With this loss ing them together, and exe- ence and citizens ials, such as graphene, may of control goes the vision we cute hundreds of thousands Looking back, the evolution of encourage a transition from need and ought to have, as of programs analysing these IT over the last 40 years has the silicon industry to a car- citizens, of how our society data automatically. The power been impressive. Science and bon-based one, reducing is evolving, both econom of the Grid to resolve prob- technology have driven much consumption and increasing ically and politically. If we are lems that demand large vol- of this progress and have also performance, although it is unable to put limits on the umes of data currently benefited from it. In parallel, IT unlikely to alter the eco- appropriate use of these exceeds that of any super- has turned into an almost nomic/industrial context. A data by “service providers” computer. essential element in educa- better understanding of how or define how to “exploit” tion, industry, government and our brain works could bring them to the overall benefit of The latest component of our personal lives. us closer to new forms of society, we will have missed e-Science that is currently artificial intelligence and cre- one of the biggest opportun beginning to take off is After this vertiginous expo- ate the conditions for a para- ities information technology remote instrumentation, nential expansion it is per- digm shift in computing, or offers today.

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 11 02

Information Technology

02.1 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a branch of computer science with strong roots in other fields such as logic and cognitive sciences. Here, Vicenç Torra gives an overview of its main ideas and applications.

Vicenç Torra

Instituto de Investigación en Inteligencia Artificial (CSIC)

rtificial Intelligence ning program.” However, the drew up a proposal in which gence as being that of build- (AI) is a branch of com definitions differ in terms of the the term “artificial intelligence” ing a machine that behaves in A puter science with features or properties these was used for the first time. The such a way that if a human strong roots in other fields programs need to offer. name was apparently chosen being were to behave similarly, such as logic and cognitive by J. McCarthy. he or she would be consid- sciences. As we shall see, The concept of artificial intelli- ered intelligent. there are a variety of definitions gence emerged from a meet- What is artificial intelli- of what constitutes artificial ing held in Dartmouth (United gence? However, there are other defi- intelligence. However, they all States) in 1956, which brought This proposal put to the meet- nitions that are not based on agree on the need to validate together some of the researching organised by J. McCarthy human behaviour. Common their work using computer pro- ers who would go on to and his colleagues includes definitions include: grams. In the words of H.A. become the leading figures in what could be considered the Simon, one of the fathers of AI, the field. To prepare the meet- first definition of artificial intelli- 1. Acting like people. This is in an article published in 1995: ing, J. McCarthy, M. Minsky, N. gence. The document defines McCarthy’s definition, where “the moment of truth is a run- Rochester and C. E. Shannon the problem of artificial intelli- the model to follow in evalu-

14 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 02.1

Vicenç Torra the human mind. This com- Vicenç Torra has a PhD in Computing from the Catalonia Polytechnic University puter will be able to reason, (UPC) and is a research scientist at the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute imagine, etc. (IIIA-CSIC). He has also been a tenured lecturer at the Rovira i Virgili University, and is president of the Catalan Artificial Intelligence Association. Topics in artificial intelli- In 2004 he began organising the Modelling Decisions for Artificial Intelligence gence conference, which is held annually and has a CORE B evaluation (on the Although there are various differ- Australian conferences ranking). He is a founder and editor of the journal ent points of view about what Transactions on Data Privacy. He is also on the editorial board of several other publications: Fuzzy Sets and Systems, Information Sciences, Progress in constitutes artificial intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, Journal of Advanced Computational Intelligence and there is a consensus on the Informatics and International Journal of Computational Intelligence Systems. results this branch of computer He has also written a number of books including Fundamentos de Inteligencia science has achieved, and the Artificial and Del ábaco a la revolución digital. classification of methods and techniques developed. This section reviews the four major themes of artificial intelligence.

1. Searching and problem Vicenç Torra. solving. The aim of artificial intelligence is to solve a range of different problems. To achieve this, it is first ne- ating programs is that of here it starts from the premise this field. This yields the defin cessary to formalise a prob- human behaviour. The so- that there is a rational way of ition of strong and weak forms lem before attempting to called Turing Test (1950) is reasoning. Logic, which of artificial intelligence: solve it. This topic focuses also along these lines. The allows reasoning to be formal- on how to formalise prob- Eliza system, a chat bot (a ised, is used for this purpose. Weak artificial intelligence lems and the techniques for piece of software designed considers that computers can solving them. to hold conversations) is an 4. Act rationally. Again the only simulate reasoning and example of this. objective is the outcome, merely act intelligently. Pro- 2. Knowledge-based sys- but in this case outcomes ponents of weak artificial intel- tems and knowledge repre- 2. Reasoning like people. are evaluated objectively. For ligence hold that it will never sentation: It often happens The crucial thing is how the example, the objective of a be possible to build comput- that artificial intelligence- program reasons, not the program playing a game like ers that are conscious as a based systems need to results of its reasoning. The chess would be to win. It program is a simulation of a incorporate knowledge of proposal here is to develop makes no difference how it cognitive process rather than the application domain (such systems that reason in the calculates the result to the cognitive process itself. as medicine) in order to same way as people. This is achieve this goal. solve problems. This topic the approach taken by cog- Strong artificial intelligence focuses on these aspects. nitive science. In addition to these defin considers that a computer itions, approaches to artificial can have a mind and mental 3. Automated learning. A 3. Reason rationally. In this intelligence may also be clas- states, and therefore, one day program’s performance can case the definition also sified according to the ultim it will be possible to build one be enhanced if the program focuses on reasoning, but ate objectives of research in with all the capabilities of learns from its activity and its

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 15 02.1 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

own mistakes. Techniques artificial intelligence was ing methods, to addressing that take into account the con- have been developed to monolithic. Now, with multi- new problems in the field of straints of the entities and indi- enable this. There are also processor-based com autonomous agents (inde- viduals included in the sched- tools to extract knowledge puters and the Internet, pendently interacting pro- ule. Also, learning methods from databases. there is more interest in dis- grams with decision making are used to recommend prod- tributed systems. Here the autonomy). ucts in online stores and to 4. Distributed artificial intelli- focus ranges from develop- select the advertisements dis- gence. In the early years ing parallel versions of exist- As well as the four topics played when visiting certain alluded to above, there are a websites. Another example is number of others closely that of fuzzy-logic systems, linked to artificial intelligence. one of the knowledge-repre- These are: sentation methods successfully applied to various types a) Natural language process- of control problems. Devices ing. such as digital cameras and b) Artificial vision. washing machines incorpor c) Robotics. ate fuzzy-logic systems. d) Speech recognition. Let us now look at some of As we shall see, many of the the most significant applica- most striking applications use tions. some of these techniques. Applications in gaming Some applications For decades, artificial intelli- To date a wide range of appli- gence focused on games, with cations have been developed the aim of beating the best using one or more of the human players. Game playing methods or algorithms skill has always been consider- devised by artificial intelli- ed a sign of intelligence. The gence researchers. This sec- first to be cracked were tion reviews some of the high- games like draughts and est-profile applications that Reversi. Chess’s turn came in exist today or have had an 1997. Now, Go is virtually the impact in the past. However, only game still left unbeaten. these are not the only applications that exist, as some of • Draughts (checkers). Chin- the methods developed by AI nok, a program develop are embedded in devices in from 1989 onwards by everyday use or in the soft- Jonathan Schaeffer at the ware used by businesses University of Alberta, large and small. For example, became the world champion some of the search algorithms draughts player in 1994. The ASIMO (Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility) is a humanoid robot created in 2000 developed in AI research are program includes a data- by Honda. / Photo: Honda. used in timetabling systems base of opening moves from

16 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 02.1

top players and other end- found online at http://www. gest achievements in this field Step in Innovative Mobility), game situations to deploy research.ibm.com/deepblue. include: the culmination of a series of when fewer than eight P robots, all developed with pieces are left on the board. • Go. Whereas the other • Robot pets. There are cur- the goal of producing robots A few years later, in 2007, games have been beaten, rently numerous robots for with human form and abil the same team of research- there is as yet no computer entertainment or play. Of ities. ASIMO is a biped robot ers demonstrated that when program which is sufficiently these, two Japanese robots that can walk and run. It can draughts is played perfectly, good at Go to beat skilled stand out: Paro and Aibo. also recognise moving neither player can win. This human players. Go has for a Paro is a therapeutic robot objects, postures and ges- means that if both players long time been considered a intended to reduce patients’ tures using information from pursue an optimal strategy, more difficult game than stress and help them to its cameras. the game can only end in chess. The difficulty of the improve their social inter stalemate. The difficulty of game lies in the size of the actions. Aibo, which was Applications in intelligent ve- demonstrating this is that board (19 x 19, with 361 presented in 1999 and hicles there are approximately 500 intersections), the number of designed and marketed by Various types of vehicles with x 1020 possible moves, or possible moves on each SONY, is a programmable differing degrees of autonomy fifty billion trillion possible board arrangement, and the dog-like robot with a visual have been built. Some of board arrangements. The difficulty of defining functions system. these have already been men- problem is a million times that evaluate a given board tioned in the previous section. more difficult than four in a arrangement correctly. So • Exploration and reconnais- Vehicles able to transport pas- row. More information about far programs have been sance robots. On 3 and 24 sengers include: this program can be found developed that play well on January 2004 two robots, at: http://webdocs.cs.ual- a small 9x9 board. The pro- Spirit and Opportunity, • The metro in the Japanese berta.ca/~chinook/. grams that perform best use landed on the surface of city of Sendai. This mass- a UCT search algorithm Mars. Spirit remained active transport system, developed • Chess. For many years rather than one of the type until 2010 and Opportunity is in 1987, was the first in the programs and other contrap- used for chess (minimax). still functioning. On 26 world to be driven fully auto- tions were developed with November 2011 a third robot matically. Today there are the aim of winning at chess. Robotics applications was sent, called Curiosity, many driverless metro sys- However, it was not until May From the outset, applications which should reach Mars in tems around the world. The 1997 that the computer in computational robotics August 2012. This robot has system was developed by a Deep Blue beat the human have been developed with a automatic navigation at an team led by Seiji Yasunobu, champion, Garry Kasparov, variety of goals: automating average speed of 30 m/hour a member of Hitachi’s Sys- in New York. The program industrial processes, military (up to a maximum of 90 m/ tems Development labora- developed by IBM used spe- applications and space explor hour). Its mission is expected tory. It is based on fuzzy cial-purpose hardware, data- ation. Whereas the first robots to last two years. logic techniques. bases enabling it to play were designed to perform endgames perfectly with repetitive tasks, the goal today • Biped robots. P3 was the • Self-driving cars. The win- seven or fewer pieces on the is greater decision-making first biped robot able to ner of the “2005 DARPA board, and minimax type autonomy. The development walk. Construction, by Grand Challenge” race was search algorithms to find the of robotics has also focused Honda, was completed in a car called Stanley. This best solution in all other on the challenge of building 1997. In October 2000 the driverless car completed the cases. More information robots in human form that are company presented the 212.4 km course through about Deep Blue can be able to walk. Some of the big- robot ASIMO (Advanced the Mojave desert in the

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 17 02.1 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

United States in 6 hours and For decades, 54 minutes. In 2007 the “2007 DARPA Grand Chal- artificial lenge” was held on a 96km intelligence focused urban course (at the George Air Force Base in California). on games with the The cars had to process information in real time and aim of beating the obey the driving regulations best human players in force in California. On 20 September 2011, a car called “Made in Germany,” produced by the Berlin Free University, drove 80 km along the city’s roads. The course it travelled went from the International Conference Centre to the Brandenburg Paro, marketed in Spain with the name Nuka, is a robot seal from Japan, which has Gate in the centre of Berlin. been under development since 1993. / Photo: parorobot website. The vehicle is entirely autonomous, although some of its information, such as its speed, is fed to it rather than although they can collect such as Google store millions collected by its cameras. large quantities of data, they of copies of existing web The car is able to detect still lack sufficient processing pages, and email service pro- pedestrians and traffic lights. capacity to handle it in real viders have stored millions of More information is available time and act intelligently their users’ messages. Social online at: http://autonomos. based on it. networks are recording our inf.fu-berlin.de. interests and friendships. Concluding remarks Companies are storing all the • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Computing has made huge information they can, no mat- (UAVs). Global Hawk was strides since its beginnings 70 ter how insignificant it may the first unmanned aerial years ago. As predicted by seem, in case it might be of vehicle to cross the Pacific Moore’s law, calculating use to them in the future. Ocean non-stop. It made power is doubling every 18 the flight from California in months. If Moore’s law con Obviously, increased comput- the US to Australia in April tinues to hold, by 2030 a ing speed and storage 2001. However, it still needs processor’s calculating power capacity will mean that sys- a pilot at a ground station will be similar to that of a tems have more resources and other operators to ana- human being. with which to make decisions lyse its data. According to and that these decisions will Weiss (2011), the main At the same time, the amount be better informed and, at problem with these autono- of information stored digitally the same time, more custom- mous systems is that is now huge. Search engines ised.

18 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC Anuncio Planif ENG AF.pdf 1 27/01/12 09:28

Strategic Planning of R&D

CMY

Strategic planning is a systematic analysis and reflection exercise which aims to clarify where we are, what we aim to achieve, and how we intend to go about it.

The FGCSIC can offer its experience to any organisation wishing to apply the logic of strategic planning. The FGCSIC has a proprietary R&D planning approach customised to the needs of Contact us at the academic, scientific and technological world. www.fgcsic.es 02.2 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Scientific computing infrastructure

In this article the author describes how the history of scientific computing infrastructure has always been linked to a symbiosis between science and technology. Using computers to perform numerical simulations has helped us understand some of the fundamental mechanisms of nature by simulating theoretical models in cases where experiments are not feasible.

Isabel Campos

Instituto de Física de Cantabria (CSIC and Universidad de Cantabria)

n 1985 Richard Feynman, study of the behaviour of to sit on the Rogers Commis- explosion that destroyed the probably the most brilliant nature, whereas engineering is sion entrusted with analysing shuttle, with the loss of all its I physicist of the second half the study of manmade things, the causes of the Challenger crew, in 1986. of the 20th century, gave a so computing, as such, shuttle disaster. Feynman talk in the main lecture theatre belongs to engineering. showed, in a famous televised It is generally not widely known at BELL Labs, where, in his demonstration, how the that it was Feynman, who won provocative style, he told the Feynman was able to apply his O-rings of the shuttle’s motors the Nobel Prize in Physics for a audience of scientists and enormous insight as a physicist became brittle at subzero tem- theory explaining the behaviour engineers: “I don’t believe in to many areas of knowledge peratures (such as those the of light quanta, which in prin Computer Science.” Feynman and was a multidisciplinary sci- night before launch) and shat- ciple seemed quite remote from argued that science is the entist. One of his last tasks was tered like glass, resulting in the everyday applications, who

20 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 02.2

was able to resolve the puzzle Isabel Campos of the Challenger tragedy. Isabel Campos has a doctorate in Physics from the University of Zaragoza (1998) and has been a tenured CSIC scientist at the Cantabria Physics Institute In particular, in relation to the since 2008. During her career she has worked at the Deutsches Elektronen subject of this article, Feyn- Synchrotron (Hamburg) and the Brookhaven National Laboratory (New York) developing scientific applications in high performance computing environments. man also worked on the Before joining the CSIC she was in charge of managing scientific applications design of the first parallel and Grid computing at the Leibniz Computing Centre, Munich, Germany’s supercomputers which largest and one of the leading centres of its kind in Europe. Her career has appeared in the late 1970s, included contributions to the fields of simulation of particle physics, complex and was a key member of the systems and nuclear physics. team building the Connection She has published over 40 articles in high impact journals and delivered around Machine, a massively parallel 100 presentations at international conferences. She is currently director of the Spanish Grid Computing Infrastructure (es-NGI) and is on the executive board computer. Isabel Campos. of the European Grid Infrastructure (EGI) foundation.

Computers in general A computer is a device able to take information as an input, process it and return it as output after processing. A modern computer is able to perform a range of tasks as wide as beating the world champion transistors on a silicon sub- Essentially, all ever, it is a prediction rather at chess or forecasting tomor- strate, and hardware design- than a natural law, based on row’s weather. Nevertheless, ers have striven to find ever computers are the Moore’s observation of how all computers are basically the more compact solutions. same. They all transistor integrated circuit same. They all replicate the Packing more transistors on a technology was developing same architecture, based on a chip allows more operations replicate the same back in 1965. digital machine architecture to be performed per second, designed in 1945 by the Hun- as it enables the processor architecture, based Moore’s prediction has proven garian-American mathemati- clock frequency to be on a digital to be reasonably accurate. cian John von Neumann (see increased. And it is the clock However, for some years now Figure 1). speed that defines the rate at machine it has not quite matched the which the processor com- architecture reality. It was known from the The so-called Von Neumann pletes each logical operation. start that there are practical machine includes memory in designed in 1945 by limits to making a standalone which to store information, a Over the last 30 years these the Hungarian- computer reach sufficient control unit to manage infor- efforts have allowed the speed to solve arbitrarily com- mation inputs and outputs, number of transistors on the American plex problems. and an arithmetical unit able chips making up the com mathematician to carry out logical operations puter’s internal components These limits relate to the maxi- on this information. to be doubled. This is the so- John von Neumann mum speed at which informa- called Moore’s law, named tion can be transmitted: the This technology is imple- after Gordon Moore, one of speed of light (30 cm/nanosec- mented by building digital the founders of Intel. How- ond) or the speed at which data

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 21 02.2 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

/// Figure 1. Schematic Von Neumann architecture alongside the mother board of a modern computer ///////////////////////////////////////

DATA AND PROGRAM MEMORY

Arithmetic Control logic Unit unit accumulator

Input Output

can move along a copper wire its. This is the philosophy of Computers based between the cores. In other (9 cm/nanosecond). Moreover, multicore architectures, which words, it means a lot more at very small scales the rules of are now used in almost all on highly work for operating systems classical physics no longer hold CPUs. specialised developers and programmers. and electrons, the information carriers in transistors, stop Improvements in CPU per- hardware are at the Parallel computers behaving like particles and start formance no longer come Since the late 1970s it has to behave like waves. from making chip areas frontier of been clear to the scientific smaller but from adding more technological community that solving very This brings us into the field of than one calculating unit or complex problems would research known as quantum core to each CPU so that the know-how require a number of com computing, which is still in its overall processing speed is puters working together to infancy. raised by aggregation. Indeed, share the processing load of core frequencies have levelled the simulation. Miniaturising transistors faces off at around 3.4 GHz in economic limits as well as recent years. In the mid-80s, the Thinking physical ones, as it pushes up Machines Corporation, a pion costs all the time. Therefore, The downside, however, is eer in the design of parallel the most recent architectures that the economic savings a computers, began to produce have preferred to replicate multicore architecture enables machines based on the internal CPU (central process- come at the cost of increased aggregation of thousands of ing unit) structures rather than programming complexity: the processors literally wired take miniaturisation to the lim- workload has to be distributed together. These so-called

22 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 02.2

Connection Machines (CM) mal topology for a network of proton would keep any super- tory of scientific computing: went through five generations, 64,000 interconnected pro computer from Feynman’s time whereby engineers and physi- the last of which was in 1993. cessors by algebraic methods busy for many years, and would cists team up to design hard- The processors transmitted (Hopkins networks) so as to still take several years on one of ware optimised for scientific the information necessary to avoid the system crashing as today’s models. applications. The most extreme cooperate on calculations a result of a data overload on case of this collaboration is the over the cables linking them the cables. Feynman wrote the code to case of dedicated computers, together. simulate QCD on the CM. He which are machines in which Why was Richard Feynman used his knowledge of the the electronics is devoted to The CM demonstrates that interested in a topic so remote BASIC programming lan- solving specific scientific prob- unity is strength: the individual from theoretical physics? The guage to develop a parallel lems, although the price is their processors were not very high answer is that he wanted version of BASIC and then ran being less efficient at more frequency (between 10 and to study quantum chromo the simulation “by hand” to general calculations. The team 30Hz) but their advantage lay dynamics (QCD), so he estimate how long it would efforts to design the machines in the powerful internal com- applied his skills to developing take on the computer. dedicated to solving QCD munications network that the computer he needed. stand out: these include the linked 64,000 processors to Incidentally, the CM machines APE group, based at the Uni- enable them to cooperate to QCD is a theory describing the had a striking visual design. A versity of Rome, with an off- solve problems. behaviour of the world of sub CM-5 appeared in Jurassic shoot in Spain at the University atomic particles, such as pro- Park (Photo 1) where it fea- of Zaragoza, and the QCDOC The router, which is the piece tons. QCD makes it possible to tured as the computer in the group at the University of of the hardware allowing the calculate the values of physically island’s control room. Columbia, in the US. These processors to communicate measurable quantities, such as groups have been developing with each other, was analysed the mass of the proton, using The history of the Connection computers dedicated to solv- by Feynman, who was in computer simulations. In prac- Machine is an example of the ing QCD since the 1980s. charge of calculating the opti- tice, calculating the mass of the frequent symbiosis in the his- In the 80s and 90s CRAY also successfully produced supercomputers, although its approach was somewhat different, using fewer, but more powerful processors. For example, the CRAY-XMP (1982-1985) consisted of computers with between one and four processors at most, running at a clock frequency of around 120 MHz.

In 1988 the state-owned company Construcciones Aeronáu- ticas S.A. (today, EADS Photo 1. Left, Connection Machine-5. The red LEDs indicate active connections between processors. Right, its contemporary, España) bought Spain’s first the CRAY-XMR. supercomputer, a CRAY

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 23 02.2 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

/// Figura 2. Schematic diagram of the K-Computer, the biggest Scientific ming languages such as C, supercomputer in the world in 2011 ///////////////////////////////// although at the cost of a computing today is 10-20% performance penalty largely done on with respect to languages specially adapted to the hard- Beowulf clusters. ware.

These link several In parallel, software has computers built evolved in the same direction. Two fundamental milestones using commercially were the development of available open-source code in the GNU project and the spread of components via a Linux as an operating system, switch enabling which has now become the de facto standard in the scien- them to exchange tific world. data This process of simplification was to a large extent the con- sequence of the boom in 1-S/2000. The Spanish scien- ogy. They are costly to build commercial computing that tific community was allowed to and, above all, limited to began in the mid-90s. This led use 975 hours a year of com- highly specific operations. to hardware becoming much puter time. The remainder of Alongside the hardware, the cheaper to produce as a the time it was dedicated to manufacturer had to develop result of manufacturers com- studying aircraft aerodynamics an ad hoc programming lan- peting to offer higher perform- as a substitute for extremely guage, compilers and even an ance products, aimed at the costly wind-tunnel experiments. operating system to take the computer games market in hardware’s specifics into particular. In 1985 a CRAY-XMP cost account. about 15 million dollars and Scientific computing today is had a calculating power of It was therefore necessary to largely done using Beowulf 420 floating point operations a learn a new programming lan- clusters. This is the generic second (420 megaflops). guage to use each machine term for computers made by Obviously, a purchase of this and for simulation code to be networking several commer- type was only possible at rewritten each time. It is not cially available commodity- national level. surprising, then, that the hard- grade units via a switch enab ware/software of these sys- ling them to exchange data. The age of the megaclus- tems has evolved towards The first Beowulf cluster was ters less specialised systems, gen- put together in the US in 1994. Computers based on highly erally running UNIX-based specialised hardware are at compatible operating systems Manufacturers continue to the cutting edge of technol- supporting standard program- include special features in their

24 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 02.2

The progress of products aimed at customers tific project, they often develop In Europe we have a single in the scientific sector, above an ad hoc solution. infrastructure supporting basic science all focusing on improving the European scientists: the Euro- usually runs efficiency of floating-point cal- A paradigmatic example was pean Grid Infrastructure (EGI), culations. But essentially all the invention of the World which interconnects the parallel to the today’s supercomputers, such Wide Web. In 1990 a group national Grid infrastructure of as Beowulf clusters, consist of led by Tim Berners-Lee at the 38 European countries. development of more processors with a faster European Particle Physics innovative switch. Laboratory (CERN) designed The EGI comprises over a system to allow scientists to 250,000 cores and more than solutions allowing At the time of writing, the exchange files, which evolved 150 million gigabytes. The scientists to tackle world’s biggest Beowulf clus- into what we now know as the Iberian Peninsula accounts for ter is called KComputer, at World Wide Web. approximately 10% of this ever more complex the RIKEN research centre in infrastructure. In 2011 the EGI problems Japan. K-Computer com- In the late 90s another vision- infrastructure provided more prises 550,000 cores, able ary idea emerged in the field: than 1,500 million CPU hours. to reach a combined power just as the web could be used Among other things this was of eight petaflops, which is to share information via an used to analyse LHC data: the to say, multiplying eight tril- Internet connection, why not biggest machine ever built lion floating point numbers a use this same infrastructure to also requires the biggest com- second. share computing power? puting infrastructure ever designed, to help scientists In Spain, MareNostrum, the This led to the idea of creating look for the fundamental flagship computer at the global distributed computing structure of matter. National Supercomputing infrastructure, a Grid that Centre, has 10,000 cores and would initially serve the world’s Computer technology has is the biggest system in the particle physics researchers, progressed astonishingly over country. Research centres who needed to analyse data the last 30 years. This is borne with a significant computation from CERN’s new accelerator, out by the fact that a mobile component also house the Large Hadron Collider phone today has as much Beowulf clusters, typically (LHC). computing power as the first comprising between 1,000 supercomputer installed in and 4,000 cores. The way in which the Grid’s Spain in 1988. infrastructure is organised has Distributed computing evolved: it would be simplistic Looking to the future, I will end infrastructure to consider sharing informa- where I began, quoting Feyn- The progress of basic science tion (the Web) and sharing man, introducing conceptually usually runs parallel to the computing resources (the what we today call quantum development of innovative Grid) as equivalent, given that computing: «... there is a lot of solutions allowing scientists to the cost models are very dif- scope for making computers tackle ever more complex ferent. What is important is smaller, I have seen nothing in problems. If scientists need that Grid technology makes it the laws of physics that pre- infrastructure that is not cur- possible to share infrastruc- vents us making a computer rently available to run a scien- ture, if the need arises. at atomic level.”

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 25 02.3 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Ten years of building a semantic web

The term “semantic web” refers to a way of organising content on the web to enable computers and humans to cooperate better. This means progressing from a web of documents to a web of linked data. This will make it possible to offer new services by taking advantage of the potential of combining and interrelating data of different types from a variety of sources.

Marco Schorlemmer

Instituto de Investigación en Inteligencia Artificial (CSIC)

n May 2001, the journal Scien- CERN physicist who, in 1980, More than ten years have Berners-Lee and colleagues tific American published an developed a system for linking since passed, and although has triggered a line of research I article proposing a new way of and transferring documents on the web has radically changed projects, and in particular, last organising content online, which the Internet, which ultimately many aspects of our everyday October the 10th edition of was expected to trigger an ava- became the World Wide Web lives, the revolution foreseen the International Semantic lanche of new options, and con- we all know today. This new in the Scientific American art Web Conference was held in sequently revolutionise the Inter- way of organising the web put icle has not been fully realised. Bonn, Germany. But, what is net. The lead author of the forward in the article was However, the vision of a the Semantic Web? And to article was Tim Berners-Lee, the dubbed the “Semantic web”. semantic web described by what extent has it revolution-

26 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 02.3

Marco Schorlemmer

Marco Schorlemmer holds a PhD in Informatics from the Technical University of Catalonia and is currently a tenured scientist at CSIC’s Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (IIIA-CSIC) and an associate lecturer at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He has been a researcher at SRI International and at the University of Indiana in the USA, and the University of Edinburgh in the UK.

He has published over sixty papers in specialised journals and international workshop and conference proceedings in the fields of formal specification and automated theorem proving, diagrammatic representation and reasoning, distributed knowledge coordination, semantic interoperability of ontologies, and multiagent systems.

He has led several national and European projects and has served on a number of programme committees of international conferences, including the International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS), the International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC) and the International World Wide Web Conference (WWW).

Marco Schorlemmer.

ised or will it revolutionise the automatically download content and service provid- The semantic web is thus the Internet? another web page when we ers. Using blogs, for ex- third generation web, or Web click on them. This is what is ample, users can write and 3.0: an extension of today’s We are all fairly familiar with the known as the first generation share their own thoughts, web in which content is organ- Web and how to use it. We web, or Web 1.0. In this and their readers can add ised so that computers as well open a browser (for example, model, people with the neces- comments or new links of as humans can process its Explorer, Firefox or Safari) and sary skills in designing and interest; with Wikipedia, mil- meaning –hence the term type in the address of the page building web pages create lions of people are building a semantic– so as to enable com- we want to look up or ask a documents and content, and huge multilingual encyclopae- puters and humans to cooper- search engine (for example, define the hyperlinks between dia which is continually being ate more closely. The classifica- Google or Yahoo) to locate the them; non-expert users are updated and expanded by its tion of the web into Web 1.0, documents we are interested basically limited to consuming users; users can share films 2.0 or 3.0 is somewhat artificial, in by entering a combination of this information. They read the and music files over peer-to- as it is not really a matter of new keywords –the search engine news, consult dictionaries, dis- peer networks (originally versions of the web, but the returns lists of links to docu- play images or videos, and buy Napster, BitTorrent or eMule); same web as before with new ments sorted by relevance. products and services. and finally, with the advent of layers of functionality added. social networks –such as From there we can jump from In the second generation Facebook, Tuenti or Twitter– From a web of documents page to page using hyper- web, Web 2.0, non-expert the Web has become a glo- to a web of data links, which are words, users, as well as consumers, bal space for user participa- To make this vision of a seman- phrases, images or icons that can also be generators of tion and interaction. tic web clearer, the first point to

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 27 02.3 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

bear in mind is that it is no already familiar with URIs. longer a matter of linking text For example, the address documents, images or other https://www.cia.gov/library/ multimedia content, but the raw publications/the-world- Web 1.0 data themselves. For example, factbook/geos/sp.html is the CIA’s World Factbook web- the URI identifying the web Producer Consumer site displays a set of web pages page with information on with information about various Spain in the W o r l d countries around the world. Factbook. But, apart from These provide information on linking data, URIs need to C/P C/P the geography, population, identify not just pages but political structure and economy the specific elements the Web 2.0 of each country, processed in data are made up of. Thus, such a way that they can be to publish the fact that displayed as web pages Spain and France share a humans can read. However, if border, we need URIs iden- C/P C/P = Consumer/Producer the data were published in a tifying “Spain”, “shares bor- format in which they could be der with”, and “France.” processed by computers as well humans, we would be able 2. At the same time, these

to combine and compare the identifiers must be derefer- The C/P C/P data automatically. But, the enceable, which means that Semantic potential of this does not lie only the resource identifier Web in publishing the data, but also points to the place on the in linking the data in one reposi Web were we can access it. tory with data in another via Dereferencing a URI (undo- C/P links such as the hyperlinks we ing the reference) is done are all familiar with from web using the hypertext transfer pages. The set of good prac- protocol (HTTP), which is tices for the publication and what makes the Web’s Evolution of a web whose content is produced by just a few users and consumed linking of structured data on the characteristic hyperlinks by many others, towards a semantic web that allows closer cooperation between humans and computers. / Source: Frederic Martin. web is known as Linked Data. possible. When we click on Some of its main features are: one of these links, the hypertext transfer protocol semantics comes in: having known as triples. The sub- 1. Every item of data, or takes the URI and accesses these definitions and being ject and the object are every resource, as informa- the content it points to. The able to access them. resources identified by tion on the web tends to be same thing now needs to means of a URI, and the called, has a unique identi- happen with the resources 3. The data themselves predicate is the relationship fier that distinguishes it from making up an item of data. need to be expressed using between these resources. any other data published on The URI of “shares a border the Resource Description Thus, the fact that Spain the web. This is what is with” should be derefer- Framework or RDF, a lan- shares a border with France known as the Universal enced to access the defin guage to structure data in would be expressed in the Resource Identifier, or URI. ition of what this relationship statements in a simple sub- form of the following RDF In fact, many Web users are means. This is where ject-predicate-object format triplet:

28 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 02.3

THE SEMANTIC WEB IN PRACTICE

There are currently numer cate relevant texts using der to promote transparency, the semantic web and is ous applications that in one searches based on the se promote government efficien based on the information col way or another are based mantic relationships be cy, and stimulate economic lected by the OpenStreet on semantic technologies tween biomedical con growth. Combining these Map project, an open map of for the Web. We will look at cepts as well as the occur data in the form of mashups the world to which anyone three different cases to rence of selected key –web applications that com can add data, as with Wiki show the potential the Web words. bine data and functionality pedia. In late 2009 very few still holds. Publication of experimental from different sources– al areas of the city of Port-au- Scientific output. One of data along with research lows the results to be queried Prince in Haiti had been the pillars of scientific findings enables closer col and presented in new and tagged. But just after the progress is the publication laboration and enhances the creative ways. In 2009, in a devastating earthquake in of the results of scientific transparency of scientific re town in the state of Ohio January 2010, when satellite experiments so they can search. Projects funded by (USA) a lawyer created a images of the country were be compared and con the European Union, such mashup combining public published, thousands of peo trasted by the scientific as OpenKnowledge or Liq data on the location of pipes ple studied the images and community and spur uidPub, have done research supplying running water with started annotating detailed progress on other lines of into novel forms of Web- data from the municipal cen information about the affect research. For example, the based distributed collabora sus on homes inhabited by ed areas on them: Open GoPubMed portal offers a tion and publication that Afro-Americans. The resulting StreetMap: blocked roads, semantic search of scien suggests we are going to map showed how, in certain damaged buildings, the loca tific publications in the bio witness a significant change outlying districts, the council tion of refugee camps and medicine field. It is con in how scientific results are clearly discriminated against field hospitals, quays to nected to Gene Ontology, published, shared and dis Afro-American homes. The which ships with humanitar an ontology that unifies seminated. judge consequently ordered ian aid were moored, etc. All and structures the terminol Open government. Various compensation for damages. these data were of enormous ogy on genes and gene national governments are Mass popular collaboration. use to the rescue teams on products in a wide range promoting “open govern LinkedGeoData is an initia the ground who could query of organisms. With GoP ment” initiatives, publishing tive to add a spatial dimen the information from mobile ubMed it is possible to lo the datasets they own in or sion to the data published on devices.

subject: http://www4.wiwiss. object: http://www4.wiwiss. prepared by the Berlin Free able. As mentioned above, fu-berlin.de/factbook/ fu-berlin.de/factbook/ University. As can be seen, this is how we access the resource/Spain resource/France in RDF the relationship definitions, specifying, for between the subject and example, that Spain and predicate: http://www4. Here we have used the URI object –the predicate– is France are countries, and wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/factbook/ of the publication the World also a resource with a URI that landboundary is the ns#landboundary Factbook as Linked Data that must be dereference relationship between two

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 29 02.3 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

countries that share a bor- The vision of a with the resources and their scientific data, etc. It is cur- der. These definitions relationships. Good practice rently estimated to contain 32 expressed here in natural semantic web, as is based on widely used billion RDF triples with half a language should be speci- envisaged by existing URIs and vocabular- billion links between them. fied in turn as data pub- ies, though. Unlike the web lished in the form of RDF Berners-Lee et al. of documents, the structure The publishing of data is only triples. of data is independent from a part of what constitutes the ten years ago, also how they are displayed on web of data. The other part 4. Finally, in order to includes the the screen to human users. comprises the computer exploit the full potential of applications that provide the Web infrastructures, the possibility of Linked open data services needed to access, data in a repository or reasoning and The potential of the web of query, search and combine database needs to be link- data, as with the web of docu data. Just as the web of docu able to external data, drawing logical ments, lies in the large scale ments would not of little use defined in another reposi- conclusions participation of countless indi- without browsers, search tory or database. That is to viduals and organisations in engines and social interaction say, the subject, predicate, automatically from the systematic publication of services, the data web’s func- object of a given RDF triple data published on data on the web, following tionality is provided by specific do not need to be located, Linked Data good practice. It applications operating on the defined and managed in the Web is this large-scale participa- linked data in RDF repositor- the same data repository, tion, requiring relatively little ies using specific query lan- but can be distributed effort, which is behind the guages, such as SPARQL. across the Web. success of the Web today. This is inspired by the SQL With this in mind, an initiative (Structured Query Language) This level is added to the called Linked Open Data was used to query traditional data- existing Web infrastructure launched a few years ago with bases, but has been specifi- by publishing data directly in the aim of translating a series cally designed to run on web RDF format with derefer- of existing open repositories, technology. enceable URIs pointing to such as Wikipedia, to RDF definitions of entities and and publishing them. Some Ontologies and automated their relationships, which in major organisations have reasoning turn are expressed as data in since joined the project, such The vision of a semantic web, RDF that link data to other as the BBC, Thomson Reu- as envisaged by Berners-Lee data. This approach enables ters and the Library of Con- et al. ten years ago, also the web’s functionality to be gress, by putting their infor- includes the possibility of rea- increased significantly, as it mation on the Web. Thus, little soning and drawing logical allows for automated by little, a global data space is conclusions automatically processing of these data and being defined covering peo- from data published on the their relationships. Just as in ple, companies, books, scien- Web. Thus, from the fact that the “web of documents”, in tific publications, films, music, Spain shares a border with the “web of data” anybody or radio and television pro- France and that sharing a any organisation can publish grammes, genes, proteins, border means that the two data of any type and define drugs and clinical trials, online countries are adjacent, it the vocabularies associated communities, statistical and should be possible to deduce

30 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 02.3

removed. Moreover, the serv- ers hosting these data may sometimes be unavailable, either because they have crashed or are down for main- tenance. This implies considerable semantic variability in the data, making it necessary to address the problems that occur when the meaning of a term changes, a new terminol ogy appears, or contradictory definitions are found. The massive publication of data also implies having to pre- serve the privacy of people and institutions, for instance to guarantee that it is not pos- Fragment of the ontology of spatial relationships (in the OWL language and XML/RDF syntax) created by Ordnance Survey, the UK’s map-making agency. The example shows how the definition of the ‘touches’ relation includes the property sible to deduce certain confi- of symmetry. dential information indirectly. Moreover, the fact that anyone can publish and link data on the web of data means that automatically that you can sions in a formal logic-based The classification certain features of where data travel from Spain to France language that describes the come from, their quality, and without having to cross a third concepts and their interrela- of the web into Web the reliability of their sources, country. This requires formal tions in a particular area of 1.0, 2.0 or 3.0 is have to be taken into account. definitions –i.e. definitions a knowledge to the necessary computer is able to process– level of detail (for example, somewhat These are all fruitful areas of of what the relationship of geography in general or Span- artificial, as it is research in which to apply contiguity between geograph- ish geography in particular). artificial intelligence tech- ical regions means and how it The Web Ontology Language not really a matter niques, such as automated relates to the idea of being (OWL) is recommended for reasoning, semantic align- able to move directly between publishing and reasoning of new versions of ment, computational models two regions. using Web-based ontologies. the web, but the of trust, privacy-preserving data mining and statistical dis- This additional information Future Challenges same web as before closure control. But, ultim complementing the data and The web of data, with its with new layers of ately, the possibilities of the enabling semantic relations to vocabularies and ontologies, semantic web are in the be deduced without their is an open and dynamic entity. functionality hands of users, who generate being explicitly represented in New data appear continually, added the data and devise the ser the data set is what is known as do new links between vices that, as Tim Berners- as an ontology. This usually them, whereas others Lee said, will make the Web’s consists of a set of expres- become obsolete and are potential a reality.

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 31 S cho larshi ps

We can help you do

researchAimed at: Types of scholarships: Trainee researchers, university To help participants update their A study visit of at least two months, lecturers and researchers at Spanish know-how, learn new techniques to another Ibero-American research universities, staff at Spanish National and methods, and to build ties centre or university, outside the Research Council (CSIC) centres between Spanish and Ibero-American researcher’s country of origin, (including joint centres). research teams and institutions. with funding for travel, These scholarships are also intended accommodation and living expenses to help enable trainee researchers included in the scholarship. complete their scienti c and technical training and specialisation.

For more information and to apply: http://www.becas-santander.com http://www.agora-santander.com

@Agora_Santander |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 02.4

Cryptography: if it didn’t exist, we would have to invent it

Ever since people first began to communicate with one another, they have needed to protect their confidential information from prying eyes and ears.

Gonzalo Álvarez

Instituto de Física Aplicada (CSIC)

t could be said that cryptog- The earliest form of cryptog- usually secret or symmetrical ness of its design. Two types raphy, or the art of secret raphy was symmetrical or key encryption, which is illus- of encryption have been in I writing, was born with writ- secret key cryptography trated in Figure 1. use for centuries: substitution ing itself. However, cryptogra- The type of encryption used and transposition. Substitu- phy has come a long way to encrypt e-mails, files on a How secure an encryption tion replaces the characters in since the Babylonians first hard drive, database records, algorithm is depends on two the message with other char- encrypted tablets over 4,500 and large quantities of data is factors. The first is the robust- acters, which may either be ago, and has progressed by leaps and bounds since the /// Figure 1. Symmetrical algorithms ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// advent of the computer. In the 20th century cryptography went from being almost exclu- Key sively the province of the military, diplomats and large cor- porations, to an everyday item used by all citizens. Although we are usually unaware of it, we use cryptography every day: whenever we talk on our Plaintext Encrypt Encrypted text Decrypt Plaintext mobile phone, take money out from a cash dispenser, watch pay TV or shop online. SENDER RECIPIENT The world we know today would be impossible without Symmetrical algorithms use the same key to encrypt and decrypt the message, so it has to be known only to the sender and recipient. cryptography.

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 33 02.4 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Gonzalo Álvarez encrypted text to retrieve the Gonzalo Álvarez has an M.S. degree in Telecommunications Engineering from original message or the key the University of the Basque Country, Bilbao, UPV/EHU (1995) and a PhD with which it was encrypted. (2000) in Computer Science from the Computer Science Faculty of the Cryptanalysis can, of course, Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM). be made more difficult by He has worked as a cryptologist on research projects at the Spanish National using a polyalphabetic substi- Research Council (CSIC), and has been a member of the Information Processing tution, which consists of and Coding Department since 1995. He has written popular science articles for replacing each character by several newspapers (El Mundo, El Correo) and contributed to specialist magazines (IWorld, PC World, Mundo Electrónico and SIC). He has also written several different ones, so that a number of books: Los mejores trucos para Internet (6th edition), Seguridad the frequency with which the Gonzalo Álvarez. informática para empresas y particulares and Cómo protegemos de los peligros letters appear is blurred. How- de Internet. ever, if the text is sufficiently He was a pioneer in Internet security in Spain with his website Criptonomicón, long the original message can one of the first in the Spanish-speaking community, set up in 1997. Since 2008 still be retrieved. he has run a blog called El Arte de Presentar on planning, structuring, designing and giving presentations. Another encryption technique that has been used since antiquity is transposition, i.e. simply changing the order of from the same alphabet or a the early 20th century, cipher that it does not hide the lin- the letters in a message fol- different one. One of the first discs based on substitution guistic patterns created by the lowing a specific rule, as Fig- historical examples known is were in widespread use. frequency with which letters ure 3 illustrates. One of the the Caesar cipher, which is appear in each language, thus first known historical exam- explained in Figure 2. From The biggest drawback of making it vulnerable to crypt ples of transposition encryp- the Middle Ages through to encryption by substitution is analysis, i.e. the study of an tion is the Spartan scitala.

This rule is often known as a /// Figure 2. The Caesar cipher /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// transposition map. In this case, the goal of cryptanalysis is to arrange the letters in the Key: 3 correct sequence to recon- Message: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z struct the original message. To do so, it can look for com- Encryption: D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C mon words, such as articles and prepositions, or key M: ALEA IACGA EST words that are sure to appear in the message being analysed, which will help deter- C: DOHD NDFAD HXA mine the rule used. To make cryptanalysis more difficult, the same rule or transposition The Caesar cipher is named after Julius Caesar, who, according to Suetonius, used a three-character displacement to protect his most important military messages. To read the original message it was sufficient to shift the letters the same number of places to map can be applied repeat- the left. The key was the number of positions by which letters were shifted. edly. This is quite easy to do with a computer.

34 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 02.4

/// Figure 3. Example of transposition encryption ///////////////////// the encrypted text reveals no the encryption process. Cur- more information about the rent encryption techniques, PLAINTEXT ENTERED original message than examin- such as DES and AEZ, often ing a random text. Changing a use many encryption itera- T H I S I S bit of the plain text should, on tions. average, change half of the A N E X A M bits in the encrypted text. This Therefore, if an algorithm is ENCRYPTED P L E O F T property is called the ava- well designed, a ciphertext can TEXT lanche effect. In short, diffusion only be deciphered with the RETRIEVED R A N S P O hides the relationship between secret key. Good cryptography the original text and the obeys Kerckhoff’s principle, S I T I O N encrypted version. namely that the security of the system depends on the secur C: TAPRS HNLAI IEENT SXOSI IAFPO SMTON Confusion seeks to hide the ity of the key, and assumes relationship between the that all the other parameters of encrypted text and the secret the cryptographic system are The text is written in a matrix, which is filled row by row, and the message is sent by key. Changing just one bit of known. reading from column to column. The encryption key is the size of the matrix. the key should, on average, also change half of the bits of If you do not know how to the encrypted text. Encryp- attack it, use brute force However, transposition alone nation of substitution and tion algorithms using confu- The second factor in calibrat- is not sufficient to encrypt transposition diffuses the sta- sion and diffusion are often ing the security of an algo- texts securely either. The tistical structure of the mes- termed product ciphers. rithm is the length of the key encryption algorithm can nev- sage over the whole encrypted Each application of confusion used. When cryptanalysts ertheless be made more text. In other words, examining and diffusion is an iteration of cannot find faults in the algo- robust if both operations are combined, by applying substi- /// Figure 4. How a block cipher works ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// tution and transposition repeatedly to the same message. Encryption algorithms in Initial transformation use today, such as DES and AES, use several encryption iterations combining both Cryptographic operations, as shown in Fig- n iterations Key expansion ure 4. operations algorithm

The aim is to obtain what is known as diffusion and confu- Final sion. Ideally, an encrypted text transformation should look entirely random. Any statistical relationship between the original message 1) Initial transformation; 2) cryptographic function repeated several times (iterations of encryption); 3) final transformation; 4) key and the encrypted text needs expansion algorithm, from which the initial key entered by the user enables the key used in all the iterations to be generated. to be eliminated. The combi-

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 35 02.4 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

rithm, they always have the For situations in which it is algorithms: Block-cipher algo- than generating the whole key option of resorting to brute necessary to repeat them, rithms and flow-cipher algo- randomly, a small seed is gen- force. This is an inelegant pseudorandom sequences rithms. erated, from which, using one method, which does not are created. These are gener- of the deterministic pseudoran- attack the algorithm as such, ated using deterministic algo- In the case of block-cipher dom number-generating algo- but means working exhaus- rithms, which use an initial algorithms, the original mes- rithms just mentioned, an tively through all the possible seed to generate sequences sage is first divided into blocks encrypting sequence is gener- values of the key until the right of bits that behave statistically of a given size. Each block is ated which is mixed with the one is found. as if they had been produced encrypted in the same way, plaintext. in a truly random way. Anyone independently from all the oth- It is currently considered that who knows the seed can ers. Flow cipher algorithms, Block encryption is ill-suited to 128 bit (or longer) keys will regenerate the sequence. however, work very differently, applications where the infor- guarantee security for many as is shown in Figure 5. mation arrives in chunks, years to come. Indeed, some There are two types of sym- rather than being available algorithms allow the user to metrical cryptographic As it would be very difficult to simultaneously, such as a tele select the key length at will, algorithms send the recipient a key as long phone conversation, as a such as the current AES There are two main families of as the message, in practice a block cannot be encrypted encryption standard, based symmetrical or secret key slight shortcut is taken: rather until all its bits are available. on the Rijndael encryption algorithm. /// Figure 5. How a flow cipher works ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Therefore, if the design is robust and the key is sufficiently long, the algorithm can Key Key be considered secure.

Random numbers to choose good encryption keys Encrypting sequence Choosing encryption keys is Deterministic Deterministic an important business. The algorithm algorithm si si key must be perfectly random. However, computers are deterministic machines that Ciphertext are unable to produce numbers randomly. One solution is

to use sources of physical ci ci entropy, such as recording the Plaintext Plaintext user’s mouse movements, mi mi keystrokes or other such sources. These sequences, as SENDER RECIPIENT well as being difficult to create, 1) A random key is generated that is as long as the message the user wants to encrypt; 2) the message is mixed with the key, cannot be reproduced: the thus generating the ciphertext, typically the bitwise modulo-two sum (XOR logical operation); 3) to retrieve the original message, same random sequence will the ciphertext is simply summed with the key. never be generated twice.

36 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 02.4

Flow encryption does not have had to face, and is known as key, only the owner of the cor- is equivalent to signing it, as this problem, as it encrypts the the key distribution problem. responding private key can nobody apart from the holder information bitwise as each bit What is the point of using the decipher it. of the private key could have arrives. In practice, this tends world’s best encryption algo- encrypted the message. to be done in hardware, mak- rithm if you cannot share the For this reason, public-key When you encrypt something ing it very rapid. This is there- key with whoever you want cryptography is also known as with your private key you are fore the preferred approach for to send the message to? asymmetric cryptography. It proving your authorship: only applications where speed is of For centuries cryptography works as shown in Figure 6. If you can encrypt it, so it must the essence. has addressed this problem you encrypt a message with be you who encrypted it. This with limited success, until in the public key, you cannot is known as authentication. Public key cryptography the early 1970s two cryptog decipher it with this same key. solves the problem of dis- raphers, Diffie and Hellman, You will need to use the corres Anyone can then decipher it tributing keys invented public-key cryptog- ponding private key. What you using your public key, which is Once a message has been raphy. encrypt with one key, you equivalent to verifying the sig- encrypted with the secret key, have to decrypt with the other. nature. It is therefore essential a new difficulty arises: how do This form of cryptography that your private key be pri- you send the recipient the uses two keys: one is public, You can also encrypt with the vate and nobody but you have secret key used to encrypt the and therefore known to every- private key. In this case, any- access to it. In practice, as message? one, and the other is private, one who knows your public symmetric encryption algo- so only known to its owner. key will be able to decipher rithms are very slow, they are Historically, this is the biggest Although anyone can encrypt the message. Encrypting a not normally used to encrypt problem cryptography has a message using the public message with your private key the whole message, but just a short summary calculated using a hash function (a unidi- /// Figure 6. Functioning of asymmetric encryption ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// rectional summary function which reduces the initial message to a shorter value that can be used as a compact Public Private representation of the original key key message.)

The pair of keys must be kept securely, for example using a smart card such as an electronic ID card.

Plaintext Encrypt Ciphertext Decrypt Plaintext Electronic signatures and digital certificates solve the problem of trust SENDER RECIPIENT How can we know if a user’s public key really belongs to its Functioning of asymmetric key encryption: Two different keys are used for encrypting and decrypting: one known to everyone owner and not a hacker who and the other known only to its owner. has replaced it with another? This is a problem of trust. Just

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 37 02.4 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

as it was difficult to distribute anyone could decipher it protocol are shown in Fig- the same summary (hash) as secret keys securely, it is also using the public key, thus ure 7. that which has been encrypted difficult to distribute public proving the signatory’s iden- (signed). keys in a reliable way. Today tity. In practice, as it takes a At a stroke this provides three this problem has been over- long time to encrypt large services: When digital signatures are come, at least in part, by documents with the public used in this way, however, an using electronic signatures key, hash functions are used, 1) Non-repudiation, as nobody obvious problem of trust and digital certificates. so that rather than sign the apart from you could have arises: how can we be sure whole document, the sender signed the document; 2) that a user’s public key really In principle, it should be signs a summary of it. This authentication, as if document belongs to the individual con- enough to encrypt a docu- mechanism implies encrypting was signed by you, the recipi- cerned and has not been ment with the private key in the summary of the data, ent can be sure of your identity, forged by someone else? Why order to obtain a secure digital using the sender’s private key, as only you could have signed trust someone’s public key signature, as nobody except and sending the encrypted it; and 3) document integrity, when sending them a secret? the holder of the private key summary together with the as it is impossible to modify it Who verifies the identity of the could do so. Subsequently, message. The steps in the in such a way that it generates holder of the public key?

This is where digital certificates /// Figure 7. Electronic signature ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// come in. A digital certificate contains your public key and a Message 3 Signature Message set of data (name, ID card, e-mail address, etc.), all signed by a certification authority entrusted with ensuring that 1 5 4 the information is valid. It is precisely this signature that Hash KPub Decrypt Hash enables the party receiving the certificate to trust that the pub- H lic key it contains really belongs H 1 2 to the person whose attributes appear in it. Encrypt KPriv 6 Thanks to digital certificates,

2 electronic signatures and encryption, we can nowadays Signature carry out secure transactions online and on our mobile SENDER RECIPIENT phones; and we can be sure that a web site is genuine and 1) You generate a summary of the document; 2) you encrypt the summary with your private key, thus signing the document, not a usurper, and we can as nobody other than you knows you private key, so only you could have done the encryption; 3) you send the document to the send and receive encrypted recipient along with the signed summary; 4) the recipient generates a summary of the document you sent, using the same hash function; 5) he/she then decrypts the signed summary with your public key, which, as its name suggests, is known to everyone; and signed e-mails. None of and 6) if the signed summary coincides with the summary the recipient generated, the signature is valid. these marvels would be possible without cryptography.

38 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC Today is a day she will never forget

We all remember our ﬁrst day at work. Surely nothing would have stopped us from smiling that day.

Like the case of Eugenia. One of the thousands of people with disabilities who have been given the chance to work thanks to the more than 17,000 companies collaborating with the “Incorpora” programme of “la Caixa“ Foundation.

Thanks to thousands of business people, a normal day can be a great day.

You are the Star

Welfare Projects • The spirit of ”la Caixa” www.laCaixaFoundation.com 03

New information spaces

03.1 NEW INFORMATION SPACES ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Time for new models for the communication and dissemination of science

In this article, the authors describe the development and consequences of open, permanent, and free access to the results of scientific research. Thus, the model of scientific communication, based on a publishing system concerned more with the economic returns than the social value of science and its dissemination, is being challenged.

Agnès Ponsati (1) Isabel Bernal (2)

(1) Unidad de Recursos de Información Científica para la Investigación (CSIC) (2) Oficina Técnica Digital (CSIC)

Open access: what is it and research results began as an ety Institute to prepare the first What is being challenged is why has it arisen? initiative avant la lettre backed formal declaration calling for the major publishers’ monop- Open access refers to an initia by researchers seeking to Open Access. This was fol- oly over the distribution and tive aiming to make scientific promote a faster, more effi- lowed by the Bethesda (June commercial exploitation of and academic literature avail- cient and more democratic 2003) and Berlin (October scientific information, the able online, so as to guaran- exchange of scientific infor- 2003) declarations, along the divide between institutions tee the right to unrestricted mation. same lines, and with the same and countries in terms of access to scientific know underlying principles. Subse- access to information (digital ledge. With the appearance of In 2002 a number of institu- quent declarations of this kind divide), and the barriers this arXiv two decades ago, open, tions met in Budapest under are a sign of the open access represents for an efficient and permanent and free access to the auspices of the Open Soci- movement’s rapid spread. transparent model of scientific

42 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| NEW INFORMATION SPACES 03.1

Agnès Ponsati tem and is catalysing a revolu- Agnés Ponsanti has a degree in Hispanic Philology from the University of tionary transformation. Barcelona (1986), a Diploma in Librarianship and Documentation from the same university (1987), and has been head of the Scientific Information Resources The strategies Unit at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) since 1994. Nevertheless, the movement She has published a number of papers (http://digital.csic.es) on the technical does not aim to undermine the management of computerised collective catalogues in distributed environments market, but to offer an alterna- and the management of library services in the context of specialised/scientific tive to it along two channels: libraries. She has also taken part in national and European projects (http://www. csic.es/cbic/cooper.htm) on the computerisation of document collections, catalogue conversion systems, bibliographic protocols, meta-search engines, 1. Open publishing of high and maximising the value of heritage collections by applying new technologies quality journals that have a to information systems. selection committee. Agnès Ponsati. She chaired the Ministry of Culture Library Cooperation Council’s Specialist libraries commission from 2008 to 2010. 2. A “self-archiving” system for researchers’ scientific Isabel Bernal output in institutional or the- matic repositories. Isabel Bernal has a degree in History from the University of Seville, a Master in Librarianship and Documentation from the Vatican Library School (Rome) and a Master’s degree in Economics and International Relations from John Hopkins These are complementary University (Washington, DC). Since 2010 she has been in charge of the CSIC’s rather than competing strate- institutional repository, Digital.CSIC. gies. Their aims are to facilitate Previously, she worked at EIFL for five years, an international organisation and improve access to scien- promoting access to electronic research resources in developing and transition tific information and to pro- countries, and at the European Commission. mote its dissemination. The She has written various papers on open access in research, access to movement should not be information and development cooperation, library consortia, and the history of Isabel Bernal. understood as a “self-publish- books. ing” system or as one that eliminates or substitutes for the traditional peer-review model. Nor is it a second-tier system of scientific communication, or a system that seeks to reduce communication. There are On the prevailing model, insti- based on a publishing system the cost of publishing. several factors behind the tutions cannot guarantee concerned more with the eco- movement’s emergence: the access to all the scientific nomic returns than the social Open access is constructive, so-called “crisis of the jour- information being generated value of science and its dis- not destructive (its goal is not nals,” driven by exorbitant although, to a large extent, semination is being ques- to drive out commercial jour- price rises; the lack of com- they collectively fund and pro- tioned. nals, but increase access to petition; the monopolistic duce it. Ironically, the technol- scientific content); it is not syn- state of the publishing mar- ogy would allow wider and Open access has established onymous with universal access ket, and the crisis of permis- more immediate access if the itself as a channel for scientific (institutional, linguistic, acces- sions caused by publishing publishing scene were not as communication that chal- sibility, and connectivity barri- constraints (both technical it is. Hence the current model lenges the very foundations of ers remain, for example). In and legal). of scientific communication the dominant publishing sys- short, Open Access (OA) aims

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 43 03.1 NEW INFORMATION SPACES ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

7. Enhancing society’s perception of the value of research.

8. Raising the political profile of scientific research, driven by society’s enhanced perception of the value of science.

9. Using repositories to help funding agencies and researchers locate results in their area of interest.

10. Enabling a faster cycle of scientific communication and for results to be disseminated and read sooner.

11. Allowing researchers to make more conscious use of their copyright.

Institutional repositories Many scientific and academic institutions have set up institu- Home page of the CSIC institutional repository. tional repositories. They are also promoted by funding agencies to ensure broad dissemination of the results of the projects they support, with a view to creating sites that host, organise, disseminate and pre- for a new model of access, but 2. Wider circulation of 5. Building repositories that serve the scientific output they is not a business model. research findings and hence make it possible to keep generate or fund. This entails greater impact. researchers’ output online using technology allowing Both forms of open access and standardise CVs. rapid propagation of content offer significant benefits for 3. Ensuring the long-term 6. Increasing readership, online, by harvesting it in large- the institutions promoting preservation of the content which leads to more exploi- scale collectors of scientific them, such as: produced. tation of the science they resources and making it avail- fund, thus increasing cita- able in search engines. 1. Contributing to returning 4. Helping managers ensure tions, which in turn improves a common good to society, better control over the scien- the opportunities for obtain- Institutional repositories bring i.e. the science it finances. tific publications produced. ing future funding. numerous benefits if they

44 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| NEW INFORMATION SPACES 03.1

receive explicit support. There Open publishing: the “gold In short, Open integral part of their research are currently around 2,000 road” budgets. repositories worldwide. What The other open access strategy Access (OA) aims were pilot projects a decade is based on institutions’ pro- for a new model of Mandates, policies and ago have become consoli- moting the publication of open directives: open access in dated platforms from which scientific journals or their access, but is not a research strategies research institutions dissem authors’ publishing in open A greater awareness of the inate their output to the world. journals. This mode of publish- business model importance of open access to ing may in turn be funded by research results financed with Repositories offer new func- the institutions to which the public funds has also been tions, providing tools to tend, authors belong. observed. On this view, scien- manage and analyse institu- tific communication takes on tional science, as well as An example of this can be more importance and more enabling open access. seen in the new publishing ini- ambitious goals, expanding Recently, research organisa- tiatives such as PLoS or the channels by which institutions and universities have BioMed Central journals (gold tions can relay the knowledge been creating platforms of open access) or traditional they produce to society. their own on which they com subscription-based journals pile, describe and evaluate that offer immediate open Studies by the European their scientific output. Linking publishing on payment of a Commission reveal that small the repository with these fee by the author/institution and medium-sized enter- internal systems is essential (hybrid open access). prises have only limited in order to relate institutional access to published public output management, evalu The number of institutions research results and that this ation, dissemination and pub and funding agencies with a has negative impacts on lication activities with one special fund from which to innovation and technology another. These are activities pay these fees institutionally development. Other studies, which until recently were only is growing, as they are com- such as Implementation of conceived of independently ing to consider the cost of Medical Research in Clinical and in isolation. open publication to be an Practice (2011) by the Euro- pean Science Foundation, highlight the need to pass on results of biomedical research by scientific institutions and universities more effectively to hospitals.

According to the World Intel- lectual Property Organisation (WIPO), knowledge transfer implies the capture, organisation and exchange of explicit and tacit knowledge Symbol of the international open access movement. and includes both commer-

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 45 03.1 NEW INFORMATION SPACES ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

cial and non-commercial There are over 130 institu- “research personnel whose Thus, in Spain, since 2008 a activities. The open-access tional open access mandates research activity is funded number of laws and regula- movement thus demands in place worldwide. The uni- largely from the National tions have been promulgated, greater transparency in the versities of Harvard and Princ- Budget, shall publish a final such as the Community of transfer of scientific results, eton stand out for the unani- digital version of the work Madrid directive (2008). But an activity which needs to be mous support of their accepted for publication.” the most significant is the new understood in broader terms scientific communities and Science Act, Article 37 of than just the patenting of their courage in tackling the Papers must be deposited in which, on Open access dis- results. thorny issue of copyright, the repositories within twelve semination is an important advocating the non-exclusive months of official publication. step forward as it mentions Open access to research transfer of commercial rights the possibility of linking the results also has direct implica- to publishers to avoid the The role of funding agencies evaluation of government tions for economic develop- potential negative effects on Open access has become a bodies’ scientific productivity ment and innovation. The various future possibilities for key element in the design of to the open dissemination of European Digital Agenda con- the use and reuse of know many funding agencies’ new the knowledge they produce. siders access to information, ledge. This is an ongoing strategies. Requiring this type research and pure scientific debate with major implications of access to publications and Europe: coordination on open data as being essential to for public institutions that do data deriving from the projects access policy between ensuring the European Union’s science and generate know they finance is a way of pro- Europe’s research councils competitiveness. Neelie Kroes, ledge. moting greater transparency EUROHORCS, the European Vice-President of the Euro- for society of the science the Research Council (ERC) and pean Commission, gave a Two recent laws in Spain public supports. This is particu the European Commission are landmark speech on the topic address the question of the larly relevant in the case of supporting initiatives to raise (http://europa.eu/rapid/press- transfer of the results of public agencies, as it adds an awareness about the duty to ReleasesAction.do?refe research activity and the ethical dimension by guaran- make the results of tax-payer- rence=SPEECH/10/716) in ownership of property rights teeing free access to funded research accessible to December 2010. in the knowledge generated. resources that otherwise the public through the design Article 54 of the Sustainable would be hosted only on very of common policies setting Mandates: open access and Economy Act, which came costly subscription-based out the procedures research copyright into force in March 2011, platforms. councils should comply with The strong backing for the underlines that “the results of and to develop infrastructure consolidation of institutional research, development and The pioneers include the to disseminate this knowl- repositories has developed innovation activities referred open-access policies of the edge. out of an institutional mandate to in the preceding article, National Institutes of Health that requires authors’ copy of and the right to apply for (NIH) in the United States In 2007 the ERC published an works to be deposited in the appropriate industrial prop- (2007) and the Wellcome open access policy requiring repository. A number of stud- erty rights to ensure their Trust in the United Kingdom the deposit in repositories of ies confirm that voluntary sub- legal protection, shall belong (2006). authors’ copies of publica- mission of papers does not to the institutions to which tions and the raw data prod bring in more than 15% of t h e r e s e a r c h e r s w h o Open access legislation uced by projects it funds. average annual output, obtained them in the course More and more governments Since late 2008 the European whereas when depositing of their normal duties are passing laws on the open Commission’s 7th Framework papers is mandatory the rate belong,” and article 37 of the dissemination of the research Programme (FP7) has run an rises to 63%. Science Act provides that they fund. open access pilot project

46 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| NEW INFORMATION SPACES 03.1

affecting the dissemination of 20% of its projects and it will probably extend it to 100% of its projects under FP8 from 2013 on.

EUROHORCS and the Euro- pean Science Foundation have been working for some years on implementing a road map for coordinated progress towards open access in the European Research Area.

Open Access in Spain Open access has taken con- crete shape through numerous universities and scientific institutions signing up to the Berlin Declaration, with the creation of a large number of institutional repositories. According to the Webometrics Repositor- ies Ranking, some of the most significant repositories are those of the Barcelona Auton- omous University, the Catalo- nia Polytechnic University and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). A “collector” of Spanish output available on existing repositories (REC- OLECTA) has also been created. Some universities have institutional mandates and others have begun to consider the option of funding, albeit half- European Commission portal with its range of initiatives to promote open access to the research projects it funds. heartedly, the cost of open- access publishing.

However, firm commitment seems to be lacking nationally other European scientific bod- Scientific Research, CNRS, directives, and further legisla- and at the level of individual ies (UK Research Councils, Max Planck Society). The new tion, may help shore up the institutions when compared to Netherlands Organisation for Science Act and European national strategy.

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 47 03.1 NEW INFORMATION SPACES ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

A new scenario; new rules The other open- provision to cover the cost of Other evaluation criteria have of the game? the open-access publication been gaining ground, such as Open access is transforming access strategy is of the science they produce. the Journal Usage Factor, or institutions’ daily reality, affect- based on qualitative criteria, such as the ing issues as important as the Changes are also taking place socioeconomic impact of models for negotiating infor- institutions’ in publishing licence models: research results and genuine mation resources, evaluation in particular, the so-called knowledge transfer, in ways systems and the management promoting the “green clause” whereby pub- that make it possible to of rights to commercially publication of open lishers are required to deposit access these results in their exploit results. the reviewed drafts of papers entirety without having to pay scientific journals by the institutions’ authors for them a second time. New models of negotiation of they publish in their journals scientific information with the repository. More and more scientific insti- There is a significant number tutions and universities, par- of high quality scientific jour- New models of scientific evalu ticularly in the English-speak- nals that are open or subject ation ing world, are designing new to hybrid open access. But Open access has entered the models for the evaluation and the free publication of scien- debate on the continuing funding of scientific projects, tific content in them always validity of the scientific evalu enriching the criteria and has a cost, which has to be ation model based almost impact levels under consider- met by the authors publishing exclusively on the Journal ation. The new criteria take their work rather than readers. Impact Factor (JIF). Voices the form of a requirement that This implies a change to the have been heard criticising the evaluated output be dissem traditional model of contract- appropriateness of JIF to evalu inated on an open-access ing information resources ate researchers’ excellence basis or that the institutional based on the paradigm of the and productivity, added to the repository be made the chan- “library-institution pays” to criticism of the proliferation of nel for distribution of the work consult journals, to a new par- scientific publications, result- to be evaluated. The Univer- adigm in which the “author- ing from the prevailing evalu sity of Liège offers a success- institution pays” to allow open ation model and the validity of ful example of the new dissemination. Therefore, the current peer review approach. negotiating institutional fees approach. The Science and for open access has become Technology Committee in the To end, it is worth mentioning part of the contract with pub- U n i t e d K i n g d o m h a s the new approaches to stimu- lishers, as an additional addressed both issues, argu- late economic performance of clause, defining how publica- ing for peer review systems scientific production and com- tions that the authors of a par- that are better matched to the munication; studies such as ticular institution publish in this current situation, and citing Economic implications of way are to be paid for. The PLOS One as an example of a alternative scholarly publishing institutions with the strongest possible alternative model, the models (2009) calculate the commitment to open access Committee also advocated cost, benefits and opportun are considering whether making raw scientific data ities that a transition to an research budgets ought to publicly accessible, subject to alternative access model envisage specific budgetary certain exceptions. would have.

48 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC

03.2 NEW INFORMATION SPACES ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

The digital contribution to the world of encyclopaedias

This article sketches out the history of the modern encyclopaedia, from its origins in the 17th century to the revolution brought by the launch of Wikipedia in 2001, an online work created by volunteers and whose content is freely reusable.

José Antonio Millán

Linguist and publisher (traditional and digital)

* All the headings in this article come from the poem “On acquiring an encyclopaedia,” by J.L. Borges.

“Here the tiger and the tar- it is possible to access any ledge available to all. It was should not appear before tar” aspect of knowledge immedi- rather an attempt, in an age Abyssus, the Abysm or hell. The illusion of having all the ately and directly. when it was difficult to access knowledge of an age (or every original sources, to create a The conceptual shock caused thing known about a given The modern encyclopaedia compendium of various mater by the discovery of the Ameri topic) in a single work is was born in the 17th century. ials for use by scholars. Intern can continent led to works tempting for two reasons. On It had its precursors, although ally, it was organised themati- being written that, for the first the one hand, it is reassuring they were not called “encyclo- cally, because the medieval time, sought to observe the to think that knowledge is paedias.” Medieval compil mind baulked at the arbitrari- world rather than copy exist- graspable, even if it is in the ations, which began with works ness of an alphabetical order. ing works. In 1540, the Fran- form of a work comprising such as the Etymologies of Isi- It was simply unacceptable ciscan friar Bernardino de dozens of volumes. And on dore of Seville (6th century), that Altissumus, the Almighty, Sahagún wrote a thematically the other, it is pleasant to think did not aim to make know an attribute of the divine, arranged encyclopaedia

50 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| NEW INFORMATION SPACES 03.2

called the Historia general de José Antonio Millán las cosas de la Nueva España José Antonio Millán is a linguist and publisher in both traditional and digital (General History of the Things formats. As the publishing director of Taurus Ediciones he was responsible for of New Spain) for use by his publication of the Spanish version of David Crystal’s Encyclopaedia of missionary colleagues. In it he Language. In 1995, jointly with Rafael Millán, he created the first CD-ROM version of the Spanish Royal Academy’s Diccionario de la lengua. described the language, history and customs of the Over many years he has reviewed lexicographical works in the national Aztecs, their land, and its newspaper El País. Some of his work is compiled at http://jamillan.com/ dicciona.htm. fauna and flora. To enhance the utility of the work he In his work as an analyst and critic of the emerging field of digital publishing explained: “it is to redeem a (compiled on his blog: http:/Aibrosybitios.com) on many occasions he has dealt with the possibilities and implementations of the electronic support for the thousand grey hairs, because publication of information and access to it. with much less effort than it José Antonio Millán. has taken me, those who wish to, will be able to learn of the history and language of this Mexican people.” This has ferent articles, and economy images exceeded those of encyclopaedias, including the always been the object of ref- of content, internal references previous works. Following the rights to a huge collection of erence works: making know are used. publication of the text vol- photographs, engravings and ledge available at less effort umes a further eleven vol- colour plates. However, the than would be required to The famous French Encyclo umes of plates were pub- enthusiastic welcome it compile it personally. pédie (1751-1772) began with lished. The illustrations had received from the public and the purchase of the translation been drawn for educational the publisher’s ambitions took it “Here meticulous typogra- rights to an earlier English purposes, and would hence- beyond the initial limits. phy and the blue of the seas” encyclopaedia that had forth form an integral part of However, the continual growth already been a success. But works of this kind. Outstand- This huge encyclopaedia of human knowledge meant when Diderot and D’Alembert ing examples are the illustra- project produced volumes at that the days of encyclopae- were appointed to run the tions of workshops in which a rate of three a year. How- dias written by a single author project it snowballed, ulti- various trades, such as printer ever, in 1914 the production were numbered. Athanasius mately turning into a 17-vol- or lute maker, were carried on. of new volumes was halted Kircher, a German Jesuit and ume work. The Encyclo due to the disruption to the author on a vast range of topics, pédie’s place in history is the “Here the vast Brockhaus supply of illustrations, which who was justly described by a result of its impact on the encyclopaedia” were printed in Germany. recent biography as the “last world of ideas, although at the The golden age of print encyclo Publication was resumed after man who knew everything,” time it represented a big step paedias culminated with a the end of the Great War, an died in 1680. Today’s encyclo- forward in both the quality and Spanish work, the Enciclopedia event which undoubtedly had paedias are collectively scope of this kind of work. Universal Ilustrada Europeo an impact on the maps and authored works, although the Americana (1908-1933), known history articles. contributions are not always The Encyclopédie included as the “Espasa” for its publish- signed. Moreover, they are illustrations, which had been a er’s surname. Once again this In this age of instant informa- divided into entries which are traditional element of refer- encyclopaedia started out from tion and immediate updates it arranged alphabetically rather ence works (at least since Isi- an earlier work, in this case an is hard to imagine what bring- than thematically. For the sake dore of Seville), however the exclusive licence to the famous ing a printed work up-to-date of coherence between the dif- quantity and quality of the German Brockhaus and Dreyer can involve. When printed

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 51 03.2 NEW INFORMATION SPACES ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

“Here the many and weighty ences took the form of hyper- volumes” links which made it easy to The Enciclopedia Espasa find the required entry. But, in grew until, on certain meas- general, these features were ures, it became the largest not used to create a richer print encyclopaedia ever. Its structure than that of paper- core comprised 70 volumes, based works. Moreover, they but the numerous appendices continued to be self-con- that needed to be published tained. For centuries entries brought it up to 117. And this had included a bibliography is one of the biggest con- (the Espasa included five mil- straints of print encyclopae- lion references), but time had dias, namely that at the to pass and the Internet had moment of publication they to be developed for digital are closed to new material. To encyclopaedias to start using include events taking place links to remote content on the after publication, annexes web. were compiled describing the changes since the previous Digital works opened up two edition. But this meant that key possibilities. One was the looking up a topic involved ability to search the texts as first finding the main article, well as the indexes, making it and then looking through all possible to locate items not the appendices to find out if listed as a main entry: for there had been any changes! example, searching for Rigo- A partial solution was to pub- letto and finding both the lish an Index volume that entry for the opera and that listed which volumes con- for Verdi. Many of these elec- tained the information sought. tronic works could also be searched using logical opera- Printed encyclopaedias were tors: entries containing the an essential fixture in institu- words Martin and Luther, but tions such as libraries, and not King. And another possi- th Title page of the Encyclopédie, published by Diderot and D’Alembert in the 18 century. later became widespread in bility was to copy and reuse / Photo: Wikipedia. homes in many countries, text fragments or even including Spain. But in the images. encyclopaedias still existed field of science and technol- 1990s they began to face dig- (that is to say, until just a few ogy). But one of the key tasks ital competitors in the form of It might be thought that edit- years ago), producing a new was what in some publisher’s CD-ROMs, which offered a ing an encyclopaedia on CD- edition meant incorporating jargon was called “killing peo- reference work that was basi- ROM or later the web, where recent events, people who had ple off”: i.e. adding the date of cally the same as existing greater size does not increase stood out for one reason or death to entries for people who paper ones, but with the the cost of the paper, would another, and new concepts were still alive at the time of the added features of animations free entries from the tyranny of (many of which were from the last edition but had since died. and videos. Internal refer- limited length, but that is not

52 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| NEW INFORMATION SPACES 03.2

exactly the case: the works of through a lengthy process of The biggest There has been constant con the past sometimes had discussion. troversy about the reliability of absurdly long entries (such as revolution in the Wikipedia, but it has had some in the case of the Espasa Over time a number of issues world of important successes, such as encyclopaedia, where contribu have been extensively the paper published in Nature tors were paid per page), debated, such as the possibil encyclopaedias in 2005 comparing a series of and for a reference work it is ity of allowing unregistered scientific articles in the English often more important to be users to make edits (this is began in January edition with their counterparts precise than to go into great allowed, although the system 2001, with the in the Encyclopaedia Britan detail. logs the IP address from nica, in which Wikipedia came which the modifications are launch of out on top. Obviously, it should “Here the boundless mis- made), or the fact that some Wikipedia be borne in mind that the work cellany that knows more of the more controversial arti of the editors and publishers of than any man” cles are protected against paper-format encyclopaedias However, the biggest revolu editing. One issue that gener has not always been as meticu tion in the world of encyclo ated a lot of debate was the lous as might be hoped, so it is paedias began in January scope of Wikipedia: should it pointless a priori to consider 2001 with the launch of Wiki only allow entries typical of a one sort of encyclopaedia per pedia, an online reference classical encyclopaedia? Or, fect and another flawed. How work created by volunteers’ given that there are no limits ever, there have also been a contributions, and whose as in the case of paper, should number of attempts to create content was freely reusable. entries on any topic be collaborative encyclopaedias By 2005 the English-language allowed, for example: on all under expert supervision, such version was bigger than the the Pokemon characters? The by Argentina’s Education Min as Citizendium. Espasa encyclopaedia. Today option that won out was the istry for offline use in all the it has over 20 million entries, more traditional approach. country’s schools. With widespread access to in as many as 282 languages, the web, the immediate avail created by more than 31 mil However, the real key to Wiki Here error and the truth ability of a variety of content lion registered users. pedia is that it is licensed for Contrary to what might have (particularly Wikipedia) en- reuse (using a similar mech been expected, an encyclo cyclopaedias that had been Wikipedia was revolutionary in anism to that for open-source paedia written and corrected operating for decades sud a number of ways, but not in software): any part of its con by people who are not neces denly found they faced an terms of its structure: it is tent can be reused in any way, sarily specialists has achieved unexpected source of compe basically like an 18th century even commercially. This has a very acceptable level of tition. Many responded by encyclopaedia, but with the stimulated the work of the vol quality. Experts in collabora also going online, in various multimedia add-ons of CD- unteers working on it: their tive work refer to the “swarm modes of operation, while ROM works from the 1990s. work is disseminated on all effect”, the undeniable fact keeping their print or CD- But, as everyone knows, its forms of media. Some are that many eyes see more than ROM format. One of the most entries can be edited and cor commercial, such as the book just a few. Indeed, a study has famous cases was that of rected by anyone. A commu containing part of the German demonstrated a clear correl Encyclopaedia Britannica, nity of volunteers (“wikipedi edition that is sold by Bertels ation between the quality of a which allows users to access ans”) oversees compliance mann, but others help the given entry and the number of a portion of its content for with editing standards, and needy with free editions, such edits (corrections or additions) free, while charging a sub have built a consensus as the DVD edition produced made to it. scription for the rest.

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 53 03.2 NEW INFORMATION SPACES ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

But the influence of Wikipedia archives, plus user contribu- has also made itself felt: some tions (like Wikipedia), and a traditional encyclopaedias variety of other content. To have opened up to participa- answer a specific question, an tion by volunteers, although intelligent agent, which we will through the filter of their pub- call the Encyclopaedia, col- lishers. This is true of the Gran lects and assesses informa- Enciclopedia Catalana in Cata- tion and finally writes a text lonia and the Larousse in accompanied by multimedia France. Nevertheless, reader elements. participation was not invented by Wikipedia, but has been a Such a system would have tradition in the world of know information that was perma- ledge, particularly since the nently up-to-date. It could Enlightenment. For instance, indicate the source of all the the introduction to volume II of The Enciclopedia Espasa grew to become the largest print encyclopaedia ever. / data it provides. And it would the first Mexican encyclopae- Photo: Wikipedia prepare entries with the dia, Diccionario universal de length and structure defined historia y de geografía (Mexico, in its parameters. What is 1853), says: “We formally invite images, audio, videos). Could etc. including graphical elem more, if users running queries all lovers of the Enlightenment an automatic system ever ents. Whereas a photograph and experts on the different to provide us with their help. If compile and organise them or video are easily located and topics rate the accuracy one person in each state, or into a coherent discourse? reused, an expert system and appropriateness of its each major city, were to devote Such a project would expand could generate graphics ad answers the agent could learn a few moments of leisure to the radius of the classical hoc, for example: histograms over time. these tasks, after just a short encyclopaedia, as it would showing the changes in popu- time we would have such a include all possible topics and lation of one country com- Thus, from the prodigious wise collection of data that it would not just those planned for in pared to another, or maps of men of the past, whose mind suffice to form an interesting advance. Implementing this regions showing the unem- was a compendium of all the compilation.” would create a sort of expert ployment rate in each area. knowledge of their age, the system on a topic, but this There are already some appli- armies of contributors and edi- “Here time’s memory and would depend on progress cations that collect information tors of the biggest print and time’s labyrinths” towards the so-called seman- and turn raw data into graph- digital encyclopaedias, we The procedure followed when tic web (a web that knows ics, such as WolframAlpha. could arrive at subtle sets of drafting many encyclopaedia what it contains) to effectively algorithms, with feedback from entries has been either to look extract information from multi- What does this suggest the humans, who as Bernardino de at what other previous refer- ple sources. future encyclopaedia land- Sahagún might say, cast their ence works said on the topic scape will look like? We could nets in the ocean of digital (which has contributed to per- There are already some proto- envisage a digital continuum knowledge to achieve, by other petuating errors) or to turn to type systems that, starting out comprising digitised copies of means, what a brochure for the articles and books. In the digi from more or less structured existing books (in the style of Espasa encyclopaedia said in tal universe there is an data, are able to create some- Google books), plus data- the 1930s: “The need of the immeasurable volume of thing similar to encyclopaedia bases of scientific articles, vir- age is to know. To know every- materials of all types (texts, entries on people, countries, tual libraries, newspaper thing, and now.”

54 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| NEW INFORMATION SPACES 03.3

The Future Internet and R&D

The introduction of new technologies on the Internet, such as fourth generation mobile devices, sensors or high capacity networks, is opening up new horizons for scientific progress.

Tomás de Miguel

RedIRIS

he Internet is an accur work which makes it possible CERN (European Organisation is a generation for whom it ate reflection of con- to connect physical resources for Nuclear Research), who forms an essential part of their T temporary society. (instruments, repositories or needed to share scientific daily existence, hence the talk Nowadays we can find every- information processing sys- information in text format in a of the “information society.” thing on the net: commerce, tems) and logical resources simple and flexible way. But Today it has huge strategic leisure, culture, politics and, of (programs, databases and with the introduction of graph- importance in all areas of the course, science. Anyone can analysers). ical information the idea took creation, storage, control, post information, from any- off rapidly, going well beyond transport and dissemination of where in the world, and at a The introduction of the World initial expectations and ultim information, and is a key sec- speed unthinkable just a few Wide Web in 1990 caused a ately bringing the Internet to tor of the economy in its own years ago. The Internet is a fundamental change. The Web society as a whole. right in developed countries, means of communication and was created just as another due to its decisive contribution a vehicle for information, con- application for scientists by After twenty years the model to raising productivity and structed physically as a net- scientists. Specifically, it was has become totally integrated allowing access to bigger mar- work of networks. It is a net- developed for researchers at in our everyday lives and there kets. As a fundamental tool for

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 55 03.3 NEW INFORMATION SPACES ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Tomás de Miguel An ever wider variety of Tomás de Miguel has a PhD in Telecommunications Engineering from the devices are being used, rang- Madrid Technical University (UPM) (1987) and has been director of the Spanish ing from laptop PCs and net- academic and research network, RedIRIS, since 2005. He was previously a books to, more recently, lecturer in the UPM’s school of Telecommunications Engineering (ETSI), where smartphones and tablets, he taught Communications and Computer Science, and carried out research in the Telematic Systems Engineering Department (DIT). Prior to joining RedIRIS which interact with other he was responsible for communications and IT services at the UPM’s school of users in very different ways, Telecommunications Engineering (ETSI), where he was involved in the from the traditional telephone deployment of the high speed local network, and the development of Internet- connection to text messages based services. (SMS) and chats, social networks or videoconferencing.

The possibility of having an Internet connection w hile on the move allows users to Tomás de Miguel. remain connected all the time, wherever they are. This means they are always present on the Internet. Currently, 57% of communications worldwide, it ards. This is true not only in the conversations or watching tele online users relate to others has become a public resource case of communications tech- vision over the Internet, result- more frequently over the Inter- on which businesses, govern- nologies, but also applies to ing in rapid growth in traffic. net than in “real life” and young ment and the public rely. information, as in the case of On the professional level, the people aged eight to eighteen Wikipedia or YouTube, a com- use of the Internet in business spend an average of seven Since its creation it has turned pany that has only existed for a has grown spectacularly, with and a half hours a day either into the most powerful collab- few years and already plays intranets and extranets spring- watching television, playing orative tool imaginable for sci- back three million videos a day. ing up for everyday business videogames or accessing the entists, as it offers the fastest However, the most important use. This has made it possible Internet on their mobile phone. and most flexible channels for example is that of social net- to collaborate in much more In Spain the number of mobile information sharing. works (Web 2.0), such as flexible ways and at the same phones (51 million) is now Facebook, Tuenti, Linkedln or time reduce costs, thereby more than twice the number of The key to achieving this has SecondLife. This does not generating demand for new landline telephones (20 million). been the adoption of open mean that there cannot also services requiring more broad- standards such as HTML, be services based on these band. While their number increases, HTTP, and in particular, IP; same standards with which to devices are continuing to get which is the fundamental proto develop applications on a pay- The mobile internet cheaper and lighter, while col underlying the Internet. per-use basis, such as Ama- Although most users access becoming more powerful, Open standards have enabled zon or AppleStore, for example. the Internet from their office or easier to use and offering manufacturers, suppliers and The key feature is that all the home using a desktop PC, longer battery life. It is esti- consumers to use the same options are possible. this is changing rapidly. One of mated that in under a decade technology without having to the factors likely to have a big there will be 50 billion devices pay royalties and even contrib- Moreover, users are increas- impact on the Internet over connected to the Internet, giv- ute to improving it by propos- ingly sending images, videos the next few years is the way ing rise to a genuine online ing modifications to the stand- or even holding telephone in which users access it. global society.

56 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| NEW INFORMATION SPACES 03.3

Asturias Cantabria Basque Galicia Country

La Rioja Navarra Aragón Catalonia

Castile-Leon

Madrid

Portugal Extremadura Balearic Islands Castile-La Mancha Valencia

Andalusia Murcia

Fibre section

Capacity link

Point of presence Canary Islands Multiple point of presence

Portugal network point

Map of the RedIRIS network.

This upgrading is far from will make it possible to reach of possibilities. As well as to be controlled without the over. Although Internet access speeds similar to being able to access the data need to be physically present. access is possible with cur- those obtained with today’s from an experiment in real rent 3G or Wi-Fi networks, fixed terminals. time from anywhere and share The Internet of things the implementation of fourth the results immediately with The Internet started life as a generation mobile networks The fact that devices are colleagues, it also allows sev- network of special-purpose (based on LTE or Wi-Max) is becoming mobile offers eral experiments to be run at computers. Later it connected underway. This technology researchers an infinite range the same time or instruments central computers with user’s

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 57 03.3 NEW INFORMATION SPACES ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

computers, and user’s PCs to The first effect of information than before, in a machines that manage infor- one another. However, for the way that is more complete mation by themselves, without next few years the main factor this globalisation is and takes less time. human intervention. This will in the rapid evolution of the the possibility of make it possible to process technology is going to be the One of the first fields in which large quantities of data and incorporation of certain types having integrated the Internet of things is going present end users with more of devices, such as sensors to develop is in that of experi- refined information. and actuators, which will have service platforms mentation on natural phenom- a presence on the network which, with minor ena in hazardous environ- A key factor in enabling the and start interacting with one ments (such as inside new swarm of devices to another. variations, will be volcanoes) or those where the access the network is that suitable for all observer’s presence can each of them can be identified This involves including small affect observations. uniquely. The current Internet computers in everyday objects types of user protocol (IPv4) only allows four (homes, cars, electrical appli- A case in point is the Life- billion different network items ances, or even the human Watch project, which consists to be identified and all these body). of technology infrastructure identifiers have either already with which to obtain biodiver- been assigned or are about to These devices will rapidly sity data by connecting bio- be. To make the Internet of shrink in size, consume less logical stations situated in var- things possible a lot more energy, and become much ious different parts of Europe. identifiers (IP addresses) are cheaper. This will result in fur- Each park has a network of needed. For this reason, a ther exponential growth of the sensors sending information new protocol (IPv6) was Internet, with the addition of over wireless networks to a developed a few years ago, billions of new agents. Each of station that collects and proc- with which it is possible to these small agents will be per- esses all the data, in such a assign billions of addresses manently connected and col- way that biologists receive all per person. In total, it allows lect, transmit and manage the information in real time so for 3.4 x 1038 different Internet information in real time. This they can analyse it and share addresses. IPv6 is fully oper information will enhance peo- it with colleagues, wherever ational and all PCs have been ple’s lives and reduce costs they happen to be. incorporating it for several in areas such as business, years. However, being incom- transport, health or energy by Not all these devices will send patible with the traditional enabling customised services information directly for it to be IPv4 its deployment is still tailored to each user’s needs. processed by humans. The limited. However, with the real revolution of the Internet impending exhaustion of IPv4 Where this change is first of things lies in machine-to- addresses, is expected to becoming manifest is in the machine (M2M) communica- come into much more wide- experimental sciences. Scien- tions. The way in which effi- spread use over the next few tists have many devices ciency can be raised years. which, distributed across the significantly and better oppor- laboratory or the environment tunities offered is to develop The Internet in the cloud they are researching, make it communication and process- The rise of M2M communica- possible to obtain much more ing of information between tions, the introduction of

58 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| NEW INFORMATION SPACES 03.3

sophisticated mobile devices nomic sector has thus A large part of the thus generating an ecosystem able to process large amounts emerged offering common of services accessing a huge of information, but little or no service platforms to multiple client-server volume of data rapidly and in storage capacity, and the user communities with the communications a way that is customised to massive increase in the vol- aim of overall resource opti each user. ume of data to be handled, misation. currently taking have led to the concept of the High capacity networks virtualisation of infrastructures What is more, this model place locally in The cloud-based computing and services or cloud com- makes it possible to match homes or model rests on the existence puting. This involves deploy- consumption much more of extremely powerful transport ing infrastructure allowing closely to demand. Users only businesses will networks with advanced net- information to be stored, pay for the resources they turn into global work intelligence and capacity processed and retrieved from use, rather than for the to share and extract value from anywhere on the Internet and resources they own, whether communications existing data. A large part of is a valid approach for any they use them or not. For with the cloud the client-server communica- user community. example, in a grid supercom- tions currently taking place puting network, each user locally in homes or businesses The first effect of this global reserves the resources they will turn into global communi- isation is the possibility of hav- need for their calculations for cations with the cloud. ing integrated service plat- a period of time. After this forms which, with minor interval these same resources The development of the tech- variations, will be suitable for will be available to other users nology and the increased use all types of users. A good from any other organisation. of the network will reduce the example of this is given by cost of communications and, Apple’s experience. The firm The convergence between consequently, are stimulating has deployed a platform web technologies and virtual the development of new ser (AppleStore) and offers a busi- isation will be the foundations vices that use ever more net- ness model enabling any on which the new generation work capacity. This is in turn is developer to create new ser of Internet services, known as obliging telecommunications vices, thus building a single the Future Internet (FI), will be operators to increase the market for all users regardless based. This will enable many capacity of their trunk net- of their area of interest. Apple of today’s barriers to be over- works. has also set up a cloud (the come. For example, in medi- iCloud) in which users can cal research health data can It has been estimated that store their applications and only be handled by practition- 161 billion gigabytes of data content. ers at the health centre to were sent over the Internet in which the patient belongs. 2006. By 2010 this traffic had Virtualisation makes it pos Similarly, energy consumption been multiplied six-fold, to sible to deploy a different spe- data can only be used by 988 billion gigabytes. This cial-purpose platform (a cloud) employees of electricity util constant cycle of increasing for each community of users, ities. In the future internet all capacity, generating new but using the same technolo- these data will be reusable, services, which in turn con- gies and sharing the same with the necessary authorisa- sumes more resources, has basic resources. A new eco- tion, in many other contexts, been going on for two dec-

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 59 03.3 NEW INFORMATION SPACES ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

ades and shows no sign of optical fibres’ communication The environment of sands of researchers spread abating any time soon. capacity. With current tech- around the world are working. nology, each fibre supports up academic networks This calls for high-capacity In Spain, when the academic to 128 optical channels, and for research and communications networks and research network, RedIRIS each optical channel usually able to move, store and proc- (Red Académica y de Investi- has capacity for up to 10 learning is set to ess huge volumes of data. gación Española), was created Gbps. However, 40 Gbps, in 1988, the data rate on each 100 Gbps and even 1,000 undergo radical In some cases the network link in the network was Gbps channels already exist. change over the will even form part of the sci- 9.6Kbps. In 2011, with the This means the possibilities entific instrument, as in the new RedIRIS-NOVA network, for future growth are much next few years case of the eVLBI project to using the technology currently greater still. observe celestial objects by being deployed each network synchronising a large number link allows dozens of channels Concluding remarks of radio telescopes located at at data rates of 10 Gbps, The environment of academic different points around the which is to say 80 million times networks for research and earth with a centre in the faster than in 1988. learning is set to undergo rad- Netherlands (JIVE). In this ical change over the next few project, the data network is a In order to continue growing at years. The introduction of new component of the virtual this rate it is necessary to use Future Internet technologies instrument made up of the fibre optic technology. This will bring about changes in network of telescopes. takes its name from the the nature of the scientific pro Science and the Humanities medium used, which com- cess and in the way in which The Internet in general, and The central goal of the BBVA Foundation’s activity is to support world-class scientific research, prises glass, plastic or fibre fila learning is understood. academic networks in particu- music, artistic and literary creation, and the humanities. Science, technology, music and art, and ments along which information lar, have evolved from being their academic study in the framework of the humanities, form a continuum that acts to shape the is transmitted in the form of Although it is impossible to simply a means of data trans- culture and sensibility of our time. pulses of light. Optical fibre predict in detail how these port to an environment of glo- transports much more infor- changes will look, the emer- bal communities sharing The BBVA Foundation promotes knowledge through managed programs that take in research mation than a conventional gence of other technologies resources and objectives. projects, advanced training, and the relaying to society of the products of these research and copper wire, and is immune to cannot be ruled out. Certain creative endeavors. Its focus areas are the environment (biodiversity, climate change), biomedicine, electromagnetic interference. It areas, such as mobile devices, The future Internet will make it basic sciences and technology, economy and society, classical and contemporary music, literature, also allows signals to be sent sensors or high capacity net- possible to introduce new plastic arts and the humanities. longer distances without need- works, will undoubtedly be forms of collaboration. It will The BBVA Foundation also recognizes the achievements of researchers and artists through a series ing to be regenerated, so has crucial in the configuration of offer researchers many new of award schemes. The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards, run in collaboration been used on a large scale for the scenario taking shape over possibilities, as they will have with the CSIC and currently into their third year, honor outstanding contributions at international transcontinental communica- the coming decade. more resources and more level that have significantly enlarged the sphere of knowledge in the following eight fields. tions for many years. It is now data for their research, and will Basic Sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics), Biomedicine, Ecology and Conservation starting to be used to bring the The first adopters of these find it much easier to share Biology, Information and Communication Technologies, Economics, Finance and Management, Internet to people’s homes new technologies will be large data with their colleagues any- Contemporary Music, Climate Change, and Development Cooperation. (FTTH–fibre to the home). institutions and scientific where in the world. The oppor- projects, such as CERN, EGI, tunities offered for the future Through these varied activities, the BBVA Foundation puts into practice one of the BBVA Group’s The new generation of optical PRACE or ITER, which are are immense and in many core principles: to work for a better future for people through the ongoing promotion of knowledge networks are beginning to deploying powerful scientific ways difficult to imagine at the and innovation. exploit the full potential of instruments on which thou- present. www.fbbva.es

60 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC Science and the Humanities The central goal of the BBVA Foundation’s activity is to support world-class scientific research, music, artistic and literary creation, and the humanities. Science, technology, music and art, and their academic study in the framework of the humanities, form a continuum that acts to shape the culture and sensibility of our time. The BBVA Foundation promotes knowledge through managed programs that take in research projects, advanced training, and the relaying to society of the products of these research and creative endeavors. Its focus areas are the environment (biodiversity, climate change), biomedicine, basic sciences and technology, economy and society, classical and contemporary music, literature, plastic arts and the humanities. The BBVA Foundation also recognizes the achievements of researchers and artists through a series of award schemes. The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards, run in collaboration with the CSIC and currently into their third year, honor outstanding contributions at international level that have significantly enlarged the sphere of knowledge in the following eight fields. Basic Sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics), Biomedicine, Ecology and Conservation Biology, Information and Communication Technologies, Economics, Finance and Management, Contemporary Music, Climate Change, and Development Cooperation. Through these varied activities, the BBVA Foundation puts into practice one of the BBVA Group’s core principles: to work for a better future for people through the ongoing promotion of knowledge and innovation. www.fbbva.es 04

Social impacts of Information Technology

04.1 SOCIAL IMPACTS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

The cultural changes being driven by social software Social networks, in the sense of social networking sites or social applications, have become part of the daily experience of millions of people around the world and are bringing about a series of profound global social changes.

José Luis Molina

EgoLab-Grafo and Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

he characteristic fea- tion, as a habitual form of written languages to refer to it is possible to increase the ture of so-called social learning and action; super- social networking sites, social consumption of products, T networks is the way socialisation, or attention to software or social applications. content and services (includ- they adapt web navigation, in ever expanding flows of This is due to the immense ing communication services). a non-exclusive way, based redundant social requirements commercial pressure exerted Neither more nor less. The on content from a list of pre- demanding user intervention; by companies and media rhetoric of “2.0”, vaunting the determined social contacts. and the increased potential for around the world, a pressure crucial role of formerly passive The extension of these social mobilisation of instantaneous that has grown in parallel with recipients, the “horizontality” networks to mobile communi- communities in times of crisis. the development of mobile of the communication it cations devices has put the Finally, it is forcing a rethink of communication technologies allows, and the emergence of connected individual at the the concept of privacy. centred on the individual con- a so-called “collective intelli- centre of the system. The sumer. gence,” further contributes to consequences of this phe- In just a short space of time the legitimising this new step for- nomenon include: a constant expression “social networks” The reason for the monumen- ward by “information capital- flow of brief, disposable con- has established itself in every- tal investments is simple: ism”, as Castells would call it: tent for immediate consump- day usage in all the planet’s using this “social” technology the commercialisation of (at

64 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| SOCIAL IMPACTS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 04.1

José Luis Molina is a tenured professor of social anthropology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and is currently the deputy vice-chancellor’s delegate for social and cultural transfer at the university. He has been a guest lecturer at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (Networks Laboratory) and at the University of Florida (Anthropology Department). An expert on social networks, he is a promoter of the Redes list (www.redes-sociales.net) and the journal Revista Hispana para el Análisis de Redes Sociales (http://revista-redes.rediris.es). His research interests lie in the comparative study of personal networks and local communities. He heads the EgoLab-Grafo (www.egolab.cat) research group. He is on the UAB’s animal and human research ethics committee, and the International Network for Social Network Analysis ethics committee.

José Luis Molina.

least part of) social relationships. contributions one in particular was the real likelihood of this the 296 people initially The cultural consequences are has been crucial to under- phenomenon occurring? With involved sent the document impossible to ignore. standing the development of funding of just 680 dollars and 64 managed to reach the these platforms and technolo- provided by the University of target individual (a surprising Let’s look at how we have gies: the studies by Milgram Harvard he started an experi- 29%). The chains of contacts arrived where we are, and what and colleagues on “A Small ment that has since become linking the sender to the recip- the immediate future holds. World.” universally famous. The idea ient had an average length of was to get a message to a 5.2 steps. Hence, the conclu- The study of “social net- In 1967 Stanley Milgram won- recipient, about whom incom- sion that between two people works,” in the sense of pat- dered how it was possible plete information was pro- taken at random it is possible terns of interaction between that people who did not know vided, solely through to find a chain of contacts people or entities goes back one another so often discov- acquaintances. For this pur- linking them that has this over half a century. Psycholo- ered that they shared com- pose, two localities remote average length. Whence the gists, anthropologists, mathe- mon acquaintances. To from one another were cho- famous expression “six maticians, sociologists, explore this phenomenon he sen for the first study: Kansas degrees of separation” (well, among others, have for a long started with the studies con- and Cambridge (USA). In a 5.2 degrees to be precise). time systematically gathered ducted at the Massachusetts second, more ambitious Subsequent studies con- data on social relationships Institute of Technology (MIT) study, the experiment was firmed this finding. This dem- and tried to incorporate them by Pool and Kochen, which repeated with Boston and onstrated empirically the truth into their analytical models so had tried to estimate the aver- Nebraska. In this study volun- of the saying that “it’s a small as to better understand and age size of personal networks, teers were recruited via a world.” explain various research prob- which they had calculated to press advertisement and lems, such as the spread of be around 500 people. Thus, asked to get a letter to a Another question was what ideas or patterns of behaviour, Milgram wondered, in a coun- unknown Boston stockbroker sort of social structures make collective mobilisation, or sup- try like the United States, with along a chain of contacts. It this phenomenon possible. port from society. Of all the 200 million inhabitants, what was noteworthy that 217 of Duncan Watts took the prob-

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 65 04.1 SOCIAL IMPACTS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

lem up again in the 1990s and to social systems, but is also a ing chains of contacts that And Facebook is particularly found a simple explanation: feature of all complex systems, would otherwise remain latent noteworthy. Launched in 2004 although social structures are such as computer networks, and thereby maximise the for university students, in 2005 basically local and redundant, neuronal systems, scientific potential of the social network. it opened up to a wider audi- there are a few people, hubs or citations, transport systems, No sooner said than done. The ence and since then has brokers, who connect these ecosystems, and much more. first Social Networking Site grown relentlessly, currently subgroups so that overall the This gave rise to the expres- (SNS) was launched in 1997 reaching some 800 million system ends up with a very sion, the “science of net- with the symptomatic name of users. Facebook is character- small diameter (that is to say, works,” used by the physicist sixdegrees.com. Although it ised by its being general pur- the path between two arbitrary Barabasi and others. did not last long, thereafter pose, whereas other SNSs points is very short). These SNSs began to gain traction tend to specialise in profes- people are often of high social Thus, the first social network- and spread around the world, sional contacts (Linkedin, Xing, rank. Indeed, this feature of a ing platforms were imple- particularly after the runaway Visible Path, Academia) or small world is not only intrinsic mented with the aim of reveal- success of Facebook. shared interests. In any event,

/// Figure 1. World map of social networks (June 2011) //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Facebook V Kontakte Odnoklassniki Draugiem Hyves Zing Mixi

Orkut QZone

Credits: Vicenzo Cosenza – www.vincos.it Licence: CC-BY-NC http://www.vincos.it/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/WMSN0611-1024.png Source: Google Trends for Websites/Alexa

66 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| SOCIAL IMPACTS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 04.1

the key element of this cultural The cognitive revolution is the way the contacts associated with an indi- resources available vidual profile are entered and for socialisation navigation of the Internet centred around them. This feature are limited and are has been exported to sites dedicated to photographs divided between (Flickr), videos (Youtube), interactions, such Bookmarks (Delicious), music (Last.FM) or microblogs (Twit- that the larger the ter). SNSs are being imple- network the less the mented in universities and cor- porations as part of their emotional value intranets and are part of the available for each new “social operating system”, to use the expression from Lee contact Rainie and Barry Wellman’s book, which characterises and will continue to characterise our lives in the near future. Let’s look now at some of the consequences.

Personalisation of technology (and culture) Not long ago telephone calls Grave goods of the future. / Maria Ángela Petrizzo. involved dialling a number to call a physical location. I recall a talk by a representative of Telefónica at a business school tions (i.e. telephone calls). But access accustoms users to back in the early nineties who more importantly, they allow us more fluid consumption of dis- said that in the future phone to connect to the Internet, posable snippets of content. numbers would be personal. which means they allow the This is backed up by orality as The members of the audience production, consumption and a component of communica- looked at one another with communication of content fol- tion, one of the elements of knowing smiles of disbelief. lowing (although not exclu- “super-socialisation,” which we Nowadays, if we were buried sively) our social contacts. shall come back to later, and in with grave goods as people which a large part of the man- were in prehistoric times, we The cultural consequences are agement of social relations is would presumably ask to be huge. The individual emerges delegated to the technology. interred with our smartphones. as the natural entity around These devices do everything, which the whole system The concept of the “individ- including real-time conversa- revolves. The immediacy of ual” is a commonplace idea in

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 67 04.1 SOCIAL IMPACTS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Western culture and in the punctual. This neo-orality The worldwide active contacts may be scat- development of capitalism. explains the worldwide suc- tered across the globe. However, it is worth recalling cess of the mobile phone, as success of the Super-socialisation increases that the history of the planet is it approximates a natural mobile phone, as it the weak links rapidly but much broader than that of behaviour, namely talking, but does not change the core- globalisation, and that in a in a digitised form, trans- approximates a periphery structure or the multitude of cultural systems formed and reconstructed geographical distribution of individuals were not under- over complex communica- natural behaviour, the active contacts. This is for stood as entities as such, tions infrastructures. It should namely talking, but two reasons. The first is that the instead people were regarded come as no surprise, then, cognitive resources available as forming part of groups from that the biggest market for in a digitised form, for socialisation are limited which they derived their social mobile phones is among the transformed and and are divided between identity. But this history has illiterate. However, what would interactions, such that the vanished or is on the point of once have been put in a letter reconstructed over larger the network the less the doing so: the connected indi- or telegram, can today be complex emotional value available for vidual (to use Wellman’s terms transmitted orally in real time. each contact In other words, again) is the new social actor And with a significant differ- communications having a “million friends” on par excellence. ence: letters and telegrams infrastructures Facebook implies that each did not require that 30% of the “friend” has an emotional Super-socialisation duration of the interaction be value of zero (or close to zero) Connected individuals are devoted to politely exchang- allotted to them. The second continually alert to the major ing information about the situ- consists of the fact that the flows of information, abiding ation of one’s family and SNSs (including Twitter) tend by rules of etiquette that are friends. to make communication ever harder to comply with within existing social networks (such as following whoever However, this super-socialisa- denser (without closing the follows you, or accepting tion does not mean that the door to new contacts), so the whoever invites you, or leav- structure of personal net- glocal phenomenon is ing witty comments for some- works has changed signifi- repeated. one who has quoted you cantly. Personal networks somewhere) and reviewing have two important, and This brings us to the third messages that companies related, characteristics. The characteristic: the potential for issue automatically to inform first is that they are made up mobilisation. their users that messages are of a core of strong ties, with available. The result is super- approximately 5 to 15 people, Mobilisation socialisation: an ever greater which change only slowly over The somewhat misnamed investment of time in redun- time, with a much more varia- “Arab Spring” (by analogy with dant social interactions. Also, ble periphery of weaker links the “Prague Spring”), referring the culture of immediacy that change more rapidly. And to the revolutionary move- means telephone conversa- the second is that the geo- ments experienced in various tions have become a coordi- graphical location of these Arab countries in 2011, is nation mechanism to achieve contacts is glocal, which is to associated with Twitter and what previously would have say the majority live nearby smartphones. Activities pro- simply been a matter of being and a smaller number of vided information on events in

68 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| SOCIAL IMPACTS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 04.1

real time, competing against tion governments have col- the regime’s propaganda lected has systematically broadcasts over conventional ended upon in the hands of media channels. The phe- companies that have used it nomenon is not new and is for commercial purposes, not explained solely by the whether as a result of privatisa- availability of real-time per- tions, legal ruses, careless- sonal telecommunications, ness, theft, or otherwise. Now, although it has to be recog- however, with the emergence nised that they facilitated it: of the Internet and social tech- reducing social distance and nologies the process has been the thresholds for spontan turned on its head. Today it is eous mobilisation during times businesses that are recording of crisis. every detail of our lives: the geographical position informa- The BIFI study by the Univer- tion our mobile phone con- sity of Zaragoza on the stantly sends the operator, the exchange of messages in the content and exact time of our 15-M movement (15.bifi.es) messages, who we are talking reveals some of the features of to, our private conversations, the dynamics of these phe- ultimately, everything. And, nomena. At times of crisis the what is more, we have given weak contacts provide as them this information voluntar- much information and are ily. In this situation there are given as much credibility as those authors who say that the strong contacts in normal only solution is to make every- times. Thus a temporary thing public, to renounce priv sense of collective solidarity acy, as the most effective way emerges, and the number of of avoiding the commercial each persons’ acquaintances exploitation of personal infor- manifesting a particular mation. But perhaps the most behaviour increases (for important thing is not access example, camping in the to personal information but the Egypt, April 2011. / Photo courtesy of the author. Puerta del Sol in Madrid), pre- technologies that make it sig- cipitating, by social influence, nificant. And these technolo- the adoption of this new disabled in countries like Privacy gies have been available for behaviour in cascade. China, and that governments Governments have a long his- some time. Although this phenomenon is are interested in controlling tory of gathering information well known (indeed it is a phe- Blackberry messages that about their populations. We need a new culture of nomenon that occurs in operators exchange. Although, in Spain, the secrecy information that enables us to crowds), the use of social net- of statistics was enshrined navigate this ocean where the working technologies acceler- This brings us on to our final back in the 18th century at the old maps our parents relied on ates it. It should come as no topic: the redefinition of the time of Floridablanca’s census, are no longer able to show us surprise that Twitter has been concept of privacy. it is a safe bet that the informa- the way.

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 69 04.2 SOCIAL IMPACTS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Reinventing social practices on the Net

Among other interesting phenomena, the digital mirror of the Internet, which is becoming an increasingly important part of our lives, has shown an ability to rediscover and reinterpret activities that might seem alien to the technological world. The author describes five ways in which unexpected migrations to the Net are taking place.

Antonio Rodríguez de las Heras

Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

New craftsmanship But just when this alienation Thus, no longer needing to can be moulded to the work- The Industrial Revolution had looked irreversible, the Net travel to the office or factory, ers’ preferences and the tasks profound and far-reaching has generated a current in the they inhabit the Net: a space they have to complete. effects on craftsmen’s lives. opposite direction: more and without places (this is the key With mechanisation, industry more opportunities are now phenomenon that makes the These new artisans do not stripped craftsmen of both emerging for new artisans. networked world so different), work with clay, iron, wood or their means of production and However, rather than the enabling them to be both leather, but with information. their place of work, as work lathe, the anvil or the work nomadic and ubiquitous. And, And the changes that are tak- moved from the home to the bench, their tools are now lastly, freed from having to ing place can affect any activ- factory, and workers had uni- electronic devices, such as travel to work, they no longer ity that uses information as its form hours imposed on them, computers, that can be need to arrive at a particular raw material. losing the ability to organise adapted to an infinite range of time and spend a set number their own time in a flexible way tasks. And at the same time, of hours at their workplace: This post-industrial undertow is according to the tasks to be the Internet has freed workers time has become softer again, likely to become more pro- done. from the constraints of place. free from rigid timetables, it nounced over the coming years

70 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| SOCIAL IMPACTS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 04.2

Antonio Rodríguez de las Heras view will give way to other Antonio Rodríguez de las Heras is a professor at the Carlos III University, perspectives and experiences Madrid, where he is the director of the Institute of Culture and Technology, and which will arise out of this new former Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Communication and Documentation. way of organising labour rela- His research interests focus on the transformations in culture and education tions. Thus, this transform brought about by technology. He has also headed the EducaRed advanced training laboratory, and has been a lecturer at the Sorbonne and Paris VIII-Saint ation that is emerging from the Denis. He won the Fundesco Essay Prize for his book “Navegar por la Net underlies a profound and información.” His publications can be consulted online at www. unpredictable process of rodriguezdelasheras.es. social change.

The Internet of neighbourhoods Antonio Rodríguez de las Heras. The Internet is a virtual world, and as such it is a mirror world in which we see ourselves in the wake of the disruption new labour relationships, and Today, in the reflected. However, this mirror caused by the economic crisis. new business models are remains a little fuzzy: the Out of necessity this is causing emerging. What, until these aftermath of the images are still somewhat out a sea change in the mentality of pivotal years, was interpreted crisis, new forms of of focus, but they are inexor once privileged societies. as work lacking job security is ably becoming sharper. Young people no longer aspire no longer viewed in such a work, new to join government or large cor- negative light. This is not out Many people are concerned porations when they finish their of fatalistic conformism, but activities, new about this feature of the net. studies, as this kind of work is because other values have labour They perceive it as a threat to increasingly at risk. At the same emerged, and because this privacy, and fear that this time, new values are emerging space without a fixed location relationships, and transfer of digital data about among the younger generation, enabled by the Net allows for new business their identity and activities which are amplifying this new forms of working that brings with it the menace of change in perception, such as would be impractical in physi- models are an Orwellian totalitarianism. a rediscovery of the value of cal space. emerging But it is an inevitable process: time as opposed to money, we leave a trace everywhere something which is incompat Unsustainable business models, the Internet. However, rather ible with the alienation produced such as having a fixed work- than fingerprints or dead cells by working as an employee in force and premises for it to concealing our DNA, we leave an insatiable capitalist system. work in, will remain viable only a trail of ones and zeros. But if they have the right pro these traces are not only fir for Formerly, the unattractive portion of presence on each the malign purposes of a Big option of working as a free- side of the screen, judiciously Brother: they can also be lance was not valued by soci- combining the work of in- used to build a profile. ety but was seen as a last house employees with that of resort for workers who had no the new net artisans. The metaphor of the megalop other choice. Today, in the olis is often used to describe aftermath of the crisis, new The sense of belonging to the the network that lies on the forms of work, new activities, capitalist system and its world other side of the screen. This

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 71 04.2 SOCIAL IMPACTS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

not mean we are shut in or that our urban world is con- strained: the whole megalop- olis is still within reach.

One of the ways in which the Net’s evolution will be meas- ured over the coming years is by the extent to which it reflects the real world. The screen will look increasingly like a true mirror; we will see our image ever more faithfully reflected on the other side. This will make it possible to immerse ourselves in a familiar environment that responds to our needs as soon as we are recognised. We will feel ourselves to be at home in our own neighbourhood in the big city. And this will not detract from our keeping our privacy, as we do now, whenever we Roof of the Great Court of the British Museum, London. / Photo: Antonio Rodríguez de las Heras. feel we need to. There will be a place for neighbourhoods in the digital world. somewhat abstract represen- which we live our everyday anywhere. And as a new- tation is also a useful way of lives, but which is open to the comer we are reliant on the But at the moment, however, understanding how the Net is wider city. In it we can find the taxi, but inevitably can some- this evolution remains unset- evolving towards an ever shops we know, and where times feel unsure that it is tak- tling. We still look at the digital sharper mirror in which we the staff know us, we bump ing us in the right direction. space with the mistrust and can recognise our image. On into the same people, people After just a few years in which uncertainty typical of how we arriving in a major city the greet one another, and there is role of a search engine like regard a new city in which we impression of being sur- a sense of neighbourliness. Google has been crucial, we have just arrived. We do not rounded is overwhelming and When we leave this open, but are gradually beginning to feel yet feel ourselves to be in con- disorientating: there are too near, space, we find ourselves more at home in the Net. It trol and it looks threatening. many things, too many stimuli. again swallowed up in the big has to adapt to our scale, to Our imagination plays tricks Only when we have defined a city. form a neighbourhood which on us and we see ghosts. neighbourhood for ourselves is familiar to us and in which do we start to feel at home in The same thing happens on we are familiar, where we Going down to the square a city, and no longer just a vis- the Internet. It is too big. In know where to find things Since earliest times the square itor. A neighbourhood is effec- this metropolis, Google is like nearby, without having to take has been a central focus of tively a humanised space in a taxi firm that can take us a taxi everywhere. This does urban life, as a place where

72 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| SOCIAL IMPACTS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 04.2

people could meet and rather than being dictated The net is a virtual an electronic screen, rather exchange goods and ideas. from above, from the pulpit, than a book, and this has The invasion of the streets by the rostrum, professor’s chair, world, and as such, been an obstacle to accept- cars and the invasion of or the stage ... it is a mirror world ance. By contrast, the screen homes by audiovisual media was made for audiovisual reduced the tendency to fre- Social networks are revealing in which we see communication. Nevertheless, quent the square, which lost the transformational power the persistent efforts to develop its previous centrality and Net gives the small and open ourselves reflected an ergonomic reading device became a place of transit. against the large and closed, have paid off, and there is offering new possibilities for re- now a culture of both reading The digital world has effected enabling communication in a and viewing audiovisual mater an exciting new virtual urban society until recently domin ial online. planning operation. The nar- ated by media who saw their row streets along which it was role as informing the masses. However, just when it seemed only possible to travel in one that the status quo was going direction (Web 1.0) have been And this phenomenon is just to be left unchanged, i.e. the demolished and a big town beginning. Once the mistrust written and audiovisual culture square has been opened up. and disdain have passed, and would share presence and The pleasant surprise is that the ignorance underlying them influence in our new high-tech people have begun to return has been overcome, a power- society, albeit with renewed to the square, and it has recov- ful form of technologically- force, an oral culture has ered the effervescence and mediated communication will reappeared. This had been vitality of its past incarnations. open up an age of perhaps marginalised by the hegem- Countless small groups have ever greater transformations ony of writing, which gained sprung up in which people talk (which is to be hoped for) than the upper hand as a higher about everything under the those brought about by other form of culture. However, in sun. These groups can be technical intermediaries such the digital age orality has seen milling around, dividing, as print and audiovisual returned, and been given an regrouping, waxing, waning... media. interesting new twist.

The owners of the closed Between orality and writing Oral transmission means spaces where they could A few years ago there was a communication here and now. preach from the pulpit, the debate about whether digital That is to say, there is a coin- rostrum, professor’s chair, or media would be more condu- cidence in time and place. the stage, look on suspi- cive to a written or an audio- Writing involves two places ciously at this effervescence in visual culture. Both are fight- (that of the writer and that of the square. They say that it ing for hegemony: one being the reader) and two moments only produces noise and trivia. centuries old and dominant (that of writing and that of But what they despise as until recently, and the other reading). There is, therefore, a noise is the murmur of voices, expansionary and seductive. “there” (distance) and “then” and at times this murmur For writing, the digital medium (asynchronicity). The same becomes intelligible: this is the provided capabilities that are thing is true of an audiovisual phenomenon of emergence, impossible on paper; but recording. Additionally, in the springing up from below reading requires a device with case of an audiovisual com-

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 73 04.2 SOCIAL IMPACTS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

munication there can be a Social networks are than to writing, so that prac- Writing has migrated from there and now, which is to tices intrinsic to oral commu- paper to digital media. The say, a live broadcast: the revealing the nication are being brought whole legacy of books will ultim sender and receiver are not in transformational back and reinterpreted in the ately find its way onto this new the same place, but they are digital space. medium, and books are present at the same time. power the Net gives already being published to be The Art of Memory read on electronic devices In the new space created the small and open Before the advent of the print- rather than in printed form. by social networks, groups against the large ing press mnemonic tech- However, people still write as coalesce and communicate in niques were very highly devel- if they were writing to be read a way that is neither there (two and closed oped. The Ars Memorativa, or from the page of a printed different places), nor here Art of Memory, was based on book. We have accepted the (coincidence), but “some- being able to conjure up images new medium, but we have not where.” The mirror-like quality and places and associate fully disengaged from the two- of the digital space places our words with their details. Fig- dimensionality of the page or image on the other side of the ures, buildings, even cities, and grasped that in the digital screen, and there it meets the then geometrical shapes and world writing is three-dimen- reflections of other people. their combinations and rota- sional. This third dimension of Therefore, two people are not tions, were used as a place in writing involves folding the at the opposite ends of a which to conceal words and text (hypertext) and not just communication channel, but attach them to their component extending it over the surface within a digital communication parts. The words could later be of the page. And if you fold a space, thanks to the doubling retrieved by revisiting these text skilfully enough, as in ori- this mirror produces. images and places or going gami, you obtain a figure. The over them in the imagination. words lie beneath the details As regards coincidence or not The method’s strength draws of this image, just as in the Art in time, it is interesting to on the memory’s power to of Memory. The ability to fold observe how the pattern on recall images and places. This texts under the elements of an social networks is neither then meant that words, which are image, and therefore create nor now, but a deferred now. much more difficult to retain, the right image to contain the What is discussed in these could be protected against text suggests a highly evoca- small groups is neither as oblivion by locking them onto tive new form of writing that ephemeral as an oral conver- the details of imagined places explores the paths along sation, nor as persistent as and images. which reading and writing paper, celluloid or magnetic spoken word. And that is move when they are no longer tape: it lasts for a few hours what makes the evolution of This memory technique lost its bound to paper. The aban- and fades like words in the air. the digital world, character- usefulness with the arrival of doned, centuries-old art of ised by this new form of com- printed books and the abun- memory has been reincar- Just a few years ago it would munication, so fascinating to dance of paper on which to nated as what one might call have been impossible to pre- observe. retain words. It seemed it “nemotics,” thanks to the new dict that a medium as durable would only continue as an possibilities created by the as the digital format would opt On social networks, there is a object of study for scholars. digital world. The idea is still in for a mode of communication form of communication that is But the digital world has redis- its infancy, but it is an irresist almost as ephemeral as the closer to the spoken word covered the art of memory. ible call to creativity.

74 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| SOCIAL IMPACTS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 04.3

Mobile phones, maps, satellites and social networks: crisis management 2.0

The Web 2.0 has enabled citizens to participate more actively in the management of crises and emergencies. Collaboration between online volunteers and humanitarian organisations is now an increasingly frequent phenomenon.

Marta Poblet

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

he widespread adoption actors onto the stage, whose Boston had installed the Ush- by volunteers from Open- and use of mobile tele- efforts are being added to ahidi open-source platform (a StreetMap– they were trans- T phones, social net- those of public and private program originally developed lated into English by volunteer works and the collaborative organisations dedicated to in Kenya) on one of their ser Creole speakers around the technologies that characterise responding to emergencies vers so reports from citizens world. As a result, first-aid the Web 2.0 in recent years and providing humanitarian affected by the disaster could teams and humanitarian have facilitated the emergence aid. This is –to use the current be located on an online map. organisations on the ground of new decentralised and par- label– the new paradigm These reports were sent by had access to requests for ticipatory forms of crisis and called “crisis management SMS to a short number set up help almost in real time, sent emergency management in 2.0.” A case in point was the as part of the emergency by the people affected and the wake of natural disasters, response to the earthquake response. Most of the mes- translated immediately and conflicts or open warfare. This that struck Haiti in January sages received were in Creole located on a map by hundreds is opening up entirely new 2010: a few hours after the French, and before they were of volunteers. After Haiti came routes for citizens’ participa- earthquake, a group of stu- posted on the map –which the earthquake in Chile, and tion, and thus bringing new dents at Tufts University in was created at the same time then the fires in Russia in the

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 75 04.3 SOCIAL IMPACTS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Marta Poblet

Marta Poblet is the Director of the Institute of Law and Technology at the Barcelona Autonomous University, an ICREA researcher, Standby Task Force (SBTF) team coordinator, and member of the Crisis Mappers international network. She has a doctorate in law from the University of Stanford (2002), where she also obtained a Master’s in International Legal Studies.

She is also a lecturer on the International Master’s on Conflict Resolution at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). Her fields of research are technologies applied to law, legal systems, and conflict management and research. She has more than 30 publications to her name in these fields internationally. She also acts as a consultant on international projects dealing with technology and law.

Marta Poblet.

summer of 2010 and then the software tools (e.g. Sahana, What effects has it had or might call (which may be open or nuclear disaster in Japan. In all Tomnod, etc.), have stimulated it have in the future? I will try to limited). The various versions these cases, online volunteers, the development of a new, sketch out some answers to of Wikipedia constitute a para- platforms and maps were highly multidisciplinary domain: these questions in what follows. digmatic example of crowd- brought into use to assist the so-called crisis mapping. sourcing on the web. Although coordinators of the response. Broadly speaking, crisis man- Characteristics of crisis crowdsourcing as a principle agement consists of an organ- mapping or method existed before the In just two years, various ver- ised set of tasks related to the Decentralised online collabor advent of the Internet and the sions of the Ushahidi software search, aggregation, geoloca- ation: crisis mapping is based subsequent emergence of have been used on thousands tion and analysis of information on the principle of crowd- Web 2.0 technologies, there is of occasions to tackle a wide or data from multiple sources: sourcing. The term crowd- no doubt that they have been variety of situations: earth- mobile technologies, social net- sourcing was coined in 2006 a spur to the crowdsourcing quakes, fires, toxic spills, snow- works, the media, official bod- by Howe to describe the div phenomenon. Today, astron- storms, floods, observing elec- ies, etc. What are the defining ision of a set of tasks or omy enthusiasts can work tions, human rights violations, traits of crisis mapping? What microtasks between a gener- with scientists to identify and etc. This proliferation of initia- advantages does it offer and ally large and ill-defined group classify galaxies (www.galax- tives, based on these and other what are the risks and limits? of people who respond to the yzoo.org) and gamers can

76 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| SOCIAL IMPACTS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 04.3

help decode the complete videos on Youtube, photos on Social networks are Libya, Amnesty International structure of one of the AIDS Flickr, etc.); and, secondly, in USA’s Science for Human virus’s proteins (http://fold.it), terms of the distribution of characterised by Rights Program in the case of to mention just two of the tasks that this information the immediacy of Syria, etc.). However, crisis best-known examples. In the processing triggers. maps are sometimes also case we are concerned with their user- able to connect citizens here, crisis mapping’s various Real time information process- directly with one another. The different tasks can be distrib- ing. Social networks are char- generated content, possibility of facilitating this uted between different volun- acterised by the immediacy of and this same connection is all the more valu teer groups or individuals: their user-generated content, able when the first-aid provid- some of them monitor infor- and this same feature can be characteristic can ers attending to victims in a mation sources, others digitise transposed to online mapping be transposed to the crisis situation are often other maps, locate coordinates or of crises and conflicts. Even citizens, particularly when the project different layers of infor- when it is not possible to use online mapping of organisations operating on the mation onto the maps. More the Internet, either as a result crises and conflicts ground find themselves over- over, depending on the event, of a natural disaster or gov- whelmed. In short, crisis maps emergency, crisis or conflict ernment censorship, mobile can not only help establish that is the object of the map- phones, local radios and text these connections but also ping exercise, extracting stat messages can play a decisive expand the concept of the istics, patterns or elaborated role in the rapid processing of neighbourhood: the people data adding value to the pre- information (mobile phone listening to and locating calls ceding aggregation processes networks –and SMS function- for help may not live in the may also be essential. In the ality in particular– tend to be physical neighbourhood but case of the Libya Crisis Map, re-established before the nevertheless form part of a set up under the auspices of Internet). When Mubarak’s community of digital neigh- the United Nations Office for regime decided to block the bours. Patrick Meier –co- the Coordination of Humani- Internet and mobile networks founder of the international tarian Affairs (OCHA) to sup- in Egypt, the Speak-to-Twitter Crisis Mappers network– calls port humanitarian aid oper service, designed jointly by this capacity to create an ations in Libya, a team of Google and Twitter engineers, online neighbourhood that analysts from the group of vol- provided landline phone users some instances of crisis map- unteers from the Standby Task with a service they could use ping offer crowdfeeding. Force (SBTF) took charge of to record voice messages for producing a series of reports immediate transcription into Advantages, risks and limits summarising event patterns, Twitter messages (tweets). The integration of technologies types of emergencies, the for disaster management 2.0 areas hardest hit by violence, Crowdfeeding. The main and crisis management in par- etc. Importantly, crowdsourc- recipients of the information ticular clearly offers important ing takes place on two differ- that is aggregated and then advantages. The most signifi- ent levels: firstly, at the source categorised during crisis map- cant are: (i) immediacy; (ii) task of the information being pro ping are usually the organisa- continuity – if the volunteers cessed (text messages, tions that have asked for the taking part in the initiative work e-mails, news from the media, system to be put in place (the in different time zones around Twitter or Facebook posts, UN’s OCHA in the case of the planet, the maps can be

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 77 04.3 SOCIAL IMPACTS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

updated continuously twenty- indicative, can provide the spur It is necessary mechanisms for verifying the four hours a day, seven days a to further analysis to perform, information collected, aggre- week; and (iii) the flexibility of or other working hypotheses to establish gated and published on the the protocols, given that tasks to be tested. standardised map: is it possible to verify all are distributed and evolve the information retrieved from according to the dynamics and However, the accumulated mechanisms social networks? Can different needs of the situation (or, in experience from crisis map- to verify the levels of reliability be planned other words, crisis maps ping suggests that at least for? How should we seek to evolve with the crisis). Display- three areas exist where there information verify the information on each ing aggregate information can are risks that need to be taken level? In short, how can we also allow patterns to be into account. Firstly, there is a collected distinguish truth from rumour, detected, which although only need to establish standardised propaganda or disinformation? Although it is true that the groups and organisations dedicated to crisis mapping are considering drafting common standards, verifying information has to date been done ad hoc in each initiative, with different protocols in each case, subject to debate and discussion in forums and conferences. The second aspect to bear in mind is the quality of the information processed. Four types of issue arise here: how can the level of noise or redundancy be minimised? How can relevant information for the recipients or final users of a map be filtered out from the multiple information flows? Although software tools exist enabling information to be filtered –e.g. Swiftriver– current filters are the result of the manual monitoring of sources, as it is the volunteers themselves who end up identifying the most relevant content based on their own experience.

Finally, the ethical, privacy, The Libya Crisis Map was supported by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). and security aspects of crisis

78 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| SOCIAL IMPACTS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 04.3

mapping practices need to be quake have been received Initiatives such as results obtained will be com- highlighted. It is important to with considerable interest by pared with those produced by distinguish here between cri- humanitarian aid agencies the response to the automatic refugee detection ses resulting from natural dis- and have been the object of Haiti earthquake or algorithms developed at the asters and those caused by analysis and reflection in aca- Joint Research Centre in Ispra violence or armed conflict. demic and professional the Libya Crisis (Italy). These algorithms were Although in both cases the forums. The collaboration applied to the same images in principle of causing no harm between teams of online vol- Map have been order to determine whether it should prevail and the neces- unteers and humanitarian received with would be possible to improve sary security and privacy organisations to manage cri- either the manual or auto- measures be adopted, in the ses is becoming ever more considerable mated process. At any rate, context of violence the need frequent, and this will interest by the deployment of a work- for protection may be even undoubtedly lead to a widen- force of volunteers on this more pressing. Despite the ing of the range of tools and international scale over 120 hours uninter- fact that the information strategies available. Moreover, humanitarian aid ruptedly is hard for any inter aggregated on the maps is at international conferences national organisation to achieve, public, the fact of locating it on crisis mapping it is not agencies and this is where cooperation and disclosing it in the context uncommon to see the coord and crowdsourcing offer of a crisis map can seriously inators of local, national and added value. Their capabilities compromise the safety of the international emergencies are mutually reinforcing. people who originally pub- offering their experience and lished it on social networks. exploring the best routes for Even so, crisis management For this reason, some initia- collaboration. The new forms 2.0 still lacks adequate indica- tives have opted to anonymise of cooperation between citi- tors and trials to enable its real the data and protect their zens, groups and organisa- impact and effectiveness to maps with user logins and tions devoted to managing be benchmarked against con- passwords, and to produce a emergencies and crises offer ventional operational strat second, public version of the an infinite variety of possibil egies. There is still a lot to do map showing only more lim- ities. In November 2011, a and a lot to be developed in ited information. In extreme group of 180 volunteers from terms of strategies, methods, cases in which security stand- various backgrounds ana- protocols, training and evalu ards cannot be guaranteed lysed a total of 3,309 satellite ation. However, there seems to (for example, when the disclos images of the Afgooye be little doubt that the process ure of the location of incidents humanitarian corridor in is irreversible. The technolo- of violence may result in fur- Somalia; in just five days they gies make it easier for citizens ther attacks on the popula- marked the different types of to be the first to issue a crisis tion), the appropriateness of a temporary shelters located in or emergency alert, and also mapping project may be this hard-to-reach area with enable other citizens to be the called into question. 253,711 tags in order to pro- first to hear and even, at vide the United Nations High times, to respond. With all its Effects Commissioner for Refugees advantages and drawbacks, Initiatives such as the Libya (UNHCR) with an estimate of crisis management 2.0 is Crisis Map or that during the the displaced population in another sign of the new digital aftermath of the Haiti earth- the area. Additionally, the neighbourhoods.

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 79 05

Forum

05 FORUM ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Towards a more innovative and higher-tech society

Juan Junquera Secretary of State for Telecommunications and the Information Society. Ministry of Science and Innovation

oday, information and communica- Plan Avanza aims to linked to productivity gains, cost savings, tions technologies are among the raising quality standards, a wider variety T basic drivers of growth, innov develop the information of services, and an enhanced capacity to ation, productivity and quality jobs. society in Spain, ensuring create qualified jobs. Spain has numerous world-leading com- economic and social Innovation has shown itself to be a basic panies in the new technologies sector, requirement for business survival over the and their international presence in fields growth in the country’s medium to long term, as it makes it pos- such as e-health, digital television, tele- regions and its sible to interpret and respond to market communications infrastructure, smart demands, while generating competitive grids, e-banking and e-government is convergence with the rest advantage. growing all the time. of Europe Over the course of the last few years, A commitment to information and com- major successes have been achieved in munications technologies (ICTs) is a relation to the information society at both guarantee for the future development of national and international levels. Today, society as a whole. ICTs represent an Spain’s broadband coverage rate is the enormously useful tool in reducing green- highest in the world, and the number of house gas emissions and are the best Internet users has doubled since 2004. option for building a new economic Spain is also a world leader in electronic model based on competitiveness and ID card adoption. The distance by which sustainability. Spain lags behind Europe’s leaders has narrowed considerably, and great strides New technologies stimulate innovation. are being made towards the develop- Their impact is multidimensional, being ment of advanced technology services.

82 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| FORUM 05

Plan Avanza has therefore had a power- Today, Spain’s broadband ful impact, and thanks to it, Spain can now be considered a network society coverage rate is the highest with the capacity to position itself as a in the world, and the leader in the development of the information society. number of Internet users has doubled since 2004. Plan Avanza aims to develop the information society in Spain, ensuring economic Spain is also a world and social growth in the country’s regions and its convergence with the rest of leader in electronic ID Europe. It is the expression of the Span- card adoption ish government’s commitment to promoting ICTs and has been designed to redefine our productive model.

Some of the key achievements in the government’s promotion of the information society in Spain include:

• The roll-out of digital terrestrial television (DTT) achieved coverage of 98.8%. Implementation began in November 2005 and was completed in record time. Juan Junquera.

• The number of Internet users has risen from 11.7 million in 2003 to 27 munications and the Information Society ting out the guidelines for the ICT devel- million today. was given the task of coordinating the opment strategy across Europe as a positions and initiatives of the various whole from 2010 to 2020. • The electronic ID card initiative was European governments. Spain took the launched in April 2006, and in just five driving seat in stimulating legislative and These are just some of the achieve- years over 25 million electronic ID other progress in the European Union, ments in the field of innovation and new cards have been issued. while keeping the needs of the ICT indus- technologies by government on all lev- try in mind throughout. els. They demonstrate the quantity and • Since its creation in 2006 Plan scale of the work carried out over the Avanza has funded a total of 3,107 Spain made the most of its EU presi- period. RTD projects in businesses, mobilising dency to stimulate development in the more than €4,086.03 million for this information and communications tech- Society must maintain a firm commit- purpose alone. nologies sector as a driver of innovation ment to innovation, particularly that relat- and quality of life in Europe. ing to ICT, redoubling efforts to ensure Spain took over the rotating presidency everyone advances towards a more of the European Union in January 2010, It was during this period that the Digital technological and innovative society, in and the Secretary of State for Telecom- Agenda for Europe was approved, set- short, towards a better society for all.

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 83 06

News

06 NEWS |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Funding awarded for Proyectos Cero on Ageing EmTech The Fundación General CSIC’s Josep Blat, Pompeu Fabra conference 2011 Proyectos Cero call for University. project proposals on Ageing, From 26 to 27 October 2011 which has financial backing • “Brain Computer Interface the Málaga Conference and from Obra Social “la Caixa” (BCI) for cognitive training and strategies associated with the Trade Fair Centre, the Palacio de and additional support from domotic assistance against autonomy and empowerment Ferias y Conferencias, hosted the CSIC, has awarded fund- the effects of ageing,” led by of older and newer generations the annual benchmark event by ing to five research projects Roberto Hornero Sánchez, of senior citizens in Spain,” led the MIT (Massachusetts Institute studying social, psychological University of Valladolid. by Joan Subirats Humet, Bar- of Technology) Technology and technical aspects of age- celona Autonomous University. Review, whose sponsors ing, with the overall aim of • “Young people and educa- included the FGCSIC. improving quality of life for the tion: combined effects on • “Biomateials to modulate During the event the Technol- elderly. Obra Social “la Caixa” inter- and intra-generational the inflammation caused by ogy Review’s TR35 Spain will be providing a million redistribution,” led by Con- age-related macular degen- awards were handed to ten euros to enable this research cepció Patxot Cardoner, Uni- eration (BIODMAE),” led by top scientists and innovators to go ahead. The selected versity of Barcelona. Eva Chinarro Martín, Institute aged under 35. projects are: of Glass and Ceramics (ICV- The panel of judges named • “Active ageing, citizenship CSIC). Pau García Milà (24) “TR35 • “Worthplay. Videogames and participation: evaluating More information: innovator of the year” for antici for positive ageing,” led by the aspirations, needs and http://www.fgcsic.es/envejecimiento pating the concept of virtual storage, and Teresa Gonzalo FGCSIC workshop on measuring science (33) “TR35 innovator of the year for solidarity” for develop- On 20 September the second ated by Victoria Ley, director of ing commercial nanotechnol- in the FGCSIC’s series of work- the Spanish Evaluation Agency, ogy to prevent the spread of shops scheduled for 2011 was ANEP. HIV. Among the other award held at CaixaForm Madrid. The The workshop was relayed by winners, Francisco Javier event, discussing the question video streaming and is available Cazorla and Manuel Moliner “How can we measure sci- for viewing on the Foundation’s work at the CSIC, and Nuria ence?” focused on science and tion, respectively, Ramón López channels. González was trained at the technology output metrics. The de Mántaras (CSIC), Itziar Laka institution. www.fgcsic.es/comunicacion/ speakers were Javier Rey (UPV), Carles Miravitlles (CSIC), galeria_multimedia The MIT has been giving these Campos and José Luis de Isidoro F. Aguillo (CSIC), and www.youtube.com/fgcsic awards in the US for 12 years. Miguel Antón, director and Alonso Rodríguez (UPM). The vimeopro.com/fgcsic/workshop- This is the first time they have deputy director of the Founda- panel discussion was moder- como-medimos-la-ciencia been awarded in Spain. Green Cars 2011 seminar The Fundación General CSIC its Report on R&D into energy The aim of the seminar, which and sustainable mobility areas, took part in the “Green Cars for the automotive industry was held on 5 October in Val- and specifically, activities relat- 2011: working projects” sem- prepared by the FGCSIC ladolid, was to showcase activ- ing to the European Green inar with the presentation of Analysis Unit. ities in the clean technologies Cars initiative.

86 | LYCHNOS | Nº 7 | Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| NEWS 06

Workshop on Strategic R&D Planning European

What is strategic R&D plan- TrendChart project ning? How can its objectives The Fundación General CSIC be defined? What examples has organised one of six work- can we draw upon? These and shops envisaged in the frame- other questions were work of the European Trend- answered at the workshop on Chart project to monitor the strategic planning of R&D innovation policies. The work- organised by the FGCSIC and ing meeting, held at the Real held on 14 November at Caix- Jardín Botánico on 25 October, aForum Madrid. The event in Madrid, focused on a review included both theory and dis- The event was relayed by of the information compiled and cussion sessions. The head of video streaming and followed 2nd CPAN competition analysed on research and inno- the FGCSIC’s strategy unit, by over 200 people. The talks vation policies. The session María Sanz, described the are available on the Founda- was entitled: “Monitoring the underpinnings of the FGCSIC’s tion’s channels. Innovation Union: reviewing the strategic R&D planning model, collection and analysis of infor- www.fgcsic.es/comunicacion/ followed by contributions by galeria_multimedia mation on national research Joan Cortadellas, Lluis Rovira, www.youtube.com/fgcsic and innovation policies”. José Luis Marco, Belén Gutiér- vimeopro.com/fgcsic/planificacion- rez and Víctor Rodrigo. estrategica-en-la-id A Moroccan and a The Spanish National Particle Spaniard win the Meeting of the Trustees of the Physics, Astroparticles and International Science Nuclear Physics Centre, CPAN, Fundación General CSIC in conjunction with the Fun- Mini-Marathon The Trustees of the Fundación trustees expressed their con- dación General CSIC, has Athletes Vanessa Veiga and General CSIC met on 29 tinuing support for the Foun- awarded the prizes to the win- Mohammed Blal were the win- November 2011 at the head- dation, and approved the 2012 ners of its second science ners of the XXXI Carrera Inter- quarters of the Spanish Action Plan presented by communication competition, an nacional de la Ciencia (31st National Research Council Javier Rey Campos, the insti- initiative that was launched last International Science Mini-mar- (CSIC). At the meeting, the tution’s director. year to recognise the produc- athon) organised by the CSIC tion of popular science materi- and sponsored, among other als on physics topics relating to institutions, by the Fundación the centre’s activities. General CSIC. 7,200 competitors took part in the race, which The award ceremony took place was held on Sunday 16 Octo- during the 3rd CPAN open days ber in Madrid. The runners fol- held from 2-4 November, in Bar- lowed an officially approved 10 celona. kilometre course starting and ending at the central campus of More information: www.i-cpan.es http://www.i-cpan.es/concurso2/ the Spanish National Research ganadores.php Council (CSIC).

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC | Nº 7 | LYCHNOS | 87

Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC / Nº 7 / December 2011 / Published quarterly / Price: 9 euros |||||||||||||||||||| Notebooks of the Fundación General CSIC / December 2011

4 12 40 62 Introduction Information New information Social Technology spaces impacts 07