Friday,
November 05, 2004
Mapping
the Patent Space
Creating the new Knowledge
Technology Sector
Short “Systems AS-IS”
Paper Short “Finding the Balance”
Paper
previous discussion on
“structural holonomy” -> .
previous discussion on mapping
the Patent Space à
(foot notes by founding
committee)
Good morning, all...
I think that what we are doing here is attacking (from a budget perspective) these issues piecemeal. I am beginning to get a feeling that what we may need to do is craft an overall proposal for next steps that is not too rich, has a measurable objective and then go after some seed grant money, and I feel as if this may pose a private sector funding opportunity. We have some very large companies in our area that would, I'm sure, ante up to our university if I could give them a good reason to do so.
One thing that has struck me as I have been working with Paul is that, surrounding the core work, there is a lot of peripheral work that really qualifies as enabling infrastructure (the Greenstone modifications/implementation/support, and the Readware engine as examples). We seem to bounce back and forth between trying to get the whole shebang funded and nickel-diming the bits and pieces that make up the enabling infrastructure, all without particularly great success [1]. I think I have a thought or two on that topic that is in keeping with my goals at EMU.
First, for those of you who don't know me, I am the director of information assurance (IA) at the Center for Regional and National Security (CeRNS) at Eastern Michigan University (http://cerns.emich.edu). My work is in the application of formal methods to information assurance especially in the areas of risk management, digital forensics, cyber crime and cyber terror.
Along with that we are starting to work with other universities in areas such as information operations (the military term for information warfare), forensic psychology in cyber crime, and a couple of others. I have been working with Paul off and on (a lot more on recently) for a couple of years.
We are building an IA research lab at CeRNS and I have enlisted Paul's participation and am working hard to get the cash flowing so we can support some of his, and your efforts. The work of this group has immense value in the areas that I am working on and my primary focus right now is a formal theory of cyber attack mechanics.
Paul and I are working on a book to that end as well, the book to be published by Auerbach. As Paul may have mentioned, I value this group's work highly and feel privileged to be involved, however peripherally.
That said, I would like to suggest that we define and cost out an appropriate infrastructure that could reside at our new lab (by the way, we are a homeland security-style center and do much more than just IA, so some of these other, non IA, efforts of yours are quite appropriate), and I will attempt to assemble a fundable proposal. I would also like to include travel and workshop money so that the group could assemble periodically in one place for a few days at a time. We have ample facilities to support such workshops and would be pleased to host. Once there is an infrastructure, my gut tells me that additional project funding for the various activities of this group will be somewhat easier to obtain.
Also, as a side benefit, we have grad students who, I am sure, would be interested in some level of participation. In our college, for example (College of Technology) we have a new PhD program and I have a PhD Fellow in IA assigned to me for my risk management work. That type of support could be useful, I would think - at any event, it is available. We also have partnerships, both in the private and public sectors, that could be test beds for some of this work.
I make these offers as a way to get this wonderful work matured and out in the world where it can realize its potential... we have a long way to go at CeRNS. We, ourselves, are not yet matured as a research organization. A side benefit to me and CeRNS is that this work, and the experienced people involved, can help move that along - it is, then, a potential research home and a potential win for everyone involved.
As always, I'm open for comments...
Peter
[1] We should remember that the core team has perhaps the leading edge understanding in regard to conceptual indexing and the representation of social discourse. This work exists and in some cases there is no financial obligations beyond the core group of innovators.