Data science and personal information are converging to shape the Internet’s most powerful and surprising consumer products. Can we use data about people to alter physical reality, even in real time, and improve their performance at work or in life? That is the question being asked by a developing field called augmented social reality. Here’s a simple example. A few years ago, with Sandy Pentland’s human dynamics research group at MIT’s Media Lab, I created what I termed an “augmented cubicle.” It had two desks separated by a wall of plexiglass with an actuator-controlled window blind in the middle. Depending on whether we wanted different people to be talking to each other, the blinds would change position at night every few days or weeks.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/514371/augmenting-social-reality-in-the-workplace/

Google has set plenty of restrictions on the functionality of apps for Glass, the head-mounted display it is now shipping out to early adopters. At the company’s annual developer conference, I/O, which kicks off today, it will show app creators how to break those rules. One conference session will be called “Voiding Your Warranty: Hacking Glass.” But it could be controversial to encourage experimentation with a product that at once has wowed people with its possibilities and spurred uneasy imaginings of a society subject to ubiquitous, user-generated surveillance. Google clearly wants developers to help explore the limits of what Glass can do, and yet Glass is not even on the market yet, and a handful of bars and cafés have already banned the hardware.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/514831/treading-carefully-google-encourages-developers-to-hack-glass/

Quantum computing took a giant leap forward on the world stage today as NASA and Google, in partnership with a consortium of universities, launched an initiative to investigate how the technology might lead to breakthroughs in artificial intelligence. The new Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab will employ what may be the most advanced commercially available quantum computer, the D-Wave Two, which a recent study confirmed was much faster than conventional machines at defeating specific problems (see “D-Wave’s Quantum Computer Goes to the Races, Wins”). The machine will be installed at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing Facility at the Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley and is expected to be available for government, industrial, and university research later this year.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/514846/google-and-nasa-launch-quantum-computing-ai-lab/

In this corner: MOOC enthusiasts, envisioning how these large, online courses will increase access to higher education, reduce costs, and reinvigorate teaching and learning. In the other corner: MOOC critics, anticipating how MOOCs will eliminate meaningful interaction between faculty and students, reduce the quality of learning, and decimate the professorship. You’ve probably heard by now that Amherst declined to participate in edX and that San Jose State faculty pushed back on plans for another MOOC in their midst. Recently, there is (seemingly) more press about the potential future impact of these large online courses.

http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/stratedgy/both-sides

A world without network, storage and computer barriers could become reality if research and education network Internet2 has its way.  The organization has set a high goal of knocking down these barriers in higher education. As the fields of digital content, video and cloud storage continue to advance, they provide opportunities to recreate an educational experience that has no limits. “We don’t want barriers to be the network, we don’t want barriers to be the storage, we don’t want barriers to be the computer,” said Shelton Waggener, senior vice president of Internet2. “If we can share and access the total capacity of higher education, we can live in a barrierless world.”

http://www.centerdigitaled.com/news/Internet2-Seeks-to-Knock-Down-Technology-Barriers.html

Predictive analytics is on the rise in education, being used to pull together student information such as GPAs, majors and course success — all to project how well individual students will do in certain classes. But not to worry; predictive analytics won’t replace instruction. According to education software company Desire2Learn, it will help colleges serve students better.

http://www.centerdigitaled.com/news/Predictive-Analytics-is-Not-a-Scary-Machine.html

Data science and personal information are converging to shape the Internet’s most powerful and surprising consumer products. Would you trade your personal data for a peek into the future? Andreas Weigend did. The former chief scientist of Amazon.com, now directing Stanford University’s Social Data Lab, told me a story about awakening at dawn to catch a flight from Shanghai. That’s when an app he’d begun using, Google Now, told him his flight was delayed. The software scours a person’s Gmail and calendar, as well as databases like maps and flight schedules. It had spotted the glitch in his travel plans and sent the warning that he shouldn’t rush. When Weigend finally boarded, everyone else on the plane had been waiting for hours for a spare part to arrive.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/514346/the-data-made-me-do-it/

Data science and personal information are converging to shape the Internet’s most powerful and surprising consumer products. Can we use data about people to alter physical reality, even in real time, and improve their performance at work or in life? That is the question being asked by a developing field called augmented social reality. Here’s a simple example. A few years ago, with Sandy Pentland’s human dynamics research group at MIT’s Media Lab, I created what I termed an “augmented cubicle.” It had two desks separated by a wall of plexiglass with an actuator-controlled window blind in the middle. Depending on whether we wanted different people to be talking to each other, the blinds would change position at night every few days or weeks.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/514371/augmenting-social-reality-in-the-workplace/

Despite the 190 million people that Google says use its social network every month, Google Plus has always struggled to escape Facebook’s shadow and seem like a hopping social destination. With the 41 new features the company announced would be rolling out this week, Google Plus is now morphing into something that makes greater use of what Google does best —anticipating the needs of its users, surfacing relevant news and information, and helping people managing the massive amounts of data. The new Google Plus will go as far as to auto-generate animated GIF files from several photos that people upload from their devices or desktops.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/514836/googles-social-network-gets-smarter/

Google is giving mobile app creators more ways to tap into people’s activities and locations without draining too much phone battery power. More and more apps look at a person’s location to offer services, advertising, and discounts that are relevant to what they’re doing, and also to help people track their own activities. Google itself is at the forefront of this trend—with its Google Now service, it uses sensor data and other inputs, like e-mail, to try to anticipate people’s needs before they have to open an app or a search box. The more services it provides to other Android developers, the more people may see similar in-the-moment features in third-party software.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/514956/google-wants-to-help-apps-track-you/