Google TechTalks
August 3, 2006

Gerhard Weikum

ABSTRACT
The peer-to-peer (P2P) computing paradigm is an intriguing alternative to Google-style search engines for querying and ranking Web content. In a network with many thousands or millions of peers the storage and access load requirements per peer are much lighter than for a centralized server farm.

On the other hand, P2P Web search also poses major challenges, one of them being the computation, dissemination, and efficient management of statistical measures that are crucial for good search strategies and ranking algorithms. Statistics (e.g., local and global document frequencies, overlap among peers’ contents, PageRank-style authority) need…

Google TechTalks
January 17, 2006

Daniel M. Reeves

Daniel Reeves recently completed his PhD in Computer Science at the University of Michigan as a student of Michael Wellman and is now (temporarily) a lecturer at Michigan, teaching Knowledge-Based Systems (Lisp, Prolog, and Mathematica for AI Programming). His most active area of research is the application of game-theoretic and computational techniques to strategic behavior in games, particularly for eCommerce-inspired market mechanisms. He is one of the creators of and top competitors in the international Trading Agent Competition. Dr Reeves is also one of the top ultra-marathon inline skaters in the US and climbs stairs…

Google TechTalks
June 16, 2006

Gaurav Oberoi & Chuck Groom
Co-Founders, BillMonk.com

ABSTRACT
The web 2.0 bubble inflates as geeks pump out an astonishing number of web-based solutions to daily problems. But a lot of these solutions only appeal to a small niche. What goes into a service that appeals to a broad range of people?

How can it start and grow without a generous helping of capital? The two guys behind BillMonk.com, a service for helping friends with the casual borrowing of money and stuff, will share their views from the trenches. They will share the story of what it took to quit their comfy jobs at Amazon, how a handful of philosophical axioms dictated the entire site design and…

Google TechTalks
June 15, 2006

Georg Greve, chairman of the FSF Europe explains priorities and strategies of the FSFEurope.

Google TechTalks
February 23, 2006

Russ B. Altman

Prof. Altman is the director of the Center for Biomedical Computation at Stanford University and is director of the biomedical informatics training program. He is also the principal investigator of a project, PharmGKB, which is an online database of genetic and phenotype information from people who have participated in research studies at various medical centers participating in the PGRN. ABSTRACT
Pharmacogenomics is the study of how variation in human genes leads to variation in drug response. One of the major promises of the genome project was to improve medical outcomes for patients by using knowledge of their genetic background. The PharmGKB…

Google TechTalks
June 7, 2006

B. Ramalinga Raju and Venkat Changavalli

ABSTRACT
India is booming with visionary initiatives to transform rural India and its poor. This tech talk tells the story of one corporation that is leveraging its core competency to address the issues.

Satyam group of Industries took on new missions starting in 2001 – to serve and transform the “Bottom of the Pyramid” – a phrase coined by Prof. C.K. Prahalad. Driven by the vision of Mr. Ramalinga Raju and his family, Satyam is forging ahead on three different fronts:

The Byrraju Foundation: has developed a model of transforming villages into self sufficient commercial societies. To date this initiative has transformed…

Google TechTalks
July 21, 2006

Guido van Rossum is a computer programmer who is best known as the author and Benevolent Dictator for Life of the Python programming language.

ABSTRACT
The next major version of Python, nicknamed Python 3000 (or more prosaically Python 3.0), has been anticipated for a long time. For years I have been collecting and exploring ideas that were too radical for Python 2.x, and it’s time to stop dreaming and start coding. In this talk I will present the community process that will be used to complete the specification for Python 3000, as well as some of the major changes to the language and the remaining challenges.

Google TechTalks
June 27, 2006

Frank Fabrega, Jean McNeil-Wy

Jean works for the Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and has been a volunteer with the American Cancer Society for 22 years. She has been active in breast health education to local corporations and worked on the Daffodils Days, Making Strides, and Relay for Life campaigns. She was on the First annual Santa Monica Relay for Life planning team and has participated ever since. For the past two years, she has been the Chair of the Survivor Tent activities. Come meet Jean, learn more about the Relay for Life, and join or support Google’s team.

Google TechTalks
March 23, 2006

Raj Reddy

ABSTRACT
Jaime Carbonell stated, about 10 years ago, that the mission for the Language Technology Institute at CMU is the research agenda implied by “getting the right information, to the right people, at the right time, on the right medium, in the right language and with the right level of detail”. In spite of major contributions from Google and others, we are not close to achieving the bill of rights of information society. This talk will provide a forum for discussion on the research agenda necessary for fulfilling this vision.