Exploratory Software Project FY2002


11. Alan Kay (President, Viewpoints Research Institute)

Brief history :
1966 MS, University of Colorado, Boulder
1969 Ph. D., University of Utah
1969-70 Assistant Professor, University of Utah
1969-71 Research Associate/Lecturer,Stanford University
1970-81 Head, Learning Research Group, Xerox PARC
1984-1996 Fellow, Apple Computer, Inc.
1996-2001 VP and Fellow, Walt Disney Imagineering R&D
Present President, Viewpoints Research Institute		Special field of study :

Object Oriented Languages Smalltalk & Squeak
User Interface Design
Massively Distributed Systems
End user authoring
Use of computers and media in education
Target project of public offering :

10 years from now people will live, work, and play in shared virtual worlds that make it easy for children to learn from other children even if they are thousands of miles apart, and for adults to collaborate on complex projects and share knowledge. There are a number of really difficult technical problems that must be solved in order to make this possible.

・ Distributed Resychronizing Net Operating Environment
Be able to gracefully handle millions of computer processes running concurrently on different machines in different locations within the global network to sustain a consistent shared environment using arbitrary media.

・ Practical Enduser Authoring Within Shared Worlds
Authoring of all kinds, including making changes to the world one is in, has to be done while in the world and without destructive side effects

・ "Sustained Relationship" Programming
Sustainable "dynamic relationships" must be added to dynamic objects in order to allow complex combinations of them to be more simply stated and controlled as extensions to the scripting worlds of children and nonexpert adults.

・ Adaptable User Interfaces And Knowledge-That-Teaches
User interfaces have to be able to create an accurate model of each user and use that model to modify the presentation of its knowledge structures, including finding other humans on the net that might be able to help.

・ Dynamic Math For An Entire System
Most of the large size of today's software comes from weak architecture and optimizations - the "math" of the SW is much smaller. For example, Squeak is already about 20-50 times smaller than standard SW, and the current 220,000 lines of code could be reduced to no more than 40,000, perhaps even 10,000 if "extreme dynamic math" were applied.
Entry point of the project proposal :

Please provide a proposal no longer than 10 pages in form 3.

The proposal should include:
1. Title and Abstract of proposal
2. A project summary which may include pictures or diagrams.
3. Background and purpose of project.
4. Describe the novelty of the project.
5. Describe the project milestones, task allotment among the project member, and a description of the project schedule.
6. Provide project expenses and budget estimation.
7. Describe the impact your project will have upon completion and how it may be commercialized.
8. Describe the past work and accomplishments of the individual or group involved in your project. (i.e., other software projects, published papers or books, etc.)

Method of the examination:

Applicants will first be reviewed based upon the paper applications and then we will have an interview session in Japan for selected applicants.

Contact Person: Kim Rose - kim.rose@viewpointsresearch.org
The number of adopted proposals to be expected
(The budget is about 80 million yen.)		 4-6 projects
Condition of proposers (if any) No special conditions are required as long as recipients can carry out their project.
Contribution in the project management Submission of periodic progress reports via email, hearing (if necessary), mid-term meeting and final meeting to manage the projects and promote the results.