E-Newsletter Archive:
PARC Innovations Update

2008 #4 (~June-July)
PARC Innovations Update: proteomics; Microsoft to acquire PARC licensee Powerset; ubiquitous computing; dressing rooms of future; more...

2008 #3 (~April-May)
PARC Innovations Update: water treatment; reinventing search; accelerating time to market; Clean Technology 2008; better health; more...

Spotlight: Water treatment through PARC's novel filtration approach
By applying expertise in particle manipulation, microfluidics, and MEMS -- honed through years of manipulating toner particles for Xerox printers -- PARC has developed a scalable, membrane-free, spiral fluidic approach to water filtration. The novel approach reduces requirements for physical space, chemicals, and energy in conventional water treatment. For a typical 20 MGD installation, PARC technology could cut land use in half, and reduce capital, operations, and maintenance costs by more than a third.
www.parc.com/water

In the Marketplace: Powerset Reinvents the Search and Discovery Experience for Wikipedia Articles
Powerset recently launched a public beta release of its consumer search engine, taking the first step in reinventing how people seek and discover information. Applicable to all topics and domains, the beta technology reads and extracts meaning from every sentence in Wikipedia. Unlike traditional search engines, Powerset matches the meaning of user queries to the meaning of sentences. Powerset signed a licensing and collaboration agreement with PARC in 2007 to develop and commercialize natural language technology for consumer search, leveraging three decades of PARC's scientific research and technology refinement in natural language understanding.
www.parc.com/language
www.parc.com/ventures

Case Study: Accelerating time to market and increasing cost-efficiency
Realizing that solar electricity would be widely adopted if it were cost-competitive with fossil fuel-derived electricity, the entrepreneurs behind SolFocus, Inc. had developed a promising concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) approach. PARC proposed an improved, smaller CPV design that would be simpler to manufacture and able to convert significantly more sunlight into electricity – essential features for lowering system cost and enhancing appeal. SolFocus decided to rely upon this innovative concentrator design as the basis for its 2nd generation products, and “set up shop” in PARC’s facility. Among other achievements, SolFocus has received $95M financing to date, expanded its international operations, secured supply, moved into new headquarters, and began its first commercial deployment.
www.parc.com/solfocus

On the Road: Clean Technology 2008 – Membrane-less filtration; an "atmospherically healthy" recipe for carbon-neutral transportation fuels
Meet PARC scientists at the CTSI Clean Technology and Sustainable Industries Conference and Trade Show (June 1-5, Boston). PARC will present "Membrane-less Filtration for Conventional Potable Utility Applications"; "An 'Atmospherically Healthy' Recipe for Carbon-Neutral Fuels: A synthetic fuel made from sunlight, CO2, and water"; and more. If you are attending the conference and would like to meet with Cleantech Innovation Program director Scott Elrod, please e-mail pr@parc.com.
http://www.csievents.org/Cleantech2008/

In the Media:

Low-Energy Water Filtration – Technology Review
The FAST track to better health – The Economist
PARC to Spin Out Solar Startup – Greentech Media
How to Determine Your Organization's Vulnerability to Crimeware – eWeek.com
May 22, 1973: Enter Ethernet – Wired
Seeing the first Ethernet cable... – Scobleizer.com [videos]
PARC: As Silicon Valley as it Gets – Yahoo! Finance Tech Ticker/ Sarah Lacy
PARC Moves Beyond Just Document Research – Internetnews.com
PARC shows off research projects beyond its Xerox Work – VentureBeat
Inside Innovation – O'Reilly Radar
Getting innovation out of the lab – FORTUNE
Computers for the People – CNET News
Searching for education application in the virtual world – techLearning.com
Luminaries look to the future web – BBC News

2008 #2 (~February-March)
PARC Innovations Update: sensor tape technology; experience ethnography; "crimeware"; ripe time for open innovation; more...

Spotlight: PARC to develop sensor tape technology that helps prevent traumatic brain injury

Building upon PARC’s foundation in printing large-area, flexible electronics, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded PARC a contract to develop and prototype all-printed, disposable, blast dosimeters. This technology is a flexible, wearable, electronic “tape” that contains sensors to record data associated with exposure to explosive blasts in the battlefield. The program will take advantage of PARC’s jet-printing expertise to develop low-cost technologies and processes for fabricating the flexible, wearable sensor tape.
More about PARC’s large-area electronics work…

Engage with us: A hands-on workshop for applying ethnography in your organization

Through PARC's customized, structured, introductory workshops, teams of co-workers can experiment with ethnographical techniques and practices, and gain tangible knowledge about how ethnography works – immediately gleaning insights that are relevant to their group’s or company’s objectives.
More about the Experience Ethnography workshop…

Resources:

Understanding and preventing specific security threats to the Internet
“Crimeware” combines the technical corruption of traditional malware and the deceit of phishing, therefore posing an urgent threat to the Internet, e-commerce, and various computing devices and infrastructures. In Crimeware: Understanding New Attacks and Defenses (Addison-Wesley, 2008), PARC’s new Principal Scientist Markus Jakobsson and co-editor Zulfikar Ramzan share insights about current and future security trends and threats, describe how to identify crimeware, and explore ways to prevent attacks. Markus Jakobsson recently joined PARC to continue his work exploring the human factor of security and cryptographic protocols (with an emphasis on privacy). Markus is coauthor of more than one hundred peer-reviewed articles and co-inventor on more than fifty patents.
More about the book…
More about PARC’s security & privacy work…

A Ripe Time for Open Innovation
"One of the best options for recessionary times, and, some would argue, even in expansive times, is to join forces with another entity with complementary innovation goals. Open innovation is about connecting with others to find new ideas and, often, to co-develop and co-market them." (Business Week)
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/mar2008/id20080319_656312.htm

On the Road:

FTC roundtable discussion on phishing education:
In April, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission discusses phishing, the online identity theft technique that uses deceptive spam to trick consumers into divulging sensitive information. The FTC’s goal is to identify ways to raise public awareness of phishing to help consumers protect themselves, giving them a "playbook" for recognizing and reacting to this malicious practice. PARC Principal Scientist Markus Jakobsson has been invited to share his insights with the Washington, D.C. audience at this invitation-only working meeting.

PARC at the 26th Annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI2008); topics include:
– “Lifting the Veil: Improving accountability and social transparency in Wikipedia with WikiDashboard”
– “Augmented Information Assimilation: Social and algorithmic web aids for the information long tail”
– “Keyholes: Selective sharing in close collaboration”
– “Escape: A target selection technique using visually-cued gestures”
– “Crowdsourcing user studies with Mechanical Turk”
– “Activity-based serendipitous recommendations with the Magitti mobile leisure guide”
– “Responsive Mirror: Fitting information for fitting rooms”
www.parc.com/ontheroad

In the Media:

"PARC is now a cleantech hotbed. Silicon Valley-based PARC is leveraging its almost 40-year history in IT, mass production, microfluidics, and other scientific expertise for a variety of mostly corporate clients…”
Cleantech.com’s tour of PARC’s cleantech projects

How PARC sees printers boosting cleantech – CNET News.com
Sustainable Tech interview with PARC – BusinessWeek Special Report [podcast]
Elusive Green Laser is Missing Ingredient for Amazing Displays – Wall Street Journal
SolFocus installs first solar array…first commercial deployment – Semiconductor Today
‘Smart’ Fitting Rooms Suggests What to Wear – Discovery Channel/ Discovery News
The Wisdom of the Chaperones…myth of Web 2.0 democracy – Slate.com
Xerox and PARC on Comeback Trail with Cleantech and Other Technologies – SiliconValleyWatcher
A Virtual Laboratory: Second Life… – Scientific American
World-wise web…computers that can reason – Financial Times

2008 #1 (~September-January)
PARC Innovations Update: ethnography; interactive experiences for mobile users; innovation services; and more...

Spotlight: ETHNOGRAPHY as a foundation for innovation
To stay ahead in today’s rapidly evolving, saturated marketplace, companies must engage in strategic innovation. Ethnography – which is based on the systematic observation and analysis of people within their natural environments – catalyzes corporate innovation efforts. It helps companies better identify and address market opportunities, anticipate emerging trends, deliver superior products to customers, and create new businesses while minimizing risk. More...

In the Marketplace: Rich, interactive experiences for mobile users
PARC has developed a new kind of mobile experience with Dai Nippon Printing, Ltd., a leading electronics company based in Japan. The handheld mobile system predicts and recommends leisure activities – not just according to location, but also by learning user preferences and inferring current activities.
DNP opportunity discovery through ethnography [.pdf]
Press release with related links

On the Road: What’s the next great deal for VCs?; and, Services that enable innovation success
PARC Director & President Mark Bernstein is participating in a “What’s Next?” panel discussion at the Dow Jones VentureOne Summit (February 26, San Francisco, California). Since VCs have thrust themselves into the venture worlds of China, India, Web 2.0, and cleantech looking for the next great deal, this panel will ponder what is next on the horizon. Other panelists include Prith Banerjee, SVP of Research & Director of HP Labs; Vincent Pluvinage, General Manager of Strategic Alliance and Private Equity Partnerships, Intellectual Ventures; and Geoffrey Moore, Venture Partner, Mohr Davidow Ventures. More...

The business practice of open innovation has matured, while the concept itself has expanded. Progressive companies have recognized the advantage of looking outside for technologies and for complementary business expertise to help them create or enter new markets. PARC Director of Business Development Jennifer Ernst recently shared lessons for ensuring the success of expertise-based engagements – particularly in developing new market opportunities – at CoDev 2008 (International Congress on Co-Development, Scottsdale, Arizona). Talk details + presentation...

Environment/ Internship Opportunity: Help invent a sustainable future
PARC is inviting highly qualified, graduate-level students to apply to our recently launched Sustainability Fellowship – and transform their ideas for a sustainable world into reality. This fellowship, like PARC's comprehensive cleantech innovation program, is designed to apply technology toward positive environmental and social change. PARC reduces its own carbon footprint where possible, and then offsets the remainder, by funding this unique program. More...

In the Media:
Emerging Technology...Keep Changing the Game (Silicon Valley Business Journal)
From PARC, the mobile phone as tour guide (CNET News.com)
SolFocus boosts second-round funding to $63.6M (Semiconductor Today)
Low-Temperature Flexible Sensors Use Inkjet Patterning (Photonics)
Ethnographic research by Japanese firms draws attention (Nikkei Business Pubs)
DARPA kicks off green laser project (Optics.org)
Trust Me (Wikipedia Weekly interview) – podcast
A Tour of PARC (Guy Kawasaki's How to Change the World) – blog post
Smart Phone Suggests Things to Do (Technology Review)
A-Si approach beats temperature challenge (Laser Focus World)
New PARC software turns cell phone into personal assistant (Computerworld)
Does online-game design hook users? (FOXBusiness)
Erasable paper can be re-used, reduces waste (Palo Alto Online)

2007 #2 (~May-August)
PARC Innovations Update: entrepreneurs welcome; web 2.0 & enterprise; National Medal of Technology; and more

Spotlight: PARC opens doors to entrepreneurs
PARC has announced "Startup@PARC," a novel initiative that joins forces with entrepreneurs and investors to bring transformative technologies to the marketplace. The program builds upon PARC's successes in partnerships with new ventures and leverages PARC's open-innovation approach. Unlike typical entrepreneur-in-residence programs that import industry experts to develop specific, pre-defined commercial opportunities, PARC works closely with selected ventures to create tailored partnerships steeped in interdisciplinary scientific and strategic collaboration. More...

In the Marketplace: SolFocus closes latest funding round; Powerset announces Powerset Labs; Inxight acquired by Business Objects
Solar energy company SolFocus, which recently moved to new headquarters after being incubated at PARC for almost two years, has received a total of $84 million funding to date (New Enterprise Associates, Moser Baer India, Metasystem Group, NGEN Partners, Yellowstone Capital, David Gelbaum, and other investors). SolFocus also acquired Spain-based sun-tracker company Inspira in August. Meanwhile, natural language search company Powerset, Inc. opened its Powerset Labs site where users can test, discuss, and share feedback for the search engine scheduled for release next year. Finally, PARC spinoff Inxight, which focuses on transforming text into actionable information, was acquired by Business Objects in July...

On the Road: Web 2.0 in in the Enterprise
While more enterprises contemplate the benefits of Web 2.0 social software (enhanced collaboration, innovation, knowledge sharing), the coordination and interaction costs that occur in social systems are often overlooked. Based on extensive studies of social systems such as del.icio.us and Wikipedia, PARC has identified multiple factors that must be managed to realize the full benefits of these systems within the enterprise. These and other insights will be presented at the conference KM World & Intranets 2007 (November 6-8 in San Jose), by Ed Chi, PhD (manager of PARC's augmented social cognition research area) and Lawrence Lee, director of business development. If you're attending the conference, please visit PARC booth #313 or contact us for a free expo pass and conference discount code. More...

Experiment: Research prototype of a social dynamic analysis tool for Wikipedia
PARC recently announced "WikiDashboard," a prototype visualization tool for analyzing users' editing patterns on Wikipedia articles. The tool shows visualizations embedded in live Wikipedia pages to provide social transparency by documenting page editors and revisions on each page. The research team's goal is to enhance credibility for page content – leading to higher levels of trust in Wikipedia. Check it out...

In the Media/ Awards:
PARC computational linguist Lauri Karttunen youngest winner of Lifetime Achievement Award
Five Ideas That Will Reinvent Modern Computing (PC Magazine)
Xerox receives National Medal of Technology for over fifty years of innovation in...
Building a better search engine (Technology Review)
Striking up the intermediate band (Inside Greentech)
Scientific research potential of virtual worlds (Science)
From inkjets to solar PV (PodTech.net) — video/ podcast

2007 #1 (~January-April)
PARC Innovations Update: info foraging, consumer search, and other transformative technologies

People: Pioneering PARC scientist wins Franklin Institute Bower Award for Achievement in Science
Joining a list of past honorees including Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, and Jane Goodall, PARC Senior Research Fellow Stuart Card recently won a Franklin Institute award for his "contributions to the fields of human-centered computing, measuring how people use machines, our relationship with information, and integrating machines effortlessly into our lives." According to the Franklin Institute committee, Stu's contributions "have been as key to the electronic revolution as parallel advances in electrical engineering." More...

Spotlight: Information Foraging Theory and the ultimate resource for understanding human behavior on the web
PARC's "digital Darwin" Peter Pirolli recently released his fundamental book, Information Foraging Theory: Adaptive Interaction with Information (Oxford University Press, March 2007). Comparing the way humans search for information to the way animals forage for food, this theory helps predict and analyze human behavior on the web. Usability guru Jakob Nielsen describes Pirolli's book as "... the ultimate source if you want to understand why the Web works the way it does and why users behave the way they do. Probably the most important book ever published about Web design (even though it's not about Web design)." More...

In the Marketplace: Powerset and PARC join forces to develop breakthrough consumer search engine
Natural language search company Powerset, Inc., and PARC signed a licensing and collaboration agreement to develop and commercialize natural language technology for a breakthrough consumer search engine. The agreement between Powerset and PARC includes technology and patent licenses, as well as long-term research collaboration. PARC plans to enable Powerset to bring unprecedented consumer search capabilities to market, leveraging more than three decades of PARC's formative scientific research and technology refinement in natural language understanding. More...

On the Road: "Mining for Gold" by helping companies automate standardized processes
Many manufacturers envision implementing automation systems that provide real-time production control and enable mass customization. At the recent World Batch Forum conference in Baltimore, Maryland, PARC shared lessons learned from applying a model-based software approach to real-time planning, scheduling, and control in high-speed, parallel production-printing systems. By applying these insights and expertise to batch manufacturing, which involves similar processes, PARC envisions helping other companies significantly boost their bottom line. Download the paper

In the Media
Coming Virtual Web (Business Week); a chance to rival Google (NY Times); an edge on LCDs (EE Times); DOE funding under the Solar America Initiative (U.S. Dept. of Energy); corporate push into virtual worlds (Information Week); erasable, reusable paper (International Herald Tribune)

2006 #3 (~September-December)
News from PARC: content-centric networking, printer architectures, future classrooms, and more

Feature Story: Content Centric Networking – Get Your Data When You Want It, Where You Want It
Today’s networks are outdated. They were designed over three decades ago – for 1970s technologies and workplaces, when people didn’t have to deal with boundless digital data, diverse networks, and multiple mobile and wireless devices. Read about a fundamentally new approach to networking that will drastically simplify people’s lives – ensuring that communication can happen anywhere, anytime, with any device, and using any available means. More...

People: Renowned industry pioneer Van Jacobson joins PARC to lead development of content-centric networking
Former Cisco Chief Scientist Van Jacobson – renowned for solving the global problem of network congestion, among many other accomplishments – recently joined PARC as a Research Fellow to lead PARC’s content-centric networking research program. Van and other key PARC scientists aim to restructure the way networks manage resources and distribute information – and deliver the next evolution in networking. More...

In the Marketplace: PARC researchers help create breakthrough parallel architecture for Xerox's newest printers
Xerox Corp., PARC's largest research sponsor, recently demonstrated a breakthrough, dual-engine printer platform based on intelligent control software and a parallel architecture. Developed at PARC and at Xerox's Wilson Center for Research and Technology, the new parallel printer architecture delivers the power of two printers with the simplicity of one, enabling Xerox to deliver unsurpassed productivity and reliability to the digital printing industry. Backed by filings of more than 50 patents, this architecture marks a major shift in Xerox's product development strategy and will pave the way for radical new printer architectures. More...

Education/ In the Community: California school administrators and PARC researchers to envision the classroom of the future
Each summer, selected members of the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) participate in the ACSA-Xerox-PARC Alliance internship. These school administrators spend a week at PARC interacting with researchers, exchanging insights, experiencing PARC's unique collaborative environment, and inspiring innovation. Applications for the 2007 internship – which will focus on the classroom of the future and the role technology will play – are now being accepted. More...

In the Media
Bendable displays (CIO magazine); online shopping (Harvard Business Review); web’s societal, scientific, consequences (San Francisco Chronicle); protecting sensitive digital information (Technology Review)

2006 #2 (~May-August)
New from PARC: inside search; new display technology; poker madness

Feature Story: Inside Search — What "Search" Really Means and Where Its Going
Old models of search, which focus only on finding information from the Internet and on desktops, are out. So what's next? Read about where search is going and a new set of technologies unveiled by PARC researchers. More...

News: PARC expertise enables new display technology for Uni-Pixel, Inc.
PARC has significant experience with MEMS and display technologies, and is now providing applied expertise to Uni-Pixel’s flat-panel color display development efforts. More...

Event: PARC joins EPA-award winning Sustainable Silicon Valley
PARC pledged to further reduce CO2 emissions when it joined EPA-award winning organization Sustainable Silicon Valley, a collaboration of businesses, governments, and NGOs that are identifying and addressing key environmental and resource pressures. More...

Awards/ Interests: Poker madness at PARC
PARC Area Manager Eric Saund won the Best Conference Paper Award for his personal paper (presented at the IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence and Games), “Capturing the Information Conveyed by Opponents’ Betting Behavior in Poker”. According to Saund, “Poker is a currently popular instance of a very general machine learning and inference problem in understanding the activities of intentional agents.” Other pertinent PARC poker papers (alliteration aside!) include “Dealing Cards in Poker Games” and “Keeping Bots out of Online Games". "Capturing..." [pdf], "Dealing...", "Keeping..."

People & Jobs: An inside look at PARC’s culture and environment
PARC has continually delivered industry-transforming innovations for over 35 years. What kind of people, mindsets, and environments are behind PARC's innovation edge? More...

2006 #1 (~January-April)
PARC is growing: new businesses, new people, and new innovation directions

Feature Story: PARC Goes Green and Clean
Cleantech is one of the fastest-growing and largest industry sectors, and teams of PARC scientists are now addressing such challenges as affordable solar electricity, efficient energy distribution for the power grid, and safe air and water. PARC also recently announced one of its first ventures in this market (with SolFocus, Inc.) to manufacture low-cost solar energy systems that will cut solar electricity costs by half. How did the research lab which introduced the Ethernet and other inventions to the world enter this area? More...

Event: PARC Keynote at Cleantech Venture Forum this week in San Francisco
PARC Lab Manager Scott Elrod spoke about “Developing Tomorrow’s Cleantech Innovations” at this week’s Cleantech Venture Network Forum IX, which showcased emerging cleantech investment opportunities and provided information to media and policy makers. Other speakers included John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Mayor Gavin Newsom. More...

News: PARC technology enables full-color, active-matrix OLED displays
Universal Display Corp announced full-color, active-matrix OLED (organic light emitting diodes) display prototypes on flexible metal foil. The prototype uses polysilicon TFT (thin-film transistor) backplanes designed and fabricated by PARC. More...

Awards: PARC Research Fellow recognized as one of the most important theorists in HCI field
PARC Research Fellow Peter Pirolli was inducted into the CHI Academy, which is an honorary group of individuals that includes principal leaders and shapers in the HCI (human-computer interaction) field. Pirolli was recognized “one of the most important theorists of HCI…[whose] work combines bold theoretical moves with concern for how these can shape systems in HCI.” More...

People & Jobs: PARC is growing! – new VP of Business Development and over a dozen positions in research and business development
John Knights joined PARC as VP of Business Development. PARC is currently hiring outstanding and entrepreneurial scientists who share a passion for radical innovations that can transform an industry. Available positions