Media Grid: Way To Go Aaron

Okay, I know I all but promised not to write about grids again until the cows came home. But the following isn't my fault. I didn't receive the award--Aaron Walsh did.

The award in question is the "Teaching with New Media Award" at Boston College. Aaron received the award for his "exemplary uses of technology in teaching"--specifically for his work with the Media Grid, a public utility for digital media.

Why I care about this is that Aaron first wrote about the Media Grid in an article in Dr. Dobb's Journal a year or so ago. In that article, he described the Media Grid as:

... a digital media network infrastructure and software-development platform based on new and emerging distributed computational grid technology. The Media Grid...is designed as an on-demand public computing utility that software programs and web sites can access for digital content delivery (graphics, video, animations, movies, music, games, and so forth), storage, and media processing services (such as data visualization and simulation, medical image sharpening and enhancement, motion picture scene rendering, special effects, media transformations and compositing, and other digital media manipulation capabilities). As an open platform that provides digital media delivery, storage, and processing services, the Media Grid's foundation rests on Internet, web, and grid standards. By combining relevant standards from these fields with new and unique capabilities, the Media Grid provides a novel software-development platform designed specifically for networked applications that produce and consume large quantities of digital media.

Since then, Aaron has cranked up his efforts with the Media Grid, focusing on it as an immersive education learning system that uses 3D technology and digital media to bring distance learning to a new level. Unlike traditional online courses, which involve the delivery of simple Web pages or streaming video, immersive education combines interactive virtual reality and sophisticated digital media with collaborative online course environments and classrooms.

So in a way, I'm not writing about grid computing at all, but instead acknowledging the efforts of a creative individual who has used technology to make the world a little better place. Congratulations Aaron.

Posted by Jon Erickson at 06:16 PM  Permalink