Revised Mission Statement & call to arms

cutkosky@eit.COM (Mark Cutkosky)
Date: Tue, 26 Apr 94 09:11:26 PDT
Message-id: <9404261611.AA05729@eit.COM>
To: madefast@cdr.stanford.edu
From: cutkosky@eit.COM (Mark Cutkosky)
X-Sender: cutkosky@pop.eit.com
Subject: Revised Mission Statement & call to arms
X-Attachments: :Work:2387:Mission & Call v0.4:


SUBJECT:	2nd Call to MADEFAST Participation DRAFT v0.4
(last long email message -- Mosaic-WWW is the MADEFAST medium)

MADEFAST:
  1. DELIVER a working MADE-II brassboard IFRPA seeker prototype, suitably 
     redefined to fit the 3 month design-development cycle-time.
 
  2. DELIVER a working MADEFAST collaboration infrastructure prototype, of 
     sufficient agility to support deliverable #1, and sufficient depth to
serve 
     as the community's collaboration infrastructure foundation.

  3. DELIVER a program proposal that defines the R&D program requirements for 
     further development and deployment of deliverable #2.


SCENARIO (based on notes from Pradeep Khosla): 

Objectives:
  1.	Demonstrate collaboration of MADE researchers.
  2.	Provide for access of MADE services and technologies
        over the Internet.
  3.	Describe and demonstrate improvements in design and
        build process through use of MADE tools and services.
  4.	Identify technology gaps in
         a) accomplishing remote access to MADE tools and 
         b) functionality of MADE tools.

Approach:
  1. Design, build, and demonstrate a tracker brassboard prototype 
  2. Document collaboration and design and build process through: 
      a) white paper,
      b) engineering notebook, and
      c) multi-media presentation.

Seeker Demonstration Scenario:

A test of success of the seeker prototype will be the ability to track a 
laser pointer scanned manually in a random direction around a wall of a 
conference room. The demonstration will be held in a medium size lecture 
room (50x50 -75x75 feet). The tracker will need to track the source and 
display in some fashion (i.e., monitoring the video out of the camera). The 
finished unit could fit (self contained) on a small cart. A second test 
will involve manually moving the seeker and tracking a the laser pointer.

The tracker will acquire the light-source at a fixed point, and if the 
signal is lost the tracker should return to this home point for 
re-acquisition.

The emphasis of this exercise is to demonstrate the interaction of the MADE 
tools and services, not the capability of the physical device being 
developed. Low cost and short development time are key, as is flexibility. 
The system should be designed for reconfiguration; for example, redesign 
with additional space constraints, or with a new sensor that might change 
the weight and require some redesign of components, or for a larger 
production run of 100 units. Low cost, commercial components should be 
considered. This is all an extention of the IRFPA Brassboard Integration 
problem. 


MADEFAST STATUS

The lines of opportunity and responsibility within MADEFAST are clarifying. 
First and foremost amongst these has been the sentiment that communication 
and collaboration tools and services in MADEFAST should be exemplary -- a 
model infrastructure for the future. In particular, we should avoid a 
"lowest common denominator" approach to communications. While a strong 
effort will be made to help everyone stay aboard, each site will ultimately 
be responsible for its own Internet support services (contact: "Glenn A. 
Kramer" gak@eit.com). 

MADEFAST is now over two months into a planned 6 month long experiment. 
Phase-A, launching the MADEFAST collaboration infrastructure is almost 
complete. Phase-B, collaborative design and manufacturing begins in 
earnest with this message. Phase-C, project documentation and formal 
definition of collaboration infrastructure R&D requirements takes place in 
parallel with these activities. Phase-A,B activities constitute a sort of 
"inner loop" in MADEFAST participation. Phase-C is the "outer loop" where 
observation, reflection and programmatic planning will take place. 


SELECTED MILESTONES

 Start:	MADEFAST project launched at DICE/MADE-1
        contractors mtg. (10.Feb.94)

 Planning:	Working group meetings launched at
            Stanford and Utah (23.Feb.94)

 MOSAIC:	The MADEFAST web launched (18.Mar.94,

 Mission v0.1: First draft of the proposed "IRFPA seeker 
      mission" statement was posted the web (16.Mar.94)

 Budget:	Submitted by Utah (contact: rfr@cs.utah.edu) (24.Mar.94).

 Meetings:	
	EIT/Utah (5.Apr.94 @Utah)
	EIT/SU/Utah (19.Apr.94 @EIT)
	SU/Utah (21.Apr.94 @Utah)

 Notice & Mission v0.4: 2nd Call to Participation (25.Apr.94) 
  more
   much
    more...


 Show:	MADEFAST demonstration workshop in Washington
         by Pradeep Koshla, MADE program manager (29.Aug.94).




CONSENSUS

 WWW for information exchange:

  We will use the Internet as our principal means of collaborative 
  communication. The World Wide Web will be used to capture, disseminate and 
  archive collaborative knowledge. If you do not know what the World Wide Web 
  (WWW) is or need help starting out, please contact Joe Wagner 
  (joew@cdr.stanford.edu; 415-497-5857 phone; 415-415-725-8475 fax). 

  There will be email announcements when major items are added. The 
  responsibility for retrieval and integration of this information at the 
  local site will remain local. 

  There is already considerable information in the MADEFAST web pages.
  Please examine URL: "http://cdr.stanford.edu/html/MADEFAST/" for details
  about services, tools, meetings, design prototypes etc.

 Video:

  We plan to hold weekly video conferences starting the week of April 
  27. For details contact George Toye (toye@cdr.stanford.edu) or Jim Rose 
  (rose@cs.utah.edu). A first test conference is schedules for the week of of 
  April 27.

 Archive:

   Please mail design notes, etc. to "mfa@eit.com" (MadeFastArchive at EIT).
   To facilitate searching, insert a section in your message as follows:
   <SUMMARY>
    Put keywords & header information here.
   </SUMMARY>

  See the MADEFAST web pages for more details. Mail posted to 
  madefast@cdr.stanford.edu is also archived and linked to the web pages.

 Mailing List:

  Mail sent to madefast@cdr.stanford.edu will be broadcast to the 
  MADEFAST community mailing list.


ISSUE  (information sharing)

An important issue still to be agreed upon by the participants is the 
scope and nature of information disclosure on the web and otherwise. 
Should it be limited to the participants of MADEFAST or do we want to 
have a higher profile? Can MADEFAST achieve name recognition outside the 
participant circle? The notion of an inner core of active participants and 
outer core of active observers has emerged. There is also the possibility 
of an passive observer community. How shall information be shared? 

MADEFAST is intended to be a demonstration of MADE technology and 
collaboration capabilities. One thought is that demonstrations are usually 
more effective when the audience is composed of more than just the 
performers.

IMPLEMENTATION

The people and institutional relationships in MADEFAST are provisional and 
changing. They are described by a figure and text in the MADEFAST web. 


cordially,
larry,
rich,
mark,
et al