Through the US Ignite initiative, the National Science Foundation (NSF) seeks to demonstrate the potential and capacity of ultra-high speed broadband networks, seeding demand for and investment into their development. In coordination with other project components, including the communities that comprise the Ignite test network, the NSF plans to conduct a two-phase open innovation challenge, wherein individuals and project teams compete for prizes and funding to develop applications that make use of ultra-high speed networks. These applications will deliver innovative and valuable services in areas of national priority, including smart health, clean energy, cyber-learning, smart transportation, public safety, and advanced manufacturing.
Mozilla has a long history of designing and managing Open Innovation Challenges. The organization uses the challenge model to drive participation in shaping product development and innovation. Challenges pair the agility of open innovation, the generativity that comes from the freedom to propose new ideas, diverse perspectives, crowd sourced insight, and accidental encounter with resources and support for projects able to demonstrate measurable impact. Through US Ignite, Mozilla will leverage its experiences to drive ultra-high speed broadband application development.
A successful U.S. Ignite prize competition will provide an accessible vision of what is possible with next-generation networks, demonstrate that potential with deployments addressing national priorities, and galvanize a network of gigabit application developers.
What kinds of apps can we build when data can travel as fast as it needs to, and processing power is never a bottleneck? What apps will be enabled by the next generation of networks and web technologies? That is the question Mozilla and NSF set out to answer with the Ignite Apps Challenge. As part of the US Ignite initiative, we formed a community to imagine and build apps from the future. We offered incentizes like prize money and mentorship to teams across the country. In all, teams submitted 305 ideas across six national priority areas. And we funded 22 teams to build prototype apps. Part of that potential includes exciting new possibilities for zero-latency HD video, telepresence and 3D. One of the winning applications, "Cizzle," lets users interact within virtual three-dimensional environments, manipulating their environment together while learning about educational topics like the solar system or exploring the surface of Mars. Similarly, "engage3D" allows users to create empowering learning experiences using real-time telepresence, streaming Kinect sensor data for 3D videoconferencing using open web components like WebGL. Other winning applications show how gigabit networks can help make communities safer, healthier and more energy-efficient. The Real-Time Emergency Response application, for example, lets users observe and assess situations for emergency responders using live video and social media data. By pulling video from multiple sources and weaving it into a wrap-around display, first responders can get more situational awareness for an unfolding emergency before they even physically arrive on the scene.And it’s more than just speed. Next-generation networks are also smarter and deeply programmable, giving developers much greater control and reliability. The Remote Process Control application, for example, is able to support uses where ultra-high reliability is crucial — like precisely guiding a scalpel for remote-control surgery, controlling robots to help clean up after a chemical spill, or remotely managing advanced manufacturing processes. Removing the bottleneck of data transfer also open up new possibilities for crunching and delivering data. The Luminosity app, for example, allows scientists and citizens to collaborate on huge data sets generated by telescopes — all using modern open web components like HTML5, JavaScript and WebGL. And the Software Lending Library would allow users to borrow complex software from libraries using ultra-fast low latency networks. As a result, users anywhere would gain access to software like Photoshop, Computer Aided Design (CAD) and more. These prototype applications were made possible thanks to collaborations between designers and developers, university researchers and students, Federal, state, and local officials, entrepreneurs, and visionaries all across the U.S. The project helped to form innovation communities in places like Kansas City and Chattanooga, TN. For more, see http://us-ignite.org.
