The following is an article published in the January 2013 edition of Computing Research News. If you would like receive CRN via email, you can sign up here. The Computing Community Consortium:  A Force Multiplier for CRA By Ed Lazowska, CCC Chair, University of Washington The Computing Community Consortium, like CRA-W, is a committee of CRA that serves as a “force multiplier” for a particular aspect of CRA’s mission.  CCC’s role is to work with the computing research community, the White House, Federal agencies, and others, to create momentum for visionary research themes that address major technical, national, and global challenges. CCC has recently secured a new 4-year award from NSF, and is transitioning from […]

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) made available by organizations like Coursera, an online education company  that offers free college courses, are gaining popularity at lightning speed. An article in the New York Times details the growth and potential profitability of free online education companies. In early 2012, Coursera was founded by two computer science professors, Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng, and enrollment has reached more than a million users for over 200 courses. This rapid growth outpaces the launches of both Twitter and Facebook. The company is slowing starting to generate revenue. So far, Coursera has attracted $22 million in venture capital. Other companies offering online courses are also taking hold. Udemy allows individual […]