CN Theme Articles

Toward Scalable Systems for Big Data Analytics: A Technology Tutorial

Wed, 13 May 2015 08:08:00 -0400

A literature survey and system tutorial on big data analytics platforms provides an overview for nonexpert readers and inspiration for advanced audiences to customize big-data solutions. More

Second-Generation Big Data Systems

Wed, 13 May 2015 08:07:00 -0400

More varied data channels, increasingly diverse analytic methods, new deployment models, and fundamental technology shifts will significantly impact the next generation of big data systems. More

Survey of Research on Big Data Storage

Wed, 13 May 2015 08:06:00 -0400

With the development of cloud computing and mobile Internet, both industry and academics have worked to solve the issues related to big data. More

The Growing Pains of Cloud Storage

Wed, 13 May 2015 08:05:00 -0400

The rapid growth of cloud storage has created challenges for storage architects to meet diverse performance and reliability requirements while controlling costs at a minimum. More

Storage Challenge: Where Will All That Big Data Go?

Wed, 13 May 2015 08:04:00 -0400

Big data creates numerous exciting possibilities for organizations, but first they must figure out where they're going to store all that information. More

A Survey of Cloud Database Systems

Wed, 13 May 2015 08:03:00 -0400

This survey of 15 popular cloud databases provides an overview of each system and its storage platform, license type, and programming language used for writing the source code of the NoSQLs. It also considers important features such as data handling techniques and billing practices. More

Big Data in the Public Cloud

Wed, 13 May 2015 08:02:00 -0400

Although public cloud companies have been developing big data infrastructure since their inception, only recently have big data workloads been running in the public cloud. More

May Theme: Is the Application Layer Fueling Innovation in Storage Infrastructure?

Wed, 13 May 2015 08:01:00 -0400

With large-scale, globally distributed application architectures, storage infrastructure must enable transactional continuity and nondisruptive operation. These days, it’s becoming both application-driven and application-optimized. More

Bridging Software Communities through Social Networking

Thu, 9 Apr 2015 08:08:00 -0400

Over the past decade, the advent of social networking has fundamentally altered the landscape of how software is used, designed, and developed. It has expanded how communities of software stakeholders communicate, collaborate, learn from, and coordinate with one another. The guest editors of this special issue describe both the field and the articles they selected for it. More

Understanding How Companies Interact with Free Software Communities

Thu, 9 Apr 2015 08:07:00 -0400

When free, open source software development communities work with companies that use their output, it's especially important for both parties to understand how this collaboration is performing. The use of data analytics techniques on software development repositories can improve factual knowledge about performance metrics. More

Water Science Software Institute: Agile and Open Source Scientific Software Development

Thu, 9 Apr 2015 08:06:00 -0400

An Open Community Engagement Process (OCEP) applies open source mechanics and software engineering to water science research. This article describes the OCEP open source community amplification principle as well as the authors' experiences, lessons learned, and challenges with operationalizing OCEP. More

Crowdsourcing Scientific Software Documentation: A Case Study of the NumPy Documentation Project

Thu, 9 Apr 2015 08:05:00 -0400

Without good documentation, even the most sophisticated and efficient scientific software is difficult to use and maintain. However, due to lack of time, resources, and incentives, scientists who develop software for other scientists aren't keen on writing documentation. Scientific software packages that are freely available and shared within scientific communities often suffer from poor documentation, sometimes making them unusable. This article considers documentation crowdsourcing as a way to address the issue. Using the NumPy documentation project as a case study, the article discusses how to leverage the knowledge about software that resides within the user community. The research looks at technical infrastructure, community engagement, and motivation, and considers benefits, such as expanding the community, and challenges, including maintaining commitment level. The conclusion suggests preliminary guidelines for those thinking about documentation crowdsourcing. More

Python: An Ecosystem for Scientific Computing

Thu, 9 Apr 2015 08:04:00 -0400

As the relationship between research and computing evolves, new tools are required. Python can help develop these computational research tools by providing a balance of clarity and flexibility without sacrificing performance. More

Analyzing Implicit Social Networks in Multiplayer Online Games

Thu, 9 Apr 2015 08:03:00 -0400

Understanding the social structures that people implicitly form when playing networked games helps developers create innovative gaming services to benefit both players and operators. But how can we extract and analyze this implicit social structure? More

Forge++: The Changing Landscape of FLOSS Development

Thu, 9 Apr 2015 08:02:00 -0400

There are three newer tools at the center of FLOSS development today: distributed version control based forges (like Github), programmer question-and-answer communities (like Stack Overflow), and paste bin tools (like Gist or Pastebin.com). These tools are extending and changing the toolset used for FLOSS development, and redefining what a software forge looks like. More

April Theme: Software-Mediated Community Building

Thu, 9 Apr 2015 08:01:00 -0400

Virtual communities take on many different forms — from the explicit, by-design communities that form discussion groups and forums to the implicit groups that develop organically in software development, online games, and the like. The impact of how software shapes that growth and collaborative spirit can provide insight for how to better develop future versions of the software. More