ISSOME 2011 presentation

The presentation that I gave in Finland is available online and can be viewed below:

Author disambiguation for enhanced science 2.0 services

View more presentations from jdemaine

Bonn Gamecocks 44, Dortmund Giants 20!

We just watched a football game. The Bonn Gamecocks play in a municipal stadium just a few kilometers from where we live. We loaded up Arianne in the Burly trailer and rode there in no time. It was neat to watch real football again, and I really liked the low-key community atmosphere.

There were maybe 150 people in the stands, a small kitchen serving bratwurst and pommes (frites; i.e. french fries).  Interstingly, the beer was served in the bottle. Unlike in North America where laws would require plastic cups (if a community sports club could even get a liquor license). Whereas here you are trusted not to smash the bottle, and to return the empty.

This sort of semi-pro football is apparently quite widespread in Germany. There's a whole league and Berlin has at least 4 teams. While not at the level of the CFL or anything, it was still a great time. Arianne clapped when the crowd did, so she's a big fan.

Finnish bicycles

In the winter Finland is as bitterly cold and dark as Ottawa. That does not stop the Finns from having a thriving bicycle culture. There is no need for BIXI bicycle-sharing programs because lots of people have bikes. There is no need for bicycle lanes because drivers are not aggressive greed-heads. Cycling is just a normal part of everyone's transportation options.

I noticed a particular brand of bicycle was very common. The Finnish bicycle company Tunturi has been around for 90 years. Their city bikes have a caliper front brake and an internal-hub rear brake. It is odd to see bicycles with only one brake lever. The emblems are quite nice.

That must be a rare one: Tunturi made in Turku

In addition, there was a particular style of bike I had never seen before. With 24-inch wheels and a unisex frame with oversized down-tube, the "JOPO" bicycle struck me as an ideal runabout. These single-speeds were fairly common and were ridden by adults, not children. I wonder what the reasoning is. Pehaps the smaller wheels give some advantage in terms of ride or quickness off the line. I sure thought they looked cool.

One of the original stamped-frame JOPOs

Actually, the JOPO website explains the origin of these typically Finnish bikes:

jopo story begins from the 1960’s when Eero Helkama had a dream. He wanted to create a bicycle that all people could use, no matter what age, size, sex or financial status. Almost 50 years later the same dream is a crucial part of Finnish cycling culture. Three generations of jopo bicycles live in perfect harmony, and do not care about fashion trends.

An old (JOPO-style) Tunturi PONI

After seeing the widespread popularity of bicycles in hilly Turku, I know there is really no excuse for Canada to not have a vibrant 3-season bicycle culture. The Finns put up with long, dark winters and icy winds coming off the Baltic Sea. But when the snow melts they don't make up excuses to not ride.

Turku experience 1

I got back from Turku, Finland on Sunday evening. I notice that travelling long distances seems easier in Europe. Of course a direct flight to Vancouver would be easier, but to go between countries and switch planes was pretty seamless here. There wasn't the same hassle at airport security. Or maybe it was just that the airports were smaller. I dunno.

In any case, Turku was neat. As soon as I got there I felt like I was in a small Canadian city on the edge of the boreal forest. Think Sudbury or Quebec City: big enough for a theatre and concert hall, but only a few kilometers from endless pine trees. On arrival and departure, our turboprop was the only plane on the tarmac. This makes it easier to find your luggage (there's only one baggage carousell!).

Turku airport

The emptiest airport.

Turku's cathedral is the oldest in Finland. Aura river in foreground.

Some unusual facts about Finland:

• Many (most?) Finns are lactose-intolerant, and all the coffee-creamers are lactose-free. 
• Much of what is now Finland was controlled (or was technically part of) Sweden. So Swedish is a sort of second language. The university in Turku is a Swedish-language institution.
• Although a free and democratic country for most of the 20th century, Finland was careful to be friendly with the Soviet bloc during the Cold War. 
• The Finnish language is unlike any other, and bears only structural similarities with Korean and Hungarian. So all Finns under retirement age also speak English (perfectly). 
• In Finnish, there are 15 different ways of saying "the". That is really silly because "the" is not an interesting word. I can understand that the Inuit have 15 words for "snow". Or the Australians have 15 words for "vomit". But what's with all the "the"s?
• Vladimir Lenin lived in Turku for a while, while plotting the overthrow of the Tsars. 

Comrades

Also, Turku is the "European Capital of Culture" for 2011. I am pretty sure that this is just a marketing ploy that Brussels cooked up to help down-and-out cities make a few bucks off of tourism. What is central government (supposed to be) for anyways except to spread the largesse? There were many public sculptures around, including a series of seals.

Seal eating fish

Turku, Finland

I am off to Turku, Finland on Wednesday. I am presenting a paper there on Friday at the "Information Science and Social Media" (ISSOME 2011) conference. I will be staying at the Holiday Inn until Sunday the 28th, then it's back to Germany.

The presentation is entitled "Author Disambiguation for enhanced science 2.0 services" and describes how I have implemented a simple algorithm at iFQ to split publications written by identically-named individuals into distinct groups. It's not very cutting-edge, but it has the advantage of requiring no human guidance and works with very meagre data. Hopefully that makes it of interest to the conference attendees, as the metadata associated with the community-generated content on science 2.0 websites is also pretty sparse. Such websites would be more useful if they could automatically generate new structures based upon their data.

My colleague Kalle is half-Finnish and he told me bluntly that Turku is not very pretty. I think its main purpose is to serve as a place where Swedes can get off the ferry and purchase lots of lightly-taxed vodka. Nonetheless, the city is the 2011 European Capital of Culture. There are lots of public art installations that I hope to check out (including a see-through sauna). I will look into taking a boat tour and may go for a run on the island of Ruissalo.

Toy Town Berlin

There is a website for the expat community in Germany called "ToyTown". I don't know what that name is supposed to refer to, but I guess some towns are so cute that one could imagine that this country was designed as one big LEGO theme park.

Sometimes I can imagine the trains I see rolling along between rolling hills are just a grown-up version of those miniature train sets. So which is a charicature of the other? I never understood the appeal of that hobby until I came here.

Anyways, Christine is off to Berlin this weekend to check out an apartment. Here is a smurf-sized view of Berlin:


Tiny Town - Berlin from Sam on Vimeo.

Noord Holland

Here are some more photos from our little vacation last week. It was a big week for my daughter, as she got to crawl around on grass for the first time, swing in the hammock, etc. In addition, Arianne got to interact with a whole range of new animals that she had previously only seen in cartoon form. The family that runs the B&B has a young cat called "Pip", and Arianne was fascinated with this small furry thing. Later that week at another B&B near Utrecht she got right up to the snout of cows, large pigs, sheep, and a horse.

Here she is all decked out in adventure gear: Army green cargo pants, black tactical jacket and helmet. Ready for anything! Except sand - she was not keen on sand at all. Very strange stuff the first time one sees it.

We rode along the bike paths between the huge sand dunes (really hills) and eventually found a beach. The Atlantic at this time of year is damn cold (and that is as warm as it gets). But there were a few hardy souls splashing around out there.

View from back yard of "Pears and Apples" B&B