Spring Break
The Daily OrangeProfessor develops file-sharing network software
By Shayna Meliker
Posted: 11/4/07, 11:37 PM EST Section: News
File sharing, without the use of the Internet, will be made possible with Lee McKnight's Innovaticus, a new software program that allows information to be sent through almost any digital devices such as printers, MP3 players and microphones.
Named for the Latin term for "innovation," Innovaticus was developed by School of Information Studies professor Lee McKnight and the Syracuse University Wireless Grids Lab.
McKnight looks forward to the testing process, a semester-long experiment beginning in January. The software will be given to 40 students living in an arts learning community in Boland Hall.
Focus groups conducted throughout the semester will evaluate how students use the software, which types of information they transmit and for what purposes they share this information.
"I am happy to have the software available to our Syracuse students before the rest of the world," McKnight said. He said the software, licensed by Wireless Grids Corp., would be beneficial to universities as well as businesses.
Each user manages his or her own personal network of devices and can select files and information to be available to other people on that grid. The possibilities for grids are virtually endless; they could include family members, students living in a dormitory or employees working in an office building.
"You choose what you make available, to whom and under which circumstances. Information can be available publicly, to certain people you select or by password," said K. Matthew Dames, a doctoral fellow and adjunct iSchool professor.
Dames worked with McKnight on Innovaticus since the summer, researching the intellectual property issues that arise in the sharing of resources over these networks.
McKnight led a multi-university research project in 2002 called Virtual Markets and Digital Grids, funded by the National Science Foundation. The project's discoveries led to Innovaticus. McKnight founded the Wireless Grids Corp. in 2004, which then licensed the software and filed a patent.
Named for the Latin term for "innovation," Innovaticus was developed by School of Information Studies professor Lee McKnight and the Syracuse University Wireless Grids Lab.
McKnight looks forward to the testing process, a semester-long experiment beginning in January. The software will be given to 40 students living in an arts learning community in Boland Hall.
Focus groups conducted throughout the semester will evaluate how students use the software, which types of information they transmit and for what purposes they share this information.
"I am happy to have the software available to our Syracuse students before the rest of the world," McKnight said. He said the software, licensed by Wireless Grids Corp., would be beneficial to universities as well as businesses.
Each user manages his or her own personal network of devices and can select files and information to be available to other people on that grid. The possibilities for grids are virtually endless; they could include family members, students living in a dormitory or employees working in an office building.
"You choose what you make available, to whom and under which circumstances. Information can be available publicly, to certain people you select or by password," said K. Matthew Dames, a doctoral fellow and adjunct iSchool professor.
Dames worked with McKnight on Innovaticus since the summer, researching the intellectual property issues that arise in the sharing of resources over these networks.
McKnight led a multi-university research project in 2002 called Virtual Markets and Digital Grids, funded by the National Science Foundation. The project's discoveries led to Innovaticus. McKnight founded the Wireless Grids Corp. in 2004, which then licensed the software and filed a patent.
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