Given my attempt to run the North Pole Marathon, I’ve gotten involved in a project called International Polar Year.  While this is a major worldwide scientific research project that’s occurring over the next two years, there’s a concentration of scientists in Boulder – including several of the people at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at CU Boulder. 

Mark Parsons – one of the guys at NSIDC – is deeply involved in figuring out how to manage all the data associated with IPY.  A few weeks ago, we talked about the massive challenge associated with this project.  I asked Mark to write up an overview so that we could start to think about who in the tech business might be able to help us deal with the massive amount of data IPY is going to try to organize.  Following is his summary:

IPY is perhaps the most multidisciplinary, integrative, international science project ever conceived. The polar regions have a large and increasingly apparent influence on global systems. These influences range from global ocean circulation which does much to define current climate to local human adaptations  that help us understand human knowledge in fundamental ways. Understanding these processes and influences is a bold challenge. The fact that more than 50,000 investigators from more than 60 countries are seeking to meet that challenge shows that the scope of the inquiry is huge. Yet at a more fundamental level, it is necessary to identify, integrate, and interpret physical, life, and social science data in new ways. This is a science challenge, but it is also a challenge for data management, information science, computer science, and basic human communication.

New paradigms and practical methods are necessary to explore, discover, visualize, and synthesize data and information. This includes technical solutions that allow us to derive new knowledge from the growing mountain of data but also include social solutions abetted by new technology that allow us to better share knowledge, coordinate resources, and educate the next generation.

The challenge is all the greater because the data collected during IPY plus the ongoing data supporting IPY will be highly distributed.  There will be no one or even few central archives. Furthermore, the data will be extremely variable in nature including multi-spectral remote sensing imagery, detailed in-situ measurements of polar flora and fauna, and native-language interviews of Inuit hunters and elders. IPY is actively promoting the use of international data description and transfer standards, but there is a limit to how broadly these can apply to such diverse, distributed, and multilingual data.

In short the challenges of IPY provides a unique opportunity to test and implement new technologies and methods for interactive data access and human communication. This is essential to sustain the legacy of IPY and ensure an educated populace able to address increasingly complex world problems.

So – Mark and I are on a quest – we are looking for technology companies that are interested in engaging with IPY to try to figure out how to deal with this massive project.  Anyone out there (including folks that know how to deal with massive amounts of distributed data – hints to my friends at Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo) interested?

Finally, some brilliance in the travel quart-size plastic-bag absurdity.

At LaGuardia in the US Airways TSA checkpoint.  Thanks Wal-Mart and US Airways – you both scored points with me today for helping with this absurd restriction.

Having seen a few bears up front and personal (think “20 yards away”), I know how incredibly intense they are.  Chris Wand send me this link from a set of photos of Alaskan bears that one of his friends took recently.  My favorites are Chocolate Eating and Brothers with Fish.  As a special bonus for the nerds in the crowd, it shows off Google’s Picasaweb.

Robert Reich from Medium is organizing a Meetup group focused on cool technologies in the Boulder / Denver area.  The first event is being hosted at Medium on Tuesday September 12 at 6pm. 

The structure of the meeting with be that six people each get five minutes to demonstrate something cool to the local tech community (geeks, investors, entrepreneurs, hackers, etc.)  Following Meetups will be the first Tuesday of every month.

Robert is a recent import to Boulder from New York.  Robert – thanks for taking the lead on this. 

I’ve started to round up sponsors for my North Pole Marathon run.  The first one is Pixie Mate, a local Boulder company that makes an awesome specialty drink based on Mate – a South American tea that’s loaded with antioxidants as well as more fun loving caffeine than tea (but less than coffee). 

I met with the founders – T.J. McIntyre (a swimmer) and Duane Primozich (a runner) in their office above Rudi’s near Hwy 36 and Table Mesa.  They’ve got a rocking business going – powered by a bunch of Mate drinks.  I’m been enjoying various flavors of Mate’s for the past few days and am hooked.

We’ve got some fun stuff planned together, including providing a bunch of Mate for the race participants (I wonder if I’ll be the first person to ever drink a Mate Latte at the North Pole?)

The debate between Colorado’s gubernatorial candidates (Bill Ritter and Bob Beauprez) on technology that I’m moderating with Jack Tankersley is coming up on September 8th.  Phil Weiser – a professor at CU – who is also one of the instigators behind the debate and an outspoken thinker on Colorado’s technology policy – is interviewed by Larry Nelson about how the state government should think about technology policy in Colorado.

My assistant Kelly spends a few weeks each summer volunteering at the Denver Zoo.  I think it’s probably an easier job than dealing with the animals she has to every day (me, Chris, and Seth.)  On September 8th from 6:30pm – 10pm, the Zoo is having a special annual event called “Brew at the Zoo and Wine, Too!”  Think “big party with local brews, food, music, and dancing with a backdrop of lions, tigers, and bears, oh my.”

A Boulder reader forwarded me an interesting article in eWeek titled The Doctor on the Digital Tundra that talks about how the issue of net neutrality could impact rural Alaska, using a doctor who lives and works in Homer, Alaska as the launching off point for the story.

As the reality of agreeing to run a marathon at the North Pole settled in today, I was bombarded by intros from Tom Heinrichs to great cold weather / snow runners that had lots of advice to share.  All were incredibly quick to respond, encouraging, and full of great info. 

One of the first email exchanges was about snowshoes.  There’s at least a 50% chance I’ll have to run the race in snowshoes, so I might as well learn about them, train in them, and be ready for the possibly that my IceBugs won’t be enough.  The United States Snowshoe Association has tons of info about snowshoeing so that was a good start, but Tom’s friend Hal had a great summary of the stuff I needed to think about.

• Success in snowshoe racing is very dependent on the conditions. Most official snowshoe races in the US are a mix of groomed trails (by snowmobile) and “single track trails” that have usually been broken in – there are not many cases where racers are running through virgin powder. As a result, snowshoe racers commonly wear very small shoes.
• You should prepare for various conditions. You want a pair of very small, light weight shoes, a pair of “middle of the road” shoes, and a larger pair of hiking snowshoes.  Snowshoes tend to have a give and take between surface area and size/weight (inversely proportional).  Consider the following models:
• Small – Crescent Moon Dual Trac Super Lite (135 sq. inches) for groomed trail
• Medium – Tubbs Catalyst (used to be Tubbs 10K and many dealers know it by this name).
• Large – Atlas or Tubbs hiking snowshoes.
• It is very hard to hike in powder and I’m not sure how long it would take to do 26.2 miles of hiking in this. Some of the hardest stuff to hike in is crusty snow, but that usually occurs after a rain on snowpack or when diurnal sun cycle is high (when sun is rising in day and setting at night, causing melting and re-freezing.) I don’t think it’s possible that the temp is going above freezing at north pole, especially in April, so you should be fine with this. There is no melting/ freezing diurnal cycle because the sun angle is basically constant at pole.
• As for training, it’s a bit different than running. Training hip flexors is key and the best way to do this is to get on the snowshoes as early as you can in season.  Another way is to train with Power Cranks on a bike.
• If you started training in the fall you should be good. Some of the best snowshoers in USA are coming out of Colorado. There are usually several big races in Colorado each winter and I would definitely check these out as you will get practice running in shoes and meet other people into this.
• The advantage of snowshoes, even on light powder, is that they help keep each step consistent. With sneakers sometimes you’re staying on top of snow for 3 or 4 steps, then punching through and this disrupts your rhythm or can lead to injury.

If any of you have information or experience running in snowshoes, I’m all ears.