User:Jerryfu10/sandbox

Topics I will be editing

 * Julian Assange
 * Nomulus - Google's new open source domain platform
 * openSNP - new article

= Julian Assange =

Edits to "US Presidential elections 2016"
When asked of his preference between the two candidates, Assange replied with "you’re asking me, do I prefer cholera or gonorrhea? Personally, I would prefer neither." However, Assange has publicly denounced Clinton on multiple occasions, even stating that he will release information that will have Clinton arrested in an interview with ITV. WikiLeaks editor, Sarah Harrison, has stated that the site is not choosing which damaging publications to release, rather releasing information that is available to them.

On October 7th, Assange posted a press release on WikiLeaks exposing over 2000 emails from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. The emails, ranging from 2007-2016, reveal excerpts of Clinton's paid Goldman Sachs speech in 2013, which came under controversy when she received $3 million after her position as secretary of state. In the emails, she explains her relationship to Wall Street and how she has previously represented the community. “even thought I represented [people in finance] ''and did all I could to make sure they continued to prosper, I called for closing the carried interest loophole and addressing skyrocketing CEO pay. So when I raised early warnings about early warnings about subprime mortgages and called for regulating derivatives and over complex financial products, I didn’t get some big arguments, because people sort of said, no, that makes sense.''”

While the two candidates faced off during the third and final presidential debate, Hillary Clinton criticized the Russian government for giving private information to WikiLeaks. "...this is such an unprecedented situation, we've never had a foreign government trying to interfere in our election. We have 17, 17 intelligence agencies, civilian and military, who have all concluded that these espionage attacks, these cyber attacks come from the highest levels of the Kremlin and they are designed to influence our election."

On the topic of WikiLeaks, host Chris Wallace directly asked Donald Trump if he would denounce Russia's actions if the country actually interfered with the American election. Although Trump did not condemn Putin, he did express that he would not condone hacking "By Russia or anybody else."

On the eve of the general presidential election, Assange wrote a press release addressing the criticism around publishing Clinton material on WikiLeaks."We publish material given to us if it is of political, diplomatic, historical or ethical importance and which has not been published elsewhere. When we have material that fulfills this criteria, we publish." He explains that the website received pertinent information related to the DNC Leaks and Clinton political campaign, but never received any information on Trump, Jill Stein, or Gary Johnson's campaign, and therefore could not publish what they did not have.

= Google Cloud Platform = *** Edit timeline to include Nomulus date - October 18th, 2016.***

Nomulus (new section)
On October 18th, 2016, Google announced a new platform called Nomulus, which is an open source infrastructure that is available for everyone. Nomulus powers Google's top-level domain (TLD) registries, such as .google, .how, .soy. It is Java based and the source code is released under the Apache 2.0 license, even though it is integrated with Google's Cloud Platform, using Google Cloud Datastore as its backend database.

Nomulus runs unlimited TLD registries in a single shared instance, using horizontal scaling, and includes the features of Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP), WHOIS, reporting, and trademark protection. "It is the authoritative source for the TLDs that it runs, meaning that it is responsible for tracking domain name ownership and handling registrations, renewals, availability checks..."

The project commenced after the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approved a change to the Internet Domain System back in June 20, 2011. The Board decided that by increasing the number of top-level domains from its then current number of 22, the internet would be redefined, giving people and businesses more flexibility and control over their online presence. "Expanding the number of TLDs will encourage innovation and result in competition and increased choice for Internet users."

= openSNP (new article) = Released in September of 2011, openSNP is an open source website where users can share their genetic information. Users upload their genes, including gender, age, eye color, medical history, Fitbit data. With a focus on user patient-led research (PLR), there is potential to redefine the way health research is conducted. "'It promises to be a vital supplement to standard research: it can focus on conditions that are neglected by standard research, such as rare diseases or side effects, and can draw on a broader range of data and deliver outcomes more rapidly. It can also be a way of realising valuable forms of social interaction and support in cases where members of a community conduct PLR together, for example, patients suffering from the same illness.'"The name of the project is inspired by single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), which is a DNA variation at a specific location on a strand. Scientists have discovered that there is a correlation between certain SNPs and genetic predispositions such as Mendelian disease.

The code of the project is on GitHub and the CSS is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license.

Risks
Since openSNP is an open-sourced social network that is readily available on the internet, there have been questions raised surrounding privacy issues and other risks. Though the sign-up page warns potential users of the record lasting forever, participants must decide for themselves whether the benefits outweigh the pitfalls. As health research continues to progress, more and more scientific analysis places a greater role on PLR, leading to increased demands for a new social contract to secure conditions for participants. Human participant research not only places subjects into potentially harmful situations, but also can lead to other risks such as exploitation and self-experimentation under non-controlled environments. There is also the risk of biases and distortions "arising from self-reporting and self-collected data". However, at this current state and time, the effects of genetic discrimination are unknown due to the lack of evidence. "'Till date no systematic evaluation of the true value of anonymity with respect to the cost of genome information and insight has been assessed in real-life settings. This would require appropriate availability of information including caveats to whole genome assessment and analysis'"Still with the rise of open genomic research, privacy protection frameworks need strengthened efforts beyond "traditional legal and organizational safeguards", technical solutions such as data encryption, and mutual understanding. In a study an article done through the University of San Diego School of Law, Sejin Ahn discovered that perhaps the most critical solution that needs to be strengthened is the legislative ban on re-identification and anti-discrimination protection. Ahn explains that these remedies must be addressed and updated in order to protect participants from privacy breaches.

History
The website was founded by German biologist, Bastian Greshake. Currently, he is earning a PHD degree in Applied Bioinformatics at the University of Frankfurt in Germany. He has previously earned a Master's in Ecology and Evolution.

In 2012, Greshake sent a vial of his saliva to 23andMe, a genomics company, to study his own DNA. His results suggested that he was at risk of prostate cancer, and then recommended to his father to receive a medical examination as well. The doctor found a growing tumor in his father's prostate and was able to catch it early. After receiving his results, he posted them on Github, hoping to find other users willing to share their personal genetic makeup. Upon realizing that many people were unwilling or did not include a lot of information that was necessary for scientific research, Greshake created openSNP. "'Maybe there are people who are interested in publishing their genetic information on the web to make it available, but those people don’t have the opportunity,'"Though Greshake acknowledges that there are services that allow people to test their own genes and discover inherent predispositions, they are often expensive, or difficult to access. In 2013, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) forced company 23andMe to stop marketing their spit-box screening tests due to lack of scientific evidence. However, in 2015, the FDA eased their restrictions and stated that carrier screening tests would not have to undergo preliminary review.

Greshake hopes that by making openSNP accessible and simple, it will not only attract the general public to get interested in their genetic makeup, but also to take it down innovative avenues, such as turning openSNP data into music.

Timeline

 * September 2011 - openSNP is released.
 * September 2012 - Fitbit data inclusion feature added, seeing as obesity is correlated with specific SNPs.
 * May 2014 - The website reached 1000 genotypings.
 * September 2015 - Crowdfunding campaign started on Patreon platform.
 * February 2016 - Code of Conduct is created that outlines appropriate behavior and general guidelines.
 * August 2016 - openSNP was a participant of Google Summer of Code.