Through a glass darkly: new perspectives on the equity gap

Invited paper to the European Commission programme Gate2Growth Academic Network, Barcelona, October 2004. Second prize winner (European best paper award in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Finance).European Commission programme Gate2Growt

Augmented Reality as a Method for Expanded Presentation of Objects of Digitized Heritage

Augmented reality is the latest among information technologies in modern electronics industry. The essence is in the addition of advanced computer graphics in real and/or digitized images. This paper gives a brief analysis of the concept and the approaches to implementing augmented reality for an expanded presentation of a digitized object of national cultural and/or scientific heritage. ACM Computing Classification System (1998): H.5.1, H.5.3, I.3.7

Weighted ICP Algorithm for Alignment of Stars from Scanned Astronomical Photographic Plates

ACM Computing Classification System (1998): I.2.8, I.2.10, I.5.1, J.2.Given the coarse celestial coordinates of the centre of a plate scan and the field of view, we are looking for a mapping between the stars extracted from the image and the stars from a catalogue, where the stars from both sources are represented by their stellar magnitudes and coordinates, relatively to the image centre. In a previous work we demonstrated the application of Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm for the alignment problem where stars were represented only by their geometrical coordinates. ICP leads to translation and rotation of the initial points - a correction required for one set of stars to fit over the other. This paper extends the previous work by demonstrating significant improvement of ICP by using the stellar magnitudes as point weights. The improvement consists of great decrease of the iteration count until convergence, which helps in the case of highly “misaligned” initial states. The essential aspects of the ICP method like noise tolerance of false or missing stars are still in charge.This work is partially supported by the following projects: (1) Creative Development Support of Doctoral Students, Post-Doctoral and Young Researches in the Field of Computer Science, BG 051-PO-001-3.3.04/13, European Social Fund 2007–2013, Operational programme “Human resources development”, and (2) Astroinformatics, grant DO-02-275/2008 of the National Science Fund of the Bulgarian Ministry of Education, Youth and Science

From "Opportunity" to Opportunity:The design space for entrepreneurial action

This paper leverages the distinction between “opportunity” as the content of entrepreneurial intention and opportunity as external conditions for entrepreneurial success to focus on the action space of entrepreneurship. The “opportunity” triangle of person, venture concept, and theory of change provides a holistic, dynamic interface through which entrepreneurs act upon the world. It invites scholarly inquiry grounded in design science and its edges define three core activities of entrepreneurship as a design activity: framing, modeling, and performing. The dialog between scholar and entrepreneur makes the triangle visible, facilitating reflection and deliberation in entrepreneurial practice

Opportunities, language, and time

Opportunity has different meanings in entrepreneurial practice and academic scholarship, entwined with the distinct activities of dealing with practical contingencies and capturing theoretical necessities. The language and time of an academic stance sidestep defining aspects of the entrepreneurial experience: its indeterminate situations, instrumental role of language, and role of knowledge as guide to action. Seeking attunement with these aspects, the paper outlines the evolution of opportunity from language dependence to language independence within a process of transition from individual aspirations to social structure. This opens up promising research directions, in which the scholar-entrepreneur relationship is redefined in terms of solidarity rather than objectivity. Alongside the traditional emphasis on theoretical contribution, research could seek design and phronetic contributions, in an open-ended search for better ideas for coping with a contingent reality

Opportunities, language, and time

Opportunity has different meanings in entrepreneurial practice and academic scholarship, entwined with the distinct activities of dealing with practical contingencies and capturing theoretical necessities. The language and time of an academic stance sidestep defining aspects of the entrepreneurial experience: its indeterminate situations, instrumental role of language, and role of knowledge as guide to action. Seeking attunement with these aspects, the paper outlines the evolution of opportunity from language dependence to language independence within a process of transition from individual aspirations to social structure. This opens up promising research directions, in which the scholar-entrepreneur relationship is redefined in terms of solidarity rather than objectivity. Alongside the traditional emphasis on theoretical contribution, research could seek design and phronetic contributions, in an open-ended search for better ideas for coping with a contingent reality

AstroWeb – A Graphical Representation of an Astronomical WFPDB Database Using a Web-Based Open Source Geographical Information System

ACM Computing Classification System (1998): H.5.2, H.2.8, J.2, H.5.3.The purpose of this study is to present the open-source Map-Server and the way it can be used as a Web-based Geographic Information System. The MapServer object model is analyzed and algorithms are proposed for geo-referenced spatial data dynamic representation. The results of this analysis are used in the development of our application called AstroWeb. AstroWeb presents graphically the application data of the Plate Archives catalog (CWFPA v.2011) of Bulgarian Wide-Field Plate Database and ensures fast and easy access to the digitalized plate information.This work is supported with Grant No. DO-02-275/2008 of the National Science Fund of the Bulgarian Ministry of Education, Youth and Science to the Institute of Information and Communication Technologies at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IICT-BAS)

Hough Transform Approach to Identification of Flare Stars in Multi-exposure Plate Images

ACM Computing Classification System (1998): I.2.8 , I.2.10, I.5.1, J.2.The paper discusses the progress in the automation of the detection of flare stars through astronomical observations with plates obtained by the multi-exposure “chain” method. In spite of the fact that the astronomical plate observations are considered obsolete in modern astronomy, the computer processing of these images is an actual problem, due to the considerable number of wide-field plates in our country, in Europe and throughout the world. The solution of the problem is implemented in a sequence of three stages: (i) detection of the form of the chains, (ii) location of the chains in the input plate image and (iii) detection of chains representing “flare stars”. The paper is focused on the second stage, the implementation of which requires the use of Hough transform (HT). A theoretical and experimental analysis of the suggested approach connected with HT is presented. The “bottlenecks” in the development are discussed on the basis of a comparative analysis with a competitive approach - the “cumulative” statistic approach to chains in the given image. At the end, a combined approach is offered, uniting the various advantages, but again based on HT. Some experimental results and illustrations are presented. The perspectives for future work, connected with an implementation of a whole software system designed to solve the problem, are described.This work is supported by Grant No DO-02-275/2008 of the National Science Fund of the Bulgarian Ministry of Education, Youth and Science to the Institute of Information and Communication Technologies at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IICT-BAS)

The Reflective Entrepreneur

In a world where entrepreneurial success often seems deceptively accessible, it is not always clear what makes a person entrepreneurial. In this book, Dimo Dimov offers a reflective insight into the entrepreneurial journey, striking up a conversation about entrepreneurship in order to challenge and untangle existing preconceptions. A discussion of challenges and tensions such as idea versus opportunity, genius versus lunatic, and skill versus luck forms the foundation of the book, while the second part offers actions and considerations which can help the reader to seek opportunities in a fractious environment. The final part of the text focuses on the collective spirit in entrepreneurship, arising from the interplay between participation and outcomes. The author brings a succinct diversity to the field, making this book essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students on entrepreneurship courses, as well as scholars, researchers, and practitioners looking for a new perspective on entrepreneurship