Harrington (1996) studies the affect of codes of ethics on computer abuse judgments and intentions of information systems employees. When studying the codes of ethics, Harrington (1996) investigates both the company and information system’s codes of ethics. Her research fills the literature gap that calls for more research in the area of effectiveness with codes of ethics. Many studies discuss the controversial topic of ethics and personality traits affecting ethics. She states that codes are assumed to have an impact on the decision making processes of employees, but empirical investigations on information system personnel is scarce. Additionally, she points out that the generic company codes of ethics do not specifically address information system (IS) personnel.
Harrington (1996) surveyed over 200 IS employees in nine organizations on the topics of cracking, illegal software copying, sabotaging competitor’s security, spreading viruses, and fraud using vignettes and questionnaires. The vignettes offered a less intimidating method of responding to the sensitive topics. The study’s objective involved discovering the intentions of the employees when placed in specific circumstances. The five point Likert scale determined the intention score and the presumed ethicality. Also a factor analysis checked the validity of the results through the use of varimax rotation of all the statements.
Through an ANOVA analysis, Harrington (1996) discovered that generic codes of ethics have little direct affect on computer abuse judgments. Similarly, specific IS codes of ethics had little direct relationships on computer abuse. Additionally, the research showed little differential measurement error in the independent variable across levels of the moderator which is a situation that could cause bias. Finally, the research also shows that the code of ethics has little effect on sabotage and fraud. Harrington (1996) concluded that supervisors must take a multifaceted approach to preventing computer abuse and not to rely solely on the codes of ethics.
Reference
Harrington, S. J.(1996). The effect of codes of ethics and personal denial of responsibility on computer abuse judgments and intentions. MIS Quarterly, 20(3), 257-278.Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/218135304?accountid=26967
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Perceived Competitive Performance
Nidumolu and Knotts (1998) researched the software development management to identify patterns or differences when the company experienced intense competition. Their hypothesis focused on the effect of reusability and customizability on software process flexibility and predictability and on the software firm’s perceived competitive performance. In order to answer their hypothesis, they leveraged manufacturing strategy research and perceived competitive performance.
The study included an examination of product cost efficiency, market responsiveness, process flexibility, process predictability, reusability and customizability. The study utilized the American Software Association (ASA) as the sampling framework. The authors mailed a questionnaire to 100 firms selected from the ASA. Fifty-Eight chief technology officers returned the questionnaires for the analysis.
Through the analysis, the Pearson correlations between the constructs suggested a priori that there were many significant relationships. To clear up any discrepancies from the Pearson correlation, they ran a path analysis to clarify results. Through the investigation, the authors concluded that customizability does have a significant influence on process predictability and flexibility and, therefore, on perceived competitive performance as well.
Reference
Nidumolu, S. R., & Knotts, G. W. (1998). The effects of customizability and reusability on perceived process and competitive performance of software firms. MIS Quarterly, 22(2), 105-137. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/218140549?accountid=26967
The study included an examination of product cost efficiency, market responsiveness, process flexibility, process predictability, reusability and customizability. The study utilized the American Software Association (ASA) as the sampling framework. The authors mailed a questionnaire to 100 firms selected from the ASA. Fifty-Eight chief technology officers returned the questionnaires for the analysis.
Through the analysis, the Pearson correlations between the constructs suggested a priori that there were many significant relationships. To clear up any discrepancies from the Pearson correlation, they ran a path analysis to clarify results. Through the investigation, the authors concluded that customizability does have a significant influence on process predictability and flexibility and, therefore, on perceived competitive performance as well.
Reference
Nidumolu, S. R., & Knotts, G. W. (1998). The effects of customizability and reusability on perceived process and competitive performance of software firms. MIS Quarterly, 22(2), 105-137. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/218140549?accountid=26967
Cloud & RackSpace
Buyya, Broberg, and Goscinski (2011) define cloud computing architecture as “a techno-business disruptive model of using distributed large scale data centers either private or public or hybrid offering customers a scalable virtualized infrastructure or an abstracted set of services qualified by service level agreements and charged only by the abstracted IT resources consumed” (p. 44). In order to completely grasp the aforementioned definition some prior knowledge is required. The techno-business disruptive model refers to the opportunities that business can select today. In the past, business needed to acquire and maintain expensive infrastructure and data center in order to host any services. Now, businesses do not need the hardware. In essences, they can lease the hardware while having a third party maintain it as well. Additionally, Buyya, Broberg, and Goscinski (2011) elaborate on several categories of cloud computing, primarily concentrating on public, private, and hybrid. The public cloud offers several utilities and services to the general public in a pay as you go manner. The private cloud provides similar services, but can only be accessed by the internal organization and not the general public. The third category, hybrid, bases its foundation on a private cloud, but references tools and resources from the public cloud.
Buyya, Broberg, and Goscinski (2011) describe the cloud well; however, many definitions and understandings of the cloud architecture exist. The concept of the cloud has been “coined as an umbrella term to describe a category of sophisticated on demand computing services…” (Buyya, Broberg, & Goscinski, 2011, p. 3). Tom Bittman describes the cloud as the elastic and scalable IT capabilities delivered as a service to consumers through Internet technologies. He continues to explain the reasoning for the growth in cloud computing as developing through the expansion of worldly connectivity through the Internet, evolution of sharing technologies (both software and hardware), progress with service oriented interfaces, and automation (both software and hardware). Furthermore, he focuses on the popular intensification of the cloud. He states that the speed, agility, and low burden entry of leveraging the cloud has caught everyone’s attention. Startup firms along with small and medium size businesses no longer require data centers to house, host or supply data. Warehouses of server farms (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRwPSFpLX8I) provide the backbone of the hardware infrastructure for the cloud which eases the burden of every corporation needing a data center.
More importantly, the cloud fits the needs of the customer. The scalability factor alone benefits many businesses as they only pay for what they use. Additionally, different levels of the cloud allow businesses to select what they need. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offers virtualized resources, such as computation, storage and communication. Platform as a Service (PaaS) offers an environment where developers can create and deploy software. Finally, Software as a Service (SaaS) offers web applications for the end user, alleviating the business from supporting the software.
One cloud solution that I have heard and read a lot about, but never really researched until now is Rackspace. Rackspace supports all three levels of cloud intervention: public, private, and hybrid. Additionally, Rackspace offers the traditional perks of a cloud solution: pay as you go, all of the service packages (IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS), and complete manageability. Furthermore, Rackspace advertizes its speed and agility to provide a business service even when there is a moving target of resources that is required.
Rackspace has an extremely impressive resume. Rackspace can provide all the solutions that a business would need in terms of IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. Additionally, Rackspace can setup and support private clouds where the equipment actually resides within the business’ walls, likewise with their hybrid cloud support. Moreover, the Rackspace infrastructure holds security very high with multiple safeguards such as firewalls, antivirus, antimalware, and encryption through SSL certificates along with physical security within its hardware infrastructure. Additionally, Rackspace holds a slew of accolades in security prevention and expertise areas. Furthermore, Rackspace offers a 100% uptime service level agreement.
References
Buyya, Broberg, & Goscinski (2011). Cloud Computing: Principles and Paradigms. John Wiley & Sons.
Tom Bittman’s videos
www.rackspace.com
Buyya, Broberg, and Goscinski (2011) describe the cloud well; however, many definitions and understandings of the cloud architecture exist. The concept of the cloud has been “coined as an umbrella term to describe a category of sophisticated on demand computing services…” (Buyya, Broberg, & Goscinski, 2011, p. 3). Tom Bittman describes the cloud as the elastic and scalable IT capabilities delivered as a service to consumers through Internet technologies. He continues to explain the reasoning for the growth in cloud computing as developing through the expansion of worldly connectivity through the Internet, evolution of sharing technologies (both software and hardware), progress with service oriented interfaces, and automation (both software and hardware). Furthermore, he focuses on the popular intensification of the cloud. He states that the speed, agility, and low burden entry of leveraging the cloud has caught everyone’s attention. Startup firms along with small and medium size businesses no longer require data centers to house, host or supply data. Warehouses of server farms (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRwPSFpLX8I) provide the backbone of the hardware infrastructure for the cloud which eases the burden of every corporation needing a data center.
More importantly, the cloud fits the needs of the customer. The scalability factor alone benefits many businesses as they only pay for what they use. Additionally, different levels of the cloud allow businesses to select what they need. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offers virtualized resources, such as computation, storage and communication. Platform as a Service (PaaS) offers an environment where developers can create and deploy software. Finally, Software as a Service (SaaS) offers web applications for the end user, alleviating the business from supporting the software.
One cloud solution that I have heard and read a lot about, but never really researched until now is Rackspace. Rackspace supports all three levels of cloud intervention: public, private, and hybrid. Additionally, Rackspace offers the traditional perks of a cloud solution: pay as you go, all of the service packages (IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS), and complete manageability. Furthermore, Rackspace advertizes its speed and agility to provide a business service even when there is a moving target of resources that is required.
Rackspace has an extremely impressive resume. Rackspace can provide all the solutions that a business would need in terms of IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. Additionally, Rackspace can setup and support private clouds where the equipment actually resides within the business’ walls, likewise with their hybrid cloud support. Moreover, the Rackspace infrastructure holds security very high with multiple safeguards such as firewalls, antivirus, antimalware, and encryption through SSL certificates along with physical security within its hardware infrastructure. Additionally, Rackspace holds a slew of accolades in security prevention and expertise areas. Furthermore, Rackspace offers a 100% uptime service level agreement.
References
Buyya, Broberg, & Goscinski (2011). Cloud Computing: Principles and Paradigms. John Wiley & Sons.
Tom Bittman’s videos
www.rackspace.com
Experiential Space
Each person defines the experiential space perspective differently. The perspective evolves from a person’s encounters with the surrounding environment. Each person views conditions or situations in a diverse manner. For instance, a high cliff may appear adventurous to a rock climber or dangerous to an acrophobic. According to Taut (1977), the structuring of worlds calls for intelligence (p. 10). The intelligence to which he speaks refers to the acts of seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling, etc. Although, it is much more. An architectural environment appeals to sight, but it lacks the sense of smell, sound, and taste. All senses must combine in order to complete the encounter or experiential space for the individual. The experiential space creates memories, passions, and bias. Each individual interprets the event in unique manners which are based upon the accumulation of experiences.
Some individuals struggle to manage their experiential space in real life and that’s all they can handle. While, others decide to experience virtual worlds. Virtual worlds simulate experiential space perspectives from the real world. However, this is difficult to do properly. Virtual worlds lack smell, taste, and touch. Visual designs and sounds must trigger an individual past experiences in the real world to allow them to image they are in the virtual world. Yet, virtual worlds provide opportunities that the real world can’t. For instance, avatars can fly without the aid of plane and amazing buildings can be constructed in hours/days instead of months/years. To create the positive experiential perspective, designers must analyze every aspect of the build, so the meaning can be intrinsically interpreted by the user.
As we interpret the experiential space, we may also consider the meaning of this in terms of machines and explore the dynamics of virtual machines. In the real world our experiential space perspective of a computer should be fairly similar. Yes, there will be arguments on which brand performs best along with a specific definition of a computer (desktop, laptop, netbook, tablet, phone, etc). However, when someone mentions computer, we have some type of an image in our head. As we examine, virtual machines our images will increase in variety. The reason cultivates from a similar origin as virtual worlds experiential space perspective. Virtual machines cannot be described with all of our senses. We cannot touch a virtual machine and we cannot see the virtual machine (we can see the GUI, but not the actual machine). Virtual machines are bound within physical machines, sharing resources such as hard drive space, CPU processing and memory. The issue arises that the physical machines could be spread around the world, so where do the virtual machines exist? The relative location of virtual machines lives, adapts and moves within physical constructs of machines, networks, and storage arrays.
An example of virtual machine moving from physical box to physical box involves replication of the virtual machine. Bose, Brock, Skeoch, and Rao (2011) explain the phenomena of virtual machines replicating across a WAN stretching continents. They solve a specific issue involving latency and how to improve the efficiency of moving virtual machines across a network. From this sense, the virtual machines live in the Internet and move from data center to data center. This cloud spider as they refer to it gives life to a virtual machine, a machine within a machine.
References
Bose, S. K., Brock, S., Skeoch, R., & Rao, S. (2011). CloudSpider: Combining Replication with Scheduling for Optimizing Live Migration of Virtual Machines across Wide Area Networks. In Cluster, Cloud and Grid Computing (CCGrid), 2011 11th IEEE/ACM International Symposium on (pp. 13-22). IEEE.
Tuan, Y. F. (1977). Space and place: The perspective of experience. University of Minnesota Press.
Some individuals struggle to manage their experiential space in real life and that’s all they can handle. While, others decide to experience virtual worlds. Virtual worlds simulate experiential space perspectives from the real world. However, this is difficult to do properly. Virtual worlds lack smell, taste, and touch. Visual designs and sounds must trigger an individual past experiences in the real world to allow them to image they are in the virtual world. Yet, virtual worlds provide opportunities that the real world can’t. For instance, avatars can fly without the aid of plane and amazing buildings can be constructed in hours/days instead of months/years. To create the positive experiential perspective, designers must analyze every aspect of the build, so the meaning can be intrinsically interpreted by the user.
As we interpret the experiential space, we may also consider the meaning of this in terms of machines and explore the dynamics of virtual machines. In the real world our experiential space perspective of a computer should be fairly similar. Yes, there will be arguments on which brand performs best along with a specific definition of a computer (desktop, laptop, netbook, tablet, phone, etc). However, when someone mentions computer, we have some type of an image in our head. As we examine, virtual machines our images will increase in variety. The reason cultivates from a similar origin as virtual worlds experiential space perspective. Virtual machines cannot be described with all of our senses. We cannot touch a virtual machine and we cannot see the virtual machine (we can see the GUI, but not the actual machine). Virtual machines are bound within physical machines, sharing resources such as hard drive space, CPU processing and memory. The issue arises that the physical machines could be spread around the world, so where do the virtual machines exist? The relative location of virtual machines lives, adapts and moves within physical constructs of machines, networks, and storage arrays.
An example of virtual machine moving from physical box to physical box involves replication of the virtual machine. Bose, Brock, Skeoch, and Rao (2011) explain the phenomena of virtual machines replicating across a WAN stretching continents. They solve a specific issue involving latency and how to improve the efficiency of moving virtual machines across a network. From this sense, the virtual machines live in the Internet and move from data center to data center. This cloud spider as they refer to it gives life to a virtual machine, a machine within a machine.
References
Bose, S. K., Brock, S., Skeoch, R., & Rao, S. (2011). CloudSpider: Combining Replication with Scheduling for Optimizing Live Migration of Virtual Machines across Wide Area Networks. In Cluster, Cloud and Grid Computing (CCGrid), 2011 11th IEEE/ACM International Symposium on (pp. 13-22). IEEE.
Tuan, Y. F. (1977). Space and place: The perspective of experience. University of Minnesota Press.
SaaS Views
Implementing Software as a Service (SaaS) into an existing business model can offer many advantages, but the entity must consider both the advantages and disadvantages of SaaS along with the overall effect of the implementation to their business. GetCloudServices.com (2012) highlights the advantages of adding SaaS to a corporation’s business model. Some of the perks include cost cutting measures, scalability, data protection, guaranteed service, always upgraded, information sharing, flexibility, and usability. According to the blog, SaaS is a lucrative option for a sound and cost effective IT support solution. Buyya, Broberg, and Goscinski (2011) point out similar advantages: scalability, flexibility, ease of accessibility and configurability, robust, secure, and affordable. They also state that SaaS affords “… a seamlessly and spontaneously coexist, correlate, and coordinate with one another dynamically with dexterity to understand one or more users’ needs, conceive, construct, and deliver them at right time at right place. Anytime anywhere computing tends towards everywhere every time and everything computing” (p. 59).
On the other hand, Buyya, Broberg, and Goscinski (2011) mention that the disadvantages must weigh into the decision as well. They cite controllability, visibility, security and privacy, availability, performance, integration, and standards as possible challenges of the SaaS paradigm integration. The CloudComputingTopics blog echoes similar concerns with SaaS implementation: security, capital outlay, disaster recovery, and deployment. If a large business already has the infrastructure in place along with the customized applications and the solution works well, the experts suggest avoiding SaaS unless the entity is considering end of lifing the existing solution or looking to upgrade.
Within the SaaS paradigm, entities must examine both the advantages and disadvantages before adoption. To recap, small to medium businesses who struggle to afford and in house customized software or large businesses looking to upgrade should consider a SaaS solution. SaaS offers cost cutting measures from the purchase of overhead infrastructure to support software, flexibility of scaling the solution during the peaks and troughs of demand cycles, and guaranteed up time by the vendor. However for large business who already have an existing infrastructure, they may not elect to use SaaS, because the existing solution already meets their needs.
One final element to consider when investigating cloud solution involves awareness of space. Business requires a place to call home, even if the employees travel nonstop and are stationed across the world. The employees need to find a place to call home or to identify as I work for them. These identification mechanisms are the awareness of place. A SaaS solution adopted by an entire entity can provide this awareness of place. Taun’s (1977) chapter, Attachment to Homeland, discusses various groups and time periods and their attachment to their homeland. He provides examples and illustrates the need to identify with a place. This awareness of place grows strong in the human spirit and continues to exhibit the same characteristics in today’s society. Our awareness of place still embodies a physical place, but has also started to exemplify a digital reality. A common business web portal or SaaS solution that has been customized for a business can now be called our homeland. We feel secure to log into this portal to do work as we travel around the world to complete our jobs. Awareness of place holds a strong piece of the puzzle when deciding to replace an existing solution to a SaaS solution.
References
4 reasons why businesses might not want to switch to the cloud. (2012). http://cloudcomputingtopics.com/2012/07/4-reasons-why-businesses-might-not-want-to-switch-to-the-cloud/ Retrieved November 15, 2012.
Buyya, R., Broberg, J., & Goscinski, A. (2011). Cloud computing. Hoboken, New Jersey, United States of America: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
SaaS – Why does your business need it? (2012). http://www.getcloudservices.com/blog/saas-why-does-your-business-need-it Retrieved November 15, 2012.
Tuan, Yi-fu. (1977). Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience. University of Minnesota Press. Minneapolis, MN.
On the other hand, Buyya, Broberg, and Goscinski (2011) mention that the disadvantages must weigh into the decision as well. They cite controllability, visibility, security and privacy, availability, performance, integration, and standards as possible challenges of the SaaS paradigm integration. The CloudComputingTopics blog echoes similar concerns with SaaS implementation: security, capital outlay, disaster recovery, and deployment. If a large business already has the infrastructure in place along with the customized applications and the solution works well, the experts suggest avoiding SaaS unless the entity is considering end of lifing the existing solution or looking to upgrade.
Within the SaaS paradigm, entities must examine both the advantages and disadvantages before adoption. To recap, small to medium businesses who struggle to afford and in house customized software or large businesses looking to upgrade should consider a SaaS solution. SaaS offers cost cutting measures from the purchase of overhead infrastructure to support software, flexibility of scaling the solution during the peaks and troughs of demand cycles, and guaranteed up time by the vendor. However for large business who already have an existing infrastructure, they may not elect to use SaaS, because the existing solution already meets their needs.
One final element to consider when investigating cloud solution involves awareness of space. Business requires a place to call home, even if the employees travel nonstop and are stationed across the world. The employees need to find a place to call home or to identify as I work for them. These identification mechanisms are the awareness of place. A SaaS solution adopted by an entire entity can provide this awareness of place. Taun’s (1977) chapter, Attachment to Homeland, discusses various groups and time periods and their attachment to their homeland. He provides examples and illustrates the need to identify with a place. This awareness of place grows strong in the human spirit and continues to exhibit the same characteristics in today’s society. Our awareness of place still embodies a physical place, but has also started to exemplify a digital reality. A common business web portal or SaaS solution that has been customized for a business can now be called our homeland. We feel secure to log into this portal to do work as we travel around the world to complete our jobs. Awareness of place holds a strong piece of the puzzle when deciding to replace an existing solution to a SaaS solution.
References
4 reasons why businesses might not want to switch to the cloud. (2012). http://cloudcomputingtopics.com/2012/07/4-reasons-why-businesses-might-not-want-to-switch-to-the-cloud/ Retrieved November 15, 2012.
Buyya, R., Broberg, J., & Goscinski, A. (2011). Cloud computing. Hoboken, New Jersey, United States of America: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
SaaS – Why does your business need it? (2012). http://www.getcloudservices.com/blog/saas-why-does-your-business-need-it Retrieved November 15, 2012.
Tuan, Yi-fu. (1977). Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience. University of Minnesota Press. Minneapolis, MN.
Office 365
1. Discuss how it relates to one of the Montage spaces.
Microsoft Office 365 relates to all of the Montage spaces. Office 365 is starting to move up the ranks as a top cloud solution. With the release of Windows 8 operating system, Office 2013, and the Windows 8 phone, Office 365 has received a large boost. For the purposes of this question, I have chosen Private Space. The normal office software allowed an individual to create documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and take notes that would reside on an individual machine. Now with Office 365, a user can save his/her information in the cloud, where it is always backed up and available on any device with an Internet connection. Windows 8, Office 2010 & 2013, and the Windows 8 phone sync with Office 365. I can create on one device and read it from another. Office 365also offers the user a large amount of storage space. This private space affords users a virtual area to analysis, comprehend, create, imagine, and much more. Additionally, the private space provides the tools that most enterprise corporations and public generally use, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote.
2. Describe the characteristics that define its behavior and architectural style.
The fluidity of Office 365 allows customers to build a private, public or hybrid cloud to meet their needs. Microsoft can carve a section of Office 365 specifically for the company to make it a private cloud, which would leverage the companies own servers like exchange. Another option affords the company to launch their initiative as a public cloud. The final option allows companies to create a hybrid cloud. For instance, the company would leverage their exchange servers, but use the cloudOffice web apps.
Additional fluidity offers Office 365customers to use the service as a PaaS, SaaS, or IaaS. The customer can also combine the services. Companies no longer need to purchase Office software and continuously upgrade with Office 365. Users only need a browser to access Office. Additionally, companies can leverage Office365’s scalability, allowing them to cut cost on infrastructure. Finally, since Office 365 is web based, it will run on any operating system. Thus it also acts like a platform with its integrated SharePoint, web apps, and storage space.
3. Is today's implementation of this service the same as its original design and intent or has it evolved as users have found new ways to use it?
Since it’s only a few years old, Office 365for the most part has not evolved too much. It is currently being used as the designers saw it. However, there has been slight alterations to assist with collaboration efforts.
4. How has it evolved? Why has it changed? If it has not changed, why not?
Initially, Office 365 was a standalone cloud solution. With the release of Microsoft’s new product, Office 365 integrates with the new operating system, Office suite, and phone. This integration affords the users more flexibility, usability, and ownership. The operating system and Office integration provides a more robust solution to create and the Office 365 integration offers the storage in the cloud. With the phone, users can access their Office 365 content at any time.
5. How may it change to support the future? Make a prediction and discuss why it will happen.
Office 365 will continue to grow now with the release of Windows 8. The accessibility of Office 365 allows Microsoft to compete better with Apple. Phones, tablets, and pc’s can now sync their information and give instant access. Additionally, Microsoft has another front to compete with Google’s Documents (now Drive).
Office 365 will continue to improve in the areas of collaboration. Files can now be shared, hosted, and worked on together. The office 365 SharePoint is just a stepping stone to the future. I foresee a large expansion and connectedness with Office 365. Leveraging the idea of collaboration, I wouldn’t rule out Microsoft trying to increase its social media footprint too.
Microsoft Office 365 relates to all of the Montage spaces. Office 365 is starting to move up the ranks as a top cloud solution. With the release of Windows 8 operating system, Office 2013, and the Windows 8 phone, Office 365 has received a large boost. For the purposes of this question, I have chosen Private Space. The normal office software allowed an individual to create documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and take notes that would reside on an individual machine. Now with Office 365, a user can save his/her information in the cloud, where it is always backed up and available on any device with an Internet connection. Windows 8, Office 2010 & 2013, and the Windows 8 phone sync with Office 365. I can create on one device and read it from another. Office 365also offers the user a large amount of storage space. This private space affords users a virtual area to analysis, comprehend, create, imagine, and much more. Additionally, the private space provides the tools that most enterprise corporations and public generally use, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote.
2. Describe the characteristics that define its behavior and architectural style.
The fluidity of Office 365 allows customers to build a private, public or hybrid cloud to meet their needs. Microsoft can carve a section of Office 365 specifically for the company to make it a private cloud, which would leverage the companies own servers like exchange. Another option affords the company to launch their initiative as a public cloud. The final option allows companies to create a hybrid cloud. For instance, the company would leverage their exchange servers, but use the cloudOffice web apps.
Additional fluidity offers Office 365customers to use the service as a PaaS, SaaS, or IaaS. The customer can also combine the services. Companies no longer need to purchase Office software and continuously upgrade with Office 365. Users only need a browser to access Office. Additionally, companies can leverage Office365’s scalability, allowing them to cut cost on infrastructure. Finally, since Office 365 is web based, it will run on any operating system. Thus it also acts like a platform with its integrated SharePoint, web apps, and storage space.
3. Is today's implementation of this service the same as its original design and intent or has it evolved as users have found new ways to use it?
Since it’s only a few years old, Office 365for the most part has not evolved too much. It is currently being used as the designers saw it. However, there has been slight alterations to assist with collaboration efforts.
4. How has it evolved? Why has it changed? If it has not changed, why not?
Initially, Office 365 was a standalone cloud solution. With the release of Microsoft’s new product, Office 365 integrates with the new operating system, Office suite, and phone. This integration affords the users more flexibility, usability, and ownership. The operating system and Office integration provides a more robust solution to create and the Office 365 integration offers the storage in the cloud. With the phone, users can access their Office 365 content at any time.
5. How may it change to support the future? Make a prediction and discuss why it will happen.
Office 365 will continue to grow now with the release of Windows 8. The accessibility of Office 365 allows Microsoft to compete better with Apple. Phones, tablets, and pc’s can now sync their information and give instant access. Additionally, Microsoft has another front to compete with Google’s Documents (now Drive).
Office 365 will continue to improve in the areas of collaboration. Files can now be shared, hosted, and worked on together. The office 365 SharePoint is just a stepping stone to the future. I foresee a large expansion and connectedness with Office 365. Leveraging the idea of collaboration, I wouldn’t rule out Microsoft trying to increase its social media footprint too.
Workflow
Workflow engines for clouds provide a unique solution for many corporations. A workflow offers a simplistic vantage point of a complex execution and management of applications. Processing and managing big data requires a distributed server farm and data centers. The emergence of recent virtualization technologies and the expansion of cloud acceptance have helped shift to a new paradigm in distributed computing. This distribution computing relies on existing resources for scalability computing.
Services within the cloud have opened new possibilities for vendors and corporations. The Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) virtualization allows vendors to offer virtual hardware for intensive workflow applications. Platform as a Service (PaaS) clouds expose a high level development and runtime environment for building and deploying applications on the aforementioned IaaS. Finally, Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions give corporations the flexibility of leveraging their solutions to integrate into the existing workflows.
The background of the scientific workflows happens on infrastructures like OpenScience Grid and dedicated clusters. Existing workflow engine systems typically take advantage of these free Open Science Grids through some type of research agreement. The CloudbusToolkit workflow engine gives an example of the background of scaling workflow applications on clouds using market oriented computing.
The primary benefit of moving to clouds is application scalability. The elastic nature of clouds improves the process of adjusting the resource quantities and characteristics to vary during the application runtime. In other words, the resources scale higher when there is a higher demand and lower when there is less demand. With this capability, the services can easily meet Quality of Service (QoS) requirements for applications. This feature was never truly available in traditional computing methods.
With the change in dynamics from traditional to cloud, Service Level Agreements (SLA) has become the primary focus among both service providers and corporate consumers. Competition among service providers have driven SLAs to be drafted with extreme care in order to entice corporate consumers by offering specific niches and advantages over competitors. Cloud service providers also utilize economies of scale; providing computing, storage, and bandwidth resources at substantially lower costs.
The workflow system involves the workflow engine, a resource broker, and plug-ins for communicating with various platforms. To illustrate the workflow system architectura lstyle, we will examine scientific applications. Scientific applications consist of tasks, data elements, control sequences, and data dependencies. The components within the core are responsible for managing the execution of workflows. The plug-ins supports the workflow executions in different environments and platforms. The resource brokers populate the bottom of the diagram and consist of grids, clusters, and clouds.
The workflow system has great potential for growth in the future. Gartner has the paradigm ranked at the top of the hype cycle in 2010. There are still challenges to overcome, but the potential for growth exceeds imagination. Giants in the field like Microsoft, Amazon, Google own enormous data centers to provide these services to corporate consumers. Eventually, these consumers can start to form hybrid models where they select different sections of the vendor services to create their workflow cloud. The current workflow model is just the first step to offer customers a complete solution.
Reference
Buyya, R., Broberg, J., & Goscinski, A. (2011). Cloud computing. Hoboken, New Jersey, United States of America: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Services within the cloud have opened new possibilities for vendors and corporations. The Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) virtualization allows vendors to offer virtual hardware for intensive workflow applications. Platform as a Service (PaaS) clouds expose a high level development and runtime environment for building and deploying applications on the aforementioned IaaS. Finally, Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions give corporations the flexibility of leveraging their solutions to integrate into the existing workflows.
The background of the scientific workflows happens on infrastructures like OpenScience Grid and dedicated clusters. Existing workflow engine systems typically take advantage of these free Open Science Grids through some type of research agreement. The CloudbusToolkit workflow engine gives an example of the background of scaling workflow applications on clouds using market oriented computing.
The primary benefit of moving to clouds is application scalability. The elastic nature of clouds improves the process of adjusting the resource quantities and characteristics to vary during the application runtime. In other words, the resources scale higher when there is a higher demand and lower when there is less demand. With this capability, the services can easily meet Quality of Service (QoS) requirements for applications. This feature was never truly available in traditional computing methods.
With the change in dynamics from traditional to cloud, Service Level Agreements (SLA) has become the primary focus among both service providers and corporate consumers. Competition among service providers have driven SLAs to be drafted with extreme care in order to entice corporate consumers by offering specific niches and advantages over competitors. Cloud service providers also utilize economies of scale; providing computing, storage, and bandwidth resources at substantially lower costs.
The workflow system involves the workflow engine, a resource broker, and plug-ins for communicating with various platforms. To illustrate the workflow system architectura lstyle, we will examine scientific applications. Scientific applications consist of tasks, data elements, control sequences, and data dependencies. The components within the core are responsible for managing the execution of workflows. The plug-ins supports the workflow executions in different environments and platforms. The resource brokers populate the bottom of the diagram and consist of grids, clusters, and clouds.
The workflow system has great potential for growth in the future. Gartner has the paradigm ranked at the top of the hype cycle in 2010. There are still challenges to overcome, but the potential for growth exceeds imagination. Giants in the field like Microsoft, Amazon, Google own enormous data centers to provide these services to corporate consumers. Eventually, these consumers can start to form hybrid models where they select different sections of the vendor services to create their workflow cloud. The current workflow model is just the first step to offer customers a complete solution.
Reference
Buyya, R., Broberg, J., & Goscinski, A. (2011). Cloud computing. Hoboken, New Jersey, United States of America: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Standards & DEC thoughts
Landy and Mastrobattista
(2008) define standards as “… technical specifications that are designed to
promote interchange, communication and commonality in products.” Standards
are essential to everyday work and there are many reasons for a company to
choose to participate in standards. Landy and Mastrobattista (2008) offer
excellent reasons for companies to abide by standards, such as becoming an
early adopter in the field (Catching the Wave), becoming a leader in the field
(Leader’s Wave), providing input into the creation of the standard (Steering
the Technology), and getting an early jump on the competition with marketing
(Market Insights).
The big question is why
industries spend money, energy and time in pursuit of agreeing upon standards
that takes months and years to document when the technology is typically
outdated six months after its release. The Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)
answers this question and illustrates why their company takes a lead in
developing and documenting standards in their industry even if the technology
is outdated by the time they finish the process. The DEC believes that
participation in the standardization process and using the information gathered
provides the company with a valuable business advantage in product planning and
sales (Hurd, 1998). They receive a competitive edge over their opponents by
participating in standards which could lead to thousands of dollars or more.
References
Hurd, John. (1998). Why
does digital participate in standards? Computer, 31(6) 95-103.
Landy, G., and
Mastrobattista, A. (2008). The IT / Digital Legal Companion: A Comprehensive
Business Guide to Software, IT, Internet, Media and IP Law. Syngress:
Burlington. ISBN-13: 978-1597492560
Knowledge, Culture, & Enforcement pose copyright system challenges
Abelson, Ledeen, and
Lewis (2008) provide examples of individuals prosecuted for copyright
infringement. Some rightly accused; others wrongly. Our copyright system faces
many challenges ahead as technology continues to advance. We have already seen
evidence of the challenges in past technological advancements.
First, the knowledge of
our copyright system in the general public is extremely weak. The Copyright
Clearance Center (2012) offers a perfect example of someone who violates the
copyright law without realizing it. Students receive very little education on
copyright law in school. Some state mandate lessons on the topic, but teachers
are either poorly informed about the law or breeze through the topic. The lack
of formal education on the subject creates a society that feels as if they can
take and use any intellectual property without consequences.
Secondly due to the lack
of education and knowledge, a culture is bred where it is socially all right to
steal music, videos, and other intellectual property. The file share platforms
are a prime example of a culture that accepts breaking copyright law. Many people
realize its illegal to take music and videos without paying the artists or
recording companies, but they do it any way. Friends don't tell other friends
not to do, because its socially accepted.
Lastly, the copyright
system faces the challenge of enforcing the law against violators. Abelson,
Ledeen, and Lewis (2008) illustrate just how difficult it is to track down
copyright violators involving music theft. Companies could start to trace
violators through file sharing site records, but there are so many ways to rip
music and videos from sites that it is almost impossible to track them down.
Smart users could also bounce off multiple access points and servers if they
were trying not to get caught. Additionally, the original copyright laws were
not written to address issues like mp3 and mp4 file theft. Fines reach
outrageous amounts, and questions arise about intellectual property rights.
Thus many challenges lay
ahead for current copyright laws to either address or adapt to. Many cases
decided in court have helped shape the current copyright system, but there is
still a long road ahead for the system to catch up to. Also, technology is
growing very rapidly too which again causes another issue with copyright.
References
Abelon, H., Ledeen, K.,
and Lewis, H. (2008). Blown to bits: Your life, liberty, and happiness after
the digital explosion. Addison-Wesley: NJ. ISBN-13: 978-0137135592
Copyright Clearance
Center. (2012). Copyright basics video. Copyright. Retrieved January 26,
2012 from http://www.copyright.com/content/cc3/en/toolbar/education/resources/copyright_basics1.html.
Accountability
When I hear information
accountability, I consider two concepts: clean data and data security.
Information accountability entails data to be consistent, accurate, reliable
and valid. An example of dirty data would be a demographic record of an
employee where in one system he is called William, another lists him as Bill,
and yet another has him as Will. Yes, the systems are technically correct, but
they are not consistent. The lack of consistency could cause search issues and
merging data issues. Also, the data needs to be kept up to date. An old phone
number or address does not provide much usefulness.
Of course the more
publicized issue of information accountability involves data security. Breaches
make huge headlines and gains more response from readers. Tomorrow is even
National Data Privacy Day (January 28th). Marsan (2012) just finished an
article on the 15 worst Internet privacy scandals. Number 6, the
"webcamgate," actually happened to a school district close to ours.
During one of regional
district technology coordinator meetings, we invited that particular tech
coordinator to speak about the event. The event happened during his first month
of employment at the district. The district participates in a 1 to 1 program
(ie every student receives a district issued laptop). This specific student had
lost two previous laptops. His third laptop was reported stolen, so the
technician turned on the webcam to see if they could locate the reported stolen
laptop. The laptop even though reported stolen was not stolen. The pictures
were of the student taking an unidentified substance. These pictures started
the press releases and the trouble for the district. The article says that the
district had thousands of images, but these images were taken from the security
software on the laptops and were really never viewed by anyone. The district
did not have policies for their procedures, so the district struggled to defend
their actions. After hearing the coordinator take, many of us reviewed our
current policies and updated them.
Marsan, C. (2012). 15 worst
Internet privacy scandals of all time. Network World. Retrieved January
27, 2012 from http://www.networkworld.com/news/2012/012612-privacy-scandals-255357.html?page=1.
Mobility Risks & Opportunities
With every technology,
there exist advantages and disadvantages. Users and/or companies must weigh
both before making a decision on whether to incorporate the technology into
their daily routines. Mobility is no different. However, mobility takes many forms
in technology. Mobility can represent devices like laptops, netbooks, tablets,
and phones or media such as CDs, DVDs, flash drives, and memory cards (i.e. SD
cards).
First, let's review some
risks of mobility. Due to mobility, devices and media can be loss or stolen. If
this occurs, there are tools that can read all the information on a device or
media. I use Hiren's Boot CD (or USB stick) on a regular basis. It contains
tools to crack OS passwords, BIOs passwords, retrieve data from encrypted hard
drives, and retrieve data from corrupted hard drives. It's amazing how easy it
truly is. Due to tools like this, data breaches especially from lost devices or
media is a major threat. Additionally, mobile devices need to connect to a
wireless connection to receive Internet. Tools like Karma can act like a secure
access point, but in reality it is a computer logging every key stroke of a
victim computer. There are definitely many risks to mobility; however, a well
informed user can take precautions to compensate for these risks and minimize
the hazards to mobility.
Now on the other hand,
mobility offers a multitude of opportunities. There is a reason that phones
have gained popularity, and tablets are climbing the charts - mobility. Society
does not want to wait or be locked down to a specific location to access
information or to communicate. Also, at one point in time it was a necessity to
memorize facts. Now mobile technology allows us to instantly look up these
facts, offering us the option of answering or entertaining more complex and
higher order thoughts and ideas. Moreover where once we discovered knowledge at
specific times of the day, we are now plugged into an endless source of
knowledge 24/7/365. We work, learn, and communicate more than ever. The amount
of data that we create is increasing exponentially due to the fact that our
devices allow us to be mobile and create any time we want. Furthermore,
mobility has gained popularity enough to drive the cost of production down,
allowing more users to have access to these mobile devices.
As you can see, there
are risks to mobility; however, a well educated user minimizes the risks. Thus,
the opportunities and potential of mobile devices and media outweigh the risks.
Hence, the growth of mobile devices and media results in a continuous expansion
in the opportunities that the devices and media present.
References
Fogie, S. (2006).
Wireless karma. InformIt. Retrieved on January 2, 2012 from http://www.informit.com/guides/content.aspx?g=security&seqNum=185.
Hiren. (2011). Hiren's
boot CD. Hiren. Retrieved on January 2, 2012 from http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd.
Landy, G., and
Mastrobattista, A. (2008). The IT / Digital Legal Companion: A Comprehensive
Business Guide to Software, IT, Internet, Media and IP Law. Syngress:
Burlington. ISBN-13: 978-1597492560
Social Engineering
One topic of interest in
web privacy involves social engineering SPAM. With more users creating visible
profiles for social media, web 2.0, and other web devices, social engineering
becomes a real threat to identity theft. With thousands of web bots and web
spiders crawling social media and other sites, SPAMers can collect a plethora
of information about an individual. For instance, an unprotected Facebook
account can provide the individual's email address, birth date, hometown,
siblings, parents, relationship status, favorite music, favorite movies and
much more. An intelligent SPAMer could collect this information in a database
and sell it to telemarketers or worse yet email SPAM to collect usernames and
passwords. With the properly written program, a SPAMer could collect a lot of
valuable content that could lead to bank accounts, confidential material, and
much more.
Unfortunately, many
users are not educated enough to identify a SPAM email from a real email. Thus,
they email the SPAMer usernames and passwords. Many accounts from financial to
email have been hacked using this method. As the number of users grow on the
Internet, the number of opportunities increase to exploit the user's private
information.
To help combat SPAM,
many entities integrate a SPAM filter in their network to block SPAM from
reaching their end users. Almost all SPAM filters require an annual maintenance
agreement that supplies the entities with frequent upgrades to combat all the
new SPAM techniques that pop up every day. In order to ward off the SPAM
attacks, SPAM filter companies must create complex algorithms to determine if
emails or texts are SPAM or a legitimate message. A research question that has
both academic and practitioner merit involves discovering and creating the most
effective algorithm for capturing SPAM messages. What is the best way to
prevent SPAM from reaching the end users of a network?
Reference
Social Engineering:
Security Through Education. Retrieved on January 2, 2012 from http://www.social-engineer.org/.
3 Giants
From the beginning of time,
large entities have shaped our view of the world and controlled information
that we receive. Media play a huge role in how we view the world. Newspaper,
radio, and television offered a portal to view worldwide events. The writers
and producers controlled the way the viewers hear and see the world. With this
power, media can shape the public opinion.
Many saw the power
behind the Internet and its capabilities of becoming the most powerful network
in the world. With its control comes great influential power. AOL Time Warner,
Apple and Google wanted control of the medium. The question became how the
Internet can be controlled most efficiently. AOL Time Warner attempted to
influence subscribers and the media placed on the Internet. Apple tried another
route by controlling the devices that subscribers used to surf the Internet.
Google’s approach consisted of controlling the master switch.
Lessons can be learned
from each entity. AOL Time Warner had a great start up plan by offering x
number of hours free to surf the net. The free CDs in the mail not only
popularized the AOL name, but enticed users to remain with the company after
the free hours expired. This loss leader approach to economics proved very
influential and at the time allowed AOL to rise to the top (Anderson, 2010).
Apple’s launch of the
iPod, iPhone, and iPad has revolutionized the shape of the Internet and how
it’s used. The devices have also altered the music, video, and phone culture
throughout the world. Now with powerful devices inhand, users can download
albums, videos, and software from the Internet like never before experienced.
Apple doesn’t control the Internet per se, but they do control how they surf.
For instance, the Apple devices do not allow flash to play on any sites. This
has caused adobe to stop developing the flash player for mobile devices
(Winokur,2011).
Google controls which
sites we view. Google has the power to blacklist and whitelist sites that
appear in their search engine. Moreover, Google can bump sites up higher on the
list of results through monetary gifts from the site's webmaster. Google can
shape our opinion and view of the world by allowing only certain sites through
their search engine. Google is also collecting more and more information behind
each user through all of their services from google docs to gmail.
Each entity took a
different approach to controlling the Internet and each succeeded to some
extent. The way we connect to the Internet, use devices to surf the net, and
the content we view on the net have been greatly influenced by these three
entities. The best lesson that these three companies have taught us is
understand what you are doing. Notice every decision we make has a consequence.
There will always be pluses and minuses in everything we do. AOL was a great
way to connect to the Internet, but they tried to limit the reaches of the
Internet. Apple devices are excellent devices, but they do limit your viewing
capabilities. Finally, Google is a great search engine, but there are also
other engines that provide good services.
References
Anderson, C. (2010). Free:
How today's smartest business profit by giving something for nothing. New
York, NY: Hyperion.
Winokur, D. (2011).
Flash to focus on PC browsing and mobile apps; Adobe to more aggressively
contribute to HTML5. Retrieved at http://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2011/11/flash-focus.html on February 17, 2011.
Wu, T. (2011). The
master switch: The rise and fall of information empires. New York, NY:
Knopf.
naive views, inaccuracy, and re-identification challenges
People face many privacy
challenges and decisions every day, most of the time without knowing it.
Privacy has slowly changed over time and this slow metamorphosis has gone
unnoticed by many. Most people do not make connections with their decisions and
how it affects their privacy. As quoted in Blown to Bits, West (1967)
defines privacy as the claim of people to determine for themselves the extent
in which information about them is conveyed to others. This definition leaves a
lot to interpretation. Even the Merriam-Webster definition, freedom from
unauthorized intrusion, leaves much to interpretation. Additionally, societal
values have shifted over the years due to the ease of access of information.
Hence, privacy has shifted and continues to shift.
In current times,
privacy faces three distinct challenges. First and foremost, simple or naïve
views of people add to the issue of keeping information private. Government,
corporations, and businesses collect millions of informational bits on
everyone. RFID, microphones, facial recognition, online activity, and much more
record every second of our day. RFID tags reside on car tires, credit cards,
tags in clothes, shoes, smart passes, phones, driver licenses, food packaging,
and much more. Cell phones provide an easy privacy invader to unexpecting
owners. Cell phones incorporate GPS technology to track your movement, a
microphone that could be turned on at any time, personal information like
contacts that could be downloaded off the phone, and apps that record everything
you do on your phone. Surveillance cameras at ATMs, red lights, convenience
stores, and a plethora of other locations capture your movement and can
identify you through sophisticated facial recognition software. Additionally,
every time people accept online privacy policies to open new accounts to the
latest social media or web 2.0 sites, they give up their information that they
list on the site. Also, cookies track people’s surfing habits. Let’s not forget
about privacy destruction of malware. Even computers not plugged into the
Internet can leak information through the Van Eck phreaking method (TechTarget,
2001). Furthermore to scare people more, conversations can be tapped from afar
by simply observing the vibrations of your windows while you’re in the car or
at home (Szczys, 2010).
The bleak picture
painted above leads us to believe that nothing is sacred anymore. However, an
informed person can take steps to keep their privacy intact. First, a person
must realize that RFID tags can only be read within 15 feet. If they really
want to prevent their information from being read, they can always line their
wallets with aluminum foil and purchase a RFID detector to find and remove the
RFID chips. With cell phones, users should always keep their phones locked with
a pass code, turn Bluetooth off when not in use (Bluetooth worm can steal the
users information), and if they really want their information private, users
can remove the battery when the phone is not in use. Although it’s nearly
impossible today to avoid surveillance cameras, there are several steps a
person can take to avoid drawing attention to them, like not acting suspicious
to looking straight ahead. Additionally, people can keep information private by
not posting every detail of their lives online that they do not want others to
know. In addition, cookies can be deleted on regular basis or turned off
completing by adjusting user settings. In essence, people need to make
intelligent decisions about their everyday tasks. Furthermore, people need to
realize by ignoring these privacy issues does not make them go away. They need
to learn and adapt to the new emerging technology.
The second challenge to
privacy entails inaccuracy in collected information. Amazon does an excellent
job of tracking our purchases and trying to suggest new items that we may be
interested in purchases. For instance, I purchase many gifts on Amazon because
of the convenience of shopping online. However, Amazon thinks that I have
purchased these items for myself and I often receive email from Amazon letting
me know when similar products are on sale. The same issue will occur if you
purchase gifts and use a store’s convenience card. Now you are tagged as liking
the gift you purchased when it may not interest you personally.
A potential method of
combating this privacy issue is contacting the vendor. In most cases, you can
have the item removed from the list that is associated with you. This process
is easier with some vendors than it is with others. Some allow you to email or
fill out a web form; whereas, others make you jump through multiple hoops to
remove the association with a gift and your list.
The third challenge and
probably the most damaging involve re-identification of associated information.
Many vendors collect and sell or post personal collected information on the
web. Typically, the information is de-indentified. However, if several
de-identified lists of information are combined in one database, chances are
that several people can be identified through triangulation methods. The AOL
information release and the MIT students who identify 8,000 of 11,000 victims
are just mere examples of how you can be identified with the information
available on the Internet (Abelson, Ledeen, and Lewis, 2011). As you can
imagine, this challenge poses more complicated measures to avoid being
re-identified.
The three privacy
challenges of naïve views, inaccurate collection, and re-identification create
real issues for people who try to live a private life. The challenges can be
over come through taking special measures. Abelson, Ledeen, and Lewis (2008)
explain the situation the best when they ask, “… how can we make ourselves less
vulnerable to the downsides of living in such an exposed world?” (p. 22). On
the other hand you can take the opposite view like Sun Microsystems CEO Scott
McNealy proclaims, “You have zero privacy anyway! Get over it!” (Landy and
Mastrobattista,2008, p. 453). Mainly, keep yourself informed, make a decision
on your privacy, and stick to your privacy plan.
References
Abelson, H., Ledeen, K.,
and Lewis, H. (2008). Blown toBits: Your Life, Liberty, and Happiness After the
Digital Explosion. Addison-Wesley: NJ.
Landy, G., and
Mastrobattista, A. (2008). The IT / DigitalLegal Companion: A Comprehensive
Business Guide to Software, IT, Internet, Media and IP Law. Syngress:
Burlington.
Merriam-Webster. (2012).
Privacy. Retrieved February 24, 2012 from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/privacy.
Szczys, M. (2010). Laser
mic makes eavesdropping remarkably simple. Retrieved February 24, 2012 from http://hackaday.com/2010/09/25/laser-mic-makes-eavesdropping-remarkably-simple/.
TechTarget (2001). Van Eck
Phreaking. Retrieved February 24,2012 from http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/van-Eck-phreaking
Memorization, Technocracy, & the Lens
Google offers the public
a plethora of easily accessible knowledge bits and slew of web 2.0 tools to
ease our online experience. On the other hand, Google does pose several
potential problems. Three potential issues from the Googlization of knowledge
include the lost art of memorization, Google’s expanding reign of technocracy,
and Google lens effect.
The first potential
Google issue involves the concept of memorizing facts. Vaidhyanathan (2011)
shares a story about his grandfather who fulfilled his Brahmin expectations. By
memorizing all of the Sanskrit text, Vaidhyanathan’s grandfather never could
fathom many commonly accepted scientific facts. Vaidhyanathan (2011)
illustrated a perfect point of how strict memorization is not a good solution
to increase knowledge. However, completing ignoring memorization of information
also takes a person to the other extreme which is also very bad. If people rely
too much on Google and do not have the basics of information memorized then
they could be in trouble. What would they do if there was an Internet black out
and they couldn’t access information. What happens if something happens to
Google? Google is a vast repository of stored knowledge that answers our
questions in an instant, but we still need to acknowledge that some information
needs to be memorized.
Secondly, we must watch
Google’s technocracy reign as it expands. Google does profit from its services.
Nothing from Google is truly free. We are exposed to targeted ads that
influence our purchases and reviews of products. As cliché as it may sound we
must not let Google become a skynet or the borg. We must recognize Google for
what it is – a tool that assists with lightening our workload. We must not let
it become us or become our workload.
Lastly, we must realize that
we peer through the Google lens for most of online experience. As we complete
our dissertations, we need to use our library’s ejournal database to find peer
reviewed academic articles to support our research. Yes, Google scholar is a
useful tool, but it only shows us part of the academic realm. We need to search
out other resources like our library’s ejournal database and others like it. We
must be well rounded in our search efforts. Google can do the heavy lifting for
us, but we must refine with other available resources.
In conclusion, I believe
Google offers many great services. However, sometimes Google is not always the
correct entity for the job like the Google Books project. Potential issues
linger around the corner, and remember Google is a for profit organization.
Altruism is sometimes second on the list of priorities.
Reference
Vaidhyanathan,S. (2011).
The Googlization of Everything: (And Why We Should Worry). University of
California Press. ISBN-13: 978-0520258822
Laws & Information Accountability
Laws
can provide guidance, standardization, and stability to information
accountability. For instance patent law offers accountability of new
innovation. In the US, a patent holder possesses exclusive rights to the
innovation. The patent holder controls the innovation for 20 years and the law
keeps infringers at bay until that time. The law assists the innovator in
protecting the new advancement. Additionally, laws assist corporations in their
pursuit of protecting data. Agencies are in place to track and capture people
who try to exploit weaknesses in corporations’ firewalls and security systems.
Laws
offer information accountability and protection, but on the other hand, laws
can hurt information accountability. If it weren’t for two years of difficult
negotiating, the global economy between the US and European nations would cease
to exist (Landy & Mastrobattista, 2008). In 1998 when the EU adopted the Directive on Data Protection, the US did
not meet the strict guidelines of protecting the EU citizens’ personal data.
Thanks to the Safe Harbor Agreement
and EU bureaucrats’ realization that the split would devastate both economies,
both entities settled on an agreement that would allow the continuation of
international trade.
Another
example of an incident that hinders protection of information accountability,
in my opinion and others may disagree, is the Ivanov incident. In this
situation, the FBI lured Russian, Alexey Vladimwirovich Ivanov to the US in
order to prosecute him. However to retrieve evidence that he committed
extortion, an FBI agent needed to access Ivanov’s computers in Russia. The FBI
agent did his job in order to protect US corporations from future hacks and
extortion. The counter hack upset the Russian government (who were not cooperating
well with the US) and charges were brought against the agent. Although the
agent probably could have procured the evident a more politically correct way,
the agent was doing the right thing by protecting corporations, but the agent
still had criminal charges brought against him.
In
essences, laws can both benefit and hinder progress. The approach and action
taken towards law tells the true story and provides the outcomes. Oftentimes we
must tap into our creative thinking when we encounter a law that roadblocks our
objectives.
References
Goldsmith,
J. and Wu, T. (2008). Who Controls the Internet?: Illusions of a Borderless
World, Oxford University Press: New York
Landy,
G., and Mastrobattista, A. (2008). The IT / Digital Legal Companion: A Comprehensive
Business Guide to Software, IT, Internet, Media and IP Law. Syngress:
Burlington.Educate, Think and Identify Yourself
Goldsmith and Wu (2008)
along with Vaidhayanthan (2011) offer great insight to information
accountability and privacy. The authors make you think about the present
situation of the web and contemplate the future with regards to information
accountability and privacy. I offer three recommendations for users in
reference to information accountability and privacy.
1. Educate yourself.
Your information and privacy is only as safe as you allow it to be. All users
should know and understand social engineering tactics along with SPAM
techniques. This year alone, I had eleven individuals who fell into a social
engineering scam and replied to a SPAM with their username and password. Their
accounts were compromised and used to send out additional SPAM. It took a long
time to clean up the mess, because companies like Yahoo, AOL, and Microsoft
along with ISPs blacklisted either the account or our domain. I had to make
several phone calls to straighten out the debacle. Again, if the individuals
would have educated themselves to the signs of SPAM, they would not have fallen
victim to the scam.
2. Think for yourself.
Don’t be a drone and allow someone else to do your thinking for you. Again
first you need to educate yourself with a variety of resources, not just
Google. View both sides of the argument and make educated decisions from your
own judgment. When a CEO says, “They want Google to tell them what they should
be doing next…,” I would proceed with caution (Vaidhayanathan, 2011, p. 200).
In order for the world to operate correctly, we need to be independent thinkers.
Independent thinkers help create a checks and balances to ensure a stable
existence.
3. Identify yourself.
Let’s face it, your privacy is diminishing quicker than you can anticipate.
Your information is released in an unidentified manner, but an individual can
take multiple data releases and re-identify you along with the information
attached to you. It is possible to create two identities. For instances, the
real me (Jason Murray) and my digital identity like in Second Life (Murtek).
However, even these identities are being placed together. Google’s new privacy
policy allows them to combine information about you on several of their
services. In addition, they are combining multiple identities into just one
database primary key. Now my Jason Murray account is associated with my Murtek
account in Google. Therefore, identity yourself. Its fine to have multiple
identities, but don’t do something bad with one identity because it will
eventually get back to your employer due to the identity linkage. Multiple identities
are fine to identify yourself in different realms of your life, like real world
and digital world; however, organizations will know that either identity is
still you.
The best advice I can
suggest is be smart about the information that you release to web sites, web
2.0 tools, and corporations. The best way to be smart about this is to educate
yourself. You must think for yourself and develop a plan for your information.
Once you have your plan, then identify yourself according to your plan.
References
Goldsmith, J. and Wu, T.
(2008). Who Controls the Internet?: Illusions of a Borderless World. Oxford
University Press: New York.
Vaidhyanathan, S.
(2011). The Googlization of Everything (and Why We Should Worry). University of
California Press: Los Angeles, CA.
Social Media on the Rise
Howard Rheingold stated
that social media shrinks the world while lengthening the gap with others.
Children learn about the world through social media. Most connect to social
media in some format every single day. They journal their day, video chat with friends,
like pages, tweet ideas, and much more. They have never known a world without
social media and therefore think nothing of communicating with someone across
the country or the globe.
On the other hand, media
literacy receives a much different view point from adults. Some adults adapted
very well to social media and use it every day; while other adults have shunned
social media for privacy issues or other reasons. Since some have shunned the
concept, their literacy and the world seems to increase the gap between
understanding and becoming lost in a technology. Technologies only continue to
advance and change. If some adults avoid technology, they become further
behind. Consider the newspaper. Many adults read the newspaper and some have
adapted to the online format. The online format adds video, sound, forum
threads and much more. Most paper newspapers are spectacled with QR codes, web
links, twitter tags and many more. As paper newspapers become smaller and more
news appears online, the adults who shun technology lose out.
Social media really has
changed our landscape. Like Chris Anderson mentioned, the web is our
communication and other mediums support the web; hence, the QR codes and links
in paper magazines and newspapers.
Since social media came
on the scene, its been leveraged for just about any possibility including
political influences. The Obama campaign empowered voters by giving them a
voice and making it seem as if their personal opinion mattered and had
influence of political decisions. Karageorgos (2010) continues by mentioning
that social media opens up a new avenue for politicians to communicate with
their constituents. Moreover, he discusses how social media has improved the
efficiency of internal government communications.
With many sites pushing
the social edge, everyone must consider some of the dangers with social media.
Of course the most obvious is cyberbullying and intimidation. Other dangers
include rumor spreading, copyright infringement, site vandalism, and SPAMing.
The forum threads, blog comments, article comments, video comments, and auto
registration are all vulnerable to attack.
Even with the
vulnerabilities, I only predict that the social movement will only continue.
The evolution of the web with continue along its same path. The web evolved
from static websites to web 2.0 where users could create content easily. Now
the next generation of the web is showing itself, the social aspect. Humans are
social creatures by nature and seek out to interact with others. The web offers
an excellent palette to socially interact with others and shrink the world
distance boundaries. Additionally,translation tools remove the language
barrier. I believe we will see an increase in comments, social videos, Facebook
like interfaces, and twitter like tools integrated into every day web use.
Reference
Karageorgos, T. (2010).
Global Thinkers. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from
http://globalthinkers.com/2010/12/social-media-and-politics/.
Looking Ahead
As I read Shirky’s
(2008) ideas and concepts on small world concepts along with viewing his
diagrams, it reminded me of my undergraduate abstract algebra course. His
concepts involve group theory with rings, fields and vector spaces. Social
media does resonate group theory analytics. I never made the connection, but
Shirky’s readings this week helped me with the association. I think social
media will continue to grow in popularity. Like Jue, Marr, and Kassotakis
(2010) mention, social media will become a “table stake” (p. 179). Likewise,
they point out that trailblazers will become the models for others to follow.
Social media is popular
now in regards of using it as an entertainment convenience. In the next 18
months, I predict a much larger social media penetration into the workplace.
Social media will offer more efficient communication. For instance let’s look
at Microsoft (mostly because I have researched their future releases the most
recently). They have an existing product called Lync which combines work tools and social media into
one. Lync reads your outlook calendar automatically and posts your availability
without having to do anything. With Lync, you can make calls, video
conferences, chat, share documents, and much more. It integrates into your
Office package, mobile phone, and windows operating system. It’s a really neat
product that’s gaining popularity.
Another Microsoft future
prediction involves the release of Windows 8. The metro tile appearance will
definitely take some time to get use to. This may also deter some from
purchasing a Windows 8 device. However, Windows 8 has some really neat
integrated social media. Microsoft Live (MS cloud solution) integrates with the
operating system, allowing users to share documents, collaborate on a wiki, and
post information. Windows 8 also runs on slates, laptops, anddesktops which
also adds a unique twist to it.
Windows 8 will also
introduce the picture
password. The picture password
will draw some attention. I predict it will have a slow start, because it is a
dramatic change and change is hard for many people. However, I think more
people will accept the picture password by the end of the next 18 months and it
will revolutionize security.
The future is bringing
integration of social media. Microsoft will have social media integrated into
its operating system and Apple has this in the works too. The iPhone will be
released with improved facial recognition for security and it will showcase the
new iOS 6. iOS 6 promises to integrate social media like facebook and twitter
into its operating system. I’m not sure exactly how it will function, but knowing
Apple it will be an excellent user friendly interface.
Again to recap the next
18 months, social media will become the commonly accepted norm and expected
communication route, Lync will gain popularity as Microsoft’s flagship
communication vehicle, Windows 8 with picture password will have a sluggish
start at the beginning of its induction but will rally several months after its
release, and Apple will dazzle us again with the iPhone 5 incorporating facial
recognition on the new iOS 6.
References
Jue, A. L., Marr, J. A.,
& Kassotakis, M. E. (2010). Social media at work: How networking tools
propel organizational performance. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Shirky, C. (2009). Here comes everybody: The power of organizing without organizations. New York: Penguin Books.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)