Tech Musing #3: Snowden, the NSA, Privacy, and Other Related Topics

Regardless of how you feel about what Ed Snowden did, you should understand what he revealed, and what it means as citizens of the U.S. and globally.  You now have an amazing (although not unbiased) ability to stream this amazing event that took place on our campus at https://web.sbs.arizona.edu/privacy.   I'm going to offer some previews to get you started.  You can watch in any order, or you can listen to the entire stream, watch the entire movie, or learn how it all happened after 9/11 by watching the two-part Frontline series, "United States of Secrets." 

First.  Part One of Frontline.  Introduction to Laura Poitras, Glenn Greenwald, and how they met secretly with Edward Snowden in Hong Kong.  It's pretty riveting, and I'll show this in class to give you a taste.

Second.  "CitizenFour" (HBO Documentary, link to preview).  This documentary shows the full accounting of how the movie was made and how it was kept secret.  It won an Oscar for best documentary.  Below are some snippets from the movie (from 4-7 minutes).

Third. Below, I include a snagged video from the UA stream to get you thinking about this issue.  I really encourage to watch it, you can move through it, but Noam Chomsky is brilliant, as are the other speakers.  Again, here is the link to the streamed event.

The moderator, Nuala O’Connor, president and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology, says early in the discussion, "There is no privacy ensconced  in the U.S. Constitution,…so what is privacy?"  Glenn Greenwald begins by questioning that assumption.

Fourth.  Noam Chomsky worked on this documentary, "Requiem for the American Dream, for over four years.  The movie is no longer playing at the Loft, however, here is a link to the 10 principles of oligarchy, which he went over in great detail in the movie.

Chomsky explains how concentrated wealth creates concentrated power, which legislates further concentration of wealth, which then concentrates more power in a vicious cycle. He lists and elaborates on 10 principles of the concentration of wealth and power -- principles that the wealthy of the United States have acted intensely on for 40 years or more.

You can discuss any of the principles, and there is further writing about this, if you want to Google Chomsky and 10 principles.  The link I provided above here is from Alternet.org, providing Alternative News and Information. (It is a good source of progressive news, which is usually where you'll find writings from Chomsky.)

Optional.  And then there is John Oliver's irreverent interview with Edward Snowden in April, 2015 (explicit, 33min).




Use the Tech 3 Musing to post about:

• Your thoughts on what was said and your take on it.  Consider examples of your own behavior or others that changed as a result, OR
• Post a relatively recent article related to this topic and write about that and provide a link.
• The articles you are posting on Facebook, are good examples to blog about here, as they are related to the general topic of privacy and security. 
• You can also comment on other posts based on articles you read or videos you saw.

Extra Musing: Tesla cars can now park themselves in your garage

Link: http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/11/tesla-cars-can-now-park-themselves-after-software-update-summon-detroit-auto-show.html

Recently Tesla motors updated its vehicles with a new feature called Summon. This feature will make it possible for its cars to park itself in and out of a tight parking spot. It can all do this without a driver being present inside the vehicle. The car is literally summoned to do this with a single click on a button. While this is an impressive feature by itself, even more impressive is the ability for Tesla to roll this feature out with an over-the-air-update.

Firmware upgrades are commonly issued for smaller electronics (e.g. call phones) for over a decade but, up to now, the car industry has been mainly using software updates to fix issues with the existing software. For example, in July 2015 Toyota recalled 625,000 Prius models due to a glitch discovered with the hybrid system. Updating an existing a car with new features through software is a relatively new concept, let alone, doing this through an over-air-update from the comfort of one’s garage.

I’m fascinated by this concept as it demonstrates a shift from hardware to software. Over the years, cars have transitioned from a 100% hardware products to a mixture in which software is taking a more important role. Especially electric cars, like Tesla’s vehicles, contain fewer moving parts than existing cars and have many functions taken over by software. Taking the combustion engine out of the equation it is estimated to safe car-owners substantial amounts of maintenance costs. In addition, the car that you buy today is no longer the same as car that you own tomorrow as software updates will provide new features during product lifetime.

While the latter is very exciting to the consumers and car enthusiasts, it is at least as exciting to us as MIS majors. It is a sign that a better product, with less hardware can eventually be sold with many more software features and the option for continuous improvement. This all creating ample opportunities for us to practice agile development.

Tech Musing #2: Capsule

Link: https://www.trycapsule.com

The amount of start ups over the past few years have increased exponentially. With the creations of smartphones, there has been a large market in application development. This development has truly changed the lives of people today. Users have become so attached to their devices that they can rarely go a mere few hours without their phone. I have discussed in my TopCoder post a start up that developed an application for smartphones. What was unique about this application is that it actually did not do as well as they hoped so they actually changed their target market in order to push the application in a different direction.

Capsule is a relatively new collaborative app that allows users to create groups in order to chat, share pictures and content. The idea behind capsule was if you were trying to plan an event with a group, you can use this app to communicate as a group so all the content is streamlined through one conversations or in one application. Recently, Capsule has tailored their application to be primarily for sharing wedding photos. Their primary demographic before shifting their application to wedding photography was brides and wedding parties. Since they so much usage from these groups of people, they transformed the application in order to reach their new primary target market.

I think that this is a very unique way of planning and sharing information. I can think of numerous alternative applications to Capsule that all provide some similar features to Capsule. I think that Capsule is more user oriented because they provide this sharing in more of a collaborative way. You can create groups and share this media while providing comments, feedback or even having conversations in one application that can be customized to separate areas. This is unlike any other application as everything is kept in the same place and can often become cloudy as theres so much collaboration and conversation thrown into the same area.

Tech Musing #2: Introduction to the Software Development Lifecycle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFefQj3Px9k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiXS9dyItnY

As a startup entrepreneur, our team are developing a software for companies to improve productivity and to reduce cost. As a beginner, I really want to understand how to make this development process more efficient and finish the project on a given period of time. So I’m trying to learn some related knowledge step by step.

Last week, I watched a video called Introduction to the Software Development Lifecycle on YouTube posted by TheComputerAcademy who is providing educational videos for the people interested in information technology and another video called SDLC - Software Development Life Cycle Explained for Beginners and Non IT Professional posted by QBI Institute.

Introduction to the Software Development Lifecycle video talks about the application development. They separate application development to two parts, one is new application development, and another on is customization. Different than the new application development which is for the companies which have no existing software to customize and companies which have innovation to create something new, customization is less costly than another, mentioned by the author. However, both of them require a really good understanding of clients need. From the video, I know that 70% of project can’t finish on time because they run out of budget and they did not fully understand customer needs.

This tied to back to what we learnt in class, predictive SDLC could lower technical risk compared with adaptive SDLC because developers who is able to use predictive SDLC has a better understanding of customer requirement. From the second video, and combined what we learnt from class, I have a better understanding how to change a concept to a real software and I know better on all the phases need to be experience and what are the details need to be considered in each phase. For example, in the Testing phases, the video introduces 3 different testing including functionality testing, Non-functional requirements testing and load testing. They also mentioned black box and white box methods and automated test tools, and I’m not really familiar with these parts of knowledge. I will find some other videos related to watch in order to understand each phases better.

As a student major in Management Information Technology, I think this type of video can educate me a lot of industry related knowledge which could help me with both school work and professional careers. I highly recommended this type of videos. I hope the videos I watch could let me know what are the most important parts I need to focus when working with software development team and clients, which will help our venture goes further and let our team work more efficient.

Tech musing #2: Device tree partitioning for multicore, multi-OS embedded software designs

Link: http://www.embedded.com/design/operating-systems/4436959/Device-tree-partitioning-for-multicore--multi-OS-embedded-software-designs-

Summary

The purpose of this article is to describe a resource dividing scheme for a supervised, heterogeneous multicore embedded system, where the system under consideration contains multiple instances of embedded Linux, each controlling on a dissimilar set of cores. After first reviewing the tools available currently for resource partitioning among multi OS systems, along with their limitations, a partitioning algorithm is proposed that is used to produce a filtered view of the platform for the guest operating systems in the system’s hypervisor.

Some of the key factors that drive the demand of multi-OS multicore designs in different market segments (medical/industrial/mobile/automotive) are performance, security, portability, and software consolidation. Generally speaking all of these designs are divided in two computing domains. These computing domains are classified as homogeneous and heterogeneous. The homogenous computing is recognized for the similarity in processing units that are controlled by a single instance of an OS that is able to perform all the resources in the platform. Heterogeneous computing is classified in supervised and non-supervised multicore processing. The supervised covers all the design with manager software mediating between different software stacks while the non-supervised has a manager less design where software running might assume the master role and set up work for rest of the processing units.

Embedded systems are diverse and it is impossible to satisfy the majority of requirements/constraints with a homogeneous multicore design, and this is where heterogeneous computing comes in, enabling multiple software stacks running on sets of core(s) suited to a perform a particular function.

While there are several ways by which embedded software can gather hardware information I believe that what this article shows about Flattened device trees(FDTs) is of much relevancy for a MIS professional. It demonstrates how technology in FDT is fast becoming the preferred way to provide fast enablement of Linux on hardware. A major breakthrough in the adoption of device trees that has been the inclusion in Linux kernel 3.2 for the ARM architecture; and as IT professionals, this is the kind of news we need to be up to date.

Tech Musing #2 - Google’s Quest to Build the Perfect Team

Article Link

The importance of being able to get along with others is something we are taught from a young age. As children we are encouraged to form friend groups, share toys, and build imaginary worlds together. This similar collaboration is being emphasized in the workplace. It has been shown that groups innovate faster, see mistakes quickly, and find better solutions. In addition individuals who work mainly in groups have reported better results and higher job satisfaction. Unfortunately not all groups mesh well, work efficiently, or produce decent results.

Google’s Research

Google personnel department wanted to find out what qualities, characteristics, makeup and requirements were needed to make a perfect team. Using survey data from numerous group projects and data banks, psychologists and statisticians set out in search of the ingredients needed to form the ideal group in an endeavor named Project Aristotle. The team analyzed similarities and differences between groups according to makeup, gender, education, experience, personality, I.Q., and if they were friends outside work. No immediate patterns emerged. One group with the same makeup of backgrounds might have soared while another with the same makeup didn’t achieve their goal.

There was one bit of information that was available for most teams. Members were able to describe how being in the group made them feel. The feelings were different depending on the group, but they all felt something while in the group. It could be conformability, ease, pressure to perform, insecurity, controlling, tenseness, calm, lazy, or anything else, but a collective emotion was felt. What the team members were describing were norms. Norms are the traditions, behavioral standards and unwritten rules that govern how we function when we gather together. They can be unspoken or openly acknowledged. Project Aristotle uncovered that understanding and influencing group norms were the keys to improving teams. The right norms could even raise a group’s collective intelligence. But how do we get the right norms in a group?

Psychological Safety

One important norm to have is making sure everyone feels comfortable speaking up in a group. This may sound elementary but Google has backed this up with data. Creating psychological safety in a group means every member has a sense of confidence that the team will not embarrass, reject or punish someone for speaking up. To make groups work well we need to have the following items:

Communication and Empathy – these are the same tools you use to bond with friends. You spend most of your time at work, might as well make some friends while you are there.
Having clear goals and a culture of dependability.
High average social sensitivity- group members need to be skilled at reading how others feel based on nonverbal cues (tone of voice, expression etc).
Equality in distribution of conversational turn-taking – simply put this means everyone speaks roughly the same amount a time within a day, activity or meeting.

Through this research Google has been able to put emotions into charts. They have data proving that in order to have successful teams, the members need to listen to one another and show sensitivity to feelings and needs. This type of sharing and attention will make the sum greater than its parts.

Related to Class

This article is not only related to this class but can be applied to almost all classes at Eller. In our studies, especially in our capstone courses, we as students are required to work in groups. We will continue to be working in groups on our consulting projects for the remainder of the semester. These four characteristics of successful groups are good things to keep in mind while working together. I.Q., personality, friendships, and previous work experiences aren’t everything. Sharing some personal encounters, communicating, and expressing feelings are what make groups strong.

In addition we are learning about project management, which always involves group work. These requirements can be added to a successful project team.

Importance to MIS Students and Professionals

There is increasing demand for employees who can navigate group dynamics. Business schools around the country have revised curriculums to emphasize group team-focused learning. As Eller students we are completing this kind of wanted curriculum. For students going on to attain MBAs when looking at institutions it is important to see how much group work is emphasized in the organization’s assigned studies. As future MIS professionals’ group work is in our future, learning helpful strategies can benefit us as team members and managers.

Musing #2: Net Neutrality Is in More Danger Than Ever

Source: http://www.wired.com/2016/03/despite-fcc-net-neutrality-danger-ever/

Summary:

Net neutrality is the concept of providing equal Internet access to all.  It means that Internet service providers cannot discriminate against who they provide service to and nobody can purchase a faster Internet speed at the expense of someone else’s Internet speed.

About a year ago the FCC passed a Net Neutrality law called the Open Internet Order that enforced net neutrality.  However that law is at risk with a few of this years’ presidential candidate saying that they will overturn this act.

However presidential candidates are not the only threat to net neutrality.   Legal threats such as lawsuits filed by Telecommunications companies are trying to overturn the Open Internet Act.  If the court rules against the FCC than Net Neutrality will be gone.  Loopholes around the laws are another way Internet providers are trying to take advantage of the Open Internet Act and get by net neutrality.  

With Presidential elections and a possible Republican win, lawsuits, and loopholes it seems like Net Neutrality will never be guaranteed. 

“The price of net neutrality will be eternal vigilance.”

DevOps: Why People (Not Tools) Are Transforming Software Development

Summary

The term DevOps has acquired many different definitions that have to do with all aspects of development and operations. This article claims that the true impact of DevOps comes down to shaping a company’s culture for better performance.

Chris Cancialosi, author of the article, tells the story of the company BlazeMeter which provides advanced tools to help companies launch high performance applications while minimizing the risk of failure after launch. The C.E.O. of Blaze Meter, Alon Girmonsky, contends that, back in 2010, he was able to see the revolutionary shift that DevOps was bringing to the technology industry. Although he suggests that a company must first evaluate itself to decide whether the culture of DevOps is truly for it, Girmonsky provides a list of thoughts to keep in mind when adopting this methodology.

         Why

Understand the real reasons for adopting DevOps and make sure that they are aligned to the company’s mission.

      Find the right talent

Make sure that the talent that will carry out this movement is willing to adapt to the change or simply adopt the DevOps culture because they truly understand the benefits.

          Infrastructure is Key

Organizational culture can be manifested through many different aspects of work. Designing an infrastructure that supports the collaborative and high velocity nature of DevOps is very important.

         DevOps = culture

In order for this system to work, it must be adopted into the work culture of all employees. It is imperative to have a clear understanding of “why this new way is critical to success.” Therefore, unless the culture truly embraces DevOps, it will be difficult to operate seamlessly and reap the ultimate benefits of this system.

Relevance

DevOps is one of the core concepts that evolved from Agile, which is another concept heavily covered in our Systems Analysis and Design course. It is important to note how much emphasis the author and Girmonsky give to culture, when they speak about implementing DevOps in a company. In class, we have learned about the importance of understanding the different facets of Agile development, which is a system designed to be implemented with high collaboration, flexibility and on-going improvements. This article highlights a very pronounced overlap between the approach that a company must take to adopt DevOps and the approach companies are taking when adopting Agile. It seams that DevOps should be heavily infused to culture not only because it is essential for DevOps to work, but also because it will integrate seamlessly to the other fast-adapting and high-collaborative methodologies that follow this same approach.

Importance

As an MIS student and CIO of WorkSphere, a company founded through the McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship, it important that I understand all of the different methodologies that competitive technology companies currently implement to develop and perform as best as possible. Learning the methodology of Agile was crucial for me and my company to begin thinking about the process of developing our next prototype. Now that I have learned more about DevOps, I can begin to think about the importance of focusing on high collaborating between our operations team and our development team throughout the entire development process.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/chriscancialosi/2016/02/29/devops-why-people-not-tools-are-transforming-software-development/#e04086a28859

Tech Musing #2 : Don’t be a Scrum Zombie

Link: http://www.pmhut.com/dont-be-a-scrum-zombie

Summary:

The writer pointed out the common mistakes that are made by many Scrum team on daily basis, and its main focus is on the three questions that is being asked in every daily sprint. Which are: What did you do, what will you do, and is there anything in your way. The way that daily sprint is design was supposed to help team members identify what they have learned from doing certain tasks, and inform others what they are doing do keep the project on-time, and asking for solutions they might encounter during the development. But the writer notices that during daily sprint, most of the people are focusing on reporting what they have done so far, and they rarely talk about the obstacle they run into and seek for help.

Relevance:

The article focus on daily sprint in Scrum, which is one of the topic we have learned in system development process. Daily sprint is the 15 minutes meeting that a Scrum team will have every day, in order to report their current development progress and stating encountered issues. It shows the real life practice of the project management we learned from the class, and it helps us to think about the implementation issue we might face in the future.

Importance:

These phenomenon shows the exact opposite of the intention of Scrum, since it is very different from water-fall development, it will easily be ignored by the people who are used to work in a conventional manner. Water-fall model is focusing on following the designated process of the project, therefore it is important to report what has been done, so the project can move to the next step. In contrast, agile development is focusing on communication in person, so it is critical to understand the purpose of the tools, and implement them in appropriate way.

Tech Musing 2: John Mcafee and Tech Culture Shift

Article: I'll decrypt the San Bernardino phone free of charge so Apple doesn't need to place a back door on its product
Published in: Business Insider
Author: John Mcaffee
Link: http://www.businessinsider.com/john-mcafee-ill-decrypt-san-bernardino-phone-for-free-2016-2

Summary:

Perhaps one of the greatest debates over privacy rights occurred over the last month. If you have not heard about Apple and the FBI lately here is a VERY brief breakdown:

The San Bernardino shooter was found with an Iphone after the shooting. The FBI has been in possession of the phone for months now, but claims they have not had any luck hacking into the phone because of Apple's security on the Iphone (the Iphone locks out after several attempts when using brute force attacks). The FBI has asked Apple to create a backdoor tool for the Iphone that will only be used "once". Tim Cook claims that there is no stopping the government from using this tool over and over again, it would be installing a backdoor to everyone who has an Iphone.

For the most part of the article, John Mcafee is criticizing the FBI's lack of competence in the global cyber security field. He highlights that for years, the US has been losing the battle of cybersecurity to China and Russia and this incident shows their ineffectiveness. He agrees with Tim Cook that the FBI is downplaying the backdoor. This backdoor installment would work for any iphone, and if Tim Cook gives in now the US government will be able to unlock anyone's phone they want in the name of the Patriot Act.

With all of that being said, John Mcafee says that this embarrassment for the FBI shows their complete incompetence in the cyber security field. In the article he says, "The fundamental question is this: Why can't the FBI crack the encryption on its own? It has the full resources of the best the US government can provide." Besides politics he claims that the FBI does not have good hackers. He claims that the best hackers in the world are, "24-inch purple mohawk, 10-gauge ear piercings, and a tattooed face who demands to smoke weed while working and won't work for less than a half-million dollars a year. But you bet your ass that the Chinese and Russians are hiring similar people with similar demands and have been for many years. It's why we are decades behind in the cyber race."

How this relates to class:

I thought that he highlights a great point in pointing out the US government is not hiring the best people for tech job in cyber security. The team he describes at coding competitions don't fit into the standard business model. When I read his description of coders, I thought, "this is exactly who would be working at TopCoder." This is interesting because it changes how we view the traditional business model of how workers and should look and act. Maybe, in the coding world, these are the people that are needed that the FBI won't hire? Maybe the new model for coders in the world needs to follow the more competition based approach that John Mcafee says he works with and TopCoder has been using.

In addition, we have discussed in class how many government jobs have an aging population that is about to retire. This means that inefficient government agencies, such as the FBI's cybersecurity sector will be needing a new workforce. This is going to be a huge culture shift for them from the older generation, to the millennial. If they want to hire the best in the business as Mcafee describes, there is going to be a culture change that they are not prepared for.

Importance to MIS Students:

I believe this is a very important point for the changing culture in the tech world. Technology has effected every part of business and is changing rapidly. The people that Mcafee describe are the type of people that companies like Google and Facebook are going to be wanting to hire because of their talents, not because of how they look or act. With an influx of these people, we are all going to see a change in the work culture at tech firms, but it appears to come out on top in the tech world, it is a necessary change. How far will this change go and how much will it change?

The Secret to Moonshots? Killing Our Projects

James Stewart
March 1, 2016

https://backchannel.com/the-secret-to-moonshots-killing-our-projects-49b18dc7f2d6

This article, written by Astro Teller (Director at Alphabet’s R&D arm called “X”), is a piece about how projects relate to failure. He starts the piece with some qualifying statements and other background about X. Specifically, he explains how X is the branch of Alphabet that starts “moonshot” projects – or projects that have little chance to succeed, but can reap serious benefits. In his own words, he explains a moonshot where huge problems, breakthrough technology and radical solutions merge.

The central theme to the piece is failure. He writes about four projects in particular: an automated vertical farm, shipping using lightweight balloons, the first self-driving cars and a new approach to wind energy whereby giant kites fly high in the atmosphere to generate power. The important takeaway from all of these projects is that they all initially failed. He goes on to preach that he actually encourages failure within his organization because, he argues, there would be no other way to achieve success in the long run. The last project he talks about is something called “Project Loon” in which giant balloons navigate the sky to beam internet down to rural areas in the most remote parts of the world. Finally, he emphasizes that the key to a project’s success is all about shifting your perspective. He argues that ultimately, moonshots cannot exist when people simply try to out-innovate each other.

I would argue that this article is incredibly valuable to anyone in an MIS related field. It discusses a fundamental part of project management that is rarely talked about: failure. In class, we focus on the iterative process and how agile functions, but we don’t exactly talk about what happens when a project fails. This article was enlightening to me because I hadn’t really thought of failure as a positive thing. The author even emphasizes that his employees – who have amassed over 100 failed projects – “get applause from their peers. Hugs and high fives from their manager. They get promoted because of it”. This resonated with me and changed my perspective on the issue. I think everybody in a project manager position would benefit from this mindset and, paradoxically, project success rates would increase as a result.

Tech Musing 2: What’s the Real Story behind Windows 10 Racking up 200 Million Installs?

Name: Lam Luu
MIS 441
3/1/2016

Source: http://www.techradar.com/us/news/software/operating-systems/what-s-the-real-story-behind-windows-10-racking-up-200-million-installs--1314283

Summary

According to the article, Microsoft has successfully sold more than 200 million copies of Windows 10, which makes it become the fastest selling operating system (OS) ever. The author claims that the success is due to the change of consumer habits rather than the fanatical business interest.

Roger Kay, a consumer analyst, claims that nowadays, consumers are willing to adopt new apps even if they are still not perfectly working. Thus, they are going to install Win 10 if they are promised better features. Another reason behind the success of Win 10 is the rise of Xbox 10, which accounts for 20 million copies. Since Win 10 is free and has some new features, more and more customers are switching to the new operating system. It’s obvious that Win 10 is a success of Microsoft based on the number of installs; however, the OS itself is not that successful. In term of its features and user interface (UI), Win 10 is just a minor upgrade from its previous versions. There is not many innovative features offered with the new OS.

There is an interesting fact about Win 10 that most of the installs are for the consumer segment rather than the enterprise. This fact shows that normal consumers will adapt to new technologies faster than companies because they do not have to bear the business risks as these companies do. However, after Microsoft clarifies all the concerns related to Win 10, the enterprise market is predicted to rise soon. With the its initial success, Win 10 is expected to reach 1 billion users by the end of 2018, which will be the new peak of the OS industry

Relevance

The analysis of the success of Win 10 illustrates the business model canvas we have discussed in class. This article demonstrates the importance of the customer segment in the business model. Since Microsoft market power is much larger than the buyers power, it can lead the trend and make its customers follow. In this case, the company’s value proposition is not as important as the customer segment – customers want to follow the trend and try new things without evaluating every features carefully.

Importance to MIS professionals

As an MIS professional, it is very important to understand how to apply business canvas to design your own business model. Understand which block is more important is the key to position your business. In this case, Microsoft focuses on answering the customers’ need of technology changing more than focusing on its value proposition.

Tech Musing #2: How To Speed Your Team Up (By Slowing Them Down)

https://dzone.com/articles/how-to-speed-your-team-up-by-slowing-them-down

Summary

In the article, the author who is also a project manager explains the complications that come with attempting to speed up your team. He explains that while the team he was managing was producing quality work, he was told daily that his team was not delivering fast enough. Naturally he began instructing them to cut corners on quality, work longer hours and simply work faster. While the work began to be delivered faster, it began to include low quality features and unstable code. Ultimately it resulted in unhappy customers, team members and executives. He soon realized that cutting quality and working long hours led to personal misery, crappy products and team attrition rather than speed. This led him to examine his methodology and learn that in order to speed up, you have to to slow down first and learn what speed is. Speed is made of throughput and cycle time. Throughput is how much work you are able to do in a given time period while cycle time is how much time it takes to complete a single item of work. He explained if throughput is rushed beyond a reasonable capacity, it will lead you to system breakdowns and ultimately lower throughput. Cycle time is important because even if you may be producing quality products and maximizing throughput, performance will be low if cycle time is too long. The best method of increasing throughput is by limiting work in progress. Do not take on too many projects at once. Decreasing cycle time is a more difficult task but ultimately the best method is placing resources where the most valuable time can be spent and keeping your backlog clean. These tips will aid in speeding up your team to capacity.

Relevance

Project management is one of the core concepts covered in Systems Analysis and Design. Given the author of the article is a project manager and is speaking from experience gives us a unique perspective. From experience he was able to share his experience working with a team that was producing positive numbers but was still being pressured. While his intentions as their leader were good, he pressured his team to be more efficient which in turn affected them negatively. They began delivering subpar projects that did not meet customer or executive standards. Instead by evaluating two core concepts, he was able to maximize quality output by his team and meet the expectations.

Importance

As a MIS professional, this experience provides valuable information because you could potentially encounter a very similar situation. Whether you are a project manager at the time or being led by a project manager, understanding these concepts could help you significantly contribute to your team and stand out from other professionals. As a project manager, having this experience would prevent you from making a similar mistake and instead using the information to your advantage when addressing your team. Essentially the skills described are the keys to successfully leading your team. As a member of a team, sharing these ideas or concepts could help you stand out from other members. It would demonstrate to your project manager that you are focused and completely invested in the team.

Does remote project management really work?

Tyler Antosh

3/1/16

MIS 441

Tech Musing 2

Article: http://www.cio.com/article/3013956/project-management/does-remote-project-management-really-work.html

Summary:

This article describes the potential restrictions to remote Project Management and some possible solutions to remedy the setbacks that these restrictions impose.  The article indicates the advantages a company might have in establishing virtual project teams. These benefits include lower costs, and an increase in work/life balance, talent acquisition, and efficiency. While these benefits are likely to improve employee morale and lower company costs, there are also various disadvantages to implementing virtual teams in a project environment.

The article describes these disadvantages to be productivity degradation, distance and time zone issues, cultural and legal differences, communication barriers, as well as data access and security issues.  The article goes into further depth as to properly describe what these scenarios might look like in the workplace. The article also provides a list of possible solutions to fix each disadvantage that a Project Manager might face while working with a virtual team.  While there are various situations that might impede remote project management, the article encourages a project manager to assess their company’s structure and capabilities in order to decide if virtual team projects are a possibility to promote their company’s success.

Relevance to MIS 441:

This article is highly relevant to what we have been learning about project management techniques. While there were no explicit statements regarding project management methodologies, the concept of remote project management is highly interesting. Remote project management contains all the struggles that in-person project management faces, such as which methodology to adopt and how meetings need to be conducted in order to remain on schedule, but also the struggles of virtual communication across time zones and software platforms. In class, we have learned some effective ways to properly maintain in-person projects with agile methodologies. However, we have not been alerted to the possibilities of trying to effectively translate what we have learned into a virtual platform. This article is able to bridge that gap.

Importance to an MIS student:
This article is important to MIS students because they will not always be working on projects with their team in an in-person setting. As technology and software capabilities advance, the possibility of virtual team projects continues to increase. Some students have experience with working on teams that have virtually communicated on various projects. These same students can also relate to the struggles that the article has mentioned. This is a beneficial article for MIS students to read, because it will prepare them for the struggles that they will face both in person and on virtual teams. It will also provide them with ways to resolve the struggles that they are likely to run into.

Tech Musing #2: Facebook Will Open Source Wireless Gear To Forge A 5G World

Topic: Facebook will Open Source Wireless Gear to forge a 5G World
Source: http://www.wired.com/2016/02/facebook-open-source-wireless-gear-forge-5g-world/

Data:

• Facebook unveiled new project that seeks to accelerate the evolution of technologies that drive our mobile networks and freely share this work with the world’s telecoms
• Plans on building everything from new wireless radios to new optical fiber equipment that can shuttle data between those radios
• It will “open source” the designs, so that any wireless carrier can use them including its drones and lasers
• Working alongside Deutsche Telekom (largest wireless carrier in Germany), SK Telecom (largest wireless carrier in South Korea), and Nokia (supplies much of the world’s carriers’ network hardware)
• Leading to better wireless networks
• Facebook’s Telecom Infra Project involves the use of its drones and lasers that will extend all the way to the edge of mobile networks
• The project is to help expand and enhance their telecoms at a much faster rate
• Efforts to build new telecom technology
• Project is too expensive, too elaborate, and too difficult to use traditional hardware suppliers, like Dell, HP, and Cisco
• Have built cheaper, more streamlined, and more malleable breed of gear, including computer servers, data storage devices, and networking switches
• Idea was to build very large networks from very small and very cheap pieces that could be easily reprogrammed—and easily replaced.
• March 2014, Facebook launched its Connectivity Lab
• Aimed to build a wide range of technologies that could deliver Internet access to the hinterlands around the world
• Telecom Infra Project will explore technology that can push places like the US and Europe towards “5G” technologies
• In the developing world, he hopes to move networks beyond the much the slower 2G tech that are now the norm.
• The project could explore new radio technologies along the lines of the pCell radios
• Which broadcast signals that follow your phone from place to place
• Estimated that this technology could increase wireless speeds by 1,000 fold

Analysis:

Project management consists of the processes used to plan the project and then to monitor and control it. The Standish Group CHAOS Report shows that only 32% of IT projects are completely successful. The reasons for this high failure rate are listed as: poor IT management and procedures, inadequate executive support, unclear business needs and project objectives, and inadequate user involvement.

Projects are based off of innovation and new ideas. With this Facebook project in particular, the article expresses that the innovation process is at its beginning stages. Based off the article, Facebook’s Telecom Infra Project has executed just the first step of project planning. The project has identified the problem and obtained approvals from its stakeholders who in this case are wireless carriers, such as Nokia.

Telecom Infra Project responds to an opportunity to expand and enhance Facebook’s telecoms at a much faster rate. This gives them a slight competitive advantage because the open sourcing method of their technology allows other networks to use their hardware, like drones and lasers, to help attribute to this expanding coverage.

This project also resolves a major problem of getting faster Internet and technology to the entire world and most importantly the developing countries. With the increasing number of people using Facebook, it will give way to much more easier and faster access. Populations around the world will have better coverage of Telecoms.

Lessons Learned:

It is learned that the world is expanding in technology but only for those that are privileged enough to obtain it. Facebook is working toward bringing the world together through the innovation and open sourcing of technology. With the help of project planning and management, the Telecom Infra Project shall attain positive responses from its global users and stakeholders. The right planning of a project for any organization will prevent a project’s failure. “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” – Winston Churchill

Implications:

How or why is this important for MIS students to know and understand to make them better citizens? Well, we as MIS students are going to eventually become IT professionals, therefore I feel it is best to know what IT changes and innovations are happening around us. This gives us students an understanding of how large a project can be and how it can affect the world around us. It also reiterates the importance of project management and planning.

Innovations and projects aren’t always about the competitive advantage but what is the best way to benefit society that will in the end help prosper the company. The technology world is changing at a very fast pace, so us MIS students must be able to keep up with these changes to better grasp the understanding and success of our future careers and possibly implement an idea of our own that may help the world and not just our companies.

Tech Musing 2: HeathVault

Suzi DeSalvo

Tech Musing 2

HealthVault https://www.healthvault.com/us/en

I want to discuss more about the information sharing application that I talked about in question 4 for the TopCoder case. The app that I found is called HealthVault. This app stood out to me, as opposed to Trip Advisor, Pinterest, etc., because it is very helpful in my life and the many others that I know. First, more about HealthVault. From the previous post I made about this app, HealthVault helps individuals gather, store, use, and share health information. Individuals can use this app to share information about diseases, diagnoses, medications, health history, receive lab results, etc. You can use the app by either inputting data yourself, connecting it to other health/fitness applications or requesting information from doctors, lab technicians, or other healthcare professionals. This type of information sharing can lead to a more updated health history, a better diagnosis, and even different more effective treatment options. HealthVault is working towards making it easier for doctors to receive all information and records to help further patient's health treatments and journeys. 

Now how helpful can this actually be? Well for the average person it may not be that useful (unless you are a parent who wants to keep track of a families medical records). However, for individuals who have autoimmune, chronic, terminal, or any other kind of disease it is very important to track ALL of your records. For example, I have a disease called Ankylosing Spondylitis and have to visit at least three different types of doctors to receive care. All of my doctors need to be aware of what medications I am on, how my overall health is, if there have been any kind of changes in my diagnosis,  and any X-rays, MRI's, or blood work I have done. Now I don't know if any of you have attempted to get your records sent from one doctor to another, but trust me, it is a pain (there is paperwork on paperwork on paperwork). With HealthVault I can easily share any new information about my health instantly. This information sharing application has made it easy for myself, and others like me to share personal medical history and records easily.

HealthVault is secure and safe to use and they are constantly updating their app and website to take the proper security measures. Overall, this way of sharing medical history is great for patients and parents and provides a way for information to be shared in an efficient, effective way. This a video about how Health Information Technology is changing the medical field and healthcare systems:

Tech Musing # 2: Question 4 from the TopCoder Case

Jacob Matenaer

MIS 441

9:30am T/TH

Tech Musing 2

Article Title: “Question 4 from the TopCoder Case”

Company: DesignCrowd

Main URL Link: http://www.designcrowd.com/

Quick Intro Video Link: http://www.designcrowd.com/how-it-works

From Website

“DesignCrowd is an online marketplace providing logo, website, print and graphic design services by providing access to freelance graphic designers and design studios around the world.”

Mission Statement: “To give people opportunities to be creative and to provide businesses with risk-free graphic design”

Briefly describe the main point or contribution of the article (Company)

“TopCoder Q4: What it does, how it works, and the types of problems it is working to solve”

Founded by CEO Alec Lynch in 2008, DesignCrowd is a crowdsourcing/outsourcing design site where businesses can post a quick overview of what they want designed for their company, including the budget the design must stay under, and then a community of over 500,000 graphic designers worldwide will overview the project and submit design ideas. Some of the designs that can be requested are logos, websites, t-shirts, flyers, brochures, and business cards. DesignCrowd advertises that each design request on average will receive 25 to over 100 ideas from the design community. They advertise themselves as being:
- Worldwide
- Fast Turnarounds
- Cheaper
- More Creative
- Risk Free (100% money back guarantee if not happy)
After the final design is selected, companies are then granted all the rights and proper files to the designs. (I.e. Copyrights and industry standard files). DesignCrowd and the crowdsourcing of creative designs solves the problem of businesses lacking a strong marketing department. This could be extremely useful for someone who runs a business and is talented in operations or finance related issues but lacks a creative sense to market and brand their company.

Show how it is related to the class and topics we have discussed

Our slides say that crowdsourcing contests are a form of collective action. More specifically, it defines it by saying “running contests on niche community platforms to select the best design, video, or solution from hundreds of submissions.” DesignCrowd directly reflects this statement and relates to our class through use of creative talent worldwide that competes to design the best product for the customer. As I learned more and more about this company I started to view them as the “Graphic Design version of TopCoder”.

Importance as MIS Professional/Student

Personally I have never used this site but in researching found many attractive factors to the MIS and creative communities. In relation to MIS, I feel this site could be very helpful because as MIS professionals and students we all hold some form of interest in computers and electronics. That being said, some people prefer more of the coding and development creativity side of it. While others, may prefer using pre-built software and design tools combined with IT knowledge to design amazing virtual designs, worlds, and characters. (i.e. video games and movie animation) This site would allow the second type of aforementioned creative MIS professional chances to earn extra money through contests just like TopCoder offers the coding creative MIS professional that same opportunity. Regardless of the medium used, they both allow MIS/IT professionals to be creative and challenge themselves in their own ways with the similar end goal of creating a value adding product for a customer.

Tech Musing #2: Google's self-driving car at fault in accident

Article Link: http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/29/autos/google-self-driving-car-accident/index.html

Summary:

The article describes about the Google’s fault in their self driving car accident that happened last week in California. Google said that they already had 17 minor accidents involving its self-driving car but so far non of them were cars’ or technical fault. This accident was the first time in their history of testing google self-driving car with technical failure because they have already accumulated more than 1 million miles of autonomous driving vehicles. Both the vehicle was in low speed, there were no report of major injuries. Later google made a statement, ‘this type of misunderstanding happens between human drivers on the road every day. This is a classic example of the negotiation that’s a normal part of driving—we are trying to predict each other’s movements’. It was in the residence area and the speed was very low, what if this accident was in the high way where the autonomous vehicle was in 65 miles per hour. In my opinion, this type of mistake should not have considered normal because this could cause or take number of lives and it is more proof that robot car technology is not ready for auto pilot. In this case, google bear the responsibility of the accident, because if their car hadn’t moved, there wouldn’t have been a collision.

Relevance:

I picked this article because this testing of self driving car is relevant to our course because this analysis, design, algorithm, testing, coding, and implementation is a part of system development life cycle. If there is some error in one phase, the outcome will be not successful as we thought. Google said it has reviewed this incident and from now on, their cars will more deeply understand that buses (and other large vehicles) are less likely to yield to us than other types of vehicles, and we hope to handle situations like this more gracefully in the future. It is clearly stated that they had problem with software and already refined it very well. This accident has helped google to improve an important skills and patch their loophole in their system.

Importance to MIS student:

In the field of management information system, it is important to get involve with the new technology emerging around the world. It might take some time to get familiar with the autonomous vehicle for the people but it is true that it is coming in future. For MIS student it necessary to move with along with technological revolution. I always read tech news and gather information from the company they had corrected that helps us to fix the problem for our project in the future. The companies that plan ahead, and imagine the biggest will survive and thrive. Finally, this article grasps the attention of growing technology of self driving car and for security and privacy concern, all the data transmitted to, from, and within the vehicle are safe because autonomous vehicle need to rely on its data and the source of that data to make quick, accurate decisions and to prevent, identify, and isolate malicious threats.

Tech Musing#2: Does DevOps Need Enhanced Security?

Link: https://dzone.com/articles/does-devops-needs-enhanced-security-1

Summary

DevOps has been a popular topic in IT circles over the past few years. A large majority of IT managers and CIO are transforming the software development cycle. DevOps is a software development method that aligns application development with IT operations. Since DevOps is very different from the traditional development process, IT has to adopt a number of new tools and technologies to fulfil in the version of DevOps. Security is of the important aspects to be considered for any enterprises that is transitioning to DevOps. Although the traditional development process is time consuming, they give required time gaos for secutiry team to harden the security at the end of development cycle. DevOps should define security changes that are required at every individual phase in application development instead of at the end of the cycle. DevOps teams need to verify the security policies well before they are enforced. Security teams need APIs that allow security to integrate with other party tools. Enterprises that adopt DevOps need to focus on bringing required agility to security, similar to the application development cycle.

Relevance

The topic DevOps has been discussed in the guest speaker named Nicole. She introduced us what is DevOps and how DevOps can improve the software development process. Bascally, DevOps is a movement that emphasizes the collaboration and communication of both software developers and IT professionals while automating the process of software delivery and infrastructure changes.She give us some examples to explain the key to IT performance. The article above talked about DevOps. It shows that although DevOps can improve and save time for software development cycle, it will be a challenge to ensure security.

Why helpful

The article is very helpful to MIS students to learn more about DevOps because DevOps plays more important role in a software development process nowadays. Nicole explained us the basic idea of DevOps in class. As a MIS student, we should not just know what benefit that DevOps brings to us, but also we should know what new challenge that DevOps brings to us. More and more organizations are adapting DevOps. It is a trend of IT industry. People who pursue as an IT related career should have the knowledge of DevOps.

Tech musing 2

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/02/nyregion/new-weapon-in-day-laborers-fight-against-wage-theft-a-smartphone-app.html?smid=re-share

Summary:

This article from the New York Times details the proposed launch of a new app to help day laborers prevent wage theft. Day laborers are often paid in cash, with only informal verbal agreements made in the way of contracts, leaving them incredibly vulnerable to wage theft and general mistreatment on job sites. This new app, named Jornalero, will allow workers to track the hours they work, take pictures of job sites to rate their safety, and rate employers using a system similar to Yelp. They are hoping to bring the day laborer community together to combat abuses in the workplace, which have gone unfought because most day laborers are migrant workers who fear deportation if they report anything.

Relevance:

The article talks about how the app was created as it nears launch. This relates heavily to what we have talked about in class, in regards to the early stages of a project. The identification of key issues, talking to customers about requirements, and their first beta testing later this month. The app was first conceived three years ago, and only now are they prepared for a launch. It gives a perspective to how long the processes we’re talking about in class can take in the real world, and how much refinement they require. They have been talking to workers about what they want in the app, and how they can best solve the issue since the beginning. They have built the app with those insights in mind, and seem to have all of the features in place, which has workers excited. It’s a good way to drill home the point that customer wants should be primary among your inputs. They have also seen the app grow from a one-man project to being taken over by a professional firm from San Francisco. They have had to adapt every step of the way, which is another real world example of how agile and adaptability are key.

For Students:

I think this article really shows how technology can fit into any aspect of our lives, and be used to solve problems that may not have much of a technology connection at all. As IT professionals, this is the kind of problem we will be asked to solve. We have to be able to look at problems creatively, and find new ways to apply technology to old issues. In that same vein, we have to be open to markets where we may not expect them, and seize opportunities presented to us.   

DevOps: Why People (Not Tools) Are Transforming Software Development

Yu Shi

3/1/2016     

MIS 441

Tech Musing 2

Article: http://www.forbes.com/sites/chriscancialosi/2016/02/29/devops-why-people-not-tools-are-transforming-software-development/2/#206850df1705

Summary:

DevOps: Why People (Not Tools) Are Transforming Software Development

In this article, author talks about there are more and more tech firms are trying to switch from basic system to DevOps in these days. He stated that, those company may understand the concept and advantages of transforming into DevOps, which is helping company speed up production cycle times. However, author thinks those companies are not fully explored what is behind switching into DevOps. Then, author works with BlazeMeter to explore more about switching to DevOps. BlazeMeter is a tech company provides next generation tool and help company testing before launch, and they also serves as partner to firms who are trying to switch to DevOps culture. CEO of BlazeMeter gives some advices to tech leaders who are thinking about move to DevOps in their organization.

1.     Leaders must take time to think about why they want to move to DevOps, is that really benefit their organization? Or just because everybody else is doing that.

2.     If move to DevOps is truly a culture shift, they need to find talent that understands benefits of DevOps culture.

3.     Carefully select infrastructure that can support this type of work.

Also, author mentions that moving to DevOps is not only a transformation in tech area, but also transformation in organization culture. Transforming your workers behavior is also important. Imagine if a company switch to DevOps, but everyone is still working in the way before; this will not only help company speed up, but also may cause chaos. The author also mentions that, whenever a company is trying to implement a new system, culture change is required.

Relevance

Few weeks ago, we had a guest lecture about DevOps. In that lecture, the guest talked about what is DevOps, what’s the benefit of DevOps, and a lot of other stuff. After that lecture, I am really interested in the magic that DevOps brings to the organization. In this article, the author is focusing on the side effect that DevOps brings to company. From the article, company should take the side effect into their consideration before making any decision.

Importance as an MIS student

Since moving into DevOps is a trend, It is important to be aware the advantages that DevOps brings to company, but also the disadvantages. Moving into DevOps could help company become more efficiency, but also may cause conflict with company culture. As a MIS professional, we may encounter a situation that company is trying to make decision about whether or not moving to DevOps. Knowing the advantages and disadvantages of switching to DevOps may help company to make decision in future.