Week 9

·         Explain why adaptability and interpersonal skills are important to an IT professional.

Among the skills that employers are looking for in the IT business field, adaptability is ranked the highest along with communication, interpersonal skills and a strong work ethic.

As we move into the new millennium, IT roles are shifting at a rapidly increasing pace. Technical skills alone are not sufficient for success in the IT profession --- soft skills like adaptability, interpersonal skills, communication, problem solving, and teamwork are increasingly important. Recognizing that no curriculum can provide all training needed by every employee in every position, the issue then becomes to identify which specific sets of knowledge, skills, and abilities are most important for IT professionals.

Why is adaptability so important to an IT professional? As all know that IT professionals face many changes and challengers in their career life adaptability plays a main role to overcome these challengers. They never can expect what kind of change is coming down the road, which is why being able to adapt to the environmental, professional and organizational changes - to bend - and remain as nimble as possible when working through change at their work place. In addition, if the IT person is able to adapt to unfamiliar situations quickly, he is obviously going to make a better impression on his employer hence who fit into the company culture tend to be more successful and productive than those hired simply because they fit the job description. Some studies indicate that almost half of an employee’s success in the first 18 months of being hired results from fitting well into the company environment.

In addition to this, among all challenges faced by IT professionals today, developing strong interpersonal skills also ranks as one of the biggest and most critical. In fact, studies show their ability to work with people can make the difference between IT project failure and success. These interpersonal skills include; personality awareness, communication, conflict management, trust building and collaboration. Having all this in an IT professional will help him/her achieve; an effective deal with a variety of personality types, better meet the needs of their teammates and customers, effectively handle conflicts that arise with teammates and customers, enhance trust with teammates and customers and lastly work collaboratively with teammates and customers.

Recent literature has identified many communication and leadership inadequacies amongst senior IT managers and consequent breakdowns in the IT/business relationship. This is due to the lack of adaptability and interpersonal skills that the individual has. Therefore, considering all these factors, adaptability and interpersonal skills is very important to have in an IT professional.

Retrived from;

http://www.trackur.com/how-adaptability-helps-your-reputation

http://www.pals.co.uk/Publisher/Interpersonal-skills/Interpersonal-skills.asp

Week 8

·         Look for the IT future trends in any ONE of the application domains discussed earlier.

·         What is your view on the future trend described in no. 1?

While all areas of ICT are contributing to the overall goal, the main focus is currently in the area of Smart Environments and Ambient Intelligence although the activities are not limited to them. These technologies are becoming a key dimension of the emerging information and knowledge society, because new generations of industrial digital products and services are clearly shifted towards the vision of a comprehensive smart computing environment. Another important dimension is the use and combination of these technologies with a variety of application domains, for example work, home, leisure, entertainment, education, health care, social engagement and responsible citizenship.

Education lies at a peculiar crossroad in society.

Fundamental Trends in Content

1) The Newspapers are dying…

2) Mass media is going micro (Hulu + blogs + twitter)

3) Characteristics of the old model of learning (top-down banking model, one way, based in classroom, only for elites)

Where is education heading to? What is the direction of the changes? How will the process of learning look like in a year, in five years, or even in ten years’ time?

We can differentiate several areas related to education, where changes are taking place at the moment:

1.  Dashingly developing technologies create opportunities to access information and educational content that were not available before. Mobile Learning, Cloud Based Learning, Online Learning, Open-Source Learning are only some of the solutions that make the learning process leave the classroom and enable students to experience it at any time and place.  

2.  Changes taking place in student-teacher relations are a natural consequence of the new technologies development and the fact that knowledge is much more accessible at the moment.

3.  Today’s students are „digital natives” – it is a generation for which computers, tablets and smartphones connected to the Internet are tools used for social communication, designing one’s own identity, for play as well as for work. Our job is to bring that environment into education – Game Based Learning, Visual Search and Learning, Thinking 3D, Augmented Reality, Gesture Based Learning create limitless possibilities.  

  

According to my point of view, a number of the above mentioned trends have their roots in solutions discovered some time ago, for which the market was not ready several decades ago. Fast development of technology enables their implementation right now. It is a very trendy concept that is often recalled by the education experts, politicians or educators as the base of 21st century education. But when we look back in history we’ll see that extensive work on individualizing the learning process took place in the early years of the 20th century too. But it took time for exposure.

Retrived from;

http://www.ydp.eu/resources/what-will-the-school-of-the-future-look-like-trends-that-are-changing-education

Week 7

·         Explore traditional businesses that have moved to digital firm and how globalization has changed their way to do business

Today almost all businesses have moved from traditional to digital firms. This is due to the advancement of information technology. A combination of IT innovations and a changing domestic and global business environment makes the role of IT in business even more important for managers than just a few years ago. The internet revolution is not something that happened and then burst, but instead has turned out to be an ongoing, powerful source of new technologies with significant business implications for much of this century.

There are five factors to consider when assessing the growing impact of IT in business firms both today and over the next ten years.

·         Internet growth and technology convergence

·         Transformation of the business enterprise

·         Growth of globally connected economy (globalization)

·         Growth of knowledge and information based economies

·         Emergence of the digital firm

When speaking of globalization, today, information systems provide the communication and analytic power that firms need to conduct trade and manage businesses on a global scale. Communicating with distributors and suppliers, operating 24 hours a day in different national environments, coordinating global work teams and servicing local and international reporting needs is a major business challenge that requires powerful information system responses.  Globalization and information technology also bring new threats to domestic business firms. Because of global communication and management systems, customers now can shop in a worldwide market place, obtaining price and quality information reliably 24 hours a day.

Therefore, to become competitive participants in international markets, firms need powerful information and communication systems. These are the effects of globalization and how it has change the world of doing businesses.

Week 5

·         Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is science, engineering, and technology conducted at the Nanoscale, which is about 1 to 100 Nanometers. Nanoscience and nanotechnology are the study and application of extremely small things and can be used across all the other science fields, such as chemistry, biology, physics, materials science, and engineering.

Although modern nanoscience and nanotechnology are quite new, nanoscale materials were used for centuries. Alternate-sized gold and silver particles created colors in the stained glass windows of medieval churches hundreds of years ago. The artists back then just didn’t know that the process they used to create these beautiful works of art actually led to changes in the composition of the materials they were working with.

Today's scientists and engineers are finding a wide variety of ways to deliberately make materials at the nanoscale to take advantage of their enhanced properties such as higher strength, lighter weight, increased control of light spectrum, and greater chemical re-activity than their larger-scale counterparts.

·        
Grid computing

Grid computing is the federation of computer resources from multiple locations to reach a common goal. The grid can be thought of as a distributed system with non-interactive workloads that involve a large number of files. What distinguishes grid computing from conventional high performance computing systems such as cluster computing is that grids tend to be more loosely coupled, heterogeneous, and geographically dispersed.[1] Although a single grid can be dedicated to a particular application, commonly a grid is used for a variety of purposes. Grids are often constructed with general-purpose grid middleware software libraries.

Grid computing appears to be a promising trend for three reasons: (1) its ability to make more cost-effective use of a given amount of computer resources, (2) as a way to solve problems that can't be approached without an enormous amount of computing power, and (3) because it suggests that the resources of many computers can be cooperatively and perhaps synergistically harnessed and managed as a collaboration toward a common objective. In some grid computing systems, the computers may collaborate rather than being directed by one managing computer. One likely area for the use of grid computing will be pervasive computing applications - those in which computers pervade our environment without our necessary awareness.

·        

    Quantum computing

A quantum computer is a computation device that makes direct use of quantum mechanical phenomena, such as superposition and entanglement, to perform operations on data. Quantum computers are different from digital computers based on transistors. Whereas digital computers require data to be encoded into binary digits (bits), quantum computation uses quantum properties to represent data and perform operations on these data.[1] A theoretical model is the quantum Turing machine, also known as the universal quantum computer. Quantum computers share theoretical similarities with non-deterministic and probabilistic computers. One example is the ability to be in more than one state simultaneously. The field of quantum computing was first introduced by Yuri Manin in 1980[2] and Richard Feynman in 1981.[3][4] A quantum computer with spins as quantum bits was also formulated for use as a quantum space-time in 1969.

quantum computers encode information as a series of quantum-mechanical states such as spin directions of electrons or polarization orientations of a photon that might represent a 1 or a 0, might represent a combination of the two or might represent a number expressing that the state of the qubit is somewhere between 1 and 0, or a superposition of many different numbers at once. A quantum computer can do an arbitrary reversible classical computation on all the numbers simultaneously, which a binary system cannot do, and also has some ability to produce interference between various different numbers.

Quantum computing is not well suited for tasks such as word processing and email, but it is ideal for tasks such as cryptography and modeling and indexing very large databases.

·         Semantic web

The Semantic Web is a collaborative movement led by the international standards body, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).[1] The standard promotes common data formats on the World Wide Web. By encouraging the inclusion of semantic content in web pages, the Semantic Web aims at converting the current web dominated by unstructured and semi-structured documents into a "web of data". The Semantic Web stack builds on the W3C's Resource Description Framework (RDF).[2]

According to the W3C, "The Semantic Web provides a common framework that allows data to be shared and reused across application, enterprise, and community boundaries."

Retrived from;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_computing

http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/definition/grid-computing

http://www.nano.gov/nanotech-101/what/definition

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/Q/quantum_computing.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_computer

Week 4

·         For CEOs and their organizations, avoiding complexity is not an option — the choice comes in how they respond to it. Will they allow complexity to become a stifling force that slows responsiveness, overwhelms employees and customers, or threatens profits?

·   2010 IBM Global CEO Study

How do you respond to these statements?

Today's business environment is unpredictable, uncertain and increasingly complex. Most business environments are expected to grow significantly more complex but only a handful of businesses are equipped to deal with it successfully. Complexity of an interconnected world is aggravated by a number of factors. For example, CEOs expect revenue from new sources to double over the next five years and some of the CEOs foresee the shift of economic power to rapidly developing markets.

According to some researches done by the IBM global CEO study, they say that the expected impact of technology on organizations has risen from 6th to 2nd place in importance, revealing that CEOs understand that technology and the interconnection of the world's infrastructures is contributing to the complexity they face, and also reveals that they need more technology-based answers to succeed in a world that is massively interconnected.

According to my view, CEOs should learn to respond swiftly with new ideas to address the deep changes affecting their organizations.  They should target to get closer to customers as their most important strategic initiative over the future - using Web, interactive and social media channels to rethink how they engage with customers and citizens. They should view the historic explosion of information and global information flows as opportunities, rather than threats.

Vast complexity is further intensified by regional differences. These regional variations also compound the complexities with which CEOs must contend. The differences of opinion about what changes to make, the new skills will be needed and how to succeed in the new economic environment should also be taken into consideration.

Retrived from;

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ibm-2010-global-ceo-study-creativity-selected-as-most-crucial-factor-for-future-success-94028284.html

Week 3

·        To your own personal view, which application system has the best user centered design and why do you say so?

First let us see what is meant by User-Centered Design.  It is the process of designing a tool, such as a website’s or application’s user interface, from the perspective of how it will be understood and used by a human user. Rather than requiring users to adapt their attitudes and behaviors in order to learn and use a system, a system can be designed to support its intended users’ existing beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors as they relate to the tasks that the system is being designed to support. The result of employing UCD to a system design is a product that offers a more efficient, satisfying, and user-friendly experience for the user, which is likely to increase sales and customer loyalty.

So according to my personal view, I think facebook application is one of the best examples for a good usage of user centered designed. This is because FB is so user friendly and full fills almost all human needs. It is a very easy application that illustrates every step very clearly which makes the user very easy to follow.. Uploading photos, videos and various files, the simple and fun ways of communicating with one another, the entertainment that it provides to the user with high security system are some of the reasons why I agree that facebook is one of the best applications that has been used with quality user centered designing.   

·         

     

     What is usability in software design?

Software usability of software system specified how much user feels comfort and attract towards specific system environment, on the other hand Software designing is also an important factor affecting software system success. Usability is not a function of time although researchers have come up with various models and matrices relating these two concepts. It is very important quality attribute of software system. The success and failure of system in economic manner depends on the software usability, which is directly related to software design.

·        Why there is a need for user centered design in software or web application?

User-centered design aims at creating a product that suits specific user needs and creates a pleasant user experience. User-centered design is becoming increasingly important in web development. Around the turn of the millennium, web products were often developed with little or no consideration of the user. Today, when the usability of a user interface determines its success, user-centered design is a common approach to web development.

Week 2

Compare the topics and methods of the computing disciplines.

There are five types of computer disciplines under the main heading Information Technology, ICT or Computing. They are as follows;

CS - computer science

SE - software engineering

IS - information system

CS - cognitive science

CE - computer engineering

Computer science is known as the mother of computational disciplines. It teaches about theory of computing. With the mathematical concepts of computation and information, computer science is specialized in developing new ideas and designing of computing systems. Some of the mathematical concepts are logic, algorithm and functions. A good example that shows computer science has been used is the chip that we use in our modern technology.

Software engineering is a software aspect. It applies the principles of computer science. Its basically about process, system required engineering, software validations, software testing and maintenance of software.

Information system, concentrates on two wide areas which are the information systems function and systems development. It support management processes and has the responsibility to track new information technology. It deals with all aspects of organizations. Eg: Texco promotion system

Cognitive science mainly involves many disciplines. It’s the study of intelligence, what it does and how it works. Cognitive science translates into computer procedure. Eg: Robots.

Computer engineering is the study of the combination of hardware, software, communication and the interaction among them. It mainly concentrates on the design and the constructions of computers and computer based systems. 

“Most CS people laugh at MIS/IT people,” and “MIS/IT people make more money and manage the CS folks.”

I agree with this statement. According to my opinion and from what I’ve heard is that most of the IT people are the ones who are the CEOs and head managers of big companies. The CS people are under these CEOs working hard for them by playing the main roles in the company’s work. But that does not mean that they get paid more. IT people have the knowledge of a wider area in computing, but the CS people are knowledgeable only in a specific field like programing. And that is why IT people are the head people in organizations and CS people work under them.

On the statement that CS people laugh at IT people, I think this is because CS people think that their job or field in programing is more important than what the IT people are doing. To a certain extent this can be true, because computer programing is a really difficult task to do and only experts or people with great knowledge and practice can do this. They do not realize that IT people too have the knowledge in general, both hardware and software. The only difference is CS is more specific and IT is more general; the basic of everything.

Therefore I think it’s wrong for CS people to underestimate IT people. Both play important roles in their own fields. And people should accept the fact that IT people make more money than CS people. This, people don’t realize because their main focus is on what CS people do, their difficult tasks and the results of them.