Week 8: BYOD – what is your opinion?

Hello All.
I’d like to discuss with you something that is far away from the big science.
Very close to ground, the new trend in SMB (small medium business) IT devices management - BYOD.
BYOD stands for Bring Your Own Device.
The idea is simple. Employees agree to use their own computers to perform their work.
You might see this idea as nightmare for IT department or opposite, a relief for one.
Nightmare because you have a massive amount of devices that you cannot control. Security is the biggest concern.
Relief from the cost and support point of view. You do not need to buy new laptops for new employees and more – you cannot control the operating system of employees’ personal devices so when something goes wrong they are on their own.
This is of course much more complicated. You cannot afford leaving your employees without Helpdesk support just because they are allowed to use their own computers.
On the other hand the cost side gains new positions – you must implement a whole new set of polices defining how to deal with foreign devices, build separate networks to keep your central systems safe and teach tech support guys how to work with plenty of different versions of different operating systems.

Sounds like an ideal solution?
Please share what is your opinion.

Some additional material:
http://resources.infosecinstitute.com/byod-policy-for-companies/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bring_your_own_device

Week 8: The science of mental fitness

Please find below link to article regarding recent brain research. Read an article and discuss questions.

http://www.damninteresting.com/the-science-of-mental-fitness/

1. Do you agree with statement that the brain can be relatively easy to fool? Examples: Optical illusions, dreams, hallucinations, altered states of consciousness, and the placebo effect.

2. Do you believe in described experiments that mental exercises can improve physical performance?

3. What do you think about mental exercises effects on brain? Does summing fifteen three-digit numbers in two seconds sounds impressive? How does it correlate to the fact that the game participant cannot remember them afterwards?

Week 7 Microsoft: More innovative than you’d think

Some pundits speak about Microsoft as if it’s already dead — a shambling, stuffy company sustained by locked-in legacy software and little else. Microsoft certainly has challenges ahead of it, but as I’ve outlined today, the company does not have its head stuck in the sand. Redmond spends more on R&D than Google and Apple combined. Think about that the next time someone tells you Microsoft doesn’t have a future.

Check out the article and let everybody know what you think about the Redmond Giant's ideas.

Week 7 Internet of Things - Third wave of internet revolution

As the Consumer Electronics Show 2014 in Las Vegas comes to end I would like to draw your attention to the third wave of internet revolution – Internet of Things.

More and more of our day-to-day objects are being connected, new terms that describe this data interchange are created every day. Let's look at "Smart-Home" and "V2V".

Smart-home appliances are coming from the prototype stage to production. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if your refrigerator ordered milk by itself, so that the coffee machine could start to brew according to the settings on your smartfone alarm clock? Well, it’s not the future anymore. It’s reality.

What about the commute to work? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if your car picked you up from the frontdoor, communicated with other moving vehicles (V2V) the infrastructure (V2I) and then chose the best route to your office?

The internet of things also holds an another aspect: BIG DATA.  People may become overwhelmed by all the check-ins, shares, options.That information will be stored and used, there is no guarantee that it will be to the benefit of the users.

These futuristic scenarios may be real in less than five years.

Additional materials: 
Please watch the BBC video about Internet of Things at CES
TechCrunch site dedicated to Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas

Questions:
1) What will be the emotional price? Will the technology really improve our well being?
2) Don’t you think that it can take away our natural skills and make us dependant on machines and electricity?
3) Are you concerned with security of your personal data? How much privacy are you willing to sacrifice in order to live a more comfortable life?

Are computer games more time thieves or aids in our daily life?

When I started my adventure with computers I had a strong belief that games only stole our time. But a few years later I noticed that games can learn me type on a computer keyboard or give me fast psychical “reset” from everyday problems.

I found on TED two interesting (at least for me) presentations:

http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_the_game_that_can_give_you_10_extra_years_of_life.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html

I would like to know your opinions on the topic: Are computer games good or not (Would the world be better without computer games ;-). Below I have placed a few issues to discuss:

1. After almost every shooting we can hear that bloody games “educate” assassins. Do you think  it can be true?
2. We can hear that obesity of today’s children is caused by spending too much time in front of computer screens. On the other hand, I see that children like equipment like Xbox + Kinect. Do you think that such equipment can replace  “classical” activities like playing football on school’s courts in the foreseeable future?
3. Do you think we can increase our lifespan playing games?
4. Do you prefer giving computer games or books for presents and why?
5. Can games play  more educational than entertaining function in our life?

[EDUCASE] Is Your IT Organization a Marketing One?

http://www.educause.edu/mobile/emobile_ajax.php?op=fulltext&nid=272945

The article describes the topic of IT work marketing. Depicted situation says from the perspective of university campus IT but the outcome can be applied to all domains including commercial companies.
IT work usually comes with quite a lot of necessary investments. For this reason IT departments are treated rather as a cost center and not as a partner that brings some financial contribution.
Being perceived as a cost center results in serving as a target to shrink and squeeze.
That is false economy.
IT  can bring a real value to the process improvement but for this to happen there must be a willing force on both sides – the IT side and the rest of the business side. Mentioning about opposite sides suggests that there is some kind of a barrier or border. And there is one.
IT people prefer to concentrate on their work. It’s more constructive we think (I include myself into IT crowd :) ) to do the work rather to talk about it.
On the opposite the non technical people that on a daily basis use IT systems rarely communicate with IT about what annoys them in using the systems.
They share within themselves their opinion on IT service quality but they do not say the same in plain text to IT itself. They talk to IT directly when there is an outage of system. At that time there is usually a negative communication influenced by the stress.
This should be changed.
IT could listen more to what users say about their needs and users could share more directly with IT the real needs they have.
IT marketing can be a helping tool to perform this communication.

What will this new year bring us?

What will this new year bring us?
• More turmoil for Syria and its neighbors
• More worries about Iran's nuclear program
• Egypt to deal with new power, economic troubles
• Libya threatens to spawn more unrest in North Africa
• A bumpy troop transition for Afghanistan
• Where will North Korea turn its focus?
• China-Japan island dispute to simmer
• Economic uncertainty in U.S., growth in China
• Europe's economic outlook a little better
• Expect to see more evidence of climate change
• More cyber warfare
• Who will be soccer's next 'perfect machine'?
• Will Gangnam give it up to something sillier?

Those are 13 stories of 2013 forecasted by CNN.
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/12/29/world/world-2013-outlook/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

What do you think: are any of those more or less possible?
Do you have any new year resolutions?
Do you think 2013 will be better than 2012?
What will it bring?

Happy New Year to all of you!

(EDUCAUSE) 7 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT GAMIFICATION

I chose the article about gamification: 

http://www.educause.edu/library/resources/7-things-you-should-know-about-gamification

The term itself is new to me but the main concept is well-known probably to most of us. Although, I think it’s still an approach that is more popular nowadays than let’s say a generation ago. I think that implementing games into teaching is a great idea – I definitely believe that the Polish education system does not put enough emphasis on playfulness and giving students the right to learn in different ways than just by heart, which in turn kills their creativity and their out of the box thinking.

Introducing the gaming element into education by organizing competitions, contests, and recognition schemes is a great way to mobilize students to learn and to make an extra effort. My friend, who attended primary school in the British education system for example, had a yearly “Prize Day” held after the end of the examination session. It was a kind of a talent show connected with a recognition day, where students who were first, second and third in class in given subjects were called up to the stage and given a symbolic prize in the form of books usually by the school’s headmaster in front of all other students and their parents. They had their photo taken and received a certificate with the listed subjects they excelled in. I am sure that being recognized in this way gives motivation to work as hard the next year.

What do you think about this concept? Do you think that we have enough gamification in our schools? Do you know some other interesting examples?

(EDUCAUSE) 7 Things You Should Know About ITIL

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a framework for guiding the design and delivery of IT services. In the same way that an organization might have standards for project management or information security, ITIL sets forth a set of best practices and recommendations for managing IT. The ITIL approach to IT service delivery potentially brings a range of benefits, including improved communication, both within an IT organization and with other campus constituents; improved IT services and increased user satisfaction; greater productivity; and reduced costs. Key to ITIL is the notion that what’s at issue is not the delivery of technology but the delivery of services. ITIL is designed to shift the focus from system management, which is concerned with technology tools and infrastructure, to service management, which considers the user’s perspective on what those IT systems do.

Read the full publication on http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/EST1009.pdf

Questions: Have you ever heard about ITIL framework / are you familiar with this methodology?
If so, does it work (and how it works) in your office/campus environment?
What do you think about standardization of campus processes with such business-based framework?