Week 5? [14-X.12.2015] Applying open source licensing to community contributions

Disclaimer: I was expected to send my blog post some weeks ago yet it didn't happen. I'm not sure if you have to make comment on my post. So, first make sure you have your comments on other posts of Week-5

A little bit background: I'm a software engineer. I do spend most of my time developing an `open source` framework for other software developers / engineers.

Why this title: As for PhD, I do work on obfuscation. Lots of crypto, and mathematic stuff. It was impossibly hard to find a simple title that we could discuss together.

If you had a programming question, you have possibly met with stackoverflow.com before. This is a website for programmers asking and answering technical questions. Due to nature of programming questions, some of the answers were including `source code` contributions. So far, it wasn't clear the usability of those shared source codes in terms of commercial and open source projects.

Today stackoverflow.com announced that the future contributions on the website will be considered under MIT license. (http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/312598/the-mit-license-clarity-on-using-stack-overflow-code)

If you never heard MIT license before, you might continue reading this page

There are indeed pros and cons of StackOverflow's decision. In my opinion, this decision supposed to be given by community.

Questions;

1 ) What is your take on StackOverflow's attempt?
2 ) What is your opinion on Open Source ?
3 ) Which software solution would you wish for to be open sourced ?

Week 5 [14-20.12.2015] Why Self-Driving Cars Must Be Programmed to Kill

Hi,

I would like to present mind-blowing article about self-driving cars' ethics:

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/542626/why-self-driving-cars-must-be-programmed-to-kill/

Autonomous self-driving cars are already on our (ok, their ;-)) streets!

Just check this out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yCAZWdqX_Y (Tesla)

https://www.google.com/selfdrivingcar/ (Google)

With the convenience of autonomous cars come moral questions about algorithms that decide what to do in case of the accident. 

"How should the car be programmed to act in the event of an unavoidable accident? Should it minimize the loss of life, even if it means sacrificing the occupants, or should it protect the occupants at all costs? Should it choose between these extremes at random?"

What's your opinion about that? 

Will you buy a self-driving car? (http://www.businessinsider.com/report-10-million-self-driving-cars-will-be-on-the-road-by-2020-2015-5-6)

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There is also a scientific paper, that the "Technology Review" article refers to: http://arxiv.org/abs/1510.03346  

Read that if you prefer more scientific approach rather than 'popular scientific' style. However, reading the article from "Technology Review" would be enough for the discussion.

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Week 5 [14-20.12.2015] Miroservices

Lately I have been working on a migration of a huge system that is designed by three-tier applications architecture, into architecture which is based on microservices. We can call a monolithic web application a huge system which is designed by three-tier architecture. Let me tell you more about what the 3-tier architecture really is.  The three tier stands for:

1.   Presentation tier. This is the topmost level of the application. The presentation tier displays information related to such services as browsing merchandise, purchasing and shopping cart contents. It communicates with other tiers by which it puts out the results to the browser/client tier and all other tiers in the network. (In simple terms it is a layer which users can access directly such as a web page, or an operating systems GUI)
2.   Logic tier. The logical tier is pulled out from the presentation tier and, as its own layer, it controls an application’s functionality by performing detailed processing.
3.  Data tier. The data tier includes the data persistence mechanisms (database servers, file shares, etc.) and the data access layer that encapsulates the persistence mechanisms and exposes the data. The data access layer should provide an API to the application tier that exposes methods of managing the stored data without exposing or creating dependencies on the data storage mechanisms. Avoiding dependencies on the storage mechanisms allows for updates or changes without the application tier clients being affected by or even aware of the change. As with the separation of any tier, there are costs for implementation and often costs to performance in exchange for improved scalability and maintainability.

Such architecture is very common for most of the web applications across the internet. But as they grow up, the continuous integrations processes are being harder to maintain (there are also some other problems).  The solution for that problem is to split our system into many small services, we call them Microservices.

Please read this article to get more information about the topic: http://martinfowler.com/articles/microservices.html

Please tell me what is your opinion about microservices?

Can you imagine what are the difficulties providing such architecture into nowadays web application?

What are the advanteges and disadvanteges of microservices/ monoliths?

Week 5 [14-20.12.2015] Brainlike Computers, Learning From Experience

I would like to present article about artificial intelligence.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/29/science/brainlike-computers-learning-from-experience.html?_r=0

It is well known fact that computers are more present these days in our common life. That's the reason to study them and develop better algorithm to control them. The biggest challenge is independence artificial intelligence creation. But how can we define intelligence and thinking? Please answer following questions:

1. How do you think, can computers be conscious and self awareness?

2. During the online chat, how do you tell the difference between chatting with person and chatting with computer? If you don't have any clue, please feel free to visit cleverbot page and check it by your own :http://www.cleverbot.com/

3. Do you know any other way to check if someone is bot or human?

Week 5 [14-20.12.2015] Process Mining Methodology for Health Process Tracking Using Real-Time Indoor Location Systems

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285360404_Process_Mining_Methodology_for_Health_Process_Tracking_Using_Real-Time_Indoor_Location_Systems

Hi all,

I would like to present an article, which is part of my research activities. It is an area of process analysis and its performance optimization. Process mining gives us a possibility to take a look on our process in action (in production environment).

“Process mining [27] is a paradigm that comes from the business process management research field,  which  allows  the  discovery  and  graphical  representation  of  human-understandable  models that  represent  the  real  execution  of  a  process.   Process  mining  discovery  algorithms  use  logs  for creating workflows, which represent the processes’ possible paths and their associated statistics in a  graphical  way. “

It is based on logs generated during process activities. This method shows process in real view.

“Process discovery is a process mining technique that is based on analyzing existing logs in order to represent the model of the process.“

Hospital surgery case will show you how powerful and usable tool a process mining is.

Based on data collected during research we can discover new solutions of existing issues. It presents real process flow in our organisation. This methodology gives us tools to understand and improve it.

My questions are:

What do you think about process mining as a method of process understanding?

What are disadvantages of this approach?

What do you do to improve process? What is the best way to analyze flow and improve it?

Week 5 [14-20.12.2015] Machines are learning how to learn - a novel approach to Machine Learning

I would like you to "read" or at least "go through" this fascinating article:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/350/6266/1332.full. I am sorry, but this is more like scientific paper-ish than scientific article, however I still think it's worth reading.

To cut  a long story short, authors describe novel approach to Machine Learning called Bayesian Program Learning. This approach builds richer models of things it learns and tries to devise the connections between artificial concepts (or abstractions) it creates rather than use brute-force approach like Deep Learning (that is learning from massive sets of examples). It tends to outperform Deep Learning (so far the best known Machine Learning algorithms) in a number of tasks, especially so-called one-shot classification (learning to classify things based on just one example). The method is comparable to human in this regards (similar error rates).

Based on this article, can you comment on these statements:

1. The future of Artificial Intelligence lies in rich cognitive models built using learning concepts by induction, rather than using enormous number of examples.

2. In a relatively short time (say 10 years) computers will be able to beat humans in Voice Recognition and Handwriting Recognition.

3. This kind of advancement in Machine Learning is a call for action for the politicians. They should act now, or we will face tremendous job cuts, basically an extinction of low-income unskilled labour jobs.

Do you think these statements are true or false, or at least plausible?

Week 5 [14-20.12.2015] Why Graph Databases Are Becoming Part of Everyday Life

Why Graph Databases Are Becoming Part of Everyday Life

By definition, a graph-oriented database corresponds to a storage system capable of providing an adjacency between neighboring elements: each neighbor of an entity is accessed through a physical pointer.

It is an object-oriented database suitable for the operation of graph data type or derived structures such as trees.

Graphs oriented databases provide significant advantages:

Increased performance:
Treat highly connected data by avoiding multiple expensive joints that should be implemented in traditional relational databases and allow updates very powerful day, even for a very large data set.
Deliver outstanding performance in terms of speed of response time for local readings graph by path.

Simple developments:
The use of query languages such as Cypher or Gremlin dedicated to connected data processing facilitates developments. For example searching for friends of friends take a single line of code in Cypher.

Easy modeling:

Easily manage a complex model since the database is not based on a rigid scheme.
Sometimes allow more natural and readable by modeling use cases.
Discovery of new use cases by a natural representation of data.

Privacy and information ownership issues are at the heart of the social graph, explains Alex Iskold. There is a conflict of interest between users and organizations that develop social networks. "The more the network grows, the less its designers have an incentive to share information with other networks to keep their captive users and continue the development of their network. While users themselves, only care about the ease of use and privacy. "

My question:
- Can you imagine your life without  social media ?
- Do you think that the social graph  helps to raise the issue of interoperability of social networks?

Week 5 [14-20.12.2015] Top 10 IT Issues in 2015

Hi, I would like to encourage you to read the publication 'Top 10 IT Issues in 2015 at EDUCAUSE'. http://er.educause.edu/articles/2015/1/top-10-it-issues-2015-inflection-point (backup link)

I decided to talk about these issues because I believe that with little effort these issues can concern not only the higher education. As you can see 10 top IT issues in the report was grouped into three main themes of changes:

1. Inflection point - The trends that have motivated early adopters are cascading into the mainstream and requiring fundamental changes in strategy.

For sure organizations must achieve ongoing ability to respond to changing technologies and solutions and to making changes. I think that you will agree that all institutions today must improve solutions using new technology to better achieve their goals.

"These changes are transforming both IT infrastructure, which is generally transparent to end users, and IT services and solutions, which are very much on the minds of end users and in the strategies of leaders. IT organizations are struggling to manage both the pace and the volume of change on all levels. And anyone who has experienced a new system rollout knows how important good change management is to the success of an initiative. Collectively, IT leaders and professionals may feel deluged by the volume, variety, and pace of change. In response to that deluge, many IT leaders are adopting a strategic approach to change through the use of frameworks for such activities as service management, vendor management, risk management, IT architecture, information security management, project management, process management, and capability maturity management.”

But as we can read frameworks may seem restrictive and bureaucratic and higher education can have problem to adopt them. On the other hand frameworks can provide stability in times of change by creating replicable and scalable environments that can adapt gracefully to new and changing circumstances. 

2. From technical to business - IT leaders and professionals are shifting focus from technical to business problems, with increasing interdependencies.

The second domain is about how to apply technology to business needs, and how to improve outcomes. To solve strategic institutional problems, the IT and management need to collaborate and co-create. This can be a challenge because each group has a different view of the problem, possesses different relevant expertise, and plays a different role in the solutions.

"This second theme is also related to the need to reach across the white space in the institution's organizational chart so that the IT department better understands the needs of the institution and so that institutional leaders better understand the exciting potential of information technology and the time, resources, and executive commitment required to achieve that potential. The success and perhaps even the survival of higher education are more dependent than ever on technology." 

3. The New Normal - BYOD, digitization, and associated technologies and opportunities are changing the nature of user support and appropriate security policies. 

"In the midst of so much change, challenge, and opportunity, IT organizations continue running core services and supporting end users. IT staff still go into fire-fighting mode more often than they would wish. But even normal operations are subject to the forces of change." 

1. What do you think about top 10 IT issues? In your opinion they will be still current in 2016?
2. Do you agree that cooperation between IT leaders and institutional leaders is crucial to implement organizational strategy? How does your organization work? Is Chief Information Officer involved in taking strategic decisions?
3. What in your opinion IT leaders can do to communicate more effectively with institutional leaders?

Article published today because I can have a problem in moderating this thread 19-20 XII (during the weekend). So if it is possible I would be very grateful for your opinions until 18 XII (Friday).

Regards Przemek

Week 4 [30.11-06.12.2015]How does music express emotion?

Have you ever thought about how music expresses your emotions and to what degree are we culturally influenced in our response to different types of music?

In my opinion, music has a significant impact on our behaviour. I would like to develop this short statement. Also, I would like to talk about how your emotions and reactions can create our life.

I used to play on keyboard, accordion and saxophone when I was younger and had more time to do it. But now, still, I know that music I used to play had an impact on my mood. For example: when I played on saxophone romantic melody I had a pensive mood for the rest of the day. But when I played on piano something classical, for example: A-dur F. Chopin, I was very rapt and it had an impact on my concentration for the next few days.

Now, When I don’t have time to play on instruments I like to listen to music. I really believe that listening to music has got an impact on our concentration, our mood and how we feel.

That’s way I would like to promote listening to music.

And that’s way I would like you to think about what kind of music are you listening to.

Everything has an influence on your life.

Do you agree with me?

Do you have any favourite kind of music?

Where do you often listen to music?

Does music have any impact on you and your emotions?

You can find this article here:

http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/articles/article/brain-invasion-why-music-can-frighten-us/