A lot is being said about the role of Smart Cities in the global development towards a more sustainable world. Sustainable world means one that manages its resources in a way that is efficient and leaving no costs for the future generations. Cities are hubs for economical and social growth and soon will become a home for most of the world's population, therefore the way that they are governed play a major role in how the sustainability challenge will be approached.
Smart Cities are a new urban model based on information and knowledge systems (referred to as intelligent systems). It is said that the sustainability of these systems will be achieved once their intelligence is unleashed. Specifically one characteristic of the Smart City seems to be crucial here - it is the extent to which its intelligent system enables Adaptive Governance.
Adaptive Governance is defined as one that creates conditions for the city authorities, inhabitants and other actors to collaborate in a new way - a way that enables real partnership and engagement across the scales and institutional levels of the city system. Such partnership is said to be the key to unleashing the social intelligence, based on consciousness and knowledge, leading to better resource management in the Smart City.
Please read the article at:
http://sustainablecitiescollective.com/david-thorpe/1065166/webinar-round-what-makes-smart-city
and answer the following questions:
1. In your opinion what are the most important characteristics of a Smart City?
2. What is the role of human intelligence in the formation of the information and knowledge systems of a Smart City?
3. Is Adaptive Governance an utopia or is it actually possible to create conditions for city authorities and citizens to collaborate as equal partners?
4. How should an intelligent system for Adaptive Governance be designed or thought of?
Online English Conversation Course for PhD Students
Wednesday 27 May 2015
Monday 25 May 2015
Week 6 (25-31.05.2015) NoSQL vs SQL – Which is a Better Option?
To the growing need for performance and availability of services or sites with heavy traffic, a point often is blocking the database. The relational databases quickly reach their limits and add servers does not increase performance enough. Following this, new technologies have emerged such as NoSQL databases, they are radically changing the architecture of the database that we used to see and thus make it possible to increase performance and availability of services, there are of course "but" the answer is no perfect . Thus Google migrated NoSQL in 2004 with the engine BigTable. He was followed by the giants of the social web to know Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. These companies have migrated all or part of their information system of relational databases to databases like NoSQL.
Also, this technology is relatively new and not yet existing migration processes or formal standards as well as other databases Object, Object relational and hierarchical well known in the scientific community and developers.
https://blog.udemy.com/nosql-vs-sql-2/
Could you please answer my questions.
1/ Why do we need NoSQL technology?
2/ Why do main companies use NoSQL not RDBMS in social media?
3/Do you have any idea how to develop this technology?
Tuesday 19 May 2015
Week 5 (18-24.05.2015) Sugar
Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a new guideline on sugars intake for adults and children. In short, we should not consume more than 50 grams (12 teaspoons) of added sugars a day and should aim for 25 grams a day (6 teaspoons). This could help us avoid diabetes, obesity, heart disease and a variety of other conditions.
When I picture 12 teaspoons of sugar, it seems easy enough - I just won’t add them to my tea. But when we start reading labels on food products, especially on processed foods, suddenly questions begin to emerge. How is it possible that a can of Cola contains more than 8 teaspoons of sugar? The same amount of tea or coffee with this amount of sugar would be undrinkable. What is sugar doing in my bread? And if sugar is so unhealthy, why products stuffed with insane amounts of sugar are advertised to kids?
It is estimated that if Europeans wanted to reach the lower target of 6 teaspoons a day, we would have to cut our average sugar intake by two-thirds. That means no more candy, sweetened drinks (which leaves us with water), yoghurts, cookies, cereal and probably most of processed foods including peanut butter and ketchup.
Please read the following text:
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2015/sugar-guideline/en/
I would like to invite you to a discussion on the following topics:
1. Do you agree with the statement that we're consuming too much sugar? What do you think of WHO's recommendations?
2. What measures would have to be taken in Europe in order to make it possible for us to meet those targets (6/12 teaspoons)?
3. And finally - who can we blame for this situation?
When I picture 12 teaspoons of sugar, it seems easy enough - I just won’t add them to my tea. But when we start reading labels on food products, especially on processed foods, suddenly questions begin to emerge. How is it possible that a can of Cola contains more than 8 teaspoons of sugar? The same amount of tea or coffee with this amount of sugar would be undrinkable. What is sugar doing in my bread? And if sugar is so unhealthy, why products stuffed with insane amounts of sugar are advertised to kids?
It is estimated that if Europeans wanted to reach the lower target of 6 teaspoons a day, we would have to cut our average sugar intake by two-thirds. That means no more candy, sweetened drinks (which leaves us with water), yoghurts, cookies, cereal and probably most of processed foods including peanut butter and ketchup.
Please read the following text:
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2015/sugar-guideline/en/
I would like to invite you to a discussion on the following topics:
1. Do you agree with the statement that we're consuming too much sugar? What do you think of WHO's recommendations?
2. What measures would have to be taken in Europe in order to make it possible for us to meet those targets (6/12 teaspoons)?
3. And finally - who can we blame for this situation?
Wednesday 13 May 2015
Week 4 (11-17.05) Google's "crazy" project for providing internet access
Google is currently working on a new project which promises to bring internet access to over 5 billion people that don't live in areas with infrastructure capable of granting it (i.e. remote places, rural areas). The project involves the use of high-altitude balloons sent to float in the stratosphere which would create a wireless network capable of providing internet access through LTE (most recent smartphones are compatible). The name comes from the mixture of words balloon and loony which perfectly describes the project. :)
In my opinion the idea is pretty good. However there are some drawbacks related to this concept, since the balloons are made of materials that aren't easily biodegradable and the project would involve many of such balloons, they might harm the ecosystem.
This video demonstrates what the project involves and presents the current preparations and experiments that Google conducts in order to achieve a full scale launch:
Article link:
http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/534986/project-loon/
Official page of the project:
http://www.google.com/loon/
And now for the weekly dose of questions, please answer the following:
1. Do you think that the Loon project is going to revolutionize internet accessibility?
2. Can you think of any alternatives?
3. Are you concerned with the possible repercussions that the failure of these balloons may bring to the environment? How could they be avoided?
4. Have you heard of any interesting technological breakthrough that is coming in the next 1-3 years?
In my opinion the idea is pretty good. However there are some drawbacks related to this concept, since the balloons are made of materials that aren't easily biodegradable and the project would involve many of such balloons, they might harm the ecosystem.
This video demonstrates what the project involves and presents the current preparations and experiments that Google conducts in order to achieve a full scale launch:
Article link:
http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/534986/project-loon/
Official page of the project:
http://www.google.com/loon/
And now for the weekly dose of questions, please answer the following:
1. Do you think that the Loon project is going to revolutionize internet accessibility?
2. Can you think of any alternatives?
3. Are you concerned with the possible repercussions that the failure of these balloons may bring to the environment? How could they be avoided?
4. Have you heard of any interesting technological breakthrough that is coming in the next 1-3 years?
Monday 4 May 2015
(Week 3 04-10.05 Piotr W.) Decoding Brain
Imagine you can fly with your car using only thought. You can’t see any buttons in cockpit. Only you can see some screens that you friends told you that there are unnecessary.
It’s not science fiction. This interface can be build now. We can also retrieve images and sound from our deepest dreams and even when we are awaken.
In future we can decode our brain and used it to create future internet called Brainnet an control our Surrogates on another planets staying in our homes on Earth.
Please read article from link bellow and provide answers for the few questions.
files.pwojcik.pl/decodingbrain.pdf
1. Do you think our brains are similar and can be decode using same algorithm?
2. What appliance would you control using only thought and what size of equipment would you accept for the device attached to your body?
3. Is there are any safety or ethic issues concerns you about developing such technology?
It’s not science fiction. This interface can be build now. We can also retrieve images and sound from our deepest dreams and even when we are awaken.
In future we can decode our brain and used it to create future internet called Brainnet an control our Surrogates on another planets staying in our homes on Earth.
Please read article from link bellow and provide answers for the few questions.
files.pwojcik.pl/decodingbrain.pdf
1. Do you think our brains are similar and can be decode using same algorithm?
2. What appliance would you control using only thought and what size of equipment would you accept for the device attached to your body?
3. Is there are any safety or ethic issues concerns you about developing such technology?
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