Monday, 19 October 2015

Week 1 [18-25.10.2015] EDUCAUSE

Read an article at http://www.educause.edu/library and present it here. Encourage its discussion.

42 comments:

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  2. Hello,

    I would like you to present a topic wich is very close to my heart.
    This is a story about Open Source.
    http://er.educause.edu/articles/2014/5/open-source-in-higher-education-building-a-life-raft-for-the-perfect-storm

    Open Source helps me a lot in becoming software developer. I was learning by reading code written by other coders. After almost ten years in my software journey I am still doing the same thing.
    In my opinion software should be free (especially software in schools) and everybody should have access to it and to its code.
    So for example if you want to change something in source code you should be able to do this.
    There shouldn't be any boundries for students (especially licencing boundries) to modify code, add something new to it, collaborate with others and then share it with whole world.
    Nowdays we have tools to collaborate with others (for example github), schools and
    government see how powerfull it can be, so in couple of years we should get real platform where can we share our code where we can collaborate and we can build better software without any restrictions or boundries.
    If you would like to see any example of this kind of cooperation you shoud read about Linux operating system which is released under GPL2 licence.
    Repo: https://github.com/torvalds/linux

    Adding this kind of experience to anybody resume should be really helpfull in finding new job. :-D


    1. What do you think about open source collaboration plaform?
    2. What are your experience with open source software?
    3. Do you think that goverment project like Voting Platform should be opened and realeased under GPL?

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    2. Hello Tomasz,
      1.
      The most important in open source is strong community. It depends who is engaged in the project and how often people are upgrading the solution. By the way I think open source ('web based' in my opinion) softwares are future. They successfully meet most of our needs, but sometimes are not stable enough (for example after upgrade). Most of the open source projects are related with other one. That could be the source of problems when we are tracking the system issue. Open Source needs professional help desk, otherwise project based on open source without commercial support is to risky for big companies.

      2.
      I was working as a programmer in company which transforms open source ERP system to polish realities and law. I had a contact with a lot of companies which are using this kind of software. The most popular question was - aren’t we only one company on the market which is developing this solution in Poland - clients have to have a choice and other possibilities (plan B / backup). I know few of opensource projects where authors stopped project. They commercialized solution and have stopped system developing on opensource license (new addons and upgrades are commercial).
      3.
      I think that can be good solution, but still needs support from commercial companies which will be responsible for this project.




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    3. Interesting article and a great topic. Here are my answers.

      1. What do you think about open source collaboration platform?
      I totally agree on the significance of Open Source collaboration in modern development. I think it’s impossible to find a developer who does not use any open source tools, libraries or frameworks. Open source played a major role in my career and education and I strongly encourage everybody to try to contribute to open source projects. With the raise of such platforms as Github it’s much easier nowadays to collaborate on an interesting project.

      2. What is your experience with open source software?
      I had the pleasure to contribute to various open source projects as part of my contracting work. Additionally I usually open source my side projects on my github profile.

      3. Do you think that government projects like Voting Platform should be opened and released under GPL?
      I totally agree that government projects should be developed in the open. I think that open sourcing such systems would actually help to improve their quality and security. I’m not an expert on open source licenses, but I actually prefer to work with MIT or Apache licenses.

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  3. Hello Tomasz, I think that open source is great. Often I prefer to use open source software. Open source software is usually well developed. Its greatest strength is that formed by people who have different ideas and needs. Often commercial software equivalent, benefit from innovations developed in open source. I for several years I used Linux, I have very pleasant memories :)

    If you ask about learning programming, I am rather for releasing fragments of code / functionality than all the software. This allows for the creation of a more independent projects in early learning programming.

    The last question is difficult. The first thing that comes to mind is that such software shouldn't public. Because the precise knowledge of software / security makes it easier to attack them.
    Although if the software for the counting of votes would be public, perhaps there wasn't need to manually count.

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  4. I think that Open Source helps a lot in daily tasks. Unfortunately I have not participated in any of such projects (yet :) ). However, open source is an important issue as for statistical packages. I have experience in using R software which is a language and an environment for statistical computing. I found there a wide range of tools for any data science tasks. It is possible to participate in many projects developing more and more statistical models or tools for visualizations. One drawback of this approach may be the fact that the unpopular packages are not developed anymore and after an update of R i have to install the previous one or look for similar packages due to the incompatibility.
    I agree with Maciej that this kind of software shouldn’t be public in order to prevent attacks.

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    1. Hi everyone. Please take a moment and have a look at the practical aspect of the open source software.
      “On http://tech.co/5-advantages-open-source-software-2015-10 you can find 5 Advantages of Open Source Software. Those are:
      1. Customization
      2. Freely Obtainable
      3. Support
      4. Accessibility of Resources
      5. Enterprise Administration Solutions

      As far as I can see no one mentioned the point 2. Please keep in mind that often the most important things for the potential users is price. As we know open source software it is usually for free. Not everyone can afford buying commercial products.

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  6. I think reason why open source programs are so successful and reliable is thats to the fact that the whole ecosystem of open source is fully democratic. there is no central authority that tells you what is god and what is not. If you think that something can be done better you just "fork". Take what is there before and build from that point on your own. Then if many people like your solution it becomes more popular and eventually becomes industry standard.

    When we look at proprietary software, there were many cases in which decision made by the management was erroneous. I think that it is because you can not predict the future and also that it is damn hard to guess what your customers really want.

    When you look at open source software you see that in many cases different teams are working on something that is almost identical. You might think to yourself "why wouldn't the join forces and work on this together?". Well, if they work together then they don't have to compete and they would have to agree on the best solution rather that test it in the field.

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  7. Hello Tomasz,

    In my opinion open source project is very good, it is an opportunity for development for small businesses which don't have budget for buy a software. Small businesses can adapt open source project to their needs and their can sell this software or use this in their company without incurring any costs

    I don't have experience with open source project, because I works in companies which use commercial software, but I would like work in open source project in future

    In my opinion government project don't should be opened and released under GPL, because people will look at for code and look for bugs. If people will find bugs, They will write to the media about errors and companiy which develops this software will have a big trouble.

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  8. Straight to the point (as usual).

    1. What do you think about open source collaboration plaform?

    Do you have any specific platform in mind? Just kidding.
    OSS is a godsend. I can't even express how grateful I am for the tools I am using on a daily basis. And I can't recall how many times I used open source libraries or languages. Basically all the time.
    Can you imagine Java being something you have to pay for?
    Open Source is the cornerstone the innovation. If it weren't for Open Source, the pace of Information Revolution would be much slower, to say the least.

    2. What are your experience with open source software?

    I heard bad things about it, but I cannot agree with OSS opponents. I use Linux, LibreOffice, Eclipse, Firefox and countless other tools all the time. I just can't imagine my life without them.

    3. Do you think that goverment project like Voting Platform should be opened and realeased under GPL?

    I am not sure about Voting Platform (to some extent it was, because somebody decompiled the .Net client and put it on GitHub...). In theory, it should reveal all the security wholes (like checking if something is digitally signed, without validating the whole trust chain, as it was the case of the famous blunder). On the other hand, there is one in a million chance that some genius would spot a security whole without sharing it with anyone else... and use it to manipulate the results. That would be something dangerous, although short-lived I guess (imagine that the results are way off... What you do is, you manually re-count all the votes. Ouch).
    For other platforms, I am pretty confident that there should be at least publicly available API (I am thinking ZUS here).

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  9. 1. What do you think about open source collaboration plaform?

    I believe a lot more good may come out from open source platforms than bad. First of all, for many people it may be the only way to get acces to the software tools they need in order to realize their projects. The commercial software is simply very expensive. Secondly, if offers a fantastic opportunity to acquire new friends and to open a new ways of co-opereration that may be very fruitful in the future. Finally, an access to such a code source may very often to fire our imagination and creativity. Reading freely accessible works of others may inspire us to figure out and do something completely different and new.

    2. What are your experience with open source software?

    For the moment I do not have any experience with open software platforms, I never used a Github, but I have many friends using it everyday and their opinion is very positive.

    3. Do you think that government project like Voting Platform should be opened and released under GPL?

    I think in may be a very good idea. From what I heard specialists are saying, I understand every open source code is a subject of a very intense scrutiny. Much bigger and much more scrupulous review takes place in open platform environment, than in any standard commercial testing. After all, it is much harder to hide any piece of buggy or malicious code in a project that enjoys the full public access and by definition will be scrutinized, improved and tested by thousands and thousands talented programmers ( architects, developers, coders and testers).

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  10. 1. What do you think about open source collaboration plaform?

    In my opinion, schools, colleges, training centers should have free access to commercial software because they educate future customers.

    2. What are your experience with open source software?

    As I wrote earlier, I'm a mathematician, I haven't experience in programming. I am only user of free software such that: Libre Office Open Oficce, Gimp, Geogebra, sometimes Linux.

    3. Do you think that goverment project like Voting Platform should be opened and realeased under GPL?

    On the one hand, what is open then's clear, on the other hand always find people who want to manipulate, it's hard to say...

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  11. 1. What do you think about open source collaboration plaform?

    Open source platforms - yes, but.. there is always but.

    My experience tells me that it all depends on the purpose and load volume.
    Generally speaking, the idea is great. The source should be publicly available, free of charge, without restrictions. However, if something is available free of charge, in most of the cases it usually means its quality is lower, and for business critical use cases it may not suffice just because it is free of charge.
    It usually means that support is not that agile and prompt as you may expect to be (even the idea is to serve the best effort) and you agree with all the limitations available.
    Or like Rafal suggests, you take as granted and start building your stuff on the top of it..


    2. What are your experience with open source software?

    As I wrote above, it all depends on the purpose. I sketched solutions using open-source systems many times, seemed perfect fit for purpose, but when faced with more rigorous requirements, it just wasn’t enough. Mostly due to the rational explained above.

    3. Do you think that government project like Voting Platform should be opened and released under GPL?

    On the election day, this is a very good question. And requires separate discussion.
    We are able to submit annual tax declaration - which is probably even more important. So why voting is not available yet?
    Morever, each of has or may have a trusted profile on public administration services platform (hosted by ZUS?), so why can’t we vote?
    Long time ago I had an idea, that each citizen should be given an account in gov domain (or trusted profile) and simple Google Form should be sent to to everyone for voting. Imagine now all the fuss that would be raised by non-techie part of society..
    The voting platform should be very transparent, yet allowing for annonymous voting to eligible ones (perhaps we should change the constitution first so the ones who pay taxes here can vote only?).
    So whether GPL or just publicly available source code for anyone to look at, is a secondary topic.
    Looking forward to it anyway.

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  12. I would like to talk about my research area, cloud computing. You can find few articles about it here : http://www.educause.edu/library/resources/preparing-it-organization-cloud
    1. Cloud computing, what's hidden in it?
    Actually it's pretty old idea, and I won't copy paste text from an article. You can read about it in first chapter. Shortly, In 90s we already had grids, clusters and so on, but now we can actually use it whenever we want and where we want. It's cheap and available to everyone if you have few bucks. We have two big providers on the market, Azure by Microsoft and EC2 by Amazon. I tried both of them and i found out that Amazon is a bit cheaper, but Azure suits me better. Maybe because I've got some credits for free ? :)
    2. Why do we need it?
    Because it's a cheap alternative to real hardware. Paying 50$ you can "rent" server for a month when you need it and destroy it afterwards without additional costs. Compare it to the real hardware for 2000$ now. If you need it for a month only, after this period you won't probably use it anymore. Same story with for example big data tests and proccessing. It's just faster and cheaper.
    3. How we can get it?
    You can get a free trial on Microsoft Azure. You can even contact with Microsoft Poland and get some help with setting it.
    In my opinion it's a future in computer science even though cloud computing is a catchy phrase, made by marketers.

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  13. Hi, I would like to encourage you to discussion about article “7 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT… DRONES” at http://www.educause.edu/library/resources/7-things-you-should-know-about-drones. I think “7 things you should know about…” series can be good way to start.

    So, in a nutshell, as you all probably know drones are flying objects usually equipped with a camera which are used in many areas of our live. Most of them are remote-controlled devices but some can fly without any special human interaction. Lily for example is a self-flying drone that follows you around and films you. Definitely they’re so popular in this time because they gives low-cost platform for gathering lot of data. As was mentioned they are used by the army, police, in education and many research at numerous universities. To be more specific for example “The University of Colorado at Boulder uses the technology to measure super-cell thunderstorms to try to determine what causes them to produce tornadoes.”, “At the UC Davis Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, drones are employed experimentally for crop dusting.”, "at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, students were using it as a newsgathering tool, but their local drones were grounded by a cease-and-desist order from the FAA". In addition drones boost connectivity as flying hotspots, they can be used for better observation to traffic control, and farmland monitoring.

    Ok. I really believe that there are many cases when using drones for sure can be more faster and sometimes even safer in such activities like monitoring, landscape searches or remote viewing. But on the other hand they can damage property, break security and privacy or cause other troubles due to incorrect handling or unforeseen problems. We could even imagine using them for attacks on people's lives.

    I agree with the observation that “drones enable remote viewing, they offer us easy access to overhead views and new perspectives, literally changing the way we see the world around us.” But for the same reasons I think can be serious security risk without certain regulations which correspond to many actual problems and this which not addressed yet.

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  14. Hello all,

    I would like to share with you about article at: http://er.educause.edu/blogs/2015/10/keep-your-digital-home-secure-in-the-21st-century. That is topic about security at home and not only.

    I want to talk about some kind of security prevention:
    1. Opened ports on your firewall. I agree with that article about scan your open ports. You should to scan your open ports and after that wondering about your configurations. I prefere to use configuration to block whole my ports on firewall and open only that port what I use to serices. For example I use Virtual Private Network for communication with my home server outside of the house. I had configurationed firewall that I openden ports for PPTP (1723 port and GRE protocol ID 47). I prefere to use only PPTP or IPsec configurations for connective with my home router.
    2. Using difficult password to any devices. I would like to say that it is very important security level of your home secure. I use to use very difficult password to my devices. And it is very important that use different password to any devices.
    3. IPS – Intrusion Prevention System – that is hardware device to prevent your network. That device scanning your network in real time and searching any burglary. That is very important thing but nessasary it is still so big cost for normal user.

    I would like to know about your configurations of network security.
    What do you think about difficult password to any devices in your network?
    Do you use any additional security to prevent your network?

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  15. Hi Piotrek,
    1. I would like to know about your configurations of network security?
    Why would you like to know that? :P But seriously, I think that if somebody want to breaks into your computer network he or she will do this without any problem. Yes you can make life harder for script kiddies etc. but if someone would like to break nothing can stop them. :D

    2. What do you think about difficult password to any devices in your network?
    If the password is shorter you can save some time :D. I have difficult passwords only on my work computer and my network devices at home. Rest of my stuff have simple passwords, mainly because I do not care stuff stored on them.

    3. Do you use any additional security to prevent your network?
    Yes this will be the power button :D.

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    1. Unfortunately you are right. There's no guarantee that even with the best precautions some of bad thinks won't happen. However, you can take steps to minimize the risks to your computer and your sensitive information. Ultimately, the security of your computer is dependent upon you. We can prevent against 99,00% of attacks. But still 1% …

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    2. 1) Theoricaly You have right  but… If everybody have this same approach we would do not have any security systems. There are many ways to break any security system but we have to upgrade our systems, reconfiguration any vulnerability if we see and monitoring the logs…
      2) The difficult password must be use in the most important devices like IPS, servers, admin accounts, routers and firewalls. But I use difficult password to any my devices and accounts – prevention 
      3) Yes I use to Intrusion System Prevention to monitoring and blocking any suspects things.

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    3. Marcin you are right. It is correctly my vision of have good security level. That is way to have much more confidence and feel that your security is stell upgading and monitoring.

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  16. 1. For me, it is hard to imagine our IT world with out open source platforms and software. Over past years I've used many different open source platforms on very different fields.
    I think even that open source solutions are making the commerce products a lot better. Why ? It is easy. If someone can have a very good program for free, than the paid verson must really awesome :) Unfortunatly the biggest problem with OSS is that a lot of it is just junk that is unusable in every day work.

    2. As I've mentioned already I very often use OSS software. It is something very natural for me and I think that is very natural for most software developers. There are platforms that are so natural that you don't even think about it as OSS, it is just a good tool and you know that you should use it.
    In my job I went even step further, for last 6-7 years I'm developing different projects on same open software platform and I'm happy with that.
    3. I think that it shouldn't be open platform. There are projects, ideas that never shoud be developed in this way

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  17. I would like to present an article related with my passion (Augmented reality): http://er.educause.edu/articles/2011/3/augmented-reality-and-geotagging-in-japan
    This article is focused on my favorite connection, augmented reality and education. This two areas are something you can call, a “perfect couple”. AR is entering into our lives more often, and with bigger force. This is just a matter of time when it will be something as natural as mobile phone in our pockets. It is not a matter of “if”, it is a matter of “when”. And I think that it will be really soon.
    Article I’m presenting is about using geotagging and augmented reality to connect students (that are studying abroad for some time) in classroom with outside world. It allows to share and show different cultures from whole over the world. Using pretty simple cameras with GPS module, and software like picassa and blogger, students are able to share interesting information, pictures etc. It allows to extend perception of whole group, it allows to learn the differences that are making our cultures so unique.
    Augmented reality has enormous amount of possibilities in school. It can help in creating better interactions between students, it can help with better understand surrounding world, it can help as an education material. The best thing that very often (like in this example) you don’t need any special devices. Smartphone or a tablet is more than enough.
    1. What do you think about augmented reality ?
    2. Where do you see most of the usages of this technology ?
    3. Would like to wear special AR googles every day ?

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  18. I would like to present the article "What Can We Learn from Violent Videogames?" by Richard N. Van Eck which can be found here: http://er.educause.edu/articles/2015/10/what-can-we-learn-from-violent-videogames

    This article covers the topic of violent videogames, how they affect the minds of people who play them, whether or not they inspire gamers to commit crimes in real life, and whether playing them can teach anything positive.

    The author mentions a few recent cases of mass violence like the infamous shootings at Columbine, Virginia Tech and others. In some of those cases the shooters had been playing violent computer games and in some of them they had not. The questions that arose naturally were: Can we blame it on videogames? Were the shooters inspired by them? Would it all have happened if they hadn't played violent games?
    Some research does indeed show a correlation exists but the author argues this does not mean there is a causal link and the "evidence" provided by that research is just not good enough. It does not explain how playing videogames may have made the subjects violent or is otherwise flawed from the scientific point-of-view. The article also shows examples that may be used to prove the opposite.

    Another interesting point is made that experiencing violence in computer games may even be good. According to the author, it could teach empathy and enable players to see the consequences of the choices they make without actually experiencing them.

    What are your opinions on violent videogames? Do you think they cause violence, prevent it or make no difference at all?

    Personally I think games are just another media, but unlike watching a movie or reading a book you get to do stuff, not just witness it. I've never done any research that could be considered even remotely scientific but I don't think playing violent games would make you violent unless you already have a serious mental disorder.

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  19. Hi,
    I came accross an interesting article about MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) here: http://er.educause.edu/articles/2013/1/the-mooc-model-challenging-traditional-education.
    There are number of platforms with online courses prepared by recognized universities and corporations, such as MIT, Stanford, Facebook, Google or Nvidia. I think that opening access to knowledge is very important. Of course MOOCs require internet access, but on the other hand lectures can be viewed anytime you want and anywhere you have an ISP :). On the other hand e-learning has a big disadvantage: you cannot ask questions to the lecturer while watching video. Most platforms offer online forums but live feedback is obviously better.
    I took couple of courses on Coursera and one at Udacity and I think this was a good way to get started with new topic.
    Have you ever took an online course to learn new things?
    Some platforms offers paid certificates after completing number of courses on some discipline (Coursera Specializations or Udacity Nanodegree). Do you think that such certificate is something you can crow about in your CV?
    Would you enroll in online certification path?

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  20. Hi,
    I came accross an interesting article about MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) here: http://er.educause.edu/articles/2013/1/the-mooc-model-challenging-traditional-education.
    There are number of platforms with online courses prepared by recognized universities and corporations, such as MIT, Stanford, Facebook, Google or Nvidia. I think that opening access to knowledge is very important. Of course MOOCs require internet access, but on the other hand lectures can be viewed anytime you want and anywhere you have an ISP :). On the other hand e-learning has a big disadvantage: you cannot ask questions to the lecturer while watching video. Most platforms offer online forums but live feedback is obviously better.
    I took couple of courses on Coursera and one at Udacity and I think this was a good way to get started with new topic.
    Have you ever took an online course to learn new things?
    Some platforms offers paid certificates after completing number of courses on some discipline (Coursera Specializations or Udacity Nanodegree). Do you think that such certificate is something you can crow about in your CV?
    Would you enroll in online certification path?

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  21. 1. What do you think about open source collaboration plaform?
    I obviously agree that Open Source is both necessary and great. It’s good for the community, it provides us with both great code and solutions, it encourages development. But I don’t blame companies that want hide their code – they paid for it, so it’s their decision.

    2. What are your experience with open source software?
    I have some experience using Open Source software, it’s hard not to have any. Unfortunately I never had the chance to contribute. Maybe in the future :)

    3. Do you think that goverment project like Voting Platform should be opened and realeased under GPL?
    It’s quite complicated, but in this case I don’t think that things like voting platforms should be open. I have the impression that it would make them easier to attack. But I’m not very attached to this opinion, it is only my impression :)

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  22. 1. What do you think about open source collaboration plaform?

    I am not recall any experience with open source collaboration patform.

    2. What are your experience with open source software?

    I have lot of experience in open source software. Generally speaking this is an opportunity for young people to practise their it skills. Learn how to avoid pitfalls and gain discipline. I didn't count how many years I use open source software but if you are not very wealthy this is only legal opportunity to use their computers and learn.

    In the past I use open source software in operating system fields, office applications and software development. Maybe there was more software that I don't mention but actually I don't remember actually in which fields.

    3.Do you think that goverment project like Voting Platform should be opened and realeased under GPL?

    Right now I'm not enthusiast of GPL software. I see disadvantages, but in domain of Voting Platform open source GPL licensed software can be perfect solution to secure this paramount institution.

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  23. I would like to present you an article about ERP project management. http://er.educause.edu/articles/2009/7/erp-project-management-lessons-learned This article is a great source of lessons learned based on true story. Article describes background of implementation, and shows how important are: good plan, skills and communication plan.

    Document presents tips and informations which should be analyzed by everyone who is responsible for system implementation. It should be read by a people responsible for preparing system specification from the client site. Companies are focusing on their needs but forgot about involvement in the implementation phase. This is very important, because if we (as a client) are active partners in implementation process, they can make some changes and fit system to our needs.

    Very interesting idea is "war room" - it is meeting room prepared for presentations and conversations. My question is: how often team leader should organize the meetings?

    In my opinion it depends on project and team size. If our meetings are too long and too often we are losing time and people are not prepared enough to it. If our project can be split into smaller team, they can exchange their ideas on coffee break etc. and range of tasks is smaller.

    Problems and conflicts are something natural in project. Who, and how should resolve this kind of situation?

    Each project or action have an owner. He should be autonomous institution in a company during project time. When people can not resolve conflict or important decision is required - owner should do that.

    What is more important in a project? Good plan, or communication?

    I do not want to suggest the answer because I am curious to know your opinion.

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  24. Hi Tomasz,
    Interesting article. Below you can find my thoughts about open source.

    1. What do you think about open source collaboration platform?
    The idea of open source seems great to me. It brings profits to the users, developers and the market.
    User has wide variety of applications and systems from which can choose the product he wants.
    For developers it is good practice to learn and gain experience, but also make some solutions better, more useful for certain activities. Open source is also very flexible for the market needs. When some system/application is not used it is just not developed any more.

    2. What are your experience with open source software?
    I use some open source software from time to time and I cannot complain. In most cases it has very good quality.

    3. Do you think that government project like Voting Platform should be opened and released under GPL?
    I don't have strong opinion in this subject.

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  25. Hi Everyone

    I decided to choose this article : http://www.educause.edu/library/resources/7-things-you-should-know-about-internet-things

    This is because I like new, strong terms and "Internet of Things" passes those criteria's.

    The IoT is strong, ideological or marketing term for things that are already possible by low-voltage, low-cost components and sensors that can be added to appliances, streetlights, doorways, desks, cars, e-textbooks, and other objects, all of which send data to a managing application. The article abstracts IoT in few different point of views.

    Please comment on what do you thing about the security of your identity - when even knock dooor will be connected to the web ?

    Will IoT change anything, while we already have few devices connected to the one account (Microsoft, Google etc.) ?

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  26. It's probably too late to start a new discussion so I'll focus on joining the running one.

    Open source projects are being updated rapidly as users are also involved into development process. The idea of work is different than completely business driven projects. Sometimes arises the problem of not sufficient users support and problem resolving. Usage of open source platforms and software especially during education process is very common.
    My experience with open source is limited to my studies, in work I use other kind of tools.
    Answering the last question, I'm not sure if project like voting platform should be developed in the open. The main problem would be the risk of revealing some security issue, that would be used by inappropriate people. On the other hand, the code review and testing phase could be realized in more conscientious and accurate manner.

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  27. I would like to present article about DNSSEC (https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/EST1001.pdf).
    Nowadays, Securing DNS transactions is in my opinion very important. For that purposes DNSSEC was developed.
    DNSSEC is a protocol based on digital signatures, which uses cryptographic mechanisms based on the public key, which potentially makes it possible to protect the entire tree structure of DNS. The DNS protocol protects information against forgery and modification, with the added possibility of using it as an infrastructure for the distribution of public keys.
    DNSSEC protocol enables to ensure the integrity and the ability to verify the authenticity of the data obtained. The client system can be sure that you get his data are reliable and have not been altered in transit from the source. The protocol defines the secure area and not the server, so even in the case of security breach one of the servers that are authoritative for the zone, the security system as a whole is maintained. Private keys are only used when signing the zone records and may not be available on-line, which further enhances the security of the system. The situation is complicated somewhat dynamic updates, which necessitate the availability of private keys on the server that supports them.
    In 2010 NASK start DNSSEC implementation. After a year they secured first polish domain that way. In the middle of 2014 only 20% of polish domain had been registered in that service.
    I think that implementation process is very slow. Please let me know what do you think about that ?
    Have you ever heard about any organization using DNSSEC ?

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  28. Welcome everybody 
    I would like to bring you closer to some interesting and useful article ( for teachers for example) about modern schools and about some changing in education methods: http://er.educause.edu/articles/2015/8/new-technologies-pedagogies-and-curriculum-a-practical-perspective.
    When I started teaching in school about fifteen years ago it was very difficult to teach young people about IT without modern methods and technologies like: virtualization, cloud computing, work group via network etc. Former teachers work with students they use only some traditional curriculum and items like blackboard, slide projector and microphone. Rapidly the progress in technology involved also educations sector. New items like film projectors, wireless network, tablets, electronic books and publications appeared in schools. These new items made us change our thinking about education. Now teachers must be close with IT guys to develop new curriculums and teaching methods connected with new items and IT trends. Young people would like to use new items like tablets, electronic publications, wireless networks not only for fun but also for studying. Unfortunately new technology connect with new problems as: illegal software, cheating during exams and issues connected with cyber security.
    I hope the Polish government will notice new trend in teaching and our school will change and go into right direction.
    1. Do you think new technology can help young people to learn more efficiently?

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  29. I have chosen an article that is not technical, but is about technology world and is close to me - women in technology (http://er.educause.edu/articles/2015/10/the-tech-talent-wars-and-womenintech).
    Author is describing few issues that appears in IT. Most important is constant lack of high qualified employees. The IT domain is very broad, fast changing and constantly needs more and more specialists that schools and universities cannot provide.
    One of the solution for this problem may be encouraging women to choose IT career.
    Women held only 26 percent of all jobs in IT in 2014 in US. The number of percent of women awarded computer science degrees decreased from 37 to 18 percent in 28 years (from 1985 to 2013). What, in your opinion, is the reason of this situation?
    Article suggests that women may not be willing to choose IT career path because of an “image” of IT specialist (geek sitting all day in a dark room and typing some code). They are not aware how broad technology is. Also male part of IT world is a bit closed for women. The atmosphere on technical universities campuses and in IT departments is not very friendly to women.
    As I am a woman working in technology, I was thinking many times, why it is mostly men's world.
    I think that the author of an article is partially right. When I started my adventure with technology I was not aware how many fields it contains, but I was not seeing it as a “geek world”. About the atmosphere on the university and at work – I have never felt excluded or different from other students or employees.
    What do you think? Why there are so few women in technology? Dear Ladies, have you ever felt bad at work just because you are a women?

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  30. This article is very interesting: http://er.educause.edu/articles/2014/12/mooc-completion-and-retention-in-the-context-of-student-intent
    It’s similar like the one posted by . It’s also about MOOC. Author of the article selected by me is discussing the problem of student retention and course completion in MOOC. In the beginning ( few years ago) it was generally expected that popularity and enrollment will keep increasing in time ( even for the paid classes, which is the case now with the most of them).
    Then the following trends have been observed:
    - the completion level of participating students started leveling down,
    - strong attrition rate of the participating students instead of expected retention

    What do you think?:
    1- Did MOOC loose their original appeal? Are they not as attractive as it has been anticipated?
    2- Which reasons for the diminishing student retention described in the article, you consider the most important?
    3- What would be your potential reason for dropping out of MOOC – high cost of classes ? classes too dull or too difficult ? other personal commitments ?

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  31. Hello everyone, the article that I've chosen presents ways of using 3D printing technology for educational purposes. It basically deals with the revolutionization of the modern classroom. At first the author describes what exactly a 3D printer is and tries to make it sound less sci-fi by comparing it to a CNC machine (the main difference is that 3D printers use materials to produce items while CNC machines cut already inserted half-products). The materials that are used for printing are in majority some kind of plastics however metal and rubber are also a viable option. These printers can either bring into existence objects that were digitally designed or make copies of pre-scanned existing ones.
    Some of the uses that this technology enables are i.e. the ability to print: prototypes (engineering students), historical artefacts (history students), cells/viruses/organs (biology students), molecules (chemistry students), molds for food products (cooking students), replacement parts (automotive students) and many many more. The article deals with items that find use usually just in education, however there are many other areas that 3D printers are exceptional for. Examples range from life-improving prosthetics that help amputees to life-saving tools and equipment parts that are used in hospitals during operations.

    You can find the article here.

    Did you print anything on a 3D printer yet? If yes, then were you satisfied by the quality of the item?

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  32. Hi,

    Thanks for your selections of articles from Educause. I found the interesting one myself. The author of this article http://er.educause.edu/articles/2012/6/scientific-research-how-many-paradigms addresses importance of using information technology (especially Big Data) in new scientific research in fields where classic approach is more common – astronomy, biology, literature. Do you think that big data is really "the fourth paradigm" of science or just another symptom of big data hype? ;-)

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  33. Hello everyone,

    I found a few very interesting articles on the digital learning environment framework and the vast new learning opportunities that come along with new digital tools. One specific methodology caught my attention - the LEGO approach, which allows each user to construct learning environments tailored to their requirements and goals, with focus on collaboration, personalization and universal design enabling the user to produced new learning artifacts. I started wondering how this approach could be applicable to our English platform and what kind of learning artifacts I would personally like to produce to enhance the learning process. What is missing for me is the chance to talk and interact with other students just like in a real classroom. I would therefore like to produce not only written posts but also videos for example. What do you think about it?

    The full report on the LEGO approach can be found here: http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eli3035.pdf

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  34. I would like to present you very short article about Digital Home Security: http://er.educause.edu/blogs/2015/10/keep-your-digital-home-secure-in-the-21st-century

    Article present a few fundaments of security topic. Future can bring lot of security issues in your home fortress. Can you name few of them? Did you familiar with emerging Internet of Things concept? How it will help us in future and what are the dangers of implementing this technology? Should we protect our children from surrounding technology or should we try to adapt?

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  35. I agree with Pawel Markowski, the biggest disadvantage of using open - source code is support and responsibility absence, inherent in commercial solutions. On the other hand such products like Microsoft Windows are slow, dangerous (there are a lot of virus) and dedicated to people who prefer easy-going software with big colorfully buttons. But unfortunately in such system is really hard to analyze what's really going on, how to disable unwanted program or how change or install specific library. In my opinion if you want something fast and working trust open source. Better trust thousand of people writing changes in Linux kernel than the newest unwanted and impossible to turn off windows update (or in the worst case Java update :)).

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