Web-based software

Web-based software.

According to Technology’s promise, web-based software is going to dominate the IT side of Enterprises due to the fact that business organization are increasingly moving towards a web-based operating environment. Many companies like Google, Amazon, and HP are leading efforts to encourage the development of web-base applications especially in the open source style.  The major benefit of adopting and using web-based applications is that it eliminates the need for traditional installation and maintenance issues; with web based software, users do not have to worry about installing, configuring, or maintaining any software as everything is centrally managed by a company’s IT department or an a third party business partner.  According to the text book, Microsoft is launching an online version of its popular MS office suite products and will be available for users online. If this trend continues, we should expect to see and interact with virtually any application from the comfort of a web browser ; In other words, our operating system will be transformed to a web browser that provides the same performance and functionality as an operating system does.

Two forces that may impact the evolution of this technology forecast:

Force #1: Globalization: as we continue to live in a high-tech and highly global business market, corporations and institutions around the world need their employees, customers, and business partners to have access to applications in a timely manner without the need to manually install and configure software. This force will further help this technology to move fast and mature.

Force #2: Financial: the cost of purchasing software,  maintaining and supporting it will lead corporations to move away from this traditional approach and shift towards a web-based environment that provides cost effective web-based solutions and help boost employees’ productivity and performance.

Smartphone Security

http://animoto.com/play/NWq1c55hk0Htqbbz17sQSg

This is an excerpt from my dissertation about the importance of protecting our smartphones from emerging cyber attacks.

Smartphones are becoming enriched with confidential information due to their powerful computational capabilities and attractive communications features. The Android smartphone is one of the most widely used platforms by businesses and users alike. This is partially because Android smartphones use the free, open-source Linux as the underlying operating system, which allows development of applications by any software developer. This research study aims to explore security risks associated with the use of Android smartphones and the sensitive information they contain; the researcher devised a survey questionnaire to investigate and further understand security threats targeting Android smartphones. The survey also intended to study the scope of malware attacks targeting Android phones and the effectiveness of existing defense measures. The study surveyed the average Android users as the target population to understand how they perceive security and what security controls they use to protect their smartphones. Research findings indicated that Android smartphones lack proactive security measures to provide adequate protection against emerging malware attacks; they also showed that Android apps impose the most imminent security risks, especially because Google Android does not deploy security policies to recognize legitimate apps from malicious ones. Hackers, in turn, have exploited this security flaw and have passed harmful apps into the Android Market. As a result,  personal and financial information residing in Android smartphones is exposed to malware attacks.  Therefore, it is essential to develop effective protection mechanisms. The researcher proposes to build a proactive security framework that can detect and deter malware attacks targeting Android smartphones. 

Two forces that may impact the smartphone security are:
Force #1 : Technology:  This could be a double sword thing because new and more innovative technologies for smartphones can make it hard to protect them since users are usually distracted from the core value of these phones and only focus on the entertainment element of them. On the other side, as more innovative technologies come to the scene, we may see some break through technology that could provide ultimate protection for our smartphones without making users worry about the security aspects of this technology.

Force # 2: Society: our society is becoming increasingly more dependent on these gadgets which motivates hackers to craft more sophisticated attacks to compromise our smartphones and potentially steal our confidential information.

Technological progress

The author of the futurist states in page (23) that Technological progress will be one of the future trends that will shape our future. I think this prediction is already trending as we see the power of technology to enable humans to reach their goals faster and achieve their purposes more efficiently.
we can think of the power of the digital technology and look at how it has helped transform our lives in way that could never have imagined in the past. we live in a highly digitized world where our world is at the tip of our fingers and we can achieve virtually any task using the Internet and our computers as digital tools. we are yet to realize even more powerful tools and technologies resulting from the use of digital infrastructure as a daily routine in our lives. we should expect to work completely from home and interact with our society without even leaving our homes. thanks to our digital power.

Forces that may affect this future trend or forecast:
Force #1: Society: our society seems to be adopting the digital technology at an exponential rate. its completely embracing the digital world and making it an essential element of our daily life. this force will certainly help this technology to further strive and reach new heights.

Force #2: Economical: we live in a global economy; therefore we should expect the digital technology to see more adoption as business and organizations increasingly rely on the digital power to achieve their goals and meet customer expectations. The digital technology will certainly help achieve economic growth and contribute to making our economy more interconnected and more globalized.


Reference
Edward Cornish. Futuring: The Exploration of the Future.

the power of connecting people and ideas

Generative Dialoge:

The authors state that issues derive the need to generate ideas; indeed as the popular expression says ‘ Necessity is the Mother of Innovation’. This seems to be a valid reason why we now enjoy the benefits of communicating and interacting with people in an inter-connected world. When we provide a facility where knowledgeable people can engage in productive and disciplined dialogues; we should expect to reap good results about any particular issue of interest. This is based on the principle of connecting people and ideas to facilitate innovation. I think any innovation idea should be based on this principle because people tend to produce better results when they are engaged with people who share similar values and interests. Furthermore; with the advent of the Internet, there is no better way of connecting people and ideas from diverse cultures and backgrounds and help them find paths to innovate.  I would use the Generative Dialogue to explore innovative ideas about securing our digital infrastructure and ensuring the privacy of people using the cyber space every day. I would invite people from around the globe to participate and engage in a dialogue where every one’s ideas are values and considered as an essential element of a strategic innovation to secure our cyber space. When we invite people to participate and connect with people from similar fields and backgrounds, they feel more enthusiastic, motivated, rewarded, and most of all: challenged to produce the best ideas that will become part of the future innovation.

Forces that affect this innovative idea:

Force # 1: Technology: the internet has revolutionized the way people live and communicate and this innovative idea would certainly gain momentum via the use of Internet as a powerful and efficient way to connect people and their ideas. So the Internet can significantly facilitate and expedite this innovation.

Force # 2: Culture: I believe that people feel more inclined to collaborate with people from other cultures and backgrounds who share similar innovative ideas or particular interests. If we empower people and enable them to engage in productive dialogues, they will certainly produce quality results in a timely manner and thereby work towards a common goal or innovation.   

The SDP Process

References

Christakis, A. (n.d.). The SDP Process. Retrieved October 24, 2012, from Harness Collective Wisdom: http://www.harnessingcollectivewisdom.com/sdp_process.html

Schreibman, V., & Christakis, A. N. (2007). New Agora: New Geometry of Languaging and New Technology of Democracy: The Structured Design Dialogue Process.International Journal of Applied Systemic Studies , 15-31.

NGT versus Delphi method

The NGT is a research tool that was originally developed by by Delbecq et al in 1971 to gather consensus on planning activities within organizations and help in prioritizing those activities. One of the characteristics of the NGT method is that it’s an iterative process that enables group participation and feedback about specific issues. It helps gather feedback from groups of 5 to 10 participants within a short period of time. It also allows individual participants to voice their opinions and ideas about issues thus preventing the discussion to be dominated by a single participant. The other characteristic or benefit of this research tool is that it allows individual group members to present their own judgments and make group members feel the value of their viewpoints and input. This in turn, can also encourage even the shyest members to provide input and feedback without being constrained with a prescribed thought from the researcher or moderator. Another characteristic of this technique is that it can produce a large number of thoughts or answers in a very timely manner which could ultimately help meet the research objective or purpose. 

The Delphi method was developed in the 1950’s with the aim of gathering opinions and feedback to reach consensus on a research topic. This research technique best fits research topics where future predictions or forecasting is required. It aims at collecting expert knowledge and thoughts from subject matter experts in a domain and uses that knowledge to reach a consensus on the underlying research topic. The other characteristic of this research method is that it attempts to answer questions about what could or should happen in a field within a time frame so that a future prediction or forecast can be made. 
The main different between the two research methods is that the NGT can generate results and consensus with a short time period such as an hour or two hours whereas the Delphi technique can take days to solicit input and ideas of participants. And because of this time frame difference, the NGT can be used as an effective real time research tool to determine a future trend or prediction within a short time frame whereas the Delphi technique needs much more time to gather the opinions and feedback of experts of pressing research issues and use that knowledge to make decisions about future trends and forecasts. 

One force that could affect the success of those methods is the ethical aspect of group participation. How sincere are the participants when they provide input and feedback can impact the quality of the results obtained from either technique. The other force is the technology force; which technology do we use to gather expert opinion of research topics. Are we using surveys, face-to-face interviews of e-mail communication to communicate with participants? If we use face to face interviews, then we may get more candid answers and solutions of the underlying research issues. 


references
http://www.stfm.org/fmhub/fm2004/June/Alison402.pdf
VargaAtkins,T;withBunyan,N.;McIsaac,J;Fewtrell,R(2011)Usingthenominalgrouptechniquewithclickerstoresearchstudentexperiencesofe learning:aprojectreport.WrittenfortheELESIGSmallGrantsScheme.Liverpool:UniversityofLiverpoo

Collaborative and active learning will dominate the educational world

Innovation #1: Collaborative and active learning will dominate the educational world
educational institutions around the world are realizing the importance of teaching students projects that are based on collaborative learning styles and involve active learning. this is because many business organizations are demanding workers who can collaborate and participate to achieve business projects. to further support and enforce this idea of active and collaborative learning methodology; schools have started utilizing open source software tools that students and their respective teachers can use to implement the theories and practices. open source tools are becoming an integral part of many schools curricula because they have proven to be useful in preparing students for jobs that require practical knowledge and experience. for example, in Pen. State University, they offer a software engineering degree that uses open source software tools to teach project management, software development, and other software engineering practices. other Universities are teaching web development technologies using free open source software such as word press. 


Innovation #2: People expect to be able to work, learn, and study whenever and wherever they want to: I do believe that this key trend will become a reality in the next five to ten years due to the fact that we live in an increasingly interconnected world that removes all the geographical barriers to both work and school. access to higher education is no longer a challenge to busy working professionals as they can do their homework assignments from the convenience of their finger tips. furthermore; the asynchronous nature of the online education allows people from around the globe to participate in online forums and contribute to teaching and learning in an unprecedented manner. by the same token, people can work from home or anywhere with an internet connection thus eliminating the transportation barriers and enabling the workforce to become more productive and more efficient in the way the conduct daily business operations.

One force that could enhance or further define the two key trends is the Technological one which is the Internet. with this revolutionary technology, people can communicate and share information instantly and stay up to date with the latest news that concern their business or education. 
The other force is the economical force, as we continue to live in a global economy, business increasingly require their units to be geographically dispersed and yet still be able to communicate with other units in a timely manner. with the new networking technologies such as VPN, employees can stay connected to their business resources using the Internet as a tool to keep them productive no matter where they are. 

I think the effect was that they were able to ensure that they obtain a fresh and realistic perspective from educators and teachers around the globe. Those participants came from diverse backgrounds and held particular interests and expertise in the focus areas of the Horizon report. I think their goal was to produce a very inclusive and realistic report that can serve as an authoritative educational resource for educational community. 
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Word Press. the world's best blogging platform. (http://www.socialbrite.org/2010/07/16/12-open-source-tools-you-should-be-using/)