10/1/09

green campus computing


KENNETH C. GREEN is the founding director of The Campus Computing Project, the largest continuing study of the role of information technology in American colleges and universities. The project is widely cited by both campus officials and corporate executives as a definitive source for data, information, and insight about information technology planning and policy issues affecting American higher education.

Green is the author/co-author or editor of a dozen books and published research reports and more than 80 articles and commentaries that have appeared in academic journals and professional publications. He is often quoted on higher education, information technology, and labor market issues in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Education, and other print and broadcast media.

An invited speaker at some two dozen academic conferences and professional meetings each year, Green was also the co-executive producer and on-air host of the award-winning Ready2Net programs, a series of satellite broadcasts and Webcasts, sponsored by the California State University-Monterey Bay and focused on the challenges and opportunities that information technology presents to American higher education.

In October 2002, Green received the first EDUCAUSE Award for Leadership in Public Policy and Practice. The award cites his work in creating The Campus Computing Project and recognizes his "prominence in the arena of national and international technology agendas, and the linking of higher education to those agendas."


UC San Diego Campus Computing Goes Green- January 28, 2009
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
By Josh Keller

Relocate a college's server computers next to a solar-power generator. Replace AC power with DC power. Cool the servers only where they get the hottest. Put the servers in the ocean and power them with waves.

Those were a few of the ideas discussed last week at a conference, "Greening the Internet Economy," that was designed to address the problem of the soaring financial and environmental costs of information technology. The event, held by the University of California at San Diego, offered a sampling of a new generation of technologies that promise to help colleges make their IT departments both more efficient and more sustainable.

Many of the participants emphasized the importance of systems that could more intelligently measure energy use on the campus. In recent years, colleges have been hurt by the rising costs of powering and cooling their data centers, in part because those costs are difficult to measure and poorly understood (The Chronicle, January 9).

At San Diego, researchers have started work on hardware to help colleges and other organizations understand how to make their servers more efficient. The device, called the GreenLight Instrument, will deploy sensors and software to measure the energy use, humidity, and other variables in various parts of a Sun Modular Data Center, a popular, self-contained complex of servers.

The goal is to encourage engineers to try different computing strategies to reduce electricity consumption, said Thomas A. DeFanti, principal investigator on the project and a senior research strategist at the university's California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology.

"Right now there isn't enough information for somebody to make a definitive decision: Where do I save my money? Do I eliminate disks in my computers, or do I stop them? Do I use more RAM or less RAM?" said Mr. DeFanti. "Nobody has detailed information on this."


Hawaii Pacific University issued the following news release: Hawai'i Pacific University will kick off its Green Campus Project 6-10 p.m., March 9, on upper Fort Street Mall. HPU's Proud to Be Pinoy Club will pioneer the project with its recycling program. The event will be followed at 8 p.m. by a Movie on the Mall - "An Inconvenient Truth" - presented by HPU in collaboration with the Honolulu Culture and Arts District, Fort Street Business Improvement District, and Paradise Cinema.

The Green Campus Project event will start with entertainment from 6-8 p.m., a preface for the club's initiative to provide and maintain HI-5 recycling bins in campus buildings.

Schools are deploying green-technology techniques to help conserve energy and otherwise preserve natural resources. Such strategies run the gamut from automated thermostats and “smart” lighting to virtual servers and computer-part recycling. In some cases, those efforts do more than just shrink a school’s environmental footprint—they can also generate financial benefits that can last years.


In our school, I suggest that the administrators should conduct a meeting as to what action they should take in order to implement green campus computing. After discussing the plan with the faculty, it will be disseminated on the students through constant reminders and posters that would remind the students on what they should do in order to help implement the said action.
_________________
-=♥yhang♥=-
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risks associated with business and IS/IT

In a broad sense, the term Information Systems (IS) refers to the interaction between people, processes, and technology. This interaction can occur within or across organizational boundaries. An information system is not only the technology an organization uses, but also the way in which the organization’s people interact with the technology and the way in which the technology works with the organization’s business processes. Information systems are distinct from information technology in that an information system has an information technology component that interacts with the people and processes components.
The Information System consists of five parts which include: people, procedures, software, hardware, and data. There are various types of information systems, for example: transaction processing systems, office systems, decision support systems, knowledge management systems, database management systems, and office information systems. Critical to most information systems are information technologies, which are typically designed to enable humans to perform tasks for which the human brain is not well suited, such as: handling large amounts of information, performing complex calculations, and controlling many simultaneous processes.
The process industry has always had to deal with changes to plant and equipment. More recently people and organisational changes have become critical (e.g. staffing levels, supervision, control room arrangements, shift patterns). Identifying and managing the potential risks has been a challenge.
As a consequence of the competitive operating environment, enterprises need to implement change to develop and maintain their competitive advantage. This requires changing the behavior of people in organizations by changing attitudes about what can and should happen at work. The need for change could originate from multiple business interventions- Strategic changes (changes in corporate/ functional direction), Organizational changes (structures / roles & responsibilities / performance assessment and compensation mechanisms), Process Changes (redefined and redesigned processes) or IT Interventions (change in work methods / tools / techniques)

Charting and managing the road map for change transformation is the single most important element of the process. While change is fairly common, it is very difficult to implement successfully. Success hinges on being able to convince groups and individuals to change the way they work, possible only if people are ready to think differently about their jobs.

Any change needs to be managed. Process changes or changes consequent to the implementation of an IT solution are no exception. In case changes are not managed effectively, the success of the change implementation gets at risk.

Change management is the process of motivating and equipping people to a level of competency that facilitates their migration along the path of change.

Our consultants touch upon the crucial elements that are expected to be affected by the process change – organization and people requirements. We help manage change through a three step process:
• Assessment of change readiness and identification of risks
• Definition of the change management road map
• Facilitation of the execution of the change management plan through appropriate change communication, change sensitization and the definition of governance structures and revised roles
The other aspect that needs to be managed is risk. Our consultants bring to the table extensive hands on experience in managing PLM implementations and that experience enables them to identify up-front factors that could potentially cause risk to projects. Using industry standard program management techniques, our consultants identify risks and monitor their probability of occurrence and potential impact. They plan for mitigation of risks and execute those plans to ensure that risks do not get realized. They put in place back up plans and plans for scenarios that assume that risks do get realized. Systematic risk management ensures project success and predictability on project metrics.
A business (also called a firm, or enterprise) is a legally recognized organization designed to provide goods and/or services to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, most being privately owned and formed to earn profit that will increase the wealth of its owners and grow the business itself. The owners and operators of a business have as one of their main objectives the receipt or generation of a financial return in exchange for work and acceptance of risk. Notable exceptions include cooperative enterprises and state-owned enterprises. Socialist systems involve either government agencies, public ownership, state-ownership or direct worker ownership of enterprises and assets that would be run as businesses in a capitalist economy. The distinction between these institutions and a business is that socialist institutions often have alternative or additional goals aside from maximizing or turning a profit.
Business/IT alignment is a desired state in which a business organization is able to use information technology (IT) effectively to achieve business objectives - typically improved financial performance or marketplace competitiveness. Some definitions focus more on outcomes (the ability of IT to produce business value) than means (the harmony between IT and business decision-makers within the organizations); for example,
alignment is the capacity to demonstrate a positive relationship between information technologies and the accepted financial measures of performance.
This alignment is in contrast to what is often experienced in organizations: IT and business professionals unable to bridge the gap between themselves because of differences in objectives, culture, and incentives and a mutual ignorance for the other group's body of knowledge. This rift generally results in expensive IT systems that do not provide adequate return on investment. For this reason, the search for Business / IT Alignment is closely associated with attempts to improve the business value of IT investments.
It is not unusual for business and IT professionals within an organization to experience conflict and in-fighting as lack of mutual understanding and the failure to produce desired results leads to blaming and mistrust. The search for B/I alignment often includes efforts to establish trust between these two groups and a mechanism for consensus decision-making.
Information Technology Management is concerned with exploring and understanding Information Technology as a corporate resource that determines both the strategic and operational capabilities of the firm in designing and developing products and services for maximum customer satisfaction, corporate productivity, profitability and competitiveness.
IT Management is a different subject from Management Information Systems. Management Information Systems refer to information management methods tied to the automation or support of human decision making. IT Management, as stated in the above definition, refers to the IT related management activities in organizations. MIS as it is refered to is focus mainly on the business aspect with a strong input into the technology phase of the business/organisation.




_________________
-=♥yhang♥=-
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9/9/09

automated election system

Many had hoped that this coming 2010 election no more cheating will be done and as this new automated election
system exist many had questioned its capability and security. The main problem here in our country is not the
delayed of the result but the “dagdag bawas” of the votes. So the result of the election is more important than
how fast it is to be tallied. Can the automated election system provide us more honest result than the
old ways of casting our votes? The answer lies in the hand of the candidates, if they will try to
cheat or not. In short it’s a matter of self discipline.

What is automated election system really is?
 According to REPUBLIC ACT No. 8436, Automated Election System (AES) is a system using
appropriate technology for voting and electronic devices to count votes and canvass/consolidate
results. And according to what I’ve research, two voting technologies will be used; the
Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) and the Optical Mark Reader (OMR).
 In a Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) system, the voter is presented with a screen showing
all the names of the candidates. To cast his vote, the voter has to touch the name of the
candidate of his choice on the screen, or on a separate electronic ballot to be attached
to the voting machine, and his vote automatically gets counted. Once the voter has
confirmed his vote, the machine will print out a copy of his vote, which
the voter will deposit in the ballot box. In an Optical Mark Reader (OMR) system
they will use Automated Counting Machine (ACM) to count the votes in the ballots.
(The Mindanao Current) As an IT student, the technology mentioned above is not impossible to
falsify or tamper. In Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) there is a program that
let the voters choose who to vote. If the program record there votes properly
they will not know. And in Optical Mark Reader (OMR) voters will feed the
ballot into the machine the next thing they will see is the printed election return.
Whether their votes were properly counted they will not know.
Is the automation of the election process will be the answer to the problems
we have always encountered during every election period? Maybe, we
will not know it unless we try. If we will just rely on the theories
about the automated election system nothing will happen to us
and the old ways of casting our votes will remain same as the old ways of cheating.

 The automation of the election process means that the old ways of voting,
and tallying the votes will be replaced. Instead of manual process,
computers will be used. Paper ballots and ball pens are not needed.
You just need to press the button in the machine for your candidate and
the machine will automatically register your vote. The counting and
tallying of votes are also will be done by the machines. So there’s no
need for the old version of tallying were the votes are written
and been tallied on blackboards.
 This will be a greater help for our teachers that are always the
one who are in charge in the elections. And because of the
automation, for sure the election time will be lessen.
The results will be release much sooner than before so the work
of the teachers will be lessened. And because the machines will
do the works, there’s no need for many workers. Even the
problems that occur about cheating candidates will be lessening too. Because
there is no need for ballot and ballot boxes, the common
problem of losing the boxes will not be a problem anymore.
Maybe “dagdag bawas”, a common method use by the candidates
who are desperate to win will not be done in the automated process.
It will be hard for them to manipulate the votes because it is now listed in machines.
And regarding about the safety of the votes, maybe the automation will be a help to
secure all the votes in safe.
 But there is a little problem about the automation. Not all the
voters are familiar about the process of voting using machines
so they needed assistance now for them to be able to cast their
vote with no problem. And this automated election system is more costly than the old one.
So the automated process of the election is much better
than the old process. There are things that are easily
done in the automation. The result is the most important of
all and because the machines are the one who to the counting, it will not take months or even weeks, we will already know who are the new elected people that will serve our country.
 But in every change, there is always a problem. So the success of the election, automated or not, will always start on us…
............................................................................................................................................................................................................

SMARTMATIC…
Smarmatic International Corp. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Smart¬matic International Holdings, BV of The Netherlands. The firm was founded more than a decade ago as a research and development group specializing in systems integration. Smartmatic has organized elections in several regions around the world, including South America, the Car¬ribean, the United States and Asia. Smartmatic was also the system provider for the 2007 Autonomous Region in Muslim Minda¬nao elections. Of the seven consortia, only Smartmatic/TIM was declared by the committee as qualified in terms of financial and technical requirements and eligibility.

TIM…
Total Information Management (TIM), on the other hand, is a Filipino-owned information technology company that operates nationwide and offers various information-technology (IT) services and products. According to its website, TIM was founded in 1985 as a supplier for re¬certified and refurbished IBM mainframes and peripheral equipment. Since then, it has grown to be the country’s leading technology Services Company.
MAJOR CHANGES FROM THE MANUAL SYSTEM
No writing of names - All candidates' names are pre-printed on the ballot. The entire voter would have to do to indicate his vote is to shade the oval corresponding to the name of the candidate of his choice.
Ballots are not counted in the polling place - After the closing of the polls, the ballots will be brought to the centralized counting center to be counted by the machines.
 There are added security features at different levels - Aside from the usual built-in securities in the current manual system, there would be additional security features in the following levels: printing of ballots, shipment, counting and canvassing
Minimum human intervention - Human intervention is limited to telling the machine to: start and stop counting the ballots, start saving the results in a diskette (or any data storage device), and start printing the results. And appreciation of ballots is entirely done by the machine.

_________________
-=♥yhang♥=-
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7/10/09

best practises in IT/IS

Identify a local organization(s) and discuss some of their best practices in IT/IS ... this should be well-supported with any evidences.



Last June 25, 2009 my classmates and I decided to visit a company for our first assignment in Management Information System. Our first choice was Call Box since it is the nearest call center from our school which has a Management Information System. So we prepared a letter to make it formal and serve as evidence that we really interviewed the MIS Staff or MIS Head of the said company via signature or by photos.

The Call Box Company is located at 9th floor of LandCo building along JP. Laurel Ave. here in Davao City. When we arrived at their office we found the front desk empty. So we waited until someone called the in-charge in the front desk. Then she asked us “Are you applicants?” We got speechless and we didn’t know how to react to her question as if it’s so difficult to answer. Then she answered her own question when she saw our IDs. Then she asked our purpose of visiting their office. We gave her the letter asking their permission to conduct an interview about their Management Information System. Afterwards, she called someone from their MIS department to entertain us. They did entertain us but unfortunately they are so busy that they cannot answer our questions on that moment. They decided to send us the questions through e-mail later on that day.

We waited, but no e-mails came until the next morning.

Evidences:

On the next day, we decided to look for another company. The next on the list was Global Connect e-Solutions, located along J.P. Laurel Avenue, Bajada, Davao City. Like what we did at the Callbox, we also prepared a letter stating a permission to conduct an interview at their company and as evidence that we really interviewed them. When we arrived at their office, their MIS Head was busy at that time because they were currently having their meeting with the superiors in the company. But he still told us personally to just leave the questions for him to answer when their meeting adjourns.

This time we really need to make sure that we can find someone to interview about our assignment because we are already late for the deadline. The third on the list was Concentrix, but before that, I will discuss first some of the best practices in IT/IS in Global Connect e-Solutions since they help us with our assignment. (Thanks to their MIS Head.)

The best practice in their company is the belief that there is a technique, method, process, activity, incentive as reward that is more effective at delivering a particular outcome than other techniques. He also added that shared knowledge and group performance are their best practise.

We also asked him to define Management Information System and its function in their company. Management Information System for them is a subset of the overall internal control of a business covering the application of people, documents, technologies and procedures by management accountants for solving business problems. Management Information System can include software that helps in decision making, data resources such as databases, the hardware resources of a system, decision support system, people management and project management applications and any computerized processes that enable the department to run efficiently.

Evidences:
The last on the list was Concentrix which is located in Damosa IT Park, Lanang, Davao City. We went there because we thought the Global Connect e-Solutions will not help us. When we arrive there we just stayed outside while one of our classmates, one of the agents on the said company asked the attendant if we could conduct some interview on there MIS Staff/MIS Head. Lucky for us we found our friend Mr. Leo Lubag, also working on that said company. He helped our classmate to approach the MIS Supervisor. Fortunately, he agreed and entertained us. Here are the answers of the MIS Supervisor in Concentrix to our queries and his discussion about the Management Information System of their company.

• Helpdesk – the one assigned in repairing, installing and troubleshooting networking problems. Also with configuration username, accessing, restricting from sites.
• Networking Specialist – assigned in deeper aspects of troubleshooting and the mentor.
• Senior Network Specialist – responsible for configuration on of servers telephones management access.
• Management Information System Supervisor – decision maker for the changes recommendation for all accounts.

As his final words, he stated that the best IT/IS practices in their company is teamwork and it is constantly evolving and for that they are open for changes and upgrades for the improvement of their company.

Evidences:
The experience of visiting those companies was so fun yet so disappointing when you get rejected. We have learned so many things in this assignment and the lessons that we got from it will be kept in our minds for the rest of the semester or shall I say for the rest of our lives…(lolz)

So this journey doesn’t end here, for we will still budge companies’ doors.

See you all again!!!

_________________
-=♥yhang♥=-
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7/5/09

dumb girl

He broke my heart today
I don't know what to say
I can't feel a thing at all
I did not see it comin'
Now you just a man that got away
I look at the ground
And give the sky the middle finger
Something inside said
"Here's a day you should remember
So mark it on a wall"

I never believed it could happen to me
Something like this only happens to dumb girls
Taking themselves too seriously
I was so damn smart
I was the one girl
Who never believed it could happen to me
Something like this only happens to somebody else

I miss you so much
Can't stand it
You bring out the blonde in me
'Cause I'm still hanging on
Even though you done me wrong.
And I got the heart to forgive this
But I'd never let you know.
What kind of girl would put herself
In that postition?
To think that I could ever fight the system
And I got fooled again

I never believed it could happen to me
Something like this only happens to dumb girls
Taking themselves too seriously
I was so damn smart
I was the one girl
Who never believed it could happen to me
Something like this only happens to somebody else

I thought I was strong
But I was just dreamin'
I can't believe it
That nothing was wrong
I thought I knew what was goin' on
But love was deceiving me
Now I'm just a dumb girl
A dumb girl
That's what I am

I can't believe that it happened to me
Something like this only happens to dumb girls
Taking themselves too seriously
I was so damn smart, yeah
I was the one girl
Who never believed it could happen to me
Something like this only happens to somebody else

________________
-=♥yhang♥=-
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