Chapter 5 - Ethics Report

Link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1cBR9D4IccT3g4KhtUPyxzsCYaheUJ-sQeDa0-_WPHQI/edit#slide=id.p15

Ethical Dilemma - Chapter 6

Consider the scenario in which a group of your fellow students approach you to see whether you are interested in participating in a project that is intended to be a commercial venture. The group has become up with a novel approach to obtaining large numbers of e-mail addresses. This requires the development of some software, and once this is used it will be possible to develop a very extensive e-mail address list. Subsequently, this information is to be sold to companies involved in spam advertising. Your voice some initial reservations based upon your concern that this may not be entirely legal/ethical. However, you are assured that the software will only be used to obtain e-mail addresses for people who are normally based overseas- specifically in third world countries. Since the team is to be based in the UK and the software is going to be used to locate e-mail addresses that are normally based outside the UK, you are assured that you will be breaking no UK law.

How would you proceed?

Asking for further information is necessary to justify what is the commercial enterprise is all about. In addition, consulting a higher personnel is also necessary to gather more significant information. Proper analysis on the data gathered should be done to insure that there is no misuse of privacy rights.

Do you consider that this is a legal/ethical undertaking?
              
On the first place, spam is threat to privacy rights which makes it not ethical undertaking. Even though the act spamming is to only gather people's email addresses outside from the UK, still it's un-ethical to break the law. 

Would you still be willing to participate if the level of remuneration is sufficient?
           

Probably, it is better to inform others that, as a group, we are not in favor on participating the commercial venture.  One good reason is that it violates the privacy since it involves spam advertising, which is not even good even if the remuneration level is sufficient. 

  
At what point would personal remuneration override any ethical reservations that you may have?

When remuneration overrides the ethical issues, that is the time that we could consider it as a benefit of the total compensation to what we will receive as an exchange of performing the service. But beforehand, it is better to consider that the work is for the good of everybody, that everybody should benefit. 

Does this compromise your legal position?Yes by involving on certain scenarios like creating a software that violates the privacy of the users through obtaining email addresses in a form of spam advertisements. Upon being involved on this kind of situations, as developers, we are threatened because we can be considered as criminals. Hence it is un-ethical.

Ethical Dilemma - Chapter 7

Computer Technology and accessibility issues

Ethical Dilemma

So far in this chapter we have not paid any particular attention to the impact of ICT on older people – people who have previously lived in a fairly stable environment. Today the momentum of change (in which computer – based technologies play a pivotal role) is ever increasing. Consequently, older people are becoming ever more concerned and bewildered by the constant alterations that are occurring in practically every aspect of their daily lives. Stability is being replaced by instability. As younger people embrace e-mail, cellular phones, text messaging and the like, the older generations see their post offices closing, no longer is there any personal contact at the bank, and who knows for how much longer they will able to use a chequebook?

How do you perceive the ramifications of computer-based technologies and the current pace of change impacting on older people?

• It's alarming for those people who were not used to do things along with computers. Another impact is that with computers, people may learn how to become more tardy since everybody are dependent with computers. Hence for those people who were not used with computers will call for help from people who knows to operate the computer to do their tasks, since they were  not still familiar with it. This will generate inferiority to people who were not used with computers since their services as manual contractors will no longer be needed during the operational works because of computers.

To what extent are they becoming increasingly isolated?

• Definitely people who can't cope with the use of computer will be isolated. One main reason is that younger people of today's generation exceeds the learning capacity of the older ones in terms of computer manipulation. 

Is direct personal contact being gradually eroded?

• No, because there are limitations with computer. 

Perhaps discuss these issues with older person that you know, such as a family member. Identify the issues.

• Upon having a chat with the older ones, according to them one factor why we use computer is to make things easy, fast, efficient and comfortable for daily living. Just like communicating people through internet chatting which makes it more convenient for people abroad to keep in touch with their love ones.

Have these people gained as a consequence of the proliferation of and reliance we place upon computer- based technologies and the pace of change that has ensued?

Ethical Dilemma - Chapter 8

Questions:




What are your views on this situation?

• Basically, videoconferencing are very rampant. It helps to construct a good communication medium between the employers and the employee, particularly those who are involved with outsourcing. It enables flexibility in communications. Being applicants, it will be better for us to follow our employers instructions even before using videoconferencing during the interview.

Do you feel that this highlights (even in a small way) the opportunity to reduce environmental damage by using technologies to support communication and therefore avoid unnecessary travel?

• The employer may save money for Alice' fare for flying to UK from New Zealand. But since the flight schedule is fix, it is impossible for him to save money because the plane will still fly to UK with or without Alice. Instead of flying her to UK, videoconferencing is quite best alternative way for the employer to save money.

Do you believe that people should be willing to adapt to the use of such videoconferencing technologies - is this an ethical issue? Given a willingness to adapt, is it possible that the interview process can be carried out in such a way as to overcome the possible deficiencies of the technology-so that the candidate is not disadvantaged by not being physically present, and also provide the interview committee with the opportunity  to gain a clear impression on Alice?

• Considering the use of technology like videoconferencing which gives an almost real-time events, employers may not still be fully satisfied to recruit an employee over the line. It is because they follow standards for recruitment, like considering hand gestures of the interviewee during the interview. These standards give the employers a hint on choosing the right employee. Since videoconferencing is more likely to become only a pure conversation, it generates hesitations for many employers to recruit. On the other way around, this is beneficiary for employees since it can give confidence to communicate  to the employers because they were not really on actual or physical conversation.

Do you feel that if members of a workforce are expected to adapt to the deployment of such technologies, then members of a management team should be willing to do likewise (in the above discussion, we have demonstrated an example of the unwillingness of a management team to employ even videoconferencing facilities)? 

To what extent to you think senior management is generally willing to accept the introduction of computer-based technologies to monitor their own activities during working day?

Ethical Dilemma - Chapter 9

The use of artificial Intelligence and Expert System

A couple of years ago Patricia returned to the Uk to take up an academic position at British University. She had been out of the Uk for cover 20 years working at universities at numbers of countries, and had a good professsional employment record. She decided to open a bank account with one of the large banks that had a branch on the campus.

She met the bank manager, was given the necessary forms, and duly completed them. A few days later she returned to the bank to open her account. much to her surprise shw was told that she could only have a cash account. i.e she would not be given any cards, cheque book, or the like nor could she have any overdraft facility.

Patricia again met with the bank manager as she naturally felt there must have been some misunderstanding. Key points here are that she already had a bank account at the UK since her student days, she owed no money on credit cards or like, was a UK citizen and had a good track record with banks overseas.In addition, her salary from the university was to be paid into her account each month.

Patricia again met with the bank manager as she naturally felt there must have been some misunderstanding. Key points here are that she already had a bank account in the UK since her student days, she owed no money on credit cards or the like, was a UK citizen, and had a good track record with banks overseas. In addition, her salary from the university was to be paid into her account each month.

Despite her explaining these points, the bank manager was adamant that she could only have a cash account. When asked to explain this decision, the bank manager indicated that it was not in fact her decision, but a decision made by an expert system. The bank always used this computer technology when making decisions about opening accounts for new clients, and in fact the bank manager could not overrule the restrictions that the expert system imposed. In short, the expert system was empowered in the decision-making process to such an extent that it actually replaced the human decision-making process. The bank manager went to explain that the problem was the expert system had not previously encountered a person with Patricia’s particular background, and the key point to the computer was the extensive years of residency outside the UK.

To what extent do you think it is appropriate to replace the human decision-making process with computer technologies such an expert systems?

• It is not appropriate to do the decision making based on what was the program installed. There are a lot of things to be considered upon doing the decision making, like listening to others and understanding their thoughts. If we look onto Patricia's experiences on handling transactions she might be capable since she has a good feedback with tracking records overseas only with man to man transaction. But doing over the computer might be confusing for her since she don't have the full control over the transaction that might lead to business losses.

During the conversation Patricia asked the bank manager whether she felt that it was appropriate for the expert system to be empowered in this way. The response she obtained was that it was a great idea because computers do not make mistakes. What do you think about this comment?

• On the first thought, the manager might really believe that he is making more money using the expert's system; but in fact he's not. He is not actually minding the feedback of his clients with the services they were giving. Hence, if I were in Patricia's case, it not enough to just consider the the managers explanation only. Probably, I won't build a trust to a person who's only basis of explanation came from the expert system. 

Do computers make mistakes?

• No, computers cannot do any mistake unless they were manipulated to do so. If there were error with the transaction, one main reason is that the instruction being embedded in the system is not capable of doing the task right, or worst, the system was being intentionally manipulated to make the mistake. It's always the developer that must be blamed since he/she was the one who created the instructions being inputted on the computer system for manipulation.

Is any computerized system free from mistakes?

• No, there will be times that it can create mistake because of some instructions being manipulated.

Should we be educating people to believe that computers are infallible – are computers infallible?

• Computers are reliable to an extent, because it has its limitations. It's not always infallible since it sometimes commits error during deployment.

What do you think are the ultimate ramifications of believing in infallible computer systems?

• That computers were not always infallible since there is a possibility of malfunction. Having an expert system may be better, but being dependent to what it says must not always be considered that decision making must always dwell with critical analysis; hence it needs critical thinking of a human mind.

Ethical Dilemma- Chapter 11

Codes of Conduct

Approximately, one year ago, an editor of this book carried out an informal survey among his academic colleagues who were members of BCS. He approached each and asked if they could state two points contained within the BCS Code of Conduct. Two of these people responded by indicating that they did not know that the BCS had a professional code of conduct. Two indicated that while they knew the code of conduct existed, they never had looked at it. The remaining two – who indicated their awareness of the code of conduct and recalled having looked at it – stated that they could not recall its content.

These were clearly dismal results, particularly as the question was asked of people who had been members for some time.

In this book, we have discussed the BCS Code of Conduct in some detail – to what extent do you believe this code of conduct is important and/or more relevant? Why would YOU join the BCS? If you are a student in a university department studying Computer Science or IT, have you been offered a BCS membership application form? Are you aware of the opportunities for networking, and for joining special interest group? These are certainly good reasons to join the BCS – but on the other hand, during your professional career, do you believe that the framework defined within the BCS Code of Conduct is likely to be relevant and/or useful?

•  It is not appropriate to do the decision making based on what was the program installed. There are a lot of things to be considered upon doing the decision making, like listening to others and understanding their thoughts. If we look onto Patricia's experiences on handling transactions she might be capable since she has a good feedback with tracking records overseas only with man to man transaction. But doing over the computer might be confusing for her since she don't have the full control over the transaction that might lead to business losses.

Ethical Dilemma – Chapter 4

If we will just read carefully every detail that is written in the ethical dilemma, we can no doubt say that Alice is in a very difficult situation wherein she must think thoroughly and make the correct decisions because those decisions will greatly affect her life in the future. Well, as we all know, we should be the one that should make our own decision however; the case is not always like that. We should also consider things that make it legal to avoid future troubles and inconveniences. Both sides have their own lapses; it is not just Alice that made the wrong move but also the group of the companies that she needs in order to ask permission to reproduce diagrams of her work. In order for Alice to make a replica of the diagrams that she needs, she must pay big amount which is not so reasonable knowing that the diagrams are old. On the other hand, Alice should not plagiarize the diagrams for there are still lots of ways to make other that plagiarizing it. By making a new and fresh diagram while getting the idea from the old diagram, there is a chance that she will not be accused that she copied it because she was the one who made it. Or another thing that she could have done to avoid problems is by simply not putting any diagrams and eradicating it all in her textbook. Meanwhile, in the software’s case like taking a person’s code, modifying it a little and represent it as your own work, as long as you have the permission to perform alterations on it, then you are free to do it.       

Ethical Dilemma – Chapter 5

As a human being, we all have the rights to accept and reject every task that is given to us. Even though we have the capacity to do things that are tasked to u but if we feel that it is not sensible or logical, then we can always decline it. However, in this case, we found no harm or damage that can be possibly created by creating websites that will assist the law enforcement agencies to track down those people who are doing dirty tactics. In fact, both sides namely the law enforcement agency and the developer will be beneficial. The agency will have a new strategy in capturing uncivilized people and the developer who uses his or her skills in developing the sites will further improve it.  

ETHICS ENTRY 2

CASE 1

What should she do?

ANSWER:
Diane should show a demonstration or simulation of the effects that could happen with the weak security produced on the requested system. Being an adviser, she is well-aware of all the risks they are taking. Even if the client's willing to take the risks, Diane should follow one of the core values of the code of ethics, Priorities (4.3.1), which says "I must place the interests of the community above those of personal or sectional interests." and some of its sub-components. Diane should also follow "I must make myself aware of relevant standards, and act accordingly." (4.6.3) which might mean to use the proper security standards for risks in such system as proposed.

Should she refuse to build the system as they request?

ANSWER:
With the given rules, Diane should continue advising her client no matter what or reject the project to prevent ethical dilemma that is at risk. and if things go wrong, it's her responsibility.

a.)
Priorities (4.3.1)
I must place the interests of the community above those of personal or sectional interests.
Competence (4.3.2)
I must work competently and diligently for my clients and employers.

b.)
4.5.1
I must endeavour to preserve continuity of information technology services and information flow in my care.
4.5.2
I must endeavour to preserve the integrity and security of the information of others.
4.5.3
I must respect the proprietary nature of the information of others.
4.5.4
I must endeavour to preserve the confidentiality of the information of others.
4.5.5
I must advise my client or employer of any potential conflicts of interest between my assignment and legal or other accepted community requirements.
4.5.6
I must advise my clients and employers as soon as possible of any conflicts of interest or conscientious objections which face me in connection with my work.
4.6.3
I must make myself aware of relevant standards, and act accordingly.
4.6.4
I must respect and protect my clients' and employers' proprietary interests.
4.6.5
I must accept responsibility for my work.


CASE 2

Can she continue with the evaluation?

ANSWER:
No she cannot continue with the evaluation. Even if she makes an evalutaion it will be for nothing, because of the violations the GUI of Company a commited, which will require them to change the design.

If she cannot continue with the evaluation, how does she inform Company A of the patent violation?

ANSWER:
She must write a letter or inform Company A that the GUI they used has already been patented and thus warn them of the possible law suits if they decide to continue with their current GUI.

Does she have an obligation to let Company B know Company A has copied their GUI?

ANSWER:
No. Her obligation is to inform Company A that their GUI design has already been patented by a different company and must change it to avoid conflicts.


a) Values and Ideals (from Section 4.3 ACS Code of Ethics)

4.3.1 Priorities
4.3.2 Competence
4.3.3 Honesty

b) Identify the specific standard that should apply (From sections 4.5.1 to 4.10.9)

4.5.3 I must respect the proprietary nature of the
information of others.
4.5.5 I must advise my client or employer of any potential
conflicts of interest between my assignment and
legal or other accepted community requirements.
4.6.3 I must make myself aware of relevant standards,
and act accordingly.
4.6.6 I must advise my clients and employers when I
believe a proposed project is not in their best
interest.
4.7.1 I must not knowingly mislead a client or potential
client as to the suitability of a product or service.

MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

MIT is an organization devoted to the advancement of knowledge and education in areas that contribute to prosper an environment of science and technology.  It is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Was Founded in 1861 as a response to the increasing industrialization of the United States.

Research at MIT aims to develop innovative solutions to the world’s most daunting challenges. From addressing the energy needs of tomorrow to improving cancer therapies, MIT’s research efforts are enhanced through creative collaborations with leading research institutes and consortia around the world.

MIT impacts all walks of life through the technology developed at the Institute and through the people who learn, work and train here. MIT's students, faculty and staff — supported by their alumni, donors and industry partners — are able to turn hands-on research into answers for the world's most pressing problems.

Due to the existence of MIT, quality education for science and technology was established in which at the present time had opened a wider form of new and enhanced technologies being addressed as a solution for the peoples crisis.

MIT MISSION::

The mission of MIT is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.


sources:
http://web.mit.edu/
http://en.wikipedia.org.wiki/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology

Field Trip and Seminar's Travel Report

Fieldtrip Overview:

Let’s start by defining first what fieldtrip is, fieldtrip is a journey or rather a school trip wherein students are having a trip outside the university or school’s campus. It is basically practiced to showcase some information coming outside the wall or promissory of the school for students. The main purpose of conduction fieldtrips and seminars is basically to let students learn more, to critically observe things, to experience a different learning environment and to have an unusual kind of interaction. This method or approach of teaching quality learning to students had been very helpful for them to grow.

Frankly it was my first time having a fieldtrip outside the city - it was like more of interesting rather than exciting. There are also some first timers in the group, and all are excited of what is the outcome of the fieldtrip. Well as being defined, there are really lots of enjoyable things to learn and discover in joining fieldtrips. Amazingly things went right; accommodations are good, services are fine and we’ve caught up each of our company seminars, meetings or appointments. Had heard a rumor about the last year’s fieldtrip and seminar, and it wasn’t that good though, however each side had some advantage and disadvantage. The field trip held last year, wherein some of my classmates joined had started and ended a bit chaotic because of some delays, but more exciting and jolly since there are couple of friends to be with. It might have been because of their numerous populations that companies could not accommodate each of them well. And also because of the numerous fieldtrip participants, a higher percentage of delay caused by a fellow participant is of an elevated risk. At our part, since we’re outnumbered by them because unfortunately only few students could attend and participate at the fieldtrip, we are lucky because companies could accommodate us well and could cater each of our questions without a hurry of answering it. And since the crowd is not that big, lecturers could impart their knowledge to us the best and comfortable way they can with additional joke cracking to keep the interaction alive.

The trip had gone somehow smooth. Itineraries are already prepared to serve as the basis on which and where to go first and next. Time had already been calculated and managed to ensure a good flow of things. It’s like most of the things had been well prepared and anticipated. Starting from day 1 down to the last day of the trip is already scheduled, and each company had their own slot. At day 1, a direct visit to the prestige company of PLDT and then a quick trip for a visit at the SPI Servisoft. The whole day 2 was spent for the most awaited y4it held at the University of the Philippines or UP. Day 3 with the Flour Company and right after was the visit to DOST where a museum or collections of important part of the Filipino – Science History could be found. And day 4 at the Social Security System or SSS and then a visit to Exist Global Company. It was the last day for company visiting since the remaining day 5 was already allotted to have the shopping spree, leisure and having fun (maybe the day we’ve all been waiting for, to ease the stress of pulling ourselves in bed to wake up early each day). These known companies had been a part of our Fieldtrip wherein each of them had showcased variety of helpful information for us participants.

Each company shared different topics, had introduced us to some technologies, guiding us a tour to their company and showing each of the fundamental departments that serves as the main foundation of their company, like their network management team, editorial, database managers, programmers, content writers, designers and even the room that contains their servers which contains various data and plays a vital role for the company. Multiple topics and information and knowledge are being fed to us each day and no one could avoid rating the topics or rather the presenter of the topic for some are interesting, caught our attention while some are just boring like having their reviews or reports in a power point presentation, reading them like as if they were really not into it in their career as an IT professional. Even though, still they had managed to impart us some knowledge which could be considered as a present from them to us.

To sum it up, although some or even few of the companies mentioned had a flaw with their sharing and presentations, each tour and visit is considerably grateful and much or highly appreciated. For the knowledge and time they had spent and shared with us, and for cheering us to continue with what we had started for, I thank them and owe them a lot. And for the chance to participate in the fieldtrip, it is a great pleasure to be a part of the event and to witness and be showered with the knowledge conveyed by everyone.

Day 1

A visit to PLDT

This is the very first day of our fieldtrip. After packing things up and having hours of air flight, we were urgently fetched by a bus to deliver us directly to our first company visit at the company of PLDT or the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company. Despite of suffering from jet logs, we were delivered at the company to start and follow the scheduled flow of our trip itinerary. Now to start with, PLDT is one of those large Tele communications Company who gives service and supports communications here in the Philippines. In fact, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company or the PLDT is the largest Tele communications Company in the Philippines. They offer variety of services from fixed lines, wireless, up to technology and information technology. Services mentioned above are the main services offered by the company to its valuable consumers.

As we were toured by a staff to the hall of PLDT and introduced unto us the company’s history, from the oldest form of communication and telephone to the newest technology including the wireless and internet services that we or almost all people are enjoying now. Base on the company’s history, telephone and communication users in the past are just only a few ranging from thousands but as services went good and affordable, lots and lots of users embraced these form of communication wherein it had covered the most islands of the Philippines. As a company, PLDT had also undergone some reconstructing which made the company robust and running ‘til the present period.

After the company tour, we had been given the chance to have a meeting and conversation with one of their veteran networking experts in the company. So basically, this is the part where I liked the most in visiting and spending my time at the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company PLDT. The veteran networking expert lectured and introduced to us some of their ways, the company’s basic foundation and also he explained why internet connections and even text messages sometimes fail while the weather is suffering from a bad rainy season. So, from what that veteran networking expert of PLDT explained, I had learned that the PLDT’s way to earn an income is to sell cables and wires. Selling cables and wires to some consumers that would connect a communication tool or telephone from one side to the other side, basically some entrepreneurs who want to manage their business with multiple branches in an easier and efficient way. He introduced us some ways and manipulation to ensure a good flow of connection, wherein he mentioned something like a dual stream where if the main stream suffers from congestions or any traffic, the connection will be redirected to the backup stream to have a continues flow. It is just some of their ways to implement flow and traffic control. Also, he had mentioned about a certain part inside a wire or cable in which connections flow that plays an important role in connection with the company services, because without which, there will be no medium for the connection to run through. The most interesting part is the explanation for the late messages and weak connection when a bad weather is ongoing. When there is rain, literally connection disperses. It is because of the raindrops that affect or destroys the connection which instead of going directly it would take another path which makes its travel time longer.

For the very first company visit, it goes well and fine. The lectures provided were great and so far there’s nothing I didn’t like about the company. Although we suffered from shortage of time, facts, ideas and knowledge fed to us were stored in our minds through interactive conversations.

A visit to the SPI Servisoft

The second company we visited for the first day of fieldtrip in manila is the SPI Servisoft Company. SPI is a communication and Information Technology company somehow or somewhat related to PLDT. SPI supports and offers services like cost-effective business solutions, software creation and etc.. The company staff led us to a tour around the company and took us to the different areas inside the company.

As far as I could remember, one of the lecturers talked about business solutions, the other went to the topic of using a programming language, and the other one talked about his field the technical support service I think. So let’s take it one at a time, for the business solutions they had variety of effective ways to help a business improve its work efficiency and rating in the economical industry. One of the SPI Company’s programmer talked about using I think it was .net, or something like c#. He shared his experiences, like his past of being fascinated and using PHP but ended up using other programming language. So it’s like explaining to us that we really don’t know what’s were going to deal with when we will be indulge in a company. And the other one explain his field which is the technical support, which according to him has tiers and each tier level has their own specialties. Problems occurrence and its difficulty will decide which tier it will be taken to.

Frankly, I didn’t learn a lot from them, but let me give credit to the company tour. Don’t know if I couldn’t just fix my mind for listening mode or I’m not just simply interested with the topics they had been talking to.

Day 2

A visit to UP for Y4it

For day two (2), we had our next adventure and spent the whole day at the prestigious University of the Philippines or commonly known as the UP. And by the way, University of the Philippines or UP is a high class university in the country which produces high quality and competitive graduates in different aspects and fields. UP is where Y4it was held, and it was a good idea to celebrate or hold our major fieldtrip simultaneously in sequence with the Y4it. Computer science and Information Technology representatives coming different schools and universities from the different regions inside the country had been gathered at UP just to stay, witness and be a part of the celebration of Y4it. At the event, there were multiple and numerous topics being shared which were categorized and were split to different houses. Some topics could be heard from the Film Theater, some are from the Bahay ng Alumni and still there are 3 more other sites. At Y4it, there are IT and technological experts who joined and shared their parts to help rise the quality of students in the Philippines. Couldn’t talk about the entire topics covered in the event for we have to choose unto where and which station to stay, which basically depends on our point of interests.

So while I was reading the sheet of paper where the whole Y4it program was listed, a topic about gaming caught my attention and it was held I think at the University’s Film Theater. So after the bus arrived and dropped us on a dropping area, I together with my classmates and some other participants urgently started walking the path to the university’s Film Theater to have our lines and reserved a seat for the coming lecture. So there it was, several minutes later the lecture had started. The topic is more about the new technologies and gaming. One of the speakers I think was actually still a graduating student (didn’t know where school did he came from) and he talked about the windows phone which is absolutely powerful but too expensive. He boasted some of the phone features and qualities which made it cool and awesome. A speaker also shared to us his experience in the field. According to him, he had been working for some huge companies outside the country and had been a part of some successful projects. He taught us some important things to take note when facing the industry through his sharing.

So for the second day of our fieldtrip, what didn’t I like? Actually, as mentioned there are multiple sites inside the university’s campus offering different topics and each site is composed of different students sharing common interests. Now, let me just focus on the Film Theater. Actually I was a bit unhappy of what I had heard when the speakers are talking, as I were reading the catalogue or the paper containing the orders and schedules of the event, I read something about on teaching on how to build a game – just something like that which caught my attention. I thought being inside the Film Theater and taking time listening to them could give me literally some ideas on how to build a game, or even just simply the basics of doing and building it. All I heard was just practical life sharing and endorsing new innovations of technologies, which is still great but didn’t match what I really expected to have or hear to. But honestly I wasn’t given the chance to go inside the Film Theater after leaving there for a lunch break for as the gate keeper told us that there’s no vacant space left inside the theater so we had just wandered around collecting freebies and stuffs from different companies who also participated the event.

Day 3

A visit to Fluor Company

For the day three, our itinerary is to have a trip and visit the Fluor Company. It was a huge company who deals with constructions, engineering, procurement, and networking and information technology. And by the way, Fluor is a one big company with branches scattered throughout each side of the world. In fact they boast to have their next business branch somewhere in Cebu which is known as a hub for professionals and IT experts. And just to add up, they are the only company who’d fed us with some heavy snacks. Lol!

As we entered the company, the company HR greeted us as a form of a formal welcome. She guided us to a conference room where a long but informational presentation is already awaiting. The HR started the talk and asked us about how do we fix our resumes, and so we did, we told her of our ways and she also shared her way. As an HR manager, she is as expected expert and had more experience in terms of dealing with these kinds of things. And according to here, the most effective approach to have a higher chance of being hired is through the presentation of resumes, HRs or businessmen by any chance wouldn’t take a look about the personal background of the applicant but it’s more on the applicant’s working experience, history, highlights and educational background. So base on these ideas, she mentioned that in every resumes, we must consider putting those things together with our personal vital information and career objective at the very first page of the resume to catch the attention of the possible reader. The next speaker lectured about the importance of having a strong team. The speaker tackled about the 6 things a successful team has in common, like the: team’s purpose, process, communication, involvement, commitment, and the very important part the trust. The speaker explained to us that no matter how weak a member of a team was, the team will always be there for that person, to help that person grow, mature and learn what he or she needs to learn in order for him or her to be successful and for the team to accomplish each tasks granted to them. Helping each other and growing as a team is the main key for the team’s success. The next part is the lecture about networking which tackles about defense systems, routing and communicating.

 The best part of having visiting the Fluor Company is the wonderful tour, where we were guided by some of their experts and explaining us deeply each and every purpose and some general things to be shared in a specific are, like the time we were brought to a room full of servers, hubs and other things wherein an expert shared unto us some important matters like the role and importance of maintaining the humidity, moisture and proper temperature inside that room.

So what I didn’t like at Fluor? Nothing, because the company is just really great, their accommodating, had accompanied us and had really spent good time teaching us some pretty good lessons.

A visit to DOST

DOST or the Department of Science and Technology here in Philippines as we already know is a government organization established to conduct studies, researches and innovations in science life and as well as in technology. Different innovations through the help of science had been implemented by the Department of Science and Technology in the country to help the economy and industries rise.

Actually, our visit at DOST had only lasted for only few hours since they could only offer us one speaker for that day. The speaker started his talk about the current status of IPv4 or the IP version 4. IP is a unique address of a computer set to serve as the computer’s ID while surfing over the internet. Through IP addresses, data and other vital information stored within the computer could be revealed to hackers when they have the address. This is why there are some business related spams being generated through mails using our own emails. So going back, he mentioned about the shortage or the IPv4 running low and the near adoption of the IPv6. He told us some facts and details regarding some businesses already reserving their own domains for future purposes.

Besides from being alarmed of what the speaker had mentioned and for a bit sharing, I haven’t learned that much but instead drawn out my attention to their museum where some culture and scientific inventions made by Filipinos where preserved.

Day 4

A Visit to SSS

SSS or the Philippine Social Security System is an organization in the country that protects the people’s well-being from the social and economic distresses. Dealing with SSS as far as I am concerned is like a future investment in which any people who had been their member for specific years could avail their services.

SSS could be availed in different approaches, if the applicant is currently working on a company, the applicant and employer will share and equal contribution as a monthly payment for the applicant’s membership. And the other one is through voluntary, in which it is more expensive because there’s no employer who could share half of the payment that should be done. But anyway, being a member of SSS has numerous advantages like being insured with assistance in misfortunate times and taking a loan to start with something up.

Besides the importance of having the SSS in the near future, that’s all I had learned from them. So basically visiting the company is not that time or cost-benefit for me.

A visit to Exist Global

Visiting Exist Global is the last company visit we’ll be doing in our fieldtrip. So anyway, who’s Exist Global? What kind of company are they? Well, exist global was founded in the year 2001 and is a product development firm who develops interactive web applications, mobile applications, software and business solutions, enterprise software and etc.. Exist Global is a company of the type software provider who promotes the aid of open source tools as a way of building or creating a system. Because they are more up to using open source tool, programmers within the company are centered on using or more on using Java and Ruby on Rails.

One of the things I learned in exist global is the topic of “Companies Hire Depending on the Business Plan”. 1.) Companies hire new applicant because they want to introduce new products and services and they want to find a new man who’s suitable for the job. 2.) Companies hire new applicants because they want to grow their current team, to make it stronger through adding manpower. 3.) Companies hire new applicants simply because they want to cut some costs, because veterans are paid at a higher percentage so they’d rather hire and train a new one which is basically of cheaper cause for the mean time. 4.) To increase leadership, they might try to find an individual who’s capable of managing a leading a team to its success, and the last thing, 5.) Social Media.

Day 5

The last day of stay was allotted for the extended shopping spree, wandering around and having fun. We had jumped over the Mall and start to budget our remaining money and that’s where we learned the art of asking for discounts.

Appendix

The entire trip was fun and enjoyable, in the end several information, ideas and knowledge were shared and given to us by the companies we visited. The idea of taking the fieldtrip simultaneously with the celebration of Y4it is indeed great. I have only some concerns which I think might help the next batches who will be taking the fieldtrip, one is about picking the right company who could cater and share valuable information and knowledge to everybody. Because as mentioned above, it is a bit disappointing to end up not that satisfied enough of the lectures and sharing provided by a certain company. And the other one is about ensuring that the company could handle certain number of students. Because as what we had experienced, it is likely great to be in few numbers rather than in a pack of hundreds of students, else they could be broken to batches so that the crowd can be controlled hence ensuring that the students can focus and understand each lecture.

But all in all, in went somehow just fine. Thank You!

The 2nd Developers Connect

Developers Connect or preferably known as DevCon is an organization established support the growing population of young developers in the country. DevCon offers conferences wherein team buildings, interaction and knowledge are being shared to participants to help them grow and build their dream. As for now, the Institute of Computing had already embraced or joined DevCon’s community for already more than a year. Seminars and gatherings had really been a good help for students like us. Professional IT lecturers shared different interests thoughts, and ideas to share students of the possible fascinating things they might want to be indulged with and it’s a pleasure to say that those knowledge imparted had opened our young minds of the different fields in the profession were pushing through.

The Institute of Computing’s 2^nd Developers Connect was attended by multiple students. During the program, some students were asked to have their thesis or research presentation. Part of the program was intended to give a chance for those students to experience an actual presentation in front of the crowd to help them build their confidence to face the world outside the university’s wall. It was an effective approach for them to improve or discover some of their hidden talents in defending what they’ve created and facing the crowd.

DevCon held Lightning Talks served by IT experts and Birds of Feathers with the topic about Operating Systems. Wordpress, Drupal, Python, ideas on how to retrieve a lost laptop and the significance of online map are just some of the coverage of the Lightning Talks. Topics being presented are all Open Source, meaning, these tools and software is free of any charges. Wordpress had been introduced during the presentation by one of the speakers. Wordpress is a powerful open source CMS tool with embedded features and templates that could help anyone create a dynamic website with less worry. Through the aid of the tool, managing work flows and procedures is now easy. Drupal on the other hand is more likely similar to Wordpress. Drupal is also a competitive open source CMS tool that could run in nay platform and supports the use of PHP and common databases like MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server and etc. Python is really not that much known to Filipino programmers as for the moment, but Python users had been growing in population as programmers multiply. Anyway, python is a programming language and is also free to use. It runs with Windows, Linux and Mac Operating Systems. The speaker of this topic leaved a funny but interesting quote, “There are only few users of Python Language for programming here in Philippines, hence making a good deal of encountering good offers as a Python user”. Another topic is an idea of how to retrieve a lost laptop, as far as I could remember it goes something like this. Each unit has its own unique IP address which is composed of binaries which represents or serves as the unit’s ID while surfing over the internet. The main idea is to track down the lost unit through tracking the unit’s current position through its IP address as it connects over the internet. Though it might just been an idea, but it could possibly be brought to reality by some programmers. The last one is the significance of online mapping. There are teams out there, plotting each street in the City, making a visual representation of them to contribute to an online map. This powerful map keeps down a track of possible routes that is mostly helpful for travelers and emergencies. Showing the shortest path and revealing possible routes to go through is the main purpose of maps basically. Through this, response time for emergency rescues perhaps is optimized.

It’s a pleasure joining the event and learning a lot from these experts coming from different fields. Hope to see them around next time to keep an update from outside community.

ES321 EXERCISE 1

Exercise 1

Observe skilled and novice operators in a familiar domain: for example, touch and 'hunt-and-peck' typists, expert and novice game players, or expert and novice users of a computer application. What differences can you discern between their behaviors?

                Technology brings about the need to learn and acquire new things. And as technology grow and develop, the more human requires to get hold of these new and innovative things. Human behavior is said to be complex but nonetheless, random. The growth of technology largely affects the human behavior; and thus human behavior also affects the growth of technology. However, the way that human deals and interacts with technology also depends on the training and the environment he receives and encounters. 

At some point, not all people accept and understand quickly the changes in technology. Being skilled and a beginner in using modern technology really matters on how it is regularly used and practice. There is definitely a difference between the two in applying technology. Let’s take for example some scenarios stated below:

·         Touch and ‘hunt-and-peck’ typist

These individuals are obviously doing the act of typing, however they differ on how fast or how they can type accurately and conditionally. Touch typists are often called professional typists. They keep their eyes on the source copy at all times uses their ten fingers and avoid looking at the keyboard when typing. They often do their typing works fast and accurate and lessens the time of work. However, hunt-and-peck typists also known as search and peck typist are the contrast of touch typists. They look at the keyboard and tap the keys with only a few fingers (sometimes only two fingers).  They are clearly much slower than expert typists. Usually, they are unable to focus on their works since they always look on the keyboard while typing. This affects the quality of their work. Though there can be accuracy in their outputs, it increases the time of work and thus sometimes slows the time of completion of an output.

·         Expert and novice game players

Differentiating Expert players against Novice players, as expected, these Expert players do have wide knowledge about a specific game. Since novice players are beginners, they are often more on explorations and generating questions. Looking back at their performance, Expert players do have several advantages especially in experience unlike the novice players. Now, taking some tactical games, Expert players can generate certain tactics towards the game and since Novice players are still learners they usually discover these tactics through and when they experienced it.

                Practice makes perfect, that what they say. In order for these novices to become experts, they should strive hard to commit the power over the technology. Experience still plays a vital role, for it encompasses learning and the creation of facts and ideas.