These were posts that went to a different blog, cut and paste version here.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1, 2012

The primary difference between the Delphi method and the modified nominal group technique is in the anonymity of the Delphi method vs. the group consensus of the modified nominal group technique. Whereas both are listed as iterative processes that seek out methods to solve phenomena, the modified nominal group technique utilizes learner surveys and focus groups.

In the Delphi Method, “It is appropriate for researching complex issues where larger scale quantitative "hard data" fails to unearth richness in tacit knowledge to help the research understand subtle expert opinion. It does not offer the rigor of clinical testing or quantitative analysis, but it provides a scientific methodology that is well suited to issues that require the insights of subject matter experts.”(Thomas 2009)

According to Kuo-Hung, a nominal group technique (NGT) can be used for knowledge transfer and internalization of knowledge in the consensus building process if an information platform was successfully designed and tested. (Kuo-Hung, Shi-Jer et al. 2006)

I believe that my position would be to utilize the Delphi closed collaboration research method for the simple reason that my innovation is simply that, mine. I would seek out the data needed to prove my phenomenon and open collaboration would not be needed.

References

Kuo-Hung, T., L. Shi-Jer, et al. (2006). "Using Online Nominal Group Technique to Implement Knowledge Transfer." Journal of Engineering Education 95(4): 335-345.

Thomas, G. (2009). "The Delphi technique: a method for testing complex and multifaceted topics." International Journal of Managing Projects in Business 2(1): 112-130.

MONDAY, JULY 23, 2012

A story about nothing... maybe

Was the message delivered about mountain bikes? Well, yes and no. It was about creative innovation, specifically every other invention that spawned from the Internet and modern technology.

Sure, Leadbeater spoke about mountain bikes and how they were created as an industry by the users of bikes.

He spoke about innovations such as telephony, how people work in organizations to be organized, but more importantly how large corporations reinvent past success.

I believe it was a presentation on common sense. It almost seemed eerily like a Seinfeld episode where it is a show about just existing.

Therefore, I am strangely empty my comments of this presentation other than it just makes sense. - Chris.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 30, 2012

Well, we have seen many good things come out of social media and we have discussed how we have to endure the bad along with the good.

The recent news of the parent, upset with his son's iPod being confiscated, is an extremely disturbing story (link included at end of post). In reality, what was this guys defense strategy in court? I am not going to state that he lacked motivation, but the punishment should always fit the crime. Due to his poor judgement and acting out in this extremely malicious manner, this guy is looking at serious jail time. Forget about the civil suit that this principal is going to have, no matter if this parent is able to pay it or not, he will walk around life with a default judgement, having to operate under the radar in every job opportunity that he potentially may have in his future life.

Of course as you read this article, you probably don't care much about the offenders job outlook, nor do I.

When I read about how FM magazines blog (in Clay Sharky's book "Here Comes Everybody"), I thought it difficult to imagine how young girls could actually post methods to remain anorexic and offer bulimia tips. This is much more than self mutilation. This incident potentially could have caused an innocent man (if his sons iPad was confiscated or not), to have his good name dragged through the mud. This didn't just include the mans reputation as a principal, it also included his wife and family. There is a saying in the courts, "once you ring the bell, you can't un-ring it."

Well, at least justice was served in this case and the now two time felon is off to sit and think about his own life.

Read about this article at http://www.newkerala.com/news/newsplus/worldnews-27368.html#.T8Xy77BYvSg

NYC proposes ban on sale of oversized sodas - WSET.com - ABC13

NYC proposes ban on sale of oversized sodas - WSET.com - ABC13

Yet another example of social media in government that is going viral as we speak. The proposal - expected to be announced formally on Thursday in a City Hall briefing - would take 20-ounce soda bottles off the shelves of the city's delis and eliminate super-sized sugary soft drinks from fast-food menus. It is the latest health effort by the administration to spark accusations that the city's officials are overstepping into matters that should be left in the hands of individual consumers.

When something like this happens in government, look at the social media that the particular agency uses. In this case check Twitter @NYCmayorsoffice and look at all the remarks. They range from, Bloomberg is actually nuts to should I wipe standing up or sitting down. 

Don't get me wrong, Michael Bloomberg will probably go down as the greatest Mayor in the City of New York's history. After all, the man is in his third term and he waived his salary to be the mayor (not withstanding that his billion dollar fortune was made in NYC). However, this is a classic example of how social media can take a dumb proposal (in my opinion) and get immediate reaction. This too however, is part of our basic civil liberties to speak out and be heard against or for our elected officials. It just is a lot easier in 2012 then it ever was.

Top 14 Government Social Media Initiatives -- InformationWeek

Top 14 Government Social Media Initiatives -- InformationWeek

Well, we have seen many good things come out of social media and we have discussed how we have to endure the bad along with the good.

The recent news of the parent, upset with his son's iPod being confiscated, is an extremely disturbing story (link included at end of post). In reality, what was this guys defense strategy in court? I am not going to state that he lacked motivation, but the punishment should always fit the crime. Due to his poor judgement and acting out in this extremely malicious manner, this guy is looking at serious jail time. Forget about the civil suit that this principal is going to have, no matter if this parent is able to pay it or not, he will walk around life with a default judgement, having to operate under the radar in every job opportunity that he potentially may have in his future life.

Of course as you read this article, you probably don't care much about the offenders job outlook, nor do I.

When I read about how FM magazines blog (in Clay Sharky's book "Here Comes Everybody"), I thought it difficult to imagine how young girls could actually post methods to remain anorexic and offer bulimia tips. This is much more than self mutilation. This incident potentially could have caused an innocent man (if his sons iPad was confiscated or not), to have his good name dragged through the mud. This didn't just include the mans reputation as a principal, it also included his wife and family. There is a saying in the courts, "once you ring the bell, you can't un-ring it."

Well, at least justice was served in this case and the now two time felon is off to sit and think about his own life.

Read about this article at http://www.newkerala.com/news/newsplus/worldnews-27368.html#.T8Xy77BYvSg

another two cents

Just read a great article in Wired Magazine titled #Crowd Control. (Wasik 2012) It is about how social media fuels social unrest. It gives a timeline of the unrest that social media has caused in 2011. It covers how some 20,000 people gather for a “day of rage,” in Yemen to Athens Greece where up to 100,000 revolt against pay and pension cuts to how in Boston where a kid on Facebook invited and had hundreds of kids show up at a late-night beach party; forcing for a SWAT team to be called in.

The article lists 26 incidents that gathered people together throughout the world, for some cause good or bad, all who got the message from a social network or a SMS or email transmission.

I personally identify with the opening statement, “Why pack into Target when Amazon can speed the essentials of life to your door? Why approach strangers at parties or bars when dating sites like OKCupid … can more efficiently shuttle potential mates into your bed? Why sit in a cinema when you can stream? Why cram into arena seats when you can pay per view? We declare the obsolescence of ‘bricks and mortar,’ but let’s be honest: What we usually want to avoid is flesh and blood…”

I do not think I could have said it any better than that and that is exactly how I feel. Don’t get me wrong, I am the first one to want to have dinner and drinks with friends, but only with those friends that I have already met. I suppose I have enough friends already and really do not care who I meet at the supermarket. I have a 50” flat screen with surround sound, why would I go to the movies just to pay $14 for popcorn and a coke, let alone the price of the ticket when I can have Netflix stream directly to me. It saves me the hassle of walking on the sticky theater floor, sitting next to the people that do not stop talking and even better, when I want another Coca-Cola, I can pause, go to my frig and get one that cost me .42 cents at Costco.com.

Did the convenience of social networking cause me to have societal anxiety that I do not need to be around them? I doubt it is the cause, but it certainly showed me that there is a better way to buy everything from Mother’s Day presents to computers (as I type on my new Dell Alienware Aurora X79 with Dual Layer Blue-ray reader, dual 23” wide screen monitors and 2 TB RAID hard drive that I custom built online from Dell) to products from Walmart.com (even though Walmart is only 5 minutes away).

One of the best things is when I find a vendor out of state that offers free shipping and no sales tax! Maybe it’s just laziness, because I KNOW that Target would have a problem with me if I went in their store and shopped in my pajamas. My two cents again. – Chris.

Wasik, B. (2012). #Crowd Control. Wired. U.S.A., Conde' Nast Media Group. January 2012.

my two cents on Facebook IPO

I think that all of the hype behind the Facebook IPO is the primary reason that it only closed .6 percent higher at $38.23 than its open of $38. This still was the single largest IPO for any technology company. Still shadowed behind the one day IPO of Google in 2004 that had an 18 percent return.

It still is hard for me to romance a stock that is based on something that in reality doesn’t exist. I mean, Intel manufacturer’s chips, Dell and HP put out computers and we can see and touch them. In addition, many people are viewing FB as a fad. Look what happened to MySpace, it almost doesn’t exist anymore compared to what it used to be.

According to Bloomberg.com, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating into why initial trading the stock took a half-hour longer than NASDAQ OMX Group Inc.’s forecast. The underwriters of the stock, which numbered more than 30 of which included Goldman Sach’s (GS),(remember, they were the ones that avoided BK during the subprime mortgage meltdown due to the fact that the U.S. Treasury Dept.’s head chief was an ex-GS executive…Hmmmm) purchased the stock to keep it from dropping below its IPO price.

This IPO made FB more expensive than every stock in the S&P 500 except Amazon and Equity Residential. FB sold 421.2 million shares, raising $16 billion dollars. Not bad for a Harvard drop out who is only 28 years old.

I used to be an avid day trader, spending more time watching the ticker on my screen while at work than actually doing the work that I was paid for. I would never buy a stock that traded at 107 times trailing monthly earnings.

Without question, anyone who WAS able to buy this stock did so mostly because of emotional reasons. I guess I am still stuck on buying something that isn’t tangible, even though Amazon, eBay and Google are also virtual company stocks, they all offer something that I can either get an answer from, buy new plants for my garden or purchase a book. That’s my two cents on this subject.

Social Dilemma

Social Dilemmas

I found the social dilemmas the Shirky discussed in chapter 8 (Shirky 2008) to be extremely profound in two areas. First, the blog that was created within what was FKA for Young Miss, and then Your Magazine, then just YM, was extremely disturbing. Naturally, as the father of four sons and two step-sons, there never would have been a reason that I would have even visited this site, let alone know of the popularity of taking pride in young girls who got together to discuss how to remain anorexic (Shirky states that they became known as Pro-Ana) as well as bulimia and other mental disorders These disorders YM did not want to be affiliated with, therefore shutting down their blog.

One thing that I believe that YM could have done however, is monitored their website closer, putting into their code that every post that contained certain keywords, which other blogs and chat rooms have in place that automatically either redirect an email address to one within their own, or even censor keywords, this case pro-ana, anorexia, bulimia and other such terms would show up as **&&^%&** to block such content, then that user would simply be eliminated. At this point, as their IT director, I would have made it mandatory for a cookie to be dropped on their IP Address and prevent that person from logging on under a different identity. Although this has a simple “go around,” many users do not understand how to do it and thereby would be shut down by default.

“Sorting the good from the bad is challenging in part because we’re used to social disapproval making it hard for groups to form.” (Shirky 2008) He speaks of social loss and how these new found freedoms, due to the Internet[i], are often stymied. Governmental interference, such as that of the Singapore government blocking content of blogging prior to a 2005 loses all respect for mankind’s most basic freedom, Freedom of Speech. This is similar to how content is blocked/ restricted in countries such as China, North Korea and others where state owned media controls/ owns the Internet providers.

Reference

Shirky, C. (2008). Here comes everyone. New York, Penquin Group.

---

[i] Shirky uses the word Internet without being capitalized. As an avid reader and past high school teacher of English, Internet is a proper noun and I am not sure how the editors allowed for this word to be published without capitalization. This I would like to get clarification on. 

Personnel and social media

Personnel and Social Media

Is it Legal?

Many employers cross the line when they perform their due diligence on prospective employers. Although it is hard to check on the employers hiring methods, the question of the legality of the proposed possibility that an employer can be looking at criteria other than just personality and intelligence to fit the right job to the right person. Federal Equal Employment Laws prohibit employment discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities, and prohibit bias based race, color, religion, sex or national origins, age, as well as other considerations. (Greenstein 2010)

The purpose of social media in hiring practices should be limited to an effort to improve hiring decisions. The good trained HR person can consistently and accurately assess important organizational characteristics such as personality, intelligence, and performance when utilizing social networking web sites. (Kluemper and Rosen 2009)However, it is easy to find out other information that they normally would not be able to ask in an interview due to breaking of equal opportunity laws.

An article in the NY Times detailed an event whereas an employer used Facebook to review information about a recent graduate of the University of Illinois. The employer found on his page a description of his interests: “smokin’ blunts, shooting people and obsessive sex, all described in vivid slang. (Finder 2006) “A lot of it makes me think, what kind of judgment does this person have?” said the company’s president, Brad Karsh. “Why are you allowing this to be viewed publicly, effectively, or semipublicly?”

Employers may make it a common practice to utilize social networking, however those employers continue to inadvertently learn about matters such as candidates age, marital status and other topics typically that are off limits.(Kluemper and Rosen 2009)

References

Finder, A. (2006). For some, online persona undermines a résumé. The New York Times. New York.

               

Greenstein, H. (2010). "Is it legal to use social network data when hiring?" Inc.com.

               

Kluemper, D. H. and P. A. Rosen (2009). "Future employment selection methods: evaluating social networking web sites." Journal of Managerial Psychology 24(6): 567-580.

Reward systems Marketing

Entrepreneurial orientation has positive influence on customer orientation and competitor orientation, market-based reward system has positive influence on customer orientation and competitor orientation, customer orientation positively to marketing performance, while competitors do not have a positive orientation towards marketing performance. (Soederiman 2011)

The following is an example of reward systems marketing used by Schmidt and Ralph; “Slater's 50/50 is a burger restaurant located in Anaheim, CA is currently running a promotion in Facebook. They want to increase their "like" count in Facebook. Facebook users often refer to the "like" count as a recommendation for or against a company. As a restaurant, a high "like" count would indicate a great option for an individual that is looking for a new place to eat or a place to eat in a town they are visiting. To increase their like count they have started a promotion stating that the Friend that gives them their 1000th like will receive a "SURPRISE". The promotion sends out a message updating the count in an attempt to get more people to "like".” (Schmidt and Ralph 2011) The surprise would be the market-based reward system.

Networking is not new to the business world. Networking has been able to create a new medium within social media. Social networks, blogs, micro blogs such as Twitter and really simple syndication (RSS feeds) all have had a deep impact on how promotion of the organization can be utilized. These tools require different approaches in order to be effective, efficient and successful.(Schmidt and Ralph 2011)

References

Schmidt, S. M. P. and D. L. Ralph (2011). "Social Media: More Available Marketing Tools." The Business Review, Cambridge 18(2): 37-43.

Soederiman, J. (2011). "Effect of entrepreneurship orientation and marketing-based reward system towards marketing performance." International Journal of Business and Social Science 2(6): 7.

               

transaction costs

When we speak of groups that do the organizing..." (Shirky 2008) Shirky spoke of following a $300 telephone to the new found owner. Did the transaction of obtaining the phone decrease or increase? It is apparent that the data involved was much more valuable than the phone itself. Therefore, did the transaction cost of regaining said lost phone exceed "We use the word 'organization' to mean both the state of being organized and the its original cost? Perhaps not, as we weigh into the matter that the data was far more valuable than the hardware itself.

What is the tangible effect on transaction cost if we weigh into the matter such items as operational efficiency and employee engagement? (Jue, Marr et al. 2010) If we utilize an internal social media presence, such as Oracle did, we can understand without reservation the connection to success that our employees believe are needed. In itself, these connections may not be met via a personal interview, but left alone to its own creation; the employee appears to become more engaged in its effort to provide success to the relationship.

As Kelly stated, communication is not just a sector of the economy, communication IS the economy. (Kelly 1998) So given the phenomenal success of Amazon and eBay as an example, do their simple suggestions of what “others like you” have purchased weigh into the strategy of permissible marketing? Obviously they do as their continued success of marketing in this low cost forum will endure many profits into the future and far beyond.

References

Jue, A. L., J. A. Marr, et al. (2010). Social media at work: How networking tools propel organizational performance. San Fransico, Jossey-Bass.

               

Kelly, K. (1998). New rules for the new economy: 10 radical strategies for a connected world. New York, The Penguin Group.

               

Shirky, C. (2008). Here comes everyone. New York, Penquin Group.

               

Man infects college PCs to steal huge database

Man infects college PCs to steal huge database

What are the technical AND economic transformations that are making the new emerging media practices possible? Be specific—not just internet, but how, what capacities, materials, etc. Think about other technologies, roads, satellites, phone, and alternative energy sources, 

            Without question, the single most technical transformation is the SmartPhone. Everyone has one, everyone needs one. The current world wide ratio of cell phones is 2 cell phones for every single land line. (Maxwell, 2009) Since the SmartPhone is needed to make and receive calls, people usually sleep with the phone by their bed, let alone carry it wherever they go. The economic transfer is in lowered cost of parts, mainly the chips that run the OS. Take a picture on your SmartPhone, click a button and there it is on Facebook for everyone to see. The same can be done with Twitter as well as other social media sites.

Alternative energy sources would be my number one economic transformation outside of the Internet. Solar and wind power have yet to be harvested in an economical and practical fashion. Yes, they exist, but they are very expensive to produce and put into operation. Additionally, their size alone would preclude most people from having them in their homes. This in a sorted way leads to both economical as well as material capacities. If renewable energy were to be able to advance in the scientific portion of production as the computer did, it would eliminate the need for fossil fuels, thereby destroying OPECs grip on the world, let alone the emissions leaving the environment. With the renewable energy sources would come the materials needed to create the devices. We have seen companies such as IBM, Intel and others make billions of dollars from chips as small as or smaller than the tip of a pen. If this could materialize whereas it was feasible to create these alternate energy sources at a cheaper price, an entire new market would open up.

New emerging media practices are not new concepts however. People meet on Match.com and eHarmony.com; they meet on Facebook and other sites. How is this different than meeting someone in a gym, a nightclub or even a supermarket? The concept is the same; however the venue has changed due to the immediate ability and anonymity that people have with the Internet. The downside to meeting someone on the Internet was depicted in a cartoon that I recently read; there was a picture of a young girl with the caption of “meet 12 year old Cindy.” Below it was a sleazy old man in a dirty t-shirt with a cigar in his mouth that read, “Meet Cindy’s Internet 12 year old girl friend.” Therefore, the concept has basically remained the same, the threats that the Internet bring sometimes outweigh the good.

Reference

Maxwell, B. (2009). COUNTRIES WITH THE HIGHEST RATIO OF CELL PHONES TO LAND LINE TELEPHONES. Retrieved April 2011, from Geography Lists: http://www.geographylists.com/list21n.html

Understanding New Media

     Mediacy, hypermediacy and remediation can be used as terms to describe different types of media as well as the same type of media. The Sports Illustrated video is a prime example of this. Using the inter-active video in its new interactive format, the magazine offers the perception of immediacy for its new format, but also acts as a manifestation of the journals hypermediacy. At the same time, Grusin also claims that is premeditation because two very different markets are being advertised in one, the iPad and the new format for Sports Illustrated.

     Jenkins and Bolter offer up an example of remediation as a multi-media CD ROM whereas all information is self contained within the CD itself without having to look at outside sources for information. This is an example of an older form of media. Grusin on the other hand states that remediation does not have to be self contained and may contain a hybrid or mixed media that replicate other media.

Jenkins discusses premeditation as well in the sense of the Sports Illustrated video by having the iPad play the app, but then also has the ability to play a game while the user is reviewing the magazine, thereby deeming it preprogrammed interactivity.

      The video Gold Digger was also discussed as a form of remediation due to the look and style of pin-up magazine covers in the background while the video plays. Both Jenkins and Grusin agree that within remediation, there is a fine line to cross of undermining the premeditated type of all of our media interactions.

The article was very interesting and it did take a few times to read due to the fact that the two gentlemen contradicted each other on several accounts and obviously spoke in opinion, of which this topic is. It took several readings to realize that many forms of Mediacy can be crossed and mixed. I especially liked how they explained the terminology with the associated videos, however even there they had a few different opinions and some very grey areas. It is obvious however that both men took a lot of effort to not only develop their opinions, but their interview was well played. (Jenkins, 2011)

Jenkins, H. (2011, March 7). A remediated, premediated, and transmediated conversation with Richard Grusin (part I & II). Retrieved 2011, from Confession of an Aca-Fan: http://henryjenkins.org/2011/03/a_remediated_premediated_and_t.html

The purpose of this assignment was to discuss Comment on Murray’s four properties of the computer and give examples for each. Murray’s four properties of the computer, encyclopedic, participatory, procedural, and spatial.

Murray’s four properties of the computer

The assignment was to discuss the four properties of Murray’s view of properties of the computer. Without headers listing the four properties, I found more than four, therefore I will engage all that I read and give examples of what I believe that the author speaks of.

In the beginning, the author speaks of confusion as to where digital medium is headed. She speaks of “enhanced video games and television.” Then she compares this to the vast variety of formats that are now available, and without stating it directly, questions as to where this is going? The Internet is now used on an iPad to watch TV, on an Xbox to compete against other warriors in fictional characters across the world, but is also used as an agent to learn, seek information, both current and historical. When the automobile was first invented, it was done so to seek an alternative to horse pulled carriages, but soon developed into crude race cars. One idea came from another and they were developments spawning from the same invention, as is the Internet. I believe that no matter what the invention is, there will be offspring that was not thought of in its inception, but developments that will bring many hybrids of the same design.

Murray then discusses the fact that the traditional library with books is being greatly outpaced by the Internet. She discusses that the library very may in fact be an obscure or even extinct entity due to the technology that exists on the Internet. Both Borges and Bush do not think of the computer as a replacement to the library, but instead it must create a change in how our minds think in relevance to how we seek out information. That we are looking for short cuts to gain this information as fast as we can.  I remember when I was younger; our town had an evening newspaper. The town was not small by averages of other towns in the U.S., but it was the only paper. Therefore, for this paper to go to print, it had to begin early in the A.M. As this paper was phased out and the entire countywide area gravitated to a paper owned by a large conglomerate, it became an A.M. paper available at most newsstands by 5 A.M. This meant that all of the information that was printed could have been reported up until late the evening before, giving an entire day’s head start on the evening rival. Eventually the evening paper closed and we are now left with still one local paper. The Internet though has beaten the current paper hands down. With an RSS feed, a text message can be sent from a murder scene describing the details within 30 minutes of the reporter receiving notification. Did I need to know this information this quickly? When the evening paper came out I didn’t, but now that I can receive an RSS feed on my SmartPhone, I can’t live without it. I believe this is what Murray describes in the differences of Borges and Bush.

A very interesting point that is bought up is about how information is pooled by many people via the Internet, making us smarter people. Not just in current and potential future events, but in historical events such as WWI and WWII, seemingly putting us in the midst of the battle with its descriptions and pictures. All of this done with a mouse and keyboard instead of looking through an endless sea of books and references. Although I personally am not a gaming aficionado, I imagine that many of the games that are sold now that simulate war, both on foreign soil and domestic gang fights give the user the same type of experience without actually being there.

The article ends with how in the 1960’s, the computer was used primarily for scientific and economic uses of extremely large databases. Murray likens the time when Douglas Englebart (who had devoted his lifetime work and career to developing the computer for everyday use), to that of Michelangelo, seeking what he deems as a “computer renaissance.” Instead, early in the years of computers and without the time needed to develop what we have today, Murray likens Englebart to DaVinci with much work to do, but left incomplete due to lack of time. Murray also believes that it might be possible one day that we in fact will have outthought ourselves and our humanity with the further advancements that computers may take.  (Murray)

Reference

Murray, J. H. (n.d.). Inventing the medium, http://www.ctudoctoral.net/file.php/615/EM820_Spring2011/Murray_Inventing_the_Medium.pdf. Retrieved 2011, from from CTU doctoral library.

RFID and privacy

     There are a number of various types of uses for radio frequency identification units (RFID). The purpose of the chapter from Digital Privacy(Acquisti, Gritzalis, Lambrinoudakis, & Vimercati, 2008) was not necessarily to discuss the numerous applications, but to discuss the issues surround privacy concerns. However, discussing some of the applications may make the privacy issue easier to understand.

     The entire point of the RFID is to track, locate and identify an object. That object being a piece of clothing, an animal or a piece of machinery. From there, different attributes can be allocated to their purpose. In the case of clothing, a merchandiser can determine size, color and other customer traits, especially when associating them with some type of charge card.

     RFID can track inventory, streamlining shipments as they arrive and their location. RFID is used by local municipalities (in the northeast, EZ-Pass as an example). The use of EZ-Pass is the first type of RFID that I thought of that could invade privacy, as did thousands of others in its inception. If doing the speed limit between exist should take 45 minutes and I arrive in 20 minutes, does law enforcement have the right to use the EZ-Pass to give me a speeding ticket. I did several searches on this topic and found numerous similar concerns, but no actual prosecuted case of it in any state.

     My concern with this chapter is how the author details the RFID as a potential threat to privacy and civil liberties. I believe that this is overkill, however upon further reading; someone with malicious intentions could in fact use this against an individual.

     He lists several features of privacy violations;

• No tag presence awareness – I could understand if the tag is used outside of a store, but while merchandise is still unpaid for, I do not see this as a privacy violation.

• No reader presence awareness – if a customer intends on stealing an item, why should they know where the reader is located? Again, I do not see this as a privacy violation.

• Silent readings – again, as long as the merchandise is still owned by the store, no violation.

• Line of sight – same as silent readings.

     Where I do see the privacy threats as a concern is since there are no line of sight requirements, there is technology that exists that can identify items that an individual is wearing or carrying. Thereby making personal theft an easy target.

     If the RFID is not killed upon purchase, then there is a direct violation as a merchant can track the movements of a potential consumer.

     The author states that there is a school of thought in favor of RFID technology and that the privacy community has exaggerated its effect. I tend to agree with this school of thought.

      Where I believe the largest privacy violation can occur is where there are unauthorized readers. The author uses the example of someone stopping b briefly by the window of a sex shop and a reader took the information from a charge card in his pocket, identified him and is now on a mailing list of sex related items, when the individual may have only spent seconds at the window.

     Probably the best forms of legitimate use to not violate privacy are utilizing a kill command (rendering the device useless) or an active jamming device.

      I understand that there is the potential for privacy invasion with these devices, and I am not suggesting that the thought is irrational, just highly improbable due to the cost of mitigating the problem if caught violating privacy vs. its actual practicality.

Reference

Acquisti, A., Gritzalis, S., Lambrinoudakis, C., & Vimercati, S. D. C. d. (Eds.). (2008). Digital Privacy: Theory, Technologies, and Practices. New York: Auerbach Publications.

Privacy-Preservation Techniques in data mining

Privacy Preservation in Data Mining

Data mining has an ultimate goal of prediction. (Acquisti, Gritzalis, Lambrinoudakis, & Vimercati, 2008) Data mining has many uses in today’s organizations, specifically in consumer focused companies such as financial, retail and marketing to name a few.

Data mining gathers and is the process of analyzing data from different perspectives and summarizing it into useful information. The information could be used to increase sales, decrease overhead or even find correlations of information that were not known to exist. If a company wants to properly target their advertising dollars, they are going to data mine. By applying predictive data mining, you will find the proper target audience and further, find out what their likes, dislikes and habits are. (Anissimov, 2011)

There are several types of algorithms that are utilized in data mining. To name a few, clustering algorithms are given a set of data that may or may not have any meaning, the clustering algorithm thereby clusters the data in several methods that may have not been recognized by the naked eye. The K-means clustering is a method of cluster analysis which takes into consideration a number of observations and puts them into K clusters; the expected result is an attempt to find the center of natural clusters in the data as well as a clarification of the differences of the different sets of data. (Wagner, Cardie, Rogers, & Schroedl, 2001)

A primary concern for data mining research is the development of data collection methods that incorporate the privacy of the individual. A productive direction for future data mining research will be the development of techniques that incorporate privacy concerns. Specifically, we address the following question; Since the primary task in data mining is the development of models about aggregated data, can we develop accurate models without access to precise information in individual data records? With data mining, a retailer could use point-of-sale records of past purchases to send targeted promotions on an individual’s purchase history.

In the corporate world, data mining is used most frequently to determine trends and predict the future. It is used to build models and decision support systems that give management information they can use to sell their products more efficiently. Data mining however is used in retail as well as pharmaceutical sales and even by the Department of Defense to predict with greater accuracy the likelihood of an attack. (Palace, 1996)

In regard to preserving the privacy of personal information, it is important to note that the privacy of individuals should never be sacrificed. The text gives an example of insurance companies sharing the data of patient records with the doctor’s office. Some data needs to be kept unique, while others can be shared. Sensitive information about an individual could be shared with law enforcement by an airline without the entire passenger list being violated. There have been many cases whereas different law enforcement agencies didn’t collaborate their information and in fact, with data mining could have shared information without giving away the entire portfolio that they have on record of the individual in question, thereby making the identification and apprehension an easier task. (Acquisti, et al., 2008)

References

Acquisti, A., Gritzalis, S., Lambrinoudakis, C., & Vimercati, S. D. C. d. (Eds.). (2008). Digital Privacy: Theory, Technologies, and Practices. New York: Auerbach Publications.

Anissimov, M. (2011). What is data mining? , 2011, from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-data-mining.htm

Palace, B. (1996). Data Mining Technology Note prepared for Management 274A : Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA UCLA.

Wagner, K., Cardie, C., Rogers, S., & Schroedl, S. (2001). Constrained K-means clustering iwth background knowledge. Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Conference on Machine Learning, 2001.

Christopher Depew's VisualCV - Christopher Depew

Christopher Depew's VisualCV - Christopher Depew

review of Forcing Firms to Focus: Is secure software in your future?

In the chapter Forcing Firms to Focus, Jim Routh the author gives an actual scenario of a company that he was the CISO of, how he progressed beginning with the stakeholders all the way through gaining the trust and respect of the developers. He uses a generic name, but of course I had to find out who the company was that he worked for and was discussing. The company that he was working for was American Express.(Anonymous, 2011a) As a major financial institution with a large working budget, it was obvious that he had little convincing to do on the part of the stakeholders and the board of directors.


He discusses previous security measures and modern methodologies of security as well as potential threats. He mentions the Melissa virus (Ellis-Christensen, 2011) as a modern virus that virtually shut down Microsoft servers by attaching itself to either WORD or Outlook and picking the first 40 names in the address book and re-sending the virus. Fortunately, Microsoft realized this right away and created a patch for it, which now exists in all aspects of MS Office in versions beginning with Office 2000. He explains that it is usually web applications that are how intruders gain access to the servers and can obtain multiple amounts of data including identity theft from the end user. (Oram & Viega, 2009)

The author lists a statistic form a survey that was conducted by McAfee where approximately two thirds of mothers that were end users, ranked their teenager’s online safety as important as or more important than drunk driving or drug use. I personally could not find this survey, but for the matter of record, I find this a bit far-fetched and wonder how the survey was conducted.

The author tells us that we can find the 10 top favorite hacking techniques by going to the website of The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP), which lists the number one hacking technique (at time of publishing Beautiful Security)as cross-site scripting (Oram & Viega, 2009), but as of today it is listed as number two with number one being injection. The technical aspects of injection are “Injection can result in data loss or corruption, lack of accountability, or denial of access. Injection can sometimes lead to complete host takeover.” (Anonymous, 2011b) On this website, the reader can find Threat Agents, Attack Vectors, Security Weakness, Technical Impacts and Business Impacts for most known security threats.

As it usually occurs, Routh described that at American Express [1] developers were not as much concerned with the security vulnerabilities as they could be dealt with in future enhancements. He then goes on to describe how he convinced American Express that the development of the code must include the thought of security threats while being developed.

The author was aware of new regulations that were coming through, and in 2008 the first guidelines were issued by the Office of the Comptrollers of the Currency (OCC) (Corporate, 2011) He stated that the cost for compliance was significant, but at this point American Express had no choice in the matter. They put in place a software development process that they used both internally as well as a mandatory guidance for their vendors. To be assured that they were in compliance, they used a third party vendor to check their code as well as the code of the vendor. This vendor, Verify is a worldwide known organization that is used for multiple security purposes and has clients such as many U.S. governmental departments. (Anonymous, 2011c)

The author concludes that his effort has saved his organization 11% in productivity by eliminating security vulnerabilities early on in the lifecycle of the development of their software instead of spending those dollars to fix problems after they occur. (Oram & Viega, 2009)

References

Anonymous. (2011a). InformIT Network. 2011, from http://www.informit.com/authors/bio.aspx?a=2211919B-476B-40AE-84B5-4AE2FE6239D7

Anonymous. (2011b). OWASP top ten project. 2011, from http://www.owasp.org/index.php/Top_10_2010-A1-Injection

Anonymous. (2011c). Verify homepage. 2011, from https://www.vscnet.com/Default.aspx

Corporate. (2011). Office of the comptroller of currency. 2011, from http://www.occ.treas.gov/index.html

Ellis-Christensen, T. (2011). What is the Melissa Virus? WiseGeek.com, from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-melissa-virus.htm

Oram, A., & Viega, J. (Eds.). (2009). Beautiful security: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
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[1] assuming that my research is correct and American Express is the actual name for his fictious name of Acme