Investigation into e-Commerce models

“Can Infromation Systems Make your Doctor Better?” – case study.

Q1. What problems are hospitals and physicians encountering in diagnosing diseases and prescribing medications?

A. Many of the errors could be a result of human factors, these being mainly down to poor handwriting, memory lapses, fatique and/or distractions. Not to mention that fact that when a patient arrives at the hospital he/she maybe already taking a prescribed medication and/or an over the counter medication that the doctor in unaware of. There are over 10,000 prescription drugs available and over 300,000 over the counter products, any of which could have a reaction with over medications.

Q.2 What obstacles prevent computer systems from improving the medical industry?

A. One major obstacle is cost. The cost of the CPOE system is between $8 million and $12 millon and hosptial’s are not keen to invest as the intitial cost overshadows the return investment, which would take a few years before any return would be seen. Another obstacle is the fact that the CPOE system is extremely rigid compared to traditional paperwork, for example with a paperbased system a doctor could write case notes or treatment notes before the patient was formally admitted but with the computerised system the doctor would not be able to enter any patient details as the system would flag an attempt to enter any patient treatment notes.

With a new componant added to the CPOE system that allowed virtual admissions of a patient (cardiac admissions mainly) was one way to solve the above problem.

Aim

Gain an awareness of IPR in the UK

Method

We initially had a Powerpoint presentation on IPR with SB.

We were asked what was IPR?

IPR can be broke down into three categories:

1. Trademarks

2. Copyright

3. Patents

4. Design Rights

Trademarks

The trademark definition as set by the Intellectual Property Office – Trade marks are symbols (like logos and brand names) that distinguish goods and services in the marketplace.

http://www.ipo.gov.uk/t-law.htm

Trademark infringement is a violation of the exclusive rights attaching to a trademark without the authorization of the trademark owner or any licensees (provided that such authorization was within the scope of the license). Infringement may occur when one party, the “infringer”, uses a trademark which is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark owned by another party, in relation to products or services which are identical or similar to the products or services which the registration covers. An owner of a trademark may commence legal proceedings against a party which infringes its registration. (Wikipedia)

Copyright

The UK copyright law fact sheet outlines the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, the principal legislation covering intellectual property rights in the United Kingdom and the work to which it applies.

1. IntroductionCopyright law originated in the United Kingdom from a concept of common law; the Statute of Anne 1709. It became statutory with the passing of the Copyright Act 1911. The current act is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
2. Rights coveredThe law gives the creators of literary, dramatic, musical, artistic works, sound recordings, broadcasts, films and typographical arrangement of published editions, rights to control the ways in which their material may be used.The rights cover; broadcast and public performance, copying, adapting, issuing, renting and lending copies to the public.

   In many cases, the creator will also have the right to be identified as the author and to object to distortions of his work.

   International conventions give protection in most countries, subject to national laws.

3. Types of work protected
   1. Literarysong lyrics, manuscripts, manuals, computer programs, commercial documents, leaflets, newsletters & articles etc.
   2. Dramaticplays, dance, etc.
   3. Musicalrecordings and score.
   4. Artisticphotography, painting, sculptures, architecture, technical drawings/diagrams, maps, logos.
   5. Typographical arrangement of published editionsmagazines, periodicals, etc.
   6. Sound recordingmay be recordings of other copyright works, e.g. musical and literary.
   7. Filmsbroadcasts and cable programmes.

   The Copyright (Computer Programs) Regulations 1992 extended the rules covering literary works to include computer programs.

4. When rights occurCopyright is an automatic right and arises whenever an individual or company creates a work. To qualify, a work should be regarded as original, and exhibit a degree of labour, skill or judgement.Interpretation is related to the independent creation rather than the idea behind the creation. For example, your idea for a book would not itself be protected, but the actual content of a book you write would be. In other words, someone else is still entitled to write their own book around the same idea, provided they do not directly copy or adapt yours to do so.

   Names, titles, short phrases and colours are not generally considered unique or substantial enough to be covered, but a creation, such as a logo, that combines these elements may be.

   In short, work that expresses an idea may be protected, but not the idea behind it.

5. Who owns a piece of workNormally the individual or collective who authored the work will exclusively own the work. However, if a work is produced as part of employment then it will normally belong to the person/company who hired the individual.Freelance or commissioned work will usually belong to the author of the work, unless there is an agreement to the contrary, (i.e. in a contract for service).

   Rights cannot be claimed for any part of a work which is a copy taken from a previous work. For example, in a piece of music featuring samples from a previous work, the copyright of the samples would still remain with the original author.

   Only the owner, or his exclusive licensee can bring proceedings in the courts.

6. Duration of copyrightThe 1988 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act states the duration of copyright as;
   1. For literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the last remaining author of the work dies.If the author is unknown, copyright will last for 70 years from end of the calendar year in which the work was created, although if it is made available to the public during that time, (by publication, authorised performance, broadcast, exhibition, etc.), then the duration will be 70 years from the end of the year that the work was first made available.
   2. Sound Recordings and broadcasts50 years from the end of the calendar year in which the work was created, or,if the work is released within that time: 50 years from the end of the calendar year in which the work was first released.
   3. Films70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the last principal director, author or composer dies.If the work is of unknown authorship: 70 years from end of the calendar year of creation, or if made available to the public in that time, 70 years from the end of the year the film was first made available.
   4. Typographical arrangement of published editions25 years from the end of the calendar year in which the work was first published.
   5. Broadcasts and cable programmes50 years from the end of the calendar year in which the broadcast was made.
   6. Crown CopyrightCrown copyright will exist in works made by an officer of the Crown, this includes items such as legislation and documents and reports produced by government bodies.Crown Copyright will last for a period of 125 years from the end of the calendar year in which the work was made.

      If the work was commercially published within 75 years of the end of the calendar year in which it was made, Crown copyright will last for 50 years from the end of the calendar year in which it was published.

   7. Parliamentary CopyrightParliamentary Copyright will apply to work that is made by or under the direction or control of the House of Commons or the House of Lords and will last until 50 years from the end of the calendar year in which the work was made.
7. Restricted actsIt is an offence to perform any of the following acts without the consent of the owner:Copy the work.

   Rent, lend or issue copies of the work to the public.

   Perform, broadcast or show the work in public.

   Adapt the work.

   The author of a work, or a director of a film may also have certain moral rights:

   The right to be identified as the author.

   Right to object to derogatory treatment.

8. Acts that are allowedFair dealing is a term used to describe acts which are permitted to a certain degree without infringing the work, these acts are:
   • Private and research study purposes.
   • Performance, copies or lending for educational purposes.
   • Criticism and news reporting.
   • Incidental inclusion.
   • Copies and lending by librarians.
   • Acts for the purposes of royal commissions, statutory enquiries, judicial proceedings and parliamentary purposes.
   • Recording of broadcasts for the purposes of listening to or viewing at a more convenient time, this is known as time shifting.
   • Producing a back up copy for personal use of a computer program.
   • Playing sound recording for a non profit making organisation, club or society.(Profit making organisations and individuals should obtain a license from PRS for Music.)

http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p01_uk_copyright_law

Patents

Further References

Academic Misconduct, London Metropolitan University http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/registry/$services/$coursework-exams/academic-misconduct/academic-misconduct_home.cfm accessed May 2010.

Data Protection Act 1998 – Education sector guidelines http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations/topic_specific_guides/education.aspx

Innovators Counselling and Advisory Service for Scotland “A LAYMANS’ VIEW OF
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS” http://www.icass.co.uk/pdf/LaymansGuide.pdf

Open Source Initiative – definitions http://www.opensource.org/docs/osd accessed May 2010

Vaagan, Robert, Koehler, Wallace 2005. “Intellectual property rights vs. public access rights: ethical aspects of the DeCSS decryption program”. Information Research Vol. 10 No. 3, April 2005 http://informationr.net/ir/10-3/paper230.html, accessed  May 2010

We also had a  session in  introducing us to CSS (cascading Style Sheets). CSS is a style sheet language used to describe the presentation semantics (that is, the look and formatting) of a document written in a markup language. Its most common application is to style web pages written in HTML and XHTML, but the language can also be applied to any kind of XML document, including SVG and XUL.

At this point I can only use Dreamweaver to a basic level, with practice I hope to be creating CSS templates in Dreamweaver.

RFID 2

RFID 3

These PDF’s may take sometime to download!

Notes on RFID1:

Abstract. The Auto-ID Center is developing low-cost radio frequency
identification (RFID) based systems with the initial application as next
generation bar-codes. We describe RFID technology, summarize our approach and our research, and most importantly, describe the research
opportunities in RFID for experts in cryptography and information security.
The common theme in low-cost RFID systems is that computation
resources are very limited, and all aspects of the RFID system are connected
to each other. Understanding these connections and the resulting
design trade-offs is an important prerequisite to effectively answering the
challenges of security and privacy in low-cost RFID systems.

Notes on RFID2:

Abstract—This article surveys recent technical research on the
problems of privacy and security for RFID (Radio Frequency
IDentification).
RFID tags are small, wireless devices that help identify objects
and people. Thanks to dropping cost, they are likely to proliferate
into the billions in the next several years – and eventually into
the trillions. RFID tags track objects in supply chains, and are
working their way into the pockets, belongings and even the
bodies of consumers. This survey examines approaches proposed
by scientists for privacy protection and integrity assurance in
RFID systems, and treats the social and technical context of
their work. While geared toward the non-specialist, the survey
may also serve as a reference for specialist readers.

Notes on RFID3:

Extract from Laudon and Laudon “Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm 10th ed” pp 300-301

Interactive session: Walmart Grapples with RFID

Aim: To gain an awareness and understanding of RFID

Method: To read the above documents, focus on issues related to privacy and security, discuss these issues in small subject based groups and then present findings to the classs from the perspective of your degree.

Are there any data laws related to the use of RFID?

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/rfid/index_en.htm

The Standardisation Mandate to the European Standardisation Organisations CEN, CENELEC and ETSI on RFID was signed and the call for experts launched (12/2009).

RFID class PP presentation on RFID from an e-Learning perspective.

We (Crystal, Lamis and I) researched the use of RFID from an e-Learning perspective. We looked on the Internet and found that a school in Britain had used RFID chips and had them inserted in to the children’s school badges! Their justification was to monitor attendance/absence.  In the US a school had RFID tags inserted in the bags of school children to monitor/track which school bus that they were on as a safety issue.

Did you know that objects can identify themselves (RFID) and soon will be able to network (IoT)?

Take one example: a suitcase itself can indicate which plane it should be sent to. This is possible thanks to Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID). With RFID, more and more objects communicate with each other, slowly creating a network of information, a so-called “internet of things”.

This network could potentially make our lives much easier… No need to worry about your suitcase being sent to the wrong plane anymore! But we must also be careful about how we use it, and avoid certain pitfalls.

To consider virtual environments  and answer the question as to whether museums can benefit from 3d immersive virtual environments?

To gain awareness of security issues and create a glossary of terms.

Method:

Today’s session was in two halves, the first being dedicated to our third session in Second Life for the ‘On the Beach’ project (Alan and Maureen), and the second was to read through chapter 8  “Securing Information Systems” (part 2) of Laudon and Laudon’s book “Information Technology Infrastructure” .

We were given a PP handout and were asked to concentrate on Virtual Environments slide.

I then logged int to SL and proceed to search for any virtual museums. To my astonishment none of the major British museums, for example The V & A, The British Museum, Manchester and Liverpool Museum did not have a presence in SL. However there are virtual museums and for each one we visited we (Crystal, Aneeta and I) sent notecards with a summery of the museum and the landmark to each other.

There was even a Star Trek virtual museum that I particularly found interesting!

Results:

Museum’s are not just buildings that hold a selection of the World’s treasure, they are non-profit making and are usually registered in three main areas:

• Business
• Charity
• Research Institute

This then allows for separate funding for each.

They are also learning establishments and some have great research abilities. A few museums share their artifacts with other museums, especially if there is a link between them (Vikings – East Anglia and Denmark, Scotland and Norway).

I feel quite able to talk about this as I’ve quite recently visited museums in Liverpool, Manchester, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Christchurch and New York. They show an understanding of the cultural heritage of the country and the majority of exhibitions are extremely well thought out! They take into consideration the learning style of the audience and incorporate cognitive preferences, for example, in the New York Metropolitan Museum they had an exhibition of the evolution of man. This exhibition incorporated interactive displays that had text attached for the visual learner, physical examples of  pre-historic  tools that you could touch and simulate using via a computer screen for the kinesthetic learner and auditory guide notes for the audio learner. This complies with the knowledge the each person visiting will interact with the displays differently, thus incorporating equality and diversity.

Like most exhibitions that I’ve seen the above exhibition was also geared towards children.  Museums are social establishments and have to also have to adhere to their country’s accessibility guidelines.

The second part of our session we looked the following extract from Laudon & Laudon’s book “Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm”.

Chapter 8 – Laudon & Laudon: Securing Information Systems

Review Questions x3:

Q1. What is Malware?

Malware is a general term used for malicious software programs. Trojan horses, worms and viruses are all threats to a computer and come under this category.

Trojan Horses.

Trojan horses appear to be benign but can actually do damage once installed or run on the computer.  When a Trojan is activated on your computer, the results can vary. Some Trojans are designed to be more annoying than malicious (like changing your desktop, adding silly active desktop icons) or they can cause serious damage by deleting files and destroying information on your system. Trojans are also known to create a backdoor on the computer that gives malicious users access to your system, possibly allowing confidential or personal information to be compromised. Unlike viruses and worms, Trojans do not reproduce by infecting other files nor do they self-replicate.

Viruses

A computer virus attaches itself to a program or file enabling it to spread from one computer to another, leaving infections as it travels. A computer virus can range in severity: some may cause only mildly annoying effects while others can damage your hardware, software or files.

Almost all viruses are attached to an executable file (such as .exe), which means the virus may exist on the computer but it actually cannot infect the computer unless you run or open the malicious program.  A virus cannot be spread without a human action, (such as running an infected program) to keep it going.

A computer virus is an ongoing threat and people, mostly unknowingly, will share infected files or send e-mails with viruses as attachments in the e-mail. Another thing to remember is whenever you use a USB stick on any networked system it is very wise to scan for viruses before you actually open anything on your own personal computer!

Worms

A worm is similar to a virus by design and is considered to be a sub-class of a virus. Worms spread from computer to computer, but unlike a virus, it has the capability to travel without any human action. A worm takes advantage of file or information transport features on your system, which is what allows it to travel unaided.

The biggest danger with a worm is its capability to replicate itself on the system, so rather than the computer sending out a single worm, it could send out hundreds or thousands of copies of itself, creating a huge devastating effect, for example,  a worm would send a copy of itself to everyone listed in your e-mail address book. Then, the worm replicates and sends itself out to everyone listed in each of the receiver’s address book, and the manifest continues on down the line.

Due to the copying nature of a worm and its capability to travel across networks the end result in most cases is that the worm consumes too much system memory (or network bandwidth), causing Web servers, network servers and individual computers to stop responding.

Q2. What is a hacker? How do hackers create security problems and damage systems?

A hacker is someone who accesses a computer system unauthorized (a hacker with criminal intent is usually referred to as a cracker). Hackers will scan a system to see  if there are any weaknesses in the security of the system and/or Web sites, if there is, then they will use it to gain access.

Hackers create security problems as they not only intrude on to the system but also steal information and goods (online purchasing), as well as system damage and cybervandalism which is the intentional disruption, defacement, or even  destruction of a Web site or corporate information system, as stated by Laudon and Laudon. Hackers can create spoof identities in a bid to hide their true identities and use fake email addresses, they can also pose as someone else. There have been examples of hackers using spoof identities to re-direct customers to fake Web site’s, which look almost exactly as the original, where they can then collect users information, including bank details.

Q3. What is the function of risk assessment? How is it conducted for information systems?

There is an international set of standards for security and control ISO 17799, which was set up to help with the protection of information resources. These standards provide numerous guidelines to enable a company (amongst other things) to run a risk assessment. The function of performing a risk assessment is to determine the level of risk to a company of an asset (system or application) to be used if not properly controlled.

I came across this Microsoft PP on risk assessment:

http://www.purdue.edu/securePurdue/docs/BasicRiskAssessment.pdf

From a business point of view, information system specialists can work together with managers to determine the value of an information asset, points of vulnerability, frequency of an issue and the potential for damage. If when assessed there is an indication of a potential risk, then the system specialists/builders can concentrate on the control points with the greatest vulnerability and potential for loss as stated by Laudon & Laudon.

Aim:

The aim of the session was to introduce  Adobe Flash CS4 and create a simple motion tween.

Method:

Lecture initially showing us step by step how to create a simple motion tween.

Flash CS4 is  a time-line based application, it uses Action script 3.0 (latest version) which is an object oriented programming language andis well structured.

Stephen proceeded to explain the basic tools and their uses for example the Bones tool  allows you to manipulate human traits and is used for animation. Each segment is called a frame and the application defaults to 24 frames per second, more frames per second means a longer/bigger file size.

Flash initially opens up one layer/one frame, our aim was to create a box, turn it into a symbol and create a motion tween.

We then proceeded to a computer room and began a workshop session. The first session with Maureen was very quick, we ran through PS and completed a questionaire on how well we knew PS. Both Stephen and Maureen had to attend a meeting therefore had to leave the session.  I proceeded to create a box using the pre set tool and converted it into a symbol, moved it across the screen and enabled a simple motion tween. With the use of the timeline and key frames I was able to speed the image up and then slow it down.

I then imported a graphic of the iphone to the library (with guidance from Muraf) and then added a layer to create a blacked out screen, then another layer to place 3d buttons. This is the start of my project!

Result:

I have only tentatively used Flash before having never grasped the full extent of what the application has to offer! I was impressed with the use of only a few clicks the ability to create a box using the pre-set tool, convert it into a symbol (Asset Points-movie clip option), which would then allow you to rotate the symbol. Key frames were introduced, then a motion tween (create classic tween) was enabled.

I hope you gain a better understanding of this software as I intend to use it along with PS for my project.

On the Beach Project part 2:

Crystal, Anita and I were in a group today for the above project.

Report on Second Life research (On the Beach project)

Method:

We decided to compare accessibility for blind people on the 2D web with 3D virtual worlds.

We began by googling: my search phrase was “Second Life blind” because I remembered coming across a blog with a similar name. Steph, Aneeta and I all found interesting links, which we sent to each other by notecards, with short annotations to explain the link:

The process of communicating via the SL window wasn’t always easy. We couldn’t set up a private group chat between the three of us because we didn’t have our own group, but trying to chat in the big chair circle meant overlapping with other people’s conversations, so we lapsed into real life talking instead.

The notecard system has serious shortcomings in terms of its usability. For example, renaming the card in the description doesn’t change the title, so we shortly had a lot of cards titled “new card”. They also don’t allow hyperlinks to be created, which requires the user to copy and paste the link into their browser.

Sometimes we just wanted to show our team a picture we’d found. However we couldn’t attach screenshots to the notecards of the blogs or our finding s in SL, because it costs L$0.10 to upload images and we had no credit. We overcame this in two ways: saving the screenshots on our own computers and emailing them, and by simply moving to look at each other’s screens.

As in our previous session, there seemed to be a lot of confusion about how to use the SL environment. I saw a lot of people editing appearance, standing around and even some trying to build, but there wasn’t clearly a lot of activity going on that was directed towards the actual task.

We teleported to Virtual Ability Island, which is a space developed to help new users with various special needs orient themselves in the SL space. Their orientation space was a trail with signs, but we couldn’t figure out how it was more accessible than any other space. It was supposed to be aimed at deaf people, but still had sounds. The signs didn’t appear to have any way of being read out, and although there are instructions on them about making the user interface text larger, this wouldn’t be possible on the actual signs.

From here, we decided to search for sites that are actually accessible to various user groups.

I visited http://slurl.com/secondlife/Morrill/40/208/25, which was a house demonstrating real world accessibility features. It was interesting because of all the different ways that a home can be made more accessible, and showed how this might look in real life. However, the SL house didn’t seem accessible to all the target users. For example, they had audio narration for objects, but the sound was very faint even on the highest volume, and to start the sound, the user had to know where to click.

Aneeta and I both had guide dogs attached to random parts of their avatars. It took us a while to figure out how to attach Max, who we found at http://www.virtualguidedog.com/, but it seems to have a lot of potential. The chat-reading tool needed to be installed, so he gave all his feedback in text chat, but the kinds of things he could report on would make the interface more accessible. For example, he could report on what the nearest four objects and avatars were, and then you could go to one of those objects or follow an avatar.

We concluded that you have to really dig deep for the information, in both 2D and 3D format.

The following are websites found using a 2D browser: Mozilla Firefox

http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2008/09/blind-second-li.html

http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/blind-avatars

http://www.virtualhelpinghands.org/

http://www.flickr.com/groups/helenkellerday/

http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2008/09/blind-second-li.html

http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/blind-avatars

http://www.virtualhelpinghands.org/

http://www.flickr.com/groups/helenkellerday/

References

These have been copied directly from the notecards we sent to each other in Second Life.

This looks like an interesting link with lots of references: http://blindsecondlife.blogspot.com/

I don’t think notecards let you make hyperlinks, so you’ll have to copy and paste it.

This is a link to an IBM project for people with disabilities, for example blindness: http://www.techpin.com/ibm-project-second-life-accessible-for-blind-people/

This is an interesting site of a blind lady who was able to use an artificial dog and a braille cube in second life: http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2008/09/blind-second-li.html

This is another site with more detail about the dog created in Second Life to help the visually impaired: http://www.bjhcim.co.uk/news/2009/n907015.htm

http://www.bjhcim.co.uk/news/2009/n907015.htm

[Same link sent on a new notecard]

http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/blind-avatars avatars for the blind

BAVIEC Group in SL: Blind and Visually Imparied Educational Center

This is a group and soon to be location in Second Life for those who are Blind/Visually Impaired to call home.  It is also a place that encourages those who want to understand, educate themselves or just want to support a wonderful group of people who are forced to live in a visual world without the same visual acuity it is designed for.