Case study problem #3

Dr Ogola wants to implement new IT systems based on the improving mobile phone technology tosupport medical practices in outlying rural areas by providing:– telemedicine outreach to village clinics in the province– education and training to medical and paramedical staff– effective distribution of medical information.
1. What cell phone infrastructure exists in East Africa? Which nations have poor or no cell service? Which have good cell service? How does "good" cell service in East Africa compare to cell service in the US?

When looking at cell phone infrastructures in East African countries, the list that can develope is rather long and complicated with mostly all infrastructures being closely related to, either directly or indirectly, to each other. Some of the infrastructures that exist are lack of cellphone towers, cell availability, and the problem of having structures which block cell phone service such as bridges, cities. Also, all of these problems fall under the difficulty of having equally spaced out cell phone services because in East Africa, the distance between one cell phone structure and another, is very large distance. Many East African countries as well as others have black spots, dead zones, and cell towers are so spread out that they do not pick up service in many locations. One African country that is well known for their cell phone coverage is Kenya. However, the United States is much more advanced when it comes down to cell phone coverage because in America there are multiple services connecting to towers all around the country which then provides for multiple 3G coverage.

2. How does telemedicine treatment work in theory? Find an example in the real world, and explain how the reality compares to the theory. Discuss whether current telemedicine is feasible in East Africa. Discuss the feasibility of future telemedicine practices in East Africa.

Basically, telemedicine treatment works through sending an image of an ailment to a remote clinic for analysis in real time. This means that people, that are sick or could possibly become sick and cannot leave their homes, would have the ability to send an image of their ailments to clinics that they cannot travel to so that the doctors may find out what is the matter with them faster than it would take for the sick person to travel to the clinic. Sensibly high quality close up digital pictures with 640x480 resolution are possible solutions to how one may send a picture of their ailment to a clinic without travel. The resolution above probably represents the best quality that could be sent today with high-quality CCD camera over an ethernet link to a remote site for evaluation.

One example of a real life situation is actually in Tanzania. "Wilson Mkama, Permanent Secretary in the Health and Social Welfare ministry, when he opened a three-day Cross Country Learning Event in Health in Dar es Salaam yesterday.Among the delegates to the function were health experts from Ghana, Mali, Uganda and Tanzania." (from africanews.com) Tanzania is currently undergoing paying for the expenses of the setup and equipment of a telemedicine treatment. This would allow the people of Tanzania to not spend as much on their trips to the nearest clinic or hospital and it would also allow Tanzania to get the most out of its few certified doctors in the country.

3. Discuss the feasibility of telemedicine for training purposes.

Telemedicine enable medical information to be shared from one place to another with the use of technology. This would allow a physician located far from a reference center to have the ability to consult his colleagues remotely in order to solve a case, the ability to follow a continuing education course over the Internet, or the ability to access medical information from digital libraries. Thus, the feasibility of telemedicine for training purposes is very high because with Telemedicine, only a little bit of training is needed to know how to send and receive information and the rest will come from the doctor's own personal knowledge about a particular medical case. The potential of these Telemedicine tools is very important in countries where there are little to no doctors and where distances between clinics, hospitals, cities, and homes hinder the movement of physicians or patients. The problem faced by many East African countries, as well as Africa as a whole, is that the many infrustructures that are in the way of cell phone and telemedicine treatment limit the rate in which both of these two technological advances can proceed. In order for these two advances to work, they must be tested, and then tested again. That is until every little offset in the data is fixed so that all the equipment runs properly and smoothly. However, the feasibility of telemedicine for training purposes is very high because telemedicine needs very little high tech equipment on the patients side, however on the doctors side, the medical equipment is a of higher tech and thus they must be trained first. But after that small problem is overcome, many doctors will be able to use telemedicine to consult their patients without actually seeing them physically and therefore they increase their abilities in the field.

Homework due 12/4/09

On pages 182 and 183 of A Gift of Fire, answer questions 4.8 and 4.10; post your answers on your blog!

4.8
Consider the case described in Section 4.1.2, in which a boy was assumed to be a drug abuser because two schools used different disciplinary codes in their computerized records.
a) Is this kind of problem more likely to occur with computerized records than with paper records? Why, or why not?

I believe that the problem could equally occur either with a paper record or a computerized record. This is because there are many factors that are associated with errors in a database or on a record. For example, there are many people in this world and thusly a name can be mistaken, nonhuman machines running and recording things about actual humans could lead to potential problems because the machines cannot recognize special cases and it does not have any common sense, many people have too much faith in computerized records and their accuracy, some people create errors when putting information into the database, failure to update information, and many people do not want to take the blame if something goes wrong within the computerized records. People managing paper records can have all of these problems as well because people are prone to make mistakes. No one is perfect and therefor a database whether it be paper or electronic is going to have a mistake or two or three etc. There is no possible way to determine if a computerized record has any more potential at being less problamatic than paper records because both actually have a lot of common factors that make record keeping very difficult.

b) Describe some policies or practices that can help prevent such problems.
There are many policies and/or practices that can help prevent such problems. For starters, if the people that are using either the paper or the computerized record system if they enter the persons name with his/her social security number then that fixes the problem of the large population and names being mis-matched, second, if the people that are using the paper records know about the special case scenarios beforehand and if the computerized records are programmed with these special case scenarios then that fizes the second problem dealing with machines not having common sense, thirdly, if people are more cautious about how/when/why/where they are putting data entries into the records then that would fix the accuracy problem, fourthly, if people are more careful when entering the data into the records then that fixes the carelessness errors, fifth, make sure that the information in the records are updated frequently (month, year, etc.) to fix the problem dealing with lack of updated information, and six, make sure that if there is an error either with a person at fault or a machine, take responsibility for it so that more problems may not arise but rather be settled quickly and efficiently.

4.10
Consider the standardized-test-score-reporting error discussed in the box in Section 4.1.3 Suppose the scores had been reported to the schools as significantly higher, rather than lower, than the correct scores. Do you think the schools would have questioned the scores? Do you think the error would have been discovered? If so, how? Give a few examples of situations where you think computer errors would not be reported. For each example, give your reason (e.g optimism, ignorance, gullibility, dishonesty).

Personally, I do not think that the school would have questioned the higher scores unless they had morals. But I mean in todays world, where nearly everything is a competition, people want to show other people that their schools are superior and if this means using false test scores as proof, so be it. I think that if the scores were really low, like 10 percent all around lower than the year they were before then the school would have done something but if it was higher ten percent then heck, make it work for in your benefit. I think that the error would have been eventually caught because school testing officials (like in Section 4.1.3) would have been very skeptical of the scores showing sudden rises in every category. Also, I bet that they would have questioned the "CTB" and looked into it further especially if it was a school that could never in its right mind achieve test scores like that.
Some examples of where computer errors would not be reported could be:
- If a bank or the government issues you a check for way more than it should be - dishonesty because one should report that but who is going to do that in this economy?
- If a store does not charge your credit card - again dishonesty because they are stealing
- If a person goes through the wrong lane in a toll plaza - truthful because they are the ones actually at fault

Portfolio topic check

1. Does the topic relate to ITGS? Explain how!
Yes, this topic does relate to ITGS because Microsoft officials said that they will experiment with selling marketers the right to place ads in Windows 7 themes on users' desktops. This means that those marketers will sell their brands and products using two of Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) graphical customization capabilities in Windows 7 and Internet Explorer.

2. Is the area of impact one that has not been addressed in a previous portfolio piece? Which area of impact have you already done? Which area of impact does this piece fit?
Yes, the area of impact is one that has not been addressed in a previous portflio piece. I have already done the politics and government and health areas of impact. However, this portfolio piece fits in with business and employment.

3. Was the news item published no more than six months before you started the course (you started September 2008)? What is the publication date of the article?
Yes the news item was published no more than six months before I started the course. The publication date of the article was November 13, 2009.

4. Does the article raise one or more social or ethical issues related to an IT system? State clearly the social or ethical issue.
Yes this article raises one or more social oor ethical issues related to an IT system because with Microsoft having the ability to choose which marketers will display what info on each theme then that allows Microsoft the potential power to disregard some companies and only allow others in which violates the equality between each future marketer. Also, with businesses displaying ads on Microsoft themes, that makes the possibility of actual store businesses losing money a reality because the ads on the themes will probably be displaying ads for businesses that are online and not in an actual building.

5. Is the problem clear? Explain the problem.
Yes, the problem is clear. Microsoft wants the ability to have potential marketers place ads on their themes but the question is for how much and how often will they be able to fo it for.

6. Can you think of two viable solutions? Briefly state the possible solutions.
Yes, I can think of two variable solutions. One is if Microsoft does allow marketers to place ads on their themes then they should make the price of placing said ad universal no matter who the business is. Second, if Microsoft will allow every marketer that has placed an ad on a theme the same amount of time then the potential problem of playing favorites will be taken away.

7. Do you have access to a range of resources on this topic? Name three possible resources to research this topic.
Yes, I do have a range of resources on this topic. On possible place for potential information is bbc.com, a second potential source for information is internetnews.com, and the third possible source for information of this IT topic is microsoft.com.

ATM Questions

Describe 3 advantages to using an ATM. Evaluate those advantages. Post to your blog.

1. The main advantage of using an ATM is the fact that you can have access to the cash in your bank account whenever you need it. For example: If you are at a place (store/ticket booth/train station) that does not accept checks or credit cards but there is an ATM nearby, then you can go over to the ATM and using you card, you can get money withdrawn from your account in cash. Also, this makes traveling without cash much more accessible because if you have your card and you are at a place that happens to have an ATM, then you can get money withdrawn from your account no matter where you happen to be.

2. On some ATMs you can "transfer funds between accounts, buy stocks, check account balances and even buy stamps." All of these features can be accessed with one debit card or credit card and a PIN number. This allows you to have many features of owning your own debit card. For one, no matter where you are, you can get money/stamps/buy stocks quickly and efficiently without the hassle of going and finding a bank where you can make a transfer of your funds or take out money. It is very convenient to use an ATM because of their high speed quality and their ability to do so much with you doing so little.

3. ATM is very convenient and makes life's little emergencies far less challenging. An ATM being convenient is another one of the advantages of using an ATM because no you don't have to carry cash everywhere you go because ATMs are now popping up everywhere because banks know that people like to have the ability to do things wherever they happen to be and quickly. I think that people like to be able to take out money, or transfer money, or buy stocks, or whatever it may be, because it gives them a sense of power. I know that if I had a debit card I would be very enthusiastic because I would know that I would have the convenience of having ATMs all around me, whenever I needed them.

Part E

Selection and Use of Sources

Adams. 28/8/2009, "Bill Would Give Obama 'Emergency' Control of Internet", http://www.internationalfreepresssociety.org/2009/08/bill-would-give-obama-emergency-control-of-internet/ (10/11/2009)

McCullagh , Declan. 28/8/2009, "Bill Would Give President 'Emergency' Control of Internet", http://www.mixx.com/stories/7248338/bill_would_give_president_emergency_control_of_internet_cnet_news (10/11/2009)

Reich, June. 31/8/2009, "Should the White House Control the Internet During an Emergency?", http://www.examiner.com/x-21668-Philadelphia-Gadgets-Examiner~y2009m8d31-Should-the-White-House-control-the-internet-during-an-emergency (10/11/2009)

The Washington Times. 30/8/2009, "EDITORIAL: White House Control of the Internet", http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/30/white-house-control-of-the-internet/ (10/11/2009)

News Item - Extract
"Translation: If your company is deemed 'critical,' a new set of regulations kick in involving who you can hire, what information you must disclose, and when the government would exercise control over your computers or network.

The Internet Security Alliance’s Clinton adds that his group is 'supportive of increased federal involvement to enhance cyber security, but we believe that the wrong approach, as embodied in this bill as introduced, will be counterproductive both from an national economic and national secuity perspective.'"

Part D

Solutions to Problems Arising from the Issue

There are many solutions to the problems that arose in part C. One of these solutions is to only allow the President to have the power to shut down the private sector computers instead of having another group of people do it for him. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for “cybersecurity professionals,” and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the private sector be managed by people who have been awarded that license (Adams 2009). Allowing other people to shut down the private sector computers when the bill specifically says that it is only the President’s authority to do so is breaking the law and to have the President do it instead will be more efficient. If the President was to be properly trained then the extra people that are currently used as “cybersecurity professionals” need not be there any longer.

Also another solution to one of the problems that arose was that the language of the bill made companies timid. “As soon as you’re saying that the federal government is going to be exercising this kind of power over private networks, it’s going to be a really big issue” (Adams 2009). Probably the most controversial language begins in Section 201, which permits the president to “direct the national response to the cyber threat” if necessary for “the national defense and security.” The White House is supposed to engage in “periodic mapping” of private networks deemed to be critical, and those companies “shall share” requested information with the federal government (Reich 2009). The language of the bill can have a number of relatively easy solutions. One is that a new draft of the bill is formed with language more suitable to companies ears and this is due to the fact that the language in the old one frightened them into thinking that the President would be watching over their companies 24 hours 7 days a week, when really it meant that he would periodically check in to see how and what the company was doing. Another example is to have the President address the issue himself, describing all the benefits associated with his new ability to shut down private sector computers such as national defense and national security.

Part C

The Impact of the Issue

There are many advantages when it comes to the president having the ability to shut down private sector computers in a “cybersecurity emergency”. One of these advantages is that the creator of the bill, a man named Rockefeller, the chairman of the Senate Commerce committee, and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) he claimed it was vital to protect national cybersecurity. “We must protect our critical infrastructure at all costs–from our water to our electricity, to banking, traffic lights and electronic health records,” Rockefeller said (Adams 2009). Another advantage, however it can also be seen as a disadvantage, is thatIf your company is deemed “critical,” a new set of regulations kick in involving who you can hire, what information you must disclose, and when the government would exercise control over your computers or network.
The Internet Security Alliance’s Clinton adds that his group is “supportive of increased federal involvement to enhance cyber security, but we believe that the wrong approach, as embodied in this bill as introduced, will be counterproductive both from an national economic and national security perspective” (Adams 2009).

However there are some disadvantages too. A Senate source familiar with the bill compared the president’s power to take control of portions of the Internet to what President Bush did when grounding all aircraft on Sept. 11, 2001 (Adams 2009). The source said that one primary concern was the electrical grid, and what would happen if it were attacked from a broadband connection. Also other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for “cybersecurity professionals,” and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the private sector be managed by people who have been awarded that license (Reich 2009). To complete this project, it requires a “cybersecurity workforce plan” from every federal agency, a “dashboard” pilot project, measurements of hiring effectiveness, and the implementation of a “comprehensive national cybersecurity strategy” in six months–even though its mandatory legal review will take a year to complete (The Washington Times, 2009).