Portfolio Assignment 3

Scott Hommel

7/16/2013

CMSY-129-N091

Portfolio Assignment 3

Information Literacy and Searching the Web

http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_23662221/googles-greater-china-president-steps-down

     We are used to Google having the predominant market share of the highly profitable search engine industry here in the United States. However, Baidu is the top dog in China controlling over 60% off its search engine market. Google Hong Kong just simply can't compete with China's Baidu, which is basically everything Google is and possibly more, only adapted  for the Chinese by the Chinese. Due to Google's inability to keep up with Baidu, the President of Greater China Google has stepped down.

While Baidu maintains the lion's share of the market, Google's slice of the search engine pie has continued to vanish while upstarts such as Qihoo 360 continue to climb the rungs. Some critics blame Google's decision to move their servers from the mainland to Hong Kong where afterwards their "prospects dimmed considerably." Google's Android operating system is apparently failing in China as well, with opponents also pushing Google out of China's smartphone sector and as the head of Asia telecom and internet research at CLSA puts it; "Google's biggest challenge remains how to penetrate China."

Call me socialist if you will, but I couldn't help feeling pleased to read that there is a ceiling too high for multi-billion dollar industries  to reach. According to our textbook "Google has become one of the world's most profitable companies, with more than $36 billion in annual revenue." I envy the innovators and venture capitalists who have made a fortune off of riding the waves of silicon valley to a sea of fortune. However, it's nice to see that other parts of the world are able to resist such a powerful entity. No doubt it has something to do with U.S./Chinese foreign relations as I'm sure China would frown upon letting the U.S. win the search engine war on their home-turf, but it's refreshing to hear of a country defying an industry giant like Google. Now if only the Baidus and Googles of the world could unite, putting differences aside to share their technologies for the betterment of mankind, then we might really start getting somewhere in our search.

http://scotthommelcmsy129.blogspot.com/

Works Cited

Baldauf, Ken. "4.4.1 Search Engine." Emerge with Computer Concepts. Vol. 4.0. Boston: Course Technology, 2013. CON 151. Print.

Carsten, Paul. "Google's Greater China President Steps down." MercuryNews.com. MediaNews Group, 15 July 2013. Web. 16 July 2013.

     <http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_23662221/googles-greater-china-president-steps-down>.

Week 2 Activity C: Create a Professional Presence Online

     I already had a LinkedIn profile up and running, so I used that site for my "Professional Presence" assignment. It took me awhile to adapt to the site, as I was more familiar with networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook, but LinkedIn is an entirely different experience and it doesn't take long to realize it. From getting recommendations and peers who vouch for your credentials to the exchanging of online business cards, this site is the best online forum for today's professionals.

Here is a Jing tutorial I created that navigates my LinkedIn profile (www.linkedin.com/pub/scott-hommel/48/692/898) :

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In addition to making more professional contacts and networking, I am beginning to use LinkedIn as more of an information site. By following "howard county government" and "howard community college", I can stay current on things that are of interest to me.

Portfolio Assignment 2

Scott Hommel

7/9/2013

CMSY-129-N091

Portfolio Assignment 2

Digital Ethics

     The government of Saskatchewan reportedly defended its provincial computer system against "millions of cyber attacks" last year. With 15,000 computers in the network containing sensitive information related to health and finance, the province has made cyber-security a top priority out of necessity. Trying to stay one step ahead of hackers, they are committed to employee education and training which empowers them with the awareness and tools needed to prevent breaches of security. Retired computer security expert Terry Roebuck spent many years at the University of Saskatchewan thwarting hackers and ensuring the province's security. According to him the greatest threats come from "directed attacks", where cybercriminals are looking for specific information in a specific place. They will often cross-reference information from social networking sites with staff lists, gaining personal information that hackers can then use against the company to infiltrate their system. Seemingly one of the leading authorities on cyber-security, Saskatchewan has apparently had no previous security breaches and has yet to prosecute anyone for hacking into the province's system. This article is directly related to digital ethics, and governmental computer ethics in particular. The government is responsible for "defending a country's critical infrastructure from foreign governments, cybercriminals, and terrorist groups" according to this week's reading and that is exactly what Saskatchewan is doing.

In light of what the U.S. is currently going through with Edward Snowden, it was interesting to read about how another country handles cyber-security. While the United States has declared computer hacking by other nations "an act of war", Snowden disclosed that the U.S. government was doing exactly that with other countries. One thing that really grabbed my attention was how Roebuck described some of the tactics that hackers use. Gathering personal information from social networking sites, they are able to cross-reference information with the business that their target works for. The victim may receive an email claiming to be a picture of their son or daughter, yet when they click it there is no picture but now their computer has been compromised.

http://scotthommelcmsy129.blogspot.com/

Works Cited

Baldauf, Ken. "5.3 Governmental Computer Ethics." Emerge with Computer Concepts. Vol. 4.0. Boston:

     Course Technology, 2013. ISS 50. Print.

    

Zakreski, Dan. "Sask. Government Computers Attacked Millions of times Last Year." CBC News. N.p., 9 July

     2013. Web. 10 July 2013. <http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/story/2013/07/08/saskatoon-

          government-computer-hacking-130708.html>.

Portfolio Assignment 1

Scott Hommel

7/9/2013

CMSY-129-N091

Portfolio Assignment 1

Internet and Web Technologies

     This article is about the passing of Doug Engelbart, who invented the computer mouse back in the 1960's. He is also said to have worked on "early incarnations of email and word processing." His computer studies eventually led to the formation of his own laboratory, the Augmentation Research Center, where he helped developed ARPANET and was involved with the development of the internet. He is also credited with holding the first video teleconference and, although he has received many accolades such as the National Medal of Technology, he did not make much money off of his invention of the mouse because his patent ran out before it became widely used. This article relates to the week's reading because we studied internet history, including ARPA, ARPANET, and the some of the protocols, hardware, and software that Engelbart helped create.

I enjoyed reading this article because I had never heard of Doug Engelbart before, and it's a shame that more people are not familiar with him considering all he has given to the field of computer technology. It's very interesting that his original mouse design was a simple wooden shell covering two metal wheels, and overall after reading about him he sounds like a brilliant man. I am in the middle of reading a book by Ray Kurzweil titled The Age of Spiritual Machines, and Engelbart appears to have share some of Kurzweil's futuristic visions, believing that "computers could be used to augment human intellect."

http://scotthommelcmsy129.blogspot.com/

Works Cited

"Computer Mouse Inventor Doug Engelbart Dies at 88." BBC News. BBC, 07 Mar. 2013. Web. 09 July      

     2013. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23174052>.