Secure E-mail Project

Firstly you can see my screenshot of my inbox, showing the two received e-mails from the professor:

During this week we had to submit another project, called "secure e-mail". This project was about signing and encrypting e-mails by using Mozilla Thunderbird. I never used this programme before, but I think I am going to use it in the future as it provides a very convenient way to manage your e-mail accounts. 

While searching an article about a business using secure e-mails I found an article about Nike. This article is basically about Nike starting to adopt a world wide site license for its WorldSecure(TM) Server in 1999. This is when Nike started to really protect their e-mails. Shortly before, the company recognized that securing e-mails is key to successfully operating over the Internet. "Secure e-mail is key to Nike in order for us to leverage the Internet and Internet mail See Internet e-mail service.
..... Click the link for more information. for communications with hundreds of our trading partners and remote offices around the world," (CEO Tom Beane). In addition to encryption and digital signature, the adopted WorldSecure Server offers Nike the opportunity to protect its entire end-user community and business partners and blocking SPAMs and other unsolicited Internet mail.

Week 13: Clear

This week was about "Computer Security, Ethics and Privacy" and once again very clear. There is actually nothing difficult to understand in this topic, nevertheless it is important to hear about it. Especially in today's business environment computer security gets more and more important and crucial. Losing data to others might hit a business very hard. Securing your data is therefore of utmost importance for almost every business. The timeline of notable computer virueses and worms shows that there have always been, and will probably always be new viruses on the web, which might harm a business severely. In April 2008, the number of viruses, worms and trojans in circulation has topped the one million mark. Programmers try to steal data with the help of these malware and expect to get paid in exchange. To not fall into that trap, you should always backup your data and use firewalls and other safety methods.

As a private person you should never respond to any spam emails. Even if you answer with a sentence like "Please to not send me any email any more!" you totally fall into a trap. This response shows the creator of the spam mail that your email adress is indeed valid and thus encourages him/her to send you even more messages. Therefore, be always aware of spam mails, never reply and only trust sources you know.

Week 12: Clear

This week's topic was called "Communications and Network" and once again, the concepts in the lectures were explained very clearly. The overall content was kind of dry though, as the lectures dealt with technical background of communication and network devices or softwares. But nevertheless it was good to get some of these concepts explained, as e.g. the part about internet security which should be more present in people's mind than it is at the moment.

What I especially liked was the lecture about communcaition applications, as this is actually a very important part of my study abroad here. I am almost every day connected to my home country via these communcation applications like instant messengers, emails or VoIP (Voice over IP). In particular this last application, VoIP, which I use in the form of Skype  is very important to me. The fact that people who are located in different party of the world can talk to and even see each other for free over the internet is quiet amazing and very useful for me. Of course you have some set up costs, like a video camera, or a microphone, but these are only minor costs compared to the huge benefits they deliver in the end.

But not only for me, also in today's business environment I think that such applications like Skype will become more and more important and useful. There is e.g. the possibility to use Skype for videoconferences, which makes communications among business partners very convenient. As more and more processes of a firm are oursorced and firms become more and mroe international, people who are widespread over the world will need to communicate frequently. And that is exactly where these communication applications come into play. Therefore I think the topic of this week was very up-to-date and important, although it was a lot of information for just one week.

Week 11: Clear

This week's topic was "Information Systems Development". As one might already guess from the name, the lectures for thie week were all very clear and straightforward. A information systems development consists of 5 stages, namely Planning, Analysis, Design, Implementation and Operation/Maintenance. These stages are all very clear, first you start planning the system by after having recognized a need. Then you go to the analysis stage where you further investigate the feasibility and the plan in more detail. After that you start setting up a design for the system. This stage may actually take quiet a long time, but is also an essential part of the whole development cycle. You can then proceed by implementing your system. Last but not least, every information system must be maintained while being operated. This is a never ending process.

In today's business environment the setting up of an information system is very important, as systems are used everywhere. They are essential for a smooth functioning of a business and thus need to be created very in-depth and effective. Therefore you should always go through all of the above mentioned stages for not wasting time and money and ending up with a useless information system. For further information about that topic, click  here.

Database Project

In the last two weeks we had to work on a project which included the use of Microsoft Access. In that project we were supposed to imagine that we work for a local gym and got the request to set up a database to store individual information about the gym's members. As I had never used the software Microsoft Access before, I learned a lot of new things during that project. It all started with making up 5 entries for our database, including different individual information. Then we imported a list of 1000 members of the gym which then became the basis of all further operations we did. Accordingly we set up a query where we differentiated members having an individual membership and having left the gym during the last 6 months. Furthermore we set up a "new members form" to enter data for potential new members, and we created a report about the database. As said before, I never used Microsoft Access before, thus all these tasks were very helpful for me to learn about databases and Microsoft Access.

To further improve the created database one could e.g. also add new fields to the database to find out the reasons why people want to go to the gym. As the manager of the gym this information could be helpful to further customize your gym in terms of work-out methods, training offers, cardio machines, and so on. One could for example include a field called "reason" where people could enter their intention when they join the gym. You could also put this than in the form of a report to better present the reasons to the manager of the gym. But this all depends on the purpose of the database, and should just be considered as one possible extension of the functionality of the database.

All in all I really liked that project as this was a very good and practical way to learn about a software which could be very helpful in the future.

Week 10: Clear

The topic of week 10 was Microsoft Access. Microsoft Access is a database software which I had never used before and thus it was very helpful for me to learn about that program. There are several actions you can perform with this software to set up and modify relational darabases. The lectures this week started with broad concepts, like creating a table (a set of data in a database) or importing and exporting data to and from Microsoft Access respectively, to more advanced topics like working with a query or a form and creating reports. 

As this is the first time I worked with that software, especially the lecture about what actually is a table and how to perform basic operations with it was very important to me. I learned that all data in a relational database is organized in tables where each field within a table is a discreet piece of information. Furthermore each field has a specific data type and there should at best be only one topic represented in a particular table. You can add descriptions to your table by simply click a row of interest and enter a descriptive information under the description label. Additionally you can let Microsoft Access uniquely identify a record in a table by labelling the particular record as the Primay Key. These basic operations help you to organize your data in a database very clearly and make them much more easy to modify later on. On the basis of that you can then tranfer the data, make a report or a form out of them, or just further modify them in the way you like.

In today's business environment I think Microsoft Access is a very useful tool, as databases are widely used and crucial to store important information, like customer data. Therefore I am thankful to learn about that program so that I am able to apply it in my future career. For further information about that program click here.

Week 9: Clear

Internet and the World Wide Web

In week 9 we learned about the Internet and the world wide web. One of the clear lectures dealt especially with the different uses of the web. Four different uses were outlined, namely to learn, to feel, to connect and to trade. I myself use the web mostly to connect. I use different methods to connect with friends, my university or other people. There is for instance the possibility via e-mail or the possibility to connect via instant messengers or chats, just to name a few. But moreover I also use the web to learn. Search engines play a very important role there. When trying to learn something new I almost always go to google.com and type in the word or concept I want to learn about. But of course I also use the web to "feel", to surf. When I do that I just browse through the web and entertain myself. A few years ago this was the main use of the web for me, today it is not any more. The last mentioned use, namely trade, is self-explanatory and probably the aspect I use least. Of course I already bought something over the Internet, through pages like ebay.com but I only do that once in a while.

In today's business environment, though, trade over the internet is very important. There are three different kinds of trade, B2B (Business to Business), B2C (Business to Consumers) and C2C (Consumers to Consumers) which are all increasing in scale. And also relating to the use of learning through the web it is nowadays almost impossible to survive at a university without being connected to the internet.  Online courses at university were not imagineable about 30 years ago, but they are reality right now. Therefore I think the topic internet and the world wide web is very important and essential for us.

Presentation Project

http://www.slideboom.com/presentations/227303/UNICEF-Africa?pk=a9b7-e029-ee53-895b-be35-e3ba-0b92-674a

The presentation project was split into several parts, namely creating a storyboard, setting up a copyright statement, critiquing peers, writing this blog and last but not least, creating the actual presentation. This structure of the project made the whole project very confusing and distracted from the actual core presentation. 

Nevertheless I finally uploaded a presentation about UNICEF and its work to help children in Africa. I began by showing pictures of depressed children in Africa, followed by some facts about their poor living conditions. After that I introduced UNIDEF and explained what the organization does to help those children. I finished the presentation by calling for donations to include the listeners in the help projects. Therefore I think there is a logical flow and sequence of content in my presentation. I furthermore tried to anticipate questions by explaining what UNICEF actually does and providing a link of the page where donations could be made. I think the best part of my presentation is the beginning where I grab the attention of the audience by means of pictures and music. What might be missing in my presentation is that I did not really ask questions. The whole narration is not that clear anyways because my microphone does not work as it should do. I think it is totally clear that I am trying to open the eyes of the listeners and that I am trying to encourage the audience to help UNICEF to help Africa. Therefore I also tried to make slides readable by not putting to much stuff on them and not using several different font sizes. While presenting I took the main points from the slide an explained some further details relating to the slides. But nevertheless, my narration is probably the main weakness of the presentation, on the one hand due to my malfunctioning microphone and on the other hand du to the fact that I am not a native English speaker.

All in all I got quite some new insights about powerpoint and its functions. Especially the function of including different types of media in a presentation seems to be very useful for further presentations. I also learned about some methods and tools available on the internet to share presentations online which I had never done before. This could actually be quite useful in the future as in today's business environment the web gets more and more the main medium of communication.

However what I found rather muddy was the explanation of the copyright statement we had to establish. That is also one of the problems I encountered while working on the project - and probably the main problem. The structure and content of the copyright statement was not adequately described by the instructors. Several questions posed in the discussion board regarding the content of the copyright statement were all replied by "see what you learned during week 1" which did not help me at all. Finally, 2 days before the deadline we were told that we are allowed to just reference the used multimedia and thus making use of the fair use policy. In the project instructions it had been stated that just referencing is not enough, though. Therefore it was quite confusing for me and several other students I talked to during the project.

Week 7: Clear

Don't !

In this week, we were given insights in how to set up a clear and meaningful presentation.  In today's business environment it is crucial to set up presentations to get your meanings, value propositions, or even products spread throughout the more and more globalized world. The lectures for this week were meant to lead us step by step through the next project, namely creating our own presentation. Several issues have to be considered when preparing slides. First of all, the design and layout of your slides should serve the purpose of delivering value to your audience. You shoud minimize distracting elements on your slides by focussing on the main point you want to get across to your listeners. Furthermore, for a presentation to be effective, try to include stories and multimedia (see last week's topic), and try to make your ideas memorable and sticky by including examples.

Do !

Unfortunately, although the different concepts of this weeks topic were clear, the set up of this week's learning material was partly muddy. There were several lectures we had to watch, but none of lhem asted longer than 9 minutes. This makes it very hard to remember all the different hints and insights we were given as information was spread over too many small lectures. Moreover at the beginning of the week there was one lecture incluced twice, whereas another lecture (about storyboards) was still missing, although one of the questions in the quiz was about this particular lecture. But all in all, as the concept of presentations is actually quite clear and plausible, these minor organization weaknesses should not have a negative influence on the project. That is why I still call this post "clear" instead of "muddy".

Week 6: Clear

      

Multimedia

In week 6 a new topic was introduced, namely multimedia. The lectures we had to watch were about (1) images, (2) audio and (3) video. They all began by explaining what an image, audio or video data actually is and what the key characteristics are. After that "compression" was dealt, followed by the explanation of different file formats. Finally, the lectures closed by outlining which hard- and softwares are used to fully exploit images, audios and videos.Of course each lecture had its own specific "character" but the structure was quite similar which made it convenient to follow them.

In the lecture about audios, the concept of DRM was explained further. DRM means "digital rights management" and described a way to control access to an audio file. By using DRM you can limit the access to a file to one device and you can also set an expiration date after which the file cannot be used any more. But Mr. Olsen also explained a way to circumvent these restrictions.This way is called "Analog hole" and is a quite simple way to get around access controls. If a file is restricted to one device you can just record it to a second device and so set up a completely new audio file on that device, by just losing minor quality. To find out more about the "Analog hole" just click here.

In the lecture about images, the software Google Picasa was named as an example for softwares useful to work on images. I immediately downloaded the program (here), as I lacked a proper software for working on images before. Thus, the program is really valuable for me as it is a simple tool to enhance the quality of your images. You should definitely download it if you are looking for a software for working on images and start playing around with it. This is probably the best way to find out about the different functions of the program, as it is a really simple and clear program.

Excel Project

Excel - applied

In week 5 and 6 of the course, I also had to work on an Excel Project. The story of the task dealt with a large fitness center, whose owner collected data from 500 subjects. I was provided with an Excel spreadsheet, showing age, gender and 21 heart rates measured for the subjects during a workout.

First of all, I had to make some simple enhancements to the sheet and prepare it to be printable. I calculated the maximum heart rate for each subject by adding a new column and using the formula Maximum heart rate = 220 - Age. Furthermore I calculated the target heart rate for each respondent, which is 80% of the maximum rate and then investigated if the maximum heart rate achieved during the workout was below or above this target rate. In the end of the first step I calculated the percentage increase of the different heart rates during the workout. For each of the calculations, new columns were added and absolute as well as relative cell addressing was used to make minor changes to the data more convenient.

In the second step of the project the data was analyzed using Pivot Tables. The first question to answer was, how effective the exercise regimen was, more specifically: “how many subjects reached their target heart rate during the 15 minute exercise window?” By using Excel's Pivot Table analysis tool this was quite easy to find out. I first grouped the subjects into males and females by dragging gender into the row labels, then dragged TgtAchieved into the column labels to answer the question. As I was interested in the number of people having achieved the target, I lastly changed the values from "Sum" to "Count".

In the second question, the owner was interested in the average percent increase, grouped by gender and age groups, to find out more about demographic differences. Therefore again a Pivot table was used, which can be seen below:

To create this table I used subject age for the rows (grouped by decades) and put gender in the columns. As once again I was not interested in the sum but in the average percentage increase I dragged "PctIncreaseHR" in the value area and selected "Average".

By this project I was able to apply knowledge acquired in week 5 to a "real world problem". This deepened my understanding of certain Excel functions and tools and added some valuable knowledge for working on further Excel spreadsheets. Especially the Pivot Table function turned out to be quite useful in analyzing data, which might be very beneficial for me the future.

Week 5: Clear

This week Microsoft Excel was introduced. We learned how Excel works, for what it can be useful and some of the numerous functions were illustrated. Although I have already worked with Excel during my study there were some functions explained which I have not known before. One of these was the function "right". With the help of this function you can tell Excel to copy parts of a cell to another cell. If e.g. one cell contains a first and a last name and you want work further only with the last name in another cell, you can use the function "right", indicate how many characters of the original cell you want to rewrite in the other cell, and, thus you can seperate first and last name from each other. The same also works with "left", this time only the left part of a cell is used. For indicating how many characters you want to copy, there is a further function called "find" which helps you identify the number of characters written until a certain symbol, like e.g. a comma.

I think this function is rather important, because in today's business environment it is all about digital information, which is compiled by one person and edited by another worker. Often the second person needs to focus on a different aspect of a particular document and thus needs to seperate data which may be written in one cell. Thus, with the help of these functions, you can align different data formats to let operations run smoothly.

Week 4: Clear

Among other things, this week we learned about the software lifecycle. First of all, there is a difference between patches, updates and upgrades. Until this week I have not been aware of the fact that these three have different characteristics. But this week it became clear that where a patch corrects bugs and mistakes of a software and performs only minor updates, an update goes a step further by adding new minor features to a software. An upgrade adds even major new features and functionality.

Furthermore, for using a particular software, people might need to be trained. This can happen with the help of different methods. There is e.g. the hands-on method, where people are trained in a practical way, in contrast to the in person, classroom-style. Additionally training can be delivered via the internet or community based, through forums, blogs and web pages.

Last but not least, we learned about different conversion strategies. There are mainly four of them, namely:
1) Parallel
2) Pilot
3) Phased
4) Direct (Cutover)
In the parallel method a new software is run parallel to the old, known one, which minimizes the risk of adopting the new software. By using the pilot strategy, there is firstly a small group using the new software before a whole company might addict to the new software. The phased strategy means that the new software is adopted step by step, whereas the direct/cutover strategy means that you adopt the new software all at once. In this last strategy the risk of failure is biggest, but of course, at the same time, this one is the fastest of all methods.

To further illustrate the differences between these three methods I included some pictures below.

Week 3: Clear

Another lecture dealt with the topic of system software vs. application software. Whereas system software is the collection of programs that are needed for a smooth functioning of a computer and its devices, application softwares are designed to accomplish a specific task. Consider e.g. you want to set up a word file with Microsoft Word. As you only want to perform a specific task (setting up a file) Microsoft Word can be considered as an application software. In contrast to that, Windows XP is a collection of different programs which act as a basis for certain application softwares and can thus be seen as a system software.

I the business environment a bunch of application softwares are used to perform particular tasks. Depending on your business you use different softwares to perform different tasks. These application software are all based on a system software, which in turn is based on specific hardware. If you want to find out more about application and system software you should check out wikipedia, which describes the respective features and characteristics very clearly.

Week 2: Clear

For week two we were required to watch several lectures, one of which dealt with the topic of ergonomics. As my sister studied ergonomics and I almost never keep the "correct" position when using a computer, I was very interested in the video shown at this lecture.The video gave a clear understanding of what ergonomics is about and why it is important for the business environment.

Ergonomics is about the design of jobs and equipment to fit workers. Further that means that your workplace should be designed so that well-being of the workers and productivity are optmized. Therefore you need to keep a certain position (see above or in the video) while using a computer, and keep often used things close. This is especially important for the business environment because nowadays there is hardly any business without computers and thus without workers using a computer.

If you want to find out more about this topic, there are several websites explaining the rationale of it in more detail then possible here (eg. wikipedia). All in all, ergonomics gets more and more important and one should at least have heard about it, when starting to work in the business environment.

Week 1: Muddy

Before starting the quiz of week 1, I watched the video "A fair(y) Use Tale" on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJn_jC4FNDo . For me as an exchange student from Germany, this video was really hard to understand. Instead of clear, short and descriptive sentences about copyright, several animated characters speak one word of a particular sentence, which makes the explanations very difficult to understand. This was really muddy and annoying.

Therefore I suggest, to learn about copyright and its implications it would be more helpful to have a look at either http://www.copyright.gov/ or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright. Of course these websites are not trying to be as "funny" as the video, but instead they are much more informative and clearer to understand. It may be that local students did not have any problems to get the content of the video, but as said above, for me as a non-native English speaker this was quite difficult.

Finally I would like to shortly explain what copyright is about. The term copyright describes a set of rights, exclusively granted to the creator of different kinds of work, e.g. music, films, songs, etc. . These rights include the right to copy, distribute and adapt the created work. Of course there is a lot more to learn about "copyright", its implications and the several details of the law. Therefore I suggest interested readers to have a look at the proposed websites to get informed without having to deal with muddy explanations.