Information System and Their Application PDF

**Chapter One** **Information System and Their Application** **At the end of this unit, students will be able to:** - Explain ethical and legal issues in information systems - Explain environmental, health, and social issues in information system - Recognize the basics of intellectual...

**Chapter One** **Information System and Their Application** **At the end of this unit, students will be able to:** - Explain ethical and legal issues in information systems - Explain environmental, health, and social issues in information system - Recognize the basics of intellectual property rights - Describe digital identity management - Appreciate the role of digital technologies in citizenship Before we are going to define the ethical, legal, environmental, health issues of information system try to define the following terms - Define DIKW? - Define information system? - What are the applications of information system? - Information system components? 1. **Ethical and Legal Issues in Information System** - **Ethics** is all about the principles of making right or wrong decisions. - What is morally **good** and **bad** and morally **right** and **wrong** - The ethical and legal issues in information system include **privacy**, **security**, and **information gathering** and **digital ownership** related concerns. The following are some ethical and legal issues confronting the current digital world - **Privacy:** In today's digitized environment, information privacy relates to personal data stored on the computer system, has become a prime concern for everybody. Private information should be accessed using personal passwords. However, personal accounts such as email, social media, and private bank accounts, can be accessed by unauthorized sources which create both ethical and legal concerns. - **Digital Ownership:** It is ability to access and/or use and protect data, information, and knowledge about ourselves or things we own. The expansion of digital mediums has allowed information to flow more freely than before which makes content easily copied and pasted online. This makes digital ownership hard to control in the digital world. It is unethical to use somebody else's digital works without getting permission from the owner first since it ignores the right of the creator. Creators has right to allow or deny the information, credits the source and protect the consumer from false information. User's resources use should consider such concerns to promote proper use and dissemination of information, and to protect themselves from legal consequences that arises from violating intellectual property ownership rights. - **Information Gathering:** Many information system applications collect users' data and credentials as part of their operations. Such information gathering trends can lead to many ethical and legal issues depending on the purpose and level of information gathering approaches. The measure has opened a debate about what and why information can be gathered. This issue raises a question of consent which protect individuals against attempts to steal information. - **Information Security and Liability:** Growing amounts of personal and financial information are being transferred and stored online as organizations and businesses depend more and more on electronic data and computer networks to carry out their daily operations. If and when a breach in information security happens, this might expose organizations and businesses to potential security liability. Such attempts might lead to identity theft, which happens when the personal details of innocent people to be harvested by a third party so that they can be used for malicious purposes. The increasing use of online tools and platforms such as blogs and instant messaging is another source of potential liability. Accepted procedures and rules are needed to provide conditions to increase the reliability of information systems. Users also need to report any security breach incidents that happened on their systems and tools to the concerned department/unit or expert in their organizations or the concerned government body promptly. For example in Ethiopia, government and private organizations should report any cyber security breaches or attacks to the designated government unit that is responsible for protecting our country's information and information infrastructure from harm. 2. **Social Issues in Information System** - The expansion of accessible information system technologies has led to several significant changes in how society functions. With personal computers and the Internet offering unrestricted access to all of the knowledge ever created and discovered by humans, the majority of these changes have improvements to society. - Those social advantages including access to technology which fills the digital divide gaps within the global citizens, use of advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality in public which changes how peoples act and react , and widespread use of digital platforms , social medias and computer games for business and entertainment activities. - However, other less uplifting social problems have been directly caused by technical advancements of the technologies. Hence, it is crucial to examine and assess the impacts they have to take actions to better understand and mitigate their negative impacts while maximizing the benefits. The following are some negative social issues to consider while using technological services and Internet-based applications. **Socializations Gaps** Socializing within a family unit has always been important, as it strengthens the bonds among family members or friends and ensures cohesion within the group. However, with more and more households owning several computers and numerous portable devices granting access to information and entertainment, some argue that this is leading to a lack of family socialization and natural interactions in the present moment. It is also become common to see friends who are out in a cafe and still staring at a touchscreen rather than talking to one another. Increase your digital well-being by allowing technology to improve your life and not become a distraction from your life and others. **Cyber Bullying-** It is a practice of sending, posting, or disseminating unfavorable, hurtful, or malicious content about someone else online. It can also involve disclosing sensitive or private information about another individual in a way that causes embarrassment or humiliation. Cyberbullying can happen online through social media, forums, or gaming where users can interact with, or exchange content with others. It can also happen through text and other messaging applications. Example - The availability of the internet and computer access can cause problems in terms of online gender-based violence's, harassments and sexual abuse which is one of serious issues to address to protect our community to live a healthy life style. **Social Media and Gaming Addiction** - According to addiction center definition social media and gaming addiction is a behavioral addiction that is characterized as being overly concerned about social media and computer games, driven by an uncontrollable urge to log on to or use social media, and devoting so much time and effort to social media that it impairs other important life areas. This day's social media and video gaming are common ways in which people spend their leisure time. Researches on social networking addiction and Internet gaming disorders finds that intensive online activity can negatively impact young people's mental health. Students need to be curious and mindful about their use of social media and video games to live a safe and healthy life. Such practices have direct links and impacts on their family relationships, learning performance, future life goals, and mental health. **Plagiarism** -- Computers and information systems are known for their educational benefits, which are praised, but having access to all knowledge has drawbacks of its own. According to university of oxford, Plagiarism is presenting work or ideas from another source as your own, with or without consent of the original author, by incorporating it into your work without full acknowledgement. The act of plagiarism has grown to be a significant issue because students can easily copy and paste entire passages of material from Internet resources without giving credit to the author. This has particularly become a challenge for educational institutions, now applying different tools and systems to check the originality of students' work at all levels. Plagiarism in the workplace and in academia can destroy an author's credibility and have significant consequences, such as dismissal from school or job loss. Students need to produce original works, use books and Internet resources as references and sources of insight, and give appropriate credit to authors when they refer to their works in any way. **Cybercrime -** Computers have contributed positively to the development of both individual actions and large-scale global movements. The other side of the coin is organized cybercrime which is use of a computer as an instrument to further illegal ends, such as committing fraud, stealing identities, or violating privacy and intellectual property rights as stated in Britannica dictionary. Cybercrime, especially through the Internet, has grown in importance as the computer has become central to education, commerce, entertainment, and government. According to Official reports from Ethiopian Information Network Security Agency (INSA) officials Ethiopia is also experiencing different cyber-attacks which shows increasing trend from time to time that needs a serious attention and a collaborative effort from all citizens and professionals. This clearly shows that students need to prepare themselves for the 21st-century patriotism mission to protect personal, organizational and national digital resources by being mindful system users to protect against crime and terrorism attempts to ensure the country's digital sovereignty. **Job Opportunities and Challenges** - The current trends in automation and emerging technologies like artificial intelligent machines, help to automate routine tasks which lead to improved quality of service. On the other hand, such expansion of automated systems leads to loss of jobs because some types of jobs like cashiers, data entry clerks, and factory workers can be managed by automated systems. Automation often creates as many jobs as it destroys over time. The type of skills that people need to acquire is constantly changing and people with low educational backgrounds are most at risk since the future job market needs more skilled professionals. We must be mindful of our actions and be responsible for every step that we take to get benefits out of those advancements. We must also be concerned about Internet usage and associated access practices to mitigate social and psychological challenges 3. **Environmental issues caused by Information Systems** Technologies consume lots of resources and power which creates additional impacts on our environmental ecosystem. Sometimes people can get so excited about using a new technology, they overlook the negative impact on the environment. Using technologies smartly and responsibly is essential in order not to create problems while utilizing the advantages. Because electronic devices contain hazardous materials that are unsafe for the environment. Most electronic devices contain non-biodegradable materials, heavy metals, and toxic materials like cadmium, lead, and mercury which can leak into the ground, where they can contaminate the water we drink, the plants we eat, and the animals that live around the area. This clearly shows that is our responsibility to protect the environment while we use and dispose of any information system components. 4. **Health Issues caused by information systems** The widespread use of information systems and access to mobile device in healthcare can make it easier to offer care, improve care delivery, empower patients through personalized messaging, and collect real-time data to optimize resources and decision-making. However, we must also pay attention to health related challenges that caused by unmanaged use of information system services and products on users. Some of the challenges include, sleeping disorders and lack of productivity, loss of attention and stress. At the same time, the current widely used mobile devices to access health information systems and other online services also creating computer related health problems that needs a serious attention by all users. Examples of such problems incudes but not limited to musculoskeletal problems on our body such as our back, neck, chest, arms, shoulders and feet, Vision Problems and eye strains, Headaches, Obesity due to long hour of sitting etc.. This implies users should be aware of the proper ways when using information systems and associated access devices to get the expected health information system benefits by minimizing the harm. 1. **Intellectual Property** Intellectual property rights refers to a range of intangible rights of ownership of an asset such as a software program or designed information system. Intellectual property rights provides different methods for protecting these rights of ownership based on their type. As stated by Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office Establishment Proclamation, Proclamation No. 320/2003 "Intellectual property" means a legal right over a creative work of the human intellect and includes patent, trademark, registration certificate and copyright". There are essentially four types of intellectual property rights that are relevant to the software and information system industry. These are:-trade secrets, patents, copyrights, and trademarks. We used World intellectual property organization (WIPO) definitions: **Trade secrets:** "*Trade secrets are Intellectual Property rights on confidential information which may be sold or licensed. The unauthorized acquisition, use or disclosure of such secret information in a manner contrary to honest commercial practices by others is regarded as an unfair practice and a violation of the trade secret protection*". Examples of trade secrets include customer lists, source code, recipes for certain food items and beverages including Pepsi, CocaCola, and Sprite), software processes, and more. **Patent:** "*A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention. Generally speaking, a patent provides the patent owner with the right to decide how - or whether - the invention can be used by others. In exchange for this right, the patent owner makes technical information about the invention publicly available in the published patent document'*'. When a property owner holds a patent, others are prevented, under law, from offering for sale and making or using the product. Examples of patented products include software programs like Airbnb, Amazon, One-click, the page rank algorithm of Google, and other inventions including the light bulb, telephones, Bluetooth, and more. Not all software products can have a patent. The software has to meet certain standards to get a patent. These standards come from the responsible authority in each country. In our country, the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office is the legal entity to manage Intellectual property related applications. There are defined set of application procedures to follow in order to apply for patent. The application can be processed online through the application portal. **Copyrights:** Copyrights and patents are not the same although people are often confused. A copyright is a type of intellectual property protection that protects original works of authorship, which might include literary works, music, art, and more. Nowadays, copyrights also protect computer software and architecture. Copyright protections are automatic; once you create something, it is yours. However, if your rights under copyright protections are infringed, and you wish to file a lawsuit, then registration of your copyright will be necessary. Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) can also be registered for copyright. **Trademarks:** *"A trademark is a sign capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one enterprise from those of other enterprises"*. **Example**- 'Meta','RIDE' and 'Microsoft' symbol--which nearly all could easily recognize and identify--are types of trademarks. There are also many companies in our country with registered trademarks. Examples are Ride, Meta, and Microsoft. While patents and copyrights can expire, trademark rights come from the use of the trademark, which can be held indefinitely. Like copyright, registration of a trademark is not required, but registering can offer additional advantages. 2. **Digital Identity** "A digital identity is a collection of information about a person that exists online". This data can be used to create a digital image of a person when it is collected. Such information can be used by businesses to identify their clients. A digital identity is all of information about an individual, organization, or electronic device that exists online. Every individual should have the right to a trusted and secured digital identity to access fundamental services, like financial services, mobile connectivity, health, education, and other services. For almost every organization, digital identity management presents both significant opportunities and associated risks. Management of a digital identity involves limiting the data that a person gives out, avoiding excessive use of storage, checking what data is stored about each individual, making corrections to incorrect personal data, avoiding redundant data, etc. Digital identification can be verified in a variety of ways, including through database checks, document and identity verification, biometric verification, and identity verification. A user can access internet services including banking, health, and travel after proving their identity. There is an ongoing effort at a national level to enhance citizens' digital identity management practices. The National ID project started as part of the Digital Ethiopia 2025 strategy in Ethiopia. It is a robust and reliable digital identification process for all Ethiopians and legal residents within the country. 3. Collaboration through digital technology Digital collaboration means working with other individuals or teams and getting things done using digital devices and technology. It can include different tools, apps, software, procedures and processes. Digital collaboration uses technology to improve workplace collaboration, communication, document management, content management, and information flow across the organization which in turn leads to improved employee productivity and efficiency. Digital collaboration has become important and is relevant to most organizations, groups, communities, schools and creative groups and in the current digital world. To this end, Internet and Internet-based applications is an important part of digital collaboration as they helps employees collaborate in real-time, even beyond time zones and geographical boundaries. 5. **Components of Digital Collaboration** **People:** People are at the heart of collaboration. Developing workflows and established practices ensure they can stay in touch, especially when working remotely due to work schedule preferences or pandemic restrictions like COVID 19. Proper arrangement and communications is required while working on similar projects and assignments to remove unnecessary work or duplication of efforts in collaborative working environments. **Collaborative tools:** There are many tools and systems available that foster collaboration, but not every solution will be a good fit due to its features, prices, usage polices and ease of use. The choice of technology, along with how well employees use it will determine effectiveness of the collaboration. Digital Collaboration tools includes many types including the following with their examples: - **Communication tools**: Communication tools include options for integrated messaging, co-working services, Privacy and access settings, Conference calling, Video chats with screen sharing etc. Examples- Microsoft Teams, Skype, Google Meet, Zoom, Cisco Webex, Slack, Microsoft Yammer, and more - **Documentation and file sharing tools**: This tools includes features like Support for different file types, Comments, and notes attached to files, track changes and versioning, editing permissions and access control, folder sharing , and more. Examples- Google Drive, Google Docs, Dropbox, MS SharePoint, Media Fire, and more. - **Project Management tools:** It has underlying project and task management capabilities at their core. Examples- Trello, Asena, ClickUp, and more. - **Data Visualization tools:** These tools should support a range of visual styles, be easy and quick to use, and be able to handle a significant amount of data. Examples- Google Charts, Tableau, Power BI, Grafana, Chartist, FusionCharts, Datawrapper, Infogram and more. - **Notetaking tools:** These tools help to quickly capture and organize your notes, ideas, web page content and more. Examples- Evernote, Microsoft OneNote and Google Keep and more. **Device:** Devices are also key players. Devices such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops are often an afterthought, but they are important components of digital collaboration. They are the physical media we use to connect. 4. Engaging in citizenship through digital technology Digital citizenship refers to the responsible use of technology by anyone who uses computers, the Internet, and digital devices to engage with society on any level. It require the ability to engage positively, critically, and competently in the digital environment to practice forms of social participation that are respectful of human rights and dignity through responsible use of technology. The do's include: - Using technology to make their community better. - Engaging respectfully online with people who have different beliefs. - Using technology to make their voice heard by public leaders and the global community. - Determining the validity of online sources of information. Digital citizenship goes beyond conversations about personal responsibility. It is about being active citizens who see possibilities instead of problems, and opportunities instead of risks as they curate a positive and effective digital footprint. **Chapter \|Two** **Emerging Technology** Learning Outcomes At the end of this unit, students will be able to: - Describe the meaning and use of Bigdata - Explain cloud computing and fog computing - Apply cloud computing services - Explain the Internet of Things (IoT) and its applications *Emerging Technology* is a term that is commonly used to describe a **new** technology, but it can also refer to the evolution of **existing** technology. It is widely used to describe technologies that are in **development** or will be available within the next five to ten years. It is usually reserved for technologies that are creating or are expected to create **significant** **social** or **economic** effects. **2.1. Introduction to Bigdata** Bigdata refers to a collection of data sources that are so massive and complex that they become challenging to process using typical data processing software or readily available database management tools. In Bigdata collection, the range of organizational sources generating data needs to be identified. These sources include business firms producing transactional data such as point-of-sale software, endpoint devices within IoT ecosystems and marketing firms, Social media posts from existing and prospective customers, multiple additional sources like smartphone locational data, surveys that directly ask customers for information are also some of the sources of Bigdata. Identifying useful data sources is the start of the Bigdata collection process. From there, an organization must build a pipeline that moves data from generation to enterprise locations where the data will be stored for organizational use. Example -- Global companies like Google use Bigdata to understand what users want from it based on several parameters such as search history, locations, trends, and many more. **2.1.1 Characteristics of Bigdata** **Bigdata** is characterized by 5V, namely Volume, Variety, Velocity, Veracity, and Value as stated by tectarget.com. It should also be noted that characteristics of Bigdata are subjected to additional features as scientific research and trend continues in Bigdata analytics. The most common characteristics of Bigdata are discussed by considering. - **Variety:** Variety of Bigdata refers to the nature of data i.e whether it is structured, unstructured, and semi-structured data. In the past, data could only be collected from spreadsheets and database. Today, data comes in an array of forms such as emails, PDFs, photos, videos, audio, social media posts, and others. Variety is one of the important characteristics of Bigdata (See Figure 2.4). - **Velocity:** Velocity refers to the speed at which data is being created in real-time. - **Volume:** Volume indicates huge 'volumes' of data that are being generated daily from various sources, like social media platforms, business processes, machines, networks, human interactions, and others. - **Value:** Value is the other major issue that we need to concentrate on. Itis not just the amount of data that we store or process. It is the amount of valuable, reliable, and trustworthy data that needs to be stored, processed, and analyzed to find insights. - **Veracity:** Veracity means the degree of reliability that the data has to offer. Bigdata focuses to find an alternatives way to filter the huge unstructured data to use in business developments. **2.1.2 Benefits of Bigdata** Bigdata has many advantages. Some of them are discussed as follow. - **Customer acquisition and retention**: Consumer data can help the marketing efforts of companies, which can act on trends to increase customer satisfaction. For example, personalization engines for Amazon, Netflix, and Spotify can provide improved customer experiences and create customer loyalty. - **Targeted advertisements (Ads):** Personalization data from sources such as past purchases, interaction patterns, and product page viewing histories can help generate compelling targeted advertising campaigns for users both on the individual level and on a larger scale. - **Product development**: it allows you to update existing products/services while innovating new ones. - **Price optimization:** This minimizes the manual work and reduces the possibility of any man-made errors. - **Risk management**: Bigdata analytics can identify new risks from data patterns for effective risk management strategies. - **Improved decision-making:** Insights of business users that are extracted from relevant data can help organizations make quicker and better decisions. **2.1.3 Application of Bigdata** Below are some examples of sectors in which Bigdata can contribute by generating value: - **Healthcare -** In the healthcare industry, Bigdata has already begun to make a significant impact. Healthcare analysts use Bigdata to inform health prevention, intervention, and management using a variety of data analytic technologies and approaches. These efforts can improve the patient experience, care efficiency, and quality, and reduce healthcare costs (See Figure 2.5). Patient medical and hospital records, medical exam findings, and information acquired by healthcare testing machines are all examples of Bigdata sources in health care. Apart from that, Bigdata and AI powered fitness devices, telemedicine, and remote monitoring are all helping to improve lives. - **Education -** Bigdata can also be utilized to improve education by providing students with a balanced learning plan. Educators can tailor programs for learners based on their grades and attention spans. Students may also be offered blended learning, which combines offline and online learning possibilities. Bigdata is being used by educational institutions to evaluate applications and determine who will be a good fit for the institution and who will not. This has assisted institutions all around the world in shortening the selection process which creates different learning possibilities. Bigdata can improve student experience, academic programming, more effective evidence-based decision-making, and a strategic reaction to shifting global trends. - **Banking** - Bigdata solutions can detect fraudulent behaviors in real-time, such as credit/debit card usage, inspection track archiving, and more. Bigdata analysis also helps banks in their institution's work by phone or on the website, and they share their thoughts on social media. - **Agriculture** - Smart farming and precision agriculture practices help farmers to save costs and open new business opportunities. Granular information on rainfall patterns, water cycles, fertilizer needs, and other topics is made available to farmers through big data. They can use this information to make wise choices about when to harvest and what crops to grow for maximum profit. Making the proper choices ultimately increases agricultural outputs. - **Manufacturing** - In the manufacturing sector, Bigdata helps create a transparent infrastructure, predicting uncertainties and incompetence that can affect the business adversely. - **Retail** - Bigdata has changed the way traditional retail industry. Works. Over the years, retailers have collected a vast amount of data from local demographic surveys, Point of Sale (PoS), scanners, customer cards, and store inventory. Now they have started to use this data to create personalized customer experiences, boost sales, increase revenue, and deliver improved customer service. - **Transportation** - The transportation business can also benefit greatly from Bigdata analytics. Both companies and government-run transportation corporations employ Bigdata technologies to optimize route planning, control traffic, manage road congestion, and improve services in countries all over the world. We also use Bigdata in other industries, such as media and entertainment, energy and utilities, government-related activities, and others. **2.1.4 Challenges of Bigdata** - **Managing Bigdata Growth**- One of the main issues with Bigdata is how to properly store these large amounts of data. Data centers and databases used by businesses are constantly storing more data. Bigdata sets grow quickly over time, making management of them more difficult - **Lack of data professionals**- Companies demand skilled data specialists to manage Bigdata solutions. These experts consist of data scientists, data analysts, and data engineers who are skilled at using the tools to manage huge data sets. Students who are passionate about data science disciplines can think of studying and practicing concepts related to data science and Bigdata analytics as part of their career plan. - **Securing Data** - One of the major difficulties of Bigdata is keeping these enormous sets of data secure. Companies frequently put data security to later phases because they are so busy in understanding, storing, and analyzing their data sets. Attentions is required to protect data repositories unless it serve as a haven for intruders. - **Integrating data from a variety of sources**- Data is obtained from different sources in a business and operations. This includes social media pages, companywide software products, customer log files, financial transaction data, email communications, presentations, and reports by employees. It require to determine which data is most relevant and focus on that to save organization time and money. **2.2. Cloud Computing** **2.2.1 Introduction to Cloud Computing** *Cloud computing* is defined as storing and accessing data and computing services over the Internet. It does not store any data on your personal computer. Computing services like servers, data storage, networking, databases, etc. are all available on-demand. The main advantage of cloud computing is it gives access to many users from single data center which allows users to store and access their data over the internet without any limitations. We have all experienced cloud computing at some point. The goal of cloud computing is to provide easy and flexible access to computing resources and IT services, various which hardware and software components are required for the proper use of a cloud computing model. Peoples are using different types of cloud-based services for their email communications, document management, entertainment and ecommerce services. Examples of cloud-based services includes but not limited to: Gmail, Google Maps, Amazon, Netflix, PayPal, Spotify, Adobe Creative Cloud, Kindle, etc. **2.2.2 Benefits of Cloud Computing** **Accessibility and mobility**- Users may access their tools from anywhere, at any time, and from any type of devices as long as they are connected to the Internet, which is one of the most significant benefits of the Cloud. The ease of access to data in the cloud enables users to rapidly store and retrieve resources from distant servers, work from any location with an internet connection, and communicate with peers without being physically present in the same space. Users do not lose any data if their services fail because the Cloud service provider backs up their data. This greatly helps the implementation of inclusive education which is schools for everybody through support learning and respond to individual needs. Cloud based services support to include inclusive technologies like voice recognition, mind mapping, word prediction, and text to speech for editing etc. to accommodate special needs learners. **Flexibility-** Services become entirely adaptable and can be changed at any time to meet users' needs and commercial requirements. User can restrict or enhance the available resources while paying only for what is used. Another benefit is that resources can be shared, allowing users to collaborate in real-time on the same content in all domain and work environments. **Updating and scalability** -- The service provider, as well as taking care of maintenance, takes care of all service updates, which allow users to focus more effectively on our work and responsibilities while increasing our efficiency. **Optimized security**- When compared to traditional and internal infrastructures, Cloud Computing provides enhanced security. Companies are finding it increasingly difficult to effectively secure their own IT systems due to a lack of time, expertise, and budget. **Controlled costs**- The other advantage is that Cloud Computing allows for greater control of costs IT infrastructure. We can adjust the resources allocated to its infrastructure depending on its needs by increasing or decreasing the resources available. By subscribing to Cloud Computing services, users or companies pay only for what they used (Pay as you go model). This helps users to no longer deal with costs relating to maintenance and renew computer equipment (servers, computers, etc.) Companies and users can reduce their IT investments and optimize their operational and business costs **Example**- Let's think that you plan to publish your designed website activity. Now you want to host your website and make it public. Thus, here you have two possible options **Option 1**- Buying physical server and hosting it in your data room by getting a public Internet Protocol (IP) address from your service provider**.** **Option 2**. In Cloud-based services like website hosting, you do not need to buy new server hardware of your own rather you can borrow it for any time as long as you get at less price, which can save both money and time. Secondly, you do not have to manage operating systems and web services on your own, rather a cloud service provider manages them. You get a button to upload your website content, and once data is uploaded, your website content is available to the public. This process costs you much less money and gets ready in a few minutes. **2.2.3 Limitations of Cloud Computing** Below are some of the limitations of cloud computing: - **Server downtime** -- No cloud provider can guarantee that you will not have service interruptions, which will prevent you from accessing your data or files. Because cloud computing is dependent on an Internet connection, if it goes down, so will your cloud services. - **Security and privacy issues** -- When it comes to handling sensitive data, companies are always concerned about how safe and private it is. There is still a risk of intruders, even though a cloud provider would have security processes in place to ensure that your data is maintained and protected properly. Intruders are constantly attempting to find new ways to break into cloud providers' systems in today's digital world. Therefore, cloud computing services are not completely safe. - **Data ownership and transparency** -- Companies may think that there is a lack of transparency concerning data ownership. Does data that is uploaded to a cloud computing system become the cloud provider's property? Another concern is lack of data openness. Companies may be concerned about how their data is managed and whether it is being compromised or not. - **Inflexibility** -- Some cloud computing providers may take a corporation off guard by requiring the usage of their applications and formats. For example, they can limit that a corporation can only upload data developed in a specific application program. Because the cloud provider has complete control over your cloud service infrastructure, they have ultimate authority over how your data is handled. - **Lack of support** -- Cloud-based services, in comparison to other hosting services and providers, provide minimal to no customer assistance. Customers who are unable to contact cloud providers by phone or email frequently turn to Internet forums for answers to their questions. - **Cost** -- Another disadvantage of this service is the unknown fees. Although cloud hosting eliminates the need for on-site infrastructure, it is often necessary to ensure that you are paying for all of the features that your organization needs to get the most out of the service. A cloud computing service can become costly in this regard. **2.2.4 Types of Cloud Computing** There are mainly four types of cloud computing available currently, namely: 1\. Public cloud 2\. Private cloud 3\. Hybrid cloud 4\. Community cloud **Public cloud**-- It is a standard cloud computing model where a service provider's resources are shared across different clients. For example, if you rent 10GB of public cloud storage, you will get the requested capacity of a disk from a bigger chunk of a single storage device that is logically divided into small parts and distributed to multiple users isolated to make it private across different clients. **Private cloud** -- As the name indicates, the private cloud has all resources dedicated to your application. It can be either from a cloud service provider or your company's data center. It gives complete control over data security and privacy. The private cloud provides an additional layer of protection to process sensitive and confidential information. **Hybrid cloud** -- It is the combination of public cloud and private cloud. You can host your public service in the public cloud, and confidential and data-related services in the private cloud. It offers a very flexible and comprehensive benefit of both models. **Community cloud --** It is a collaborative, multi-tenant platform used by several distinct organizations to share the same applications. The users are typically operating within the same industry or field and share common concerns in terms of security, compliance, and performance. In essence, a community cloud is a private cloud that functions much like a public cloud. The platform itself is managed privately, either in a data center or on-premises. Governmental institutions, healthcare facilities, financial services companies, and other professional communities frequently use this solutions. **2.2.5 Cloud Computing Services** There are several cloud computing services. The three major cloud computing services are: - Software as a Service (SaaS) - Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) **Software as a Service (SaaS) -** SaaS is a software distribution model in which applications are hosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over a network or the Internet. SaaS is becoming an increasingly prevalent delivery model as underlying technologies supports of web services. Through the Internet, this service is available to users anywhere in the world. Traditionally, software applications needed to be purchased upfront and then installed onto your computer. SaaS users on the other hand, subscribe to it, usually on a monthly or yearly basis using the Internet. SaaS is compatible with all Internet-enabled devices. Many important tasks like accounting, sales, invoicing, and planning can be performed using SaaS. **Examples of SaaS -** ar**e** Google Workspace, Dropbox, Microsoft Office 365, Slack, Cisco WebEx, Concur, GoToMeeting, and many more. **Platform as a Service (PaaS) -** provides a platform and environment to allow developers to build applications and services. This service is hosted in the cloud and accessed by the users via the Internet. To understand this, let us compare it with painting a picture, where you are provided with paint colors, different painting brushes, and paper by your school teacher, and you just have to draw a beautiful picture using those tools. Similarly, PaaS provides a platform to support application development. It includes software support and management services, storage, networking, deploying, testing, collaborating, hosting, and maintaining applications. **Examples of PaaS** -- are Windows Azure, Heroku, Force.com, Google App Engine, Apache Stratos, OpenShift, and many more. **Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) -** IaaS is one of the fundamental service models of cloud computing, alongside PaaS. It provides access to computing resources in a virtualized environment- "the cloud"- on the Internet (See Figure 2.26). IaaS is a complete package for computing. For small-scale businesses that are looking for cutting costs on IT infrastructure, IaaS is one of the solutions. **Examples of IaaS are -** Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cisco Metapod, Microsoft Azure, Google Compute Engine (GCE), and many more. **2.3. Fog Computing** ***Fog computing*** is an extension of the cloud. Cloud Computing relies heavily on the bandwidth made available, which depends on the capacity of the network service provider. With billions of users processing, sending, and receiving data in and out of the cloud, the system becomes increasingly congested. Fog computing uses the concept of 'fog nodes' which are located closer to the data source and have a higher processing and storage capability. Fog provides the missing link for what data needs to be pushed to the cloud, and that can be analyzed locally, at the edge. This makes fog nodes to process data quicker than sending the request to the cloud for centralized processing. What distinguishes fog computing from cloud computing is its closer proximity to small end-users, its wider consumer reach, and better mobility. Rather than requiring devices to go through the network backbone infrastructure, fog computing permits devices to connect directly with their destination with ease and allows them to handle their connections and tasks in any way they see fit. As a result, fog computing improves the quality of service, reduces latency, and enhance user experience. Fog computing smoothly supports the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) physical things (vehicles, home appliances, and even clothes) that are embedded with sensors to enable them to send/receive data. This advantage makes it easier to run a real-time, Big-Data operation with the ability to support billions of nodes in highly dynamic and diverse environments. For example -- we can apply fog computing in video surveillance, where continuous streams of videos are large and cumbersome to transfer across networks. **2.4. Internet of Things** ***Internet of Things (IoT)** is a network of physical objects or people referred to as "things" that are equipped with software, electronics, networks, and sensors to collect and exchange data*. The term has recently been added to the Oxford dictionary and is defined as: *"The interconnection via the Internet of computing devices embedded in everyday objects, enabling them to send and receive data".* IoT aims at extending Internet connectivity beyond computers and smartphones to other devices people use at home, or for business. The technology allows devices to be controlled across a network infrastructure remotely. As a result, it cuts down human effort and paves the way for accessing connected devices easily. With remote control, the devices can be used without involving human interaction. IoT makes things virtually smart through Artificial Intelligence algorithms, data collection, and networks to enhance our lives. IoT aims to provide Internet access to relatively simple equipment like a toaster from commonplace ones like PCs, mobile phones, and tablets. With the power of data collecting, AI algorithms, and networks, IoT transforms almost everything into a "smart" system. The thing in IoT can also be a person with a diabetes monitor implant, an animal with tracking devices, etc. Some examples of IoT are animal tracking devices, diabetes monitors, AC sensors to adjust the temperature based on the outside temperature, and smart wearables. When something connects with the Internet, it has both the capabilities of sending and/or receiving information and making it smart. IoT is creating lots of opportunities by linking computer systems with the real, and physical world. **For example:** Just a few years ago, when you wanted to listen to your favorite songs on your mobile phone, you had to download each song. Nowadays, you can listen to any music you want without downloading it. All you need to do is access it where it is stored on the Internet. **2.4.1 Major advantages of IoT** **Efficiency-** We can gather trustworthy and secure real-time data thanks to IoT, and we can then translate it into really useful information for enterprises. This helps to reduce the consumption of resources to improve our efficiency and productivity. For example, if you want to find the answer to a question, instead of browsing on your phone or turning your computer on, you can just ask a voice assistant such as Siri, Alexa, Google Home, Cortana, and more. **Technical optimization**- You no longer have to operate multiple devices for each task manually if you use an IoT system because it allows you to control everything using a single device like your smartphone. You can easily control Television (TV) volumes, thermostats, and dim your lights, etc. **Convenience-** IoT can provide quick and quality solution by improving customer experience. **Improved customer experience-** As you can offer your targeted customers what they need, you can understand their pain points, and provide quick and quality solutions. This improves the customer experience. **Conservation**- IoT helps to conserve the environment by monitoring traffic, water/ electricity usage, air quality, etc..Smart cities are developing and it also assists city planners and residents in finding solutions to problems. **Personalization-** As IoT devices can collect your data, they can learn your preferences, likes, and dislikes quickly. As a result, they trigger more personalized services based on your choices. **Some Limitations of IoT** **Security and privacy -** IoT devices are evolving and becoming more widely used, making it difficult to keep the data they collect and transmit secure. IoT devices are being used in more sensitive industries, like healthcare and banking, which raises concerns about data protection. Global information privacy regulations are also becoming effective, so protecting data is not only beneficial from a commercial standpoint but is also required by law. **Connectivity and power dependence** - For many devices to operate successfully, the internet and constant power are required. When either goes down, everything connected to it and the device also do. **Complexity and Integration -** IoT is an advanced technology whose design is quite complicated. Plus, maintenance and deployment are also not easy for some IoT solutions. IoT protocols and standards are still subject to discussion, therefore devices made by various manufacturers may not be compatible with current hardware. It may be challenging to integrate effectively because each one may need various hardware connections and setups. **Higher Cost -** IoT device deployment frequently requires a significant time and financial investment. There are numerous devices that need to be purchased, setup, and installed by professionals. This causes a subsequent exponential increase in cost. **2.4.2 How Does IoT Work?** A complete IoT system integrates four component. **1. Sensors/devices-** First, sensors or devices collect data from their environment. Multiple sensors can be bundled together or sensors can be part of a device that does more than just sense things. For example, smart mobile phone is a device that may have multiple sensors (camera, accelerometer, etc.), but your phone is not just a sensor. There are plenty of sensor types which can be used based on the purpose. Examples includes temperature sensors, proximity sensors, humidity sensors, smoke sensors, water quality sensors, infrared sensors, motion sensors etc. **2. Connectivity-** The collected data is sent to the cloud through a variety of methods including cellular, satellite, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or connecting directly to the Internet via Ethernet. Choosing which connectivity option associated to the specific IoT application required. **3. Data Processing-** The software processes the data after it is transferred to the cloud. This could be very simple, like making sure the temperature reading is within permissible limits, or highly complicated, like utilizing computer vision to detect things in the video (like intruders in your house). But what happens if the temperature gets too high or if someone breaks into your home? The users might steps in at this point as required. **4. User Interface-** Next, the information is made available to the end-user through an alert to the user (email, text, notification, etc.). Depending on the IoT application, the user may also perform an action and affect the system. For example, the user might remotely adjust the temperature in the cloud storage via an app on their phone, or system could take actions automatically based on predefined rules. Example - Instead of calling or texting the user to alert of an intruder, the IoT system could be configured to automatically notify relevant authorities or agencies including security and legal offices. For example, the user might remotely adjust the temperature in the cloud storage via an app on their phone, and some actions are performed automatically. Rather than waiting for you to adjust the temperature, the system could do it automatically via predefined rules. It instead of calling you to alert you of an intruder, the IoT system could also automatically notify relevant authorities or agencies as per the prior configuration. **2.4.3 Application of Internet of Things** Technology-based innovations like IoT are going to have a vital role in areas such as healthcare, economy, marketing, finance and banking, and government sectors. It uses advanced levels of automation, connectivity, and customization. See below for some of the common IoT application areas and their respective examples. Make further online research to understand the details of mentioned applications as required. **Smart Home**- Smoke detector, light bulbs, appliances, door and window locks, pet monitoring camera, smart thermostat. **Smart City**-Traffic Management, Waste management, and Water Distribution. **Supply chain**- Real-time goods tracking and getting inventory information. **Connect Health**- Patient care, calorie expenditure, heart rate pattern, temperature, activity levels, etc. **Connected cars-** Automobile companies can automatically perform billing, insurance, parking, and more. **Smart outlets**- turning a device on/off remotely, tracking the energy levels of a device, etc. Generally, IoT affects many areas of day-to-day life and many social and technical issues can be solved by using the applications of IoT. *Table 2.1. Common IoT Application Areas and Use* **Industry/Area** Use ---------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------- Home Control of heating, lights, door locks, etc. Health Remote patient monitoring etc. Fitness and wellness Tacking heart rate and training plans Factory and industry Production line control, asset tracking, etc. Agriculture Automatic watering, soil monitoring, etc. Cars and roads Connected cars Smart cities Traffic management, parking space, tracking, and availability. **Chapter Four** **Web Authoring** This unit introduces another widely applicable markup language called XML. The unit covers an overview of XML, its structure, and the differences between XML and HTML. Finally, website publishing is discussed. **Introduction to XML** The **eX**tensible **M**arkup **L**anguage (XML) is a markup language like HTML. A markup language is a computer language that uses tags enclosed with less than (\) symbols to define elements within a document. When the file is processed by a suitable application, the tags are used to control the structure or presentation of the data contained in the file. Any text that appears within one of these tags is considered part of the markup language. Markup files contain standard words, rather than typical programming syntax **XML** is a way of applying structure to a web page. XML provides a standard open format and mechanisms for structuring a document so that it can be exchanged and manipulated. XML complements your HTML knowledge by allowing you to structure your data by marking up the text and data to define the data content. XML is used for storing structured data, rather than formatting information on a page. While HTML documents use predefined tags (such as " \", "\ " ), XML files use custom tags to define elements. Microsoft Rich Text Format (RTF), Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), and HTML are types of markup languages that provide presentational markup. They are powerful solutions to the problem of displaying information. Their common limitation is that they describe how the data looks, but they do not give any information about what it is. Like HTML, XML uses tags to "mark-up" data content. Unlike HTML, in XML you define your own tags that meet the exact needs of your document. The custom tags make your data easier to organize and more searchable. For example, a student might describe the book she reads on vacation time like this: \ \ \An Introduction to XML and Web Technologies \ \ by Anders Moller, Michael Schwartzbach\ \Programming Languages\ \ \ XML does not change the way your web pages looks; instead, it changes the way the documents are read and filed and stored. Therefore, XML is used to describe the structure of a document rather than the way it is presented. The two areas in which XML is useful are structuring data for storage, where a relational database (See Unit Three about database) is inappropriate, and the presentation of web pages. For example, a system is handling small quantities of data, or if the data lacks a relational structure, programmers usually prefer to create their own data formats, i.e. XML. **4.1.1 Elements of XML Documents** XML document must contain one root element that is the parent of all other elements, for example "\" in Figure 4.1). The best way to learn what makes up an XML document is by starting from a simple example. The following is a complete XML document that lists the names of two known athletes The above XML lets you name parts of the document such as the first names and the last names of two of our legendary athletes. You can name anything that is relevant to the document you want to produce. All that matters is that you follow the basic rules for creating tags. The above markup does not follow the basic rules (predefined tags), rather you define your tags. Figure 4.2 highlights the various elements of the sample document.  The numbers shown in Figure 4.2 are interpreted as follows: **1. XML declaration:** describes the general characteristics of the document, such as XML document, the version of the XML, and the encoding character it uses. XML documents usually begin with the XML declaration statement called the processing instructions which provide information on how the XML file should be processed. E.g. \ The processing instruction statement uses the encoding property to specify the encoding scheme used to create the XML file. Encoding is the process of converting Unicode character into their binary equivalent representation depending on the type of encoding('UTF-8' or 'UTF-16'). **2. Document Type Declaration (DTD):** describes the structure of the document in terms of which elements it may contain, along with any restrictions it may have. In other words, it describes the root. The above example is about **people**. The document 'people' is described with five elements. These are described below. E.g. \ **3. Internal DTD subset:** a DTD is internal if the elements are declared within the same XML file. In the following example, internal declarations that are local to the XML document are used. \ \ \ \ \ **4. XML information set or Content:** this represents the XML document's content---the information that the document conveys. Content refers to the information that is represented by the elements of an XML document. See the example in Figure 4.3 **5. Root element:** This encloses all of the information. An XML document can have only one root element. Therefore, "\" is the root of this XML document. **6. Start tag:** XML elements have a start and an end tag---the start tag provides the name of the XML element. E.g. \ **7. End tag:** The name of the end tag must exactly match the name of the start Tag E.g. \ with \, \ with \, \ with \ **8. XML element:** The start and the end tags are collectively referred to as an XML elements. Elements are the basic units that are used to identify and describe the data in XML. They are the building blocks of an XML document. E.g. \Kebede\ **9. Data:** XML elements can contain data between the start and the end tags. An XML document represents information using a hierarchy. That means, it begins with a root element (e.g. people), which contains sub-elements (e.g. person) which in turn can contain other sub-elements(e.g. name), data (e.g. Kebede), or both. E.g. Abebech, Kebede, Jemal, and Ahmed are data. Besides the above elements, attributes and comments are also part of XML documents. **Attribute:** Like HTML, XML elements can contain attributes. An attribute provides additional information about the elements for which it is declared. It consists of a name-value pair. In the following example, the attribute name is **personid** and the value is "101". The attribute value should be quoted: single or double quotes can be used. E.g. \Ubang \ **Comment:** This is a kind of note or statement that is used to describe the XML code. Comments can provide documentation information about the XML file or the application to which the file belongs. A comment is ignored by the XML parser(or a program that interpretes XML instruction) during code execution. The syntax for a comment is: \ We can see the whole hierarchy of the above markup in an upside-down tree structure, as shown in Figure 4.4.  Although XML is designed so that people can read it, it is not intended to create a finished document. In other words, you can not open up just any XML-tagged document in a browser and expect it to be formatted well. XML is meant to hold content so that when the document is combined with other resources, such as a style sheet which renders a web page, it becomes a finished product. **4.1.2 Creating XML Documents** There are a few ways of opening an XML file directly. You can open and edit XML files with any **text editor**, view them with any **web browser**, or use a website that lets you view, edit, and even convert them to other formats. You can also use. applications such as "oxygen" or "XML Notepad" to see your files' structures. In this section, we use "XML Notepad" for our demonstration. For example, after saving the XML code given above as an example with the \*.xml extension in any text editor, when you open the file with XML Notepad, it looks as shown in Figure 4.5. It just does nothing because XML is just information wrapped in tags. A piece of program should be written to send, receive, store, or display it. When you view your XML document in a browser, most browsers display an XML document with color-coded elements (See Figure 4.5 below comparing the document Mozilla and Internet Explorer browsers). Often a plus (+) or minus (-) sign to the left of the elements can be clicked to expand or collapse the element structure. To view XML source code, try to select "View Page Source" or "View Source" from the browser menu you use.