Learning Management - Information Technology

Information Technology : NSW has allocated at least $1.5 billion to key information technology and communications projects in the 2011-12 budget. The largest beneficiary is RailCorp with $128.94 million worth of ICT funding during the year, budget papers reveal. RailCorp has several projects underway that will receive funding injections, including a $12m passenger information system to improve customer communications. The Department of Health is second with a $124.07m allocation that will be used on a large body of work, including $25.37m for corporate systems and $20.27m for a community health and outpatient information system. The Public Transport Ticketing Corp will receive more than $110m to deliver an electronic ticketing system. Education and Training will put $102.95m into myriad projects as the government continues to support the department's five-year, $203m Learning Management and Business Reform (LMBR) project. More than $160m has been spent on the SAP-based LMBR since 2010. Businesslink, the government's outsourcing arm, will receive a total of $87.4m, including $74m for new projects. One of Businesslink's biggest undertakings will be a consolidated enterprise resource planning system at a cost of $21.42m. Sydney Water has been handed $58.5m to continue its work in support of major water projects. The Department of Finance and Services will receive $54.47m for a slew of items including $12.29m on information system enhancements.

Police will get $51.51m for a variety of projects such as $12.28m to upgrade its core operating policing system (COPS). The COPS revamp began in 2007 and is scheduled to be completed next year at a total cost of $45.9m. The Department of Attorney General and Justice will be given $28.52m for five projects but the bulk of its allocation will go to the court upgrade program, which includes Justice link and infrastructure. The Family and Community Services Department was granted $12.93m, while Hunter Water Corporation will have $10.9m in its kitty. The State Water Corp has allocated around $4m to its integrated surveillance monitoring, automation and remote telemetry (iSMART) program. iSMART kicked off in 2010 with an estimated cost of $11.15m until 2014. It covers more than 70 major dam, weir and regulator sites in regional NSW. Computer-aided river management solutions will receive a $3.26m boost. An electronic cataloguing program at state libraries will see $7.48m in funding. The project, which began in 2008, will run until next year at a total cost of $23.29m. Fire and Rescue NSW will receive a $4.46m allocation for its SAP human resources project. Premier Barry O'Farrell wants wireless hotspots installed in all rural and regional libraries. New mobile apps for citizen services and improved websites are also on the cards. Cloud computing options are being investigated by a handful of departments and agencies. Other major projects such as the strategic asset management review and water metering would have strong technology components although they weren't explicitly listed in budget papers. The state spends $2bn on information technology and communications and communications annually.

India's outsourcing, Hiring seems to have slowed down

India's Information Technology outsourcing companies are cutting pay and have put the brakes on hiring new staff as they battle against a global economic slump and fierce competition from rivals in countries such as the Philippines. The industry's two largest players, Tata Consultancy Services and Info-sys, have begun trimming quarterly bonuses, according to research by HSBC. Yogesh Aggarwal, an outsourcing expert at the bank, said the move was linked to a slowdown in revenues for the industry in India, which is struggling because of rising costs and a trend among some foreign companies to move call centres back onshore. "Hiring seems to have slowed down and many of these companies are now being cautious," Mr.AmneetSingh, an outsourcing expert at the Delhi-based consultancy Everest Group, said. The slowdown in recruitment comes as many Indian technology companies are shifting their focus to operating call centres outside India. Mr.AparupSengupta, chief executive of Aegis, a Mumbai-based outsourcing company that employs 57,000 people worldwide, said that the trend was being driven partly by inflating costs and partly by a feeling among many Western companies that their customers were better served by call centre staff more familiar with their own language and culture. "Indians can speak good English but it's still not easy for them to understand someone from, say, Scotland or Yorkshire. There can be misunderstandings, which can really damage their brand," he said.

Aegis now employs only one third of its staff in India and is expanding in Latin America, Europe and Australia. It recently hired 400 workers for a new call centre in Costa Rica. Wipro, another big Indian outsourcer, has opened call centres in Romania and China. Several British-based companies, such as the UK operation of the Santander banking group, have moved their call centres from India to Britain for similar reasons. While India's outsourcing industry is still growing, it is being undermined in some areas by fierce competition from other countries, most notably the Philippines, a former US colony that retains many American cultural values. A recent survey by IBM found there were now more call centre staff there than in India. The Contact Centre Association of the Philippines says that 350,000 people are employed in the country, compared with India's 330,000. Last year, the business in the Philippines raked in about £6.5 billion ($9.8bn), with that figure projected to rise to £16.5bn by 2016. India remains the world leader in the wider market for outsourcing, which includes software development jobs as well as call centre work, but its lead is narrowing. China's IT outsourcing industry is growing by 30 per cent a year against India's 14 per cent, according to research from XMG Global, a Canadian ICT research firm.

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Facebook generation is the future

Defending the use of text messages by young people, a poet laureate has claimed that texting is the future of modern poetry. Carol Ann Duffy claimed the language of ‘txt spk’ lent itself to a new generation of young bards. “The poem is a form of texting. It’s the original text,” the Daily Mail quoted the 55-year-old poet as saying. “It’s a perfecting of a feeling in language. It’s a way of saying more with less, just as texting is. “We’ve got to realise that the Facebook generation is the future, and, oddly enough, poetry is the perfect form for them. It’s a kind of time capsule – it allows feelings and ideas to travel big distances in a very condensed form. “The poem is the literary form of the 21st century,” she added. Duffy became the first female laureate in the royal post’s 341-year history when she succeeded Andrew Motion in 2009 for a ten-year stint paying 5,000 pounds a year.

costs $ 114 Internet computer security software

A study by Symantec Corp, the maker of Norton computer security software, estimates the cost of global cybercrimes at $114 billion annually. The Norton Cybercrime Report 2011 said 431 million adults were victims globally in the past year, with costs of cybercrime surpassing the combined global black market in marijuana, cocaine and heroin. "Over the past 12 months, three times as many adults surveyed have suffered from online crime versus offline crime, yet less than a third of respondents think they are more likely to become a victim of cybercrime than physical world crime in the next year," said Mr.AdamPalmer, Symantec Norton security software Lead Cybersecurity Advisor. The study also identified men in the 18 - 31 years age group, who access the Internet from their mobile phone, as likely victims.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India may soon finalise recommendations on blocking lost and stolen mobiles to provide relief to people who fear misuse of the stored data and personal information in such events. The initiative is part of the regulator’s efforts to curb the illegal handset market and discourage the rampant theft of handsets, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India officials said here on Wednesday. The recommendations are expected to be out within a month, they added. “There needs to be infrastructure in place similar to that for stopping pesky calls. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India will come out with recommendations on ways to block lost or theft mobile phones using International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number within a month,” said a Telecom Regulatory Authority of India official. IMEI is a unique serial number that identifies the handset. It is stored in the equipment identity register (EIR) database of the service provider. Last year, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had sought comments from stakeholders, including operators, to find ways to block lost or stolen mobile phones. At present, there is no mechanism in place to block a mobile phone in case it is lost. The telecom service providers can only block the SIM card. They, however, do not block the mobile phone. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is revisiting the issue, after its earlier attempt in 2004 bore no result because a number of telecom networks did not have the capability to track mobile handsets. Recently, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India came out with September 27 as the deadline date to stop telemarketing calls and SMSs in order to provide relief to customers.

Google Web Security

Internet search titan Google will shut down as many as 10 products, including Aardvark and Fast Flip, as it streamlines operations and focuses on the ones that have "higher impact". In a google blogpost, Google Senior Vice President MR.AlanEustace said, "Over the next few months we will be shutting down a number of products and merging others into existing products as features." "This will make things much simpler for our users, improving the overall Google experience. It will also mean we can devote more resources to high impact products the ones that improve the lives of billions of people." Products that the search engine company plans to close include a social network powered question and answer search tool Aardvark, news content browsing and reading for the web and mobile devices Fast Flip and a note-taking and URL clipping service Notebook. It would also close Desktop, which allowed customers to access their documents and data from local sources. The company plans to shift people over to using cloud-based storage and Google Maps API for Flash, which gave ActionScript developers a way to integrate Google Maps into their applications. Google also plans to eliminate its Google Pack programme, which allows users to download a variety of softwares. Among other services that would be discontinued are-- Image Labeler, Google Web Security, Subscribed Links and Sidewiki. "We'll continue to take risks on interesting new technologies with a lot of potential. But by targeting our resources more effectively, we can focus on building world-changing products with a truly beautiful user experience," Eustace added.

Duplex wireless technology

Rice University researchers Group has come across another breakthrough that could double the capacity of wireless signals. The "full duplex wireless technology" allows a wireless device, such as a phone or tablet, to upload and download data on a single frequency as opposed the two required today. The idea is that if a device could simultaneously receive and send data on the same frequency, it would free up more wireless bands without ever needing to build more antennas. However, if a device tried to "talk" and "listen" on the same frequency on a network today, the transmissions would cancel each other out in the same way that shouting over someone on speakerphone would. The team of Rice researchers Group achieved a dual-signal band by employing multiple-input multiple-output antenna technology. The receiving antenna is able to catch multiple signals in a way that do cancel each other out, but the node can pick up a clear signal in a single frequency. The researchers Group claim that the resulting signal quality is at least 10 times better than before thanks to multiple antennas improving the performance. Wireless companies are already looking into the technology because it can be easily retrofitted onto their multi-antenna cell towers. Meanwhile, the researchers Group say that this duplex technology could be easily rolled into networks as they upgrade to 4.5G or 5G. The Rice team also plans to release full-duplex as part of its WARP wireless open-access research platform). WARP is an open source software and hardware platform that allows other scientists to examine full-duplex wireless technology and to make their own innovations.

ID Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra

Identification : The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has generated over 3.11 crore 'Aadhaar' numbers till the beginning of this month, with Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra having garnered the maximum numbers so far, the government said today. "A total of 3,11,84,630 Aadhar numbers (Identification) have been generated as on September 1, 2011," Minister of State for Planning Ashwani Kumar said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. Over 1.06 crore Aadhaar numbers (Identification) have been generated in Andhra Pradesh, followed by almost 72 lakh in Maharashtra and 33 lakh in Karnataka, he added. The UIDAI plans to cover 60 crore citizens under the Aadhaar (Identification) project by March 2014. Kumar said that the total expenditure for the Aadhaar programme stood at Rs 57.09 crore during the April-July period of the current fiscal. The expenditure had stood at Rs 26.21 crore in 2009-10 and Rs 268.41 crore in 2010-11. "The total approved estimated cost of Phase I and II of the project spread over five years from 2009-10 to 2013-14 is Rs 3,170.32 crore," the minister said.

"Aadhar aims to provide soft identity infrastructure which can be used to re-engineer public services so that these lead to equitable, efficient and better delivery of services," Kumar said. The minister said that current enrolment under the scheme is voluntary. "Enrolment of residents for Aadhaar number (Identification) is voluntary. As and when the implementing ministries, departments and agencies consider the application of Aadhaar number(Identification) in their programmes, schemes or services, they may also decide whether it is required to be mandatory for their purpose," he said. UIDAI has been mandated by the government to issue a unique identification number -- 'Aadhar'(Identification). It can be verified and authenticated online in a cost effective manner and will eliminate duplicate and fake identity proofs. The programme was initially conceived by the Planning Commission in 2006 as an initiative to provide identification proof for each Indian resident and would be primarily used as the basis of efficient delivery of welfare services. It would also act as a tool for effective monitoring of various programmes and schemes of the Government.