Norbert Kaareste blogi

Norbert Kaareste isikliku blogi aadress:
nordere.blogspot.com

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Raamaturetsensioon - „Hackers“ Steven Levy

Õppeaine raames läbiloetavaks teoseks valitut võiks tutvustada kui arheoloogilist akent aega, mil IT-valdkonna töötajaga ei seisnenud veidrad paroolinõudmised (lausa vastupidi – paroolid ja ligipääsupiirangud olid lausa taunimisväärsed) ja arvuti kui aparatuur oli oma olemuselt midagi sama unistusväärset nagu täna on solaar-elektrijaamad (haruldased, positiivset tulevikku ilmutavad, spetsialistide pärusmaa).

Kindlasti oli värskendav kohata akadeemilisest raamatukogust leitava teose puhul jutustavat kõneviisi – autor oli otsustanud kirjeldada IBM 704 ehk Hulking Giant, LISP, jne. objektide kui infotehnoloogiateaduse imikuea nähtusi vägagi isikukeskselt.

Jättes välja isiklikud negatiivsed kokkupuuted Levy poolt läbivalt kirjeldatud (ja üldtunnustatud) häkkeri-elustiiliga (pikem-kui-ööpäev arvutis, totaalselt puudulik toitumismenüü ja degradeerunud sotsiaalsed oskused (tembeldatud ebavajalikuks inimeste poolt, kes soovivad samas ühiskonda muuta)), võib olla tänuväärne Levy ponnistustele tuua võimalikult elutruuna välja pilt ajastust, kus sisuliselt tühja ilmaruumi loodi tähed (esimene Spacewar) inimeste poolt, kes poleks tohtinud osata neid näha ega kirjeldadagi. Tähtede all peab siinkirjutaja silmas raamatus kirjeldatud isikute oskust näha arvutit personaalse, kõikjale-ulatuva, inimest aitava masinana või isegi teda asendavana.

Võime vaid ette kujutada, mis oleks juhtunud, kui tollane arvutitööstus oleks MCarthy, Minsky jt. läbi närinud ja endasse neelanud? Kas me saaks rääkida tarkvara arendusest kui sellisest? Õigusest vabale ligipääsule informatsioonile?

Tõenäoliselt oleks tarkvara siis midagi IBM „System 2“ (kujuteldav tervik-tarkvaralahendus), mida omavalitsused, koolid jm. liisivad, pakkumaks/tagamaks mingit arusaama intelligentsest riigist ja selle teenustest.

Suurim õppetund, mida Levy teosest kindlasti aineseks võtta, on mentaliteet, millega arvutid oma massidesse levikut alustasid – infovabadus. Eesti riigi sammud suundades, nagu tasuta internet kõigile, vabavara kohustuslikkus riigiasutustes ning ID-kaardi-põhised turvalahendused (kahjuks turvamata võrgud ei ole tänapäeval enam valik, küll aga on valik intelligentsed turvasüsteemid vs. parooliderägastik) – on siinkirjutaja meelest kindlasti Greenblatti jt. rõõmustavad, rääkimata kodanikest endeist.

Kolme turva-juhtumi kirjeldus

SEB internetipanga turvaauk

Minu jaoks üks viimase aja kummalisemaid ja häirivamaid arvutikasutaja turvalisust puudutav juhtum oli SEB internetipanga turvaauk ja selle olulisuse degradeerimine SEB panga poolt. 

9. aprillil 2011 avaldas Postimehe ajakirjanik ülevaatliku loo ühe SEB kliendi avastatud turvaaugust antud panga internetiesinduses. Iseenesest midagi kolossaalselt mööda turvalisuse koha pealt ei olnud – vaja oli terve jada iganenud/imelikke lahendusi, et antud nõrkust ära kasutada: sisenemine koodikaardiga ühisvõrgus, jagades brauserisessiooni – umbes midagi sellist olek pidanud vaene klient tegema.

Turvaaugu olulisuse üle võib muidugi vaielda – ammu teada on, et arvuteid kasutavad ka inimesed, kes näiteks on osanud arvutikastil olevat horisontaalpragu CD-ROMi sisendiks pidada, lahmides jõuga sinna 10-neid plaate ja hiljem kaebusi esitanud (kahjuks enam artikli allikat ei mäleta, aga „dumbuser story CD-ROM“ guugeldades peaks ilmuma midagi.

Ühesõnaga selle teadmise valguses ei saa ohutuid turvaauke eksisteerida. Ometi oli aga panga reaktsioon intsidendile kõike muud kui alarmeeriv. Internetipanka peetakse üheks turvalisemaks asjaks Eesti Vabariigis (isegi laiemalt kui pelgalt it-lahendusena) ning igasuguste turvavigade ilmnemisel peaks pank kommunikeerima, et asjaga tegeletakse kohe ja tõsiselt.

Mitte vaikima terve päeva ja hiljem teatama stiilis „no ok … palju irisesite.. teeme korda siis“.

Samsungi sülearvutite keylogger

Viimase aja suurimaks õudusunenäoks tavakasutaja privaatsuse asjus on kindlasti keyloggerite laiem levik. Teadmine, et piisab ühest väikesest rootkit-ist - mis salvestab sinu input-i ja oskab ka seda üle veebi edastada (ja selliseid rootkit-e juba on - http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2004-033116-4256-99) – on hirmuäratav.

Võime vaid möelda, mitu korda nädalas me oma arvutis „Minu Nimi“ fraasi sisse tipime. Ja sõltuvalt nüüd isiku tüübist, tuleks selle „Minu Nimi“  juurde terve jada rohkem kompromiteerivat infot (salasõnad, „torrent“, „porn“ jne).

Selles valguses oli õudne luga uudist Samsungi sülearvutitest, kuhu tootjafirma on eel-installeerinud keyloggerid ehk klahvisalvestid (http://www.neowin.net/news/samsung-installing-keylogger-on-laptops).

Tarbijate õnneks selgus hiljem, et tegemist siiski ei olnud klahvisalvestiga (kuigi nt. CNET avaldas artikli, kuidas see pahavara eemaldada). Kummaliseks teeb aga ettevõtte  seisukohaavalduste jada antud uudise juures – esmalt teada-tuntud eitamine: „Samsung's support department denied the existence of any such software on its laptops“; seejärel lapsemeelsus: „all Samsung did was to manufacture the hardware.“; siis suurkorporatsiooni kõikvõimsus: „not sure how this software ended up in the new laptop," but confirmed that "yes, Samsung did knowingly put this software on the laptop to monitor the performance of the machine and to find out how it is being used.".

Õnneks lõppes intsident sellise avaldusega „is created to hold Slovenian language files, and its presence on the disk is all that is required to trigger the false alert.“.

AGA – on päris usutav, et antud ettevõte oleks võinud jääda ka kolmanda avalduse juurde, lastes enda isalikku voli mõjutada alles 4-da taseme kohtus (rahvusvaheline kohus). Tarbijatel lihtsalt vedas seekord.

Sony Rootkit skandaal

Kõikide privaatsus-rikkumiste emaks pean siinkohal ikkagi Sony Rootkit skandaali. Antud juhtum oli minu teadvuses esimene, kus suurkorporatsioon, it-sektori väline, võttis vastu otsuse teadlikult tarbijate ees salatseda ning nende järel nuhkida, seda puhtalt kasumi teenimise huvides. 

Ammendava ülevaate teemast annab Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal), mistõttu ma sündmuse sisu taastutvustama ei hakka.

Pigem oli see vastikust tekitava suurkorporatsiooni mentaliteedi alguse levik arvuti tavakasutaja maailmas. Esimesed reaktsioonid juhtumi ilmsikstuleku puhul olid Sony poolt vast teed-rajavad sellele mentaliteedile tänapäeva infoühiskonnas: „Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?“.

Kokkuvõttes

Kurb on tõdeda, et kuigi Eesti ja kogu lääne-ühiskond panustab hirmsas koguses vahendeid rahva esinduse kvaliteedi ja kvantiteedi tagamiseks (Riigikogu, Euroopa Parlament, ÜRO jne.), on antud organisatsioonide oskus ja võime iseennast ehk rahvast selliste asjade eest kaitsta olematu. Või vähemalt ei ole see oskus arenenud nõutud taseme raadiusesse.

Task 14 of NIE: Conclusions

I generally am fond of new media and its related technologies. I have to be, I work in that field. New Interactive Environments course in that aspect offered a lot of interesting academic articles with which I otherwise  would not had the opportunity to get accuinted with.

 I enjoyed Kiosis and his statements made about what interactive something is. And Jensen´s overview of interactivity was especially noted by me, as it might have been the first thorough reading on the subject of the core value of interactivity.

I would havew expected more case-study-type home-task and somewhat more academic readings as the subject is very broad and therefore with a multitude of scholars working on it. A course managed by Kaido Kikkas called "Ehtics and Law in New Media" has so far been the best course on the subject on New Media (by its structure and object-related tasks).

I can say that since the star of autumn I know have a better understanding of what interactivity is and how it truly plays its role in basically every social (and maybe more) action we currently are participating.

Task 13 of NIE: Redesigning and re-instrumentalising activities

The main activity I carry out day by day, is the transportation of myself from point a to point b. When riding the bus to work, it always bothers me whether my bus will be on time or not. Currently there aren´t any solutions to find it out also.

I think here is the opportunity of digital media to fill this gap of knowledge and make public transportation more competitive towards cars. Why cannot there be LED screens in bus-stops that would display GPS-related information about nearby buses. Today all of public transportation is equipped with GPS-signal-emitting hardware. This signal could be in the future used through wireless fidelity to publish information about the bus´s whereabouts.

A small microchip inside the screen (or in some central processing station) could also calculate the approximate time when the bus will arrive to my station. In case of trains, this time could be manually input to the information system.

When this information would be in a central station, then we could easily create a real-time central information station (website) about current traffic - the idea would be that the more information-consuming passenger would have extensive abilities to plan their upcoming trips (rather then just watch a paper-based schedule).

Task 12 of NIE: Tool or medium?

First of all I'd like to note that the source text this time was one of the hardest one´s I´ve read so far (in the meaning of understanding the message of the author).

While Rückriem states in the end, that computer technology (and everything introduced by it) can be seen both as a medium or a tool (depending on one´s point of view), I firmly believe that it is a rapidly enhanced tool that now causes revolution in the society. The main reasons behind the revolution are its speed, accessibility and widespread (low-cost).

For digital technology to be a medium itself, I would expect it to introduce a new way of communication to the human mind (like television did) - however today digital technology simply ties all the old mediums together, doing it fast and seamlessly. Of course this is convenient and revolutionizing, but for me it isn't a new way of "mediating", but rather a rethought way of instruments offered so far for communication.

When theoretizizing about the statement made that “supplying people with guns creates a social world quite different from world in which people are disarmed” and putting this to a context where a gun is for example a internet-access, I still have to argue that internet, digital technology will not create a new world. It would be as "supplying people with automatic-guns creates a social world quite more different from world in which people are with non-automatic guns". Yes automatic guns will revolutionize warfare (or digital technology the communication), but wars would still exists and battles be fought (communication in its essence stays the same).


One might now ask, was then the introduction of television with the same effect - no. Television for communication was what a-bomb was for warfare - on the politics of warfare (communication) new threats and opportunities were introduced.


Source
http://www.iscar.org/fi/ruckriem.pdf

Task 11 of NIE: Components

When comparing the components offered (http://piratepad.net/apsWT6vudX) to the one's introduced in activity theory, I'd state that all of the components necessary were definitely described. When taking the model described in (http://informationr.net/ir/13-2/paper340.html), I tried to sub-categorize all of the components in the list to the 6 main categories introduced by Uden et al (2008).

Subject -aim/goal, result, trigger / event, model / modelling 
Community - participants, 
Object (Outcome) - process, task, effect, quality 
Rules - timeframe, methodology, options, interrelatedness (relations), rules, start, end, restrictions / limitations, location (located), evaluation criteria  
Division of Labour - actors, project manager, role,
Mediating artefact (Tools) - schedule, time management, control, feedback, tools, workmanship, plan, software, resource, learnability,   

When looking upon this list, we can see that maybe too much focus has been put on rules and tools, so this reached level of detail-ness is maybe somewhat unnecessary. Too little focus again has been put on the participants themselves - who they are (community) and what are their roles (division of labour). 

If I'd have to shorten down this offered list, I would leave only the core notions untouched:

Subject -aim/goal, result
Community - participants, 
Object (Outcome) - process 
Rules - rules
Division of Labour - actors

Mediating artefact (Tools) - schedule, time management, control, feedback, tools, workmanship, plan, software, resource, learnability,

Only the tools part can´t - in my view - be "cut down" as the diversity of tools available for interaction purposes is always greeted.

All in all there weren´t any new possible categories described in the list but it is a good idea to use parts of that list to elaborate the 6-category structure of the activity theory framework as the created list was in some categories very thorough.

Task 10 of NIE: Applying activity theory

When comparing the two courses according to the activity theory, I will now use a diagram first introduced to me in the article written by Uden et al. (2008):

NIE
Subject - Student.
Community - Faculty, Students.
Object (Outcome) - Knowledge about new interactive environments and their background.
Rules - Internet protocol, Ethics, Rules about the structure of studies, homework deadlines, participation demands.
Division of Labour - follows the grid of Community.
Mediating artefact (Tools) - Blog, Study environment, Voip.


PLENK
http://connect.downes.ca/
Subject - Student.
Community - Faculty, Students.
Object (Outcome) - Knowledge about concepts of personal learning environments and networks.
Rules - Session, forum, newsletter, wiki, readings carry-out rules and demands..
Division of Labour - follows the grid of Community.
Mediating artefact (Tools) - Newsletters, Wiki, Forums.


I see the two courses being very similar, with the major difference being only in the chosen tools offered and demanded by the faculty.

Ofcourse the thorough description of the PLENK course leaves no room for personal adaptions (everything is pre-described and therefore pre-ordered).

When thinking about the challenges and limitations one faces while implementing activity theory into practice in digitally mediated courses, the biggest problem in my view lies in the structure itself - as the community never exists in the idea of a classical community (no face to face interaction, no physical set boundaries), it always is questionable wheteher the community understands and accepts the tools, rules and division of labour coherently or are there conflicts in the understandings of one universal subject of the community.




Based on
http://informationr.net/ir/13-2/paper340.html

Task 9 of NIE: Exploring activity theory

To better my understanding of acitivity theory and its implementation and usage in activity systems I read the article "An activity-theory-based model to analyse Web application requirements" by L.Uden & P.Valderas (2008).

There they describe and theoretizese over the possibility of using activity theory to better create a website - actually the correct notion should be how to create web-based applications, that meet the needs of both the consumer and producer, with the maximum satisfaction possible.

This subject is currently quite important to me as I am a head of a web-application project, where my ideas and beliefs are co-existing with the needs and wishes of the customer (these are elaborated by myself), and I do feel that traditional technical ways to lead this project (more precicly the creation of the  action-plan) might be un-effective, as I fail to describe both my visions and the needs of the customer thouroughly - I can introduce examples and I can defend these ideas, but saying "menu X should be like variant Y" is not thorough enough for me. This is elaborately described by Uden & Valderas, who state that "Most established requirements engineering techniques however, do not adequately address the critical organizational and ‘softer', people-related issues of software systems."

In such situation the usage of the model introduced by Uden & Valderas could be very useful. To my belief this usefulness comes from the statement made by the authors where "Using the activity system as its unit of analysis, activity theory avoids simple causal explanation". In modern times thorough explanations are always needed.


So what is activity theory itself to my? First of all the article I read, offered a wonderful scheme of the theory:

As the theory itself states, its about activity. This means that the core subject - activity - firstly needs to be described. Uden & Valderas cite this definition as following: ".. the three levels that activities have: activity, action and operation". This means that every action we foretake, cannot be easily classified as activity - other categories exist. I especially liked the description that authors offered for this statement - "activities may be automated and frozen when carried out repeatedly under similar circumstances, making conscious control unnecessary, thus transforming the acts into operational constituents of an action".



As with any such elaborate system (more socio- than technological) it is apparent that there are some short-comings to the system. I agree with Uden & Valderas, who state that "key limitation of this approach is that the researcher must have a complete understanding of the activity system under observation, including the dynamic interplay of all the units of the activity system and such understanding takes time to acquire". Altough if this time-consuming actionplan would be carried through, we could easily state as Uden & Valderas do, that "activity theory also provides us with adequate period of time for understanding users' behaviour and their motivation".

This can be especially said in my described case before, where my stances all do not actually have researched backgrounds - this could lead to a situation where some short time period later I'd have to state that the needs of my customers are changed while they simply were left un-researched.



Source
http://informationr.net/ir/13-2/paper340.html

Task 8 of NIE: Personal vs. Mass Media

Lüders article of course focused on a dying subject - how to define a mass medium. For me it is quite ungrateful to define anything these days. As persons own multiple-Me's, so appears to be happen to the fields which are built by persons.

Media as the message from the society of course is the first one to fall under these sorts of effects. As Lüders stated, that one should not think of Internet as a media but rather as a technology, I have to agree with such a notion.

The variety of products, or media forms (by Lüders) is so vast in the Internet, that defining Internet to be a form of media is problematic or impossible.

What I didn't agree with is that Lüders sort of wished or proposed, that mass media - its definition - should be revalued under new, now-existing circumstances. I think mass media is simply dying. As the humanity is becoming more effective by delivering its messages, mass media is simply not "efficient" enough to compete with the possibilities that personal media (rather "asymmetrical media") has to offer. Therefore in the case of mass media nothing should be revalued. It was at is was - just like front-wars existed in the past, nobody in the modern warfare thinks of using such tactics. While the example could be odd, the point I'm trying to emphasise is that mass media as a term should not be revalued, but rather put to history where it belongs.

Sure we have examples of the "ancient" mass media, but how long will these examples last? BMW already has started developing car-radios that are Internet-based, based on so called podcast-principle. As Lüders pointed out, television channels themselves no implement strategies and content, that have strict personal media similarities. The list is forever growing and puts more value on the fact that mass media as a term and idea, is extinct.


Source
Lüders, M. (2008). Concpeptualising personal media. New Media and Society, 10(5), 683-702.

Task 7 of NIE: My own understanding of interactivity

Although the articles reviewed in the former tasks were old in their datum, I think the messages delivered still exist today. While there has been in the past an immensely large proportion of overview put in to the types of interactive "something", I think interactivity has evolved to be as common, or as basic as air is.

For example we didn't do any research on the type of paper our daily newspapers were made "in the old days". Interactivity research I'm afraid will become as extinct as this offered idea already was back then and is now.

A human being is a interactive person. As we communicate with our five senses, so far the media consumption has been one-way consumed, the future (and in a large amount of fields "the today" already) will make this senses-dependent communication finally two-way. We shall not get any normative functionality from the objects without interacting with them.

Task 6 of NIE: Kiousis, S.: Interactivity: a concept explication

The article written by Kiousis focuses on the issue that has troubled me many times, when trying to academically define what an interactive “something” is. While in the previous post I stated out interactivity as a meaning, it still is pretty un-academic for my research to implement on.


For example one example that always rises in my mind when talking about interactivity, is the existence of one. For example while teletext for television has been thought to be an interactive solution, a RDS capable-radio station is still a linear channel.

In that sense I greet Kiousis notion where “major limitation with some experimental inquiries is that a condition is often called ‘interactive’ without considering multiple levels of the variable, let alone defining its meaning.“ Over the years more and more troubling will it be for academics to define the existence of interactivity. It simply will be implemented to everything. In that sense the study of interactivity might one day be like the study of matter – our subject exist everywhere but has just different peculiarities.

As a firm believer of this tendency (the borderless widespread of interactive everything) I greet the focus put forward by Kiousis to further investigate the levels or dimensions of interactivity, leaving the questions, whether interactivity occurs or not, out of the way. A television set is interactive as it cannot be totally linear or one-way (there’s an option to change the channel for example). The same might be in the case of printed books – whether it is choice-based story-telling or a fairy-tale with movable pictures. These examples do have a minor level interactivity, which exist for example in a medium deemed to be highly interactive – internet. In the case of the before-mentioned book, a web-based e-card offers the same functionality.

For the time being the capable method of defining interactivity surely can be the one formulated by Kiousis: “… definition of interactivity that includes the following as major dimensions: (1) the structure of a medium (Steuer, 1992); (2) the context of communication settings (Rafaeli, 1988); and (3) the perceptions of users (Wu, 1999). “
 


Source:
http://rcirib.ir/articles/pdfs/cd1%5CIngenta_Sage_Articles_on_194_225_11_89/Ingenta866.pdf

Task 5 of NIE: Jensen, J.F.: Interactivity: tracking a new concept in media and communication studies

Interactivity is definitely a subject that is most vital for me, as my studies greatly based on it. Over the years, academic years, I have repeatedly been introduced to different concepts of how to understand the definition of interactive media. I focus on the media because it has been one of the core-subjects of my curriculum.


For years I have studied the principles of communication – whether it is the message, the medium, the communicator, the noise or the receivers. Interactivity in these patterns of relationships can occur in various places; therefore a descriptive notion of the one has always been in my mind.

To me interactive media or interactive “something” means the communication with that something is an input-output symbiosis. This means that one (output) cannot live or survive without the other (input) and vice versa. This means that in the case of media the message or content cannot survive or be whole without the input of the receiver.

Of course this definition lacks the originality, or rather the ability to implement it to a variety of interactive solutions available in the market. But as Jensen conclusively reports, this try of universality is quite problematic, as what might be thought as a feature of interactivity has no common ground – the ability to see a TV-guide through my television is not interactivity to me, but rather an intra-channel of the main channel. To others it very well might be.

But I’m willing to rethink my concept of interactivity, as the one offered by Jensen is quite rational – “interactivity can … be reduced to four dimensions which can be understood using the communication patterns: transmission, consultation, conversation and registration”.

As a traditionally un-interactive channel newspaper can be thought as a transmission channel and registration based communication has a fixed amount of input and output; then truly interactive channels can be consultation and conversation, as there exists the before-mentioned input-output symbiosis. By Jensen this symbiosis can be described as follows: “Interaction occurs as soon as the actions of two or more individuals are observed to be mutually interdependent”.


Source:
http:// www.nordicom.gu.se/ reviewcontents/ ncomreview/
ncomreview198/ jensen.pdf

Analysis of a location based application

For my analysis, I looked into one of the most popular LB-service in Estonia: ZEN Pling. It is a location based social network, meaning its main functions are similar to typical social network functionalities (interest-realted inner-communities, communication, sharing of the self-avatar etc), but a new sphere of information has been introduced to the users - the location.

This means, that the the users interaction will also have locational information (where the message was produced). Additionally one can monitor where specific persons are and also be informed in real time of the feeds interested of.

Although the service itself is quite familiar for now in the internet, Pling was one of the first if not The first LB-service in Estonia. The more important fact is that its user-base has been the largest LBS-using social network´s in Estonia.

The application (rather service) itself is quite simplistic - it uses mobile (GSM) positioning and is usable with many mobile-based web browsers and desktop browsers. The dataflow uses 3G communication channels (or 2G where the former is not applicalble).

Because of the simplisity I believe the service went on to be such a widely used service. One only needs to create the user account (registration processes are rather easy) to start using the service. This simplisity ofcourse makes however impossible to create embed or attached services based on Pling, which is why the service has been solely dying (iOS and Android apps based on GMaps are overtaking). Also the discussions of privacy have gotten more "louder" in Estonia, often making young people rethink the use of such services.

For the service to survive in the hardening competition the platform should be more open - for example the ability to create company page; or applications custom made by the users etc.

At the same time I understand that since the portal is owned by Elisa AS who is a mayor telecommunications operator, it would be too optimistic to expect it to develop this platform according to the open source community understandings.

Description of iRadio

The original idea for iRadio was outputted by our group already in the first lecture. We will now elaborate on the different chapters the defining frames on which the now-ready application was programmed.

Initial idea
Imagine a city/boy travelling by his car to a party located near Kapa-Kohila. The moment he reaches the outer limits of his favorite radio-station Uuno Raadio, he starts receiving annoying static from his radio. He now wishes to continue to listen to Uuno Raadio, but is unable to do it easily, as he doesn't know the frequency.

Our application is easily usable application, which will tell at that particular moment to the user, what is the new frequency for his favorite station.

Also - if the radio station doesn't reach to his new location, the application will offer a list all the stations available nearby. Also the user has an option to only see alike-stations (a Uuno Raadio fan would then see a Sky Plus frequency for example).

The development of the Idea
Our idea was then put to work, programmed mainly for the main-stream smartphone iPhone. We wanted to write the script very universally, meaning a large scale use of standard-base innovative scripting languages. To us it meant HTML5 and CSS3. As it later was revealed, these languages offer superb simplicity and usability regarding our goals.

Although the project was written keeping in mind the needs of the user of iPhone, our wish is to in the future to offer this platform as a browser-based solution (working as intended in Opera Mini for example).

The current state of the Idea
At this moment our project is quite ready, especially when thinking that it is still a prototype. The main functionality has been catered by our app and future developments of our project can be easily done. To point out specific subjects that need to be developed, we will list them now:

• the creation of a automated database of available station frequencies - currently we have to add and update the database of available radio stations manually, but it should be automated. In our view, when the program reaches a wider spectre of masses, a community-updated database could be used. This will also make the application more supra-national, meaning it can be easily used outside Estonia
• the programming of a alternative browsing possibility - currently a novice user may find our app somewhat difficult to use. One way to make it even more easier is to create an alternative map view, where the user only sees his or her location on the map. When she or he clicks on the icon (symbolizing himself), a diagram will be showed to him. Then he can easily select a colored sector from the diagram (circle-diagram), with each sector being a shortcut to a specific type of music-station (eg. Russian, dance, folk, Christian and alternative music-playing radio stations).

Task 3 of NIE: comparison of study plans

What elements, components, etc. have been used by others to describe their activity?
It surprised me as all of the reviewed authors had used mind-mapping to describe their activities. Maarja and Maibritt were very informative about the processes but all/in-all the mind-maps showed with detail of how th students prepare for their upcoming semester.

What level of detail?
I had a feeling that all of the reviewed mind-maps were descriptive enough to put them to use instantly. I guess for a graduate student this sort of task is a retelling task - we all have "mindmapped" our study processes for years now. I personally liked Maibritt's map, as it was familiar to my actions each start of semester.

What structural aspects are showing up in their descriptions/visualizations?
It is clear that our students fall in to two groups - one's with a career/work and family and the ones with time (better one's for the university I guess :)). All of the working students first dealt with coping the study plan to their work and family related happenings, while the other group just looked for fun, interesting subjects that were interesting enough.

What is missing?
Maybe some descriptive outcomes could have been published also - for example the student's desired study plan at start and where did he or she end up after these processes.

What are pros and cons of the different approaches?
I will take the liberty to name these approaches workman-approach and a student-approach. While the first one is good with its clear structure ("my free time is on x,y,z dates for xx to xx time), it is of-course bad because physiologically it is questionable how productive can one be after 9 hours of work, plus family time. It would be ten times better, if a workman can come to school at 8 am and simply deal with his or her curriculum. Sadly there aren't so many rich students in Estonia who can afford this sort of life.

The second approach (the rich students :)) is of-course best for reasons mentioned before, but I do think there are some cons / for example a workman student knows for sure what she or he needs and therefore acts to receive it - whether it is submitting to classes important to him, asking the right questions in the auditorium or doing home/works with real/life issues related.


Samples:
I http://reimoverse.wordpress.com/2010/10/11/task-2-activity-plan-fall-2010/
II http://www.tlu.ee/~jkangur/task2_j_kangur.pdf
III http://maibrittk.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-interactive-environments-task-two.html
IV http://maarjapajusalu.wordpress.com/2010/10/09/task-2-process-of-creating-my-study-plan/
V http://kerstin-and-imke.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-interactive-environments-task-2.html

NIE Task 2: Creating a study plan

When planning my weekly activities, theres four fields of activities that are needed to be unified / my hobbies, my work, my studies and my family.

I usually plan these related events to my Google Calendar. Sadly during the last years all of my time-planning has gone over to that application, meaning I cannot promise no school-, hobbies- or family-related tasks before checking availabilities.

This principle of course requires me to regularly check my upcoming events which has made me check my calendar at least 3 times a day. Although this sounds pretty sad, I wouldn't imagine my life without these kind of calendar applications.

But onto to the main question - what are the processes I go through when planning my study semester? First of all I register myself to all available IMKE (my major) subjects as there are always a lack of them. Later on I import the IMKE calendar to my Google Calendar and then start re/organizing all of the events that were scheduled to the dates when IMKE courses take exist, in favor for IMKE subjects.

For the next step I browse through the university`s subjects catalog found in the study info system and I filter out all of the subject related to my interests - mostly media, management etc. related subjects. Then I look into the ASIO calendar base where I seek the dates of each of these interesting courses to me. If the date of a particular course suits me - meaning my calendar has open spaces at that time, I register myself to that course. I continue this route of actions until I have reached a 34-38 ECTS quantity in my semester study plan.

For the final step I share my calendar with my family so they can be in touch with my whereabouts on different days.

Task 1: experiences with Webpublishing

My experience with web-publishing is rather long as I have kept a personal blog from the year 2003. I am also a eager user of different new innovative communication channels - for example, Skype was installed in my Windows ME edition, long before its global-wide success-story. Sadly at that time there weren't many people to talk to.

When talking about social media, I do participate in Facebook, but I'm trying to cut down this kind of web-activity as it is too intrusive to my privacy.

Using web-publishing tools has definitely been a boost to my work/related aspirations as my study/centered blogs have been interesting to persons other than me.

All in all when taking to account that I am currently writing a project about a website with a variety of web-publishing features, I consider myself quite a novice in this field.

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