Online Team Apps from Google

I happen to see this video (see below) introducing Google Apps Team Edition. Have use Google Apps before and have written and created ideas together with Kiran Budhrani using the collaborative features of Google Apps. Any group of students who are working on a project will find this Team Edition very useful.



To try Google Apps Team Edition, click this link

In De La Salle University-Manila, most of the students are using their personal Yahoo and Google email accounts, this may pose some apprehension on the use of this online apps (the team edition requires the use of a university email address). With De La Salle Philippines hoping to get all DLS Schools migrate to a single email platform (in which case is Google), I'm speculating that Google Apps Team Edition will become a preferred platform for team collaboration.


Disclaimer: This is not an advertisement. I may be a Google fan and user, but the intention of this post is to introduce to students and faculty members alike online applications that I happen to find and use, and find very useful for academic purposes.

Information Problems: What and IS really solves

In my session with EM-TECH students this trimester (3-SY 2007-2008), one of my advisees asked me to comment on their statement of the problem for their capstone project. I was surprised to see the problems they wanted their proposed Information System (IS) to solve (Retention, Quick Turnover, etc.).

Knowing what information systems are, these problems are definitely NOT what an IS can solve. I remember my lecture Down-To-Earth IS I delivered in the University of the Cordilleras, where I highlighted that IS professionals without contention should have an
understanding of these business problems but should also be able to see the deeper reason and motivations (based on information) how these problems are happening and could be prevented.

In my opinion, any business pain, situation, concern or problem needs to be further analyzed by any IT professional in order to determine solutions that either allows people working on these concerns to REGULATE (if not to PREVENT) and SOLVE (if not to MINIMIZE) these to occur or happen. As such, any IT professional has to see that these situations may be cases of any or all of the following:

1. Data Capture problem (data needed to solve or prevent the problem from happening has not been collected, completely collected, nor correctly collected)
2. Data Storage problem (should data were collected, they are not stored and eventually completely forgotten)
3. Processing problem (there is a need for consistently enforcing business rules and policies, standards and consistent processing, and control mechanisms to avoid abuse and errors)
4. Access and Distribution problem (the people who are to address these concerns are not given access, or having difficulty in accessing important information that will enable them to make decisions and actions to prevent problems from occurring, or to work on their task more effectively and efficiently)
5. Presentation problem (should information be available, are they presented in a fashion that the people concerned can easily use them in order to respond quickly and effectively to solve the problems)

To put it simply, IS does not solve business problems. Instead they address the information required of people who addresses these problems in order to PREVENT it to happen, or should it already happened, make immediate decisions in order to correct the problem.

Research Paper involving Community Portals

I happen to stumble upon this paper (Intranets and Social Capital) about Community portals. Have not actually read it entirely, browsing it though seems to be informative to those students intending to work on community portals.

My group and I were discussing the different motivations of neighborhoods going for a community portal. Your ideas are very much welcome. It is very important for any group working on community portals to identify the different criteria that will serve as basis for the selection of “communities”, “groups”, etc. for a portal project.

Subido’s group shared several criteria

1. Share Files
2. There is not place to meet as a community (that means members of the community are geographically dispersed)
3. The community is huge enough such that interaction between members of the community is becoming limited
4. Interaction is beyond mailbox and bulletin boards

Thinking about Dropping

Towards the end of the journey in doing ICT Projects (including thesis), the question of continuing or dropping the course always comes into the picture. In my opinion, the moment this question pops just simply shows that a group is unable to complete requirements and expectations for the project or thesis. It is a question about being ready to defend your project and thesis, and the question itself already gives the answer.

Some students have asked my advice about this, and the answer only lies within the group doing the project or thesis. Knowing the requirements and deadline for the submission of the project/thesis for defense, and the areas which still needs to be addressed, solved, developed and tested, the answer to the question boils to the area of CAPABILITY - is the group capable of completing everything required of two weeks before the deadline.

Why two weeks?

In my experience, two weeks is needed in order to prepare documentary and software requirements (and its required form and package) for defense. Stretching this period too thin only brings requirements haphazardly done to be submitted for defense. This two-week period is also a buffer period should problems arise in finalizing the requirements.

Doing Community Portals

One of my advisees asked me this question:

“Sir, would it be alright if i still do a generic system (Community Portal for Real Estate Brokers)? I’ve just talked with the chairperson of our chapter and they are willing to back me on the project (do/hire people for the maintenance and stuff) but they want it to target the real estate industry as a whole.”

In my opinion, doing a generic system is like doing a software package for a target domain (e.g. generic accounting, purchasing, etc.). I welcome the development of such since this also brings opportunities for the developers to have a starting product should they already plan to go for having their own IT firm.

Having a Community Portal for Real Estate Brokers (in the Philippines) I would presume, is not a development of a generic system. And if I will base it with my discussion with Yayo Arabit, there is a specific set of requirements and demand on technology that the community of Real Estate Brokers are having. In the case of the Real Estate Brokers in the Philippines, if it will be a development of a system catering to the “National Association of Real Estate Brokers of the Philippines” or whatever name there is (should it exist), it will not be a generic system development. But should the case be a development of system that will cater to ANY association of Real Estate Brokers in the Philippines, then that will end up development of a generic system (with consideration of the common processes and requirements among several associations).