Encouraging re-employability and discouraging bias

The paper discusses the need for more IT professionals and the need to retain those taking career breaks. The paper discusses the current situation in the UK for unemployed and under-employed computing professionals; and the view of professionals about the need for regular updating of their skills, particularly if they are currently unemployed. The needs of those taking an extended career break, of say five years are also discussed, together with help to encourage and assist those returning to the computing industry. The paper discusses the actions that have been undertaken by the BCS Quality Specialist Group, BCS Women and Hampshire Branch to provide free training courses, together with the BCS Unconscious Bias Training for all BCS committee members. The comments of those attending these various BCS training courses are discussed

Proceedings of the Third Computing Women Congress (CWC 2008): Student papers

The Third Computing Women Congress was held at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand from February 11th to 13th, 2008. The Computing Women Congress (CWC) is a Summer University for women in Computer Science. It is a meeting-place for female students, academics and professionals who study or work in Information Technology. CWC provides a forum to learn about and share the latest ideas of computing related topics in a supportive environment. CWC provides an open, explorative learning and teaching environment. Experimentation with new styles of learning is encouraged, with an emphasis on hands-on experience and engaging participatory techniques

Living In the KnowlEdge Society (LIKES) Initiative and iSchools' Focus on the Information Field

In this poster, we describe the similarities between the Living In the KnowlEdge Society (LIKES) project and iSchools – both focus on the information field. This might lead to future collaborations between the two. One of the LIKES objectives is to spread computational thinking, fundamental CS/IT paradigms, key computing concepts and ICT paradigms across the Knowledge Society. This is analogous to iSchools’ vision of education for thorough understanding of information, IT and their applications. In the previous three LIKES workshops, participants from various disciplines had an intense discussion about grand challenges to incorporate computing/IT in their disciplines. All iSchools have courses that teach computing and information-related topics. If those courses can be expanded for other non-computing disciplines on their campuses with support from experiences of LIKES, it would further empower professionals in the iField

EDOC: meeting the challenges of enterprise computing

An increasing demand for interoperable applications exists, sparking the real-time exchange of data across borders, applications, and IT platforms. To perform these tasks, enterprise computing now encompasses a new class of groundbreaking technologies such as Web services and service-oriented architecture (SOA); business process integration and management; and middleware support, like that for utility, grid, peer-to-peer, and autonomic computing. Enterprise computing also influences the processes for business modeling, consulting, and service delivery; it affects the design, development, and deployment of software architecture, as well as the monitoring and management of such architecture. As enterprises demand increasing levels of networked information and services to carry out business processes, IT professionals need conferences like EDOC to discuss emerging technologies and issues in enterprise computing. For these reasons, what started out as the Enterprise Distributed Object Computing (EDOC) conference has come to encompass much more than just distributed objects. So this event now used the name International EDOC Enterprise Computing Conference, to recognize this broader scope yet also retain the initial conference's name recognition

Library Professionals’ Adoption of Cloud Computing Technologies: A Case Study on Kerala University Library, India

The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the awareness and use of cloud computing technologies among the library professionals in the Kerala University Library system, India. A survey was conducted using questionnaire among the 102 library professionals employed in the central and departmental libraries of the University of Kerala. The study revealed that 42.16% of the library professionals did not have much idea about cloud computing technology. Analysis showed that Facebook and Google Apps like Gmail, Google Doc etc are the cloud computing technologies used by majority of the respondents. It is also worth to note that the library professionals in Kerala University Library are using cloud computing technologies without being aware of doing so. Library professionals’ awareness of cloud service models is relatively very low. Web OPAC and Journal Discovery Service are the areas known to the respondents in applying cloud computing technologies in libraries. Out of 102 respondents, 14.71% of the library professionals in the University of Kerala have average skill in using these technologies. The findings of the study throw lights into the need of providing training for the library professionals in handling technology enriched library services to the users

Electronically Assisting Communication for Health Professionals

New information and computing technologies offer cost efficient and effective learning opportunities for health care professionals. The Assisted Electronic Communication project is prototyping, administering and evaluating a digital discourse system for health care professionals within an acute Hospital. Health care staff participating in the study are able to access and contribute to threaded, asynchronous discussions and themed information in the context of critical work documents. Early indications are that the system is viewed very positively, and seen as a way of critically engaging with new material that is getting closer to an idealized learning in the workplace

Usage and Awareness of Cloud Computing Applications by Library Professionals of Sindh Province

The aim of the study is examine the usage and awareness level of cloud computing applications by library professionals of Sindh province. Methods- This study was quantitative survey based. The population of the study was library professionals who are working in different types of libraries likewise academic, special and community libraries of Sindh province. Sampling technique was random simple sample size was 165 library professionals (library assistant, assistant librarian, deputy librarian, librarian. Questionnaire was prepared in google form and distributed by email to selected respondents. Results- The result declared that knowledge and awareness of library professionals regarding cloud computing application is not very significant. Majority of library professionals are using cloud computing applications for their personal purposes not publically due to security of data. Practical Implication(s): This study will helpful for university administration as well as welfare department of government and development sectors to implementations of cloud computing and level of knowledge of library professionals

A New Role for Human Resource Managers: Social Engineering Defense

[Excerpt] The general risk of social engineering attacks to organizations has increased with the rise of digital computing and communications, while for an attacker the risk has decreased. In order to counter the increased risk, organizations should recognize that human resources (HR) professionals have just as much responsibility and capability in preventing this risk as information technology (IT) professionals. Part I of this paper begins by defining social engineering in context and with a brief history pre-digital age attacks. It concludes by showing the intersection of HR and IT through examples of operational attack vectors. In part II, the discussion moves to a series of measures that can be taken to help prevent social engineering attacks