IT Professionals in the Gig Economy - The Success of IT Freelancers on Digital Labor Platforms

When IT work is performed through digital labor markets, IT professionals have a high degree of personal responsibility for their careers and must use appropriate strategies to be successful. This paper investigates the success of IT freelancers on digital labor platforms. Drawing on signaling theory, a dataset of 7166 IT freelancers is used to examine how activating, pointing, and supporting signals lead to success. Analysis was carried out using negative binomial regression. The results indicate that the three signaling types positively influence the objective career success of IT freelancers. This paper contributes to the literature by testing signaling theory in the new context of digital labor platforms, investigating IT specifics, and proposing support as a new type of signal for IT professionals on digital labor platforms. In practice, the results provide guidelines for IT freelancers to improve their success within their careers

Advanced Digital Auditing

This open access book discusses the most modern approach to auditing complex digital systems and technologies. It combines proven auditing approaches, advanced programming techniques and complex application areas, and covers the latest findings on theory and practice in this rapidly developing field. Especially for those who want to learn more about novel approaches to testing complex information systems and related technologies, such as blockchain and self-learning systems, the book will be a valuable resource. It is aimed at students and practitioners who are interested in contemporary technology and managerial implications

A qualitative study of penetration testers and what they can tell us about information security in organisations

Purpose: This paper presents a qualitative study of penetration testing, the practice of attacking information systems to find security vulnerabilities and fixing them. The purpose of this paper is to understand whether and to what extent penetration testing can reveal various socio-organisational factors of information security in organisations. In doing so, the paper innovates theory by using Routine Activity Theory together with phenomenology of information systems concepts. Design/methodology/approach: The articulation of Routine Activity Theory and phenomenology emerged inductively from the data analysis. The data consists of 24 qualitative interviews conducted with penetration testers, analysed with thematic analysis. Findings: The starting assumption is that penetration testers are akin to offenders in a crime situation, dealing with targets and the absence of capable guardians. A key finding is that penetration testers described their targets as an installed base, highlighting how vulnerabilities, which make a target suitable, often emerge from properties of the existing built digital environments. This includes systems that are forgotten or lack ongoing maintenance. Moreover, penetration testers highlighted that although the testing is often predicated on planned methodologies, often they resort to serendipitous practices such as improvisation. Originality/value: This paper contributes to theory, showing how Routine Activity Theory and phenomenological concepts can work together in the study of socio-organisational factors of information security. This contribution stems from considering that much research on information security focuses on the internal actions of organisations. The study of penetration testing as a proxy of real attacks allows novel insights into socio-organisational factors of information security in organisations.</p

Model predictive control of dynamically substructured systems with application to a servohydraulically-actuated mechanical plant

Copyright ©2010 Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). This paper is a postprint of a paper submitted to and accepted for publication in IET Control Theory and Applications and is subject to Institution of Engineering and Technology Copyright. The copy of record is available at IET Digital Library.Dynamically substructured systems (DSS) are increasingly used by the dynamics testing community. DSS involves the physical testing of full-size critical components in parallel with numerical testing of the remaining components. This has certain advantages over other testing methods. However, the synchronisation of the signals at the interface between the physical and numerical substructures of DSS requires a high fidelity controller. In practice, the performance of the DSS testing can be degraded by input saturation of the actuators. In this study, the authors use model predictive control (MPC) to cope with the saturation problem in DSS. To facilitate the MPC and observer design for DSS, a modified DSS framework based on an existing one is proposed. As a case study, a quasi-motorcycle (QM) system is converted into the modified DSS framework and a traditional on-line MPC control strategy is implemented in real time

Advanced Digital Auditing

This open access book discusses the most modern approach to auditing complex digital systems and technologies. It combines proven auditing approaches, advanced programming techniques and complex application areas, and covers the latest findings on theory and practice in this rapidly developing field. Especially for those who want to learn more about novel approaches to testing complex information systems and related technologies, such as blockchain and self-learning systems, the book will be a valuable resource. It is aimed at students and practitioners who are interested in contemporary technology and managerial implications

Aesthetic complexity: practice and perception in art & design

My research investigates the aesthetics of visual complexity in the practice and perception of visual art and design. The aim is to understand visual complexity in terms of the relationship between the objective properties of images and subjective properties of perception. I take a computational and empirical approach to this subject, incorporating methods from information theory, computer graphics, complexity theory and experimental psychology. For testing, I create cellular automata programs to generate stimulus images, and borrow other types of visual material from students and professional artists, designers and craftspeople. Visual complexity is measured in two ways: Firstly, an objective measure of complexity is based on the compression of digital image files, which provides an information-based scale of order to randomness. Secondly, psychophysical techniques are employed to measure the subjective complexity of the images and other aesthetic judgements. Research in complex systems theory and experimental aesthetics suggests that we can expect an inverted ‘U’ correlation between the two measures of complexity

Paintingphotogdigital: From Hybridity to Synthesis in the Age of Medium Equivalence

This thesis questions whether it is possible to synthesise material-based painting, photography, and digitally created and manipulated imagery in single artworks. To answer this question, a practice-based research of experiments explores physically conjoining painting with photography and the digital in picture-making. The investigation tests painting in its relationship with the other mediums, which adds to the current debates around painting’s position in contemporary art practices including “painting in the expanded field.” Painting has always had a contested relationship with photography, with the older discipline adopting the newer medium’s visual languages whilst freeing itself from the constraints of representation. For nearly two hundred years, painting’s repositioning in relation to photography has constantly redefined the traditional medium’s meaning and ensured its validity as a practice is re-asserted. As new data-based technologies expand into the aesthetic consciousness, painting also now locates itself against the digital to continue this self-renewal. However, whilst painters site their medium against either photography or the digital, there is little in the current art discourse that engages material-based painting with photography and the digital in direct combination as a means of further interrogating two-dimensional image-making. It is surprising that in a post-medium age, where artists undertake heterogeneous modes of art-making, such practice is under-explored. Conjoining material-based painting with photography and the digital in artworks provides a means of testing painting against new technologies; foregrounding painting in this conjunction adds to understandings of that medium’s role in a digitally media-saturated age. Initial practice of creating hybrid painted-on-photographs leads to the question of whether it is possible to synthesise these mediums in single pictures. This raises further questions as to how synthesis might be achieved, what attempting synthesis reveals about painting’s nature, and why attempting synthesis is important to the contemporary visual arts dialogue? To answer these questions, practical research attempts to conjoin the mediums visually, physically, and methodologically. Jerrold Levinson’s and Joseph Yasser’s theories of hybridity and synthesis of art forms conceptually inform the practical application of physically combining the mediums in two-dimensional artworks. Richard Wollheim’s theory of “seeing-in” paintings and Ernst H. Gombrich’s theory of differentiated viewing of pictures are drawn on to analyse hybridised and synthesised viewing experiences of the conjoined pictures. Concepts of erasure in art are employed to critically inform the deconstruction of hierarchical oppositions of the mediums, set within a dialectical materialist framework. Relevant contemporary art practices that investigate relationships between painting, photography, and the digital are surveyed to contextualise the practice. The research begins to fill the gap in practices and the literature around investigations into the relationship of the three mediums together, which contributes to understanding painting’s ontological nature in the digital age

Teaching Information Security Management Using an Incident of Intellectual Property Leakage

Case-based learning (CBL) is a powerful pedagogical method of creating dialogue between theory and practice. CBL is particularly suited to executive learning as it instigates critical discussion and draws out relevant experiences. In this paper we used a real-world case to teach Information Security Management to students in Management Information Systems. The real-world case is described in a legal indictment (T-mobile USA Inc v. Huawei Device USA Inc. and Huawei Technologies Co. LTD) alleging theft of intellectual property (trade secrets) and breaches of contract concerning confidentiality and disclosure of sensitive information. The incident concerns a mobile phone testing robot (Tappy) developed by T-mobile USA to automate testing of mobile phones prior to launch. Tmobile alleges Huawei stole the technology by copying the robot’s specifications and stealing parts and software to develop its own testing robot. The incident scenario is interesting as it relates to a business asset that has both digital and physical components that has been compromised through an unconventional cyber-physical attack facilitated by insiders. The scenario sparked an interesting debate among students about the scope and definition of security incidents, the role and structure of the security unit, the utility of compliance-based approaches to security, and the inadequate use of threat intelligence in modern security strategies

Using a digital library as a Māori language learning resource: Issues and possibilities

The development of electronic language learning resources, founded on digital library technology, is a capability that, to date, is largely unrealised. The Flexible Language Acquisition (FLAX) project is a digital library initiative at the University of Waikato in New Zealand. The current FLAX activities provide practice for students who are learning English as an additional language. The prospect of extending this resource to include te reo Māori is as exciting as it is groundbreaking. The outcomes of this research inform the issues and possibilities involved in creating such resources. The World Wide Web has allowed an everyday access to the Internet, but finding and retrieving pertinent information is often a convoluted and time-consuming exercise. The normal outcome is that users are unable to take full advantage of the available resources. Digital libraries have an unprecedented power in terms of organising and storing vast amounts of information and, with built-in retrieval functionality, serve as ideal repositories. The ability to focus the information within these repositories is extremely significant because there is no longer the chaff that normally results from Internet searches. Purposeful learning activities can be presented exploiting an assortment of media and drawing on stored information that can be assembled in a range of formats. Such capacity, flexibility and diversity is normally only encountered at traditional, physical libraries. The research includes an overview of digital libraries and some of the language learning resources that are currently available on the Internet. Since the target language is te reo Māori, a critical review on the features of kaupapa Māori theory, pedagogy and Māori pedagogy is undertaken. Using the concepts discussed in this review, the language learning activities associated with the FLAX project are analysed to determine their suitability for learning te reo Māori. Further feedback was provided by a sample group following their testing of a selection of activities that were based on text written in te reo Māori. The analysis suggests the current range of FLAX activities have more benefit to students as tools that allow practice of the learning that has been delivered in face-to-face classroom settings, rather than as a standalone language learning resource. In their present form, the main benefits of the activities predominantly rest in the way they were performed rather than in the activities themselves. Furthermore, commentary from the testing group regarded the activities as more beneficial for practicing sentence structures, grammar and punctuation, rather than actual language learning. The group generally agreed, however, that combining the activities with methods of oral and aural transmission, in te reo Māori, would certainly result in more effective language learning outcomes. The legitimacy of digital library-based language learning activities lies in designs that promote learner-centred interaction that is consistent with best practice communicative learning theory. When the target language is te reo Māori, it is of the utmost importance that the activities are tailored to embrace a Māori world view in ways that promote the learning rather than the activity or the content