A Framework for Exploiting Emergent Behaviour to capture 'Best Practice' within a Programming Domain

Inspection is a formalised process for reviewing an artefact in software engineering. It is proven to significantly reduce defects, to ensure that what is delivered is what is required, and that the finished product is effective and robust. Peer code review is a less formal inspection of code, normally classified as inadequate or substandard Inspection. Although it has an increased risk of not locating defects, it has been shown to improve the knowledge and programming skills of its participants. This thesis examines the process of peer code review, comparing it to Inspection, and attempts to describe how an informal code review can improve the knowledge and skills of its participants by deploying an agent oriented approach. During a review the participants discuss defects, recommendations and solutions, or more generally their own experience. It is this instant adaptability to new 11 information that gives the review process the ability to improve knowledge. This observed behaviour can be described as the emergent behaviour of the group of programmers during the review. The wider distribution of knowledge is currently only performed by programmers attending other reviews. To maximise the benefits of peer code review, a mechanism is needed by which the findings from one team can be captured and propagated to other reviews / teams throughout an establishment. A prototype multi-agent system is developed with the aim of capturing the emergent properties of a team of programmers. As the interactions between the team members is unstructured and the information traded is dynamic, a distributed adaptive system is required to provide communication channels for the team and to provide a foundation for the knowledge shared. Software agents are capable of adaptivity and learning. Multi-agent systems are particularly effective at being deployed within distributed architectures and are believed to be able to capture emergent behaviour. The prototype system illustrates that the learning mechanism within the software agents provides a solid foundation upon which the ability to detect defects can be learnt. It also demonstrates that the multi-agent approach is apposite to provide the free flow communication of ideas between programmers, not only to achieve the sharing of defects and solutions but also at a high enough level to capture social information. It is assumed that this social information is a measure of one element of the review process's emergent behaviour. The system is capable of monitoring the team-perceived abilities of programmers, those who are influential on the programming style of others, and the issues upon III which programmers agree or disagree. If the disagreements are classified as unimportant or stylistic issues, can it not therefore be assumed that all agreements are concepts of "Best Practice"? The conclusion is reached that code review is not a substandard Inspection but is in fact complementary to the Inspection model, as the latter improves the process of locating and identifying bugs while the former improves the knowledge and skill of the programmers, and therefore the chance of bugs not being encoded to start with. The prototype system demonstrates that it is possible to capture best practice from a review team and that agents are well suited to the task. The performance criteria of such a system have also been captured. The prototype system has also shown that a reliable level of learning can be attained for a real world task. The innovative way of concurrently deploying multiple agents which use different approaches to achieve the same goal shows remarkable robustness when learning from small example sets. The novel way in which autonomy is promoted within the agents' design but constrained within the agent community allows the system to provide a sufficiently flexible communications structure to capture emergent social behaviour, whilst ensuring that the agents remain committed to their own goals

Retention of Women in Computer Science: Why Women Persist in Their Computer Science Majors

Retention of women through graduation in Computer Science (CS) majors is one of the biggest challenges for CS education. Most research in this area focuses on factors influencing attrition rather than why and how women remain committed. The goal of this research study is to understand retention from the perspective of women who persisted in their CS major. Using the theoretical lens of legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice, I designed and conducted a study that involved focus groups, interviews, journey maps, and experience sampling methods. I found that retention of women in this study was influenced by four different types of interactions and eight different practices inside the CS major. I also found that learning was a matter of multimembership at the intersection of several different communities which supported both these women’s learning and retention. Finally, this dissertation provides a cross-case study narrative that highlights commonalities and differences of different pathways of ongoing participation investigated in this study. Such narrative is illustrated by five individual case studies of five women persisting in their CS major

Investigando como Características Desejáveis afetam o Desempenho de Perguntas sobre Programação em Sites de Perguntas e Respostas.

A Consulta Social é uma das formas populares para se encontrar informação na era das mídias sociais. Consistindo no processo de compartilhar um problema com os usuários de alguma comunidade online e aguardar por respostas. Para obter uma resposta satisfatória, é necessário que alguém apto e disposto a ajudar visualize a requisição. Entretanto, isto nem sempre é facilmente alcançado. Neste sentido, as pesquisas sobre o tema têm se concentrado em propor técnicas de roteamento de perguntas, argumentando que o direcionamento do problema para especialistas atrai atenção destes e garante respostas com qualidade. Entretanto, há perguntas que não são direcionadas a ninguém, mas compartilhadas em broadcasting, que também recebem respostas. Algumas pesquisas recentes identificaram que certas características da pergunta podem ser determinantes para estimar se a mesma será respondida ou não. Na pesquisa ora apresentada, foi realizada uma consulta à comunidade dos Sites de Perguntas e Respostas de Programação, a fim de identificar quais características os usuários levam em consideração, ao escolher quais perguntas responder. Como resultado da consulta, foi elaborado um guideline contendo 16 sugestões de características “boas” que uma pergunta sobre programação poderia ter mais chances de ser respondida. Em seguida, foram realizados estudos a fim de julgar a correlação que a presença das características tinha com o desempenho (número de visualizações recebidas, número de respostas recebidas, tempo até obter a primeira resposta) das perguntas que eram publicadas. Os estudos revelaram apenas correlações muito fracas entre as variáveis testadas, indicando, por exemplo, que a presença de mais dessas características não garante mais respostas ou respostas em menos tempo, mesmo que a comunidade julgue que a inclusão dessas seja importante.The social query is a way to find information in social media age. It is the process of sharing a problem with the user of an online community and waiting for answers. Getting help demands that someone able and willing to help perceives the request. However, this is not always easy. In this context, the literature about this theme has focused in proposing question routing techniques, arguing that directing the problem to experts warns their attention and guarantees high quality answers. However, there are questions that are directed to nobody, but broadcasted, that also receive answers. In this research, we ask the community from Question and Answering Sites about Programming which characteristics they expect in questions they choose to respond. We gathered these answers and created a guideline with 16 suggestions on how to include “good” characteristics in the question. Next, we evaluated how the presence of more of these characteristics was correlated with the question performance (considering features like the number of views, number of answers and time for first response). We found very weak correlations only; thus, indicating that the presence of more of these characteristics has no meaningful impact, even if the community believes it does

Architecture and implementation of online communities

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1999.Includes bibliographical references.by Philip Greenspun.Ph.D

Design principles and patterns for computer systems that are simultaneously secure and usable

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2005.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Includes bibliographical references (p. 429-464) and index.It is widely believed that security and usability are two antagonistic goals in system design. This thesis argues that there are many instances in which security and usability can be synergistically improved by revising the way that specific functionality is implemented in many of today's operating systems and applications. Specific design principles and patterns are presented that can accomplish this goal. Patterns are presented that minimize the release of confidential information through remnant and remanent data left on hard drives, in web browsers, and in documents. These patterns are based on a study involving the purchase of 236 hard drives on the secondary market, interviews conducted with organizations whose drives had been acquired, and through a detailed examination of modern web browsers and reports of information leakage in documents. Patterns are presented that enable secure messaging through the adoption of new key management techniques. These patterns are supported through an analysis of S/MIME handling in modern email clients, a survey of 469 Amazon.com merchants, and a user study of 43 individuals. Patterns are presented for promoting secure operation and for reducing the danger of covert monitoring. These patterns are supported by the literature review and an analysis of current systems.(cont.) In every case considered, it is shown that the perceived antagonism of security and usability can be scaled back or eliminated by revising the underlying designs on which modern systems are conceived. In many cases these designs can be implemented without significant user interface changes. The patterns described in this thesis can be directly applied by today's software developers and used for educating the next generation of programmers so that longstanding usability problems in computer security can at last be addressed. It is very likely that additional patterns can be identified in other related areas.by Simson L. Garfinkel.Ph.D

Digital work in the planetary market

Many of the world’s most valuable companies rely on planetary networks of digital work that underpin their products and services. This important book examines implications for both work and workers when jobs are commodified and traded beyond local labor markets. For instance, Amazon’s contractors in Costa Rica, India, and Romania are paid to structure, annotate, and organize conversations captured by ‘Alexa’ to train Amazon’s speech recognition systems. Findings show that despite its planetary connections, labor remains geographically “sticky” and embedded in distinct contexts. The research emphasizes the globe-spanning nature of contemporary networks without resorting to an understanding of “the global” as a place beyond space.Aujourd’hui, de nombreux emplois peuvent être exercés depuis n’importe où. La technologie numérique et la connectivité Internet généralisée permettent à presque n’importe qui, n’importe où, de se connecter à n’importe qui d’autre pour communiquer et interagir à l’échelle planétaire. Ce livre examine les conséquences, tant pour le travail que pour les travailleurs, de la marchandisation et de l’échange des emplois au-delà des marchés du travail locaux. Allant au-delà du discours habituel sur la mondialisation « le monde est plat », les contributeurs examinent à la fois la transformation du travail lui-même et les systèmes, réseaux et processus plus larges qui permettent le travail numérique dans un marché planétaire, en offrant des perspectives empiriques et théoriques. Les contributeurs - des universitaires et des experts de premier plan issus de diverses disciplines - abordent une variété de questions, notamment la modération du contenu, les véhicules autonomes et les assistants vocaux. Ils se penchent d’abord sur la nouvelle expérience du travail et constatent que, malgré ses connexions planétaires, le travail reste géographiquement collé et intégré dans des contextes distincts. Ils examinent ensuite comment les réseaux planétaires de travail peuvent être cartographiés et problématisés, ils discutent de la multiplicité productive et de l’interdisciplinarité de la réflexion sur le travail numérique et ses réseaux et, enfin, ils imaginent comment le travail planétaire pourrait être réglementé. Les directeurs Mark Graham est professeur de géographie de l’Internet à l’Oxford Internet Institute et chargé de cours à l’Alan Turing Institute. Il est l’éditeur du livre Digital Economies at Global Margins (MIT Press et CRDI, 2019). Fabian Ferrari est un candidat au doctorat à l’Oxford Internet Institute

Digital writing technologies in higher education : theory, research, and practice

This open access book serves as a comprehensive guide to digital writing technology, featuring contributions from over 20 renowned researchers from various disciplines around the world. The book is designed to provide a state-of-the-art synthesis of the developments in digital writing in higher education, making it an essential resource for anyone interested in this rapidly evolving field. In the first part of the book, the authors offer an overview of the impact that digitalization has had on writing, covering more than 25 key technological innovations and their implications for writing practices and pedagogical uses. Drawing on these chapters, the second part of the book explores the theoretical underpinnings of digital writing technology such as writing and learning, writing quality, formulation support, writing and thinking, and writing processes. The authors provide insightful analysis on the impact of these developments and offer valuable insights into the future of writing. Overall, this book provides a cohesive and consistent theoretical view of the new realities of digital writing, complementing existing literature on the digitalization of writing. It is an essential resource for scholars, educators, and practitioners interested in the intersection of technology and writing

Human Factors Certification of Advanced Aviation Technologies

Proceedings of the Human Factors Certification of Advanced Aviation Technologies Conference held at the Chateau de Bonas, near Toulouse, France, 19-23 July 1993

Technology 2002: The Third National Technology Transfer Conference and Exposition, volume 2

Proceedings from symposia of the Technology 2002 Conference and Exposition, December 1-3, 1992, Baltimore, MD. Volume 2 features 60 papers presented during 30 concurrent sessions