The Global Positioning System: Global Developments and Opportunities

International Relations/Trade,

To Offshore or Nearshore IT services? An investigation using transaction cost theory

The phenomenon of offshoring, that is, the outsourcing of highly- qualified services into low wage countries was until now considered an economy-specific solution to counteract the constant rise in costs caused by the intensified global competition. At the same time, this form of cross-country division of labor had been prognosticated by various studies to lead to overall positive economic effects. Recently, however, there has been much discussion in the political and management ranks on the controversial issue of the advantageousness of offshoring. The trend, which has been enforced by numerous consultants, has led to a decline in domestic employment as well as not accomplishing cost savings thus intensifying doubt over its validity. The following paper deals with the advantageousness of offshoring in the case of IT services. In order to detach oneself from the limited account given by looking at wage costs, the analysis is conducted from the viewpoint of transaction cost theory. In doing so, it constantly distinguishes between offshoring and nearshoring strategies and the alternatives in examining specific costs are weighed out against each other. It will be shown that relevant motivation and coordination costs vary depending on not only geographical distance but also cultural difference. As such, the role of effective cooperation and interface management is clarified in order to be able to reduce known transaction costs.interational outsourcing, offshoring, nearshoring, transaction costs

Towards a Critical Open-Source Software Database

Open-source software (OSS) plays a vital role in the modern software ecosystem. However, the maintenance and sustainability of OSS projects can be challenging. In this paper, we present the CrOSSD project, which aims to build a database of OSS projects and measure their current project "health" status. In the project, we will use both quantitative and qualitative metrics to evaluate the health of OSS projects. The quantitative metrics will be gathered through automated crawling of meta information such as the number of contributors, commits and lines of code. Qualitative metrics will be gathered for selected "critical" projects through manual analysis and automated tools, including aspects such as sustainability, funding, community engagement and adherence to security policies. The results of the analysis will be presented on a user-friendly web platform, which will allow users to view the health of individual OSS projects as well as the overall health of the OSS ecosystem. With this approach, the CrOSSD project provides a comprehensive and up-to-date view of the health of OSS projects, making it easier for developers, maintainers and other stakeholders to understand the health of OSS projects and make informed decisions about their use and maintenance.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Precaution against Coronavirus and Housing Neighborhood Standard in Selected Areas of Lagos State, Nigeria

Housing and neighborhood conditions can significantly affect health, safety, and well-being of citizens in a country. The current COVID-19 outbreak and its manner of transmission tests the potential resilience of nations, while revealing various economic, political, and health challenges – whereby housing being one and in fact the basis of them. The most well-planned and maintained housing environments in Nigeria are mostly populated by the rich, more-privileged, and less often the middle-income earners, while the lower-class groups of people reside in unkempt or sub-standard neighborhoods. The objectives of this study are to examine the neighborhood and housing standards in five selected areas of Lagos and to investigate the level of residents’ compliance with the physical/social distancing polices relating to the precautions against COVID-19 spread. Data were gathered through a mixed-method approach, alongside facility surveys and physical observations. A total of 161 copies of questionnaire were administered in the Fola-Agoro, Abule-Ijesha, Bariga, Abule-Oja, and Onike-Iwaya areas – all within the essential part of the city. 152 questionnaires were returned with 143 of them were found valid for generating the required analysis through the use of SPSS software. Features like road networks, drainage systems, infrastructural facilities, commercial properties, and various types of dwelling units exist across these areas. However, findings from the survey analysis indicated poor neighborhood and housing standards that manifested in lack of conducive neighborhood dwelling facilities/conditions like adequate space, proper ventilation, good security, serenity, efficient household services, and a well-planned environment, all affect residents’ operations in the areas. The overall inadequacy of basic amenities affected the residents’ level of adherence to the lockdown policy as the selected areas lacked appreciable neighborhood and housing standards. Hence, it is recommended that related and concerned authorities should provide the basic habitable conditions such as spacious neighborhood, good ventilation, serene environment, efficient neighborhood security and good road networks. This, presumably, will promote comfort among residents’ and enhance their ability to abide by the physical distancing policy towards the prevention of the pandemic spread and indeed any subsequent disease outbreaks capable of being doused by good neighborhood and housing standards

Precaution against Coronavirus and Housing Neighborhood Standard in Selected Areas of Lagos State, Nigeria

Housing and neighborhood conditions can significantly affect health, safety, and well-being of citizens in a country. The current COVID-19 outbreak and its manner of transmission tests the potential resilience of nations, while revealing various economic, political, and health challenges – whereby housing being one and in fact the basis of them. The most well-planned and maintained housing environments in Nigeria are mostly populated by the rich, more-privileged, and less often the middle-income earners, while the lower-class groups of people reside in unkempt or sub-standard neighborhoods. The objectives of this study are to examine the neighborhood and housing standards in five selected areas of Lagos and to investigate the level of residents’ compliance with the physical/social distancing polices relating to the precautions against COVID-19 spread. Data were gathered through a mixed-method approach, alongside facility surveys and physical observations. A total of 161 copies of questionnaire were administered in the Fola-Agoro, Abule-Ijesha, Bariga, Abule-Oja, and Onike-Iwaya areas – all within the essential part of the city. 152 questionnaires were returned with 143 of them were found valid for generating the required analysis through the use of SPSS software. Features like road networks, drainage systems, infrastructural facilities, commercial properties, and various types of dwelling units exist across these areas. However, findings from the survey analysis indicated poor neighborhood and housing standards that manifested in lack of conducive neighborhood dwelling facilities/conditions like adequate space, proper ventilation, good security, serenity, efficient household services, and a well-planned environment, all affect residents’ operations in the areas. The overall inadequacy of basic amenities affected the residents’ level of adherence to the lockdown policy as the selected areas lacked appreciable neighborhood and housing standards. Hence, it is recommended that related and concerned authorities should provide the basic habitable conditions such as spacious neighborhood, good ventilation, serene environment, efficient neighborhood security and good road networks. This, presumably, will promote comfort among residents’ and enhance their ability to abide by the physical distancing policy towards the prevention of the pandemic spread and indeed any subsequent disease outbreaks capable of being doused by good neighborhood and housing standards

AI for Social Impact: Learning and Planning in the Data-to-Deployment Pipeline

With the maturing of AI and multiagent systems research, we have a tremendous opportunity to direct these advances towards addressing complex societal problems. In pursuit of this goal of AI for Social Impact, we as AI researchers must go beyond improvements in computational methodology; it is important to step out in the field to demonstrate social impact. To this end, we focus on the problems of public safety and security, wildlife conservation, and public health in low-resource communities, and present research advances in multiagent systems to address one key cross-cutting challenge: how to effectively deploy our limited intervention resources in these problem domains. We present case studies from our deployments around the world as well as lessons learned that we hope are of use to researchers who are interested in AI for Social Impact. In pushing this research agenda, we believe AI can indeed play an important role in fighting social injustice and improving society.Comment: To appear, AI Magazin

Construction-Ready Digital Terrain Models

Since 2009, Kentucky has made its 3D design data available as a supplemental reference to bidders through the project delivery process. This research discusses methods for ensuring electronic engineering data (EED) — and specifically the proposed digital terrain model (DTM) — support modern construction management methods at the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC). Researchers performed a literature review, surveyed KYTC construction and design staff, engaged with Cabinet staff and industry members to understand the current state of practice, and evaluated quality- related attributes of the EED through case studies. The report presents a set of targeted recommendations for improving KYTC processes of highway design review, training and guidance for Cabinet staff, data sharing and management, professional service contract negotiations, and facilitated communication between KYTC and its industry partners

WLAN PLANNING AND CONCEPTUAL DESIGN IN UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI PETRONAS

Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) is one of the new networking environments where it supports the mobility of the network user without being encumbered by the cable existence. Since the current Local Area Network (LAN) in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) is fairly growth and the performance reliability is good shifting the current setup to WLAN is locally accepted. This will benefit all the UTP users including students, respective lecturers, and beneficial for administration line of staff. The current planning and setup will cover certain stages in order to build a high reliability and best performance of the WLAN environment. Data transmission and signal strength for the area is fairly surveyed in order to result the best performance and ability to transmit data in bit per second required. Research and questionnaire have also been done throughout the UTP students, IT Media Services Executives, respective IT Consultants from KLCCB Project Berhad in order to determine the best design concept to be applied in UTP campus and to determine the best place for WLAN to be implemented. Usage models are also needed to be determined in order to support the activity that will be in the WLAN environment. The conceptual design of WLAN environment will cater the area of the student residential including the Student Center, cafeteria, and residential buildings for Village 3,4 and 5. With help of this design it will be easier to determine the location of all the devices such as the wireless access point (AP) and security access point (SAP) as to roam the signal coverage and to secure the signal for data transmission. The technology use in data transmission is also being covered in this research paper, which includes the Spread Spectrum LAN. As to meet the problem statement requirement to ensure the system meets the budgeted cost, the author came out with the budgeting plan for all the devices allocated for the WLAN setup. The WLAN planning and setup in UTP research will help the UTP management in getting the grasp idea how to setup WLAN environment in UTP campus and to compliance with the current LAN setup and to secure the cost and budgeting for all devices related

Selecting Cloud Service Providers - Towards a Framework of Assessment Criteria and Requirements

The on-demand usage of enterprise software services from the cloud rapidly evolves towards a viable IT outsourcing option. Although the successful use of software services considerably depends on the ability of the consumers to assess the various offerings and select the ones best suited, literature provides little support for the evaluation of software services and their providers. In this manuscript, we address the question of how to support the evaluation of software service providers. Building upon a design science research approach and a literature survey, we propose an assessment framework that assembles relevant criteria for the evaluation of software service providers. We examine the practical relevance of the assembled criteria using the results of an empirical study, in which we surveyed 28 experts on the subject matter. The results indicate that the framework is effective in supporting the assessment of service providers