The Systemic Risk of Consolidation in the Cloud Computing Industry

Title from PDF of title page viewed January 13, 2022Dissertation advisor: James SturgeonVitaIncludes bibliographical references (page 180-194)Thesis (Ph.D.)--Department of Economics, Henry W. Bloch School of Management. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2021The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of consolidation within the cloud computing industry related to the reliability and availability of computing resources. This dissertation begins by assessing the scale and scope of the cloud computing industry leader, Amazon Web Services. Included in this assessment are a collection of case studies that reveal some of the unique transactions between actors in this industry. The next section uses a bowtie analysis to frame for discussion the key risks related to cloud computing. This framework is used to analyze how the economic risks of compromise and unavailability have changed with a shift from on premise computing to cloud computing. A normative systems analysis examines the policy considerations for addressing the consolidation in the cloud computing industry, and the social fabric matrix is applied to discuss the unique deliveries among processing institutions and between processing institutions and authorizing institutions. On the basis of the normative systems analysis, several policy implications are examined, including the extent to which government spending reinforces consolidation of power and risk within the cloud computing industry.Introduction, Problem Statement and Background -- Literature Review -- Scale and Scope of AWS -- Analyzing the Risk if AWS Failure -- A Normative systems Analysis of AWS -- The Social Fabric Matrix -- Conclusion and Discussion -- Appendix A.State Apportionment Formulas -- Appendix B. The Senior Management Team over Amazon.com, Inc. -- Appendix C. The Senior Management Team over AW

Information and Communications Technologies and Secondary Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: Policies, Practices, Trends and Recommendations

The following report discusses the use of Information Communications Technologies (ICTs) to improve access to, quality of, and delivery of secondary education within sub-Saharan Africa. It discusses the policy environment for ICTs in sub-Saharan Africa, their successes, challenges, andlessons learned, and it concludes with a broad and detailed set of recommendations for policymakers, donors, the private sector, designers, and implementers of ICTs in education programs. The report seeks to generally answer the question of how sub-Saharan African (SSA) governments can best use technology to improve access to secondary education, improve learning, strengthen management of schools and the education system, and foster innovation

Practices of shared living: Exploring environmental sustainability in UK cohousing, community living, and coliving

The environmental impacts of the UK’s domestic sector must be lowered if they are to meet UK government greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) reduction targets. However, government initiatives to lower domestic GHGs have had little success, and progress has been too slow. Given this lack of top-down impetus, it is worth investigating alternative housing solutions. Previous research has shown that shared living – in which residents share spaces, resources, and social time – tends to have lower environmental impacts than the average household. However, this issue has not yet been explored within the UK. There is also research which shows that social networks can be effective in encouraging practice transitions and maintenance. This has not yet been thoroughly investigated within the context of shared living and environmental sustainability. This research aimed to explore the practices and infrastructures which enable pro-environmental outcomes within shared living. This aim was achieved through in-depth research in six shared living case studies. The research mainly adopted an ethnographic approach, complemented by quantitative measurement of GHGs. This research shows that the shared living case studies have significantly lower GHGs than the average UK household. This builds upon previous quantitative environmental evaluations of shared living. In studying practices, infrastructures and social networks within shared living, this research identifies four types of sharing that are significant to pro-environmental outcomes: shared ideals, shared governance, shared materials and spaces, and shared endeavour. For each type of sharing, the findings describe and analyse how processes of negotiation enable and constrain pro-environmental practices and outcomes. By exploring these processes, this research generates new knowledge on how and why shared living can produce lower-than-average domestic environmental impacts. Thus, the research demonstrates the potential and the mechanisms by which shared living may offer environmentally sustainable housing solutions for the UK

Practices of shared living: Exploring environmental sustainability in UK cohousing, community living, and coliving

The environmental impacts of the UK's domestic sector must be lowered if they are to meet UK government greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) reduction targets. However, government initiatives to lower domestic GHGs have had little success, and progress has been too slow. Given this lack of top-down impetus, it is worth investigating alternative housing solutions. Previous research has shown that shared living - in which residents share spaces, resources, and social time - tends to have lower environmental impacts than the average household. However, this issue has not yet been explored within the UK. There is also research which shows that social networks can be effective in encouraging practice transitions and maintenance. This has not yet been thoroughly investigated within the context of shared living and environmental sustainability. This research aimed to explore the practices and infrastructures which enable pro-environmental outcomes within shared living. This aim was achieved through in-depth research in six shared living case studies. The research mainly adopted an ethnographic approach, complemented by quantitative measurement of GHGs. This research shows that the shared living case studies have significantly lower GHGs than the average UK household. This builds upon previous quantitative environmental evaluations of shared living. In studying practices, infrastructures and social networks within shared living, this research identifies four types of sharing that are significant to pro-environmental outcomes: shared ideals, shared governance, shared materials and spaces, and shared endeavour. For each type of sharing, the findings describe and analyse how processes of negotiation enable and constrain pro-environmental practices and outcomes. By exploring these processes, this research generates new knowledge on how and why shared living can produce lower-than-average domestic environmental impacts. Thus, the research demonstrates the potential and the mechanisms by which shared living may offer environmentally sustainable housing solutions for the UK

Fighting Poverty, Profitably: Transforming the Economics of Payments to Build Sustainable, Inclusive Financial Systems

The Gates Foundation's Financial Services for the Poor program (FSP) believes that effective financial services are paramount in the fight against poverty. Nonetheless, today more than 2 billion people live outside the formal financial sector. Increasing their access to high quality, affordable financial services will accelerate the well-being of households, communities, and economies in the developing world. One of the most promising ways to deliver these financial services to the poor -- profitably and at scale -- is by using digital payment platforms.These are the conclusions we have reached as the result of extensive research in pursuit of one of the Foundation's primary missions: to give the world's poorest people the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty.FSP conducted this research because we believe that there is a gap in the fact base and understanding of how payment systems can extend digital services to low income consumers in developing markets. This is a complex topic, with fragmented information and a high degree of country-by-country variability. A complete view across the entire payment system has been missing, limiting how system providers, policy makers, and regulators (groups we refer to collectively as financial inclusion stakeholders) evaluate decisions and take actions. With a holistic view of the payment system, we believe that interventions can have higher impact, and stakeholders can better understand and address the ripple effects that changes to one part of the system can have. In this report, we focus on the economics of payment systems to understand how they can be transformed to serve poor people in a way that is profitable and sustainable in aggregate

Citizenship, Democracy and Belonging in Suburban Britain: Making the local

A study of the conditions of being a citizen, belonging and democracy in suburban Britain, this book focuses on understanding how a community takes on the social responsibility and pressures of being a good citizen through what they call ‘stupid’ events, festivals and parades. Building a community is perceived to be an important and necessary act to enable resilience against the perceived threats of neoliberal socio-economic life such as isolation, selfishness and loss of community. Citizenship, Democracy and Belonging in Suburban Britain explores how authoritative knowledge is developed, maintained and deployed by this group as they encounter other ‘social projects’, such as the local council planning committee or academic projects researching participation in urban planning. The activists, who call themselves the ‘Seething Villagers’, model their community activity on the mythical ancient village of Seething where moral tales of how to work together, love others and be a community are laid out in the Seething Tales. These tales include Seething ‘facts’ such as the fact that the ancient Mountain of Seething was destroyed by a giant. The assertion of fact is central to the mechanisms of play and the refusal of expertise at the heart of the Seething community. The book also stands as a reflexive critique on anthropological practice, as the author examines their role in mobilising knowledge and speaking on behalf of others. Citizenship, Democracy and Belonging in Suburban Britain is of interest to anthropologists, urban studies scholars, geographers and those interested in the notions of democracy, inclusion, citizenship and anthropological practice

Citizenship, Democracy and Belonging in Suburban Britain

A study of the conditions of being a citizen, belonging and democracy in suburban Britain, this book focuses on understanding how a community takes on the social responsibility and pressures of being a good citizen through what they call ‘stupid’ events, festivals and parades. Building a community is perceived to be an important and necessary act to enable resilience against the perceived threats of neoliberal socio-economic life such as isolation, selfishness and loss of community. Citizenship, Democracy and Belonging in Suburban Britain explores how authoritative knowledge is developed, maintained and deployed by this group as they encounter other ‘social projects’, such as the local council planning committee or academic projects researching participation in urban planning. The activists, who call themselves the ‘Seething Villagers’, model their community activity on the mythical ancient village of Seething where moral tales of how to work together, love others and be a community are laid out in the Seething Tales. These tales include Seething ‘facts’ such as the fact that the ancient Mountain of Seething was destroyed by a giant. The assertion of fact is central to the mechanisms of play and the refusal of expertise at the heart of the Seething community. The book also stands as a reflexive critique on anthropological practice, as the author examines their role in mobilising knowledge and speaking on behalf of others Citizenship, Democracy and Belonging in Suburban Britain is of interest to anthropologists, urban studies scholars, geographers and those interested in the notions of democracy, inclusion, citizenship and anthropological practice

Indigenous Water Governance in the Anthropocene: Non-Conventional Hydrosocial Relations Among the Wayuu of the Guajira Peninsula in Northern Colombia

The dissertation problematizes the supremacy of a global water management regime while discerning and defending local Wayuu hydrosocial relations. The Wayuu relationship with water—considered non-conventional, unsanitary or insecure according to hegemonic Western standards—can also be characterized positively as alternative, resilient, sustainable, adaptive and exceptional. Contemporary water governance presents challenges yet also opportunities for the Wayuu and other Indigenous peoples to (re)assert and (re)establish contextualized and culturally specific practices, traditions and ways of knowing that have been historically silenced by conventional water management. The Wayuu territory, located on the semi-arid Guajira Peninsula in northern Colombia, is widely considered a region suffering from chronic food and water insecurity, aggravated by climate change and exacerbated by widespread corruption and political instability. In response, a conventional approach presumes that the Wayuu are in urgent need of assistance and the solution to the water problem lies in installing waterworks; instructing the Wayuu in acceptable water, sanitation and hygiene behaviors; and instilling good water governance practices. I argue that this common discourse is a representation of reality that uses epistemological assumptions, vested authority, rhetoric and specialized terminology to present a dominant —yet deceptive and partial—depiction of Wayuu–water relations. While some resource management experts are confident that integration is possible between Indigenous and Western knowledge systems, critical social scientists from political ecology and ontological anthropology find bridging initiatives problematic. While political ecology emphasizes the politics and contested nature of water accessibility between different social actors, ontological anthropology underscores the deep ontological divide that impedes mutual understanding and integration of water knowledge systems. Informed by the debates in these fields, I use ethnographic evidence from over 80 Wayuu communities, including survey data, mapping, semi-structured interviews, participant observation and discourse analysis, to explore the (in)commensurability between “non-conventional” Wayuu hydrosocial relations and the dominant conventional water management regime. The dissertation research found that a generalized pattern of failed or faulty water development projects throughout Wayuu territory meant to increase water security often produce water insecurity and increased vulnerability, further exacerbating the precarity caused by anthropogenic climatic change

Working Notes from the 1992 AAAI Workshop on Automating Software Design. Theme: Domain Specific Software Design

The goal of this workshop is to identify different architectural approaches to building domain-specific software design systems and to explore issues unique to domain-specific (vs. general-purpose) software design. Some general issues that cut across the particular software design domain include: (1) knowledge representation, acquisition, and maintenance; (2) specialized software design techniques; and (3) user interaction and user interface