Collaborative coding in the cloud : providing a paradigm shift to the way software development is achieved in environments of the future

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology.This research aims to address a number of challenges surrounding traditional software development practices, including the need for team transparency, synergy between project components and developers who are weighed down by desktop based environments. A cloud computing model is discussed, including a hypothesis on the required platform to solve many of these challenges. A number of previous research agendas are raised; including extensions to the JEdit and Eclipse IDEs, purpose built collaborative platforms, and an IDE that operates on a mobile device. Two cases studies around Google Wave and Mozilla Bespin are raised, and how industry leaders are addressing these challenges. Through a qualitative survey, the needs of a developer and perceptions behind cloud computing are raised with a discrete range of industry professionals. A proposed model is provided, which aims at borrowing concepts traditionally found in social networking yet applies them toward a software development context, and highlights a number of recommendations for success. A research subset is then chosen to provide a technical implementation of a Google Wave agent, aimed at assisting distributed teams with cross communication and autonomous up-skill. Finally, the research outcome answers the question of whether an IDE can be deployed within cloud based architectures and be adopted by the software development community. Given the infancy of the platform, the research outcome finds that immediate deployment of the proposed platform cannot be realized, and that researchers are dependent on platform maturity before successful deployment and adoption can be achieved. The overall research provides a number of future research directions, including reassessment of the philosophy proposed throughout this research, implementation of the proposed framework, or improvements focused on the communication and collaboration agent developed. The research fulfills a number of research areas required in the arenas of communication and collaboration among the software engineering community

Open government information awareness

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2003.Includes bibliographical references (p. 98-100).In the United States, there is a widening gap between a citizen's ability to monitor his or her government and the government's ability to monitor a citizen. Average citizens have limited access to important government records, while available information is often illegible. Meanwhile, the government's eagerness and means to oversee a citizen's personal activity is rapidly increasing. As the government broadens internal surveillance, and collaborates with private institutions to access data on the public, it is crucial that we maintain a symmetry of accountability. If we believe the United States should be a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people" it is of central importance to provide citizens with the power to oversee their government. At least as much effort should be spent building tools to facilitate citizens supervising their government as tools to help the government monitor individuals. In this thesis, I discuss the motivations, design, and implementation of Government Information Awareness, a citizen run database on our government. Fundamentally, this system relies on an organizational structure that accepts information from an anonymous population, stores it, and represents it with enough context to maintain legibility. My work in this thesis is offering a framework for a system that could help citizens pool their collective knowledge, and through this process, create a more informed public capable of self-rule.Ryan McKinley.S.M

Video game graphics and players’ perception of subjective realism.

This work explores how people who play and develop video games perceive realism. ‘Realism’ is a very broad term and has different meanings for different people, therefore in this project the terms 'realism’ and ‘visual fidelity’ are used to refer to the visuals and their appearance in video games. This helps define what is perceived as believable and close to real-life by consumers as well as developers. Realism can clearly be noticed in the artistic aspect of games; accordingly, this project focuses on this side of the subject. In order to understand why visual fidelity is an important factor in game development, this work provides a brief summary of the history of video games. As Physically Based Rendering is commonly used nowadays, the project aims to understand the contribution of PBR31 to achieving realism. The project aims to investigate how game developers achieve visual fidelity and realistic environments. It will consider what is needed to create visuals that are perceived as realistic and what distinguishes the realistic aesthetic from other art styles in video games. Lighting, texture maps, workflows and other terms are discussed, in conjunction with exploring consumer opinion on the subject. The project employs a qualitative research method through asking game developers and gamers for their opinions on themes regarding the subject to help establish whether there is a different understanding of the term in the different groups. To understand better why visuals are sometimes perceived as ‘creepy’ and as part of the ‘uncanny valley’, related psychological aspects and influences are taken into account. This work also investigates how other aspects of the development process (design, animation, narrative, sound, etc.) assist the visual art with conveying realism to the customers. This also aids the formation of a hypothesis of whether true realism in video games will ever be accomplished

Making sense of the organisation from the front line : the call centre context

Sensemaking is a key concept supporting managerial and organisational cognitive research, and the analysis of various intervening processes that mediate how organisational members simplify and make sense of their environments. This study has directly responded to the challenge set by researchers to extend the utility of the sensemaking concept to contexts other than management. Here it was applied in the context of the United Kingdom call centre sector, where concerns have been expressed regarding a variety of key working practices that have been reported to be less than desirable, and focused upon the call centre front line worker. Reflecting a number of recent methodological debates, the study applied a multidisciplinary approach, and the employment of cause mapping data elicitation procedures. The research methodology developed enabled the collection of 200 cause maps across 5 organisations, spanning public and private sectors, in a manner that was meaningful for study participants and sufficiently rigorous to allow comparisons to be made between individual maps and across various subgroups. A variety of situational factors and individual differences variables were taken into consideration in terms of their potential impact upon, and ability to be influenced and shaped by, the processes of sensemaking. It was found that the various attempts to institutionalise call centres into an industry has not yet penetrated the lower reaches of the organisations in this study, and numerous additional insights were revealed regarding the differences in patterns of sensemaking across organisations and various sub-groups. The study has provided insights ultimately enhancing our understanding of the processes required to improve the working conditions of such front line employees. Management and employee relations were particularly salient issues for this study population. However, the variance in sensemaking revealed in this study implies that the realities of management and employee may be quite different, with these multiple realities potentially leading to fundamental misconceptions between the two parties. This has implications in terms of a wide range of organisational factors, for example job design and performance measurement. More attention is now required to take account of the sensemaking of non-managerial populations who, in and beyond the call centre context, make up the largest part of almost any contemporary work organisation