Techpost #2 – A Historical Framework

Wing Yi (Winnie) Chung

301090175

Tech 124 D203

TA: Drew Batcheller

Prof: James Phillips

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Techpost #2 – A Historical Framework

Techpost #3 – The Future of Smart ID Cards

Wing Yi (Winnie) Chung

301090175

Tech 114 D203

TA: Drew Batcheller

Prof: James Phillips

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The Future of Smart ID Cards

With the series of large scale terrorist attacks in the early 2000, the notion of national and personal security have rose dramatically. Security and baggage checking procedures have escalated, resulting in long line ups at the customs and delays, which have become a common sight in global transportation hubs. Although the security measures and procedures have become more extensive, forms of personal verification of a person’s identity have not changed. Prior to the development of Smart ID Cards, there might have be the occasional extra watermark or shiny strip on the identification documents. Yet, no visible improvements can be seen in regards to fraud prevention and other illegal means as global travelers are still utilizing the same “primitive” form of paper identification.

The Smart ID Card technology has offered abundance in security. Its uses are very versatile and can be modified easily to suit the needs of every individual. This device can be utilized for identification, authentication, and data storage. For commercial purposes, daily business transactions can be performed in a flexible and secure manner with “minimal human intervention”. Since its first successful implementation, it has been honed and further refined to prevent hackers and counterfeiters. Hence, as of the early 1990s, a steady growth of this technology’s application can be found globally within governments and corporation.

The predecessor of the Minigrain is the RFID tag that is used in tagging animals. In the year of 2059, this technology has now further developed into being widely used in the general public. The device itself is no bigger than the size of a piece of rice. It is placed and injected in your upper arm (where your shots are normally taken) or shoulder blade with a surgical syringe. Essentially, it is placed in a location where it will not affect one’s daily performance. To activate the device, the individual is only required to stand within a few feet of the scanner. With over half a century of extensive developement, its data base system have broadened and expanded beyond its initial size. Not only is this device suitable for identification and verification, it now can be used and be replaced as a pass for transportation as well as collaborating and working conjointly with the various companies like VISA. For many, the Smart ID Cards have brought great convenience to their everyday lives. By having it with you, more specifically, in you, one will no longer be worried in stolen or misplaced documents.

For people who service the general public on the frontlines, the Minigrain can serve as a valuable resource to identify them during events of crisis and emergency. If in the case of an emergency, when the firefighter/policemen/other servicemen perish during their operations, their body can be easily identified. As well, in the case of hospitalization, the Minigrain will contain all the basic and important medical information of the individual. Hence, all the medical staff will need to do is to scan. Furthermore, to gain access into certain areas, it can be done much more efficiently as access grants and special permissions can already be programmed into the chip beforehand rather than waiting at the scene for grants and permissions. The Minigrain also incorporates the Global Positioning System. This implant will give the ability for one to locate their spot on the globe with simply with a scanner. This means aside from the ability to find yourself on the map, during operations, the servicemen can be kept in track with a scanner.

Bibliography

About Smart Identity Card. Frequently Asked Questions. Retrieved April 10, 2009, from GOVHK Web site http://www.smartid.gov.hk/en/faq/index.html#00a

Grant, I. (2008, February 06). UK has lessons to learn for Hong Kong for ID Cards. IT Management. Retrieved April 10, 2009, from http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/02/06/229296/uk-has-lessons-to-learn-from-hong-kong-on-id-cards.htm

Hong Kong Identity Card. (2009, January 25). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved April 10, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_Identity_Card

Kanellos, M. Under the skin ID chips move toward US hospitals. BNET Business Network. Retrieved April 10, 2009, from http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-137431.html

Smart Cards. (2009, February 08). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved April 11, 2009, from   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_card

ALMOST THERE~

2nd semester, what a ride

election, food poisoning, back inflammation…what a way to end.

currently onto 2nd last week of sleepless nites..almost done catching up

two more assignments~ AHHHH!!! MUST FINISH!

I CAN DO THIS~

PS. never eat an unrefridgerated sandwich with cheese and mayo.  BAD BAD IDEA~

Week 9 StudioLab#4: Facebook of Alexander Graham Bell

Hey guys~

Please Click on the two links to see my studio lab assignment #4 on Alexander Graham Bell (inventor of the telephone and other cool inventions!)

Facebook Profile Page

Facebook Wall Page

Enjoy!

My Month of Disappearance Explained~

As quite a few people have noticed, during the course of last month, I have literally disappeared from my lectures, labs, and tutorials, as well as many various social hangouts etc.  As I pop back into my usual track in life, I sit here now to explain and reflect the adventures which I have experienced for the past month.  Hopefully, it may give you an insight in the things which I had involved myself in and clear up some of your questions and confusion of my sudden disappearance :]

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March is a very exciting month here at Simon Fraser University. Across the campuses of this post secondary institution, when one walks down its hallways, one will notice colourful posters of all sorts, printed and hand drawn. At times, one might be interrupted enroute to their classes by individuals with handbills and the occasional baked goods.

Yes folks, as one can see from the various facebook group invites and posters that scream VOTE ME at you, March is the month for the annual SFSS General Elections here at Simon Fraser University.

My name is Winnie Chung, and I am a student who had the opportunity to participate as a running candidate for this years’ election. Being a freshman, this month has been a major highlight of my first year at SFU. Through the course of this month, I had learned a lot from the entire experience. For candidates like myself, the entire event takes up literally one month of a students’ life, which can be quite consuming and very stressful. Often, school work and other academic commitments are interrupted due to the engagements required of a running candidate in the election time period. The campaign period of candidates takes up about three weeks with two debates included for all candidates, one held at the burnaby campus and the other at surrey campus.

The campaigning for the election was definitely the most memorable portion of the entire event. As one walks down the hallways, you may have noticed bright yellow posters with a caricature on it. Those posters were all handdrawn by myself personally. I would spend nights tirelessly drawing with my sharpies. I remember one weekend when I produced 50 of those long strips of yellow posters, I had gone through 8 pens of sharpie pens. My room and clothes still reak faintly of sharpies, considering how cozy and small my dorm room is.

Throughout the entire campaign period, many posters were posted across campuses. However, as the days edge closer to the actual voting dates, tension rose amongst the candidates. For myself, I was pulled into the whirlwind with the convo mall incident, which was the first time I began posting my posters. Ada (the newly president elect), Mona (the newly member services officer elect), and I (the newly member at large rep elected), spent over 5 hours in the middle of the night taping our posters on the concrete beams of the two walkways in convo mall. The next day, the independent electorial commission, who moderates the entire election, surprised us by a removal order of those posters. The entire incident and the removal decision was made behind without our knowledge, essentially made without the proper complaint and appeal process. This greatly angered us as the ruling decision was unfairly bestowed upon us three. Furthermore, many posters were vandalized and destroyed during the course of the election. I guess that was the lowlight of the entire election experience for me. It saddens me how much effort was put into putting up the posters while other people can simply destroy our hard work by ripping them down. I had spent over 10 hours postering simply in convo mall, however towards the end, none of my posters were there anymore. Regardless, I enjoyed the times when I posted them as I came to meet a lot of great mentors, friends, and other fellow sfu students.

The position which I was running and now elected for is Member-At-Large Representative. This particular role has no specific adgenda like the faculty reps, hence their jobs are very flexible. They are there as a general board member who is free to pursue any project of their choice and will assist executive officers with their projects if needed.

I had decided to run for a position on the SFSS due a couple of reasons.

I had always enjoyed getting involved within the school community and doing active volunteering. As well, I am a strong believer that a student should be able to get the most of their university experience with the tutition they are paying. I learned that SFSS pays literally half a million dollars in membership fees every year to an external organization that lobbys for students (lower tuition fees, better transit, etc). I was apalled to learn that this organization has done little to nothing for the benefit of SFU students. Essentially, the money has gone into this “mysterious” blackhole. It angers me greatly that the money of the students and family, who are working endlessly to pay for tuition, are disappearing into other individuals’ vacation leaves and pockets. That half a million dollars can do so much for the students here at SFU in terms of assisting clubs, hosting events and improving its services and facilities to students, especially with the recent funding cuts. I want to run because I am not a student representative of that external organization, and I truly want to strive for the good and benefit of SFU students. I stand by the belief that Simon Fraser Student Society should be runned by SFU students and not by an external organization.

As I become more and more involve with the SFSS, I realize that those who are not, basicially the general student population, especially the first years, have no idea what SFSS is, let alone the things this entity does for them here at this school. A portion of an SFU student’s tuition every year goes towards the SFSS, which in turn goes towards the services that is provided to the students here at the university. In a sum-up, Simon Fraser Student Society represents and provides services to the general SFU student body. (It works basically like a student council of a school). A group of students are elected by the general student population to serve as their Board of Directors every year for a one year term. The services that the Simon Fraser Student Society provides include the Highland Pub, the Highergrounds Coffee, the Ladle, Printing and Photocoping Services, Bookswap, help and support for clubs and campus events, etc.

The board members currently elected for office (Term 2008 – 2009) are:

Executive Officers

President – Joe Paling

Treasurer – Anna Belkine

Internal Relations Officer – Andrew Fergusson

External Relations Officer – Natalie Bocking

University Relations Officer – Ali Godson

Member Services Officer – Earl Von Tapia

Faculty and At-Large Representatives

Member-At-Large – Mona Law

Member-At-Large – Jonothan Brockman

Science Faculty – Stephanie Hendy

Business Faculty – Henry Liu

Applied Science Faculty – Daniel Carter

Education Faculty – Sara Olson

Arts Faculty – Ada Nadison

The board members elected for office (Term 2009 – 2010) are:

Executive Officers

President – Ada Nadison

Treasurer – Joe Zelezny

Internal Relations Officer – Andrew Fergusson

External Relations Officer – Alysia MacGrotty

University Relations Officer – Shara Lee

Member Services Officer – Mona Law

Faculty and At-Large Representatives

Member-At-Large – Winnie Chung

Member-At-Large – Jonothan Brockman

Science Faculty – Chantelle Chand

Business Faculty – Karan Cheema

Applied Science Faculty – Graham Hiscocks

Education Faculty – Sara Olson

Arts Faculty – Anton Bezglasnyy

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Here is a short interview with my friend and mentor, who currently is an elected member on the SFSS.

EARL VON TAPIA – current Member Services Officer (Term 2008-2009)

Define your role on the SFSS.

I am currently (till May 1st) the Member Services Officer on the Simon Fraser Student Society. My position as the MSO is to assist members with our services such as healh plan, the grants program, and disputes relating to the SFSS, hosting and helping with the student events that are happening at SFU.

What is a unique experience for you during your term as MSO?

I had the opportunity to travel for free to Montreal with two other execs for businesses regarding the Health Plan which was introduced to the SFU students this year.

What was one of challenges which you faced during your term?

Working with the dysfunctional board. Board Members are elected so you don’t get to choose who you want to work with and sometimes personalities clash and that makes up a lot of the dysfunctions, which really affects the effectiveness and efficiency of the Board.

What made you interested in terms of running for office on the SFSS?

I worked at the Peak, which is the SFU newspaper prior to running for office. I have always been aware about the things that are happening in regards to the SFSS, and I figure that being on the SFSS is a unique opportunity, something once in a lifetime, so I decided to try it out!

If there was one thing you could have changed in what you did during your term in office, what would it be?

I would have changed some policies which would have made it easier for clubs to run events for SFU students.

Which position did you enjoy more, as a peak editor or MSO?

I enjoyed my time at the Peak more, while I learned more as an MSO. Both are pretty close in truth. Both positions were a lot of fun, and full of stuff to learn!

Where are your plans after your term in office as an MSO?

JAPAN, HERE I COME!

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With the support of my fellow peers, mentors, friends, and other sfu students, I am elected!

I have many plans which I would like to accomplish during my term in office, so please check out my facebook group page that I had used during the course of the elections to read my platform!

Click here :]

Winnie’s Reflection on Wk 7 Lab

A wiki serves as a virtual meeting place for teams to collaborate, where all messages and information can be seen, “open-edited” (“What Is Wiki”, 2002), and processed to every member at the same rate, decreasing the ‘telephone’ effect while members communicate. It is also easily and equally accessible by our group members, as one would only require internet. Hence, being able to have equal access to our project, wiki made the process more efficient as all members contributed and worked on the project at the same time. There was no dead-time in between as our project was constantly modified by our members. The drawback during our project was how the site’s incapability to allow multiple edits to the article simultaneously. When two members sent in their modification at the same time, one would overwrite and delete the other’s work, hence having to redo one’s work again.

If the project was done individually, I would have included more images within my article to help further a reader’s comprehension of the writing. Time played a major factor to our project’s outcome. With this element, the article produced will be shorter, the quality of the writing and research sources will be lower, and the purpose of this project will stray away from the purpose of using a wiki, which ties with teamwork. I would have further discussed the interrelationship between crowd power and crowd sourcing in a more in-depth manner, such as how the collective efforts of a group to provide input and resources (multiple sources) on a certain topic.

The activity was successful at the understanding the concept of “wiki” through completing our assignment. However, the experiment would be even more successful without the time constraint. It took a while to understand the workings of wetpaint during the setup stages. Aside from that aspect, members were able to collectively contribute more to the content itself as the article was collaborated on a place that everyone can access and see. So rather than just having one person do the research, one person doing the entire write up, and one doing APA, everyone got a chance to do each roles, allowing us to help each other to fill in gaps.

Using wiki in the same room as my fellow team members definitely made the experience different. By having everyone in the same location, our reliance on wiki for our communication was divided to different mediums (face-to-face, MSN, email) hence, increasing the efficiency of producing our project. Verbal communications between members were possible, hence saving time in transferring messages of sudden alterations to our article between group members. As well, there would be less misinterpretation and mis-communication between group members, as changes to the article could be made immediately and directly instead of waiting for an email reply.

Side Note (supplement to my reflection):

One thing from this project which I realize is that using multiple types of communication mediums help transfer various information in a more efficient manner. Certain information is communicated faster with specific types of mediums over another.

Examples:

When sending citations, using email would allow the facilitate more accurate information. Face-to-face would take longer, because of the amount of information and the tedious format of APA. MSN would not be the best choice either as one cannot send the citation in proper format, hence it wastes time when the citation has to be reformatted when received. With wiki or email, you can simply send it in its correct format.

When sending large amount of text, email or wiki would be my choice. It is more difficult to send it through MSN due to the word limit per message constraint. Thus, sending through email or posting it allows you to present the info all at once.

When there are quick sudden requests for changes or directions to fellow members, it works best with face-to-face as it is very direct. Email or MSN would take longer time to transfer instructions for coordination between team members as one would need to type it out and send it through email.Contrary, talking doesn’t need multiple portals in order for the message to go across as it simply is to the ear.

Our group was able to finish the given task within the time constraint. However, I do want to point out that because all members were present in the same location when the activity took place, the concept of wiki was not fully implemented, meaning a lot of collaboration on this project was not all done on wiki, but with other communication medium such as face-to-face, MSN, and email.

Cites:

What Is Wiki. (2002). Retrieved February 25, 2009, from http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki

Wing Yi Chung

301090175

Tech 114 D203

Tech 114 Studio Lab #2 (Part 2)

The Need to Communicate (Part 1) – 24Hr Personal Communication Media Journal

Click on the names to see their 24 Hour Personal Communication Media Journal

Wing Yi Chung (301090175)

Jan Castro (301101256)

Scott Chin (301091822)

Brian Mo (301096047)

Tim Gong (301098163)

Questions

1. Tell me about the different ways that you used communication for 24 hours in your journal?

Brian: Laptop, Email, MSN, Cell phone, TV

Scott: Internet, Cell phone, projector, TV, computer, MSN

Wing Yi: The various ways which I used communication mostly involved with technology.  When I did not use technology, I would communicated face to face, and sometimes with both.

• Cell Phones: had phone calls, and text messages with friends,
• Phone: in-house intercom system, phone calls
• Laptop/Computer: went on MSN, Internet (YouTube, Facebook)
• Radio: listened to music (94.5 fm)

Tim: Facebook, MSN, Email (internet – random chat/messages and events)

Jan: Face to face mixed in with tech, used tech without friends and switched to face to face when i was with them

2. What was the most common communication media that you used in 24 hours?

Brian: Cellphone

Scott: Cellphone

Wing Yi: Cellphone

Tim: Facebook

Jan: Cellphone

3. What was the most common purpose for the communication media you used?

Brian: The most common purpose is pretty much to contact (calling) my family and friends.

Scott: To text message people

Wing Yi: Finding out upcoming events and activities so I can plan my time schedule.

Tim: Kill off time and to talk to someone didn’t want to feel lonely

Jan: Planning for the night and events.

4. What do you think you learned most about the role of communication media in your everyday life by keeping this journal?

Brian: That without the cell phone, it would be very hard to keep in touch with family/friends.

Scott: I realized I use my cell phone a lot.

Wing Yi: I’ve come to a realization on how much I abuse the use and the real purpose of having a cell phone.  I take advantage of this technological device in using it to communicate to people in a very unnecessary mannerism due to my laziness.  A prime example is how I would have a msn/text message conversation instead of talking with my friends who are sitting beside/across from me because I was too lazy to move my mouth and to look at them.

Tim: You find out what you are doing everyday

Jan: To keep organized so that there’s no time wasted in events and organization.

5. What was the most surprising thing that you learned from keeping this journal?

Brian: I use cell phones a lot.

Scott: I use my cell phone a lot

Wing Yi: (aside from how much I abuse the use of my cell phone due to my laziness) That cell phones have evolved and are no longer a single purpose communication technology, but a multi-purpose one.  It’s really amazing to realize how advance our cell phones have developed in the last 20 years.

Tim: Didn’t expect you used Facebook the most out of all techs

Jan: I really don’t use Facebook that much, I only use technology not to talk but to plan and organize.

6. What are some of the positive implications about having communication media in your life?

Brian: The major one for me is convenience, saves me the trip to go places to communicate my messages, and it saves time.

Scott: It definitely saves time for me to transfer my messages when I am communicating.

Wing Yi: Some positive implications of having communication media in my life:

• It helps you to get stuff done without moving
• It gets your messages across to your destination effectively and efficiently, saving time and money, and human labor

Tim: It allows you the ability have distance communication, and don’t always have to communicate face to face.

Jan: I get to plan and organize ahead of time. This means saving time in advance and having something to look forward to doing.

7. What are some of the negative implications about having communication media in your life?

Brian: It may cause brain cancer due to the radiation emitted from the cell phone.

Scott: It costs money (text messaging, phone bills).

Wing Yi: It definitely promotes laziness, which leads to the loss of communication with others in terms of “face to face”. You become so accustomed and too dependent to those technological devices that if they break, it would disrupt your daily life.

Tim: Use to much even sometimes tech is used more than face to face.

Jan: Without using my technology, I wouldn’t be able to really plan or get things done nor organize almost too reliant on those devices.

8. How do you think your life would be if you did not have access to communication media; please talk about both the positive and the negative things that might happen?

Brian: The positive aspects without a cell phone would be: It saves you money and you would not be at the risk of cell phone radiation. The negative aspects would be that you would not be able keep in touch with anyone long distance.

Scott: It saves you money and time (because I go on the computer too much for gaming), for cell phones, it “makes” more time because you can get your information across quickly to your destination.

Wing Yi: The positive things without access to communication media are:

• I think I would definitely be a more creative and “pro-active” individual, because I won’t rely on technology as much to do my work and transfer my messages across all the time.
• It would definitely help me in having better focus on my work and studies (since I get distracted easily on YouTube, Facebook, MSN…etc)

The negative things without access to communication media are:

• It would take a very long time for transferring and exchanging information while I am communicating or researching for information
• It would definitely decrease my face to face communication in my daily life as I often prefer communicating with people through another medium rather than face to face.

Tim: POSITIVE: more face to face. NEGATIVE bad for distance communication

Jan: The positive aspect would be:

• Attaining higher grades – more time to do studying and not hanging out meaning more past times.

The negative aspect would be:

• My social network would be smaller – I wouldn’t have as many friends since too hard to keep in track with many people without it.

9. If you had to choose one communication media to take on the desert island, which one would you choose and why?

Brian: I would pick satellite cell phones.

Scott: Definitely satellite cell phones, battery included of course.

Wing Yi: I would pick a multi-functional cell phone that is similar of an IPhone, which has GPS- tells me where I am, Phone- a source of contact, Games – keeps me entertained, Camera/Video – record my adventure, Calendar – keep track of time, Internet – keeps me “sane”, I can look up ways to survive on a deserted island.

Tim: Facebook- because it is a combination of mail and messenger and a lot of people uses it.

Jan: A phone that can hear their actual voice and tells time, and takes pictures, and email and text and has compass and can find info – internet access what doesn’t it do?

The Need to Communicate (Part 2) – First Annual Technology in Context Conference Report

So our journey starts on a crisp Thursday February morning.   We came across an almost seemingly impossible situation: organize the First Annual Technology in Context conference in Vancouver. However there’s a catch. Our very own planning committee isn’t allowed to use the following technologies:

• Laptop
• Email
• MSN
• Internet
• Cell phone
• Television
• Phone
• Facebook
• Computer
• Projector
• Text messages(SMS)
• Radio
• YouTube
• Speakers
• Sound system
• Microphone

Without many everyday space biased mediums we felt lost and had to resort to using time biased means. Like speech and face to face communication to find out information rather than telecommunications. Since we couldn’t use any technologies that could contact in real time, it’s back to the basics. For all five guest speakers our plan to communicate to them is all the same.

It begins with a drive to the airport in Jan’s 1994 Black Honda Civic, hatch back of course.  We than park Jan’s car at YVR’s park and fly. The four of us: Winnie, Brian, Scott, and Jan, than purchase tickets, at the tellers, to the designated countries of each speaker (all four visiting one country at a time). The fifth member, Tim, couldn’t be found. He was “Lost in Translation” if you catch my drift.

After flying and arriving in each new country, we set out to find a local tour guide who can double as a translator. Realizing that the land and language would be foreign, even to Brian, we needed the translator. Given our different backgrounds, countries like China would be easy to communicate with in the native tongue. But other countries, like England, we would have difficulties understanding and talking to the indigenous people. For example, what does someone being “bent as a nine pound note” even mean? The translator we hire will hopefully comprehend that English Colloquialism. (Previous example was made figuratively and doesn’t implicate any demographic).

Using our helpful tour guide and local transit we would travel to the country’s embassy or local city hall. In these public buildings we hope to find the address of our speaker. Since we couldn’t call or connect to our speaker in real time to see if we had the correct address, it was imperative for us to voyage to the location to confirm the address. Consequently, to get a real feel of the surrounding culture we would immerse ourselves in all different types of public transportation to arrive at the speaker’s house. Such transportation may include trains, carriages by man or animal, taxis, rickshaws, and even indigenous animals. If we found the house alright we would talk to the speaker, with the translator, to confirm attendance and address.

Confirming their address will prove useful because we plan to use mail to keep in contact rather than old school courier means.

Using public transits again we would drive to the airport and catch another flight to Vancouver. Than we would drive home and finally take a rest.

It’s interesting to note, rather than a few short phone calls, we had to travel tremendous distances and spend ample amounts of time to relay information. With the phone we forget all grasp of space in time resulting in a real world disconnection. Not everything is accessible by our fingertips.

After the rest we would have to drive to the airport, hotel, and car rental in order to book air flight tickets, accommodations, and transportation for our speakers here in Vancouver. As soon as all the bookings are confirmed we would than begin to write a letter sent via postage through the local postal service and airplanes. This letter would include all of our contact information, all the information on flight, hotel, and car bookings, and to confirm their attendance to the event.

Questions

1. The hardest part of our mission is definitely the beginning, finding out all the necessary information to contact and even locate our speakers were the hardest part of the mission. It took over 10 steps just to obtain their address and necessary personal information, versus only one step when we gave them all of our info through the mail.

2.  Cell phone was the technology that was missed the most, because if we could use the cell phone/home phone technology, the preparation for the speakers would be made a lot easier. For example, the booking of their hotel and rental of their transportation would not have to be done in person. Instead the task could be completed with few phone calls. The restriction of cell phone/phone further led us to seek the alternatives of taking airplanes to the speaker’s country in order to obtain their address( for mailing), which increased our expenses significantly due to the expensive air tickets, and hotel cost.

3. There are few expenses required for our transportation in order to obtain the information we need to contact the speakers. Cost for air tickets, taxis, hotel, are the major expenses. Other expenses could be the rental for the speaker’s hotel, the conference room, and their transportation rental fee. In addition, the cost to simply contact the speakers is included to the expenses.

Expenses and Costs

	Car	Hotel	Airplane	Postage
Rwanda	Ritz Limousine12 person Lincoln Limo $120/Hour	Fairmont Hotel$349/Night	$5227 KLM Airlines	International Canada Post$1.65
Australia	$120/Hour	$349/Night	$1365 Air Canada	$1.65
China	$120/Hour	$349/Night	$506 Air Canada	$1.65
India	$120/Hour	$349/Night	$520 Air Canada	$1.65
UK	$120/Hour	$349/Night	$645 Air Canada	$1.65
Total	Est 10 Hours = $6000	Est 3 Nights = $5235	All round trips = $8263	10 Mails =$16.50

The total expense for speakers, $19514.50

	Car/Rickshaw/Public Trans	Hotel	Airplane
Rwanda	$20	Kigali Serena Hotel7 nights $150/night	$5227 KLM Airlines
Australia	$200	$220/Night2 nights Crown Plaza Coogee Beach Hotel	$1365 Air Canada
China	$100	$68/night7 nights Ai Hua Hotel Beijing	$506 Air Canada
India	$50	$240/night7 nights Radisson Hotel Delhi	$520 Air Canada
UK	$200	Ambassador Hotel Bloomsbury2 nights $225/night	$645 Air Canada
Total	Est $570	$4096	All round trips = $8263

Total cost for group’s travels, $12929

Flow Chart

click here for a clearer view of our flow chart

Techpost #1 ~ Your Technology in Contemporary Society~ SMART ID CARDS

Techpost#1 “Your Technology” in Contemporary Society Assignment: Smart ID Card

Wing Yi Chung 301090175
wyc14@sfu.ca
Tech 114 D203
Prof: James Phillips
TA: Drew Batchellor

Due Date for Assignment: Beginning of Lab 6 (Feb 12, 2009)

We, the new generation, are living in ‘The Information Age’ (Rowland, 2006).

“More and more, information and communication plays a crucial role in maintaining dynamic stability to our chaotic society, as we depend on information and communication to organize itself at both individual and collective levels for us to process.” (Rowland, 2006)

Our dependency on technology to process our information for efficient and effective communication between each other has led to the emergence of technologies like Smart ID cards, which have revolutionize the world of personal identification, from physical means to the digital world.

Smart ID cards belong to the family of Smart cards, also known as the integrated circuit card (ICC) (Wikipedia, 2009).  This type of card is embedded with the integrated circuit, a ‘chip’ that has the ability to store and process given data.  For Smart ID cards, the data would contain personal information (fingerprints, your iris scans, biographic data etc.) that would be used for identification processes (Wikipedia, 2009).  In a way, the Smart ID card can be considered both as a personal technology and an online service.  It is used “everyday” as it serves the purpose as a government issued ID.  While the individual has the card themselves to use when needed for identification, the information stored in the chip is also synced with a data system network and is accessed through a device that reads the chip.  For example, for the Hong Kong Smart ID Card, when one crosses through the Customs, they would simply go towards a self service kiosk that would scan one’s fingerprints and reads the card to compare the images. (GOVHK, 2009).  Once it is approved, the person is free to go.  The process is extremely efficient and painless.

The two articles which I have chosen are:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4400832.stm

And

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/id-cards-to-foil-fraud-terrorism/2006/04/25/1145861349894.html

The two articles above discuss and analyze two countries, Britain and Australia, and their governments’ plans to implement the use of national Smart ID cards.  Both articles talk about the pros and cons regarding the use of Smart ID cards, and also shared the common concern by their people in terms of privacy and its dependability. “…the world was now a very different place.  Concern about individual rights had to be balanced against protecting people from terrorism, he said.” (Dodson, 2006).  The events of 911 have greatly place an impact in terms of using the Smart ID card as it helps promote national security and prevent any terrorist-related behaviors.  It also compares to Hong Kong, a former British colony, and its implementation on its residents for using the Smart ID card.

In my personal opinion, the government’s implementation of the Smart ID card for its citizens overall will place an overall positive impact.  To sum it in a word, the Smart ID card has brought great convenience (effectiveness and efficiency) for its users.

The event of 911 has regarding to national security, the Smart ID card can contain hologram that prevents fraud, reducing fake identities and terrorist risks.  As well, going through the border, aka immigration and labor controls became much more efficient and effective.  With the self-service kiosk stands, the wait time is none while the actual process takes little over 10 seconds. (GOVHK, 2009)  With the card, it will help the immigration control and crack down on illegal immigrants.

The use of the Smart ID card has also contributed to the economy greatly.  The addition of the free digital certificate app to the card can now be used as a form of authenticity to approve transactions like accessibility to your bank account, vehicle rentals, gambling, etc. (Grant, 2008 )

For communities, the Smart ID Card could be used as a library card as well.  This allows the individual to lessen the amount of plastic cards they have.  Furthermore, the card can permit the individuals the ability to access some government services.

I believe that this smart id technology will not be replaced anytime soon, as this technology has only been used by the general public for around the past 10 years (GOVHK, 2009).  However, I do believe with the maturity of utilizing smart ID Cards; it will help further expand the idea of a multi-functional Smart ID Card.  This eliminates carrying multiple cards, and can even integrate the access and communication of information to establishments like Visa, banks, and health care, into one centralized portal system.  This helps in simplifying the need for consumers to contact those organizations separately, which is very time consuming, as well as keeping track of our personal information in an easier manner.

An interesting concept which may make Smart ID Cards as its predecessor would be a ‘Smart ID Chip’ (Scheeres, 2002) that is injected into the human body (arms, hands, shoulders, etc), just like Bond in Casino Royale (2008).  The use of this technology will remove the need to have a card all together, which further decreases the chances of card misplacements and fraud.

The basis of scanning one’s iris and fingerprints with Smart ID technologies will always be there.  However, it is the physical component of the Smart ID technology that may evolve into various formats.  Regardless, it is for certain that biometric technologies like the Smart ID cards have transform the world of personal identification to a whole new level.

REFERENCE LIST

ARTICLES:

Dodson, L. (2006, April 26). ID cards to foil fraud, terrorism. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved February 10, 2009, from http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/id-cards-to-foil-fraud-terrorism/2006/04/25/1145861349894.html

Wakefield, J. (2005, November 15). Call for ID cards to get smart. BBC News. Retrieved February 11, 2009, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4400832.stm

OTHER REFERENCES:

About Smart Identity Card. Frequently Asked Questions. Retrieved February 11, 2009, from GOVHK Web site http://www.smartid.gov.hk/en/faq/index.html#00a

Grant, I. (2008, February 06). UK has lessons to learn for Hong Kong for ID Cards. IT Management. Retrieved February 11, 2009, from http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/02/06/229296/uk-has-lessons-to-learn-from-hong-kong-on-id-cards.htm

Hong Kong Identity Card. (2009, January 25). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved February 10, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_Identity_Card

Rowland, W. (2006). The Meaning of the Age of Information. In Spirit of the Web (pp. 13-21). Toronto: Thomas Allens Publishers.

Scheeres, J. (2002, October 23). ID Chip’s Controversial Approval. Wired. Retrieved February 09 from http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2002/10/55952

Smart Cards. (2009, February 08). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved February 11, 2009, from   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_card

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Upon the Boulevard of Illusions

A City of Dreams, of Ideals

The Land of Vibrancies and Metropolitan Beauty

A City that Achieves Spectacular Wonders

Welcomes pilgrims around the world to awe at her achievements

A city that creates its own stars

Kalidoscopic ones

Ever so bright

That rivals the beauty of the natural diamonds

In the nightly darks

Away from the multicolored lit skies

Upon the Boulevard of Illusions

I walk

Digitally painted signs

Of  porcelain skins and blue eyes

Amidst of goods

Of the mighty names

Calling those to slave their life for adopting its kin

Appealing

Yes, to all

Application

No, to mire few

When a city is idealistic

People within become materialistic

One pursues the ideals

They think the ideals

And live the ideals

Or at least try to

The few who sits

Sidelines

On the Boulevard of Illusions

Waits for a moment when one would

Stop and think

Of them

Deemed

Outcast, burden of society

Unfortunate, unwanted

The faces of reality

Upon the Boulevard of Illusions

Hidden in sleeves of fabric

I Take

I Witness

This moment