WEEK FOUR BLOG POST

Dear all

Please post comments by Friday 2nd December for the 1%.

The role of databases is incredibly topical in light of the current events happening across the world. Governments currently see cyber crime as one of the major threats for the future.

For example:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-24077094

What are your thoughts on large databases that hold various details about our lives? Are there advantages in Facebook holding highly detailed datasets on our daily lives? What are the disadvantages of these online datasets if we proffer the information willingly? If these datasets are demanded (e.g. the Census), can we trust the data holders and if not, what should we do?!

Your thoughts please.

Paul

WEEK THREE BLOG POST

Dear all,

Thanks for all the great posts over the last two weeks, some really strong opinions and excellent comments! Marcus Young (our excellent e-tutor) shared this link with me as a great discussion topic. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-mvgkRWP34&app=desktop

This short video is from Don Duet of Goldman Sachs and he discusses how open source has impacted on our world. Marcus pointed out that open source is not just about software anymore. 

When we took over this module it taught databases using Microsoft Access with NO spatial queries. Now we have changed the module to ONLY open source software (MySQL, PostgreSQL, PostGIS and QGIS) with a very strong spatial dimension. 

Write a few thoughts on the open source movement - if you can write an answer with hardware, software and data in mind that would be great. Please post your comments on the week 3 blog by 8pm on Friday of next week (25th) for the 1% mark

If you haven't posted a comment for week 1 or week 2 you must do so by 8pm tonight (18th) - any posts after today will not count for week 1 or 2. 

Paul McKenzie

WEEK TWO BLOG POST

The role of databases that store personal details has been very topical recently. Please read the story at this URL from the BBC on 4th November 2015:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34715872

What are your thoughts on huge databases that are mined for interesting patterns? What problems and opportunities do you foresee? What will it mean for GIS? 

Please post your comments by 8pm on Friday of next week (18th) for the 1% mark

Paul McKenzie