Mobile Computing and Social Networks
by Jamia Yant
June 6th, 2012

Effectiveness and Efficiency Mobile-based Applications Provide With Regard to Geolocation and Consumer Data
Geolocation is a technology that uses data acquired from an individual’s computer or mobile device (any type of radio or network-connection-enabled device) to identify or describe his/her actual physical location.  (ISACA, 2011)  This technology has become one of the most popular trends in social networking giving us the ability to let our friends know where we are, identify popular or convenient places close to our physical location or even remotely check in to restaurants.  These types of applications when accessed on a desktop system are flatter and less of an experience.  Most individuals at some point in time have pulled up MapQuest or Google Maps to get directions from point “A” to point “B”, printed thier directions and were on their way.  But the experience is a lot richer when you are mobile and you’re Smartphone or other device automatically plugs in your current location.  The relevant data you send and receive changes as your location changes.    These applications are able to do this through a GPS chip inside the device.  The chip uses satellite data to calculate your exact position.  In the event that there is interference or the service is unavailable, the chip uses information from cell towers to triangulate the approximate location of the device.  The efficiency of these apps is dependent heavy upon service availability.  Something as simple as driving through a heavy rain storm, cloud cover, heavy trees or a valley can hinder the GPS chip from communicating with the satellite.  There can also be issues if you are inside or if your location is confusing because there are several businesses within close proximity at the same location like a strip mall.  But if you are driving along on a clear day these apps can be reasonable accurate.  Something else to keep in mind is the abilities of the application.  The more sophisticated the software and the larger the database the more accuracy it will proved. 
There are also privacy concerns that accompany this type of application.  By sharing your location on social networks, you could increase your level of personal risk. Fortunately, as these concerns arise application developers are allowing users to set some type of privacy preferences.  A few examples of the dangers of location sharing would be stalkers, pedophiles or even people who see you are not at home and then break in and rob you all while tracking your location as you move.  If users make smart choices with their privacy settings they will still find the rewards we reap from this technology outweighs the small amount of privacy we sacrifice.  

The Benefits of Mobile Applications for Consumers Using the Cloud
With the development of cloud computing, data has become mobile, transferable, and instantly accessible.  Mobile technology had made almost every aspect of our lives portable.  Thanks to laptops, notebook computers, mobile and smart phones, GPS devices and wireless debit/credit payment terminals there are a variety of ways to access this data on the go.  This technology offers individuals more flexible working practices, more flexible payment options for customers, allows businesses a way to provide better customer service, it increases productivity, and supports decision making.  Customers can now log into a payment center via their cell phone or computer and pay bills without ever having to leave the comfort of their own homes should they choose to do so.  They can review transactions, read emails, share photos, update their social networking relationships, and check in with doctors while refilling prescriptions all from the palm of their hand.  The possibilities are limitless.  Executives can still be actively involved with the day to day business activity while traveling whether it be from a hotel room or an airport.  The freedom the cloud has given to working mothers is also a huge benefit.  Some even believe that cloud computing offers advantages to nearly every entity in the ecosystem.  Enterprises gain three solid benefits from using the cloud.

There are still some remaining barriers that keep some business from adopting cloud technology such as security risks, regulatory compliance and concern about connectivity and availability.  

Examine the challenges of developing applications that run on mobile devices because of the small screen size.
Designing for small screens has always been one of the biggest challenges for the mobile medium.  Screen real estate needs to be maximized.  Even though mobile devices have become more powerful with the addition of better processors, better color display and sharper resolution, it is still not a good idea to try to transfer full sized PC websites or applications to these devices.  This would only lead to poor performance issues and a lot of unhappy people.  The idea is not to shrink the website to fit to a smaller screen but to revamp the sites and apps to make them more mobile.  They need to be optimized for the user to have a productive experience.  Potential problems can range from the various input methods for inputting data into the phone (different keypads and methods of scrolling), varying screen sizes, varying phone capabilities, varying user expectations, varying user behavior and leveraging built-in hardware and features on a mobile phone.  (Cartman/Ting, 2009) 
To successfully design for mobile devices, developers need to use a mobile interaction design process.  It can be broken down into a three step process: user research in order to understand the user of the site or app being created, developing the designs, and test, learn and refine.  The first step is centered on target device analysis, user studies and interviews, and gathering the requirements for the site or application.  The second step targets conceptualizing, organizing, interactive designing and rapid prototyping.  And the final step involves testing (both focus and usability) and then refining your final product.  It is also important to remember that not every mobile site or application will work on every device.  That is why it is important to target specific devices.  A developer needs to isolate the most common devices likely to use their site or app and design for that target audience and then use that device when choosing optimal design specs.  Also look at the type of people using the site or application and design it for those individuals ease of use and expectations.  Then document the requirements of those users so there is formal documentation to refer to when doing the actual designing of the site or application. Design and prototyping comes next so there are samples of the site or application that can be tested in the final step.  By the end of step two, the designer should have the concept, site map and navigation, rapid paper prototyping or sketch, interaction design schematics, and functional prototype. The design principles taken into account are balance/instability, attraction/grouping, symmetry/asymmetry, consistency/variation, economy/intricacy and hierarchy.  Balance/instability revolves around the visual balance in screen design helps the information to be perceived easily and to set the focus on the target.  Attraction is the condition that creates a circumstance of attention in relative interaction. Symmetry is an axial balance; it is the total of resolved visual formation in which every unit on one side of a centerline is replicated exactly on the other side.  Consistency and variation refer to the way the same theme appears in different versions of the app.  This is premeditated before visualizing the different grid pages, using the same theme in application.  Economy is the presence of minimal visual units, which is the visualization of elements, frugal and judicious in their composition.  Intricacy is the heavily weighted, enriching technique in composition.  And hierarchy is an arrangement in an understandable and aimed way according to the grouping of objects, information, etc. (Mobinex, 2009)

Methods for Choosing Which Mobil Platform to Support
The choice of platform limits the choice of tools and languages that are available, not to mention the range of devices the apps can run on.  There are several questions to consider when choosing a platform for your mobile site or app: which carriers offer devices for the platform, how many handsets are available, and what features do they offer, how robust is the platform's development environment, and does the platform's application delivery method measure up? (Viswanathan, 2012) Today mobile developers must choose between Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, Palm webOS, Symbian, and Windows Mobile – and the list goes on.  To make matters worse the applications developed for these platforms are incompatible with each other.  Because of this the choice of platform limits the choice of tools and languages that are available and the range of devices the applications are used with.  (McAllister, 2009)  There are three questions that the developer needs to consider before choosing his platform.

The platform that fits all three of these questions is the best one to start with. Today it is expected that the same app or a variation of the app be available for several different platforms. 
Below is a graphic depicting Facebook’s mobile usage for different devices.

High Availability and Mobile Users
Today mobile technology users depend on their devices for fast, reliable, easy access to email and mobile business applications. Any downtime can adversely affect businesses with respect to customer service, productivity, sales and revenues.  Businesses and individuals alike have become expectant of 24/7 application delivery.  Service failures, downtime, and bad weather are no longer acceptable excuses for down time.  Planned outages are easily managed but the catastrophic affects of unplanned downtime can bring about serious consequences. (Technical Whitepaper, 2009) Even a few minutes of application downtime can cost big financial losses, erode client confidence damage brand image, and present public relations problems. (Brooks/ Leung/ Mariza, 2007)
Designing for availability is about anticipating, detecting, and automatically resolving hardware or software failures before they result in service errors, event faults, or data corruption — thereby minimizing downtime.  The technology part of the solution requires multiple routes to application services and data. The operational part of the solution is to use only tested, proven processes (both automated and people-based) to support the application throughout its entire lifecycle. (Microsoft, 2012)  
Clustering is one of the most preferred methods for trying to provide continuous availability for applications and servers.   This is done with multiple computers that are physically networked together and logically connected using cluster software.   This software allows two or more independent servers to work as a single system.  If a failure occurs, the workload is moved to another server, current client processes are switched over and the failed application restarted.  This all happens automatically and it gives the appearance of no downtime.  There might be a slight delay but the service will be completed.  A few benefits of clustering are reduction of unplanned downtime, reduction of planned downtime, continuous health monitoring and it is compatible with industry standard hardware.
Another method is called Network Load Balancing.  This is similar to Clustering except the Web traffic is evenly distributed over a number of servers.  This method automatically detects server failures and redirects client traffic to the other servers within seconds providing uninterrupted, unbroken client service.  Some of the benefits of this method are continuous application service and incremental server additions.
Replication is another method that mirrors data to a remote storage system so that if the primary storage system becomes unavailable, the data can be retrieved and accessed through the remote subsystem.  There are other methods available to reduce downtime as well: using RAID for data stores, reducing planned downtime by using rolling upgrades, queuing, and using a Distributed File System.    With many methods to assist us with providing high availability, one thing is for certain; it is expected. (Microsoft, 2012)  

Security of Mobile Devices
Consumers are just starting to catch on to the fact that the words mobile device and security are not typically words they hear together in a positive light.  With more and more businesses starting to depend on mobile technology, more needs to be done to close the security gap that exists today in order to preserve sensitive data.  Two of the largest threats against these devices today are theft and insecure communications.  If a thief gets his hands on someone else’s smart phone or laptop, the/she has access the user credentials and information stored on that device.  There are application weakness with regard to where they store the data, all the person in control of the device needs is a USB cable, in some cases, to get log in credentials or other data pertaining to a lot of high profile apps on both OIS and Android platforms.  Immobilizing this threat starts with us but it also has to be the responsibility of application developers.  (VanWyk, 2012)  In order to preserve our sensitive data there are steps we can take.  The first step would be to set up a password or lock code for device when it is idle.  It can be inconvenient but the immediate protection it offers is greatly beneficial.  This will prevent random individuals from accessing your device when you are away from it.  Setting up remote wiping is another security step that can be taken.  Today all mobile devices have the ability to send a signal to a device that triggers the software installed on the device to delete any and all data stored on the device.  If a person looses their phone or device they can just wipe it and clear out all emails, documents and contacts instantly.  Encryption is another security step that a lot of organizations require on their laptops and other devices.  Unfortunately, this isn’t available for all devices on the market today but if it is available it should be used.  Anti-virus software is another option for protecting your phone or device.  Usually this software is in a sort of catch up to problems already found by previous individuals who have been hacked.  Anti-virus doesn’t necessary promise security but if it detects malware, it is a productive tool to use.  Another way of avoiding security issues is to use the device as a thin client.  User of mobile devices should be weary of links and also turn of the GPS feature when it isn’t needed.  An added benefit to this is that it will also conserve batter power.  Another measure for protecting your device is to be careful which Apps you load onto the device.  The last thing I can recommend is to secure the device itself.  I realize this seems crazy but the reality is that if an individual has target a specific person’s device and wants the data contained on it, he/she will have the lock code bypassed and have the information he or she wants before the owner even knows it is gone or has time to wipe it.

References:

• Cartman, J., Ting, R. (2009) Excerpted from Strategic Mobile Design: Creating Engaging Experiences, Pearson Education, http://www.creativepro.com/files/story_images/20090309.pdf
• McAllister, N. (2009) How to choose a mobile development platform, InfoWorld, http://www.infoworld.com/d/developer-world/how-choose-mobile-development-platform-077
• Worklight (2010) Top 10 Considerations for Choosing a Mobile Application Platform http://www.worklight.com/assets/files/Top%2010%20Considerations%20for%20Choosing%20a%20Mobile%20Application%20Platform.pdf
• Technical Whitepaper (2009) Understanding High Availability for the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, http://ae.blackberry.com/services/business/server/full/pdf-understanding-high-availability.pdf
• Business Link (no date) Mobile Technology: What is mobile technology and what are the benefits? http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?itemId=1074298219&type=RESOURCES
• VanWyk, K. (2012) Kenneth Van Wyk: We need more secure mobile devices, Computer World, http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9226701/Kenneth_Van_Wyk_We_need_more_secure_mobile_devices
• Viswanathan, P. (2012) How to Choose the Right Mobile Platform for App Development, http://mobiledevices.about.com/od/mobileappbasics/ht/How-To-Choose-Right-Mobile-Platform-For-App-Development.htm
• Brooks, C., Leung, C., Mariza, A. (2007) IBM System Storage Business Continuity Solutions Overview, http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/-/0738489719/continuous-  availability/ida34
• ISACA (2011) Geolocation: Risks, Issues and Strategies, http://www.isaca.org/Groups/Professional-English/wireless/GroupDocuments/Geolocation_WP.pdf
• Microsoft (2012) Designing for Availability, http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa291866(v=vs.71).aspx
• Mobinex (2009) Smart face Platform Application Development Guide,  http://developer.smartface.biz/documents/Smartface_Platform_Application_Development_Guide.pdf
• Zevadsky, V. (2010)  Mobile Application Platforms: A Developer’s Perspective, http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4204684/Mobile-Application-Development

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