Tiffany Barkley

INFO 202 Assignment 10

OVERVIEW

This case study discusses the organizational principles and processes behind a computational system built by a start-up to collect traffic speed data and provide real-time routing and trip time estimates to users as part of a new mobile application

WHAT RESOURCES ARE BEING ORGANIZED?

The resources in this scenario are the data points that are collected by the system and turned into the travel guidance viewed by the end-user. The foundational system resource is traffic speed data. During the resource selection process, the company needs to decide the types of data it will collect and from where they will be acquired. Alternatives include collecting data from physical sensors maintained by the government for roadway operations (often free, but not always available), purchasing raw in-vehicle GPS data points from car companies and other vendors (costly), and collecting GPS data points from the company’s user base (free, but likely does not offer sufficient data points to produce good information

across an entire network). Making the decision of what types of data to collect and organize requires trade-off considerations of purchase cost, degree of autonomy from other organizations, accuracy of results, computation complexity, and scalability to other markets.

WHY ARE THE RESOURCES ORGANIZED?

The resources are organized because they need to support the real-time interactions of a customer base that expects fast and accurate results. Underlying the transformation of the raw data into the processed trip time estimates is a highly organized database systems and set of computations, which are further described in the following section.  This organization is essential for quickly computing and updating information for the user. Beyond the real-time context, organizing the historical resource data has other benefits, like allowing the company to train its prediction models by comparing its trip time estimates with measured trip times computed from the data

HOW MUCH ARE THE RESOURCES BEING ORGANIZED?

This question depends on the number and different types of data resources chosen during resource selection. The organization of the resources all takes place in databases. It might make sense for the company to store all of the raw data that it collects in a separate table for each separate source, since each source will be received in a particular format. From there, the data may be organized into source-specific tables that store the results of massaging the data into speed in consistent units, along a specified set of network links sufficiently granular to support routing use cases. This data may be further processed and organized into the final data set that represents the fusion of all of the different collected data sources, generated with some weighting function for the accuracy of each source. While the mobile application may only interface with this final data set table, the other tables are critical for generating consistent results that can seamlessly handle various error conditions. For example, if the real-time data feeds go down, the final table can be populated with historical default values for each link, potentially representing average speeds for each time of day and day of week. The organization of the data at various levels of the processing chain allows for this to happen without the application having to know or care where the data comes from.

It is also important to consider how much the resource descriptions are being organized. With traffic data, it is most critical to capture and store where and when the data point was collected. How these resource descriptions are provided by the data source is highly variable, since there is no single, universally accepted standard for this domain. For example, location data can be received as a latitude/longitude pair in a number of different coordinate systems, a milemarker, or a reference to a ramp crossing. As such, it is critical to have a model that maps over the vocabulary used by each data source provider into the company’s model

WHEN ARE THE RESOURCES BEING ORGANIZED?

The speed data resources are organized into the system in real-time, as they are collected. The data model and system architecture, however, would be defined by the company at the outset of the project, and continually refined as it is implemented and data begins to feed in. Given the rapid change in sensing technologies, it is likely that the company will have to revisit its database model and algorithms to accommodate new forms of data as their product matures. Another interesting question related to resource maintenance is how long the company should keep the data it collects. For the purposes of the mobile application, the value of each data point decreases over time.  However, the company has added value to the data by quality-controlling it and fusing disparate sources together, they may want to keep it and see if it can be of any value in future products or in a data sale to another organization. This especially makes sense given that storage costs are decreasing and cloud-based storage alternatives are abundant.

WHO DOES THE ORGANIZING?

Once the system is set-up, it is fully automated, meaning that the system takes care of all collection and organization. The development and maintenance of the system is done by company employees. Given the complexity of the system, this is a major undertaking which grows more challenging as the number of data sources and data points grow. At the outset, the system organizers needs to make decisions about the hardware needed to run the system (based on their estimates of how many data points will be collected and what needs to be done with them), structure the various database tables with a thorough understanding of inputs and outputs, and set up the feeds. On an ongoing basis, they need to maintain the system and add new sources/features as necessary.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

This case study considered traffic data to be the primary resource. As the system evolves, the company may want to fold in other resources helpful in prediction, such as data on traffic accidents, weather, and construction.

Overview

My personal computer is an organizing system that contains a lot of folders and files of different kinds. Even though, the search feature reduces the need for organizing files in my personal computer, it does not replace it entirely. Organizing my personal computer can simplify storing, retrieving and interacting with resources. Not only it is much easier to find what I am looking for in a well-organized computer, but also it is visually pleasing.

What resources are being used?

The scope of my organizing system includes all the files, folders, programs and operating system in the computer but it does not include external hard drives, flash drives, or content on the internet, unless files are transferred from those to the personal computer, in which case, those files will become part of the organizing system. All of the resources are digital, and resources are continually added to this organizing system. Some of the resources may need to be deleted periodically. Some of the resources are unique (i.e. text files that I created, photographs that I have taken), while some of them are not (i.e. music files that are purchased online).

Why are the resources organized?

I use my computer several hours each day for various purposes from checking emails, to writing papers, to paying bills. A personal computer is an organizing system that supports many different interactions such as creating, maintaining, searching, accessing, modifying and sharing. These interactions may depend on the types of resources (files) in the organizing system.  This organizing system satisfies personal goals.

How much are the resources organized?

The extent to which my personal computer is being organized depends on my needs and also the amount of data that I have/will have on my computer. The organizing principle may depend on both my goal and the type of file that is being organized. Depending on my goal, it may be more helpful for me  to organize my files by date or by name. Similarly, it can be more useful to organize some types of files (i.e. picture files) by date and some others (i.e. music files) by name.

The level of granularity the user (myself) chooses for the organizing system mainly depends on their organizing tendencies. I can choose to pile all my files on the desktop and not put them in folders, or I may decide to meticulously organize every resource in an appropriate folder. Lower level of granularity will increase recall, but reduce precision. If I put all the documents related to info- 202 in a general folder, it will be more difficult to retrieve a specific document. I even may need to rely on other organizing principles to find the document, i.e. sorting by creation date. But if I use appropriate subfolders within info-202 folder, I can more precisely locate the document I am looking for.

When are the resources organized?

Organization can be imposed on resources at various times. Files can be organized as soon as they are created. Sometimes the files are transferred from outside; so, they can be organized after becoming part of the collection. The files can be modified, renamed, duplicated, or be interacted with in some other way; organization may also be imposed on them after such changes.

Who does the organizing?

As the owner and user of my personal computer I do most of the organizing in this organizing system. The operating systems [creators] also play a role in organizing my personal computer. For example mac has some predefined folders for downloads, pictures, music, movies, etc. Also, the photos that I take using my phone, are automatically added to iPhoto app through cloud. Therefore, my interactions with these resources will be limited by the properties of the app.)

Other consideration

The organizing decisions can later affect the types of interactions in an organizing system. A more granular organization will encourage more accessing type interactions, while a less granular organization will result in more searching type interactions.

Overview

Lynea Lattanzio is the founder, president, and resident of The Cat House on the Kings, a nonprofit corporation and cat sanctuary with over 700 cats living on its 12-acre campus. (See  http://www.cathouseonthekings.com/index.php
or the documentary http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/wild/videos/the-lady-with-700-cats/ ). This sanctuary is a fascinating, unique organizing system in itself. However, another organizing system will need to be designed on top of this system. For as Lynea Lattanzio grows older, she will need many support systems integrated to help both her and the cats to interact effectively. Most seniors need an organizing system (including sub-systems) for “independent living” to live in their homes for as long as possible. In Lattanzio’s case, she cares as much about her cats as about herself, so any system will need to ensure both her wellness and the cats’. An organizing system will need to help her interactions as she ages, but also the interactions of her cats. (Her corporation’s sum of interactions will need to be supported, since this management entity in turn manages the resources that serve the cats).

What resources are being used?

Lattanzio’s home and corporation are currently organized for many interactions that serve both her and the cats. The new organizing system must manage these resources as she ages, to support her interactions, but she is also part of the corporation’s resources, and therefore supports the cat’s interactions. As she ages, she will need her resources to change, and she herself will be a changing resource. She maintains effective management and also hands-on interactions. The specific resources being organized will be an information technology system that monitors her declining vision, hearing, mobility, and mental faculties. It will be integrated with dashboards that monitor her corporation. The system includes an array of sensors on the cats, which will use EEG and other techniques to monitor their motion, mood, noises, and full behavior. With machine learning, the emotional data given by the cats, and her sensors, will help monitor and predict changes in the resources. These signals of change will be about the intrinsic and extrinsic dynamic properties. The resource descriptions will be only as granular as needed based on the health status of her and the cats (if there are specific medical problems such as coronary disease or ulceritus, those specific systems will need targeted monitoring). Even with the corporation, the KPI’s or other metrics will be general, but if there is a problem and that problem can be isolated, more granularity will be needed to monitor and isolate at least that specific issue. (If there is a food supply problem traceable to just liver pellets being eaten by one cat, those pellets and cat might be monitored and interacted with to ensure that specific problem was fixed and prevented).

Why are the resources organized?

The resources support Lattanzio’s and the cats’ lives. However, decisions will prioritize the various interactions that constitute their lives and even lifestyles. The core interactions of life are typically related to eating, health, health care, and hygiene. Perhaps equally important are the wellness and emotional needs, which might require basic social interaction (communication, touch, or expression). There will be trade-offs when allocating resources to sometimes competing interactions.

How much are the resources organized?

The amount of organization depends on budget and the state of technologies, since many types of data collection, user interface, and analysis tools/software are available or designable. Her own interactions will simplify slowly with age so the interactions themselves may need to be less granular and precise (both mentally and physically). Since the current corporation organizes her and the cats already, the additional system organize the immediate threats posed by aging to the current interactions (it depends on which weakness needs targeting—if blindness is encroaching, her interactivity with the new system as well as the old systems would be much different, so extensive organizing would be needed). The more she ages, the more organization will be needed to fill gaps that were formerly covered by her.

When are the resources organized?

The new resources of the technology solution will be organized in stages, from initial analysis to implementation to ongoing maintenance. However, the technology solution should have continual, constant auto-regulatory features that organize the resources and the resources’ dynamic properties (possibly including the resource descriptions). For example, as the system senses that she is slower, it might set reminders or alarms at different times to account for it taking longer for her to either take her medication or feed the cats dinner. As the cats change and age, they might not only be classified differently (as arthritic, or flu-ridden), but also new classification categories may appear (such as having-rabies) in order to quarantine them differently. The initial organization and design of the system will need to identify which organizing activities occur on continual basis.

Who does the organizing?

An expert team will design the system (with her help). However, she will continue to do some organizing activities (certain screens and even haptic interfaces will be adjustable, so she can make the text bigger as her vision gets worse, and have the touch screen buttons get bigger as her coordination worsens). As she faces increasing problems her staff and/or family and friends or experts will adjust features of the system that are not auto-regulating. For example, they may change the type of security authentication when she can’t easily remember passwords.

Other considerations

The staff management software and networked robotics can manually or automatically increase to keep services at adequate levels. She can self-assess her decision-making and effectiveness via brain- and bio- sensor monitoring, and also by monitoring the wellness (“performance”) of the cats and corporation via reports that with machine learning or otherwise, synthesizing the vast amounts of data into meaningful indicators or metrics in a “business intelligence” that includes her and the cats’ behaviors and states. Beyond the scope of this case is how to organize resources after she dies, to support the corporation (because it supports the cats).

Overview

Asha Tea House is a drink shop in Berkeley. Boba tea, the main product of Asha Tea House, is a Taiwanese tea-based drink, which usually mixed with fruit or milk and can be customized with chewy tapioca balls or other ingredients. In addition to sell cooked tea in shop, Asha also has an online shop selling the raw tea.As a Taiwanese, I found Asha Tea House interesting for its unique atmosphere based on the blend of the traditional Taiwanese Tea culture with US cosmopolitan café shop style. Asha tries to convey the oriental tea knowledge and culture to the customers and maintain long-term relationship with the customers by providing close interactions. This uniqueness distinguishes Asha Tea House from the other boba tea shops in Taiwan and Bay Area.

What resources are being used?

Just like the other profit-oriented cooperation, Asha Tea House has to organize many resources to maintain the business, including human resources, consumer resources, stock resources, knowledge resources, etc. Among these resources, I would like to specify in their stock resources and knowledge resources.As mentioned before, there are many different variants of boba tea and many ingredients can add to. Although the items on menu of Asha Tea House is simpler than other boba tea shop, there are still about 20 different kinds of tea. And the stocks not only includes 16 different species of raw tea, the raw tapioca ball, condensed milk, fruit puree, syrup also expand the scale of stock resources.

For the knowledge resources, Asha Tea House has to transform the abstract knowledge into a concrete information as to convey to their staff and the customers. They have to deal with not only the standardized process to make tea and prepare ingredients, but also the deeper knowledge of traditional Taiwanese tea culture and species of tea. Since Asha is not only selling tea as an “drink item”, but more like selling “drinking tea” as a life style, they put a lot of effort to tell the story behind every single cup of tea. In the shop, you can see the big-size photos of Taiwan tea farm, where all the tea served in store comes from, bringing more live scene for customers to picture. Also, you can get more well-organized guidance information on their online store. All of these are the knowledge resources they have to organize.

Why are the resources organized?

The resources are organized to improve the efficiency of certain interactions. For the stock resources, since the tea and ingredients are well organized into different category, it will provide a more efficient interaction of retrieval. And although the barista is the one having direct interaction of retrieving the tea, the efficiency is not just meant for the barista staff but also for the customers who are waiting for barista to make the order. To sum up, we can say that the efficiency leveraged by organization can be beneficial to the people both involved direct and indirect with certain interactions.Moreover, organizing not only provides the efficiency but also provides a better understanding. For the mission of tea culture education, the well-organized guidelines answer the most common questions and thus provide a easy way for customers to have deep understandings about tea.

How much are the resources organized?

Since there is currently one shop only and the number of staff is small, the stock resources are not organized into many hierarchies and granulated. For the tea part, different tea species are first categorized into black tea/ green tea/ oolong tea and then organized by their quality level and location of the tea farm.

When are the resources organized?

Asha Tea House change the menu seasonally, so when the menu is modified, it means the organizing system of stock has to be redesigned as to update the transition of the ingredients. For the knowledge resources, since the knowledge of tea should be persistent as to serve the same quality and taste, so most of the knowledge resource will not be reorganized frequently. However, if the manager does come up with some new stories about the tea, at that time, the knowledge resources will be reorganized.

Who does the organizing?

The owner of the Asha Tea House. Since it is relatively a small business, I supposed the owner can mostly decide most of the organizing principle. After the organizing schema is set, the staff team can follow the organizing schema but also giving suggestions to improve the organizing.

Other considerations

Currently there is only one shop for Asha Tea House to maintain, so the scope and complexity of the organizing system is relative small. However, from a report, I learned that the owner of Asha is thinking to open more shops in the near future. When it becomes chained-store, the organizing system will have to redesign as to interact with more people.

Overview

There are a lot of artifacts involved in knitting: needles and yarn of course, but also notions such as darning needles and stitch markers. How do you keep them organized so that the collection doesn’t take up too much space in your one-bedroom apartment, but you can still easily access everything? My own collection of knitting paraphernalia is organized in a few different ways, detailed below.

This organization system involves a hierarchy of faceted classification, physical space constraints and some unique interactions that need to be designed for.

What resources are being used?

Not all yarn is created equal. There are different weights: from very thin yarn for lace and socks to very thick yarn for blankets or crafts; different fibers: man-made fibers like acrylic and nylon and natural fibers like cotton and all the different types of wool; and colors and patterns. There are also extrinsic properties like what I plan to do with it or where it came from. As well as yarn, a lot of different kinds of knitting needles are in the collection: straight, circular, and double-pointed needles of varying length, made of wood and aluminum and in sizes 0 to 18. There are also notions, such as point protectors, stitch markers, darning needles, stitch counters, scissors and measuring tape. Patterns are specifically not in this organizing system, since they’re either books, organized with books, or on the internet, organized through Ravelry.

Why are the resources organized?

The main interaction that is being organized for in this system is selection: making sure that I can find my size 6 circular needles, and also that I can pick out yarn(s) to make a project. Since the collection of yarn is so large, though, I don’t know exactly what I have, so selection is often more a process of exploratory search than known-item search. Selecting two (or more) different yarns for the same project is a similar process of exploratory search, but only for one value of the material facet. (Different materials act in different ways, especially in terms of how they have to be washed, so you generally don’t want to use two yarns that are made of different things in one project). Co-location is important for the yarns, to facilitate this process of exploratory search.

How much are the resources organized?

There are five containers that my collections is in: one box-style needle case where I keep the smaller of my set of straight bamboo needles; one roll-up needle case where I keep circular needles, straight needles that aren’t part of that set and the bamboo straight needles that won’t fit in the box; one small pouch where I keep really small needles, notions and crochet hooks; a vintage train case where I keep particularly ‘nice’ yarn; and a huge wire basket, about the size of a laundry basket, where I keep the rest of my yarn.

As should be apparent by now, this is about the most idiosyncratic organizing system you’ve ever heard of. It definitely won’t outlive me, probably wouldn’t outlive moving to a bigger apartment, and definitely won’t outlive moving to a house (where there will be room to implement something that makes a little more sense). All of these decisions have reasons behind them, though, although they weren’t logical or even particularly well-considered. For example: I started out keeping all of my yarn in the train case, but as the collection grew (quite sharply at one point, when I was given a garbage bag full of yarn) I had to move to a bigger container, stored in the closet, and kept the train case out with what I was currently working on. When I moved the bulk of the stash to the wire basket, I kept the nice yarn in the train case so it wouldn’t get snagged.

The basis of this organizing system is hierarchical faceted classification. So, for yarn, we start with ‘nice’ or not, which depends on whether it has sentimental value, how much I paid for it, what it’s made of, whether or not I have plans for it, and other such factors. After that, the classification is no longer physically apparent, since it’s all just in a big basket, but it still exists: material, color, yardage, &c. That being said, I do tend to have recently-used yarn at the top of the basket, because the basket operates as a stack, and yarn that I particularly like at the top of the basket, just because I like having it prominently displayed.

When are the resources organized?

Resources are initially classified upon addition: whenever I buy some new yarn or a new set of needles I have to decide where to put them, and therefore where they fit in the organizing system. There’s also some periodic maintenance, and re-organizing all of the needles and leftover yarn after finishing a project.

Who does the organizing?

For my collection, I am the only person who does the organizing. The system is not codified at all, and even if someone had all the organizing principles written down they wouldn’t be able to successfully maintain the system because so many of those principles are subjective. (For example: what yarn feels gross? what has sentimental value? what yarn am I probably going to make socks out of? which needles are slippery?)

Other considerations

Because the resources in this collection get used up over time, culling is a large part of maintenance. Periodically, I have to go through and weed out yarns that don’t have enough left to make anything out of, or that have gotten too snarled to work with, or, surprisingly often, that I’m not sure why I even had in the first place. There is a specific type of knitting pattern, called a stash-buster, meant to deal with these odds and ends left over from various projects, so a small amount of yarn is not useless by default, but has to be considered within the collection as a whole.