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Technical TrendA Concept & Approach for Open Frequent Flyer Program (OFFP) 15

ArticlePractical Aspects of Implementing Newton-Raphson on Computers 17

Cover StoryBuilding Electronic Libraries: Issues and Challenges 7

Cover StoryEmergence of e-libraries Among South-Asian Countries: Critical Issues and Concerns 10

Cover StoryBOOKFACE - A Facebook of Books 12

Security CornerInformation Security »

Software Agreements in India – Points to Ponder 28

CSI Communications - Call for Articles for forthcoming issuesThe cover themes for forthcoming issues of CSI Communications are:• April 2013 - Big Data • May 2013 - Cryptography• June 2013 - Social Networking• July 2013 - e-Business/ e-Commerce• August 2013 - Software Project Management • September 2013 - High Performance Computing

(Future topics will be announced on an ongoing basis)

The Editorial Board of CSI Communications is looking for high quality technical articles for diff erent columns pertaining to the above themes or emerging and current interests. The articles should cover all aspects of computing, information and communication technologies that should be of interest to readers at large and member fraternity of CSI and around. The articles may be long (2500-3000 words) or short (1000-1500 words) authored in as the original text (plagiarism is strictly prohibited). The articles shall be peer reviewed by experts decided by the Editorial Board and the selected ones shall be published. Both theoretical and practice based articles are welcome. The articles and contributions may be submitted in the following categories: Cover Story, Research Front, Technical Trends, and Article.

CIOs/Senior IT/IS personnel/consultants of the companies managing technologies/projects related to the cover themes are welcome to contribute under the CIO (Managing Technology) section. Similarly, HR Senior Managers/Personnel/Consultants are invited to contribute under HR section.

Also, Letters to the Editors, questions to be answered in Ask an Expert, your experience to share some Programming Tips under the Practitioner Workbench: Programming.Tips() are welcome.

How to submit the contributions: The articles may be sent to the CSI Editorial Board via email [email protected].

Article Submission guidelines:• All manuscripts should be written at the level of the general audience of varied level of members.• Equations and mathematical expressions within articles are not recommended, however, if absolutely necessary, should be minimum.• List of references is preferred. List not more than 10 references at the end of your manuscript. Please don’t include any embedded

reference numbers within the text of your article. If you would to like to refer, you may state names in the text and provide full reference at the end. The reference must state the names of the authors, title, publisher’s name, complete publication reference with month and year. Web URLs should be there for website references with accessed date.

• Figures and Images used should be limited to maximum of three (only high resolution images need to be sent, and the image needs to be sent separately also).

• Only MS-Word and PDF submissions are allowed.• Include a brief biography of four to six lines for each author with author picture (high resolution)• Editors will edit the contents as felt necessary • Authors of selected articles will be notifi ed by the editorial board and copyright transfer form needs to be fi lled up by the authors.• Only original contributions are requested and no plagiarism is allowed.

Please note that months for various cover themes are tentative and may change depending on prevailing circumstances.

(Issued on behalf of the Editors of CSI Communications)

Plagiarism Alert for Prospective AuthorsThe Editorial Team of CSI Communications is appalled by the

large number of cases of plagiarism in articles submitted to it,

for consideration of publication. A number of rejections had

to be done in recent months wherein cases of verbatim copy

of published material with author list alone changed, has

been noted. This alert is being published in view of the highly

concerning situation.

Plagiarism in the present context is - use in part or whole

of other published articles with or without citing. Even with

citation, pasting huge chunks of text authored by others

is not admissible (the only exception being demarcated

quotes when situation warrants). Plagiarism is against

professional ethics and the editorial team has no option

but to recommend black listing for lifetime of the authors,

committing plagiarism. It is very surprising that those, who

commit such unprofessional act, seem

to be unaware that it is an extremely

simple matter for the editors (or

anyone) to verify plagiarism. In most

cases, a deft Googling will reveal the

sources instantaneously. Plagiarism

is easy to do and also easy to detect.

Prospective authors are requested

to take extreme care in avoiding intentional

and non-intentional forms of plagiarism,

thereby saving time for them as well as for the editors. CSI

Communications is committed to upholding ethical practices

in publishing and hence would continue to take serious view

of plagiarism.

CSI-C Editorial Team

CSI Communications | March 2013 | 3

ContentsVolume No. 36 • Issue No. 12 • March 2013

CSI Communications

Please note:

CSI Communications is published by Computer

Society of India, a non-profi t organization.

Views and opinions expressed in the CSI

Communications are those of individual authors,

contributors and advertisers and they may

diff er from policies and offi cial statements of

CSI. These should not be construed as legal or

professional advice. The CSI, the publisher, the

editors and the contributors are not responsible

for any decisions taken by readers on the basis of

these views and opinions.

Although every care is being taken to ensure

genuineness of the writings in this publication,

CSI Communications does not attest to the

originality of the respective authors’ content.

© 2012 CSI. All rights reserved.

Instructors are permitted to photocopy isolated

articles for non-commercial classroom use

without fee. For any other copying, reprint or

republication, permission must be obtained

in writing from the Society. Copying for other

than personal use or internal reference, or of

articles or columns not owned by the Society

without explicit permission of the Society or the

copyright owner is strictly prohibited.

Published by Suchit Gogwekar for Computer Society of India at Unit No. 3, 4th Floor, Samruddhi Venture Park, MIDC, Andheri (E), Mumbai-400 093.

Tel. : 022-2926 1700 • Fax : 022-2830 2133 • Email : [email protected] Printed at GP Off set Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai 400 059.

Editorial Board

Chief EditorDr. R M Sonar

EditorsDr. Debasish Jana

Dr. Achuthsankar Nair

Resident EditorMrs. Jayshree Dhere

Published byExecutive Secretary

Mr. Suchit Gogwekar

For Computer Society of India

Design, Print and Dispatch byCyberMedia Services Limited

Cover Story

7 Building Electronic Libraries:

Issues and Challenges

Rachna Patnaik

10 Emergence of e-libraries Among

South-Asian Countries:

Critical Issues and Concerns

Dr. Sudhanshu Joshi and Dr. Manu Sharma

12 BOOKFACE - A Facebook of Books

Binimol MC and Remya Krishnan

Technical Trend

1 5 A Concept & Approach for Open

Frequent Flyer Program (OFFP)

Rudranil Dasgupta and Diptiman Dasgupta

Articles

17 Practical Aspects of Implementing

Newton-Raphson on Computers Dr. Pramod Koparkar

21 Five Key Considerations for an

Information Security Defender

Avinash Kadam

23 Deep Web

Manish Kumar, Dr. M Hanumanthappa, and Dr. T V Suresh Kumar

Practitioner Workbench

26 Programming.Tips() » Fun with ‘C’ programs –

comprehending the

localization support

Wallace Jacob

Security Corner

28 Information Security »

Software Agreements in India –

Points to Ponder

Adv. Prashant Mali

30 IT Act 2000 »

Prof. IT Law in Conversation with

Mr. IT Executive – Similarities

between technology and law; need

for collaboration Issue No. 12

Mr. Subramaniam Vutha

PLUSBrain TeaserDr. Debasish Jana

31

Ask an ExpertDr. Debasish Jana

32

Happenings@ICT: ICT News Briefs in February 2013H R Mohan

33

CSI Report Mr. Ravi Eppaturi

34

CSI Report Dr. Dharm Singh, Mr. Sanjay Mohapatra and Ms. Ridhima Khemasra

36

CSI Report Dr. M Sundaresan

37

CSI Report Mohan Datar

38

CSI News 41

CSI Communications | March 2013 | 4 www.csi-india.org

Important Contact Details »For queries, correspondence regarding Membership, contact [email protected]

Know Your CSI

Executive Committee (2012-13/14) »President Vice-President Hon. SecretaryMr. Satish Babu Prof. S V Raghavan Mr. S [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Hon. Treasurer Immd. Past PresidentMr. V L Mehta Mr. M D [email protected] [email protected]

Nomination Committee (2012-2013)

Dr. D D Sarma Mr. Bipin V Mehta Mr. Subimal Kundu

Regional Vice-PresidentsRegion - I Region - II Region - III Region - IVMr. R K Vyas Prof. Dipti Prasad Mukherjee Mr. Anil Srivastava Mr. Sanjeev Kumar Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Assam, Bihar, West Bengal, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh,

Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, North Eastern States Rajasthan and other areas Orissa and other areas in

Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal and and other areas in in Western India Central & South

other areas in Northern India. East & North East India [email protected] Eastern India

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Region - V Region - VI Region - VII Region - VIIIProf. D B V Sarma Mr. C G Sahasrabudhe Mr. Ramasamy S Mr. Pramit MakodayKarnataka and Andhra Pradesh Maharashtra and Goa Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, International Members

[email protected] [email protected] Andaman and Nicobar, [email protected]

Kerala, Lakshadweep

[email protected]

Division Chairpersons, National Student Coordinator & Publication Committee ChairmanDivision-I : Hardware (2011-13) Division-II : Software (2012-14) Division-III : Applications (2011-13) National Student CoordinatorDr. C R Chakravarthy Dr. T V Gopal Dr. Debesh Das Mr. Ranga Raj [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Division-IV : Communications Division-V : Education and Research Publication Committee (2012-14) (2011-13) ChairmanMr. Sanjay Mohapatra Prof. R P Soni Prof. R K Shyamsundar [email protected] [email protected]

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This would be my twelfth and fi nal message to you as the President of the Computer Society of India.

The last twelve months have seen a signifi cant amount of changes in the global ICT ecosystem that CSI is a part of, and also within the Society itself. As ICTs have become an essential part of the lives of citizens around the world, we have seen increasing assertiveness on part of the civil society on their rights vis-à-vis the Internet and ICTs. Governments around the world have largely been on the defensive, trying to protect their national interests while business, which is the other major stakeholder, has been trying to reduce risks on account of the sometimes-confl icting interests of Governments and civil society. This has given rise to piquant situations within the country and abroad in contentious realms such as cyberlaws, Internet Governance, and online security & safety.

For CSI too, this has been an eventful year. Our ExeCom has been active in managing the aff airs of CSI. We had a very successful Annual Convention at Kolkata, and a large number of professional activities such as conferences and workshops around the country during the year.

There have been some developments in the current year that seem to indicate an enhancement of our visibility and profi le: during this year, the CSI President was appointed as Member of the Cyber Regulation Advisory Committee (as per the notifi cation on 16 Nov 2012), a high-level committee Chaired by the Hon. Minister for Communication and Information Technology, Government of India, that has the mandate of advising the Government on issues pertaining to cyberlaw. Later this year, the CSI President has been also invited to join as Member, All India Board of Information Technology Education (AIB-ITE) of AICTE, as per the request received in February 2013. CSI has also been mandated to run 50 Electronic System Design & Manufacturing (ESDM) training workshops around the country, on behalf of the Department of Electronics and Information Technology based on our proposal submitted in December 2011.

Other signifi cant milestones during the year have been steady progress in CSI transactions, CSI journal, and the CSI digital library, all of which are set to enhance our visibility & credibility, at the same time providing valuable services to diff erent constituencies within CSI.

The need to off er value to Student Members, who constitute a signifi cant proportion of our membership, was raised at the Think Tank and President’s Council meeting at Kolkata. We have been gearing up on this aspect, and, with the appointment of a senior professional as the Director of Education, we hope to further enhance student services.

These are indeed important achievements for us. However, we still have scope for improvement in many areas, most

noticeably in membership and chapter development. Our coverage in diff erent parts of the country has been steadily increasing, but there are still pockets where CSI is virtually unknown. In some of these regions, we have launched initial activities that will hopefully culminate in Chapters in a reasonable period of time.

Another area where we can contribute is to international processes, institutions, and networks. CSI’s international presence has traditionally been focussed on IFIP and SEARCC, but we need to also enhance our linkages with other international agencies such as BASIS, IGF, and ICANN. We have already made a beginning on some of these during the last year. We are also in the process of signing new or renewed inter-society agreements with agencies such as IEEE, IEEE Computer Society, and ISACA, which will add further value for our members.

I have been fortunate to have a team of Offi ce Bearers, ExeCom members, NC Chair & members, Advisors, and staff who have made my tenure reasonably smooth and trouble free. I would like to thank all of them, and also each member of CSI who have reposed their confi dence in me. It has been indeed an honour for me to serve as the President of CSI, and I am sure that the Society will become even more eff ective under the able leadership of Prof. SV Raghavan, who would be taking over as President; Mr. HR Mohan, the Vice President, and President-elect; and their respective teams.

It is with a profound sense of satisfaction that I bid you goodbye. As we are about to celebrate our 48th Foundation Day, I would like to end with a message with of hope, that CSI will fulfi l its mission and mandate of being the country’s most respected and beloved technical society.

With best wishes,

Satish BabuPresident

President’s Message Satish Babu

From : [email protected] : President’s DeskDate : 1st March, 2013

Dear Members


EditorialRajendra M Sonar, Achuthsankar S Nair, Debasish Jana and Jayshree Dhere

Editors

From Clay to Silicon is not a paradigm shift. But for

libraries, that may not be true. From clay tablets

that might have fi lled the libraries of Alexandria

to the Silicon brains that seem to power modern

digital libraries, there is of course philosophical

transformation. Technology is not a mere tool as far as

libraries are concerned. They have pervaded the heart

as well as soul of libraries, and they have created new

library experiences withering the old ones. This issue

of CSI has as its theme e-Libraries.

Rachna Patnaik of SAC, ISRO, Ahmedabad in

article titled “Building Electronic Libraries: Issues

and Challenges” gives an overview of the scene and

introduces the case of SAC e-library. The services of

the SAC library portal clearly indicate the changing

face of new generation libraries. Dr. Sudhanshu Joshi

and Dr. Manu Sharma in the article titled “Emergence

of e-libraries Among South-Asian Countries: Critical

Issues and Concerns” take a look at issues specifi c

to South Asian countries. Binimol M C and Remya

Krishnan report an innovative library application that

attempts to reach out to generation-X by initiating the

ubiquitous facebook.

Our Technical Trends section has an interesting

article titled “A Concept & Approach for Open Frequent

Flyer Program (OFFP)” authored by Rudranil Dasgupta

and Diptiman Dasgupta. In Article Section, Pramod

Koparkar has presented an educative computing

application for numerical analysis with “Practical

Aspects of Implementing Newton-Raphson on

Computers”.

Avinash Kadam has highlighted information security

awareness through his article “Five Key Considerations

for an Information Security Defender”. He has written

about specifi c aspects of the role of information

security defender, which are diff erent from

information security planner and information security

investigator. Manish Kumar, Dr. M Hanumanthappa

and Dr. T V Suresh Kumar have presented “The

Underworld of Cyberworld” through onion routing

aspects as well as anonymity challenges. The article

provides information on the technology like Tor and

Bitcoin, which has added a potential threat in cyber

community.

In Practitioner Workbench section, we have

Programming.Tips () presenting Fun with ‘C’ programs

– comprehending the localization support and The

gprof utility in Linux by Wallace Jacob. Security Corner

section covers two articles: one on information security

article by Adv. Prashant Mali titled “Software Agreements

in India – Points to Ponder”, another on IT Act 2000 by

Mr. Subramaniam Vutha on “Prof. IT Law in Conversation

with Mr. IT Executive – Similarities between technology and

law; need for collaboration Issue No. 12”.

There are other regular features such as; Brain Teaser,

Ask an Expert and ICT News Brief in February 2013

in Happening@ICT and CSI reports, Chapter and

Student branch newsand various calls.

Remember we look forward to receiving your

feedback, contributions, and replies as usual at

[email protected].

With warm regards,

Rajendra M Sonar, Achuthsankar S Nair,

Debasish Jana and Jayshree Dhere

Editors

Dear Fellow CSI Members,

From Clay to Silicon is not a paradigm shift. But for libraries, that may not be true.

Technology is not a mere as far as libraries are concerned. They have pervaded the heart as soul of libraries, they have created new library experiences wither to unknown.


IntroductionThe growth of Internet and the availability

of enormous volume of information in

electronic/digital form have necessitated

the growth of e-libraries. By adopting,

emerging technologies, libraries are

reshaping its collections and services by

organizing, managing, and disseminating

information in an electronic format. Due

to an explosion of electronic resources in

the form of journals, books, newspapers,

magazines, data, images, music, and

other audio, videos etc., it has become

essential for libraries to store information

electronically. As the electronic resources

change at a very rapid pace, fi nding ways

to manage them eff ectively, from selection

to licensing, is becoming a major challenge

for librarians. There are certain issues

related to e-resources like acquisition,

access restrictions, authentication,

copyright, preservation, software, and the

user interface. In addition to acquiring and

managing e-resources, it is also essential

that library professionals must educate

patrons on the usage and access to

electronic resources.

Libraries have evolved from paper-

based storehouse of books and journals,

into distributed network of electronic

information and knowledge, now known

as electronic libraries (E-Libraries). In

electronic libraries, information is stored

electronically and made accessible to

the users through networks. Because of

the user preferences for the electronic

format, these resources are becoming

essential in library collection. The

collections in E-libraries are developed

and maintained to meet the information

needs of a given user community.

“Electronic resources” refer to those

materials that require computer access

and may either be accessed locally or

remotely via the Internet.

E-resources and Collection DevelopmentThe libraries, along with their traditional

holdings have now added various types

of electronic information resources like

E-journals, E-books, Full-text databases,

E-reports, CD-ROM and DVD-ROM

databases, online databases, and internet

resources as depicted in Fig. 1.

Libraries have started subscribing

these e-resources because of their

multidimensional features compared

to the print sources. Diff erent skills and

systems are required to handle and

manage these resources. Some of the

advantages of e-resources are: they

allow remote access across geographical

barriers, can be simultaneously accessed

by more than one user, support searching

capabilities with unique features i.e.

multimedia information, and save physical

storage space and do not require physical

processing, e.g., receiving and binding.

Although e-resources off er above

mentioned advantages, there are certain

issues like infrastructure costs, need of

technical support/training, concerns

about copyright issues and archiving,

complex licensing agreements, and lack of

uniformity and consistency in the format /

user interface etc.

E-Books

E-Resources

E-Journals

CD-ROM databases

DVD-ROM databases

E-Databases

E-Reports

Fig. 1: E-resources in a library

Collection development is the

process of systematically building library

collections to serve the needs of the users.

It is essential to answer certain questions

before building an e-library like “Why do

we need an e-library collection?”, “Who

are our patrons and what are their needs?”

How the collections will be organized and

accessed. Due to budget constraints,

it is essential to evaluate e-resources

before purchase, based on an in-depth

knowledge of the patron’s needs and

availability of resources. Although, the

availability of electronic resources enables

remote access to the information, it also

simultaneously presents certain issues

and challenges not encountered with

traditional materials.

Space Applications Centre Electronic library Space Applications Centre’s (SAC) library

provides various electronic services

to its users on their desktops through

organization’s internal network. With

the rapid development of electronic

publishing, library is not only acquiring

reading materials such as printed books

and journals, but also arranging for

providing access to various learning

resources in an electronic format.

The various electronic services

provided by SAC Library portal shown in

Fig. 2, are as follows:

• On-line Public Access Catalogue

(OPAC)

• Digital Repository

• CD/DVD Access

• E-Resources

• NPTEL videos

• Current Awareness service

• Project Literature service

• Content page service

The library services are hosted on

high-end servers on Red Hat Linux and

Ubuntu platform. The library’s online

catalog contains over 1 lakh items owned

by the library, including books, periodicals,

Building Electronic Libraries: Issues and Challenges

Rachna PatnaikHead, Library & Documentation Division, Space Applications Centre, ISRO, Ahmedabad

Abstract: Information technology (IT) and network technology (NT) have given boost to the development of Electronic publishing

and have converted the traditional libraries to electronic libraries. Electronic/digital resources are revolutionizing libraries across the

world and there is a sharp transformation in the nature of library collections. In order to keep pace with this trend and meet user needs,

it is essential that libraries must incorporate criteria for the selection of materials in new formats while also maintaining traditional

collections. The librarian is also forced to use IT tools effectively to render services and to redefine the process of collection development.

There are various issues related to the acquisition, preservation, copyright, licensing, and access to these electronic resources, which are

far more critical than the print format. In this article, attempts have been made to highlight some of these key issues.

Keywords: Electronic libraries, electronic resources, etc.

Cover Story


electronic documents, and other

materials. The bibliographic information

can be accessed through Online Public

Access Catalogues (OPAC) and users can

search according to author, title, subject,

keyword, publisher, place, etc.

SAC Library has developed a digital

repository using Dspace software, on

Ubuntu platform for managing digital

resources of its scientifi c community.

It consists of original research in digital

form, including technical reports

(unclassifi ed), publication, and house

publication which are uploaded in the

repository in a proper collection. For

the storage of the content, the server is

attached to 4TB Direct attached Storage

(DAS) device. The repository provides

access to and manages collection in a

professionally maintained archive, giving

users increased visibility and accessibility

over the organization’s network.

The NPTEL videos and electronic

documents available in the library are

mirrored on the Network Attached

Storage (NAS), of 6TB capacity to help

the users to access from their desktops.

All eff orts are taken into consideration

regarding monitoring and controlling of

license usage. From the security point,

share level security as well as user level

security is provided.

SAC Library also subscribes to various

electronic journals and books. Full text

electronic access to some of them is made

available as free with print subscription,

some by paying additional subscription

amount, and registering with our IP address.

Complete list of E-journals along with

instructions of usage, is provided on library

portal. These resources are IP authenticated,

and can be accessed within the campus as

well as from home through a proxy server.

Fig. 2: SAC Library portal

The usage of these e-resources is

tremendous, and users are accessing

these contents for their various projects

and research work, as brought out in Fig. 3.

Issues and Challenges in developing e-libraries The challenges of integrating electronic

resources and technologies are many and

need to be considered including content,

functionality, pricing, infrastructure,

access, technological obsolescence,

licensing, ownership, and copyright.

Therefore, before purchasing e-resources

it is essential to evaluate and form policies

to integrate this new technology, as

described below:

Content and pricingIt is essential to determine the media/

format in which the content should be

acquired, frequency of updates, the

availability of back issues, archiving

policies, etc.

As the pricing models of electronic

resources vary signifi cantly, libraries while

subscribing should consider the cost and

other additional benefi ts like savings in

physical storage, increased availability,

improved access or functionality. In terms

of access and archival, the best model

which meets the needs of the library

should be considered.

Infrastructure requirementsIt is essential to ensure that library

has proper infrastructure i.e. hardware

and software and has the capability

to provide and eff ectively maintain access

to resources on an ongoing and cost

eff ective basis.

The various methods of access, either

IP-authentication or login/password need

to be considered. Access via IP fi ltering

is often preferable because it provides

simultaneous access to multiple users.

Also, IP-address recognition allows

authorized library users to access content

from outside the physical boundary of the

library via a proxy server. The resources

should be compatible across a wide

range of platforms and web browsers.

Library should also provide training to its

users about the resources and browser

requirements.

Functionality and reliability The interface should be user friendly, easy

to navigate, and users should be able to

save search history, etc. It should off er

a powerful and fl exible search engine

with features like keyword and Boolean

searching, full-text searching, truncation,

relevancy ranking, etc. The system on

which the e-resources are hosted should

be available 24/7 and reliable with

minimum downtime.

Taylor & Francis

SPIEDL

Sciencedirect (Elsevier)

OSA

John Wiley

Indistat

IEL (IEEE/IET Electronic Lib)

AMS

AIP

AGUDL

ACMDL

0 2000

197

1197

1135

1080

9031

476

403

362

1758

4644

564

4000 6000 8000 10000

Fig. 3: Usage of E-Journals subscribed by library during last year


Technological obsolescenceThe biggest challenge in e-collection

development is the obsolescence of

hardware/software required to access

electronic information. In order to

ensure longer life of the electronic

information, a continuous development

and upgradation of information storage,

and access to techniques and technology

is a must. It is also essential to consider

the provision for migrating fi les to new

formats/platforms, to keep up with

technological advances.

Archiving/Preserving e-resources A major concern is, archiving and

preserving e-resources for the future use,

because libraries do not have ownership

of the e-resources, but can only access

them. Libraries may want a guarantee

that if they cancel or terminate their

subscriptions, they have the right of

perpetual access to previously subscribed

contents. Consideration should be given to

whether the content provider is compliant

to LOCKSS, Portico or other similar types

of archival products.

CopyrightCopyright is a form of intellectual property

that gives the author, of an original work

exclusive right for a certain time period

in relation to that work, including its

publication, distribution, and adaptation,

after which time the work is said to

enter the public domain. Since the entire

electronic library is available online, it

comes under the Copyright Laws and its

contents should not be reproduced or

electronically transmitted.

Licensing issues for e-resourcesUnlike print publications, e-resources are

not purchased outright and usually require

a license agreement to be signed. Prior to

the purchase, the license agreement must

be reviewed and negotiated as it describes

the authorized uses and users of licensed

information. The library should ensure

that as a part of the license agreement,

the vendor provides suffi cient advance

notifi cation in relation to renewals to allow

for suffi cient lead time to undertake an

eff ective review of the resource.

Renewal and Review of usesBefore renewal of any resource, the library

should review usage statistics to determine

eff ective use of the resource. The library

should demand from the vendor statistical

reporting i.e. COUNTER (Counting Online

Usage of Networked E-resources) and/

or SUSHI (Standard Usage Statistics

Harvesting Initiative) compliant usage of

e-resources. The library should be able

to ensure that library budgets continue

to be spent on resources that support

the overall mission and objectives of the

organization and remain relevant and cost

eff ective.

ConclusionThe development of an electronic library

is a long and challenging process and

libraries need to apply proper skills in

planning the collection and manage

both print and e-resources. During the

last decade, the status of libraries has

drastically changed due to emergence

of e-resources. Also, there is a rapid

urge of the user community to get more

information in e-format. Replacing printed

resources with electronic materials can

reduce the cost of processing, shelving,

and binding. Moving towards electronic

library from the traditional library needs a

balanced collection between printed and

electronic forms.

Since a vast amount of information is

available in electronic formats on Internet;

Librarian must not only identify and

facilitate access to electronic information

resources, but also educate library users

about their availability and use patterns.

Protection of intellectual property, security

of electronic resources, user training, etc.

should also be considered as eff ective

management of information within the

electronic library.

AcknowledgmentThe author is thankful to Shri Kiran Kumar,

Director, SAC for his encouragement and

Dr. Ajai, Chairman Library Committee,

SAC for his constant support and guidance.

The author is grateful to Dr. Pradip Pal and

Shri Nilesh M Desai for their critical and

fruitful discussions on the article.

References[1] Johnson Sharon, Evensen Ole Gunnar,

Gelfand et. al. (2012) “Key Issues for

E-Resource Collection Development:

A Guide for Libraries“, International

federation of library associations and

institutions.

[2] Kovacs, Diane K Kovacs, Elkordy

Angela (2000) “Collection

development in cyberspace: building

an electronic library collection”,

Library Hi Tech; Volume: 18 Issue:

4; 2000.

[3] Chandel A S, Saikria Mukesh (2012),

“Challenges and opportunities of

e-resources”, Annals of Library and

Information Studies, Vol. 59, Sept.

2012, pp. 148-154.

[4] Branin, J J (1994). Fighting back once

again from collection management to

knowledge management. In Johnson,

P and MacEwan, B Collection

management and development

issues in an electronic era. Chicago:

American Library Association.

[5] Kovacs, D K (1999). Electronic

publishing in libraries: introduction.

Library Hi Tech. Vol. 17 (1), pp 8-9.

[6] Jurasek, Karen. (2008). Trends

and challenges before the future

academic library professional that

will Shape the Future of Academic

Libraries.

[7] Avasia, Maya (2001). “Electronic

resources: Collection development”,

Proceedings of Caliber 2001.

[8] Kovacs Diane K and Robinson,

Kara L (2004), “The Kovacs guide

to electronic library collection

development”. n

Abo

ut th

e A

utho

r

Rachna Patnaik did her Master of Computer Applications (MCA), from NIT Bhopal in 1992. She has more than

18 years of experience in database management system, web designing, open source software, data mining, and

digital repositories. Her research interests cover a wide spectrum of library and IT technologies. Currently, she is

Head, Library & Documentation Division, Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad.


Dr. Sudhanshu Joshi* and Dr. Manu Sharma***Incharge- Information Technology, Doon University, Dehradun**Asst. Professor, School of Management, Institute of Management Studies, Dehradun

Cover Story

Emergence of e-libraries Among South-Asian Countries: Critical Issues and ConcernsIn the last few decades, ICT has emerged

as a potential catalyst for socioeconomic

growth and development among

developing countries (Conceição, Heitor,

Gibson, & Shariq, 1998; Heeks, 1999;

Saunders, Warford, & Wellenius, 1994).

Few studies in the recent past also depict

that a competent telecommunication

infrastructure boosts the socio-

economical development of people at the

bottom of pyramid, through various means

including enhancing livelihoods, delivering

educational, and health opportunities at

the masses and by providing accessibility

to valuable knowledge and resources

(Caspary & O’Connor, 2003; Chapman &

Slaymaker, 2002; Slater & Tacchi, 2004;

Wilson, 2003).

Among the successful applications

of ICT, e-libraries proved to be one of

the successful ventures. Digital library

systems cater to the present and

potential needs of scientifi c and research

communities, and also the emerging

needs of society and practitioners by

bridging the geographical challenges.

Recently, the usage of cloud computing

to channelize e-libraries content is being

examined and how it can become a part of

future research and application.

Theoretically, the term digital

libraries can be logically defi ned as “an

extension and enhancement of physically

stored information, by means of retrieval

systems that manipulate digital data

in any medium” (texts, images, sound;

static or dynamic images) (Borgman,

1999; Marchionini, 2000; Marchionini &

Fox, 1999).

Digital libraries are seen as resources

that ideally: (1). Serve a defi ned community

or set of communities; (2). May not be

a single entity; (3). Are underpinned

by a unifi ed and logical organizational

structure; (4). Incorporate learning as well

as access; (5). Make the most of human

(“librarian”) as well as technological

resources; (6). Provide fast and effi cient

accessing, with multiple access modes;

(7). Provide free access (perhaps just

to the specifi ed community); (8). Own

and control their resources (some of

which may be purchased); and (9). Have

collections that: Are large, and persist

over time; Are well organized and

managed; Contain many formats;

Contain objects; not just representations;

Contain objects that may be otherwise

unobtainable, and Contain some objects

that are digital ab origin.

Today, we stand at a transition from

the traditional library to a global digital

library. The idea is to provide universal

access to digital content available only

in a digital library environment. In the

Information Age, we require a digital

library because the emergence of digital

technology and computer networks has

provided a means, whereby information

can be stored, retrieved, disseminated,

and duplicated in a fast and effi cient

manner (Bhattacharya, 2004). On a global

level, digital libraries (DLs) have made

considerable advances both in technology

and its application. South –Asian libraries

still have a long way to go, if they have to

benefi t from this movement.

Purpose of a Digital LibraryThe fundamental purpose of a digital library

must be to provide access to information,

along with appropriate reference tools for

identifying and evaluating the possible

sources and types of information

(Bhattcharya, 2004). Learning must be

digitized and organized in a manner that

can be searched intelligently and reliably,

using technologies that do not require

undue technical training. Perhaps most

diffi cult of all, is to have a sustainable

business model to support the digital

library must. Digital libraries can be

explored in an information society from two

yet not entirely compatible dimensions:

intellectual property and evolving

technologies to serve communities of

learning (Jeevan, 2004).

Challenges Facing the Digital LibrariesA digital library involves a massive

investment for digitization of the existing

collection and acquisition of digital

resources. Hence, the small libraries in

low income developing nations in South-

Asia are unable to invest in creating digital

libraries, or to digitize their collections.

Following are the challenges that libraries

in South-Asia face, as far as digitization

are concerned (Bhattacharya, 2004):

(i) Intellectual Property Rights: A major

challenge usually emerges during the

digitalization of libraries and that is;

complying with copyright and other

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)

issues. A large pool of publishers and

authors are creating a mechanism to

benefi t the stakeholders, and ensure

the protection of the Intellectual

rights.

(ii) Security: Data security for digitalized

information is the biggest challenge.

Issues including piracy of databases,

virus inversion etc; need to be

addressed on immediate basis.

(iii) Technological change: Information

technology skills and applications

are changing and developing quickly.

To sustain, digital libraries need the

latest technology.

(iv) Lack of expertise: There are only

limited suppliers for digital materials

in the world. There is an urgent need

to expand this expertise across

South-Asia, to ensure that knowledge

remains a source of sharing.

(v) Inadequate fi nance and infrastructure:

Most of the academic and public

libraries are facing the problem of

fi nances. Thus, it is not possible for

all colleges and universities to change

their resources into digital resources.

(vi) Information explosion on the internet:

As digital libraries are working

through the Internet and other

networks, information fi ltration

mechanism needs to develop, to

extract the fruitful information from

the network for the end user.

(vii) Cost of regular refreshing: Some

sources of information, such as

e-journals, are unlikely to lead to

reduced costs either for publishers or

for libraries.

(viii) Preservation: To provide continued

digital information services, a

digital library should have historical

information resources in addition to

current digital sources.

(ix) Existing infrastructure: This is one


the major challenge the South-Asian

countries are facing, because of the

underdeveloped state of infrastructure

set up, which includes telecommunication

setups as well.

Conclusion:Besides, the diff erence in the development

of e-libraries in developing nations vis-

à-vis other areas of digitalisation, a

level of enthusiasm is required among

libraries practitioners to develop an

evolving prototype for e-libraries through

cooperation and collaboration among

diff erent countries (Jeevan, 2004).

Technology plays a vital role in the

transformation of libraries into digital

form, but besides technology various

factors including infrastructural needs,

human resource, fi nance, and lack of

planning also need to be considered.

In the emerging networked world,

copyrights and intellectual property are

now well protected and enough security

is developed and maintained. In addition

to this, learning from the developed world

gives more visibility to the intellectual

property of developing nations.

The other important dimension

that digital libraries should focus on is

preservation and access to content, and

on making digitalized content free, for

easy access among the member libraries,

while creating an e- consortium.

Future OutlookThe success of a digital library depends

upon the computers, communication skills,

and knowledge of library professionals

in connection with modern technology.

Future trends point toward the need for

extensive research in digital libraries

and for the transformation of libraries

as institutions. The present ambiguity of

terminology is hindering the advance of

research and practice in digital libraries,

and in our ability to communicate the

scope and signifi cance of our work.

A Brief list of potential areas of

concern could include (Goldner, 2010):

1. Most library computer systems

are built on pre-web technology.

Transformation is required in terms of

deployment of web 2.0 architecture.

2. System distributed across the net

using pre-web technology is harder

and more costly to integrate. Security

issues are needed to address.

3. Libraries store and maintain much

of the same date hundreds and

thousands of times. Collection

assessment is required across the

E-Library database.

4. With library data scatter across

distributed systems the library’s

web presence is weakened.

A comprehensive framework needs

to install.

5. With libraries running independent

systems collaboration between

libraries is made diffi cult and

expensive. Inter-library cloud is

required to be installed.

6. Information seekers work in common

web environments and distributed

systems make it diffi cult to get the

library into their workfl ow.

7. Many systems are only used to 10%

of their capacity. Combining systems

into a cloud environment reduces the

carbon footprints, making libraries

greener.

In the present article, we have suggested

measures to build the open-source public

cloud service library architecture, across

South-Asian libraries based on virtual

technology, eff ectively increase the service

capacity of information institutions, use

effi ciency of network resources, and

secure the applicability of services while

preventing the server from spreading.

Future research can be based on

key technical interfaces for building the

cloud infrastructure and realization of

major functional modules, including

the management of virtual server,

management of virtual application

mapping.

A South-Asian Cloud based e-library

can be formulated, which aims to

cooperate a set of library management

services, to support core library services

such as circulation, acquisitions,

cataloguing, and related resource sharing

among selected Asian countries.

References:[1] Chakraverty, R (2003). Digital

libraries: issues and future. In Y Singh, et al. (Eds.), New challenges in information management and e-learning in the age of globalisation-issues and opportunities: Proceedings of the SIS 2003, Vol. 1 (pp. 25–39). Roorkee: IIT Roorkee.

[2] Goswami, S K, & Ghosh, B K (2002). Digital library environment—Indian context. In A Chatterjee, et al. (Eds.), Digital information systems and services (pp. 229–234). Kolkata: IASLIC.

[3] Bhattacharya. P (2004), “Advances in digital library initiatives: a developing country perspective”, The International Information & Library Review, 36(3), pp. 165-175. 175.

[4] Conceição. P, Heitor, M V, Gibson D V And Shariq S S (1998), “The emerging importance of knowledge for development: Implications for technology policy and innovation”, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 58 (3), pp. 181–202.

[5] C L Borgman, C L (1999), “What are digital libraries? Competing visions”, Information Processing and Management, 35 pp. 227–243.

[6] Goldner, M (2010), “Wind of Change:

ILS

OPAC

Self-Service Circulation

Cataloguing

InstitutionalRepository

MetaSearch

CataloguingUtility

Natural/GlobalSystem

ConsortiaSystem

ElectronicVenders

PrintVendors

Resolver

ERMLibrary

Suppliers

Partners

UsersData

A to ZList

AcquisitionLibrary

Users

(a). Traditional library System Topology (b) Proposed South-Asian E-Library

Fig. I: Migrati on from traditi on library system topology (a) to Proposed Integrati on Model of South-Asian E-Library (b) [Source: Adopted from Michael Dula et.al. 2012]

Continued on Page 16

www.csi-india.orgCSI Communications | March 2013 | 12

Binimol MC* and Remya Krishnan**Cover Story

BOOKFACE - A Facebook of Books

With the evolution of the Internet, the

concept of automation has invaded every

single fi eld known to man. The age old

system of maintaining register books,

ID cards in library has been eff ectively

replaced by library automation systems.

The emergence of library automation

perhaps began with University of Texas,

using a punch card system to manage

library operation in 1936. In another decade,

Vannevar Bush talked about an automated

system that would store information,

including books, personal records, and

articles. The MARC. (Machine Readable

Cataloging) of Library of Congress in

1960s, became an international standard,

the integrated library system (ILS) in

1970s followed by the Internet in 1990s.

ILSs began allowing users to more actively

engage with their Libraries through OPACs

(Online Public Access Catalog) and online

web-based portals.

Open source ILSs such as Koha and

Evergreen are new in the scene. However,

a paradigm shift in the scene is yet to

appear. The Internet has triggered new

forms of social interactions, the foremost

being social networking sites. Orkut,

Facebook, Twitter, etc have become the

most important forms of social activity for

generation-X.

With the emergence of social

networking ventures like Orkut, Facebook,

Twitter, a large network of people

stay connected by status updating,

commenting, and sharing pictures.

Bookface, library software conceived

an implementation at the Department

of Computational Biology and

Bioinformatics, University of Kerala, has

attempted to exploit the paradigm of social

networking to make it appealing to Gen-X.

Library digitization was used primarily in

managements or administrations where

users did not have many benefi ts; however

Bookface redefi nes how the library can be

used. Bookface is an innovative library

management application, which merges

the features of social networking and

common library management software.

It is a web-based application that is

supported by multiple browsers and

mobile platforms. It is like a Facebook of Books and library users. Users can tag,

like, and comment on their favorite books.

They can browse the software through any

device that can access the internet. They

can maintain their bookshelves and thus

archive their reader life. This innovative

software is aimed at transforming the

The 21st Century is the age of social networking where the current generation interacts more virtually than physically. Social

Networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Orkut, etc. have taken social interaction in the human domain to the next

level. In this virtual networking culture, academic books, and libraries seem to be taking a back seat for the younger generation. To

encourage active reading and keep the passion and love for books alive, the concept of social networking has been implemented

in the academic library of Department of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics at the University of Kerala. Here we introduce

BookFace- the new face to library networking.

Fig. 1: The Home Page of Bookface

Fig. 2: Use of fi lters in Search box


library to a futuristic people-centric

library. Sookshmatech, a software fi rm in

Technopark, developed the software. The

URL of Bookface is www.bookfacedcb.org

Homepage of Bookface is obviously

reminiscent of Facebook. It energizes

the members to read the books. Reading

count is automatically recorded in

Bookface. Anyone who logs into Bookface

can know about the quantity of stock

books, availability of books, and the details

of issued books. The various fi ltering

options available in Bookface make it easy

to search and fi nd required books. It also

complies with the Right to Information

Act making the library an open-window

system. Bookface gives a more reader-

centric approach that is much diff erent

from the original objective of a usual

library that is more book centric and

service centric.

Issue & return process are done

through RFID (Radio Frequency

Identifi cation) system, thus replacing the

use of barcodes on library books. RFID

tags are penetrable through an item;

hence it can be directly scanned without

the need to open it. A stack of books

can thus be read simultaneously by the

borrower himself, hence the librarian

has just a monitoring role in this process

and the end-users can save time. The

book operations of the library are fully

computerized and the online public

access catalog (OPAC) is accessible from

anywhere from the world.

The home module of Bookface

provides the most relevant information

on the books and the users. Most popular

books are listed under separate tabs such

as Most Read, Most Liked, etc. Recent

comments by users are populated under

the “Recent Updates” tab. (Fig. 1). It is

based on the idea of social networking

on an academic scenario wherein users

can view images, a short description, and

the status of availability about any book

in the library. In the main window one

can view the most read, most liked, most

commented books, and recent updates. A

search option is also included to look up

for the book under various categories like

author, title, subject, stock number, call

number, etc. The librarian alone has the

privilege of viewing the library register in

the form of stock number, title of the book,

member name, issued, and returned dates

of books on the Home Page.

The Search box, which is available in

all modules, makes it easy to search

for particular books. Books can be

searched based on their titles, by the

authors, publishers, subject, etc. Various

fi lters such as science, philosophy, and

mathematics, can be applied to shortlist

the search results. Once the user provides

the necessary details and hits ‘Enter’, the

results will be displayed as seen in Fig. 2.

By clicking the Books link the page

goes to another page which displays

images of the new releases (Fig. 3a).

Recent comments and recently issued

books are the additional menus included

in this page.

Bibliographical information are

available from Book Details page i.e., full

book details and it’s transactions including

issuing time, date, month, and year. There

is a facility to write comment about the

books. Members can reserve their books

Fig. 3: Salient features of Books module

Fig. 3a: The Books module of Bookface


beforehand when the books get listed on

the ‘New Arrivals’ list through this page,

so that when the book is available for

borrowing the user who has reserved it shall

get it fi rst. Another unique feature is that

the members can use ‘tags’ on their books

with tag names such as humor, science,

fi ction, etc. thus when other users need to

read about fi ction, the books tagged under

fi ction gets listed much similar to a cross

referencing system. Users can also create

shelf with their most liked books. The book

transactions are automatically linked to

this module to enable users to fi nd out

if materials are available for loan or have

been borrowed (Fig 3b).

From the stats page one can generate

various statistical reports about book

transactions, readership rates over the

years or a particular week or a month

(Fig. 4). This module displays graphical

representations of readership rates,

searches the number of stock books,

available books, and issued books

available as sub-classes from this module.

From the ‘Members’ sub-class the full

details about members of Bookface, their

readership rates and books currently in

hand are displayed.

.The Members module gives details

on the names and status of the members

in Bookface (Fig. 5). They are classifi ed as

MSc/ MPhil students, research scholars,

faculty, alumni and administrators.

Clicking on each member we get details

on the number of books the member

has read, liked, and commented. Alumni

members can also continue using their

accounts and add comments, but they are

denied borrowing or issuing of books.

Automation and networking of libraries

are still in their infancy in India. Their full

impact on libraries and library resources

will be known in due course of time. A

lot of concern has been raised in recent

times regarding the deteriorating reading

standards of the younger generations. The

key to this issue is to provide a “facelift”

to libraries that are resources of infi nite

knowledge. Bookface is one such solution

that encourages the students, teachers,

and all types of front end users alike

to befriend the books in their libraries,

and “to know and let know” about the

eff ectiveness of a book to others as well.

Bookface is thus a social library network

that has attracted a wide range of readers

ever since its launch and hence other

academic libraries shall surely benefi t with

systems such as these. n

Fig. 4: Stats showing net readership rate over the years.

Abo

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rs

Binimol MC completed her Bachelor of Library and Information Science (BLISc) and Master of Library and

Information Science (MLISc) from Kerala University. She is currently working as Library Assistant at the

Department of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, University of Kerala.

Remya Krishnan did her Post Graduation in Biotechnology and MPhil in Bioinformatics from the Department

of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, University of Kerala. She is currently doing her PhD in the same

department.

Fig. 5: Members module of Bookface


IntroductionIn the airline industry we have a concept

of Frequent Flyer Programs (FFP), which is

basically an award program for passengers

who fl y in very high frequencies and under

this program; those sections of passengers

are recognized or given extra off ers/

promotions. Almost every travel company

has their own frequent fl yer program and

this leads to the following issues:

• Maintenance of multiple frequent

fl yer accounts by each traveler.

• Reward is based on miles fl own in a

particular fl eet and not total miles

travelled by a passenger in air.

• Passenger misses out on rewards if

he chooses to mix and match airlines.

• Passenger always has to restrict the

travel on the FFP program that the

passenger is associated with instead

of having an open mind to decide

best course of travel.

Suppose Airline ABC has a FFP A1 and

Airline XYZ has a FFP A2. Not only does

the passenger need to maintain two sets

of credentials for the same, but also he will

not be rewarded by ABC if the passenger

travels on XYZ and vice versa. This always

restricts the passenger in his airline

choices, and he is not properly rewarded

for ONLY fl ying, which should be the main

criteria.

In addition to this, for any

passenger, the entire travel paradigm

may also comprise of train, hotel, and car

reservations. All these disparate entities

have their own programs for tracking a

passenger’s frequent fl yer/frequent usage

statistics, which leads to an incomplete

travel experience. In most cases in

today’s scenario, the passenger will miss

out integrating the benefi ts of one of the

components in the other one.

Approach Towards Defi ning an Open Frequent Flyer ProgramThe core idea is the creation of a weight

based unique frequent fl yer program, which

can be thought of as Open Frequent Flyer

Program (OFFP) as it is not restricted to

any particular industry. The OFFP would be

a calculation of trip parameters instead of

isolated path. Every passenger would have

a single frequent fl yer number/unique id

for all airlines. The number would ALWAYS

be updated with points, when a passenger

travels independent of the airline chosen by

the passenger. The exact algorithm for this

is given in the next section.

Added to this would be the tracking

and addition of any travel component

like train, car, and hotel which would be

tracked through the same OFFP ID for a

passenger.

The advantages that this approach

would bring in are:

• Single Unique OFFP ID maintained

for a user - easier for user, easier for

the travel industry.

• Rewards would be for being in the air

or total distance traveled over the air,

and not based on particular airline

- being in the air and covering large

distance is the most profi table metric

of the airline, along with the points

earned by using trains, cars and,

staying in hotels.

• Passengers are no longer restricted in

the airline they choose to fl y, because

they know their FFP will be appended

by miles (through the algorithm we

have come up with below). Added to

this would be removal of restrictions

to choose a particular hotel or car

brand and would open the user to

limitless possibilities.

• Passenger never misses out on the

rewards of just fl ying, it can be just

added whenever he completes the

journey, and goes out of the airport to

use other travel components.

• Airline, hotel, and car rental

industries will see more traffi c as

awards become proportional to fl ying

miles, so there will be possibilities of

giving more benefi t to customer.

• The concept of our OFFP is that it

would be rewarded in terms of a trip

instead of only an airline or a hotel.

The OFFP would be a calculation of

all the components of the trip.

Detailed AlgorithmThe steps of the algorithm are:

• Defi nition of a single OFFP number

that is going to be maintained in a

centralized database.

• Defi nition of a relative rating of all

airlines, hotels, rental cars, and trains

maintained on their performance

and ratings. This can be done by a

neutral body and will be based on

the performance over the years for

the particular vendor (Be it airline,

train, rental car or hotel). This can be

a score, where the maximum value

can be 1.

• We need a starting value of the

unique OFFP number which can use

the points already earned by a user

through other FFP. The OFFP can

reuse the references of all the existing

FFP numbers that a user has today.

Suppose a user U1 has FFP numbers

F1 in airline ABC (with 1000 points),

F2 in train XYZ (with 1200 points),

F3 in Hotel GHI (with 800 points),

and F4 in Rental Cars DEF (with 1400

points). If step 2) is done, the new

FFP, OFFP = 1000* F1 + 1200 * F2 +

800 *F3 + 1400 *F4.

• Suppose ABC has a relativistic rating

of 0.7 (determined by step2), XYZ

has a relativistic rating of 0.9, GHI has

0.6 and DEF has 1. Then the starting

value would be OFFP = 1000*0.7

+ 1200 *0.9 + 800*0.6 + 1400* 1 =

700 + 1080 + 480 + 1400 = 3760.

If step 2 is not done, OFFP would be

2000.

• The defi nition of F1, F2, F3, and F4

comes from step 2 where the travel

industry is rated among its peers. For

users who start from 0 (travelling for

the fi rst time after the OFFP program

is launched), the initial value would

be 0.

• Calculation of OFFP going forward:

Let us take the example of an airline

for this calculation. The algorithm for

this would be as follows. If a person

fl ies on an airline ABC, the FFP would

be updated by a fi gure W_ABC*Miles,

where W_ABC would be the

wieghtage of the airline ABC, which

the airline itself can assign. Hence

at any point of time, the frequent

fl yer number of the passenger would

look like

A Concept & Approach for Open Frequent Flyer Program (OFFP)

Rudranil Dasgupta* and Diptiman Dasgupta***Advisory IT Architect (IBM)**Executive IT Architect (IBM)

Technical Trends


• OFFP = W_Airline_1 * Miles1 + W_Airline_2 * Miles2 + W_Airline_3 * Miles3 + ......+ W_Airline_N * MilesN

• The same thing would be appended for other travel industries in the same manner.

• Redeeming off ers on the airlines is a special feature of our approach. When a person is redeeming his miles that has been calculated by our unique algorithm in Airline N, then the airline N will check the number of points earned on their airline (because an airline should give people using their airlines slightly more weightage) AS WELL AS a ratio of the rest of the points.

• So the Redeemable points for Airline N would be = W_Airline_N * Miles N + (Ratio which is <1 ) * (OFFP – [W_Airline_N * MilesN])

• This ratio can be defi ned by each airline based on their policy. It will be a rating that one airline assigns the other airlines and will be maintained as a standard chart for all airlines.

• The same algorithm would be used for other travel industries as well.

• Using the above algorithm will

give the advantages outlined in the earlier section, and have a consistent standard for not only the airline industry but all industries aligned with this.

• Since one of the main advantages of performing redemptions is to earn new miles, the redeemable points calculated for our program can be translated into miles, using a direct conversion (Points = Miles) or some ratio of the number of miles. To simplify the integration across industries, others can also give the earned awards in terms of miles. This would be very easy for rental cars and trains, and would need a tweaking for hotels, where per night would be translated in terms of miles.

Value for Travel Industries• Better collaboration, standardization,

and business opportunities for Airlines Industries.

• Allow a common standard across the airline industry reducing redundancy in maintaining of multiple numbers.

• A new way of proposing the solution in related areas to the customer.

• Due to more point accumulation, users will be attracted to travel more, so better business for industries as the points would become a calculation of the

• Better promotional off ers to customers.

• More win-win situation for travelers and the travel Industry.

• This points when re-deemed can be reused for getting other products & services too, which can be more attractive to customers (e.g. 5000 OFFP points can help them to buy a great leather bag).

References[1] https://www.fl yingreturns.co.in/html/

index.php[2] http://www.starall iance.com/en/

benefi ts/earn-and-redeem/[3] http://www.qantas.com.au/travel/

airlines/qantas-frequent-fl yer-qantas-club-queries/global/en

[4] http://www.oneworld.com/ff p/[5] http://www.webfl yer.com/[6] h t t p : //w w w. f o r b e s . c o m /s i t e s /

lar ryo lmsted/2013/01/23/why-frequent-flyer-programs-dont-work-

and-what-delta-is-doing-about-it/ n

Diptiman Dasgupta is an Executive IT Architect in IBM leading Travel & Transportation Industry in IBM Global Delivery as lead

architect and is a member of IBM Academy of Technology (AoT). He has 15+ years of experience in design and development,

architecting, providing technical strategy, solutions for creating and leveraging assets in client solution, as well as providing

technical leadership to the organization. Diptiman is having multiple publications on Social Collaboration/BPM available in IBM

developerWorks and has patents Filed/PUBLISH.

Rudranil Dasgupta is an IBM Advisory IT Architect, Advisory Accredited IT Specialist, and is currently working as the Advisory

Architect. He has close to 10 years of experience in design and development, architecting, providing technical strategy, solutions

for creating and leveraging assets in client solution, as well as providing technical leadership to the organization. He has in-depth

experience in working with WebSphere solutions, SOA, Web 2.0, Content Management, SAP CRM, and Java/J2EE. Rudranil has

multiple patent publications and patent fi lings. He is an active writer on the IBM developerWorks community and has multiple

publications. Moreover, he is an active member of the IBM University Relations and has delivered multiple lectures.

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Libraries and Cloud Computing”, OCLC Online Computer Library Center. Accessed on: 23/08/2012.

[7] Marchionini, G And E A Fox, “Progress toward digital libraries: Augmentation through integration”, Information Processing and Management, 35

(1999), pp. 219–225.[8] Slater, D, & Tacchi J (2004). ICT

innovations for poverty reduction. UNESCO Report.

[9] Wilson, E J (2003), “The information revolution and developing countries”, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

[10] Jeevan, V K (2004),” Digital library development: identifying sources of content for developing countries with special reference to India”, The International Information & Library Review, 36(3), pp. 185–197.

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Dr. Sudhanshu Joshi is the Incharge – Information Technology, he is also associated with School of Management,

Doon University, Dehradun, He has taught in academic programs at Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee,

University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun and Gurukul Kangri University, Haridwar. He is the author

of 35 International Research papers and fi ve books on Technology Management. He has served CSI in various

capacities in its Haridwar and Dehradun Chapter.

Dr. Manu Sharma is presently serving School of Management, Institute of Management Studies, Dehradun. She has

vast academic experience in teaching strategies and technology management, her research and academic interest

is web 2.0 and its implications on business revenue.

Continued from Page 11


Newton-Raphson is a very widely used

and popular numerical method for solving

equations[5]. It appeals to an extensively

large class of users, since it does not

demand any specifi c form of equations.

It works equally well for a large variety of

equation-forms: for example, polynomial,

rational, transcendental, trigonometric,

hyperbolic, partial diff erential, and so on.

Another important aspect of

Newton-Raphson is that it is iterative in

nature, and as such, quite suitable for

use on computers. This attracts many

programmers, and a large variety of

scientifi c application programs includes

Newton-Raphson as one of the important

internal tools.

This article is about the practical

diffi culties one faces, when one attempts

to use Newton-Raphson on computers,

and especially, when tries to use it in an

automatic fashion.

Where is Newton-Raphson Required?Various real-life objects along with their

properties need to be modelled for the

purpose of simulation and performance-

analysis using computers. The objects

are modelled by certain mathematical

(symbolic) expressions, while the

properties are modelled by equations (and

inequalities) involving these expressions.

In engineering applications, the solution

sought to the system of equations has

diff erent requirements than those of

a mathematical solution. Arriving at a

solution in some form or another (that

is, symbolic, numerical, or procedural),

amenable to further processing, is

important. It is essential that the solution

is computable on the machine, and the

method can be automated.

With this point of view, methods

based on strategies such as numerical

iterative refi nement are more welcome. The

method, refi nes a guess about the solution

to arrive at a better one, and iterates

this until the guess is acceptable. Such

a method can quickly fi nd the solution

to the desired accuracy, whenever it

converges[1]. Newton-Raphson is such a

method for solving the system of non-

trivial equations over a fi nite, bounded

domain, and is applicable whenever the

functions involved are diff erentiable. In

fact, most of the functions involved in

representation of real-life objects, their

properties, and situations involving them,

are diff erentiable. It is no wonder, then,

that Newton-Raphson is so widely in use,

and so popular amongst programmers

concerned with real-life applications.

Many times we need to consider a

system of equations, each one with many

(more than one) independent variables,

rather than a single equation involving a

single variable. However, in this article, I

shall mainly resort to only a single equation

involving a single function of a single real

variable. The remarks and observations

of this article apply equally well to the

system of more equations involving more

variables, particularly when they are

expressed in vector and matrix forms[2].

Why Use Newton-Raphson?The chief reason, for the extensive use

of Newton-Raphson is its efficiency and

accuracy. The number of significant

digits in the solution doubles at every

iteration, and thus, very high accuracy

is obtained quickly[1]. In most of the

applications, the programmer’s grasp

of the problem at hand is good and the

functions involved behave normally

(non-exceptionally) near the solutions.

Thus, the use of Newton-Raphson is

justified. In a situation where Newton-

Raphson converges in one iteration, it

amounts to using and evaluating one

single formula: x – f(x) / f’(x) in order

to arrive at the final solution (see

any book on Numerical Analysis, for

example[1], in case you want to know

where this formula comes from). This

pays handsome returns to the user of

Newton-Raphson in the sense that the

user really is not solving equations but

is just evaluating functions. Of course,

this situation demands linearity or

flatness of the functions involved, and

in reality very few functions are actually

linear or flat.

What happens in practice is that

a single evaluation of the formula may

fail to give the result, but two successive

evaluations may yield up to satisfaction.

This amounts to using the formula

twice and is still attractive. Although the

functions involved may not be linear or fl at

on their large domains, a suffi ciently small

neighbourhood can be found out in which

they are almost linear or fl at. By focusing our

attention to such a neighborhood, we can

be certainly assured that Newton-Raphson

would yield the desired solution in two

iterations, if not in one. This partly explains

why every numerical programmer resorts to

Newton-Raphson whenever possible.

Deciding Initial ValueThe initial guess or the starting point is

very important in the working of Newton-

Raphson. In general, a starting point far

away from the actual solution often leads

to divergence of the iterative process,

rather than its convergence towards the

solution. It may also happen that the

sequence of refi nements oscillates around

the solution, but refuses to converge

to it. Generally, choosing the initial

guess suffi ciently close to the solution

eliminates these problems. However,

to defi ne the phrase ‘suffi ciently

close’ in a formal, programmable way

(to guarantee the convergence) turns out

to be tricky at times, and diffi cult in most

of the situations.

Looking at the graphs of the

functions involved, an experienced

numerical programmer may be able to

pinpoint a correct guess, but writing code

that automatically selects such a guess

appears to be diffi cult and forbidding.

This is a chief characteristic of iterative

processes, and turns out to be their

principal curse. However, it allows an

effi cient use of a priori knowledge about

the situation. If our initial guess is a ‘good’

one, then we get a pay-off by getting the

solution in just one iteration (that is just

one evaluation of the formula).

As an example, consider the task of

creating some picture on your terminal.

The terminal typically consists of an

array of pixels† and the task amounts to

deciding the colour for each pixel. If you

are using Newton-Raphson as a part of

Practical Aspects of Implementing Newton-Raphson on Computers

ArticleDr. Pramod KoparkarSenior InfoTech Consultant

†(A pixel is a small dot which is addressable independently)


this calculation and if you already have

calculated colour of a neighboring pixel,

then this already-calculated value turns

out to be a very good initial guess. This

happens due to the coherence of the

objects involved in the scene.

The problem that needs automatic

computations is seldom a single one. It is

generally a family of similar problems, all of

which are programmed in a single stroke.

We sort them out over the parameters in

which they diff er. Having then found the

solution of the fi rst equation, (may be by

wasting unreasonably large number of

iterations) we now have quite good initial

value for the next, or nearby, problem. It

is diffi cult to say with certainty that this

strategy will always work, but for problems

with un-intricate structure, it generally

gives a ‘fairly' good method.

Sampling IssuesIn absence of any a priori knowledge about

the geometry/behaviour of the functions

involved, a common method to deal

with initial guess is to sample the entire

domain at points of some suitably laid out

grid. Typically, a (rectangular) grid is laid

out with a constant distance between the

adjacent points. A multiple programming

loop is then run in which each of these

points is used as the starting guess and

Newton-Raphson is run to check whether

it yields any solution. This capitalizes

on the power of computers, in that the

computer does not get bored of repeating

any kind of mundane, stupid task a

number of times. To achieve an accurate

scanning, the distance is chosen as small

as wished. This has an eff ect of increasing

the number of trials, but a numerical

programmer typically proceeds with the

view of “let the machine do the dirty job.”

Scanning the entire domain has two

bright disadvantages. Let me explain these

in detail:

The number of operations shoots up heavilyTranscendental functions like sin and

exp are expensive to evaluate, although

polynomials are not. To have 100 points

in one dimension that takes care of the

distance 0.01 in the domain, we need

to evaluate at 100*100 = 10,000 points

in two dimensions, 100*100*100 =

1,000,000 points in three dimensions, and

100*100*100*100 = 100,000,000 points

in four dimensions. Of course, you might

wonder where 4 dimensions come into

picture, but engineering applications are

full of four variables or even more, which

need to be dealt with simultaneously.

A common example is in shape

or geometric modelling. Consider an

example of fi nding an edge or a corner

of a suitcase whose faces (or sides)

are modeled as some kind of surfaces

expressed by some kind of functions. Each

of these surfaces has two independent

variables called surface parameters.

You need to evaluate intersection of two

surfaces to get an edge. This involves 4

parameters simultaneously. If you want to

fi nd out corner of the suitcase, you need

the intersection of three surfaces, and

thus, simultaneously have to deal with 6

independent variables.

Naturally, the suitcase dimensions

are in meters, whereas you want the

answers not only in millimeters (1000th

part of a meter), but in fractions of

millimeters (typically 10th of a millimeter)!

Thus, in each dimension you need to have

an accuracy that demands sampling of

10,000 points or so. With six independent

variables, this amounts to 1,000,000,00

0,000,000,000,000,000 = 1024 trials of

Newton-Raphson.

The effective yield is very smallLet us continue with the example above

of fi nding a corner of a suitcase. How

many corners a suitcase has? Think for

a moment. They are only 8. Do you run

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

trials of Newton-Raphson to fi nd out just

8 corners? Is it ok? What is the eff ective

yield of all eff orts?

Often the result of such huge

evaluations is to tell us that a large

percentage of these calculations

yield no result. In the example above,

999,999,999,999,999,999,999,992 trials

would have found no solution.

Why Does this Happen?Since, we are not using any a priori

information; we have to distribute sample

points uniformly over the domain. This

may (usually it does!) turn out to be an

‘inappropriate’ sampling of the domain

when seen from the point of view of the

geometric complexity of the functions

involved. Often it is required to refi ne the

grid by choosing sample points closer to

each other due to intricacies occurring in

certain portions of the domain, however

small it may be with respect to the

domain size. In doing so, the number of

points multiplies not only in this portion

(in which closeness is genuinely required),

but also in the other portions where the

geometry is relatively simple and does not

need dense sampling.

To appreciate this, I have created an

example as follows:

The function y = sin (1/x) provides

extremely good illustration of this problem

of adequate sampling distance. Consider

it on the interval (0, 1/2π) where the end

values are excluded to avoid division by

0. I have chosen this awkward value 1/2π just to ensure that the graph starts at

y = 0 value on the right hand side, because

sin (2π) = 0. This is the usual sin curve

compressed or squeezed from one side.

Even our trying to plot the graph of this

function on computer causes problems.

We fi x up a decrement in x and start a loop

from 1/2π down to 0. Successive points

are joined by straight lines. However small

decrement we choose, eventually it turns

out to be crude, and requires refi nement.

When x is close to 0, a small variation in

it causes a large (more than 2π) variation

in 1/x and sin (1/x) tries to take all values

from – 1 to +1.

Impact of Basin of AttractionThe function f(x) may have more than

one solution in the given domain, and the

application may need to fi nd out all of them.

For each of these solutions, the process is

repeated with appropriate initial guess.

However, it may happen that the process

has a tendency to converge to a particular

solution irrespective of the initial guess.

Thus, the process expected to converge

to a particular solution may go away from

it and converge to some other solution.

Moreover, this keeps happening for a

number of diff erent trials with diff erent

initial guess. This behaviour makes the

entire process unreliable from the point

of view of following normal, intuitive,

expectations. Due to this behaviour,

sometimes it becomes diffi cult to ensure

detection of every existing solution. How

this happens is very interesting to look at.

I wish to illustrate it by an example.

Consider the function shown above

through its graph. It has solutions at A,

B, and C, and extrema at D and E. If the

starting point for Newton-Raphson is

between D and B, and even beyond B on


its right side, it will most likely converge

to B. We say that points on the right of D

are in the basin of attraction of B. That is, if

you start Newton-Raphson from any point

in this set of points on the right side of D,

the process of Newton-Raphson iterations

shall eventually converge to B.

Similar remarks apply for the point C,

because the function is symmetric on the

other side. We observe that the set of all

points on the left of E are included in the

basin of attraction of C.

It is seen that the chances of

Newton-Raphson converging to A would

be more for a starting point between E and

D. Thus, typically the basin of attraction of

A is restricted between E and D, although

it may not include every point between

D and E.

To see this, consider the point K as

the starting point of Newton-Raphson. At

this point, please recall from numerical

analysis[1] that the value xnew

obtained by

an iteration of Newton-Raphson starting

with xold

, is obtained geometrically at the

intersection of the tangent at xold

(green

line in the fi gure) with the x-axis. Thus,

starting from K, the tangent lands on

some point left to E, and then the further

iterations of Newton-Raphson attempt to

go closer to point C rather than A. We say

that the point K is in the Basin of attraction

of the solution point C rather than the

solution point A.

On the contrary, if M were chosen

as the starting point of Newton-Raphson

instead of K, the tangent lands on some

point right to E, the convergence would

detect A as the solution instead of C. Thus,

whether the process would converge to

C or A depends on the slope of the tangent

at the initial guess (and where it hits

the x-axis) rather than its distance from

the point A.

Compared to B and C, the basin

of attraction of A is much narrow, and

not in the form of a connected interval.

Hence, if we try to run Newton-Raphson

with randomly chosen starting point, we

are likely to miss out A in spite of many

tries. In case of more than one solution,

it becomes necessary to have some kind

of a priori knowledge about the number

of solutions and their distribution in the

domain (although it is not easy). Only with

such knowledge, all possible solutions can

be detected exhaustively. An often-used

remedy to this is the grid method with

fi ner grid size, but it has its limitations

as discussed before in the section of

sampling issues.

No Remedy? Now, with all my discussion above, a

question would arise in your mind: Can

we not have a solution to this failure of

Newton-Raphson? Luckily, the answer

is ‘yes!’ A method exists to avoid these

failures. It is computable, and can be

automated.

You may fi nd its theoretical

development in[2]. Unfortunately, its

details involve intricate mathematics, and

are lengthy. Thus, they are beyond the

scope of this paper.

However, the method is found to work

well in practice, at least, when applied

to detect intersections of curved surfaces.

In case you are interested to know the

details, please see[3].

However, for the sake of

completeness, I am including below

a quick and short description of the

algorithm. The algorithm is based on

recursive subdivision technique.

The AlgorithmStep 1: Evaluate the range of the

function on the entire domain of interest,

using some standard technique like

Interval Analysis[4]. If the range does not

contain 0, then no question arises to fi nd

the solution to f(x) = 0; it simply does not

exist. Stop in this case.

Step 2: Alternatively, if the range has 0

in it, check the suffi ciency conditions for

the convergence of Newton-Raphson to a

unique solution. Such conditions do exist,

and can be computed and programmed as

shown in[2, 3]. If the condition is satisfi ed,

start Newton-Raphson and it shall

converge to the unique solution.

Step 3: Alternatively, if the condition is

not satisfi ed, subdivide the domain at its

mid point, and then recursively apply the

same technique to each of the resulting

sub-domains. In case the domain is

too small (i.e. zero within tolerance

of the program) then stop, as further

subdivision makes no sense. However,

this generally never happens, as during

subdivisions, smaller and smaller sub-

domains are generated, and they either

do not contain 0 (handled in step 1) or

satisfy the suffi ciency condition (handled

in step 2).

Observe that Step 2 resolves the confl ict

discussed in the section “Impact of Basin of

Attraction” and Step 3 resolves the confl ict

discussed in the section “Sampling Issues”

References[1] Acton, F S: Numerical Methods That

Work, Harper and Raw, New York,

1970.

[2] Koparkar, Pramod: Effi cient, Accurate,

Exhaustive, and Robust Method

for Solving System of Non-Linear

Equations, Proc. Numerical Analysis

with Automatic Result Verifi cation,

Lafayette, Louisiana, February, 1993.

[3] Koparkar, Pramod: Surface Intersection

by Switching from Recursive Subdivision

to Iterative Refi nement, The Visual

Computer, v. 8, p. 47, 1991.

[4] Moore R E: Interval Analysis, Prentice-

Hall, Englewood-Cliff s, 1966.

[5] http://www.google.co.in/ Search

with key phrases “applications

of newton raphson method in

engineering” and “applications of

newton raphson method in science”.

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Dr. Koparkar has a Ph.D. in Computer Science, in 1985. He has internationally published original research mainly in the areas of Geometric Modelling, Image Synthesis, and Geometric Shape Processing in 2-D and 3-D. He has been on the International Journal Editorial Board and International Conference Program Committee. He has visited several organizations in diff erent countries for delivering lectures, developing software and presenting research papers.

He has been on various Academic Advisory Committees at the University and Government levels in India. He had worked in Research Institutes like TIFR and NCST, and in Corporations like Citicorp, Computer Vision, ADAC Laboratories (all USA), and 3-dPLM/GSSL (India).

He has written four Books: Unix for You, Pascal for You, Java for You, and C-DAC Entrance Guide. At present, he off ers consultancy to corporate clients about various latest technologies.


8 JUNE 2013UPCOMING EXAM DATE

For more information and to register for an ISACA

exam, visit isaca.org/mycism-CSI.

FINAL REGISTRATION DEADLINE: 12 April 2013


An information security planner needs

foresight. Similarly, an information

security investigator needs hindsight.

An information security defender needs

360-degree vision. An attack can come

from any direction. Any of the seven layers

that constitute a well-planned ‘defense in

depth’ may be under attack. The weakest

link in the defense will snap, leading to a

collapse of the system.

So, how does a defender know which

is the weakest link? Only a veteran will be

able to intuitively sense it. All others have

to believe in Murphy’s Law: "Anything that

can go wrong will go wrong." A person

training for a defender’s job, should bear

this bitter fact in mind and prepare

for every possible consequence. The

training should be planned for creating

a disciplined cyber security army, from

the soldier to the general, and not just an

‘ethical hacker’ who is only familiar with

the hacking tools.

There are fi ve practice areas of

information security management that a

defender should be familiar with. These

are based on the requirements, to become

a Certifi ed Information Security Manager

(CISM):

1. Information Security Governance

2. Information Risk Management

3. Information Security Program

Development

4. Information Security Program

Management

5. Incident Management and Response

Most of the defensive activities

happen at the ‘information security

program management’ and ‘incident

management and response’ levels.

However, defense priorities, risks and

budgets are decided at the fi rst three

layers. A good understanding of all

dimensions is critical for eff ective and

effi cient information security defense.

Information Security GovernanceInformation is much more diffi cult to

defend compared to physical assets.

Physical assets are visible and one can

easily know their value. It is not easy

to know the value of the information

unless one is familiar with the business

goals and objectives. The information

security strategy requires familiarity

with components such as processes,

people, technology, and architecture.

The concepts of corporate governance

and information security governance

are a prerequisite, to be able to integrate

information security governance with

overall enterprise governance framework.

It may not be easy to convince

everyone about the necessity of

information security. One should be

familiar with methodologies, to build a

business case for justifying the investment

in information security. Without

senior management commitment, the

information security may not be taken

seriously. One should be familiar with

methods of obtaining their concurrence

as well as establishment and operation

of information security steering group,

information security management roles,

and general organizational structures.

Multiple factors including technology,

business environment, and risk tolerance

may aff ect organizations and information

security. Also, the regulatory requirements

may have potential business impact from

an information security standpoint. One

should also be familiar with common

liability management strategies and

insurance options. It is essential to

be familiar with generally accepted

international standards on information

security management, centralized and

distributed methods of coordinating

information security activities, and

establishing reporting and communication

channels throughout the organization.

Information Risk ManagementThe objective of this job practice area is

to ensure that the information security

manager understands the importance

of risk management as a tool for

meeting business needs, and developing

a security management program to

support these needs. While information

security governance defi nes the links

between business goals, objectives,

and the security program, security risk

management defi nes the extent of

protection that is prudence-based on

business requirements, objectives, and

priorities.

To know the information objects

to be defended, one will need to

identify and classify them in the order

of their importance, with the help of

the information owners. Knowledge of

information resource valuation is essential

along with knowledge of information

threats, vulnerabilities, and exposure. The

sensitivity and criticality of information

will have to be determined by using

quantitative and qualitative methods to

identify the impact of adverse events

on the business. Knowledge of security

controls, counter measures and the

methods of analyzing the eff ectiveness of

these is essential. A cost benefi t analysis

for mitigating risks to an acceptable level

will be required to justify the expenditure.

Securing information is not a one-time

activity. Knowledge of lifecycle-based

risk management principles and practices

will have to be applied for continued

assurance.

Information Security Program DevelopmentThe information security strategy needs

to be converted into activities that will

achieve the desired state of information

security. This requires knowledge of diverse

areas. To begin with, one will have to

acquire knowledge of planning, designing,

developing, testing, and implementing

information security technologies and

controls (e.g., cryptographic techniques,

access controls, and various monitoring

tools). Knowledge of information security

architecture (e.g., logical architecture

and physical architecture) and their

deployment will be required for the

selection of the right approach. The

security program will be successful only

when adequate awareness has been

created and when skilled and well trained

persons manage the program. Knowledge

of the requirement of information security

awareness, training and education across

the enterprise (e.g., general security

awareness, writing secure code, operating

system controls) is necessary for a well-

Five Key Considerations for an Information Security Defender

ArticleAvinash Kadam [CISA, CISM, CGEIT, CRISC]

Advisor to the ISACA India Task Force


managed security program. Appropriate

policies, standards, procedures, guidelines,

and other documentation needs to be

developed. Good knowledge of how

to link policies and other supporting

documentation to the business objectives

is required. Not all security initiatives

can be handled by the in-house staff .

Good understanding of the processes

for incorporating security requirements

into contracts (e.g., with joint ventures,

outsourced providers, business partners,

customers, and third parties) should

be ensured. Knowledge of the methods

and techniques to manage third-party

risks (e.g. service level agreements,

contracts, due diligence, suppliers, and

subcontractors) should be acquired.

Knowledge of the design,

development and implementation of

information security metrics is essential

for a successful security program as

you can only manage something that

you can measure. There is a growing

requirement for certifying and accrediting

the compliance of business applications

and infrastructure to business needs.

Awareness of this is essential to meet the

expectation for certifi ed and accredited

security systems.

Methods for ongoing evaluation

of the eff ectiveness and applicability of

information security controls such as

vulnerability testing and assessment tools

is required, to get an assurance of the

eff orts that have been taken.

Information Security Program Management This practice area focuses on the tasks

and knowledge necessary, for eff ective

management of information security

within an organization. It starts at the

interpretation and implementation

of information security policies and

good understanding of the information

security administrative processes and

procedures (e.g., access controls, identity

management, and remote access). As

mentioned earlier, everything need not

be done by the organization itself. Many

activities could be outsourced. However,

there should be a good control over the

agreement with third parties, as well as

information security service providers

through contract provisions (e.g., right to

audit, confi dentiality, and nondisclosure).

The service level agreements should

be adequately defi ned to monitor the

security requirements. There should be

good familiarity with the methods and

approaches for providing continuous

monitoring of security activities in the

enterprise’s infrastructure and business

applications. The management metrics

should be defi ned and monitored to

validate the information security program

investments (e.g., data collection, periodic

review, and key performance indicators).

Various methods of testing eff ectiveness

and applicability of information security

controls (e.g., penetration testing,

password cracking, social engineering,

and assessment tools) should be

deployed judiciously. There should be

good knowledge of external vulnerability

and reporting sources, for information

on potential impacts on information

security in applications and infrastructure.

The information security problem

management practices, the reporting

of systems, and infrastructure security

status should be well defi ned.

Incident Management and ResponseIncident management is defi ned as

the capability to eff ectively manage

unexpected disruptive events, with

the objective of minimizing impact

and maintaining or restoring normal

operations within defi ned time limits.

Incident response is the operational

capability of incident management that

identifi es, prepares for and responds to

incidents to control and limit damage;

provides forensic and investigative

capabilities; and maintains, recovers and

restores normal operations as defi ned in

service level agreements.

Knowledge of the following areas is

essential to accomplish the above:

The information security team should

have the knowledge of the components

of an incident response capability and

information incident management

practices. They should be familiar with

disaster recovery planning and business

continuity planning. A good understanding

of events that trigger incident response

is essential along with the knowledge

of damage-control. The notifi cation and

escalation process becomes important

in an incident and should be quickly

followed. The roles of individuals in

identifying and managing incidents

should be clearly defi ned and understood.

Various tools and equipment are required

by the incident management team. The

team also requires forensic tools for

collecting and presenting evidence (e.g.,

admissibility, quality and completeness

of evidence, and chain of custody).

Thorough knowledge of these tools and

techniques is essential. The knowledge of

incidents should be documented and used

for subsequent action. Familiarity with

various internal and external reporting

requirements is essential. The post-

incident review practices and investigative

methods to identify causes and determine

corrective action is equally essential

to know. Knowledge of techniques for

quantifying damages, costs and other

business impacts arising from a security

incident is necessary. Finally, knowledge

of the recovery time objective (RTO) and

its relationship to business continuity

and contingency planning objectives and

processes needs to be acquired.

ConclusionFamiliarity with the fi ve CISM job practice

areas is utmost essential to become a good

information security manager, as well as

a good information security defender.

The practice areas mention a number of

knowledge statements. A practitioner

has to gain practical hands-on experience

in performing each of these tasks. Only

after gaining profi ciency in these activities

can a defender work toward making the

systems secure against any attacks that a

wily hacker may launch. There is no such

thing as a guaranteed, 100 percent secure

system, but managing a security incident

with the least damage and deploying the

lessons learnt to prevent its recurrence

is a great contribution the information

defender can make.

Avinash Kadam, CISA, CISM, CGEIT, CRISC, CISSP, CSSLP, GSEC, GCIH, CBCP, MBCI, PMP, CCSK, is an advisor to ISACA’s India Task Force. ISACA is a global association for IT assurance, security, risk and governance professionals with more than 100,000 members worldwide and more than 6,000 in India. The

nonprofi t, independent ISACA developed

the COBIT framework for governance and

management of IT, and off ers the CISA,

CISM, CGEIT and CRISC certifi cations.

Opinions expressed in the blog are

Kadam’s personal opinions and do not

necessarily refl ect the views of ISACA

(www.isaca.org). He can be contacted via

e-mail [email protected]. n


While the world is thriving on the

enormous possibilities and expansions

that Internet can provide to us in the years

to come, there is a hidden universe that

exists behind this technology. It will be apt,

if I say it’s “Underworld of Cyberworld”.

I am talking about deep web (also

known as hidden web or Tor services).

What Google is capable of, merely

scrapes the surface of what Deep Web

really has. Expert’s estimation claims

that deep web can be up to 200 times

larger than the surface Internet, and it

allows people to communicate without

detection. What happens in a cyber world

where people can slip in and out of sites,

which shift every now and then without

leaving any permanent trace. This is where

child traffi cking, drug peddling, people

off ering hitmen services, and threads on

how to build bombs are available. From

counterfeit and stolen products, to illegal

drugs, stolen identities, and weapons,

nearly anything can be purchased online

with a few clicks of the mouse. The online

black market not only can be accessed

by anyone with an internet connection,

but the whole process of ordering illicit

goods and services is alarmingly easy

and anonymous. It’s a dark world of the

internet, where majority of the world’s

population are oblivious to.

The most surprising thing is that law

enforcement agencies are almost helpless

to combat this growing menance, inspite

of being aware of their existence. To

understand this whole mess which exists

under the hood, we need to understand

about some technologies, which were

developed for the good cause, but got

exploited by the ill minded anti social

elements.

Before continuing our walkthrough

towards these technologies, I would

like to say, we are NOT endorsing these

activities. This information can help

security professionals to understand

how stolen identities and credit cards

are used, how products are fenced or

distributed illegally, and more. Unless until

we understand about this hidden activity,

we cannot develop any counter measure

techniques to prevent it. So objective of

this article is to spread the awareness in

the computer professional society, and

igniting the professionals to come out with

their novel ideas to combat it.

A journey into the darker side of

the internet starts with two open source

programs: Tor browser and Bitcoin. Tor

browser gives platform to the user for

anonymous communication, and Bitcoin

work as an online currency for fi nancial

transaction for illicit purpose. The next

section will give you the overall idea about

these technologies which will help you

to understand the whole scenario of this

darknet.

TOR – The Onion RoutingTor was originally designed, implemented,

and deployed as a third-generation onion

routing project of the U.S. Naval Research

Laboratory. It was originally developed

with the U.S. Navy in mind, for the primary

purpose of protecting government

communications. Tor was fi nancially

supported by the Electronic Frontier

Foundation of U.S. from 2004 to 2005.

Tor software is now developed by the

Tor Project, which has been a research-

education nonprofi t organization based in

U.S. since December 2006.

Tor aims to conceal its users'

identities and their network activity

from surveillance and traffi c analysis by

separating identifi cation and routing. It is

an implementation of onion routing, which

encrypts and then randomly bounces

communications through a network of

relays run by volunteers around the globe.

These onion routers employ encryption in

a multi-layered manner (hence the onion

metaphor) to ensure perfect forward

secrecy between relays, thereby providing

users with anonymity in network location.

Tor is a network of virtual tunnels that

allows people and groups to improve

their privacy and security on the Internet.

Individuals use Tor to keep websites from

Deep Web The Underworld of Cyberworld

ArticleManish Kumar*, Dr. M Hanumanthappa**, and Dr. T V Suresh Kumar****Assistant Professor, Department of MCA, M S Ramaiah Institute of Technology, MSR Nagar, MSRIT Post, Bangalore – 560 054, Karnataka, INDIA,** Associate Professor, Dept. of Computer Science and Applications, Jnana Bharathi Campus, Bangalore University, Bangalore -560 056, INDIA ***Professor & Head, Dept. of Master of Computer Applications, M. S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore-560 054

Expert’s estimation claims that deep web can be up to 200 times larger than the surface Internet, and it allows people to communicate without detection.

A journey into the darker side of the internet starts with two open source programs: A Tor browser and Bitcoin. Tor browser gives platform to the user for anonymous communication, and Bitcoin work as an online currency for fi nancial transaction for illicit purpose.

Tor aims to conceal its users' identities and their network activity from surveillance and traffi c analysis by separating identifi cation and routing. It is an implementation of onion routing, which encrypts and then randomly bounces communications through a network of relays run by volunteers around the globe.


tracking them and their family members,

or to connect to news sites, instant

messaging services, or the like when

these are blocked by their local Internet

providers. Tor's hidden services let users

publish web sites and other services

without revealing the location of the

site. Individuals also use Tor for socially

sensitive communication. Journalists

use Tor to communicate more safely

with whistleblowers. Non-governmental

organizations (NGOs) use Tor to allow

their workers to connect to their home

website while they're in a foreign country,

without notifying everybody nearby that

they're working with that organization.

Objectives of TORThe Tor protects a common form of

Internet surveillance known as "traffi c

analysis." Traffi c analysis can be used

to infer who is talking to whom over a

public network. Knowing the source and

destination Internet traffi c allows others

to track behavior and interests of users.

As we know Internet data packets

have two parts: a data payload and a

header used for routing. The data payload

works on the principle that whatever

is being sent, whether that's an email

message, a web page, or an audio fi le.

Even if you encrypt the data payload of

your communications, traffi c analysis still

reveals a great deal about what you're

doing and, possibly, what you're saying.

That's because it focuses on the header,

which discloses source, destination, size,

timing, and so on.

A basic problem for the privacy is that

the recipient of your communications can

see that you sent it by looking at headers,

so can authorized intermediaries like

Internet service providers and sometimes

unauthorized intermediaries as well.

There are some more powerful kinds

of traffi c analysis. Some attackers spy

on multiple parts of the Internet and use

sophisticated statistical techniques to

track the communication patterns of many

diff erent organizations and individuals.

Encryption does not help against these

attackers, since it only hides the content

of Internet traffi c, not the headers.

Tor helps to reduce the risks of both

simple and sophisticated traffi c analysis,

by distributing your transactions over

several places on the Internet, so no single

point can link you to your destination. The

idea is similar to using a twisty, hard-to-

follow route in order to throw off somebody

who is tailing you — and then periodically

erasing your footprints. Instead of taking

a direct route from source to destination,

data packets on the Tor network take a

random pathway through several relays

that cover your tracks, so no observer at

any single point can tell where the data

came from or where it's going.

Well, no doubt that the intention

of Tor development was an anonymous

communication for the good cause, but

the technology has been misused for

illegal activity. It suits the requirements

of cyber criminals and helps them in all

ways to be hidden, but when it comes

for the fi nancial transaction, tor alone

can not help them to be hidden. When

there is online business, there is online

Transaction. As normal online transaction

is monitored by federal government, it

will reveal the identity of the people doing

illegal business. To overcome this problem

the cyber criminal uses a diff erent

currency and transaction system known

as “Bitcoin”. It’s a very diff erent technique

for fi nancial transaction and raises a

challenging issue for the government to

monitor it. Next section will give you a

brief idea that how Bitcoin works without

revealing the identity of the users and

works as a real currency in the cyberworld.

Bitcoin –The Digital CurrencyBitcoin is an experimental new digital

currency that enables instant payments

to anyone, anywhere in the world. Bitcoin

uses peer-to-peer technology to operate

with no central authority: managing

transactions and issuing money are carried

out collectively by the network. Bitcoin is

also the name of the open source software

which enables the use of this currency.

Bitcoin is one of the fi rst

implementations of a concept called

crypto-currency which was fi rst described

in 1998 by Wei Dai on the cypherpunks

mailing list. Building upon the notion

that money is any object, or any sort of

record, accepted as payment for goods

and services and repayment of debts in a

given country or socio-economic context,

Bitcoin is designed around the idea of

using cryptography to control the creation

and transfer of money, rather than relying

on central authorities.

Bitcoin is system tool that will act as

a personal bank for storing and investing

digital currency on your computer. Once

it's installed on your system, it sits empty

like a piggy bank, waiting to be fi lled with

untraceable digital cash.

Getting it fi lled is the tricky part.

The digital monetary system online is

predominately operated by the likes of

PayPal, Western Union, and banking

companies that try to follow government

regulations to prevent fraud and money

laundering. There are two steps to legally

take money and have it converted at the

current Bitcoin rate into BTCs in our digital

and anonymous bank.

You can start by opening a Dwolla

banking account with no fees. You can use

your real information to open the account

as it’s not an illegal activity. After few

days you will be given a test and have to

identify small transfers in your Dwolla and

personal bank account. Once your account

Bitcoin is an experimental new digital currency that enables instant payments to anyone, anywhere in the world. Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority: managing transactions and issuing money are carried out collectively by the network.

The digital monetary system online is predominately operated by the likes of PayPal, Western Union, and banking companies that try to follow government regulations to prevent fraud and money laundering.


Abo

ut th

e A

utho

rs

Manish Kumar is working as Assistant Professor in Department of Master of Computer Applications, M. S. Ramaiah

Institute of Technology, Bangalore, India. His specialization is in Network and Information Security and Computer

Forensic. He has worked on the R&D projects related on theoretical and practical issues about a conceptual framework

for E-Mail, Web site, and Cell Phone tracking, which could assist in curbing misuse of Information Technology and

Cyber Crime. He is also the president of International Association of Cyber Crime Prevention (India Chapter).

Dr. M Hanumanthappa is currently working as Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and

Applications, Bangalore University, Bangalore, India. He has over 15 years of teaching (Post Graduate) as well as

Industry experience. He is member of Board of Studies /Board of Examiners for various Universities in Karnataka,

India. He is actively involved in the funded research project and guiding research scholars in the fi eld of Data Mining

and Network Security.

Dr. T V Suresh Kumar is working as Professor and Head, Department of Master of Computer Applications and Registrar

(Academic), M S Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore. He has delivered lectures at various organizations

like Honeywell, SAP Labs, Wipro Technologies, DRDO, Mphasis, Indian Institute of Science (Profi cience), HCL

Technologies, L&T Infotech, Nokia and various Universities/Academic Institutions. He is actively involved in R&D

projects. He has published several research papers in various National and International Conferences and Journals.

is confi rmed, you can transfer any amount

from your personal bank to Dwolla.

Next you need to set up an account

with the Bitcoin exchanger e.g. MtGox.

After your Dwolla transfer moves to

MtGox, you can use the money to

purchase Bitcoins on the open market for

a small percentage-based fee. Once this

sale is complete, your Bitcoins are best

stored in your own bank account that is

residing digitally on your computer. Now

you are ready to go shopping on the black

market.

Combination of Tor and Bitcoin has

unfortunately served all the purpose of

cyber criminals. Tor Servers are now the

norm for storing, accessing ,and hiding

illicit activity. Tor's Hidden Servers provide

a real insight to an underground world

that once was limited to dark alleys,

shady places, and dangerous criminals.

Much like the internet has expanded our

e-commerce into a borderless global

market, Bitcoins and Tor have made

shopping for illicit goods and services

almost as easy as ordering a gift on eBay

or an iTunes song on your computer.

The level of protection provided by Tor,

makes law enforcement's agencies job for

tracking such activities, next to impossible.

ConclusionAnonymity has given wings to the cyber

criminals and anonymous digital cash

becomes their strength. The technology

like Tor and Bitcoin has added a potential

threat in cyber community. These are

the new challenges for which adequate

monitoring mechanism should be

developed. We accept that somewhere

anonymity is necessary ,but we should

try to develop a mechanism that unsocial

elements should not be able to use for

illegal activity.

References[1] Jacob Appelbaum. Tor and NAT

devices: increasing bridge & relay

reach ability or, enabling the use

of NAT-PMP and UPnP by default.

Technical Report 2012-08-001, The

Tor Project, August 2012.

[2] Karsten Loesing. Counting daily

bridge users. Technical Report 2012-

10-001, The Tor Project, October

2012.

[3] Philipp Winter. Design requirements

for a Tor censorship analysis tool.

Technical Report 2013-02-001, The

Tor Project, February 2013.

[4] R Mark Bortner. Cyber laundering:

Anonymous Digital Cash and Money

Laundering. Presented as fi nal paper

requirement for Law & the Internet

(LAW 745). A seminar at the

University of Miami School of Law-

1996.

[5] Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin: A Peer-

to-Peer Electronic Cash System,

Bitcoin Research Paper- 2009

[6] Simon Barber, Xavier Boyen, Elaine

Shi, Ersin Uzun. Bitter to Better

— How to Make Bitcoin a Better

Currency. Financial Cryptography

and Data Security. Lecture Notes

in Computer Science Volume 7397,

2012, pp 399-414.

[7] Brandon Gregg. Online black markets

and how they work, 01 May 2012.

http://features.techworld.com/

[8] http://www.torproject.org.in/

[9] https://en.bitcoin.it/

n

Tor Servers are now the norm for storing, accessing ,and hiding illicit activity. Tor's Hidden Servers provide a real insight to an underground world that once was limited to dark alleys, shady places, and dangerous criminals.

I had plenty of pimples as a kid. One day I fell asleep in the library. When I woke up, a blind man was reading

my face.

~ Rodney Dangerfi eld


Programming.Tips() »

Practitioner Workbench

Wallace JacobSr. Asst. Prof. at Tolani Maritime [email protected]

Fun with ‘C’ programs – comprehending the localization supportNormally while writing, we tend to use the comma as the thousand’s separator and the decimal point for separating the integer part of a number from its fractional part. But there are also a few languages in which the decimal point is being used as the thousand’s separator, and the comma is being used for separating the integer part of a number from its fractional part! There are diff erences in recording the date and/or time in diff erent zones/countries. This article focuses on a few aspects of the localization support provided by the ‘C’ language. The code below explains the process of setting locale specifi c information:

Program listing one#include<stdio.h>#include<locale.h>

int main(){

struct lconv *localeex;localeex = localeconv();

printf(“\nDefault decimal point is %s”, localeex->decimal_point);printf(“\nDefault currency symbol %s”, localeex->currency_symbol);printf(“\nDefualt thousands separator %s”, localeex->thousands_sep);printf(“\nDefualt monetary thousands separator %s”, localeex->mon_thousands_sep);printf(“\nGrouping is done by %s”, localeex->grouping);setlocale(LC_ALL, “en_US”);localeex = localeconv();printf(“\n\nThe decimal point being used in US is %s”, localeex->decimal_point);printf(“\nCurrency symbol %s”, localeex->currency_symbol);printf(“\nthousands separator being used in US %s”, localeex->thousands_sep);printf(“\nmonetary thousands separator %s”, localeex->mon_thousands_sep);printf(“\nGrouping is done by %s”, localeex->grouping);if(setlocale(LC_ALL, “fr_FR”)) /* on failure setlocale() returns NULL */{ localeex = localeconv(); printf(“\n\nThe decimal point being used in France is %s”, localeex->decimal_point); printf(“\nCurrency symbol %s”, localeex->currency_symbol); printf(“\nthousands separator being used in France %s”, localeex->thousands_sep); printf(“\nmonetary thousands separator %s”, localeex->mon_thousands_sep); printf(“\nGrouping is done by %s”, localeex->grouping);}else{ printf(“setlocale() returned NULL”);}return 0;

}

For setting locale specifi c information the structure variables (struct lconv), macros (LC_ALL, LC_COLLATE, LC_CTYPE, LC_MONETARY, LC_NUMERIC, LC_TIME), and functions [localeconv(), setlocale()] defi ned/prototyped in locale.h header fi le can be used.

A few members of lconv structure are as follows:

char *decimal_point; → the decimal point character used for non-monetary values

char *thousands_sep; → the thousands place separator character used for non-monetary values

char *int_curr_symbol; → a string of the international currency symbols used.

The fi rst three characters are the ones which have been specifi ed by ISO 4217:1987.

The fourth character is the character which separates the currency symbol from the monetary quantity.

char *currency_symbol; → local symbol used for currencychar *mon_decimal_point; → decimal point character used for

monetary valueschar *mon_thousands_sep; → the thousands place grouping character

used for monetary valueschar *positive_sign; → the character used for positive monetary

valueschar *negative_sign; → the character used for negative monetary

valueschar int_frac_digits; → number of digits to be displayed after the

decimal point in international monetary values

char frac_digits; → number of digits to be displayed after the decimal point in monetary values

char p_cs_precedes; → If p_cs_precedes is equal to 1, then the currency_symbol appears before a positive monetary value. If p_cs_precedes is equal to 0, then the currency_symbol appears after a positive monetary value.

char p_sep_by_space; → If p_sep_by_space is equal to 1, then the currency_symbol is separated by a space from the positive monetary value. If p_sep_by_space is equal to 0, then there is no space between the currency_symbol and the positive monetary value.

char n_cs_precedes; → If n_cs_precedes is equal to 1, then the currency_symbol appears before a negative monetary value. If p_cs_precedes is equal to 0, then the currency_symbol appears after a negative monetary value.

char n_sep_by_space; → If n_sep_by_space is equal to 1, then the currency_symbol is separated by a space from the negative monetary value. If n_sep_by_space is equal to 0, then there is no space between the currency_symbol and the negative monetary value.

char p_sign_posn; → If p_sign_posn is 0, then parentheses encapsulate the value and the currency_symbol If p_sign_posn is 1, the sign precedes the value and the currency_symbol If p_sign_posn is 2, the sign succeeds the value and the currency_symbol

char n_sign_posn; → If n_sign_posn is 0, then parentheses encapsulate the value and the currency_symbol If n_sign_posn is 1, the sign precedes the value and the currency_symbol If n_sign_posn is 2, the sign succeeds the value and the currency_symbol

In the statement, setlocale(LC_ALL, “en_US”);LC_ALL sets all the settings pertaining to a particular locale. Instead of LC_ALL the other permissible values are:

LC_COLLATE → which aff ects strcoll() and strxfrm() functions.

LC_TYPE → aff ects all character functions.LC_MONETARY → aff ects the monetary information

provided by the localeconv() function.LC_NUMERIC → aff ects decimal-point formattingLC_TIME → aff ects the strftime() function.

Wishing all readers Happy Localization!


The gprof utility in LinuxOften a programmer may be interested in fi nding out how much time

is being used in executing diff erent functions in a very large or complex

program with multiple functions. Perhaps the programmer may like to

increase the effi ciency of a function if a major chunk of time is being used

in executing a particular function. The gprof utility helps in obtaining a

program’s profi le. In order to use gprof the executable fi le should be

compiled using the -pg option of gcc.

For instance, suppose a program, saved by the name test.c, is as follows

(the program is for illustrative purpose only):

Program listing one

#include<stdio.h>

void func1(void);

void func2(void);

int main()

{

�func1();

�func2();

�return 0;

}

void func1(void)

{

�int i;

�for(i=1;i<10;i++)

� printf(“\n%d”, i);

}

void func2(void)

{

�int i;

�for(i=11;i<30;i++)

� printf(“\n%d”, i);

}

In order to compile the program, the user should type:

gcc -pg test.c

The -pg option instructs the compiler to generate special code that writes

a fi le by the name of gmon.out which is used by the gprof utility. A part of

the output generated by gprof is produced below:

Flat profi le:

Each sample counts as 0.01 seconds.

no time accumulated

% cumulative self self totaltime seconds seconds calls Ts/call Ts/call name 0.00 0.00 0.00 1 0.00 0.00 func1 0.00 0.00 0.00 1 0.00 0.00 func2

% the percentage of the total running time of the

time program used by this function.

cumulative a running sum of the number of seconds accounted

seconds for by this function and those listed above it.

self the number of seconds accounted for by this

seconds function alone. This is the major sort for this

listing.

calls the number of times this function was invoked, if

this function is profi led, else blank.

self the average number of milliseconds spent in this

ms/call function per call, if this function is profi led,

else blank.

total the average number of milliseconds spent in this

ms/call function and its descendents per call, if this

function is profi led, else blank.

name the name of the function. This is the minor sort

for this listing. The index shows the location of

the function in the gprof listing. If the index is

in parenthesis it shows where it would appear in

the gprof listing if it were to be printed.

Call graph (explanation follows)

granularity: each sample hit covers 2 byte(s) no time propagated

index % time self children called name 0.00 0.00 1/1 main [9][1] 0.0 0.00 0.00 1 func1 [1]-----------------------------------------------–––––––-

0.00 0.00 1/1 main [9][2] 0.0 0.00 0.00 1 func2 [2]-----------------------------------------------––––––––-

This table describes the call tree of the program, and was sorted by the

total amount of time spent in each function and its children.

Each entry in this table consists of several lines. The line with the index

number at the left hand margin lists the current function. The lines above

it list the functions that called this function, and the lines below it list the

functions this one called. n

There's a serendipity to real life that the Internet can't duplicate. Do you use the library? For anything? Well,

sometimes you end up picking up the book next to the one you were looking for, and it's that book that

changes your life.

~ Laura Lippman, Hardly Knew Her: Stories

What is the value of libraries? Through lifelong learning, libraries can and do change lives, a point that cannot

be overstated.

~ Michael Gorman, Our Enduring Values: Librarianship in the 21st Century


Many clients meet me, after they’ve

been on one side or the other of a

software development project begun, and

sometimes completed, without a detailed

written agreement. Either the scope of the

project has expanded, or the complexity

of the work was underestimated, and the

developer winds up performing additional

work the user doesn’t want to pay for. Or

the user, assuming it owns the software

it paid the developer to code, objects

to the developer providing a modifi ed

version to one of the user’s competitors.

Or the developer, assuming it owns the

software and only gave the user the right

to use it for the user’s internal business

purposes, objects to the user’s eff orts to

commercially distribute the software –

without royalties to the developer etc.

The cost of a failed or disputed

software development eff ort can be

extremely high, for both the user and

the developer. The user has often paid

substantial sums to the developer and may

sue to recoup those costs, if the system

does not perform as intended. The time

lost in an unsuccessful development eff ort

could severely aff ect the user’s business

operations, which may entitle the user to

recover consequential damages from the

developer. Similarly, the developer may

be expecting to receive a signifi cant fee,

which it may have to sue to recover if the

user disagrees with the developer as to

what was supposed to be delivered.

Written Agreement or Contract is a MustIn India Contract Act, 1872 and Copyright

Act, 2012, apply for such a comprehensive

written agreement governing the

arrangement, and serving as a blueprint for

the development eff ort, its one side’s word

against the others as to what the parties

originally intended. Further, whether the

project involves custom original code, third

party application software, customization

of existing programs, or some combination

of all three, it is essential to clearly state

the parties’ respective intellectual property

ownership and licensing rights. This is a

very complicated task best not left to the

user’s Head of Marketing or the developer’s

GM of Sales (each expert in their own

fi elds) who may wish to personally savor

the joys of contract drafting and save on

legal expenses.

Documenting the Development ProcessA complex custom software development

engagement, is often divided into several

distinct phases: preparation of preliminary

functional specifi cations, preparation of

detailed design specifi cations, software

coding from the detailed specifi cations,

data conversion to the new system (if it

replaces an existing one), and acceptance

testing. Each should be refl ected in the

overall written agreement.

The preliminary functional

specifi cations serve as a high-level

blueprint identifying, in non-technical

business terms, the needs the user

expects the system to address. In many

cases, they will have been prepared by

the user and included in a Request for

Proposal. If the developer believes the

specifi cations are unrealistic, it should

persuade the user to modify them at this

early stage, before development begins.

The developer should not agree to design

a system to conform precisely to the

preliminary functional specifi cations.

The software may evolve during the

development process into a diff erent form,

than originally envisioned by either party.

Nevertheless, the developer should expect

that the user will want the preliminary

functional specifi cations, to become part

of the contract and may require the user to

agree that the software will "substantially

perform" the stated business functions.

While the preliminary functional

specifi cations will in many cases have

been prepared by the user, the detailed

design specifi cations will usually be

prepared by the developer and build upon

the preliminary functional specifi cations.

They will typically include fl owcharts,

system documentation, descriptions of

output, examples of the user interface,

telecommunications requirements,

data and fi le layouts, documentation

requirements, acceptance test criteria, and

schedules. The contract should provide

that the user will have a specifi ed period

of time, such as 30 days, to review and

either approve or suggest modifi cations

to the detailed design specifi cations. The

user should have the right to terminate

the contract if it is not satisfi ed with the

specifi cations produced by the developer.

On the other hand, if the developer is

asked to include additional features and

functions, the user should expect to pay

additionally.

Most users will insist that a

development and implementation

schedule be included in the contract. The

developer will often have an opportunity

to shape the schedule in situations,

where it is more familiar with the

development process than the user. The

schedule should provide for weekly status

meetings, so as to avoid any surprises

from almost inevitable delays. Schedule

slippages typically result from the user

requesting design changes, changing

developer staffi ng demands, unavailability

of key user personnel for decision making,

or unavailability of other resources. The

contract should state the respective

eff orts, and levels of contribution required

of each party in order to meet the schedule.

Since slippages are to be expected, the

developer will want to avoid agreeing

to fi nancial penalties associated with

delays and may wish to agree to exercise

only "best eff orts" to meet the schedule.

If the user insists on a rigid schedule

plus penalty for delays, the developer

should negotiate to receive bonuses for

early delivery.

The acceptance testing process,

typically involves testing each software

module individually, and the entire

system as a whole, to determine whether

it conforms to the detailed design

specifi cations. The testing mechanism

should be set forth in detail in the contract.

It should state objective acceptance

criteria, which can be developed with the

assistance of an independent third party,

if the user and developer cannot agree

on what such criteria should be. From

the developer’s standpoint, the contract

should require the user to provide written

acceptance or rejection of the system

within a specifi ed time period, or it will be

deemed accepted. The developer should

be aff orded several opportunities and

reasonable time periods to correct any

defects that may cause the system to fail

the acceptance tests before the user can

Security Corner Adv. Prashant Mali [BSc (Physics), MSc (Comp Science), LLB]

Cyber Security & Cyber Law Expert

Email: [email protected]

Information Security »

Software Agreements in India – Points to Ponder


consider the developer to have breached

the development agreement.

Scope ChangesChanges in project scope or software

functionality, from what the parties

originally envisioned are almost inevitable

during a custom software development

engagement. Disputes between the

developer and the client often arise

concerning whether the developer was

obligated to make a change, who should

bear the cost of the change, the cost itself,

and who should be responsible for any

resulting delay.

A written development agreement,

should state a clear mechanism for

requesting, approving and implementing

any changes in scope or software

functionality. The procedure should require

the client to request the change in writing

and the developer to respond, again in

writing, with a proposal describing the fee

and schedule impact of implementing the

requested change. The developer should

not be obligated to proceed with making

the change until the parties have agreed

on the cost and schedule impact, as well as

the specifi cations for the revised software.

In the absence of a clear contractual

provision addressing change orders, the

developer is particularly at risk in fi xed

price projects. The client might request a

change it perceives to be minor but which

actually entails a signifi cant amount of

extra eff ort by the developer.

Payment TermsSoftware development engagements are typically paid for, on either a fi xed price/milestone or time and materials basis. Since developing software is extremely labor-intensive and complex projects can take years to complete, the developer will usually prefer to be paid on a time and materials basis so as to recoup all its costs and maintain its profi t margin. The client will usually want the job to be done on a fi xed fee basis, so as to be able to budget for a known expense.

It is hardly reasonable for the developer to be expected to fund the entire development process, and wait until project completion before receiving any payment. Accordingly, many development agreements provide for regular periodic payments. An initial payment may be made upon signing the agreement, followed by a second payment upon completion of the detailed design specifi cation phase.

Subsequently, payments can become

due after completion of the coding phase,

completion of the program testing phase,

and fi nally, upon successful acceptance

testing including operation of the system

in production using live data.

The client will typically want to avoid

making large payments at the beginning

of the project so as to keep the developer’s

interest in performing promptly. Similarly,

in order to maintain an incentive for the

developer to provide needed assistance

during the often painful conversion from an

old system to a new one, the client may fi nd

it useful to withhold a fi nal payment until

after the system has proven itself capable of

successfully operating in a live environment

for some period of time, e.g., 90 days.

A very clear payment schedule in

a written agreement also benefi ts the

developer. Once a project milestone

has passed, the developer can rightfully

refuse to proceed with further work until

it receives the required payment.

Ownership RightsThe area of ownership or proprietary

rights presents a challenging and complex

range of issues. Without a written contract

clearly stating the parties’ agreement on

ownership of the software created by the

developer, Copyright Act, 2012 will apply

to vest ownership of the copyright in the

developer. Ownership of the copyright is,

for practical purposes, ownership of the

software. The copyright owner has the

exclusive rights to copy, distribute and

modify the software. The client will own the

actual copies of the software delivered by

the developer and residing on its computers,

but without ownership of the copyright it

cannot market, distribute or duplicate the

software. Section 19 of the Act stipulates

the mode of assignment. Sub Section (1)

thereof provides that in no uncertain term

that assignment has to be in writing signed

by the assignor or by his authorized agent.

As per sub Section (2) of Section 19 of the

Act, the assignment of the copyright, any

such work is to identify such work and also

specify the rights assigned and the “duration

and territorial extent of such assignment”.

In many cases, however, the

client may only be interested in using

the software for its internal business

purposes, in which case ownership of the

software, as opposed to a license to use,

is not a critical concern. The client may

object, however, if after paying millions

of dollars to fund the development of

new system, the developer then wishes

to commercially distribute the software to

others, including the client’s competitors.

One way to resolve this concern is,

for the client to receive royalties from

the developer’s further distribution of the

software. While there are no standard

guidelines as to the amount of the royalty,

it is not uncommon for the royalty to

terminate once the client has recovered

the cost of the software.

Warranty & Limitation of LiabilitySoftware is so inherently complex that

even the most extensive battery of

acceptance tests will not uncover every

programming error. Some will usually be

found after the system has been delivered,

and the client begins using it. Accordingly,

the client should insist on a provision in the

written agreement requiring the developer

to fi x software errors at no charge for a

specifi ed period of time.

Typically, the developer will be

expected to warrant that the software

will substantially conform to agree upon

performance specifi cations. If it doesn’t,

the developer will be expected to correct

the defect, if it is brought to its attention

within, e.g., 120 days of a specifi ed date,

such as the date the client accepts the

software.

The developer will want to limit its

warranty responsibility, to correcting

the defective software brought to its

attention during the warranty period. A

carefully drafted warranty provision, will

usually include a disclaimer of all other

warranties other than the one specifi cally

stated, along with a clause limiting

the developer’s total liability under the

contract. For example, if the developer

is unable to correct defective software

after numerous attempts, and it remains

unusable to the client, the developer will

not want to be responsible for potentially

ruinous "consequential" damages, such as

the client’s lost business opportunities or

lost profi t. A reasonable remedy for the

client in this situation may be a complete

refund of the fees paid to the developer.

The client’s remedies and the

developer’s liabilities are very often hotly

negotiated issues. Without a written

agreement limiting its liability, the

developer’s liability is potentially unlimited,

which may be the most compelling reason

of all for the developer to insist on a written

agreement. Conversely, a carefully drafted

warranty clause gives the client specifi c

enforceable rights, and a bit more comfort

than the developer’s verbal assurance,

"don’t worry, we’ll fi x it." n


IT Act 2000 »

Prof. IT Law in Conversation with Mr. IT Executive – Similarities between technology and law; need for collaboration Issue No. 12

Security Corner Mr. Subramaniam Vutha

AdvocateEmail: [email protected]

IT Executive: Welcome Prof. IT Law! In our

last session you explained quite lucidly how,

both the law and technology open up new

business options. What will we discuss

today?

Prof. IT Law: And I also explained how the

common objective of both technology

and law render predictable outcome

of human plans and actions. We will

discuss that at greater length as desired

by you.

IT Executive: Thank you. I fi nd that

connections between law and technology

quite fascinating. Please tell me more

about it.

Prof. IT Law: We know that technology

opens up new business options. For

example, the Internet opened up new

vistas for commerce in the form of

e-commerce.

IT Executive: Yes, and e-commerce has

opened up many wonderful new options,

such as C2B and C2C commerce and so on.

Prof. IT Law: You are right. The Internet,

The World Wide Web, and the creation

of “cyberspace” in which people work,

seek entertainment and interact socially,

has spawned so many new options that

did not exist barely 10 years ago. Just as

a case in point, consider the possibility

of “reverse auctions”. Would that have

been possible without the Internet?

IT Executive: Not at all. Like many other things

we now take for granted such as e-ticketing,

web check-in for fl ights, and so on.

Prof. IT Law: Yes. Even the law has been

a great innovator – except that the law

moves much more slowly.

IT Executive: I am beginning to see what you

mean. But please give me some examples.

Prof. IT Law: Take the case of the

“Companies Act” or company law. It has

made possible, some fairly revolutionary

options. For example, company law

makes it possible for several thousands

of people to combine or pool their

capital, for common goals without even

knowing each other. When they do this,

they are shareholders in that company

that executes their common goal.

IT Executive: Wow! I did not think of it

this way. I too am a shareholder in a few

companies. What else does the company

law do to open up new business options?

Prof. IT Law: Company law permits

separation of ownership and

management. This is a great step for

business. Now the owners [shareholders]

of a company need not be its managers.

That can be delegated to professionals.

IT Executive: Great. And what else?

Prof. IT Law: Because company law

limits liability of the shareholders to the

value of their shares, it has encouraged

commerce and industry in areas that are

risky and have a long range outlook in

terms of returns.

IT Executive: I see. It does look like company

law in itself is some kind of great innovation

by the lawmakers.

Prof. IT Law: Yes. And so are laws

pertaining to contracts, insurance,

transport, stock exchanges, banking,

and so on. Each of these open up new

business options and does as much as

technology to keep the industry growing.

IT Executive: I can see your point of view – and I quite agree with what you say. But what connections do these laws have with

technology?

Prof. IT Law: Each of these laws, and

the businesses they serve or facilitate,

has been impacted by technology.

Especially the Internet and the World

Wide Web. For example, company law

now provides for e-voting, electronic

board meetings, and electronic

filings. Insurance and contracts

have moved online in a big way. Also

travel and communication have been

revolutionized by the Internet.

IT Executive: I understand. So what would

you advise those engaged in creating or

advancing technology?

Prof. IT Law: I would advise them to

learn the basics of the laws that apply

to them; the speed at which they work,

and progress does not give them much

margin for error. So knowing about the

essentials of law will make them safer

and more intelligent in their approach

to technology and its advancements.

IT Executive: I guess law and technology will

need to collaborate – which means lawyers

should learn more about technology and

technology advances.

Prof. I T Law: Yes, and technologists must

understand more about the law. And

help shape the laws that will impact their

plans and work.

IT Executive: That is an interesting concept. I

do hope to work with you to make computer

professionals more law-savvy.

Prof I T Law: Thank you, I appreciate your

openness and willingness to collaborate

with the law.

IT Executive: Thank you Prof I T Law, I look forward to more sessions with you.

n


Solution to February 2013 crossword

Brain Teaser Dr. Debasish Jana

Editor, CSI Communications

Crossword »Test your Knowledge on e-LibrariesSolution to the crossword with name of fi rst all correct solution provider(s) will appear in the next issue. Send your answers to CSI

Communications at email address [email protected] with subject: Crossword Solution - CSIC March 2013

CLUESACROSS1. A digital collection management software (8)5. Sharable content object reference model (5)8. An opensource asset management system for digital contents (9)11. A numerical code assigned to a book to uniquely identify it (4)12. Helps to locate a fi le or resource on the Internet (3)13. Online public access catalog (4)16. An archive for electronic preprints of scientifi c papers (5)18. Information about the publication (7)19. A portable format for word processing (3)20. Portable Document Format of fi les (3)21. A bibliographic database and model for scientifi c community (6)23. An opensource repository software package (6)25. Digital Book (5)27. A digital collection management software (9)29. A technical framework developed by W3C for description of

resources (3)31. An initiative by libraries and publishers to provide usage

reporting (7)33. A computer bus interface to connect to mass storage devices (4)34. Data about data (8)

DOWN1. A standard meta-language for mark-up languages (4)2. A non-periodical work complete as a complete set (9)3. A digital storage directly attached to a system (3)4. A document type defi nition for archival material (3)6. A unique code for titles of periodical publications (5)7. An e-book format (4)8. An Internet protocol (4)9. An e-book format (3)10. A short summary describing the main idea (8)14. An enterprise content management system (8)15. An organized collection of information resources (7)17. Macintosh audio fi le format (4)20. A programming language that controls printing (10)21. A fi le previewer for the GNOME Desktop Environment (5)22. An open standard based on open web languages for ebooks (4)24. A Digital Library for offl ine access (8) 26. Standard for the storage and exchange of two-dimensional

graphical data (3)28. A language for document style, semantics and specifi cations (5)30. An Internet audio fi le format (4)32. A document type defi nition for scholarly resources (3)

Congratulations toP Deepa (Dept. of MCA, Panimalar Engineering College, Chennai) for getting

ALL correct answers to February 2013 month’s crossword.

Did you know about world’s fi rst bookless e-library?

Traditional libraries for booklovers have been facing a transition of ideas to the concept of e-libraries. In changing technology bandwagon, digital-only libraries have not been established in full form. The world’s first electronic library is going to be found in San Antonio, Texas. The library will have no physical books, all in digital format, with many e-book readers available. Judge Nelson Wolf, the initiator of the project said, “Paper books have lost their allure, and future generations may have little use for them”. (Source: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Bexar-set-to-turn-the-page-on-idea-of-books-in-4184940.php)

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A T I O N4

S M A L L T A5

L K T

T O6

E X C E P T I7

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R8

O B E R O N R Z

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A C K M12

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I C13

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E A


Ask an Expert Dr. Debasish Jana

Editor, CSI Communications

Your Question, Our Answer“No man ever got very high by pulling other people down. The intelligent merchant does not knock his competitors. The

sensible worker does not knock those who work with him. Don't knock your friends. Don't knock your enemies. Don't

knock yourself.” ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

From: Sandeep ReddyStudent of ISE branch, SIETTumkur, Karnataka

I read the article published in December 2012, issue of CSI Communications, and in Ask an Expert page I found that Mr. Himanshu B Dev requested for correcting the programs, which were published in the earlier editions of CSIC. I propose my solutions for the problem.

Problem: Find whether a no. is even or odd.Approach 1:

#include<stdio.h>int main(){ int noToTest = 2013; printf("Testing for no. %d\n", noToTest); int a = noToTest / 2; a = a * 2; if (a == noToTest) printf("Given no. is even\n"); else printf("Given no. is ODD");

}

Logic: For a given number, if we divide it by 2 and multiply it by 2 then we get same number. In this case, we are taking an integer variable to store the number i.e. a, so if 'a' is equal to 'noToTest' then it is even else it is odd because while dividing the fl oating number is truncated and stored.

Also, I would like to suggest the correction for 2nd approach. Approach 2:My program goes like this.

#include<stdio.h>int main(){ int noToTest = 2013; printf("Testing for no. %d\n",noToTest); float a = noToTest / 2.0 ; float b = a - (int) a ; if( b == 0) printf(" Given no. is even\n "); else printf(" Given no. is odd");}

Logic: 2.0 is making a big diff erence. The result of "a = noToTest / 2.0;" puts a fl oat in the variable ‘a’. But in last suggestion made by some expert was wrongly assumed.

Thank You for your valuable time.

A Many thanks, Sandeep. In the past, we had discussed this issue alongwith suggestions and concerns at length. Keeping in mind of maximum size of storage and the maximum as well as minimum permissible value for a particular data type, here comes some interesting observation. For example, in a 32-bit machine, a variable of int (signed) type would take the minimum value as (-231 i.e. -2147483648). If noToTest is say, (-231), and you try to divide by 2, the buff er can hold the result, as the sign remains negative whereas value when divided by 2 becomes (-230 i.e. - 1073741824). So, this should work fi ne.

[We appreciate all views, including the current one, from our readers expressed

on this topic. Many thanks for the analysis and explanation. – Editors, CSIC]

From: Raja RoyKolkata In the following program, how many bytes would be required by an object of class SHOP?

#include<iostream.h>class CUSTOMER { int cust_no; char cust_name[20]; protected: void Register(); public: CUSTOMER(); ~ CUSTOMER(); void status();};class SALESMAN { int salesman_no; char salesman_name[20]; protected: float salary; public: SALESMAN(); ~SALESMAN(){}; void Entry(); void show();};class SHOP: public CUSTOMER, SALESMAN { public: SHOP(); ~SHOP(){};};int main(){ cout << sizeof(SHOP) << endl; return 0;}

This prints 52.

The logic is as explained below. We presume 32-bit machine architecture having sizeof(int) = 32, and sizeof(char) = 1 (with non-unicode)

Thus, sizeof(SHOP)= sizeof(Customer) + sizeof(SALESMAN) + Δ (SHOP) i.e. size of data defi ned in SHOP alone= sizeof(int) + 20 * sizeof(char) + sizeof(int) + 20*sizeof(char) + 4= 4 + 20 * 1 + 4 + 20 * 1 + 4= 24 + 24 + 4= 52.

If you introduce a virtual function in the class CUSTOMER (there is none now), the virtual table pointer would be placed in CUSTOMER object as well, adding four (4) additional bytes of storage in 32-bit machine architecture for CUSTOMER object. Also, in virtually derived classes, the base class has to be shared; in that case an additional pointer-to-base

needs to be there as well. n

Send your questions to CSI Communications with subject line ‘Ask an Expert’ at email address [email protected]


Happenings@ICT H R Mohan

AVP (Systems), The Hindu, ChennaiEmail: [email protected]

ICT News Briefs in February 2013The following are the ICT news and headlines of interest in February 2013. They have been compiled from various news & Internet sources including the dailies – The Hindu, Business Line, and Economic Times.

Voices & Views• ‘Big Data’ spending to exceed $130 billion

by 2015, to generate 4.4 million jobs. Every day 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created. 90% of the data in the world today have been created in the last two years – Gartner.

• The Indian geoservices industry generated $3 billion in revenue in 2011, and accounts for 1.35 lakh jobs. Geoservices help businesses drive $40-45 billion in revenue, save $70-75 billion in costs, and aff ect 8-9 million jobs – BCG report.

• Cyber attacks now target key personnel in aerospace, defense set-up. Defense industry, gets an average of 7.3 attacks per day globally. – Symantec.

• ‘Spiderman’,’Chinaking’ are two software programmes believed to help in changing IMEI of Chines mobile phones a cause for security threat.

• Over 50% of mobile applications deployed by 2016 will be hybrid as enterprises are developing applications to support mobile work styles and increase customer engagement – Gartner.

• The Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol used for net-banking, Facebook has serious weaknesses – Royal Holloway University.

• Hackers target gamers and making 7,000 attempts every day to infect gamers around the world –Kaspersky.

• Manufacturing and natural resources companies to spend Rs 40,800 crore on IT products and services in 2013, a 9.1% increase over 2012 – Gartner.

• Indian IT exports to grow 12-14% in FY’14; to clock revenues of $84-87 billion in 2013; domestic revenues to grow at 13-15% to reach to 1.20 lakh crore; the sector employing three million professionals added over 1.8 lakh in FY13 – Nasscom.

• A whopping $320-billion worth of electronics will be imported by 2020, which may exceed the annual oil import bill – MAIT.

• The global BI software revenue to reach $13.8 billion in 2013, a 7% rise from 2012 – Gartner.

• Digital data generated by India last year, which if stored in Apple’s iPhone 5 with 32 GB, will equal over 5,100 stacks of the device, as tall as Mount Everest. Data to grow from 127 EB (exabytes) to 2.9 ZB (zettabyte) between 2012 and 2020. India spent $0.87 per GB to manage data, which is much lower than China, U.S., and Western Europe – EMC & IDC.

• About 5 lakh people have so far watched over 1,100 hours of video of Maha Kumbh, on phones using the mobile TV service nexGTv.

• Bamital, a search engine virus on prowl in Indian cyberspace – CERT-In.

• Mobile industry to invest $ 1.1 trillion by 2017, employ 10 million – GSM Association.

• India losing out to China, Brazil in BPO sector – The Economic Survey.

• India becomes the world’s fi rst country to launch a smartphone (a Google Nexus One) into space by launching STRaND-1, on ISRO’s PSLV launcher on 25th Feb 2013.

Government Policy, Telecom, Compliance• The U.S. Govt. objects India’s plans of making

it compulsory, for Govt. agencies to source electronic products, including PCs, printers, and tablets,from domestic manufacturers.

• The Govt.of India to spend Rs 36,800 crore on IT products and services in 2013.

• 2G scam: Raja belied my trust, Attorney General tells JPC. CBI must scrutinize transcript of Niira Radia tapes says Apex court. CBI removes lead prosecutor on alleged collusion with accused. Court asks CBI to fi le more documents during NDA regime. JPC report could be delayed with key UPA ally DMK insisting on calling former Telecom Minister A. Raja as a witness. Apex court dismisses plea to revoke cancellation order. ED to fi le charges against Raja, Kanimozhi. Willing to appear before JPC as witness says Raja. JPC still undecided on bringing Raja as witness.

• Telcos oppose license fee for Internet services.

• Telcos continue removing inactive SIMs; 26mn users lost in Dec. The overall tele-density decreased to 73.34% from 75.55%.

• Home Ministry wants 911-type emergency response service.

• Govt. to re-examine services off ered by Skype, Google.

• Telcos that kept off new 2G auction cannot off er services – Supreme Court.

• Telecom tower fi rms may be allowed to keep 100% FDI.

• Internet rates may go up under new license framework.

• Uninor closes down its mobile networks in Kolkata and in Mumbai from 16th Feb. Over 1 crore customers have been disconnected. Sistema Shyam to shut operations in 10 circles.

• Post 2G licenses cancellation, entire spectrum to be put on sale.

• DoT is set to clear the policy for allowing Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO).

• MAIT demands correction in tax structures to boost domestic manufacturing.

• DoT announces third round of 2G spectrum auction. No applicant for GSM waves. Sistema Shyam – lone applicant to bid for CDMA spectrum. High base price, legal issues barriers to bidding says COAI.

• An electronics hardware manufacturing Cluster Park to come up at Sri City, a business city located 55 km north of Chennai.

• IT & ITeS SEZs allowed setting up backup centers in India.

• Vodafone India plans to off er fi xed line telephony services.

IT Manpower, Staffi ng & Top Moves• TCS to hire 25,000, Wipro 10,000 in AP• HCL’s Shiv Nadar earmarks 20% of wealth

(about Rs. 5,000 cr) for education.

• 'Third-party system integrators in demand as CIOs take to outsourcing'.

• At TCS, Rajesh Gopinathan will succeed S. Mahalingam as the company’s CFO.

• Many HCL campus hires yet to join the company.

• Tech Mahindra in favor of hiring locals in overseas centers.

• TCS to continue campus hiring. The ratio is 60% – N. Chandrasekaran, CEO and MD of TCS.

• Azim Premji transfers Rs 12,300-cr worth shares to trust to help improve the school education system and allied areas.

Company News: Tie-ups, Joint Ventures, New Initiatives• Bharti Airtel introduces an emergency alert

service through its helpline no. 55100 aimed primarily for women in Kolkata, Bengal, and Odisha.

• Indian Software Product Industry Round Table (iSpirt), a think tank made up of Indian product companies, has been formed.

• Social networking site Facebook on 4th Feb 2013 turned nine.

• MakeMyTrip launches app Route Planner which displays all connectivity options between two locations, including fl ights, buses, trains, and cabs. Also allows users to view multiple routes.

• Data Security Council of India, along with Facebook, Google, Kaspersky, and Microsoft, launches the India edition of – Stop, Think, and Connect, as part of the Internet safety campaign.

• Now vernacular e-books available on phone. Audio books, an upcoming trend in book world.

• Google organizes Mapathon contest. To register visit http://g.co/mapindia2013

• Cognizant beats Infosys for third time in a row.

• Facebook has 50 million duplicate accounts, besides 22 million misclassifi ed and undesirable accounts out of 1.06 billion.

• The last of the fl oppy-makers in India (perhaps the world), Amkette, has closed its lone manufacturing unit at Udaipur (Rajasthan).

• MTV and Swipe Telecom jointly launch MTV Volt, a 3G dual SIM six-inch phablet.

• Called ‘Peace of Mind,’ an app allows users to send a SMS for deleting all personal data from the handset which was lost to avoid identity theft ,and someone else accessing the personal data.

• India Semiconductor Association renamed as IESA - India Electronics and Semiconductor Association.

• Microsoft switches Hotmail accounts to Outlook.com.

• Firefox unveils operating system for mobiles.• Nokia unveils cheapest handset - Nokia 105

at 15 Euro (Rs. 1100).• BlackBerry launches Z10 smartphone at Rs

43,490.• Google, using Street View technology, to

present a panoramic view - a 360-degree view of business online.

n


Computer Society of India – Mumbai

Chapter hosted its Annual Conference

IT2020 on 1st February 2013, at the

Victor Menezes Convention Center, at IIT

Bombay. The conference theme “Making

Emerging Technologies a Boardroom

Agenda” and tracks namely Security,

Mobility, Social Media, Big Data, and

Analytics was corroborated with KPMG,

the Knowledge Partner. Spoken Tutorials

team from IIT Bombay was the Support

Partner.

The inauguration was attended by

over 500 delegates, including senior

CSI members, delegation from Navy,

Corporate leaders, professionals,

academicians, and students.

Mr. Ravi Eppaturi,

Chairman, CSI Mumbai

Chapter, welcomed the

delegates and shared the

program and initiatives

planned over the day. He

also stated that companies which have

embraced these Emerging Technologies

will continue to be relevant to their

stakeholders.

The keynote speaker Mr. Sanjeev

Dali, from a popular FMCG company set

the tone for the conference by sharing

the growth and impact of Emerging

Technologies on the Boardroom Agenda.

He shared that some of their emerging

technology initiatives are being reported

and tracked by their Board.

Prof. Kannan Moudgalya

from IIT Bombay in his

plenary address shared

the process, progress,

and impact of the Spoken

Tutorial Project, and

the popular Aakash initiatives. He also

gave a brief demo of the Aakash tablet.

He invited all the delegates to visit the

IIT Bombay Spoken Tutorial, Aakash

2 associated stalls, and attend the

scheduled demonstrations.

Prof. Kannan invited Mr.

Ravi Eppaturi, to release

the newly created

Spoken Tutorials on

C++ and C along with Mr. Dilip Ganeriwal,

Mr. Sandip Chintawar, Mr. VL Mehta,

Mr. George Arakal, and Dr. SP Mudur.

The delegates went on to the attend

the scheduled Five (5) Parallel tracks -

Security, Mobility, Social Media, Big Data

& Analytics, IIT initiatives namely Spoken

Tutorial and Aakash 2 demos.

Security TrackThe security track was a blend of latest

trends in organizational security, and

how various industries are strategizing to

combat them.

Mr. AK Viswanathan, Senior Director,

Deloitte India, was the track chair. In his

introductory speech he highlighted how

security remains a dynamic talked about

topic and shared the agenda for the day.

The session on Security Intelligence

Operations Centre (SIOC), was presented

by two subject matter experts namely, Mr.

Mark Fernandez, Partner, Deloitte Canada

and Mr. Vinay Puri, Senior Manager,

Deloitte India. The interactive session

focused on global and Indian perspective

of the growing complexities in securities

for an organization. Numerous test cases

and scenarios were showcased and

discussed.

The Security panel discussion on

“Winning strategies to counter emerging

security threats” was moderated by

Mr. Vinay Puri, Senior Manager, Deloitte

India. Eminent panelist included

Mr. Anantha Sayana, Vice President and

Head - Corporate IT, Larsen & Toubro

Limited, Mr. Ashish Pachory, Chief

Information Offi cer at Tata Teleservices

Limited, Mr. Jagdish Mahapatra,

Managing Director, McAfee India and

SAARC, and Mr. Pravin Sharma, Chief

Information Systems Offi cer and Assistant

General Manager, Union Bank of India.

The panelist and delegates shared and

deliberated on the emerging threats, and

how an organization can guard against

such threats, based on their risk appetite.

Mr. Pinakin Dave, National Manager,

Channels and Alliances for McAfee India

on Security Connected Framework, shared

enterprise wide solution by McAfee India

in order to provide a seamless integration

of solutions, services, and partnerships

that intelligently reduces overall

infrastructure risks.

Mobility TrackMr. Lalit Shawney, Director, Lalit Sawhney

and Associates, chaired the Mobility Track.

The Enterprise Mobility Track covered

the opportunity, provided by increasingly

popular and powerful smartphones and

feature phones, which are in the hands of

knowledge workers, senior management,

'feet on street', and all level of employees

today.

With rapid proliferation of mobile

devices, more powerful than the standard

corporate desktop, a large number of

working people are now 'connected' to

work for longer hours than before. Often

this access happens on the same device,

which supports personal as well as

corporate applications.

The speakers Mr. Gerard Rego,

Director – Developer Experience, NOKIA,

Mr. Sowri Santhanakrishnan, Vice

President & Venture Leader, Mobility

Solutions, Cognizant Technology Solutions,

Mr. Suresh Anantpurkar, Consultant

Mobile Governance, Ex–President,

mChek, Mr. Nitin Bhandari, Associate Vice

President – New Products & Partnerships,

Vodafone, Mr. Jayanta Prabhu, Group

CTO, Essar Group, Mr. Anish Gupte, IT

Infrastructure & Services Lead, Kraft Asia

Pacifi c, Ms. Manjula Sridhar, Sr. Director

Sales at Arcot Systems (CA technologies),

Mr. LN Sundarrajan, Founder Rewire,

and Mr. Amit Chaubal, IS Security &

Compliance Manager, Kraft Asia Pacifi c -

covered the opportunity, the challenges,

and practical implementation of this

consumerisation in the enterprise world

and government, including the required

technologies and security / network

implications - to allow people to work

the way they want to work, and allowing

enterprises to leverage trends and

innovations to gain business advantage.

The two interesting and interactive

sessions covered policy issues, cost

savings, and productivity gains; the

disruptive character of the technology,

how 'the pilots are fi nally fl ying' and how

these technologies are changing the world.

CSI Report

CSI IT2020 - Making Emerging Technologies a Boardroom Agenda

Mr. Ravi EppaturiChairman, Mumbai Chapter


Social Media TrackMr. Hareesh Tibrewala, Joint CEO, Social

Wavelength, the track chair spoke about

how businesses need to think about

making business social, beyond just

social media marketing. He also shared

some cases on how internal use of social

networking platform could help contribute

to business productivity.

Mr. Sandeep Walunj, Chief Marketing

Offi cer, Magma Fincorp Limited, spoke

about creating a framework which would

enable all stake holders to engage with

the brand, and with each other. He spoke

about adopting a 3 pronged approach

which involved listening, communicating,

and engaging.

Ms. Deepali Naair, Country

Head (Brand and Corp Comm.), L & T

Insurance, explained how digital is not

just an “afterthought” and overall brand

communication on the digital platform has

become far more powerful and engaging.

Mr. Danish Mohammed, Leader

(Marketing and Strategy), IBM

Collaborative Solutions, mentioned that

organizations will need to move towards

adopting internal communication and

collaboration tools, which are able

to leverage these natural instincts of

Gen Y, resulting in overall increased in

productivity. Mr. Binay Tewari spoke about the how

the intersection of social, mobile, and local (SoLoMo) was creating huge communication and business opportunities.

Ms. Bharati Lele, Head Innovations, L

& T Infotech, shared some very interesting

eye-popping facts about social media,

importance of social media monitoring in

CRM, and relevance of social analytics.

An engaging Q and A session with the

speakers gave the audience an opportunity

to understand the future of social media

and integrated communication, as well

how social media would start impacting

other areas of business.

Big Data and Analytics TrackMr. C Kajwadkar, CIO, CCIL the track chair,

shared the drivers for the explosive data

growth and identifying various dimensions

of data that can defi ne the term ‘Big Data’.

The essence of key parameters like Volume,

Velocity, Variety, Variability, and Complexity

were to be deliberated in the track.

Dr. A B Pandey from UIDAI, made an

interesting presentation revolving around

AADHAR project that is going to capture

data of over 1.2 Billion residents of India.

The complexities of nature of data, size,

and challenges were eye openers.

‘Elephant in the room, are corporate

feeding it ?’ by Mr. Arun Gupta, CIO, Cipla

shared his candid view that business value

has to be assessed before embracing

projects of such nature and reiterated that

one should critically evaluate the need

before embarking on the journey of Big

Data.

Mr. Sanjay Mehta CEO, MAIA –

Intelligence presented an overview of the

Power and Reach of analytics.

Mr. Pushkar Bhat, SAP shared

capabilities of their product HANA, which

off ers Big data analytics using In-Memory

Computing technology.

Presentations by Sanjay and Pushkar

highlighted the importance of analytics,

in delivering tangible business value and

their contribution in making smarter faster

decisions.

A unique and highly interactive panel

discussion, “Big debate on Big data” was

much appreciated by the speakers and the

enthusiastic audience..

Mr. S. S. Mulay of Netmagic solutions

presented ‘Data Jig saw Puzzle- Tools &

Technologies’ about Hadoop, and all other

relevant technology elements in Big Data

environment.

Mr. Harish Ganesan - CTO and

Co-Founder of 8KMiles, made his pitch

‘Big Data - beyond hype’ and shared

implementation experience through a real

life case study.

Mr. Yogesh Sawant of Hitachi data

systems shared interesting real life cases,

about deployment of Big data solutions

within his parent company and clients.

He also gave his views about Information

Cloud and some of the problems that have

been solved using Big Data Analytics.

Theme DiscussionMr. Kunal Pande, Partner, KPMG

moderated the discussion. The group of

business leaders and CIOs who joined the

discussion included Mr. R. Ramanan, CEO,

CMC Limited, Mr. Vipin Agarwal, India

Chair, BSA, Mr. C Kajwadkar, CIO,CCIL,

Mr. Sebastian Joseph, Chief Technology

Offi cer, DDB Mudra Group, and

Mr. Shashi Kumar Ravulapaty, SVP & CTO,

Reliance Capital. The discussion revolved

around the requirement of the board and

impact of emerging technologies on the

Boardroom agenda.

The joint CSI and KPMG,

Thought leadership

paper was released by

Mr. Kunal Pande and Mr.

Ravi Eppaturi along with

Mr. R. Ramanan, Prof. Kannan Moudgalya,

and Mr. Rajiv Gerela.

CSI Mumbai Chapter Mobile

Application was launched on Android, iOS

and Windows, by Mr. Sandip Chintawar,

Mr. VL Mehta, Mr. Ravi Eppaturi, and

Mr. Chari.

Closing SessionMr. Ravi Eppaturi, Chairman, CSI Mumbai

Chapter, gave the vote of thanks and

reiterated the conference highlights:

1 One Day Conference with 50 speakers

across 5 tracks

2 Over 500 delegates

3 CSI-KPMG Thought leadership paper

released on the conference theme

“Making Emerging Technologies a

Boardroom Agenda”

4 C++ and C Spoken Tutorial released

5 CSI Mumbai Chapter Mobile

Application launched – Available on

Google Workspace

6 IIT Bombay – Partnership, Venue,

Active Participation

7 Lively CXO Theme Discussion

8 Aakash 2 and Spoken Tutorial demos

9 Pre Conference Survey – In

collaboration with KPMG, over 100

responses

10 Speaker Memento was designed

by an artist from Mouth and Foot

Association – A CSR initiative by CSI

Mumbai Chapter

11 CSI IT2020 Advertisement on Rediff

Visit www.csimumbai.org/IT2020 to

download the conference,

• Presentations

• CSI KPMG Thought Leadership Paper

• Photos

• CSI Mumbai Chapter Android

Application n

Congratulations to you, for successfully conducting key event of 2013. I admire all of your eff orts to make Indian IT a reckoning industry

on the world map.


CSI ReportDr. Dharm Singh*, Mr. Sanjay Mohapatra** and Ms. Ridhima Khemasra***

*Organizing Chair and Convener SIG-WNs CSI**Chairperson, Div IV, CSI***Organizing Secretory

ACCE2013: International Conference on Advance Computing and Creating Entrepreneurs

Special Interest Group –Wireless Networks

(SIG-WNs), Division IV, and Udaipur

Chapter Computer Society of India,

Geetanjali Institute of Technical Studies,

Udaipur, organized an International

Conference on Advance Computing and

Creating Entrepreneurs (ACCE2013)

in technical collaboration with by IEEE

Computer Society Chapter India Council

at Udaipur, Rajasthan, India, during Feb

19-20, 2013.

Inaugural SessionACCE-2013 started on Feb 19th 2013,

with the inaugural session at 10.30 a.m,

in Geetanjali Medicity Campus, Udaipur.

The conference was inaugurated by

Sh. Raghuveer Meena MP, Lok Sabha,

Udaipur constituency. He emphasized on

the use of communication and advance

computing for the welfare of society

at large. Key note speaker Prof. Bharat

Bhargav, guided the delegates about

cloud computing and how it could be

used for the upliftment of physically gifted

people. He emphasized on thinking out

of the box and using current technology

to create something innovative. Dr. R K

Nahar, Guest of Honor, pointed out the

rampant change in media and devices in

past decade. He emphasized the research

in nano- technology and semiconductors

devices to facilitate our living.

Mr. M L Talesra, Chairman, Computer

Society of India, Udaipur Chapter,

informed the housed that Udaipur Chapter

has 171 Members and three Institutions

as Institution members. The Udaipur

Chapter, established in 1986, witnessed

organization of many technical events,

seminar, and state convention .

Role of SIG-WNsDr. Dharm Singh, Convener SIG-WNs,

presented the role and activities organized

by the SIG-WNs, CSI which was initiated

with the blessings and vision of Sh.

M D Agarwal the then Vice-President of

CSI during our discussion with him. He

appreciated the opening of SIG-WNs

and readily approved the entire national

and international programme submitted

to him from time to time. As a president,

he left no stone unturned to generate

awareness and synergy amongst the

members of CSI for planning eff ective

activities through SIG-WNs. Dr. Singh

said that it is only with the whole hearted

support and active involvement of few of

our members that the wireless network

activities have fl ourished. He extended

his sincere thanks while recognizing the

key role they have played in planning in

execution of diff erent events so far, under

the banner of SIG-WNs to Mr. Rajesh

Kasera, Dr. Naveen Choudhary, CTAE,

Ms. Ridhima Khemasra, Ms. Kalpna Jain,

Ms. Drashti Deve, Abhijeet Sharma, Amit

Joshi, and Phagun Baya felicitated in the

inaugural session.

e-InnovationGuest of honor, Mr. M D Agarwal,

immediate Past President, Computer

Society of India and Head IT, BPCL

highlighted the 12th Five Year Plan, and

discussed CSI ethics and values. He

emphasized about the role of network

research in governance indicatives.

Technological change and innovation,

driven by research and development have

been found to be the most important

sources of increased productivity, higher

growth, and better welfare. He said the

country is now recognized as a global

player in software and software services

sector. Over the years several initiatives

have been taken in the Information

Technology sector to foster innovation,

improve delivery of e-Services to citizens,

and bring about profound change in the

way business is conducted and the way

Government works. The 12th Five Year

Plan considers ICT as a key driver for

India’s economic growth; budget outlay

for ICT based projects has been increased

by more than 100%.

Context-Aware Blind NavigationProf. Bharat K Bhargava, Department of

Computer Sciences, Purdue University

presented a key note talk on “A Mobile-

Cloud Collaborative Approach for

Context-Aware Blind Navigation” in the

inaugural session. He said that the indoor

and outdoor navigation is becoming a

harder task for blind and visually impaired

people in the increasingly complex urban

world. Advances in technology are causing

the blind to fall behind, sometimes even

putting their lives at risk, and technology

available for context-aware navigation

of the blind is not suffi ciently accessible;

some devices rely heavily on infrastructural

requirements. He said that 314 million

visually impaired people, 45 million blind

in the world today, and more than 82%

of the visually impaired population is age

50 or older. He suggested that the old

population forms a group with diverse

range of abilities. Bring mobile technology

in the daily lives of blind and visually

impaired people, to help achieve a higher

standard of life. We need to take a major

step in context-aware navigation of the

blind and visually impaired.

Technical and Special SessionsRidhima Khamesra, OS, presented the

technical and special sessions, and

in all two days a total of 7 technical

sessions were organized. In each session

many expert lectures from renowned

academicians like; Dr. Virendra Choudhary,

Bikaner Engineering College, Dr. Manju

Mandot, Director, Women Studies,

Rajasthan Vidyapeeth, Mr. Azimmudin

Khan, Manager IT, RSMM, Ms. Meenakshi

Tripathi, MNIT, and Prof. Khushwaha,

MNIT, Allahabad were delivered. A

total of 64 papers have been selected

for presentation in the conference after

double ended peer blind review out of 251

papers submitted by various author across

globe. The acceptance rate is 25.49 %.

Workshop on Cloud ComputingWorkshop on Cloud computing was

organized at Geetanjali Medicity

Campus, Udaipur and almost 300

students participated in the workshop.



Sixth Tamil Nadu State Student Convention

of CSI was conducted by the Student

Branch of Ratna Vel Subramaniam (RVS)

College of Engineering and Technology,

Dindigul on 11th and 12th September 2012.

Dr. C. G. Ravichandran CSI - SBC &

Principal of RVSCET, Dindigul presided

over the function and Mr. S. Ramasamy CSI

Regional 7 - Vice President delivered the

inaugural address. He inspired CSI student

members with his encouraging speech.

Dr. M. Sundaresan, CSI Tamil Nadu

State Student Coordinator (Chennai,

Coimbatore, and Pondichery) delivered

the valedictory address and distributed the

certifi cates and cash awards. More than

150 participants from 9 student branches

attended the two days event.

CSI Report

CSI Sixth Tamilnadu State Student Convention at RVSCET, Dindigul

Dr. M SundaresanProfessor and Head, Department of Computer Science and IT Bharathiar University Coimbatore

Inaugural Function Valedictory Function

Mr. S Ramasamy delivering inaugural address.

(From L to R) Mr. D Chandrasekarn,

Mr. A Sundar and Dr. C G Ravichandran.

Dr. M Sundaresan delivering the

valedictory address.

Dr. M Sundaresan T N State Student Coordinator (Chennai,

Coimbatore,Pondicherry) distributing Prize and Certifi cates

to the participants of CSI Sixth Tamilnadu State student convention

held at RatnaVel Subramaniam College of Engg. & Tech., Dindigul.

Dr. Bharat Bharagav, Prudue University and

Mr. Ashutosh Pancholi from Ashutosh

Data Products, were the speakers of the

workshop.

Valedictory SessionThe conference valedictory session was

organized in GITS campus at 4.30 p.m

on 20th February. Dr. N S Rathore, Dean,

College of Technology and Engineering,

Udaipur, graced the occasion as the Chief

Guest.

Sensor Networks in Agricultural ProductionDr. N S Rathore emphasized on ICT

applications in the fi eld of agriculture.

Mobile and pervasive computing

technologies provide us with some of the

fi rst opportunities to explore computing

outside climate-controlled building

environments. Sensor network systems

give us new capabilities for sensing and

gathering data about an environment,

and new ways to manage this data

digitally. We can gain information about

temperature, lighting levels, humidity, the

movement, and presence of people, and

many other aspects of the environment.

e-SecurityDr. S C Bhatia, fellow of CSI was the

guest of honor. He spoke about advance

computing technologies at large, and how

they could be used to improve the situation

of population in India. He discussed about

hacking and security issues. The cyber

security threats come from a wide variety

of sources and manifest themselves in

disruptive activities that target individuals,

homes, institutions, business, national

infrastructure, and Governments alike.

Their eff ects carry signifi cant risk for

public safety, security of nation, and the

stability of the globally linked economy as

a whole.

RecommendationsThe conference concluded with healthy

discussion and recommendations were

put forward based on the technical

sessions. These are:

• End to end framework for application

centric network infrastructure is

needful for implementing latest

applications.

• Online resources should be

strengthened.

• RFID, sensor technology with cloud

computing can be employed as an

enabler for physical challenged and

gifted children.

• Promote vernacular languages for

communication in diff erent media.

• Cloud storage should be used for

educational institutes among the

students and faculty to eff ectively

store, share, and distribute

educational data. n


I must say I fi nd television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a

good book.

~ Groucho Marx


The new portal of Computer Society of

India was launched on 26th January 2013.

The exercise was initiated in July 2011. Last

year, the new home page was launched.

The new home page was altered, based

on various inputs received from members

and non members. The revamped home

page was then attached to the old portal.

The next step was to design themes for

all inner pages, and then fi ll them up with

appropriate content. The main portal

has many themes and more than 350

pages of content. There is provision of 8

theme pages per chapter and per student

branch. Thus, when all content is loaded

the portal will have more than 4,500

pages of content. For this reason, content

management has been made powerful.

Now all types of documents can be

uploaded in to document library. Similarly

all types of images can be uploaded in to

image library. The hyperlink of required

document or image is embedded in the

web page. Thus, adding new content,

replacing or removing existing content will

be very easy. Also, the old content will be

easily accessible in the library or image

gallery.

Decentralised Content ManagementThe CSI is not just one organization, but

consists of many sub organizations. It

has 8 regions, 71 chapters, more than

450 student branches, 16 SIGs, and 5

divisions. Each of these units decides its

own agenda and conducts its activities

almost independently. Many of them

have developed their own websites, since

they could not fi nd the required freedom

as well as facilities to properly promote

themselves, within the CSI’s portal. It

was therefore a long pending need of CSI

to have a portal, which will enable and

empower each such unit to build their own

portlets within the CSI portal. The new

portal has overcome all challenges and

now provides this important functionality

to all these stakeholders.

Special themes are created and

applied for chapters, regions, SIGs,

divisions, and student branches. This will

bring homogeneity and standardization to

these sections of the portal, and enhance

ease of browsing. Various chapters and

SIGs have their independent websites.

These URLs are added to their respective

home pages in the portal. Also these

websites now open inside the CSI portal,

thus showing that they all are part and

parcel of one CSI.

The most powerful tool made

available in this portal is the ‘Capability of Decentralised Content Management’.

Following entities of CSI can now manage

their own content,:

All Chapters

All Student Branches

All SIGs

All Divisions

All RVPs

Education Director

National Student Coordinator.

More such users can be added as and

when required. Detailed manuals called

‘Guidelines for ..... Content Management v. (n.n)’ have been created and are

available for download on the landing

pages of each group. For example, if you

click on SIGs from the top menu and scroll

down to the bottom of the SIG landing

page, you will see the link ‘Guidelines for SIG Content Management v. (1.1)’.

The content management system has

a robust workfl ow with Maker / Checker

controls as well as comprehensive audit

trails of all CMS activities.

The old Membership SystemThere are many problems with the old

membership system, such as:

1 Inadequate Data Architecture

2 Inadequate Online Capabilities

3 Lack of Audit Trails

4 Lack of Service Orientation

5 Inadequate Security

6 Inadequate MIS

7 Lack of Integration with Accounts

8 Only One Fee Structure is Possible

9 Lack of User Friendliness and Ease of

Use etc.

10 Inadequate MIS

The new membership system will

overcome all these problems. Currently,

one functionality of ‘New member

registration’ is launched along with the

portal. This also has a host of unique

features.

Features of New membership RegistrationTo begin with, it will address the most

important problem faced by CSI today,

i.e. we can reach out to hardly 40% of

members by email or mobile numbers. The

data of rest of the members is incorrect or

outdated. The new membership system

will ‘VERIFY email id and mobile no.’ by

sending One Time Passwords (OTPs) to

the new aspiring members through email

and mobile numbers. The user will be

permitted to proceed with registration

only after successful verifi cation.

The New Membership system has

provision to save data after every screen.

Thus, user will not face the problem of

having to re-enter the data in case of

internet disconnections or any other

failures. Not only that, but the user can

decide to terminate the process after

saving data and then resume from that

point onwards at a later time.

The system has a shopping cart or

payment cart interface for demand and

collection management, which users now

expect on all ecommerce sites.

The system is supported by a highly

fl exible architecture for tariff management.

Thus, CSI shall be able to manage most

of the tariff changes, simply through

data entry of new rates. The architecture

supports storage and use of multiple

tariff s. Currently we have 3 diff erent

tariff s, which CSI has incorporated in the

database since 2006.

The system has provision for USD

and INR tariff s for International members.

Another user friendly feature is provision

of up to 3 diff erent addresses for each

member. The member can decide which

of the 3 addresses he wants the system

to use for allocation of his chapter. This

will enable members to continue their

association with the chapter of their

choice, and receive all communications

to a diff erent address. From 26th Jan. To 26th Feb. 2013, 44 individuals have

CSI Report

Computer Society of India Launch of New Portal on 26Th January 2013

Mohan DatarFellow And Advisor, Csi


successfully used this functionality and have registered as new members of CSI.

User FeedbackUsers were requested to give their

feedback about the new portal. A special

feedback form was provided to capture

the feedback. More than 400 feedback

entries were recorded during 26th Jan

to 18th February 2013. After eliminating

some duplicates, there were 355 unique

entries. It shows that 94% viewers have rated the portal as Good, Very Good or Excellent.

Free One Year SubscriptionBefore launching the portal, CyberMedia

had agreed to give up to 20 free

subscriptions for one year of DQ / PCQ,

as an incentive for giving feedback. It

was decided to give a free subscription to

every 5th feedback entry. However, after

seeing the feedback volume, CyberMedia

has agreed to increase the off er from 20

free subscriptions to 80. The list of lucky

winners will be published on the portal.

The detailed analysis of the feedback

is presented below:

Feedback Analysis

For 26-01-2013 to 18-01-2013

Non-Member Feedback Member Feedback Total

S.No

Portal Feature

Excellent V Good Good Avg Poor Excellent V Good Good Avg Poor Excellent V Good

Good Avg Poor

1 Look & Feel 90 63 55 18 3 39 41 29 4 2 129 104 84 22 5

2 Ease of use 105 59 40 21 4 55 38 17 3 2 160 97 57 24 6

3 Performance 114 58 43 11 3 48 43 19 3 2 162 101 62 14 5

4 Content

Quality

123 56 36 11 3 57 38 16 2 2 180 94 52 13 5

5 Overall 432 236 174 61 13 199 160 81 12 8 631 396 255 73 21

Overall Portal byall

4% 2%

47%29%

18%

Excellent

V Good

Good

Avg

Poor

Overall Portal byMembers

3% 2%

42%37%

16%

Excellent

V Good

Good

Avg

Poor

Overall Portal:Non-Members

7% 1%

47%26%

19%

Excellent

V Good

Good

Avg

Poor

Look & Feel by all

6% 2%

38%

30%

24%

Excellent

V Good

Good

Avg

Poor

Look & Feel by Members

3%2%

34%36%

25%Excellent

V Good

Good

Avg

Poor

Look & Feel by Non- Members

8% 1%

39%

28%

24%

Excellent

V Good

Good

Avg

Poor



FORM IV(Rule No. 8)

Statement about ownership and other particulars of the ‘CSI Communications’

1. Place of Publication Unit No. 3, 4th Floor, Samruddhi Venture Park,

Marol MIDC Area, Andheri (E). Mumbai 400 093.

2. Periodicity of its Publication Monthly

3. Printers Name Mr. Suchit Gogwekar

Nationality Indian

Address Computer Society of India

Unit No. 3, 4th Floor, Samruddhi Venture Park,


4. Publishers Name Mr. Suchit Gogwekar

Nationality Indian

Address Computer Society of India

Unit No. 3, 4th Floor, Samruddhi Venture Park,


5. Editor’s Name Dr. R M Sonar

Nationality Indian

Address Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management,

Indian institute of Technology, Powai, Mumbai-400 076.

6. Names and Address of Individuals who own the Computer Society of India

newspaper and partners or shareholders holding Unit No. 3, 4th Floor, Samruddhi Venture Park,

more than one percent of the total capital Marol MIDC Area, Andheri (E). Mumbai 400 093.

I, Suchit Gogwekar, hereby declare that the particulars given above are true to my knowledge and belief.

Sd/-

Suchit Gogwekar

1st March, 2013 Signature of the Publisher

CSI Communications | March 2013 | 41CSCSCSI I CoCoC mmmmmmununniciccatatioioionsns ||| MaMaMarcrcrch hh 202020131313 ||| 414141

CSI News

From CSI Chapters »Please check detailed news at:

http://www.csi-india.org/web/csi/chapternews-March2013

SPEAKER(S) TOPIC AND GIST

AHMEDABAD (REGION III)10 February 2012: Campus Interview for CSI Students

The chapter initiated activities for shaping the future of CSI students by

enhancing their career. Chapter organized Campus Recruitment Drive in

association with IBM for pre-fi nal year students of BCA/BBA/MBA and

MCA. Campus interviews were conducted by HR-GPS department of

IBM, India wherein company tested the potential of students on diff erent

parameters as required by industry. Some CSI students were selected by

IBM after interview.

Conducti ng Campus Interview

BANGALORE (REGION V)Mr. E S Chakravarthy, Mr. Ramakrishnan, Joseph Sunil

Nallapalli, Prem Sankar, Sandeep J Alur, Niranjan Maka,

T Sabapathy, and Tathagat Verma

10-11 January 2013: Workshop on “Faculty Development Program”

Mr. Chakravarthy delivered keynote address on “Software Trends”. NIIT, TCS,

Ericsson, Microsoft, VMWare, Ninestar Technologies and Yahoo! supported

the FDP. They sent experts to address FDP as “Outcome Based Education”

Mr. Ramakrishnan, “Leadership, management & Administrative challenges”

Joseph Sunil Nallapalli, “Instilling thinking, Innovation & Research culture”

Prem Sankar, “Current Trends in Technology” Sandeep J Alur, “Future of Cloud

Technology” Niranjan Maka, “Mobile Apps Development” T Sabapathy and

“Advanced Lean & Agile methods” by Tathagat Verma respectively.

Conducti ng FDP

AURANGABAD (REGION VI)Dr. T V Gopal, Mr. Rahul Joshi, Mr. Dhanajaya K and

Dr. Radhakrishna Naik

2 February 2013: Two-days Seminar on “Model Driven Design and Development”

This seminar included various topics from history to real time model based

systems. The participants were extremely happy to learn new software

development strategies from a highly experienced professor from Anna

University.

Parti cipants att ending Seminar

COCHIN (REGION VII)CSI Cochin Chapter 18 February 2013: Regional Finals of “Discover Thinking Quiz, 2013”

Regional fi nals of Discover Thinking Quiz, 2013 were conducted at Cochin.

The fi nalists from Thirunelveli, Trivandrum and Cochin Chapters (3 teams)

participated in the event. The teams from Trivandrum and Cochin qualifi ed

for the National Finals.

Parti cipants of the Regional Finals of Discover Thinking 2013 quiz programme hosted by CSI Cochin Chapter on 18th February 2013 at Cochin along with the offi ce bearers of CSI Cochin Chapter

CSI Communications | March 2013 | 42 www.csi-india.orgCSCSCSII I CoCoCommmmmmunununiciccatatioionsnss ||| MaMaM rcrcr hhh 2 201010 333 || 424242 wwwwwww.w.w.cscscsi-ii-ininindididiaa.a.orororgggg

SPEAKER(S) TOPIC AND GIST

SIVAKASI (REGION VII)Mrs. J Angela Jennifa Sujana and Mrs. S Soraja 7-8 January 2013: Workshop on “Latex”

Chapter with Student Branch of Mepco Schlenk Engineering College

successfully organized a workshop on “LATEX “ for the benefi t of students.

In this session, students learned how to prepare a document. It also

helped fi nal year students for their project and their report submission too.

Workshop educated everyone regarding paper presentation for conferences

and symposiums.

Mrs. S Soraja AP, IT of Mepco Schlenk Engineering College, Sivakasi interacti ng with the students during the Workshop on 7th Jan 2013.

Dr. T Revathi, Dr. K Muneeswaran, Mr. J Maruthu 2 February 2013: CSI Discover Thinking Quiz

Chapter successfully organized a CSI Discover Thinking Quiz competition

for school students. In this event more than 10 students from various

schools participated. Top 5 teams were selected for fi nal round. Students

were tested in the fi eld of maths, science and sports. Prizes were distributed

for them by Chair Person Dr. T Revathi.

Dr. T Revathi Chair person CSI Sivakasi Chapter Distributi ng the certi fi cates to the Winners.

THANJAVUR (REGION VII)Prof. V Lakshmi Narasimhan 25 January 2013: Lecture on “Genderization issues in Software Development

Life Cycle”

Dr. Lakshmi Narasimhan in his lecture focused on the issue of organisational

genderization and impact of genderization in software development life

cycle, how genderization is used to improve eff ectiveness of the task and

activity of each and every phase of the SDLC. He also stated the importance

of genderization in work place and personal life for young technocrats.

Disti nguished Lecture by Prof. V Lakshmi Narasimhan, Sitti ng: L-R:, Mr. A B Karthick Anand Babu, Dr. K Lakshmi, Dr. N Ramachandran, Mr. A Satheesh, and Mr. A Haja Alaudeen

VELLORE (REGION VII)Dr. Viswanathan, H R Vishwakarma 21 January 2013: CSI vExploreIT Programme

CSI vExploreIT, an exploratory course was for undergraduate and integrated

postgraduate students. Dr. Viswanathan while inaugurating said that

engineers are creative people. Although problems are solved by applying

maths and computational principles, inspiration, experimentation, vision,

analytical ability, creativity, imagination, energy, passion and communication

skills are also extremely important. Two-semester long course is specially

designed so that students explore IT discipline and its applications.

Parti cipants att ending the vExploreIT Programme

Please send your event news to [email protected] . Low resolution photos and news without gist will not be published. Please send only 1 photo per

event, not more. Kindly note that news received on or before 20th of a month will only be considered for publishing in the CSIC of the following month.


From Student Branches »http://www.csi-india.org/web/csi/chapternews-March2013

SPEAKER(S) TOPIC AND GISTDRONACHARYA GROUP OF INSTITUTIONS, GREATER NOIDA (REGION-I)Mr. Ravindrababu Ravula and Dr. Murali 6 February 2013: Seminar on “Research and Projects”

Mr. Ravindrababu Ravula introduced students to ‘Summer Internship

Opportunities at IISc, Bangalore’. The mission was to brief them on the

details of training program and the process of applying. Dr. Murali informed

students about IISc and its stellar achievements and he motivated them to

visit IISc to get informed on world class research. Mr. Ravula gave information

on the program and its contents.

Students att ending Seminar

INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY & SCIENCE (ITS), GHAZIABAD, UP (REGION-I)Mr. Kamal Karnatak 2 February 2013: Guest Talk on “MIS: Industry Perspective”

Mr. Kamal explained the applications, importance and issues of concern in

implementation of MIS set up. He elaborated the technical and research

aspects of MIS and presented details of designing and implementing ERP

based applications. He mentioned about various organizations, including

IBM, TCS, HCL etc., who are involved in developing their ERP based

applications just because of having cybernetic and adaptive approach as per

customer requirements and promoting development on this platform.

Mr Kamal Karnatak – Senior Vice President and Group CIO at R.J. Corporati on, Gurgoan, India addressing the parti cipants

KRISHNA INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (KIET), GHAZIABAD UP (REGION-I)Mr. Lokesh Mehra, Mr Alok Prasad, Mr. Chawan Mehra,

Mr Vijay Rastogi, Dr. Narendra Kumar, and Dr. Arun

Sharma

30 January 2013: Panel Discussion on “Bridging the gap between Industry and Academia”

Mr. Lokesh Mehra, Director, Education Advocacy-Microsoft, Mr Alok Prasad,

Service Delivery Director – HCL, Mr. Chawan Mehra, Sr. Group Manager –

ST Microelectronics and Mr Vijay Rastogi, Sr. Project Manager – CSC shared

their views on the topic and informed students about various behavioural

and technical skills for better employability. Dr. Narendra Kumar, Director –

KIET and Dr. Arun Sharma, HOD – CSE also shared their views.

Honoring the guest

D.N.R. COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY, BHIMAVARAM, A.P. (REGION-V)Dr. U Rangaraju and Mr. D Suribabu 31 January 2013: One Week Workshop on “Web Based Projects Using .Net

Technologies”The branch organized 1-week long workshop on Web based projects using .NET

Technologies for III year CSE Students to improve the technical and code development

skills. Dr. U. Rangaraju, Principal, inaugurated the workshop. Mr. D. Suribabu H.O.D &

SBC presided over this function.

Dignitaries on Dias: Mr. Rajanikumar, Mr. D Suribabu, Dr. U Rangaraju Principal, and Mr. Shabbir


SPEAKER(S) TOPIC AND GISTGITAM UNIVERSITY, HYDERABAD (REGION-V)Mr. Prabhu 23-24 January 2013: Two-days Workshop on “Network Security”

This workshop was organized in collaboration with CSI Education Directorate,

Chennai. A team of industry experts led by Mr. Prabhu delivered and

demonstrated on various aspects of Network Security using the tools to

provide hands-on experience to the students.

Guests on dias

GODAVARI INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (GIET) RAJAHMUNDRY, A.P. (REGION-V)Mr. Sahil Takur and Mr. Somesh 12-13 February 2013: Workshop on “Ethical Hacking and Network Security”

The workshop was organized for two days, the resource persons gave

valuable information on ethical hacking and security. Around 100 CSI

members participated in the workshop.

Dr. S Maruthuperumal gave a keynote speech on the inaugural session of the workshop, Mr. D Satti babu, Mr. Sahil Takur, Dr. M Ramjee Principal and Mr. Somesh (From Left )

R.V. COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, BANGALORE (REGION-V)Dr. Sifi an Yusuf, Dr. Ajith Kumar Verma, Dr. M K

Panduranga Setty, Dr. B S Satyanarayana and

Dr. K A Sumithradevi

20-22 December 2012: 1st International Conference on “Future Computing”

Dr. Sufi an told the participants to put science into application in engineering

and deliver information through research. Dr. M K Panduranga Setty

expressed that exposure to industry problems can help re-orientation in

teaching. Dr. Ajith Kumar Verma presented information about “Performance

prediction in software development projects using soft computing”.

His presentation focussed on diff erent models that can be used for

metrics prediction.

Dignitaries during the Inaugurati on ICFC 2012 on 20-12-2012

REVA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT(ITM), BANGALORE (REGION-V)Dr. Rohini Deshpande, Prof. Gopal Krishna Shyam, and

Prof. G C Sathish

18 January 2013: Programme for Launching Convention on “Android Mobile Application (AMA) Development Contest”

CSI Karnataka state student convention at REVA ITM will be held on

19-20 April 2013. Dr. Deshpande gave an overview of the importance of

forthcoming Convention and release of the Instruction Manual for Android.

Prof. Gopal Krishna Shyam highlighted the journey of REVA branch in

getting this Convention. Prof. G C Sathish gave an overview on the

“ANDROID MOBILE DEVELOPMENT CONTEST" and the rules of the

contest. He also detailed the registration procedure for the event.

Dignitaries of the Inaugural Functi on

VITS COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, VISAKHAPATNAM (REGION-V)Dr. B Murali Krishna 6-8 February 2013: 3-days Workshop on “Android Mobile Application

Development”

Students were taught the basics of developing applications that can be used

by the Android operating system. The applications that were developed can

be installed on mobiles.

Faculty members and parti cipants of the workshop

CSI Communications | March 2013 | 45CSCSCSI I CoCoC mmmmmmununniciccatatioioionsns ||| MaMaMarcrcrchhh 202020131313 ||| 454545

SPEAKER(S) TOPIC AND GISTBHIVARABAI SAWANT COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & RESEARCH, NARHE, PUNE (REGION-VI)Principal, Dr. D V Jadhav, and Mr. Girish 18-19 January 2013: Two-day Workshop on “.Net Technology”

Dr. D V Jadhav focused on need of learning of industry related technologies.

The expert Mr. Girish taught basics of .Net Technology along with hands-

on practices on ASP.Net, C# and VC++. Students also participated in mini-

project based on .Net technology.

Inaugurati on of Two-day Workshop on .Net Technology

PROF. RAM MEGHE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY & RESEARCH, BADNERA-AMRAVATI (REGION-VI)

Dr. D T Ingole and Mr. Shrikant Pande 12-13 January 2013: Two-days Programme on “Power Linux Workshop”

Dr. D T Ingole introduced the structure of newly developed laboratory

in dept of Computer Science & Engineering which is based on the Open

Source Technology. The Principal also inspired students as well as the

CSI chapter to organize such type of the workshops for students' skills

development. The training sessions were conducted by Mr. Shrikant Pande

in which all the basics of Linux Operating System were covered.

Linux workshop

DR. NAVALAR NEDUNCHEZHIYAN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, THOLUDUR (REGION-VII)Prof. K Sakthivel, A. Krishnaswami, and A Dhanamathi 9 February 2013 Technical Quiz Competition

Participants were split up into 25 teams and CSI members conducted quiz

competition in two rounds. Programme was organized to distribute prizes

to winners. The Principal felicitated and Vice Principal gave special address

about CSI and quiz Competition. Chief Guest Prof. Sakthivel delivered lecture

to motivate students to take part in various events to bring up their talents.

He distributed prizes and certifi cates to the winners.

Chief Guest distributi ng prizes and certi fi cates to winners

DR.MAHALINGAM COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (MCET), POLLACHI, TN (REGION-VII)Mr. Ranga Rajagopal, Dr. A Rathinavelu and

Mr. Ranganathan

29 January 2013: Regional Level Student Convention “FAZILLANIA 2K13”

This was an innovative and explorative event which is organized for past few

years. Mr. Ranga Rajagopal delivered inaugural address. Mr. Ranganathan

highlighted benefi ts. The response was around 500 members who registered

online. 150 students participated from various institutions in Coimbatore

region. Various events were held and fi nally prize winners were declared &

awarded by the Principal.

Chief Guests and speakers on stage

EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, TIRUNELVELI, TN (REGION-VII)Prof. A Ezhilvanan, Mr Alwin Fernandaz, Mr. Kashim

Mohamed and Dr. K Ramar

6 February 2013: Workshop on “Cloud Computing”

Dr. Ramar spoke about Centre of Excellence (CoE) established in the college

in Cloud Computing. Mr. Ferdandaz stated that Cloud computing involves

delivery of computing services, such as data storage and software, over a

network at little to no cost. He mentioned that Cloud is not a new technology

which is a combination of Distributed, Parallel, Ubiquitous, Grid and Internet

Computing. Mr. Allwin and Mr.Kashim gave hands on training in installing

Eucalyptus Cloud tool and creating virtual machines.

(L to R) Mr. Alwin Fernanda (Cloud Engineer, CSC), Prof. R Velayutham (HOD/CSE), Prof. A Ezhilvanan (Managing trustee), Mr.Kashim Mohamed (Test Engineer, CSC), Dr. K Ramar (Principal), Prof. M Gomathy Nayagam


SPEAKER(S) TOPIC AND GISTER. PERUMAL MANIMEKALI COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, HOSUR, TN. (REGION-VII)Chief guest Mr. Ramasamy, Dr. S Chitra Ph. D Principal

and Prof V Keerthika

21 January 2013: Guest Lecture on “Recent Trends in Communication and Information Technology”

Mr. Ramasamy addressed students about signifi cance of various skills like

positive thinking, analytical skill, communication skills that they should

possess and he also highlighted opportunities for them. Dr. Chitra delivered

special address and explained importance of information and communication

for one’s success. The workshop was coordinated by Prof. Keerthika.

Honoring the Guest, faculty members and parti cipants att ending lecture

G R GOVINDARAJULU SCHOOL OF APPLIED COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY, COIMBATORE (REGION-VII)Prof. S Balasubramanian and CSI Student Chapter 19 December 2012: Debugging Contest 2012

Intercollegiate Debugging Contest was held for student members of CSI

Coimbatore chapter. The competition consisted of two cumulative rounds.

First round was written round, testing the logical and programming skills

of participants. Final round was practical round consisting of two programs

testing logical, innovative thinking, and team work of participating teams.

Winner and runner were selected and cash prizes were awarded to them.

Our Director Prof. S Balasubramanian distributi ng the prizes to the Winners

JAMAL MOHAMED COLLEGE, TIRUCHIRAPPALLI (REGION-VII)Dr. A K Khaja Nazeemudeen, Dr. T Abdul Razak,

Mr. Sankaranarayanan Jambunathan. Mr. K N Abdul

Khadar Nihal, Dr. R Khader Mohideen and Mr. Ajmal Sait

19 January 2013: Intercollegiate Under Graduate Technical Symposium

“VARIT 2K13”

Mr. Sankaranarayanan Jambunathan inaugurated proceedings. To

commemorate the occasion, a souvenir was released. Students from about

17 Arts, Science & Engineering Colleges participated. Events like Bug-Zap,

Web-Master, Ad-Venture, Tech-Hunt and Hardware Assembling were

conducted. Mr. Sait distributed prizes and certifi cates to winners. Students

of Srimathi Indira Gandhi College for Women won overall championship and

Students of M.A.M. College of Engineering won the second place.

Mr. Sanakaranarayanan Jambunathan, releasing the souvenir of VARIT 2K13 and Dr. A K Khaja Nazeemudeen, Secretary & Correspondent, receiving the fi rst copy

JAYARAM COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY, TIRUCHIRAPALLI (REGION-VII)Dr. Lakshmi Narasimhan, Dr. S A Sahaaya Arul Mary,

and Dr. N Kannan, Principal

23 January 2013: Programme on “Trends and Issues in Data Mining and their Unusual Applications”

Presidential address was delivered by Dr. N Kannan. Dr. Lakshmi Narasimhan

was the resource person for the seminar. He explained what is data mining,

why mining is needed, what are all the challenges and opportunities in data

mining, and some real time examples of data mining such us information

extraction services, health intelligence etc.

Speakers and parti cipants during the programme

M.A.M. COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY, TIRUCHIRAPPALLI (REGION-VII)Mr. Chaitanya Khanapure and Mr. Vikas Maddala 10-11 January 2013: Workshop on “Cloud Computing and Virtualization”

Mr. Khanapure Head-Student Outreach Program delivered the workshop by

briefi ng the techniques of Cloud Computing and Virtualization. He provided

hands-on practical training to the students.

From Left : Ms. R Parimala, Prof. H Parveen Begam, Mr. Chaitanya Khanapure Mr. Vikas Maddala,


SPEAKER(S) TOPIC AND GISTPAAVAI COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, NAMAKKAL (REGION-VII)Dr. Ch. Aswanikumar 19 January 2013: Guest Lecture on “Cyber Security”

All second, third and fi nal year students of CSE attended the “Cyber

Security” guest lecture. Dr. Aswanikumar elaborated on cyber security. He

also explained various security threats prevailing in the information network.

He insisted on the ways to protect data and how to be cautious in securing

the private data.

During inaugural functi on (L to R) Prof. K Devaki, Dr. V Manivannan, Dr. Ch. Aswanikumar, and Dr. K Premkumar

P.S.R.RENGASAMY COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING FOR WOMEN, SIVAKSI, TN (REGION-VII)Dr. Vimala Devi 2 February 2013: Program called “Project Expo’13”

Student branch organized “Project Expo’13” for school students

of Virudhunagar, Tirunvelli and Tuticorin district. The Chief Guest

Dr. Vimala Devi talked on recent projects undertaking in all the Engineering

Departments and evaluated the projects which were presented and

developed by students from all Engineering Departments. Prizes were

distributed for the students who performed well.

Organizers teams of ProjectExpo13

Mr. Balaji Ravi, and Dr. K Ramasamy, Principal 8 February 2013: Guest Lecture on “Computer Network and Security System”

The Chief Guest Mr. Balaji Ravi spoke on Computer Network and Security

System, its history and evolution. He insisted that students should update

themselves to face competing environment. Dr. K Ramasamy delivered

presidential address. Third Year and Final Year Students from dept of

Computer Science and Engineering, Information Technology and Electrical

and electronic Engineering participated.

Speaker conducti ng the lecture

R.M.K ENGINEERING COLLEGE, KAVARAIPETTAI, THIRUVALLUR DIST, TN (REGION-VII)Dr. Andy Bulpitt, Dr. Elwin Chandra Monie,

Prof. M Somasundaram, and Dr. K L Shunmuganathan

25 January 2013: Seminar on “Artifi cial Intelligence”

Dr. Andy Bulpitt spoke on the topic of Artifi cial Intelligence and the areas

where AI is used and about his research projects. He also spoke about the

School of Computing and University of Leeds and opportunities for student

to pursue higher studies. Research interests of Dr. Andy Bulpitt are in the

areas of Medical Image Analysis, Bioinformatics and Virtual Environments

for Simulation of Medical Procedures.

Honoring the Guest Lecturer Dr. Andy Bulpitt

S.A.ENGINEERING COLLEGE, CHENNAI (REGION-VII)Mr. K Kulothungan, Asst. Prof- Dept. of IST,

Anna University

21 December 2012: Guest Lecture on “Network Programming”

The speaker explained the concepts of Network Programming and how to

write network programs and showed the demonstration of Inter process

communication using network programming.

Dr. S Suyambazhahan, Guest Mr. K Kulothungan, and Mrs. V Sujatha


SPEAKER(S) TOPIC AND GISTS.A.ENGINEERING COLLEGE, CHENNAI (REGION-VII)Mr. G Vinoth, Analyst, Verizon Technologies, Chennai 8 January 2013: Guest Lecture on “Object Oriented Concepts and its

Implementation”

The speaker explained Object Oriented concepts and its implementation in

the industry with examples of programs used in the industry.

Guest Mr. G Vinoth, Mrs. V Sujatha

Mrs. S Muthumala, Senior HR Manager, Congruent

solutions Pvt. Ltd

21 January 2013: National Conference on “Computer Applications and Information Technology”

The chief guest explained the objectives of the conference and asked

participants to be radical in the research in the fi eld of computer science

and Information Technology.

The guest Mrs. S Muthumala, releasing the proceedings of the Nati onal Conference CCAIT’13. Director Mr. P Venkatesh Raja, Dr. S Suyambazhahan, and Mrs. V Sujatha

SREENARAYANA GURUKULAM COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING (SNGCE), ERNAKULAM, KERALA (REGION-VII)Mr. Satheesh Bino IPS, Ernakulam District Police Chief

and Mr. Chaithanya Krishna

16-17 January 2013: Two-days Workshop on “Ethical Hacking and Cyber Forensics”

The workshop covered topics such as - Introduction to Ethical Hacking,

Footprinting and Reconnaissance, Scanning Networks, System Hacking,

Trojans and Backdoors, Sniff ers, Social Engineering, Denial of Service,

Session Hijacking, Hacking Web Application, SQL Injection and Hacking

Wireless Networks.

Inaugurati on of workshop

VELAMMAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, CHENNAI (REGION-VII)Dr. Vijaya Chamundeeswari, Mr. Maria Michael

Visuvasam and S Soundararajan

30 January 2013: Guest Lecture on “Advanced Computer Architecture”

Various topics like Hardware support for compilers for exploiting and

exposing ILP, Advanced Compiler Techniques for ILP were covered in the

lecture and the concepts were explained in detail.

Speaker during the lecture

Mr. Dhanasekar, Mrs.Suganthini and S Soundararajan 2 February 2013: Guest Lecture on “Principles of Compiler Design”

Various topics like Lexical Analyzer, Syntax Analyzer and Semantic Analyzer

were covered and the concepts were explained with problems and examples.

It provided a platform to the students to recollect and gather new ideas in

the related topics.

Guest lecturer and parti cipants

VIVEKANANDHA ENGINEERING COLLEGE FOR WOMEN, SANKARI (REGION-VII)Dr. Jeyakesavan Veerasamy (University of Texas at

Dallas,USA)

31 December 2012: One-day Workshop on “Open source software and java script”

Dr. Veerasamy emphasized basics of open source software. He also

spoke about the need of Open Source, Advantages of Open Source and

Applications of Open Source. He gave hands-on training to the students.

Students att ending hands-on training, Dr.Jeyakesavan Veerasamy on right hand side


Following new Student Branches Were Opened as Detailed Below –

REGION III IPS College of Technology & Management, Gwalior, M.P. –

The Inauguration of Student Branch Chapter on January 31, 2013, began with lightening of lamp

and Saraswati Vandana. The inaugural function was followed by a technical computer quiz titled as

“Computer Ville”. The quiz was organised for 9th to 12th standard students. The winner team was

Rishi Galav Hr. Sec. Public School.

REGION V Audisankara College of Engineering for Women, Nellore, A.P. -

The CSI Student Branch was launched at Audisankara College of Engineering for Women on 31-01-

2013, under the auspices of CSE department of the college. Participating in the event as the Chief

Guest, Mr. Y Kathiresan explained about the activities to be taken up by the CSI Chapter and the

techniques that would help students to face the technical interviews successfully.

Srinivasa Ramanujan Institute of Technology, Anantapur, A.P. -Departments of CSE & IT inaugurated CSI-SRIT Student Branch conducted workshop on

“Information Security Awareness” and “SAP Career Opportunities” on 19th January 2013.

Chief Guest was the resource person for the workshop on “Information Security Awareness”.

He gave wonderful presentation and covered topics such as - how to choose strong passwords,

precautions when downloading email attachments, types of mails, attacks, and prevention.

Vidhya Nikethan College of Engineering, Thirupathy, A.P. -CSI Student Branch was inaugurated on 28th January, 2013, by Chief Guest Mr. S. Ramasamy.

He informed that employment of graduates in computer science discipline is only 5% in India.

He said that through CSI student branch activities, students can acquire additional co-curricular

skills needed in the present day competition for employment of engineering graduates. Mr. Y

Kathiresan delivered a guest lecture on “Awareness on CSI and Unique Identity of Students”.

REGION VI Yadavrao Tasgaonkar College of Engineering and Management (YTCEM), Mumbai -

TIt was the occasion of inauguration function of CSI-YTCEM on 22nd January, 2013. The function

was followed by seminar on the topic “Adaptive business intelligence through web personalized recommendation” by Chief Guest Dr. Subhash Shinde.

REGION VII Jeppiar Institute of Technology, Chennai –

The inaugural function of CSI Student Branch in Jeppiaar Institute of Technology was held on

23rd January 2013. The Chief Guest Mr. Rajan T Joseph inaugurated the CSI Student Branch and

enlightened students about open source, technical skills, and managerial skills.

Kathir College of Engineering, Neelambur, Coimbatore –The Chief Guest Mr. Ranga Rajagopal

inaugurated CSI-Student Branch on 23rd

January, 2013. He shared his views on “Role and purpose of CSI student branches”. Guest of

honour, Mr. Kaiser Masood, gave the special lecture on “IT Trends and Industry Expectations from fresh recruits”. Guest of honour, Mr. Vaikunt R Prabhu, talked

on the role of “Finishing School” for today’s engineering students.

Knowledge Institute of Technology (KIOT), Salem –Department of Computer Science and Engineering of KIOT organized the inaugural function of CSI

Student Branch on 28th January, 2013. Dr. Lakshmi Narasimhan inaugurated the branch and spoke

on Research Issues and Challenges in Cloud Computing. He delivered his new ideas and spoke

about job opportunities in Cloud Computing.

Speakers and winning team

Faculty members on dias

Guests and faculty members on desk

L to R: Dr. D V S Bhagavanulu, Mr. Y

Kathiresan, Dr. P C Krishnamachary, Dr. V

V Rama Prasad, and Mr. S Ramasamy

L to R: Dr. S K Ukarande, Principal, addressing the Inaugural

session of CSI-YTCEM. On the dias Mr. Kiran Chorghe, Prof.

Sumit Bhattacharjee, Dr. Subhash Shinde, Prof. Vijay Shelake,

during the inauguration of CSI-YTCEM Students Chapter.

Lightning the lamp by dignitaries from L to R Dr. V Kannan,

Mr. Y Kathiresan, Mr. Rajan T Joseph, Dr. Marie Wilson

Chief Guest during Inaugural Function

Chief Guest and organizing team


Four good reasons to JOINTake part in various forums and discuss,

your favourite topics

Make a contribution on National level through

our open exchange of ideas seminars

Share your specialized knowledge

with colleagues

Receive new information on developments

in the fi eld via regular conferences,

seminars, workshops etc.

WE INVITE YOU TO JOINComputer Society of India

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Indian Information Technology

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andbecome a member

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Date Event Details & Organizers Contact Information

March 2013 Events

15-16 March 2013

National Workshop on- Securing Your Web Presence CSI Education Directorate, Chennai

Shri. Yogendra [email protected]

21-22 March 2013

National Conference on Communication and Networking for Inclusive Growth CSI DIV IV ( Communications ) & CSI Trivandrum ChapterSarabhai Institute of Science and Technology, Trivandrumhttp://www.csitvm.org

Dr. CG Sukumaran [email protected]. Biju Varghese, [email protected] Mohapatra, [email protected]

21 March 2013 National Conference on ‘MEPCOIT’13” IT Department of Mepco Schlenk Engineering and CSI Sivakasi Chapter

Dr. T [email protected]

23 March 2013 CSI Discover Thinking - 1st National Online Quiz on ICT for CSI student members SV Institute, Kadi, Ahmedabad

Dr. Nilesh [email protected]

23-24 March 2013

Software Project Management CSI Education Directorate, Chennai

Mr. Yogendra Kumar, CSI [email protected]

30 March 2013 1st National Programming Contest for Student members, National Finals RV College of Engineering, Bangalore

Prof. Shantaram [email protected]

CSI Calendar 2013

Prof. S V Raghavan

Vice President & Chair, Conference Committee, CSI

Photography did not eliminate painting. Film did not eliminate theater and so on. One technology feeds on

the vocabulary of the other, and I believe that the electronic technology has taught us to value the reading on

the page, and the reading on the page has taught us what we can do on the screen. They are alternatives, but

theyíre certainly not synonymous.

~ Alberto Manguel

A library may look like a single building, but please don't be misled by the walls. It's a single link in an enormous

chain. It's a single being in a gigantic ecosystem of words and thoughts and ideas.

~ Shula Klinger, Richmond, BC. Quoted in Beyond Words: BC's Public Libraries Are Changing Lives

I always tell people that I became a writer not because I went to school but because my mother took me to

the library. I wanted to become a writer so I could see my name in the card catalog.

~ Sandra Cisneros

I must say I fi nd television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a

good book.

~ Groucho Marx

I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library

~ Jorge Luis Borges

What is the value of libraries? Through lifelong learning, libraries can and do change lives, a point that cannot

be overstated.

~ Michael Gorman, Our Enduring Values: Librarianship in the 21st Century

I had plenty of pimples as a kid. One day I fell asleep in the library. When I woke up, a blind man was reading

my face.

~ Rodney Dangerfi eld

Computer Society of India (CSI) organizes National / Regional / State level Student Conventions annually, at Student Branches across

India. The Conventions are held in the active Student Branches to promote the awareness on technological advancements and applications,

as well as to foster creative orientations among the student community, and facilitate their evolution to productive professions. These

conventions off er excellent opportunities to the students to manifest their technical profi ciency and prowess through paper presentations,

discussions, and extensive interactions with peers and pioneers in the domain.

CSI invites Proposals from Student Branches to conduct the National / Regional / State level Student Conventions to be held during the

academic year 2013-14 (April to March). The Conventions have to be held conforming to the CSI Student Convention Manual. (Available

at (http://www.csi-india.org/web/education-directorate/student-convention-manual1).

Convention Schedule: The Conventions have to be completed in accordance with the time schedule shown below.

State/Regional Convention : Before December 2013

National Convention : Before March 2014

Criteria: The proposing Student Branch should be very active, with a track record of several CSI activities, and be in good standing through

the years 2012-13 and 2013-14.

In case of multiple proposals for convention at the same location, the decision will be broadly based on the parameters given below.

a) Number of years of continuous valid student branch at the college (without break)

b) Average student strength over the past three years

c) Number and quality / level of activities at the student branch

d) Prompt submission of activity reports and fi nancial accounts

e) Ability to attract good speakers from Industry

f) Availability of infrastructure and other resources

g) Financial strength and potential

h) Accessibility and other general conditions

The Proposal: Interested Student Branches are requested to send electronic proposals with all relevant data, including the information

stated below.

a) Type of convention proposed: National/Regional/State level (Proposers of National Convention must have ability to mobilize

participation from multiple states and experience of having conducted regional/state level convention earlier )

b) Proposed dates (at least two days) – please indicate two sets of dates

c) A statement of case why the SB should be considered favourably for the proposed event

d) Signed undertaking by the head of the institution to provide all the required support (Document with Scanned signature)

How to send: The Student Branches may send the proposals through the Regional Student Coordinator (RSC) with copy to Education

Directorate (admn.offi [email protected]), concerned Regional Vice President (RVP) (http://www.csi-india.org/web/guest/executive-

committee) and National Student Coordinator.(Contact details of NSC/RSC are available at http://www.csi-india.org/web/guest/104).

Time line: Interested Student Branches may please send the proposals with all details through proper channel as explained above to reach

CSI Education Directorate before 10 April 2013.

Selection: A Committee constituted by CSI, including the Honorary Secretary, National Student Coordinator, Director (Education) will

assess the proposals and make the decisions.

CSI Support: CSI extends partial fi nancial assistance, in accordance with the availability of budgetary resources, subject to the approval

of the Executive Committee. CSI also supports the publicity eff orts for the Conventions.

Rajan T JosephDirector (Education), Computer Society of India

Education Directorate, National Headquarters

C I T Campus, 4th Cross Road, Taramani, Chennai 600113

Ph: +91-44-2254 1102/1103/2874; Fax: +91-44-2254 1143

Inviting Proposals from CSI Student Branches to Organize

NATIONAL/REGIONAL/STATE LEVEL CSI STUDENT CONVENTIONS During the year 2013-14

Registered with Registrar of News Papers for India - RNI 31668/78 If undelivered return to : Regd. No. MH/MR/N/222/MBI/12-14 Samruddhi Venture Park, Unit No.3, Posting Date: 10 & 11 every month. Posted at Patrika Channel Mumbai-I 4th fl oor, MIDC, Andheri (E). Mumbai-400 093 Date of Publication: 10 & 11 every month

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