Ubiquitous Computing in the Cloud

Abstract

This chapter analyses the evolution of the Internet, shifting from a decentralized architecture designed around the end-to-end principle with powerful mainframe/personal computers at each end, to a more centralized network designed according to the mainframe model, with increasingly weaker user’s devices that no longer have the ability to run a server nor to process any consistent amount of data or information. The advantages of ubiquitous computing (allowing data to become available from anywhere and at any time regardless of the device) should thus be counterbalanced with the costs it entails (loss of users’ autonomy, concerns as regards privacy, and freedom of expression, etc.).

Can Blockchain Technology Facilitate the Unbundling of Higher Education

“…Facebook, Google, NASDAQ, Universities). Users allow their personal data to be handled by these third parties to gain comfort and convenience but at the cost of their personal privacy and individual freedom due to the single point of failure protocol employed (De Filippi, 2013;Schneier, 2009). Conversely, a blockchain enables the creation of a decentralized arrangement where data and information is not held by a single entity third party but in a public ledger which is managed by a consensus mechanism and distributed techniques in a peer to peer network containing multiple nodes (Hence, multiple points of failure) (Turkanovic et al, 2017;Chen et al, 2018).…”