New Skills for the Information Age

Greetings from the Australian Computer Society Canberra Conference, where Louise Smith, ACS Director of Workforce Development & Planning and Education, is speaking on "Puzzle Out SFIA 7". This is about the new version 7 of the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). This is a very complex standard set of skills definitions for those in the computer industry. I used SFIA for designing the course Green Computing for ACS (or more accurately I defined the skills and then sent them to SFIA Foundation to put in the standard). One aspects that troubles me about SFIA, even in the new version, is the emphasis on business, rather than technical skills.

SFIA Version 7 has at level 7 a definition of knowledge:

"Has established a broad and deep business knowledge including the activities and practices of own organisation and a broad knowledge of those of suppliers, partners, competitors and clients. Fosters a culture to encourage the strategic application of generic and specific bodies of knowledge within own area of influence."

This definition refers specifically to "business knowledge", suggesting other forms of technical knowledge are not relevant. I suggest we need to acknowledge and reward technical skills at the highest levels in organizations. A modern organization depends on technology working reliably, securely and continuously. Failure of these systems can result in to the organization going out of business, as well as a loss of service to the community.

Cyber-attack Targets Australian Universities

Countries with targeted universities.
Source: Secureworks

Greetings from the Australian Computer Society conference in Canberra where Alex Tilley, Senior Security Researcher (eCrime) Secureworks warned of a cyber-attack targeting universities around the world. This has been labeled COBALT DICKENS. This appears to be a state  attempt to steal intellectual property, as well as identities. 

Mobile Learning from Canberra with Microcredentials and Blockchain for the Indo-Pacific: Colombo Plan 2.0

Greetings from the opening of the Australian Computer Society Canberra Conference. One speaker couldn't make it, so I am filling in at 1:15pm, on "Computer Professionals Providing Mobile Learning for the Digital Economy". In this I suggest Australia can provide courses on-line to students in the Indo-Pacific, to complement China's Belt and Road Project. The idea would be a formal university level courses, but delivered as a series of micro-credentials, digitally certified using a blockchain. This is a preview of a presentation I prepared for NICT 2018 in Colombo, on 3 October.