Internet of Things: An Introduction

Welcome to Current Trends in Information Technology. In this course, we will explore some of the latest
and most important concepts and technologies that are shaping our world today.

The internet is one of the most groundbreaking and life-changing technologies of our time. As of 2017,
there are already 3.8 billion active internet users. That’s about half of the entire human population. The
Internet has changed and is still changing the way we do everyday tasks from communicating to learning
to entertainment.

It is certainly hard to discuss modern technology, particularly Information Technology without talking
about the Internet. That is why it is only fitting that we start our course Current Trends in Information
Technology by exploring the next step in the evolution of the Internet. In this module, you will learn about
The Internet of Things; what it is, how it started, and how it works.

What is the Internet of Things?

The Internet of Things or IoT is a computing concept in which everyday objects are connected to the
Internet. Through wireless Internet connection, these objects can be accessed by us, the users as well as
other objects and can be used to perform different tasks
It is important to note that IoT is not a single technology but a unified concept that incorporates different
kinds of computing technologies; the most prominent of which will be discussed in this module.

In the Internet of Things, everyday objects can be parts of online systems that provide us with different
kinds of services. For example: CCTV cameras, locks, and sensors installed in a house can be connected to
a online security system which can be accessed by the homeowner even if he is not at home and will
automatically inform the police in case of a burglary.

History of IoT

The term Internet of Things was coined by Kevin Ashton when he was working for Procter & Gamble (P&G)
in 1999. As a part of his work in supply chain optimization, Ashton gave a presentation with the goal of
attracting P&G’s senior management’s attention to a new technology called Radio-Frequency Identification
or RFID. His presentation was entitled “Internet of Things”.

Later on in 2002, Forbes published an article also entitled Internet of Things which quoted Kevin Ashton
saying “We need an internet for things, a standardized way for computers to understand the real world.”

Since its conception in 1999, Internet of Things has gradually become the widely accepted term that
represents all the efforts to merge the physical world with the virtual world by creating an online presence
for everyday objects.

What are these “things”?

When you first heard the term Internet of Things, one of the first questions that entered your mind was
probably “What things?”
It is important to note that the word thing has a special meaning in IoT. In the context of IoT, a thing is any
physical object that can connect to the Internet.

However, IoT does not end with giving physical objects an online presence. On the contrary, it is just the
beginning. A “smart object” needs to have a function or a purpose.

“Smart” things

In the context of the Internet of Things, the adjective “smart” means anything that is IoT-based. Keep this
in mind because you will be seeing this word a lot in this module and the next.

Sensors

In order to interact with the physical world, first, a smart object needs to gather information about its
environment. For this purpose, a smart object needs to have sensors. As the name implies, a sensor is a
component that detects a specific physical input. The following are common types of sensors with their
definitions and examples:

Temperature sensor – detects the temperature of an object or an environment.

Used for: Thermostats, digital thermometers, etc
Proximity sensor – detects motion
Used for: alarm systems, parking sensors etc
Optical sensor – converts light energy into digital signals Used for: digital cameras
Pressure sensor – converts physical power into electronic signals
Used for: touch screen devices
Humidity sensor – measures the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere
Used for: weather related IoT Devices
Accelerometer – measures acceleration Used for: running apps, navigation
Gyroscope – uses Earth’s gravity to detect the position or orientation of an object
Used for: 3d motion capture
Actuators

After receiving input from its environment, smart objects can then react or perform appropriate actions.
This is done using actuators. An actuator is a component or mechanism that turns energy into motion.
Basically, actuators comprise the “moving parts” of a smart object. For example, actuators in a CCTV
camera allows the user to point it to different directions.

Connecting the Internet of Things

In the past, the only things that could connect to the Internet were computers; machines that are
specifically designed to process, transmit, and receive digital information. These computers were big and
bulky and needed cables to connect to the internet. Today, because of various advancements in hardware
and software technology, computers have become smaller and more compact. More importantly, wireless
technologies allow today’s smart devices to connect to networks without having to be plugged into a wall
socket. The following are some of the most important technologies that are used to connect the Internet
of Things:

IPv6

In order to understand the importance of IPv6 to the Internet of Things, we have to visit the birth of the
Internet.

January 1 1983 is known as the day the Internet was born. On this day, the Advanced Research Projects
Agency Network (ARPANET) which is the predecessor of the Internet started using the Transmission
Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. TCP/IP is the network protocol of the Internet. It is basically the
language that is used by the Internet. TCP/IP works by assigning an IP Address to every device that is
connected to a network.

The Internet Protocol Address or IP Address is a unique set of numbers that is used to identify devices that
are connected to a
network. IP Address works a lot like your home address. When you send a letter, you write your own
address in the envelope. Without it, the recipient will not be able to send you a reply.

The IP address does the same thing for you in an online network. When you go to a website, you are
basically requesting to have some information sent to you. Because you have a unique identification in the
form of an IP address, the website will know where to send the data.

Internet Protocol version 4 or IPv4 is the version of the Internet Protocol that was use when ARPANET
switched to TCP/IP. To this day, IPv4 is still the most widely used IP version in the world.

An IPv4 address looks like this:

172.16.254.1
An IPv4 address is 32 bits long. It consists of 4 decimal numbers separated by dots. Each decimal number
has the range of 0 to 255. This allows for 4 billion combinations which means that there are 4 billion
possible IPv4 addresses.

During the early days of the Internet, 4 billion IP addresses seemed like a lot but as Internet users grew in
numbers, it became apparent that soon, 4 billion addresses will not be enough. A

In the 1990’s, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) which is an international community responsible
for developing Internet standards started designing and developing the Internet Protocol version 6 or IPv6.

IPv6 addresses have a size of 128 bits. It is composed of eight groups of four hexadecimal digits separated
by colons (:)

Note: Hexadecimal digits are 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F.

 2001:0db8:0a0b:12f0:0000:0000:0000:0001

So why is IPv6 important to IoT? The reason is because IPv6 allows for 3.4×1038 addresses. That means 340
trillion, trillion, trillion things can connect to the Internet of things.

340,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

While IPv6 has been around for two decades and is generally considered to be better than IPv4, is still not
very popular today. According to Google’s IPv6 Statistics, only 17.81% of Google users are using IPv6 as of
July 21, 2017. In the Philippines, only 0.31% are IPv6 users.

Google. (n.d.). IPv6 – Google. Retrieved July 24, 2017, from https://www.google.com/intl/en/ipv6/statistics.html

There are several reasons why the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 is slow. Probably the biggest reason is the
cost. It will be extremely expensive
for Internet service providers to fully convert to IPv6. It will also be costly for consumers to replace their
devices with IPv6 compatible ones. Another reason is that there is no urgent need to switch to IPv6. It is
theoretically possible to run out of IPv4 addresses but presently, it’s still not a major threat. IPv4 is still
functional and reliable.

This however, is expected to change in the future mainly because of IoT. It is foreseen that billions of things
will eventually be connected to the Internet. Eventually, the 4 billion address limit of IPv4 will be reached
and the world will have no choice but to switch to IPv6.

Wireless

The Internet of Things needs to be ubiquitous which means it has to be available everywhere at any given
time. This will not be possible without the ability to wirelessly connect to the Internet. The following are
some of the major wireless technologies that are being used in IoT:

File:WiFi Logo.svg. (n.d.). Retrieved July 20, 2017, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WiFi_Logo.svg Public Domain

WiFi is one of the most common wireless technologies today. It is primarily used to connect devices such
as laptops, tablets and smart phones to Internet routers, forming a local network.

The name WiFi is not an acronym but rather a play on words with Hi- Fi or high fidelity which is to refer to
high-quality audio reproduction in speakers and stereos.
House. (n.d.). File:BluetoothLogo.svg. Retrieved July 20, 2017, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BluetoothLogo.svg Public Domain

Bluetooth is wireless technology that is ideal for exchanging information over short distances. Today,
Bluetooth is commonly used to connect peripheral devices such as wireless keyboards, mice, and speakers
to laptops and mobile phones. Recently, it’s also being used to connect wearables such as smart watches
to smart phones.

Bluetooth is named after Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson a Viking king of Denmark and Norway in the 10 th
Century.

Zigbee Alliance. (n.d.). Zigbee Logo. Retrieved July 20, 2017, from http://www.zigbee.org/

Zigbee is a wireless technology designed for machine to machine or M2M communication. Zigbee is ideal
for IoT applications because it is inexpensive and does not require a lot of power to operate. According to
the Zigbee Alliance, “Zigbee allows devices to last for years on a single battery.”

The name Zigbee was inspired by the waggle dance or motion that is done by honey bees to give directions
to one another.
Z-wave.com. (n.d.). Z-Wave Logo. Retrieved July 20, 2017, from http://www.z- wave.com/

Z-Wave is a wireless technology that is primarily designed for home automation. According to the Z-Wave
Alliance: “The Z-Wave protocol is an interoperable, wireless, RF(Radio Frequency)-based communications
technology designed specifically for control, monitoring and status reading applications in residential and
light commercial environments.”

The Internet of Things: Applications and Challenges

In the last module, we discussed the basic technologies and concepts that make the Internet of Things a
reality. Hopefully by now, you have a good idea of how IoT works. Now we will discuss the more practical
side of IoT. In this module, you will learn about some of the major current and future applications of IoT,
how they benefit humanity, and the challenges that they present.

Applications of IoT

All these ground-breaking concepts and cutting edge technologies mean nothing if they are not put to good
use. Here are some of the most current and most popular applications of IoT.

Smart Devices
Smartphone tablet. (n.d.). Retrieved July 19, 2017, from https://pixabay.com/ CC0 Public Domain Free for commercial use
No attribution required

The most widely used smart devices today are smartphones and tablets. A smart device is an electronic
device which can connect to other devices and networks through different wireless technologies such as
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G and perform different tasks such as playing and recording audio and video,
communication, encoding, etc. Recently, even traditional household appliances such as televisions are
being turned into smart devices.
Smart Watch. (n.d.). Retrieved July 19, 2017, from https://pexels.com/ CC0 Public Domain Free for commercial use No
attribution required

Wearable devices or wearables are electronic devices that can be worn or attached to the user’s body or
clothing. Wearable devices are designed for different purposes; some have general functions such as
running apps, playing music, and receiving calls while some have more specialized uses such as tracking the
user’s sleep, counting steps, monitoring heart rate, etc.

Smart Home
Smart Home. (n.d.). Retrieved July 19, 2017, from https://pixabay.com/ CC0 Public Domain Free for commercial use No
attribution required

A smart home or a smart building is a home or a building that is equipped with IoT-connected appliances
and can be accessed and controlled remotely by the owner through devices such as laptops, smart phones,
and tablets.

Here are some examples of smart home devices that can be incorporated to smart homes:

Smart Speakers: Have you ever watched a science fiction movie where the building or spaceship can talk
to people? That’s pretty much what a smart speakers aim to accomplish. A smart speaker is a device with
a speaker and microphone and connects to a Cloud-based (to be discussed in the next module) virtual
assistant service such as Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri. A smart speaker can follow commands and answer
questions such as “Siri, play my favorite songs” or “Alexa, what does bongiorno mean?” smart speakers can
also perform more complex tasks such as making online purchases.
Examples: Google Home, Amazon Echo, and Apple’s HomePod

Smart Lighting doesn’t just turn off and on. It can be programmed to react to its environment’s lighting
conditions. For example, it can turn itself on when it gets dark. Smart lighting’s schedule, color, and
brightness can also be adjusted via remote control and smart phone. Examples: Phillips Hue, Ikea Smart
Lighting solutions.

Smart Fridge: A smart refrigerator has a touch-screen interface, internet connection, and cameras. It can
monitor its contents and remind the user when an item is about to expire. It can also send pictures of its
contents to the user so that the user can know which items need to be replenished. Examples: Samsung
Family Hub, LG Smart InstaView

Smart Air Conditioning has sensors that measure temperature, humidity and sunlight and can
access online weather data to manage the home’s temperature. Smart AC can also analyze user input and
“remember” which settings are most comfortable for user. Examples: tado° Smart AC Control, Ambi Climate

Smart City
Smart cities. (n.d.). Retrieved July 19, 2017, from https://unsplash.com/ CC0 Public Domain Free for commercial use No
attribution required

A smart city utilizes IoT technologies in Urban Development. IoT- based infrastructure and services are used
the assets of a smart city with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of life of its residents.

While “smart city” is still a relatively new concept, it is the general agreement that IoT will play an integral
role in its day-to-day operation. The following are prime examples of IoT applications in a smart city:

Water: One of the most promising smart city applications of IoT is the management of valuable resources
such as water and electricity. Smart sensors can gather information about the city’s water distribution
system such as temperature, consumption and water pressure. This will serve as valuable tools in managing
a city’s water supply and lessening wastage.
Electricity: We are used to the traditional power grid where electricity is delivered to our homes for us to
consume then we pay a monthly bill. This one-way system is fast becoming obsolete due to increasing and
rapidly changing electricity needs. A smart grid promises to change that. A smart grid is an electricity supply
network where information, along with electricity, is exchanged between the suppliers and consumers.
Instead of a just receiving a monthly bill, consumers will have access to real time information about their
power consumption. Furthermore, homes with sustainable power sources such as solar panels can send
the excess electricity that they generate back to the grid. This means that households will even be able to
sell their excess electricity.

Transportation: In a smart city, public and private transportation will be managed by IoT-based systems.
Many automotive companies are already utilizing IoT technologies. A smart vehicle or a smart car is a vehicle
that features IoT based technologies used for navigation, safety, maintenance, entertainment, etc.
You are probably familiar with the Global Positioning System or GPS which is a network of satellites which
can pinpoint the geographical location of objects with ground receivers. GPS is already commonly used
today, but as a part of IoT, it can be more useful.
For example, sensors installed in parking spaces can send information to an online network, giving motorists
(located via GPS) the location of nearby vacant parking spaces. Furthermore, sensors and cameras in roads
can send information to public and private vehicles regarding traffic congestion, road accidents, etc.

Sanitation: IoT is already being applied in sanitation. For example, iPEK a German pipeline inspection
company teamed up with IDEX, a fluidics systems corporation to develop a cloud based (to be discussed
next module) system that uses information transmitted by sensors and cameras installed in sewer pipes to
inspect and manage sewers

Governance: The government can better monitor the goings- on in a smart city. IoT technologies can help
the monitor the activities in public spaces and gather information that can be used to improve their services
and policies. For example, Singapore is currently in the process of building a Virtual Singapore, which is a
“dynamic three-dimensional (3D) city model and collaborative data platform”. This online platform will be
contain the collection of real-time data gathered by smart systems around the city. Virtual Singapore will
be available to public and private sectors and can be used for research and testing sophisticated tools and
applications.
IoT in Healthcare

Health is in everyone’s list of top priorities. This is why it is not surprising that groundbreaking technologies
and concepts such as the

Internet of Things tend to immediately find their way into the healthcare industry. Here are some of the most
promising applications of IoT in healthcare.

Connected healthcare or connected care refers to the use of Information and communications technology,
particularly IoT in the healthcare industry. The following are the major benefits of IoT in health care according
to IBM:

Decreased Costs: Patients’ health can be monitored at home via smart devices, decreasing the need for costly
doctor visits and hospital admissions.
Improved Outcomes of Treatment: Real time and more comprehensive data gathering will help doctors make
informed decisions. This can this can increase the chances of success of medical treatments.
Improved Disease Management: The spread of communicable diseases can be closely monitored. This can be
an indispensable tool in preventing the outbreak of diseases.
Reduced Errors: more accurate data collection and the automation of medical processes can greatly minimize
errors.
Enhanced Patient Experience: Reducing the time and effort needed to provide and receive medical treatment
will make the ordeal less frustrating for the patients.
Enhanced Management of Drugs: Finally, IoT can also improve the way drugs are manufactured, prescribed
and administered.
Challenges of the Internet of Things
Along with the benefits come the challenges. The following are the biggest issues facing the Internet of Things:

Security
What happens if the systems that run important services are attacked? For example, in December 23, 2015,
Ukraine’s power grid was hacked causing blackouts that affected more than 200 thousand people. According
to investigators from the US, hackers sent phishing emails to power companies in order to steal logins and
passwords for the virtually controlled systems that manage the power grid. The cyber-attack caused up to 6
hours of power disruption in some areas and damages to the system that took months to repair.

Privacy
The Internet of Things requires the collection of a lot of information. Some of this information are private or
extremely personal. Sensors, cameras, as well as GPS capabilities in smart devices can be used to monitor
users’ location, actions, and habits. Furthermore, many services require users to submit sensitive personal
information such as pictures, addresses, and banking details.

Compatibility
In the previous module, we talked about different wireless technologies such as Bluetooth, Zigbee, and Z-
Wave. These technologies are currently competing against each other. Eventually though, there will have to
be a standardized protocol for machine-to- machine (M2M) connection just like how TCP/IP became the
global standard.

Connectivity
The Internet of Things will involve billions, if not trillions of connected things. Even if IPv6 can secure enough
addresses for all of these things, several other connectivity issues still need to be addressed. For one, if each
household is expected to have hundreds of connected objects, then Internet service needs to be more
affordable and more powerful. Furthermore, batteries for wireless devices need to be more efficient and
wireless technologies need to have very low power requirements.
What is Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing (n.d.). Retrieved July 19, 2017, from https://pixabay.com/ CC0 Public Domain Free for commercial use No attribution required

Cloud computing is the practice of storing, accessing, and processing data in remote locations through the
Internet. Just like the Internet of Things, Cloud Computing is not a single technology. It is a model that consists
of many different computing technologies.

Cloud computing is sometimes referred to as the cloud. However, the term “the cloud” has a more specific
meaning. It refers to the network of servers that contain the computing resources that are made available to
the users.

Client–server model
Cabinet server (n.d.). Retrieved July 19, 2017, from https://pexels.com/ CC0 Public Domain Free for commercial use No
attribution required

Before we discuss how the cloud works, first you have to understand the client-server model. The client server
model is a distributed application structure where roles or functions are separated into service providers and
service requesters

Server

A server is a computer that performs a task for other computers in a network. When you go to a website, your
computer or device accesses at least one server.

Client

A computer that requests for a task is called a client. Your desktop, laptop, mobile phone and pretty much every
device that you use to connect to the Internet are clients.

Service

The task that is performed in the client–server model is called a

service. In the early days of the Internet, services are mainly just file

hosting or storage of information. Servers store information, usually texts files in HTML format, and send
them to other computers in the network upon request. Today, there are many other types of services, which
will be discussed in the next module.
How does cloud computing work?
To understand how Cloud Computing works, let’s take a closer look at how we use the Internet.

This is computing without the Internet or any other network connection. You have a computer that you use
to process information. All the information are stored internally in hard drives or externally in diskettes, CD’s,
or flash drives.

With Internet connection, your computer can access a server. The server can provide you with the information
and services that you need. You no longer have to store everything locally.
You can even access multiple servers. In fact, more complex services such as social media require multiple
servers to work. That’s what the Cloud is. The Cloud is the collective term for the servers that work together
to provide services to clients.

Cloud computing makes these services available to you anytime, anywhere, as long as you have Internet
connection. You even can use different devices. For example, if you do your homework in your desktop at
home, you can just upload it in the cloud and download it in a computer in your school.
Evolution of Cloud Computing
While the term Cloud Computing became widely used in the 21st century, the evolution of Cloud Computing
is as old as digital computing itself. The following are some of the major technologies and concepts that
influenced the evolution of cloud computing.

Origins

The exact origin of the term Cloud Computing is unknown. Several persons and organizations claim to have
coined the term. The accepted generally accepted origin story has to do with network diagrams where groups
of servers and other remote assets are usually represented by a drawing of a cloud. The idea is that multiple
components in different locations can work together to provide a service.

Virtualization
Virtual is used to describe something that does not physically exist. In computing, virtual means something
that exists only in software form, without actual hardware components. Virtualization is the practice of
creating a virtual or software version of a device and resource.

A virtual machine is an emulation of a computer system. A virtual machine is usually contained in or hosted
by a real-world computer; a computer within a computer. However, it is also possible to create a virtual
machine inside another virtual machine; a computer within a computer within a computer ad infinitum.
Just like a computer, it has its own Operating System or OS (e.g. Windows 10) and can run programs (e.g.
Microsoft Word) but unlike a real computer, it does not have actual hardware components such as hard
drives and processors. Instead, it borrows these hardware functions from its host.

Virtualization is a integral element of Cloud Computing. The cloud hosts multiple virtual systems that are used
by different clients.

Utility Computing
The traditional approach to computing, especially in a business setting is like this: you buy the hardware, you
develop the software, and you hire people to manage them. If you need to upgrade your system, you buy
more servers, you develop better software, and you hire more people. If you need to downgrade your system,
You may have to fire some of your employees and you’re most likely stuck with a surplus of hardware and
needlessly complicated software.

Utility computing, on the other hand, treats computing as a utility like water and electricity. Instead of building
your own system, you just pay to use someone else’s. You don’t have to buy your own server. You can just
rent a server space somewhere.
Just like water and electricity, you only pay for what you consume. Utility computing
is one of the defining characteristics of Cloud Computing.
Types of clouds

Most of the time, “the Cloud” is used to refer to the entirety of Cloud Computing but as you recently learned,
cloud actually refers to a group of servers. Obviously, there are many groups of servers out there. Therefore,
we can say that there is more than one cloud. Clouds are generally classified into three:

Public Cloud
A public cloud is a type of cloud that is available to many users. Public clouds can be free to use by the general
public. Social media sites are popular examples. Public clouds can also be offered as paid services. Businesses
normally pay for the cloud services that they use. Many cloud services have both free and paid features. For
example, Google Drive, Google’s cloud-based file storage and sharing service allots every user 15 gigabytes of
storage space for free but also offers 100 gigabytes or 1 terabyte of paid storage.
Source: https://www.google.com/settings/u/0/storage?hl=en date retrieved: July 29, 2017

Private Cloud
Private cloud is a type of cloud used solely by a single organization. A private cloud can be owned and operated
by the same organization that uses it. Big organizations can build their own clouds by purchasing their own
hardware and developing their own software. A private cloud can also be owned by a third-party provider and
be leased to a single organization for exclusive use. The bottom line is it doesn’t matter who the owner is. A
cloud is private as long as it only has one user.

Hybrid Cloud
Hybrid cloud uses both private and public cloud services from different providers. Some users have diverse
needs that cannot be filled by just one provider and cloud type. That is why many organizations subscribe to
several cloud services from different providers. For example, a business owns a private cloud that securely stores
and manages their sensitive information; at the same time, they also pay for third party cloud services such as
emailing and teleconferencing.

Cloud Computing: Everything is a Service

In the previous module, you were introduced to Utility Computing, one of the concepts that shape Cloud
Computing. In this module, you will learn how Utility Computing is put to practical use in Cloud computing in
the form of the Everything-as-a-Service model. Later in this module, you will also learn about the advantages
and disadvantages of cloud computing.

Everything as a Service

To recap from the previous module, service is any task that a server does for a client. This definition also applies
to Cloud Computing. Everything-as-a-Service is the umbrella term for all Cloud-based computing resources that
are made available to users in an on- demand basis. Everything-as-a-Service is commonly abbreviated as XaaS;
in reference to Algebra where X is used as a placeholder.

These resources are provided as services instead of products. Here’s the difference. A product is something that
you purchase once, like a television. After the purchase, the manufacturer may provide you with some warranty
or product support but you ultimately have full ownership. You can use it, not use it, sell it, or break it, because
you own it. A service on the other hand, is like a movie theater. You don’t purchase the whole thing; you just
pay to use it for a certain amount of time. You don’t even have to pay for the entire facility. You just pay for the
one seat that you use.

XaaS has three main categories: Software as a service (SaaS), Platform as a service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as
a service (IaaS). You may encounter other terms like Storage as a Service (STaas), Security as a service (SECaaS)
or Network as a Service (Naas) but a closer look will reveal that they are just sub-categories that fall under the
three main categories.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Software as a Service is a model where applications are made available by vendors to users over the Internet.
The users do not have to develop the software themselves. They don’t even have to install the entire software
in their computers. In many cases, they can just access the apps using a web browser like Google Chrome or
Firefox. The following are examples of SaaS:

Microsoft Office 365

File:Office 365 2013.svg. (2017, May 22). Retrieved July 29, 2017, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Office_365_2013.svg

Microsoft Office 365 is the cloud-based version of Microsoft Office. It is available for both home and business
use. Along with the familiar Microsoft productivity software such as Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, subscribers
also gain access to Cloud storage. (Home package includes 1 terabyte) and Skype.

Google Apps
Screenshot. Retrieved July 29, 2017, from https://mail.google.com

You may know Google for its Search Engine. What you may not know is that Google also offers several cloud-
based apps. Anyone with a Google account (the one that you need to access Gmail and log in to Youtube) can
access Google Apps for free. Here are some of the most useful Google Apps:
Google Docs – word processor (like Microsoft Word)
Google Sheets – spreadsheet (like Excel)
Google Slides – presentation (like Powerpoint)
Google Hangouts – chat, video call, voice call, etc.
G Suite is the name given to Google Apps for paid business use. G Suite has all the same apps available to free
users plus exclusing features such as custom email addresses (@[companyname].com instead of @gmail.com),
bigger cloud storage, and better customization,

Zendesk
Zendesk Logo. (n.d.). Retrieved July 20, 2017, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Zendesk_logo_RGB.png

Zendesk is a customer service software company. They provide a family of software applications that are
designed to help businesses perform customer service tasks. This includes a ticketing system for documenting
customer interactions such as emails and phonecalls. Zendesk also provides a live chat application tht can be
attached to a company’s website so customers can have real time conversations with company representatives.

Dropbox

Dropbox Logo. (n.d.). Retrieved July 20, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dropbox_logo_2015.svg

Dropbox is a cloud based file hosting service. Its main feature is cloud storage. It lets you upload any file type.
Dropbox can show previews of certain file types such as .docx, .pdf, .xls,
.jpg, .png, etc. Another key feature is synchronization. You can access your dropbox account from multiple
devices such as computers, phones, and tablets. This means that you will always have access to the latest
versions of your files wherever you log in. Dropbox also allows you to publicaly and privately share your files
with others. The basic dropbox account is free but only has 2 gigabytes of storage. Paid accounts currently range
from 1 terabyte to unlimited space.
Slack provides collaboration tools and services for businesses. Slack’s main feature is team collaboration. It
allows users to create groups called channels where members can send chat messages, share files, and have
voice and video calls. Slack also automatically creates an archive of all interactions which can be easily searched
by the user.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

To create a software application, you need to have a platform. In computing, a platform is an environment where
a program can run. The components of a platform include but are not limited to infrastructure, operating system,
and database. Once you have all the required components, then you can build and test your application. Once
you’re done, your platform can also host your application; keeping it running so that it will be available to users.

Platform as a Service packages these components and offers them to users in an on-demand basis. It provides
users with a single environment where they can create, test, manage, and host their applications. PaaS providers
manage the platform. The users only have to worry about managing their application.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

In Information Technology, infrastructure refers to the collection of hardware resources that are needed to run
an organization or a system. It includes physical assets such as servers, storage, networking and even the
facilities that house them.

Infrastructure as a Service gives users access to virtual versions of these resources. This is made possible through
virtualization, which was discussed in the last module. IaaS enables users to create cloud based virtual structures
that mimic real-world infrastructure.
SaaS Vs PaaS Vs IaaS

It may be hard to differentiate SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS. The “as a Service” part is easy to understand. Just take
Ultility Computing into consideration. Now, to better understand the differences between infrastructure,
platform, and software, let’s use a house analogy:

Infrastructure is like buying materials to build a house. You need to buy wood, cement, etc. from different
vendors. After you purchase the materials, you still have to build the actual house.

Platform is like buying a house. You don’t have to build it yourself. Someone already built that for you. You may
have a complete house but it’s still an empty house. You still have to decorate, arrange furniture, etc. Eventually,
if something breaks, you have to repair it.

Software is like checking in to a hotel. You don’t have to worry about design, construction, and maintenance.
You get to enjoy all the features minus all the effort.

In reality, the XaaS categories are normally interconnected and in many cases, they even overlap. Here are
popular examples of vendors that provide all three XaaS categories.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

File:AmazonWebservices Logo.svg (n.d.). Retrieved July 20, 2017, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AmazonWebservices_Logo.svg
Amazon Web Services is a company that is a subsidiary of Amazon.com that offers many cloud based services.
AWS is mainly an IaaS provider but many of its services fall under the PaaS category. They also offer tools that
fall inder SaaS

Microsoft Azure

File:Microsoft Azure Logo.svg (n.d.). Retrieved July 20, 2017, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Microsoft_Azure_Logo.svg

Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing service provider owned and operated by Microsoft. Microsoft Azure
currently offers more than one hundred services that tha fall into different XaaS categories.

Google App Engine

File:Google App Engine.svg (n.d.). Retrieved July 20, 2017, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Google_App_Engine.svg

Google App Engine is a cloud based platform for developing web applications. While Google App Engine is
marketed mainly as PaaS, it also has some IaaS features.

Advantages of Cloud Computing

Now that you have a good of understanding of how cloud computing works and how it is used, let’s take a look
at its effects. The following are the major advantages of cloud computing:
Cost Savings

Subscribing to cloud services is usually cheaper than purchasing resources and employing people to build and
maintain these resources.

Scalability

Cloud based infrastructures are easier to upgrade and downgrade. Traditionally, if a company wants to reduce
its operation, it’s going to be stuck with hardware that it doesn’t need anymore. With cloud infrastructure, the
company just has to downgrade its subscription.

Reliability

Cloud services can be more reliable than in-house resources. Major vendors have facilities in different countries
so even if one location goes down, a there are usually several backups that are ready to go.

Manageability

Cloud resources are usually well-organized because they are offered as service packages. Some complex services
such as platform and infrastructure are can be accessed using Internet browsers.

Strategic Edge

All these benefits of cloud computing can give a business a competitive advantage.

Disadvantages of Cloud Computing

Of course, with the benefits come the challenges. Here are some disadvantages of cloud computing:
Internet dependence

Cloud computing relies completely on the Internet. When your Internet connection gets interrupted, you
will lose control of your resources. On the other hand, with in-house resources can still maintain some
measure of control through local networks.

Security

Cloud computing requires organizations to give vendors access to their data. This is a major concern for
businesses that deal with highly sensitive information.

Vendor Lock-In

It can be hard to switch vendors especially for users that develop their applications on commercial cloud
platforms. If a developer has to move to a different vendor, then they might need to make extensive
alterations in their code.

Limited Control

Even if cloud services are highly scalable, there are still limits to the level of control that is granted to users.
On the other hand, having your own resources gives you full control.

Technical Issues

Even if reliability is one of the major benefits of cloud computing, technical issues still can’t be avoided.
Furthermore, having a 3rd party provider means that you have to rely on them to solve the issues on their
side.
Big Data

So far in this course you have learned about the Internet of Things and Cloud Computing. Besides the
benefits and applications that we already discussed, there is another product of modern computing that is
worth looking into; data, lots and lots of data. In this module we will take a close look at the huge collection
of information that results from all the computing that is going on in the world today. In this module, you
will learn about Big Data.

What is Big Data?

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, Big Data is “an accumulation of data that is too large and
complex for processing by traditional database management tools”. Big data is the massive collection of
structured and unstructured digital information that is generated by digital computing. We have come to a
point where there are so much data that traditional techniques and applications are no longer enough to
process all of them.

How is Big Data possible?

Just like Cloud Computing and the Internet of Things, Big Data is not a single technology. It is a concept; a
single term that represents the combination of different factors that enable the collection, management,
and analysis of vast collections of data. Understanding these enabling factors or enablers is necessary to
understand how Big Data works. Here are the three key enablers Big Data:
Data Storage
Data storage or the process of recording information is the main factor that makes big data possible.
Technologies that enable people to record electronic information have been around for decades but it is
only recently that data storage technologies were able to support the scale that is required by Big Data.

IBM 350 RAMAC Retrieved August 11, 2017, from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IBM_350_RAMAC.jpg

In the early of computing, data storage was limited and expensive. To put it in perspective, the IBM 350
RAMAC, the first hard drive which was released in 1956 could only store 5 megabytes and was as big as a
fridge. Today, you can buy a 1 terabyte (1 million megabytes) external hard drive that can fit in your pocket
for about 60 US dollars or 3000 Philippine pesos

Processing Capacity

Processing capacity or processing power refers to how many operations a processor can perform in a given
amount of time. Stored data is pretty much useless unless it can be accessed and
manipulated. This is why processing capacity is a key enabler of Big Data. We need powerful computers to
process all the information that we collect.

Data Availability

Data availability refers to the process of making data accessible to users and applications whenever it is
needed. Information needs to be easy to reach. Even if you have a lot of stored data and computers
powerful enough to process them, it would not matter unless you have an efficient way for your computers
to access the data.

Categories of Big Data

In order to differentiate the categories of Big Data, first you have to know about metadata. Metadata is
data that provides information that other data. In short, metadata is data about data. To know what
category a piece of information belongs to, you have to determine if it has metadata attached to it. There
are two main categories:

Structured Data

The first one is structured data which has metadata and a fixed length and format. These characteristics
make structured data easy to locate, store, and process.
Signup page. Retrieved August 3, 2017, from https://facebook.com

For example, when you fill out an online form, (e.g. Facebook signup) you are entering information in fixed
locations or fields. Each of these fields has metadata attached to it so when submit the form; the system
will know which piece of information is your first name, last name, birth date, and so on.

Unstructured Data

The second type is unstructured data which is not organized in a readily recognizable way. Structured data
doesn’t have metadata.

My name is Gerry Allen. My friends call

me Gerry. I am 17 years old. I am male. I
was born in August 4, 2000. My email
address is gerry.allen@email.com. I
won’t tell you my password because
that’s private.
Here’s an example, this text contains the same information as the Facebook signup form. However, the
information in it is not presented in a recognizable format. It does not have metadata that points out which
are names, dates, emails, etc.

It is estimated that 80% of all data are unstructured. This includes online social interactions (to be discussed
later) such as messages, pictures, sounds, and videos. Unstructured data is useless in its present form. It
needs to be processed to yield structured data.

Semi-structured data

You may come across the term “semi-structured data” As the name implies, semi-structured data is a cross
between structured and unstructured data. Semi-structured data is not completely organized but it has
some recognizable parts.

My name is Gerry Allen. My friends call

me Gerry. I am 17 years old. I am male. I
was born on the August 4, 2000. My email
address is gerry.allen@email.com. I
won’t tell you my password because
that’s private.

Here’s an example: There are programs that can automatically recognize certain data types within text
documents such as dates, URL’s and email addresses.
You are probably familiar with hashtags. A hashtag is a metadata tag that is used in social media to identify
messages related to a specific topic. In the above example, if you click on either of the two hashtags, you
will be redirected to the collection of tweets that share the same topic. Hashtags enable social media sites
to categorize otherwise unstructured data.

Where does Big Data come from?

Many people say that Big Data is everywhere but in order to properly utilize big data, it is important to
know where it specifically comes from. The following are the three main sources of Big Data:

Social Data

Social data comes from people’s online social interactions. The most common example of this is social
media. Status updates, preferences, photos, videos, etc. are recorded by social media sites. They stay in the
servers unless we choose to delete them or if we delete our account. In Facebook alone, it is estimated that
300 million photos are uploaded every day.

Transactional Data

It is a common practice to keep digital records of business transactions, even the ones that are done offline.
For example, when you buy groceries, your transaction is recorded by the store. These records can be
analyzed to gain valuable information. Therefore, companies have to keep records of all their transactions.
It is estimated that by 2020, there will be 450 billion business transactions created in the Internet per day.

Machine Data

People are not the only ones that create data. In the first module, you learned about smart objects and the
sensors that enable them to detect real-world input such as temperature, pressure, and motion.
These inputs are transmitted through the wireless network and saved in servers.

The V’s of Big Data

To better understand Big Data, we have to take the 3V’s into consideration. The Three V’s are the main
defining characteristics of Big Data. They are:

Volume

The main characteristic of Big Data is its size, hence the name. It is estimated that 2.5 quintillion bytes or
2.3 trillion gigabytes of data are created each day.

Variety

Big data is complex. Variety refers to the different types of data. Earlier, we discussed structured data which
is composed of many known data types. On top of that, there’s unstructured data which has the potential
to yield more data types. Finally, we have different sources of big data, each with their own unique data
types.

Velocity

Big Data is also fast. Velocity is the frequency of incoming data. In 2016, the average Global IP data traffic
was more than 88,719 petabytes per month. 1 petabyte is equal to 1 million gigabytes. In 2016, it is
estimated that there were 18.9 billion network connections in the world. That means there is an average
of 2.5 connections per person. As of July 2015, 400 hours of video is uploaded to Youtube every minute.

Other V’s

While Volume, Variety and Velocity are generally recognized as the main defining attributes of Big Data,
other V’s can also be considered to further define it. Here are some of them:
Veracity - the trustworthiness of data. It is important to differentiate between correct and incorrect data.
For example, some people create fake or multiple accounts. Information from these accounts can be
redundant or incorrect.

Value - the usefulness of data. Being correct does not automatically make data useful. Some of the
information collected from the Internet may not be useful to anyone.

Variability - the constant change in the meaning of data. A piece of information can have varying
meanings. In many cases, automated systems cannot recognize the contexts that apply to certain data.

Visualization - condensing and converting data into understandable format. After the data has been
processed, it needs to be presented in a form that can be understood by people. For example, after
analyzing information from millions of users, the most important results are presented in chart or diagram
form.

Analytics: Making Sense of Data

What is Analytics?

Analytics is a multidimensional field that uses mathematics, statistics, and computing to find meaningful
patterns or knowledge from collected data.

Insight

When you read about analytics, you will definitely encounter the term “insights”. Insight is the useful data
gained through analytics. In other words, insight is the knowledge hidden in collections of data.

Not all of the data that are collected are useful. For example, unstructured data such as a social media post
may contain both useful and non-useful data. With the use of analytics, millions, if not billions of these
posts can be processed to yield valuable insight.

Analytics Vs Analysis

The terms analytics and analysis are sometimes used interchangeably but there is a distinct difference
between the two. Analysis is the detailed examination of the parts and structure of something. It is the
process of studying or dissecting the parts of a whole. Analysis
literally came from a Greek word which means “to loosen” or “to unravel”

Analytics on the other hand, focuses more on insights extracted through analysis. In short, analysis is
concerned about how data is studied while analytics is more concerned about what knowledge is gained
from data.

Why is analytics important?

The DIKW Pyramid

To understand the important of analytics, we have to talk about the DIKW pyramid. DIKW stands for Data,
Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom. The DIKW Pyramid or DIKW Hierarchy can be described as the
representation of the levels of human understanding.

Data

Data are symbols or signs. In computing, data is defined as anything that can be stored and processed by a
computer. In the context of the DIKW pyramid, data has no meaning on its own. For example, if you see
the number 400 written alone on a piece of paper, you will have no idea what it stands for. You can identify
it as the number four hundred but you don’t know what its purpose is or what it represents.

Big Data is, of course, a big collection of data. All these data are useless unless they can
be analyzed.

Information

Information is data plus context or meaning. When data is defined, it becomes information. Going back to
our example, the number 400 on its own doesn’t stand for anything but if you add a context such as “400
passengers”; we now have information that has meaning.

The main difference between data and information is that information can be useful. It can be used to
answer questions such as what, where, who, how many, etc.
Knowledge

Knowledge can be defined structured or organized information that creates awareness or understanding.
When we use information to come up with an answer, what we get is knowledge.

In our example, we have “400 passengers”. This information answers the question “How many passengers
can fit on a Boeing 747 aircraft?” we now know that 400 people can fit in a 747.

Wisdom

Wisdom is the ability to improve or add value to something. Wisdom can also be defined as the application
of knowledge. It is when we use what we know to improve something. For example, we know that 400
passengers can fit on a 747. Now, if we use that knowledge to come up with a way to fit more passengers
in the plane, we will have gained wisdom.

Analytics is important because it can enable us to understand the meaning behind huge amounts of data
and ultimately use this understanding to improve our endeavours.

Types of Analytics

There are three main types of analytics; descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive. Each type is defined by its
goal or the type of insight that it provides. The following are the definitions and examples of each kind.
Note that the examples shown here are simplified; real analytics of real data in real life is way more
complicated.

Descriptive Analytics

The first and the simplest type of analytics is descriptive analytics. Descriptive analytics is the interpretation
of historical data to understand past events or the current state of things. As the name implies, it describes
data. Descriptive analytics answers the question “What happened?”
As you learned in the previous module, Big Data is defined by its volume, variety, and velocity. These key
attributes make the raw data that comprise Big Data virtually impossible for humans to understand.
Descriptive analytics condenses the data into a form that can be more easily understood and utilized

To better understand descriptive analytics and other types of analytics, let us imagine an organisation. We
will call it World International. It has more than one hundred thousand members around the world and it
gathers data about all of them. If we apply descriptive analytics to World International's data, we can gain
insights to its membership. In the chart above we can see that most of the members are from Asia. We can
also see that Africa has the lowest number of members.

Predictive Analytics

Predictive analytics examines data from the past to create forecasts or predictions about future events.
This is done by identifying a trend in a collection of data. A trend is the general direction in which something
is changing or developing. A trend is a pattern in the data. Studying these patterns can give insight to what
will happen in the future.
Predictive analytics assumes that the future will be the same as the past. We use what we know in to predict
what will happen but of course there are still factors and events that cannot be foreseen. Because of this
predictive analytics cannot be 100% accurate. But still it can give us a pretty good insight into the future.

For example, our imaginary organization, World International keeps track of how many new members join
per month. In 2016, the number of new members steadily declined. However in 2017, we see a gradual
increase. Based on this recent trend, we can predict that the number of new members will continue to
increase in the coming months.

Prescriptive Analytics

Prescriptive analytics is used to come up with the best course of action. It takes into account the results of
descriptive and predictive analytics and suggests decision options. Prescriptive analytics answers the
question "What should I do?"

Even if you have all the important facts and even if you can predict what may happen in the future, that
still doesn't mean that you can make the right decisions. For example, World International’s goal is to
increase the number of members in the areas with the fewest members. Descriptive analytics tells us that
Africa, South America, and Australia combined still have fewer members than Asia. We also know that
global membership is likely to increase but that still doesn’t
guarantee that there will be a significant increase in the bottom three continents.

This is where Prescriptive analytics comes in. It uses the data that you have and the predictions that you
have made and suggest what actions you can take to achieve your goal.

The Unofficial Fourth Type

While many consider the three “tives” as the main types of analytics, there is also another kind of analytics
that is worth looking into. Diagnostic analytics is used to examine data in order to determine the reason
behind an event. It answers the question "Why did it happen?"

Going back to our example, we now know which continents have the most members and which ones have
the fewest. Through diagnostic analytics we can determine the reason behind this. Why are there more
members in Asia than any other continent? Why are there so few members in Africa?

Business Analytics
The term “business analytics” gets used a lot when talking about analytics. Sometimes, the two terms are
even used interchangeably. Business analytics is the name given to the tools, technologies, and techniques
used to process data into insights that can be used by businesses. It is practically analytics in a business
setting.

According to Dr. Carol Anne Hargreaves, business analytics is a 7-step process. This process is similar to the
Scientific Method. Data is used to make a decision that can solve a business problem or achieve a goal.

Step 1. Defining the business needs – This step involves understanding what problem needs to be solved or
what goal needs to be achieved. In this step, it is also important to determine what data is available.

Step 2. Explore the data – data is refined into more usable forms. Statistical and visual representations are
created

Step 3. Analyse the data – refined data is further examined to extract more actionable insights

Step 4. Predict what is likely to happen – predictive analytics techniques and technologies are applied to
come up with several predictions.

Step 5. Optimise – The predictions and other insights are used to find the best solution to the business goal
or problem.

Step 6. Make a decision and measure the outcome – a decision will be made based on the best solution.
After some time, the outcome of the decision will be recorded and measured.

Step 7. Update the system with the results of the decision – the result of the decisions, the insights and
actions from all the previous steps are recorded and integrated into the system.
Introduction to Search Engine Optimization

What is a Search Engine?

First of all, what is a search engine? A web search engine is a software system that is designed to look for
information on the Internet. There are many web search engines such as Bing, Yahoo, and Ask.com but in
this module, we will explore Google simply because it is what most people use.

Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/216573/worldwide- market-share-of-search-engines/

Google is currently the most popular search engine in the world. As of July 2017, it has 86.83% market
share. That means 86.83% of search engine users in the world use Google.

How does a search engine work?

Screenshot from https://www.google.com/search?q=aardvark

Before we talk about actual SEO, first we have to figure out how search engines work. As you may already
know, search engines do not have the actual information that you need. What they do have are the
locations of the information which are presented to the user in list form.

Search engines present web pages that match the criteria set by the user. In basic search or simple search,
the criteria can be as simple as a couple of keywords like “biggest cat breed”. This is what most of us do.
Major search engines also offer advanced search where we can add more search criteria such as number
ranges, language, region, etc.

Crawling
Before you even enter your keywords, search engines have already done most of the work. It starts with
crawling which is a process used by search engines to find information in the Internet. This is done by bots
which are software applications that run automated tasks. A crawler bot or spider would visit a web page
and follow the links in that page to find other pages. Along the way, crawler bots collect data about the
web pages that they visit.

Indexing

Source: pixabay.com Royalty free image

Indexing is the process used by search engines to organize information about websites. The data returned
by crawlers are used to create an index of the Internet. When a user searches for something, the search
engine doesn’t actually search the web. It searches its own index.

Source: unsplash.com Royalty Free Image

Think of the Internet as a library. If you want to borrow a book (website) but don’t know where to find it,
you go to the librarian (search engine) and you give him some details about the book (keywords). The
librarian doesn’t run into the library and come back with the book. He checks the library’s card catalogue
(index) and tells you where to find the book.

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is the name given to practices that aim to improve the ranking of a
website in search engine results.

Web traffic

Web traffic refers to the number of users that visit a website. Web traffic can be used to measure the
effectiveness of web pages and web content and the popularity of websites.
Quantity vs. Quality

Getting a lot of web traffic means that the website is popular but it doesn’t not necessarily mean that the
website is successful. A website may be getting a lot of traffic but 80% of the visitors stay for only a few
seconds. This means that most people don’t actually use your website. They just look around for a while
and leave.

This is why in most cases, conversion rate is more important than web traffic. Conversion refers to the
instance when a website visitor performs a desired action. For example, if a website is an online store,
conversion is when someone buys something. SEO can primarily boost your web traffic but more
importantly it can make your website more visible to people who actually want to buy your product, use
your service, or listen to what you have to say.

Organic Search Results

SEO only affects organic search results which are the actual results based on the user’s search terms. On
the other hand, Google also
displays paid ads on top of the search results. It is easy to differentiate between organic search results and
ads because Google always labels the later with “ad” or “sponsored”

How does the ranking system work?

SEO is basically a quest to get your website to the top of the search results list so it is important to
understand how a search engine ranks web pages.

Algorithms

In the general sense, an algorithm is a procedure or formula for solving a problem. A search engine
algorithm is a computer process that is used to determine which web pages in a search engine’s index are
the most relevant. Algorithms are used to rank web pages.

Google uses a lot of algorithms and they do not disclose complete information about them to the public.
What we do know is that they use more than 200 algorithms which are updated about 500 times every
year.

PageRank

PageRank is the first algorithm used by Google. It is also the most well known. It is still used to day along
with the 200 other algorithms. It was named after Larry Page who is a co-founder of Google. Here is
Google’s description of PageRank:

“PageRank works by counting the number and quality of links to a page to determine a rough estimate of
how important the website is. The underlying assumption is that more important websites are likely to
receive more links from other websites.”

A link is an object usually in text form that contains a web address. It is used by websites to connect to
other websites. For example, if your website uses information from another website, it is customary to add
a link that leads to that website. Besides the number of links, PageRank also determines the quality of links.
This means that a link from a popular website has more weight than a link from an unknown website.
Source https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PageRanks-Example.svg
public domain

The image above is a simplified representation of how PageRank works. Each circle represents a web page and
their sizes represent their importance. Here’s a simple analysis of each page. Note that it is ordered from least
important to most important, not alphabetically

The purple circles have no incoming links so they get the lowest score.
Page A only has one link so it gets a PageRank of 3.3%
Pages D and F also have one link each but the page that links to them is more important than the one that links
to Page A so they get a higher PageRank
Page E has a lot of links. However, the links come from unpopular websites so Page E doesn’t get a very high
score.
Page B gets the highest PageRank because it has the most number of links, some of which are from the most
popular web pages.
Page C is an interesting case. It only has one link but that that link comes from the most important web page so
C gets a high PageRank.
Basic SEO Practices

To start, let’s create a simple HTML file. Follow these steps.

Open Notepad or Textpad in your computer.

Enter the following text:
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Mountaineering.ph</h1>
<p>Welcome to our website</p>
</body>
</html>
Save your file. You can use any file name. Just make sure that you add “.html” at the end of it. Doing so will save
your text as an HTML file
Double click your file to open it in your default web browser. It should look like this:

We now have a basic HTML file. It may not look like much but it is the correct format that can be added to a real
website.

Page Title

For obvious reasons, Google gives a lot of attention to web page titles so one of the first things that we should
do is to create an effective title for your web page. This is done by adding a title tag in your HTML file. A title tag
lets users and search engines read the topic of your web page. If the web page appears in Google search results,
the
contents of the title tag will serve as the clickable link to your website.

To add a title tag, paste the following text between the <head> tags in your file like so:

<html>
<head>
<title>Mountaineering in the Philippines -
Locations, Gears Reviews, Online Store</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Mountaineering.ph</h1>
<p>Welcome to our website</p>
</body>
</html>

Next, save the file and open it in a browser. The title text should appear in the browser tab and when you hover
your mouse pointer over the tab.

Now for the SEO part. According to Google:

“The title for your homepage can list the name of your website/ business and could include other bits of important
information like the physical location of the business or maybe a few of its main focuses or offerings”
In our website’s title we added the name of the website Mountaineering in the Philippines and its 3 main functions
Locations, Gears Reviews, Online Store.

Google recommends these best practices when adding a title to your web pages:

Accurately describe the page's content

Create unique title tags for each page
Use brief, but descriptive titles

Heading Tags

The contents of heading tags are larger than the normal text in the web page. There are 6 sizes of heading tags
from <h1> to <h6>. Heading tags are used to display tiles, subtitles, and other important texts in the web page.
They can also be used in SEO because search engine algorithms tend to pay more attention to texts in heading
tags than normal text.

To see the different sizes of heading tags, paste the following text below the first <h1> tag in your file:

<html>
<body>
<h1>Mountaineering.ph</h1>
<h1>Heading 1</h1>
<h2>Heading 2</h2>
<h3>Heading 3</h3>
<h4>Heading 4</h4>
<h5>Heading 5</h5>
<h6>Heading 6</h6>
<p>Welcome to our website</p>
</body>
</html>

Your web page should look like this:

Here are best practices recommended by Google:

Imagine you're writing an outline

Use headings sparingly across the page

Description Meta Tag

You can also add a description meta tag to each of your web pages. A description meta tag gives search engines
a summary of what the page is about. It can be a sentence or a short paragraph. When your web page is included
in Google search results, the contents of the description meta tag may appear as a snippet which can be seen
below the title.

To add a description meta tag, add this text below the title tag:

<html>
<head>
<title>Mountaineering in the Philippines - Locations, Gears Reviews, Online
Store</title>
<meta name="description=" content="Everything you need to know about mountain
climbing in the Philippines. Mountaineering.ph keeps you updated on events, news,
the latest gear and most popular locations.">
</head>
<body>
<h1>Mountaineering.ph</h1>
<p>Welcome to our website</p>
</body>
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Because it is a meta tag, it is not visible on the web page itself but it is visible to search engines. Here are the best
practices when adding a description meta tag according to Google:
Accurately summarize the page's content
Use unique descriptions for each page

When adding a description meta tag, you should add words that are most likely to be used by users as search
keywords. According to Google:
“Words in the snippet are bolded when they appear in the user's query. This gives the user clues about whether
the content on the page matches with what he or she is looking for.”

Website URL

The Uniform Resource Locator or URL serves as the address of a web page. Each web page in a website has a
unique URL. The URL typically displays the names of the folders and documents that make up the web page.

For example, if the articles in your websites are named article1, article2, article3, and so on and if they are located
in a folder named folder1, your URL’s may look like this:

http://www.mountaineering.ph/folder1/article1.html
This URL does not give readers and search engines a very good idea about the contents of the page. Instead of
folder1 and article1, you can use more descriptive names for your folders and files. This will make your URL’s
easier to read for both users and search engines. Here’s an example:
http://www.mountaineering.ph/product-reviews/best-hiking-shoes-2017

Just by reading the URL, users will already know what the page is about. Furthermore, it could also lead to better
crawling of your documents by search engines.

Site Navigation

A website is basically a collection of documents that is shared through the Internet. Just like the documents in
your computer, the pages in your website have to be organized in a manner that is easy to understand and
navigate; not just for you but also for users and search engines. Your web pages should be organized in a hierarchy
where the most important pages are the easiest to find.

Breadcrumb Lists

You can also make your website easier to navigate by adding a breadcrumb list at the top or bottom of your page.
Google defines a breadcrumb list as “a row of internal links at the top or bottom of the page that allows visitors
to quickly navigate back to a previous section or the root (home) page”

A breadcrumb link looks like this:

Homepage >> Product Reviews >> Best Hiking Shoes 2017 >> CAT Hiking Boots

Content

In 1996, Bill Gates wrote an essay that was published on the Microsoft website. It was entitled Content is King
and the first paragraph reads:

“Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet, just as it was in broadcasting.”

“Content is king” has become a mantra in the field of SEO and online marketing. There are many tricks that you
can do to make your website more attractive to users and search engines but at the end of the day, the most
powerful tools that you have are the contents that you publish.

You may be able to boost your website’s popularity with effective SEO practices but without quality content, your
website will not be popular for long. Your website should constantly give people data and services that are
informative, useful, and/or entertaini
Social Media for Business

Social Media Basics

Just so we’re on the same page, here are some basic facts and figures about social media:

What is social media?

A social networking service or social media is an online platform used by people to build social networks
or make social connections with other people.

How big is social media?

Social media is a worldwide phenomenon. In 2016 alone, the social media giant Facebook earned 26.9
billion U.S. dollars. There are currently 2.46 billion social media users worldwide. The following are

the most famous social networking sites as of August 2017 based on the number of active users:

Statista. (n.d.). Global social media ranking 2017 | Statistic. Retrieved August 30, 2017, from
https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global- social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/

Social media lingo

Social media is spawning a whole new generation of words and phrases. Here are some social media terms
that you need to know:
Blog – (short for weblog) an online journal that’s updated on a regular basis with entries that appear in
reverse chronological order

Crowdfunding – the practice of soliciting money usually through the Internet to support a cause or project.

Crowdsourcing – the practice of soliciting contributions in the form of ideas, content, and skills from
Internet users to achieve a goal.

Feed – a data format used to provide frequently updated contents to users.

Hashtag - a metadata tag used to identify contents related to a specific topic.

Microblogging – the practice of sharing short messages in a web platform. E.g. Twitter.

Podcast – an audio file or a collection of audio files made available for download or playback through the
Internet.

Live Streaming - the practice of broadcasting the audio and video of an event over the Internet as it
happens.

How do social media sites make money?

Screenshot Retrieved August 30, 2017, from www.facebook.com

Social media sites are mostly free to use. It’s one of the main reasons why they are so popular. So how do
they make billions of dollars if the vast majority of their users do not pay them anything?

Advertising
The main source of revenue for the biggest social media sites is advertising or ads. The sheer number of
users makes social media a great place for businesses to reach out to customers. Because of this,
businesses and other organizations spend a lot of money on social media advertising.

If you use social media or the Internet for that matter, you have probably encountered these ads. Normally,
when you use Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc. you get feeds from your friends and favorite topics but,
as you may already know, social media sites also include paid ads in your news feeds.

Screenshot from Instagram mobile app

Unlike TV commercials, social media ads aren’t just broadcasted for everyone to see. Remember our
lessons about machine learning and analytics. These and other techniques and technologies are used to
optimize the effectiveness of ads.

When you create an account, you submit some personal details such as age, gender, locations, etc. As you
keep using social media services you continue to provide information about yourself such as your interests
and the places that you visit. Social media sites analyze all this data to gain insights about you. If you are
an active user, they can have a pretty good idea of what products you may like and which
advertisements you are most likely to respond to. For example, if you like anime and you join online groups
for anime fans or you frequently share contents from anime pages, eventually you will see anime related
ads in your news feeds.

Freemium

Screenshot from https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClgRkhTL3_hImCAmdLfDE4g

Freemium is a business model where users receive basic services for free but are required to pay for
advanced services. This allows service providers to earn revenue from some of their users. For example,
Youtube is mostly free but they also have exclusive videos and channels that are only available to paying
customers.

Social Media Marketing

Marketing is the practice of promoting and selling products and services. It can be as simple as hanging a
sign in front of your store or as complicated as organizing an event for thousands of people. Marketing can
be costly and time consuming especially for start-ups or newly established businesses.

As we mentioned earlier, social media is mostly free and it’s a great way to reach millions if not billions of
people. These make social media a great tool for start-ups. Here are the basic steps in creating a social
media marketing plan:

Set your goals

To begin, you need to know why you are doing this. Why do you want or need to use social media as a
marketing tool? What do you expect to accomplish? Are you going to use social media just to advertise or
are you going to use it to make direct sales? Are you going to use it as a platform to provide customer
service? The answers to questions like these will serve as the basis for the next steps in this process.

You can use the SMART criteria as a guide in setting your goal. The ideal goal is one that matches each of
these five criteria:

Specific - You need an exact objective, not an abstract idea of success.

Measurable - You need to have a way to measure success Attainable - Your goal needs to be realistic. Do
not set goals that exceed your capabilities.
Relevant - Does your goal match your overall business plan.
Time bound - What is your deadline? What do you hope to accomplish with the time that you have allotted
to yourself?

Do some research
The next step is to gather information that you will need in order to accomplish our goal.

During this step, you need to define our audience. This is done by creating a customer profile which is a
generalized description of a business’ ideal customer. These are the people who are most
likely to buy your products or use your services. (Further discussion later)

You can also take this time to learn about our competition. What are the other businesses doing in social
media? How many people do they reach? How often do they post content? Answering these questions can
give you a competitive edge.

There are many other things that you may have to research. This is why having a clear goal is important.
Our goal will help direct our research.

Choose your platforms

There are many social media services to choose from. During this step, you have to decide which ones suit
your needs. At this point, you already know who your ideal customers are. Of course, you have to choose
the platforms that are popular to them.

Evaluate your resources

Now that you know what you want to accomplish and what you need to do to accomplish it, it’s time to
evaluate your resources. What resources do you currently have and are they enough? If not, then what
resources do you need to acquire? For example, you will have to assign personnel to handle your social
media accounts. Can this job be done with one person or will you need a team? Do you need to hire
someone to create content or can you just outsource it?

Publish content

This step is the culmination of your social media marketing venture. At this point, you already know what
you want to achieve, who you want to reach, and where you can find them. It is now time to reach out. You
can publish your own original content. Furthermore, you can integrate or feature contents from

other social media platforms. For example, you can share content from your Pinterest or Instagram
accounts on Facebook.

You can also use syndication which is the practice of featuring other people’s contents in your website or
social media account. You can also have other pages and websites feature your original content. This way,
you can both reach out to each other’s followers.

Manage your social media presence

Social media marketing does not end with publishing content. At this point, you already have a social media
presence which you have to manage or curate. A good practice is to create a schedule. This way, you can
prepare content ahead of time and post them on a scheduled date. There are software tools that you can
use to manage your social media accounts.

Creating an Ideal Customer Profile

Step 2 in creating a social media marketing plan is to define your ideal customer. Different sources offer
different steps in doing this but basically, the process can be of creating an ideal customer profile can be
divided into two:

Demographics

Demographics are the characteristics of people who belong in a particular group or population. These are
the basic descriptions of a person. Demographic information includes the following:

Age Group
Gender
Ethnicity
Education Level
Occupation
Location
Physical characteristics (height, weight, etc.)

Psychographics

Psychographics refer to mental characteristics. This includes habits, beliefs, attitudes, and habits that define
people. Here are some popular examples:

Hobbies
Interests
Spending habits
Political beliefs
Favourite music, movies, TV shows, etc.

Machine Learning

Artificial intelligence

What is Artificial Intelligence?

The dictionary definition of artificial intelligence or AI is “a branch of computer science dealing with the
simulation of intelligent behaviour in computers” or “the capability of a machine to imitate intelligent
human behaviour”
The term artificial intelligence was coined in 1955 by John McCarthy, an American computer scientist and
cognitive scientist. McCarthy believed that "every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence
can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it." He later came to be
known as the father of artificial intelligence because of his pioneering work in this field.

Machine Learning

What is machine learning?

In 1959, Arthur Samuel, a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence defined machine learning as a "field
of study that gives computers the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed".

Another widely quoted definition of machine learning came from Tom Mitchell, an American computer
scientist. He said "A computer program is said to learn from experience E with respect to some class of
tasks T and performance measure P if its performance at tasks in T, as measured by P, improves with
experience E."

In simpler terms, a machine is said to learn if there is measurable improvement in its performance of a
task as it gains more experience.

Learning Vs. Programming

When we are born, we humans can’t do anything useful but as we mature, we acquire knowledge and
skills through experience or study. This is called learning.

Computers, on the other hand, can only perform tasks that they are programmed to do. Programming is
the process of writing instructions in a computer’s memory. Computers cannot acquire knowledge and
skills on their own.
At least that is how we used to see it. Today, there are computer systems that are capable of performing
tasks that they were not programmed to do. Furthermore, they can use the data that they encounter to
improve their performance. In other words, these machines can learn.

Machine learning methods

The most popular method is supervised learning where inputs and outputs are clearly defined. About 70%
of machine learning done today falls under supervised learning. This works by exposing the machine to
training examples which is data that contains an input- output pair.

Here is an example; we want our machine to scan pictures of fruits and tell which ones are apples and
which ones are oranges. To teach our machine the difference between the two, we give it several training
examples in the form of pictures with the correct labels.

Through these examples, our machine will “learn” the two types of input and the corresponding category
or output for each type.

Another method is unsupervised learning where the machine receives an input but there is no clearly
defined output. Going back to our example, we let our machine scan pictures of fruits. With unsupervised
learning, we do not give our machine an expected output.
Instead, we let our machine discover the underlying structure within the inputs. In other words, we let
the machine make sense of the data.

Semi-supervised learning is method that is used the same way as supervised learning. The main difference
is that semi-supervised learning uses both labelled and unlabeled training examples.

Normally, there is only a small amount of labelled data. Semi- supervised learning is useful when labelled
examples are hard to acquire or are costly to prepare.
Reinforcement learning is a method that allows the machine to determine the ideal behaviour within a
specific context, in order to maximize its performance. Reinforcement learning has three main
components:

Agent – the machine or program

Environment - everything the machine interacts with
Action – what the machine can do

Reinforcement learning uses a feedback similar to a reward. If the machine performs an ideal action, it
receives a positive feedback or a reward. Through experience, the machine will learn which actions are
most likely lead to a reward.

Deep Learning

Deep learning is a branch of Machine Learning that uses algorithms based on artificial neural networks.
Artificial neural networks are based on the biological neural network which is the network of cells called
neurons found in human and animal brains.

Andrew Ng, an American computer scientist and founder of the Google Brain Deep Learning Project
stated the following goals of Deep Learning:

“Using brain simulations, hope to:

Make learning algorithms much better and easier to use.

Make revolutionary advances in machine learning and AI.”

How Deep Learning works

The neurons in an artificial neural network are grouped into layers. Information enters the network
through the input layer which sends it to several hidden layers. by which time the information is passed
on to the output layer.
Each unit in an artificial neural network is called a neuron, named after the brain cell. These artificial
neurons are grouped into layers with different functions. Here are the main types of layers:

Input layer – receives data or input that enters the artificial neural network
Hidden layer – the information from the input layer is sent to several hidden layers. Each hidden layer
performs a specific task. The output of a hidden layer may serve as the input for another hidden layer.
This goes on until the desired outcome has been achieved,
Output layer – processed information exits the neural network through the output layer.
Applications of Machine Learning
In a previous module, we learned about Big Data and the opportunities and challenges that come with it.
As you may recall, the sheer volume, variety, and velocity of Big Data makes it impossible to manually
process. Machine learning offers a solution to this challenge. It enables the creation of programs or
algorithms that can deal with the volume, keep up with the velocity, and adjust to the variety of data.
Here are some of the current applications of machine learning:

Cybersecurity

Machine learning is currently being used to improve security measures such as malware detection, spam
filtering, and risk assessment.

Financial Trading

Because machine learning can process vast quantities for data, it can be used to predict the behaviour of
the stock market and foreign exchange market.

Healthcare

As previously discussed in this module, machine learning can detect patterns in large data sets. This can
be extremely useful in the field of medicine. For example, it can be used to analyze symptoms and detect
disease at an early stage. It can also be used to analyze potential health threats to a population.

Marketing

Machine learning is already being used to analyze the habits and preferences of consumers. This gives
businesses valuable insight. For example, by analyzing your previous purchases, they can suggest
products that you will probably like or they can show advertisements that you are most likely to respond
to.

Online Search

Search engines use machine learning to improve search results. The insight gained from analyzing user
behaviour enables search engines to provide more accurate search results.

Transportation
In a previous module, we talked about smart cars. Machine learning plays a big role in the smart
technologies that are used in transportation today. Furthermore, machine learning is a vital element of
driverless cars which are currently being developed and are foreseen to revolutionize transportation.

Digital Currency

What is Digital Currency?

• Digital currency or electronic money works just like real money.
• It can be used to pay for goods and services
• does not have a physical form like a coin or a paper bill.

Bitcoin
Cryptocurrency
• a type of digital currency that uses secure communication techniques called
cryptography to regulate the creation of new units of currency of currency and
verify transactions.
• Encryption prevents the unauthorized creation of new digital money and
fraudulent transactions.
Decentralized digital currency
• not controlled by a central authority
• Bitcoin has the same value everywhere in the world
• As of September 28, 2017, one Bitcoin is about 4000 US dollars or 20000
Philippine pesos.
Blockchain
What is blockchain?
• a shared public ledger
• All confirmed transactions are included in the block chain
• a database shared by all the participants in the system
Mining
Where does bitcoin come from?
• bitcoins are mined digitally
• “the process of spending computing power to process transactions, secure the
network, and keep everyone in the system synchronized together.”
• Bitcoinminers earn by two ways:
• First is by verifying transactions
• solve complex mathematical problems

• Only 21 million bitcoins will be created

• As of September 2017, there are about 16.50 million bitcoins in circulation.
• It is estimated that the 21-million limit will be reached by the year 2140
• block reward is scheduled to be cut in half every 210,000 blocks or every 4 years.
• The genesis block was mined in 2009 had a block reward of 50 bitcoins
• The first halving happened in 2012 when block #210000 was mined for a 25
bitcoin block reward.
• In 2016, block #420000 was mined marking the second halving. Today, the current block reward is 12.5
bitcoins. The next halving will happen in 2020.
Disadvantages of Bitcoin

Advantages of Bitcoin
• Payment freedom
• Security
• Transparency and Neutrality
Disadvantages of Bitcoin
• Degree of acceptance
• Volatility
• Ongoing development

Up and Coming Technologies

Virtual Reality

Image from https://pixabay.com CC0 Creative Commons Free for commercial use No attribution required

The Virtual Reality Society (https://www.vrs.org.uk) defines virtual reality or VR as “a three-dimensional,

computer generated environment which can be explored and interacted with by a person”
We are used to interacting with computers through screens which have two dimensions; length and
height. Virtual reality adds a third dimension which we can call width or depth, simulating an environment
where the user look around in different directions instead of just staring at a screen.

VR Devices

This is made possible through VR devices, the most popular of which is the virtual reality headset. As the
name implies, the VR headset is a head- mounted device that displays virtual reality to the user.

The VR headsets available in the market today connect to computers or other devices. For example, The
HTC Vive and Oculus Rift work with PC’s and the PlayStation VR works with the PlayStation 4. Other VR
headsets such as the Samsung Gear and Google Cardboard which is literally made of cardboard attach to
smart phones.

Other VR devices available today include handheld and wearable controllers which can be used to interact
with VR environments while wearing a VR headset and omnidirectional treadmills which allow VR users to
walk in all directions.

Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality or AR is a technology that superimposes digital information on the user’s view of the
real world. In simpler terms, AR adds computer generated information to what we see and hear.
Smartglasses

A Google Glass wearer.jpg, Author: Loïc Le Meur, Source:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_Google_Glass_wearer.jpg Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
Generic license.

Today, the most promising application of AR is the smartglass which is a wearable device that adds
information to what the wearer sees. Popular examples include Microsoft’s HoloLens and Google Glass.

Smartphones

Augmented reality does not necessary require dedicated devices such as wearables and headsets. AR
applications are already being widely used today in mobile devices such as smartphones. For example,
Snapchat allows users to add “filters” such as dog ears and flower crowns to real time images captured by
the phone’s camera.
Screenshot from Pokemon Go Mobile App

Perhaps the most popular example of AR is Pokemon Go which became extremely popular in 2016.
Players had to walk in the real world and catch Pokemon which can be seen through their phones’
cameras.

Augmented Reality Vs. Virtual Reality

The terms augmented reality and virtual reality are often used interchangeably but there is a distinct
difference between the two. VR blocks external sensory input. For example, a VR headset covers the
user’s eyes so he can’t see anything other than the image projected to him. On the other hand, AR does
not block the real world; it merely adds to it. The user will be able to see the world around him plus the
digital image projected images.
3d Printing

Image from https://pixabay.com CC0 Creative Commons Free for commercial use No attribution required

Three-dimensional printing or additive manufacturing is a computer- controlled process of creating three-

dimensional objects.

How does it work?

Just like printing on paper, 3d printing starts with a computer. 3d modelling software are software
application used to design digital representation of the objects to be printed. The most popular 3D
modelling software include Blender, SketchUp, Fusion 360, and SolidWorks. 3d models are saved as files
just like the text documents that we print on paper. Examples of these file types are OBJ, STL, AMF, and
VRML.

The models can then be printed by a 3d printer. Popular brands include MakerBot, Ultimaker, Flashforge
and Zortrax. 3d printers are still relatively expensive, with top-of-the-line brands costing more than 100
thousand pesos and low-end brands at around 30 thousand. However, just like any other consumer
electronics, 3d printers are expected to become more affordable in the years to come.
Different types of materials can be used to print 3d objects. Commercial 3d printers commonly use the
Fused Filament Fabrication process or FFF. This method works by printing thin layers of thermoplastic
which is a plastic material that becomes moldable when hot and hardens when it cools down. Layers are
printed on top of each other to form 3d objects. The most commonly used include Polylactic Acid (PLA),
Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS), PolyAmide (PA), and High Impact Polystyrene (HIPS).

The Sharing Economy

The on-demand economy or sharing economy refers to economic and social activities where consumers
gain immediate access to goods and services through online transactions.

The sharing economy is already changing the way people manage and consume resources. The traditional
way of thinking is if we want to use or consume a resource, we need to purchase it. If we want to listen to
music, we need to buy a record. If we want to conveniently travel, we need to buy a car. With the sharing
economy, we can pay a relatively small amount to use other people’s resources.

Information Technology is a vital part of the sharing economy. Virtually all transactions are conducted
over the Internet. Mobile connectivity in the form of smart phones and wireless Internet is necessary in
the fast paced on-demand flow of goods and services.

Here are some of the most popular sharing economy companies:

Uber

The American company Uber is a sharing economy pioneer. Uber provides on-demand transportation
service by connecting commuters with private car drivers who are willing to give rides for a fee. According
to Uber’s official website:

“For the women and men who drive with Uber, our app represents a flexible new way to earn money. For
cities, we help strengthen local
economies, improve access to transportation, and make streets safer. When you make transportation as
reliable as running water, everyone benefits.”

Airbnb

Another pioneer in the sharing economy is Airbnb. It allows people to rent short-term lodging in hotels,
apartments, private homes, etc. According to their official website:

“Airbnb is a trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique
accommodations around the world — online or from a mobile phone or tablet.”

Taskrabbit

Taskrabbit is an online labour marketplace that connects customers with freelance workers who do for
everyday tasks such as plumbing, delivery, cleaning, yard work, etc.

Angkas

Angkas is one of the sharing economy companies that are gaining popularity in the Philippines. It works a
lot like Uber but instead of cars, commuters ride motorcycles. The Angkas official website describes their
service as “a professional on-demand motorcycle taxi service that allows commuters to safely and
conveniently beat the traffic.”