Showing posts with label regulation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label regulation. Show all posts

29 October 2025

🤖〽️Prompt Engineering: Copilot Unabridged (Part 110: The Mere-Exposure Effect - How Familiarity Breeds Trust)

Prompt Engineering Series
Prompt Engineering Series

Prompt: "write a post of 600 words on mere-exposure effect in AI"

Introduction

The mere-exposure effect, first identified by psychologist Robert Zajonc in 1968, describes how people tend to develop a preference for things simply because they are familiar with them. Whether it's a song, a face, or a brand logo, repeated exposure often leads to increased liking. In recent years, this effect has found a new frontier: artificial intelligence. As AI systems become more integrated into our daily routines - from voice assistants to recommendation engines - the mere-exposure effect is quietly influencing how we perceive and accept these technologies.

The Psychology Behind Familiarity

At its core, the mere-exposure effect is about cognitive fluency. When we encounter something repeatedly, our brains process it more easily, which feels good and leads to positive associations. This mechanism is especially powerful in shaping attitudes toward novel or initially ambiguous stimuli - like AI. Early interactions with AI might feel strange or even unsettling, but over time, familiarity breeds comfort. This is particularly relevant given the 'black box' nature of many AI systems, where users don’t fully understand how decisions are made [2].

AI in Everyday Life: From Novelty to Normalcy

AI has transitioned from a futuristic concept to a routine part of modern life. Consider how often people interact with AI without even realizing it: autocomplete in search engines, personalized playlists, smart home devices, and customer service chatbots. Each interaction reinforces familiarity. A 2024 study on AI psychology suggests that as exposure increases, users report higher trust and lower anxiety about AI systems [1]. This shift is part of what researchers call the 'next to normal' thesis - AI is no longer a novelty but a normalized tool.

Mere-Exposure in Digital Interfaces

Recent research comparing the mere-exposure effect across screens and immersive virtual reality (IVR) found that increased exposure consistently enhanced user preference in both environments. This has implications for AI interfaces: the more users engage with AI through familiar platforms - like smartphones or VR headsets - the more likely they are to develop positive attitudes toward the technology. It also suggests that design consistency and repeated interaction can be strategic tools for improving user experience and trust.

Implications for AI Safety and Ethics

While the mere-exposure effect can foster acceptance, it also raises ethical questions. Familiarity might lead users to overlook risks or blindly trust AI systems. For example, people may accept biased recommendations or privacy-invasive features simply because they’ve grown accustomed to them. This underscores the importance of transparency, education, and regulation in AI development. Designers and policymakers must ensure that increased exposure doesn’t lead to complacency or misuse.

Balancing Familiarity with Understanding

The mere-exposure effect is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it helps integrate AI into society by reducing fear and resistance. On the other, it can mask complexity and encourage passive acceptance. To harness its benefits responsibly, AI developers should pair exposure with explainability. When users understand how AI works, they’re more likely to engage critically rather than just comfortably.

Conclusion

The mere-exposure effect is a subtle yet powerful force shaping our relationship with AI. As AI becomes more embedded in our lives, repeated interactions are making it feel more trustworthy, approachable, and indispensable. But with this growing comfort comes a responsibility: to ensure that familiarity doesn’t replace informed engagement. By recognizing the psychological dynamics at play, we can build AI systems that are not only accepted - but also understood and ethically sound. 

Just try the prompt on Copilot or your favorite AI-powered assistant! Have you got a different/similar result? How big or important is the difference? Any other thoughts?
Just share the link to the post with me and I'll add it to this post as a resource!

Disclaimer: The whole text was generated by Copilot (under Windows 11) at the first attempt. This is just an experiment to evaluate feature's ability to answer standard general questions, independently on whether they are correctly or incorrectly posed. Moreover, the answers may reflect hallucinations and other types of inconsistent or incorrect reasoning.

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References: 

[1] Daniel Hepperle & Matthias Wölfel (2024) Exploring Ecological Validity: A Comparative Study of the Mere Exposure Effect on Screens and in Immersive Virtual Reality, Advances in Visual Computi (ISVC 2024)

[2] Yoshija Walter (2024) The Future of Artificial Intelligence Will Be “Next to Normal”—A Perspective on Future Directions and the Psychology of AI Safety Concerns, Nat. Anthropol 2(1),

17 October 2025

🤖〽️Prompt Engineering: Copilot Unabridged (Part 109: The Ethical Boundaries of AI: Navigating Innovation with Responsibility)


Prompt Engineering Series
Prompt Engineering Series

Prompt: "write a post of 600 words on what is needed for creating a foundation for the further development of AI"

Introduction

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the way we live, work, and interact with the world. From personalized recommendations to autonomous vehicles and predictive healthcare, AI’s potential is vast and exciting. However, with great power comes great responsibility. As AI systems become more integrated into society, the ethical boundaries that govern their development and deployment are more critical than ever.

Understanding the Stakes

AI is not just a tool - it’s a decision-making system. Whether it's determining loan eligibility, diagnosing medical conditions, or moderating online content, AI systems often make choices that directly affect human lives. This raises fundamental ethical questions: Who is accountable when AI makes a mistake? How do we ensure fairness and transparency? Can we prevent bias and discrimination?

These questions are not hypothetical. Real-world examples have shown that AI can perpetuate existing inequalities. Facial recognition systems have demonstrated racial bias, hiring algorithms have favored certain demographics, and predictive policing tools have disproportionately targeted minority communities. These issues highlight the urgent need for ethical boundaries.

Key Ethical Principles

To guide the responsible use of AI, several core ethical principles have emerged:

  • Transparency: AI systems should be understandable and explainable. Users must know how decisions are made and have access to meaningful information about the system’s logic and data sources.
  • Accountability: Developers and organizations must take responsibility for the outcomes of AI systems. This includes mechanisms for redress when harm occurs and clear lines of liability.
  • Fairness: AI should be designed to avoid bias and discrimination. This requires diverse training data, inclusive design practices, and ongoing monitoring for unintended consequences.
  • Privacy: AI must respect individuals’ rights to privacy. Data collection and usage should be ethical, secure, and transparent, with informed consent at the core.
  • Safety: AI systems should be robust and secure, minimizing risks of malfunction, misuse, or adversarial attacks.

The Role of Regulation

Governments and international bodies are beginning to address these concerns through regulation. The European Union’s AI Act, for example, proposes a risk-based framework that categorizes AI systems and imposes stricter requirements on high-risk applications. Similarly, the U.S. has issued guidelines emphasizing trustworthy AI development.

However, regulation alone is not enough. Ethical AI requires a cultural shift within organizations - one that prioritizes human values over profit and performance. Developers, data scientists, and business leaders must collaborate to embed ethics into every stage of the AI lifecycle.

The Human Element

One of the most profound ethical challenges is the potential erosion of human agency. As AI systems become more autonomous, there’s a risk that humans will defer too much decision-making to machines. This can lead to a loss of control, reduced accountability, and diminished human judgment.

To counter this, we must ensure that AI augments rather than replaces human decision-making. Human oversight should remain central, especially in sensitive domains like healthcare, law enforcement, and education.

Looking Ahead

The ethical boundaries of AI are not fixed - they will evolve as technology advances. What’s essential is a proactive, inclusive approach that brings together technologists, ethicists, policymakers, and the public. We must ask difficult questions, challenge assumptions, and remain vigilant about the impact of AI on society.

Ultimately, the goal is not to halt innovation but to guide it responsibly. By respecting ethical boundaries, we can harness the power of AI to create a future that is not only intelligent but also just, equitable, and humane.

Just try the prompt on Copilot or your favorite AI-powered assistant! Have you got a different/similar result? How big or important is the difference? Any other thoughts?
Just share the link to the post with me and I'll add it to this post as a resource!

Disclaimer: The whole text was generated by Copilot (under Windows 11) at the first attempt. This is just an experiment to evaluate feature's ability to answer standard general questions, independently on whether they are correctly or incorrectly posed. Moreover, the answers may reflect hallucinations and other types of inconsistent or incorrect reasoning.

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05 September 2025

🤖〽️Prompt Engineering: Copilot Unabridged (Part 87: How Long Will It Take to Regulate AI?)

Prompt Engineering Series
Prompt Engineering Series

Prompt: "write a post of 600 words on how long it will take to regulate AI given the current pace of the effort"

Introduction

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is evolving faster than any technology in history. From generative models to autonomous systems, AI is reshaping industries, economies, and societies. Yet while innovation races ahead, regulation limps behind. The question isn’t just how to regulate AI - it’s how long it will take to do so effectively.

Given the current pace of global efforts, meaningful regulation could take 5 to 10 years—and that’s a conservative estimate.

The Current Pace: Slow and Fragmented

Despite growing awareness, AI regulation remains fragmented and reactive:

  • The EU’s AI Act, the most comprehensive effort to date, is still in negotiation and won’t be fully enforced until 2026.
  • The U.S. lacks federal legislation, relying instead on voluntary frameworks and state-level initiatives.
  • China has issued guidelines on algorithmic transparency and data usage, but enforcement is uneven.

Global coordination is virtually nonexistent, with no binding international treaties or standards.

Most governments are still in the 'fact-finding' phase - holding hearings, commissioning studies, and consulting stakeholders. Meanwhile, AI capabilities are doubling every 6 to 12 months.

Why It’s So Hard to Regulate AI

AI regulation is complex for several reasons:

  • Rapid evolution: By the time a law is drafted, the technology it targets may be obsolete.
  • Multidisciplinary impact: AI touches everything - healthcare, finance, education, defense - making one-size-fits-all rules impractical.
  • Opaque systems: Many AI models are 'black boxes', making it hard to audit or explain their decisions.
  • Corporate resistance: Tech giants often lobby against strict regulation, fearing it will stifle innovation or expose proprietary methods.
  • Global competition: Countries fear falling behind in the AI race, leading to regulatory hesitancy.

These challenges mean that even well-intentioned efforts move slowly - and often lack teeth.

Realistic Timeline: 5 to 10 Years

If we break down the regulatory journey, here’s what it looks like (phase/estimated duration):

  • Research & Consultation: 1–2 years
  • Drafting Legislation: 1–2 years
  • Political Negotiation: 1–3 years
  • Implementation & Review: 2–3 years

Even under ideal conditions, comprehensive regulation takes time. And that’s assuming no major setbacks - like political gridlock, industry pushback, or technological disruption.

What Could Accelerate the Process?

Several factors could speed things up:

  • High-profile failures: A major AI-related scandal or accident could trigger emergency legislation.
  • Public pressure: As awareness grows, citizens may demand faster action - especially around privacy, bias, and misinformation.
  • Industry cooperation: If tech companies embrace self-regulation and transparency, governments may move faster.
  • International frameworks: A global treaty or UN-led initiative could harmonize standards and reduce duplication.

But these are hopeful scenarios. Without them, the default trajectory remains slow.

Why Waiting Is Risky

The longer we delay, the greater the risks:

  • Unregulated deployment: AI systems may be used in critical domains - like healthcare or criminal justice - without oversight.
  • Entrenched bias: Flawed models could become embedded in institutions, making them harder to fix later.
  • Loss of trust: Public confidence in AI could erode, stalling adoption and innovation.
  • Geopolitical instability: Autonomous weapons and surveillance systems could escalate tensions between nations.

In short, the cost of inaction is steep - and growing.

Conclusion: The Clock Is Ticking

Regulating AI is not just a technical challenge - it’s a race against time. At the current pace, meaningful safeguards may take a decade to materialize. But AI won’t wait. It will continue to evolve, integrate, and influence every aspect of life.

We must accelerate the process - not by cutting corners, but by prioritizing collaboration, transparency, and foresight. Because the future of AI isn’t just about what it can do - it’s about what we allow it to do.

Just try the prompt on Copilot or your favorite AI-powered assistant! Have you got a different/similar result? How big or important is the difference? Any other thoughts?
Just share the link to the post with me and I'll add it to this post as a resource!

Disclaimer: The whole text was generated by Copilot (under Windows 11) at the first attempt. This is just an experiment to evaluate feature's ability to answer standard general questions, independently on whether they are correctly or incorrectly posed. Moreover, the answers may reflect hallucinations and other types of inconsistent or incorrect reasoning.

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09 July 2025

🤖〽️Prompt Engineering: Copilot Unabridged (Part 46: Understanding AI Governance - Balancing Innovation and Responsibility)

Prompt Engineering Series
Prompt Engineering Series

Prompt: "write a blogpost of 600 words on how AI governance works"

Introduction

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming industries, societies, and economies worldwide. Its immense potential has led to groundbreaking advancements in healthcare, finance, transportation, and more. However, with these capabilities come risks - bias in AI models, privacy concerns, and misuse of AI-powered systems. To address these challenges, AI governance has emerged as a critical framework for ensuring responsible AI development and deployment.

What is AI Governance?

AI governance refers to the policies, laws, regulations, and ethical frameworks that guide AI development and usage. It encompasses a broad spectrum of considerations, including data privacy, security, accountability, transparency, and fairness. The goal is to balance the rapid advancement of AI technology with societal norms and ethical principles.

Governance mechanisms differ across regions and industries, but they typically involve collaboration between governments, tech companies, academic researchers, and civil society groups. The underlying challenge in AI governance is ensuring AI systems benefit humanity while mitigating risks such as bias, discrimination, and security vulnerabilities.

Key Principles of AI Governance

Several fundamental principles shape AI governance frameworks across the globe:
Transparency: AI systems should be understandable and explainable. Black-box models, where the decision-making process remains obscure, can lead to concerns regarding bias and accountability.

Explainability helps foster trust among users and regulators.

  • Accountability: Organizations developing and deploying AI must take responsibility for their systems’ behavior. This includes ensuring ethical use, addressing unintended consequences, and establishing mechanisms for legal recourse when AI causes harm.
  • Privacy and Data Protection: AI systems rely on vast amounts of data, raising concerns about privacy breaches and misuse. Strong governance frameworks require compliance with data protection laws such as GDPR in Europe, ensuring users have control over their personal information.
  • Bias and Fairness: AI can inherit biases from training data, leading to discriminatory outcomes. Ethical AI governance emphasizes fairness, reducing disparities in AI-driven decisions affecting hiring, law enforcement, healthcare, and financial services.
  • Security and Safety: As AI applications expand, cybersecurity threats, deepfake technology, and AI-driven autonomous weapons become pressing concerns. Governance frameworks must enforce security protocols to prevent malicious use of AI systems.

Global AI Governance Initiatives

Different nations and organizations are approaching AI governance in diverse ways:

  • European Union (EU): The EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act seeks to regulate AI based on risk categories. High-risk applications, such as biometric identification and critical infrastructure management, face stricter requirements, while lower-risk systems have minimal oversight.
  • United States: The U.S. government has taken a more hands-off approach, emphasizing AI innovation while promoting ethical guidelines through the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) AI Risk Management Framework. States such as California have begun implementing stricter AI policies, particularly regarding data privacy.
  • China: China has introduced comprehensive AI laws emphasizing security, data control, and algorithmic regulation. The country focuses on AI governance that aligns with state interests while fostering technological leadership in AI innovation.
  • United Nations (UN) & Industry Collaborations: The UNESCO AI Ethics Framework and initiatives like the Partnership on AI bring together global stakeholders to promote responsible AI development. Large tech firms, including Microsoft and Google, have also created internal AI governance structures to align their AI systems with ethical standards.

Challenges in AI Governance

While governance frameworks are evolving, challenges remain:

  • Regulatory Complexity: AI development is global, but governance laws vary widely, making international collaboration essential yet difficult.
  • Balancing Innovation and Regulation: Striking the right balance between enabling innovation and imposing regulations is crucial to avoid stifling progress.
  • Enforcement: Ensuring companies adhere to AI regulations requires oversight and accountability mechanisms, which can be difficult to implement.

The Future of AI Governance

AI governance will continue to evolve as AI capabilities expand. Ethical AI development, global cooperation, and transparent policies will play a crucial role in shaping a future where AI benefits society responsibly. Initiatives promoting AI auditing, fairness assessments, and bias reduction will become integral to AI governance frameworks.

Governance is not about restricting AI; rather, it’s about steering its trajectory toward ethical, secure, and beneficial use. By integrating ethics, accountability, and oversight into AI development, we can maximize AI’s potential while mitigating risks, ensuring its contributions to humanity remain positive.

Disclaimer: The whole text was generated by Copilot (under Windows 10) at the first attempt. This is just an experiment to evaluate feature's ability to answer standard general questions, independently on whether they are correctly or incorrectly posed. Moreover, the answers may reflect hallucinations and other types of inconsistent or incorrect reasoning.

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02 July 2025

🤖〽️Prompt Engineering: Copilot Unabridged (Part 39: How Fast Does Humanity Move in Enforcing Policies to Cope with AI’s Rapid Growth?)

Prompt Engineering Series
Prompt Engineering Series

Introduction

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is evolving at an unprecedented pace, reshaping industries, governance, and daily life. However, the speed at which AI advances often outpaces policy enforcement, leaving governments and institutions struggling to regulate its impact effectively. While AI’s rapid development demands swift policy responses, humanity’s ability to enforce regulations remains slow and fragmented due to bureaucratic hurdles, ethical dilemmas, and global inconsistencies.

1. The Lag Between AI Innovation and Policy Enforcement

AI’s growth is exponential, but policy enforcement follows a linear and bureaucratic process. Some key reasons for this lag include:

  • Complex legislative procedures: Governments require extensive debates, approvals, and revisions before implementing AI regulations.
  • Ethical uncertainties: Policymakers struggle to define AI’s ethical boundaries, delaying enforcement.
  • Corporate resistance: Tech companies often lobby against strict AI regulations, slowing policy adoption.

This delay creates a regulatory gap, where AI evolves faster than laws can govern its use.

2. Global AI Policy Enforcement: A Fragmented Approach

Different countries enforce AI policies at varying speeds, leading to inconsistent regulations worldwide. Some examples include:

  • The European Union (EU): The EU AI Act is one of the most comprehensive AI regulations, but its enforcement is slow due to legal complexities.
  • The United States: AI policy enforcement is largely decentralized, with states implementing different regulations.
  • China: AI governance is strict, but enforcement focuses on state control rather than ethical concerns.

This fragmented approach makes global AI regulation difficult, as different regions prioritize different aspects of AI governance.

3. The Challenges of AI Policy Enforcement

Even when AI policies are established, enforcement faces several challenges:

  • Lack of technical expertise: Policymakers often lack AI knowledge, making enforcement ineffective.
  • Corporate non-compliance: Companies may bypass regulations through loopholes or offshore operations.
  • Slow adaptation to AI advancements: Policies become outdated quickly as AI evolves.

Without continuous policy updates, AI enforcement remains inefficient and reactive rather than proactive.

4. The Need for Dynamic AI Regulations

To cope with AI’s fast pace, experts propose dynamic AI regulations, where policies evolve alongside technological advancements. Some solutions include:

  • AI governance frameworks that adapt to new AI developments.
  • International AI cooperation to create unified global standards.
  • Automated AI auditing systems to monitor compliance in real time.

By implementing flexible and adaptive policies, humanity can keep pace with AI’s rapid growth.

Conclusion: Humanity Must Accelerate AI Policy Enforcement

While AI evolves rapidly, policy enforcement remains slow and fragmented, creating regulatory gaps that could lead to ethical and security risks. Governments, businesses, and researchers must accelerate AI policy development, ensuring regulations keep pace with technological advancements. Without proactive enforcement, AI’s impact on society could become unmanageable, making responsible AI governance more urgent than ever.

Disclaimer: The whole text was generated by Copilot at the first attempt. This is just an experiment to evaluate feature's ability to answer standard general questions, independently on whether they are correctly or incorrectly posed. Moreover, the answers may reflect hallucinations and other types of inconsistent or incorrect reasoning.

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05 June 2025

🤖〽️Prompt Engineering: Copilot Unabridged (Part 12: How Humanity Can Respond When AI Becomes a Danger to Society)

Prompt Engineering Series

Prompt: "write a blogpost of 600 words on how much AI influences the recruitment process"

Introduction

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is advancing at an unprecedented pace, transforming industries and reshaping the way we live. While AI presents enormous opportunities, it also carries significant risks, including job displacement, surveillance concerns, algorithmic bias, and autonomous weaponization. If AI becomes a danger to society, humanity must take decisive action to regulate, control, and guide its development responsibly. This blog post explores how humanity can respond when AI threatens social stability, privacy, or ethical integrity.

1. Strengthening AI Regulations and Oversight

One of the most effective ways to mitigate AI dangers is enforcing strict regulations to ensure its responsible use. Governments must:

  • Implement AI safety laws that define ethical standards for AI development and deployment.
  • Establish regulatory bodies to oversee AI applications in critical sectors (healthcare, finance, military).
  • Ensure transparency by requiring companies to disclose how AI algorithms make decisions.

Strong regulations provide checks and balances, preventing AI from being misused for mass surveillance, economic monopolization, or unethical automation.

2. Developing Ethical AI Frameworks

AI lacks human intuition, morality, and ethical reasoning, which can lead to unintended consequences. To prevent AI from becoming dangerous, organizations must:

  • Incorporate ethical guidelines into AI model training to eliminate bias.
  • Promote fairness by ensuring AI systems are developed with diverse perspectives.
  • Use AI for social good, prioritizing healthcare advancements, climate solutions, and education.

AI ethics must be a core principle in development, ensuring technology aligns with human values rather than unregulated automation.

3. Limiting AI’s Influence in Warfare and Cybersecurity

AI has the potential to escalate conflicts through autonomous weapon systems and AI-driven cyberattacks. To prevent AI from becoming a military threat, global leaders must:

  • Ban autonomous weapons that operate without human intervention.
  • Regulate AI warfare technology to prevent destabilization of international relations.
  • Enhance cybersecurity measures to counter AI-driven hacking attempts.

Without regulation, AI could turn military conflicts into algorithmic warfare, making security threats more unpredictable.

4. Investing in Human-AI Collaboration

Instead of allowing AI to replace human labor, society should focus on collaboration between AI and workers. To prevent economic disruptions, businesses must:

  • Create AI-augmented roles that blend human creativity with AI efficiency.
  • Offer reskilling programs to help workers transition into AI-related fields.
  • Promote AI transparency so employees understand how AI impacts workplaces.

AI should be a tool for enhancement, not a force that displaces millions of jobs.

5. Combating AI-Generated Misinformation

AI-driven misinformation - such as deepfake technology, AI-generated propaganda, and social media manipulation - poses a serious threat to democracy. Humanity must:

  • Develop AI fact-checking systems to detect false information.
  • Enforce platform accountability, requiring companies to regulate AI-generated content.
  • Educate the public on identifying AI-generated deception.

If AI becomes a tool for mass deception, societies must fight back by ensuring transparency and digital trust.

Conclusion: Humanity Must Guide AI Responsibly

AI is not inherently dangerous, but when left unchecked, it can threaten democracy, privacy, security, and economic stability. If AI becomes a danger to society, humanity must take collective action to regulate its development, create ethical frameworks, and ensure AI serves the greater good rather than corporate or political interests.

The future of AI depends on how humanity chooses to shape it. Instead of fearing AI, society must focus on responsible innovation, guiding AI towards a safe and sustainable future.

Disclaimer: The whole text was generated by Copilot at the first attempt. This is just an experiment to evaluate feature's ability to answer standard general questions, independently on whether they are correctly or incorrectly posed. Moreover, the answers may reflect hallucinations and other types of inconsistent or incorrect reasoning.

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16 April 2025

🧮ERP: Implementations (Part XIV: A Never-Ending Story)

ERP Implementations Series
ERP Implementations Series

An ERP implementation is occasionally considered as a one-time endeavor after which an organization will live happily ever after. In an ideal world that would be true, though the work never stops – things that were carved out from the implementation, optimizations, new features, new regulations, new requirements, integration with other systems, etc. An implementation is thus just the beginning from what it comes and it's essential to get the foundation right – and that’s the purpose of the ERP implementation – provide a foundation on which something bigger and solid can be erected. 

No matter how well an ERP implementation is managed and executed, respectively how well people work towards the same goals, there’s always something forgotten or carved out from the initial project. Usually, the casual suspects are the integrations with other systems, though there can be also minor or even bigger features that are planned to be addressed later, if the implementation hasn’t consumed already all the financial resources available, as it's usually the case. Some of the topics can be addressed as Change Requests or consolidated on projects of their own. 

Even simple integrations can become complex when the processes are poorly designed, and that typically happens more often than people think. It’s not necessarily about the lack of skillset or about the technologies used, but about the degree to which the processes can work in a loosely coupled interconnected manner. Even unidirectional integrations can raise challenges, though everything increases in complexity when the flow of data is bidirectional. Moreover, the complexity increases with each system added to the overall architecture. 

Like a sculpture’s manual creation, processes in an ERP implementation form a skeleton that needs chiseling and smoothing until the form reaches the desired optimized shape. However, optimization is not a one-time attempt but a continuous work of exploring what is achievable, what works, what is optimal. Sometimes optimization is an exact science, while other times it’s about (scientifical) experimentation in which theory, ideas and investments are put to good use. However, experimentation tends to be expensive at least in terms of time and effort, and probably these are the main reasons why some organizations don’t even attempt that – or maybe it’s just laziness, pure indifference or self-preservation. In fact, why change something that already works?

Typically, software manufacturers make available new releases on a periodic basis as part of their planning for growth and of attracting more businesses. Each release that touches used functionality typically needs proper evaluation, testing and whatever organizations consider as important as part of the release management process. Ideally, everything should go smoothly though life never ceases to surprise and even a minor release can have an important impact when earlier critical functionality stopped working. Test automation and other practices can make an important difference for organizations, though these require additional effort and investments that usually pay off when done right. 

Regulations and other similar requirements must be addressed as they can involve penalties or other risks that are usually worth avoiding. Ideally such requirements should be supported by design, though even then a certain volume of work is involved. Moreover, the business context can change unexpectedly, and further requirements need to be considered eventually. 

The work on an ERP system and the infrastructure built around it is a never-ending story. Therefore, organizations must have not only the resources for the initial project, but also what comes after that. Of course, some work can be performed manually, some requirements can be delayed, some risks can be assumed, though the value of an ERP system increases with its extended usage, at least in theory. 

11 August 2019

🛡️Information Security: Privacy (Definitions)

"Privacy is concerned with the appropriate use of personal data based on regulation and the explicit consent of the party." (Martin Oberhofer et al, "Enterprise Master Data Management", 2008)

[MDM privacy:] "Privacy is focused on the appropriate use of personal data based on regulation and the explicit consent of the Party. MDM Systems that have Party data (customer or patient) are quite sensitive to privacy concerns and regulations." (Allen Dreibelbis et al, "Enterprise Master Data Management", 2008)

"The ability of keeping secret someone’s identity, resources, or actions. It is realized by anonymity and pseudonymity." (Tomasz Ciszkowski & Zbigniew Kotulski, "Secure Routing with Reputation in MANET", 2008)

"Proper handling and use of personal information (PI) throughout its life cycle, consistent with data-protection principles and the preferences of the subject." (Alex Berson & Lawrence Dubov, "Master Data Management and Data Governance", 2010)

"Control of data usage dealing with the rights of individuals and organizations to determine the 'who, what, when, where, and how' of data access." (Carlos Coronel et al, "Database Systems: Design, Implementation, and Management" 9th Ed., 2011)

"Keeping information as a secret, known only to the originators of that information. This contrasts with confidentiality, in which information is shared among a select group of recipients." (Mark Rhodes-Ousley, "Information Security: The Complete Reference" 2nd Ed., 2013)

"The ability of a person to keep personal information to himself or herself." (Jason Williamson, "Getting a Big Data Job For Dummies", 2015)

"The protection of individual rights to nondisclosure." (Mike Harwood, "Internet Security: How to Defend Against Attackers on the Web" 2nd Ed., 2015)

"The right of individuals to control or influence what information related to them may be collected and stored and by whom, as well as to whom that information may be disclosed." (William Stallings, "Effective Cybersecurity: A Guide to Using Best Practices and Standards", 2018)

"The right of individuals to a private life includes a right not to have personal information about themselves made public." (Open Data Handbook)

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IT Professional with more than 25 years experience in IT in the area of full life-cycle of Web/Desktop/Database Applications Development, Software Engineering, Consultancy, Data Management, Data Quality, Data Migrations, Reporting, ERP implementations & support, Team/Project/IT Management, etc.