InfoCen – A Web 2.0 Idea

Do you ever feel that, given the number of times you have filled out online forms which ask for your name, address, phone no and other personal information while shopping, opening an account, providing a feedback etc., your computer should do this primary task for you?

How about if you could just maintain these records in a bank safe and provide the key to the safe to the people with whom you want to share this information with?

Introducing InfoCen – a seminal idea of information management, Web 2.0 style.

The idea is this – you enter your data (name, address, phone no, education etc.) at an online website and they provide you an ID and a key. Now while shopping, or opening an email account etc., you donot enter the details again. You just provide the website your ID and key and they fetch the data themselves.

The good thing about this system is that when you happen to change your phone number, you update your record at InfoCen and the websites which have used this service may update their records on your next visit (or some other criteria depending on what suites them)

I accept that there might be a possibility of loss of privacy. This issue has to be worked on very seriously. But I hope this can be managed to some level by introducing hierarchical keys – Levels of information. For example, the name and contact address could be Level 1 data, and the education details could be Level 2 data. Hence, you may divulge the relevant key to the website – It is unlikely that a online shopping portal needs your education details.

Just an idea.

Grading in academics

Over my past three years of academic life at IIT Kharagpur, I have observed that, for any particular subject, following parameters are considered.

1. Theory Component (60%)
   1. Mid-Term Examination (30%)
   2. End-Term Examination (50%)
   3. Class Tests (10%)
   4. Teacher’s Assessment (10%)
2. Laboratory Component(40%)
   1. Weekly Laboratory Assignments (60%)
   2. Experimental Examination (20%)
   3. Viva Voce (20%)

Following the above pattern, a student’s total score is calculated on a scale of 0-100, and based on this score, the following grades are alloted.

1. Ex (90-100)
2. A (80 – 89)
3. B (70 – 79)
4. C (60 – 69)
5. D (50 – 59)
6. P (35 – 49)
7. F (<35)
8. I (Incomplete)

To be honest, it feels bad when you get 89 and miss ‘Ex’ by just 1. But in reality, an 89 is as good as a 90. Isn’t it?

In this post, I present a fuzzy based grading system which I believe is quite logical and realistic.

For those of you who do not know what fuzzy logic is, here is an example. Suppose you are driving a car at 40 KMPH. You are driving neither fast nor slow. But you can give a rough estimate that the relationship of the speed of the car to the set ’slow speeds’ is around 30% and the speed of the car to the set ‘fast speeds’ is 40%. This estimate is called as “Association”. In this example, “the speed of the car” is considered to be a fuzzy variable and the sets “slow speeds” and “fast speeds” are the fuzzy sets.

Now you can construct some rules like:

1. If the speed of the car is fast, then slow down.
2. If the speed of the car is medium, then take no action.
3. If the speed of the care is slow, then accelerate.

Hence, for a particular speed of the car, the truthness of all the above rules can be computed, and the rule which has the maximum truthness values is executed.

In the present context, I think that fuzzy logic can also be applied considering the fuzzy variables as “performance in examinations”, “attendance in classes”, “participation in group activities” etc. This might be a more rational system of grading.

Just a thought.