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U Could Finish

Student Conduct Case

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Hello!

  • UCF Senior
  • Studying Marketing
  • From Jupiter, FL�
  • Employed as Webmaster for UCF’s First Year Experience office

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UCF Involvement / Impact

Prospective Students:

  • Campus Tour Guide with Undergraduate Admissions
  • Orientation Team 2011 �

Students:

  • LEAD Scholar Alumni
  • Late Knights Marketing Director
  • Sigma Nu Fraternity Recruitment Chairman
  • Marketing Internship Program
  • Society for Marketing Professionals Treasurer

Alumni:

  • Homecoming Court
  • 4EVER KNIGHTS Alumni Ambassador

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Technical Background

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Giving Back

Creativity

I will use my talents to enrich the human experience.

-UCF Creed

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UCF Parking Finder

  • Displayed capacity of each parking garage, among other features�
  • Centralized parking resource on-the-go�
  • Months of work designing and prototyping lead to a meeting…

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UCF Parking Finder

“Students wouldn’t find it useful.”

-Administrative feedback

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UCF Parking Finder

  • 1 Extremely Dissatisfied to 5 Extremely Satisfied

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UCF Parking Finder

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UCF Parking Finder

  • “Quitters never win, and winners never quit.”

  • Desire to give back continued

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U Could Finish

Student Conduct Case

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U Could Finish

This was a video showing how U Could Finish worked.

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U Could Finish

  • Find your class
    • Search by Name / Professor / Course�
  • Login with Facebook
    • Ensure each user is unique�
  • Verify Phone
    • Type back texted code

  • Select update frequency
    • From every 4 hours to every minute

  • Pay with Amazon
    • Price reflects frequency, starting at $0.99

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How it Works

Student Conduct Case

  • Access of class information

  • Service partners

  • Implementation breakdown

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How It Works

This was a video showing how U Could Finish worked.

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U Could Finish

UCF

Amazon

Facebook

Nexmo

User Verification

Text Messaging

Ecommerce

Google

Class Quick Links

Class Info

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Sample Backend Flow

  • What classes are users trying to get into? Two want 12345�
  • Has class 12345 been updated in the last 3600 seconds? No

  • Give me a sec to search UCF Guest Class Search for class 12345.
    • UCF: Course: ENC 1102, Title: English Composition 2, Total seats: 26, Open seats: 1.

  • Which users want class 1234? John Doe, Jane Smith

  • Nexmo, send a text to John and Jane saying “Class 12345 is open! Just one seat open so be quick!” Then, ask “Did you get in?” Let me know what they say.
    • Nexmo: John said “I did!” and Jane said “Nope ☹”�
  • Remove John from class 12345, resume looking for Jane.

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U Could Finish

  • Thousands of hours of development�
  • Nearly $1,000 cash invested�
  • Shutdown without contact�
  • No response to my emails and voicemails

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Alleged Violations

Student Conduct Case

  • Student Conduct Shutdown Email

  • Use of Information Technologies and Resources Policy

  • Golden Rule

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Conduct Shutdown Email

  • Usage is not what caused U Could Finish to be shut down by UCF�
  • My post on Reddit, a social news website frequented by IT audiences

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Conduct Shutdown Email

“The ucouldfinish Website logs into myUCF every 15 minutes and runs searches on every course using a guest search capability, according to the student who wrote the application.”

“Each search take the system 14 minutes of processing, which means that ucouldfinish.com is almost constantly scanning every course in the catalog. That means it is placing a significant load on our PeopleSoft portal.”

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Conduct Shutdown Email

“[The final] version of the script is highly optimized to reduce load on myUCF as much as possible. It only searches for the exact classes users are trying to look for, and only on the interval they ask for.”

http://www.reddit.com/r/ucf/comments/unv77/hey_ucf_redditors_i_built_a_site_that_texts_you/

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UCF Policy 4-002 A(1)

“Users are responsible for any activity originating from their accounts that they can reasonably be expected to control. Accounts and passwords must not be shared with others.”

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UCF Policy 4-002 A(1)

“searches [..] using a guest search capability, according to the student who wrote the application.”

- Joel Hartman

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UCF Policy 4-002 B(1)

“The university's computing and telecommunications resources shall not be used to impersonate another individual or misrepresent authorization to act on behalf of other individuals or the university. All messages transmitted through university computers and telecommunications networks must correctly identify the sender”

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UCF Policy 4-002 B(7)

The university provides e-mail and other electronic messaging systems only for official university business. University employees are allowed to make incidental use of such systems for necessary personal messaging. The following uses of university messaging systems by students and employees are prohibited under this policy: […] g. commercial use or personal financial gain”

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UCF Policy 4-002 B(7)

“Messaging system - Software that provides an electronic mail delivery system. It is made up of the following functional components, which may be packaged together or independently.

Mail User Agent, Message Transfer Agent, Message Store, The Internet's SMTP”

- http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/messaging+system

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UCF Policy 4-002 B(7)

university messaging system

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UCF Policy 4-002 B(7)

university messaging system

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UCF Policy 4-002 B(7)

university messaging system

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Golden Rule, 14(g)

“Misuse […] of computing facilities and telecommunications resources to interfere with normal operation of the University computing system”

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UCF Policy 4-002 A(5)

“Users shall not use computer or telecommunication systems in such a manner as to degrade or disrupt the normal operation of voice or data networks or university computer systems or to intentionally damage or disable computing or telecommunications equipment or software.”

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Golden Rule, 14(g) & Policy 4-002 A(5)

  • Degrade - to lower to an inferior or less effective level

  • Disrupt - to interrupt the normal course or unity of�
  • Interfere - to be inconsistent with and disturb the performance of previously learned behavior

“Users shall not […] degrade or disrupt [myUCF's] normal operation”

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Golden Rule, 14(g) & Policy 4-002 A(5)

“Users shall not […] degrade or disrupt [myUCF's] normal operation”

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Golden Rule, 14(g) & Policy 4-002 A(5)

“According to Joel Hartman, Vice Provost for Information Technologies and Resources at UCF, Sun really delivers in all regards. The Sun infrastructure for Oracle’s PeopleSoft applications at UCF provides outstanding reliability, investment protection, and performance

“Users shall not […] degrade or disrupt [myUCF's] normal operation”

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Golden Rule, 14(g) & Policy 4-002 A(5)

“Users shall not […] degrade or disrupt [myUCF's] normal operation”

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Golden Rule, 14(g) & Policy 4-002 A(5)

“Further raising compute power requirements, there are a number of instances when the enterprise architecture must handle five to ten times the normal transaction load. Orientation programs for incoming students and class enrollment periods provide a couple of examples.”

“Users shall not […] degrade or disrupt [myUCF's] normal operation”

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Golden Rule, 14(g) & Policy 4-002 A(5)

  • U Could Finish averaged 814 requests per day average after launch.

  • 0.54% or less of the amount myUCF is designed to handle.

  • And that’s without factoring in optimization.

“Users shall not […] degrade or disrupt [myUCF's] normal operation”

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Golden Rule, 14(g) & Policy 4-002 A(5)

  • A typical user pulls as high as 1,001.41 KB of data across 69 requests for all assets.

“Users shall not […] degrade or disrupt [myUCF's] normal operation”

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Golden Rule, 14(g) & Policy 4-002 A(5)

  • U Could Finish pulled 13.75 KB of data for just text, in one request.

“Users shall not […] degrade or disrupt [myUCF's] normal operation”

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Golden Rule, 14(g) & Policy 4-002 A(5)

  • U Could Finish requests up to 70 times less data per page than a normal desktop user loading all images and assets.

  • Not even considering combined requests.

“Users shall not […] degrade or disrupt [myUCF's] normal operation”

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Golden Rule, 14(g) & Policy 4-002 A(5)

  • If each of our users searched on their own every 4 hours, they would use up to 181 MB more data daily, loading all assets.

“Users shall not […] degrade or disrupt [myUCF's] normal operation”

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Golden Rule, 14(g) & Policy 4-002 A(5)

Thomas Jefferson Building

John Adams Building

James Madison Memorial Building

Library of Congress

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Golden Rule, 14(g) & Policy 4-002 A(5)

  • If every student searched myUCF for one class every 4 hours, the amount of data transferred would be equivalent to all print literature at the Library of Congress in 7 days.

  • If U Could Finish did this same task for the same amount of time, it would fill 1/5th of a floor at one of their 3 buildings.

“Users shall not […] degrade or disrupt [myUCF's] normal operation”

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Golden Rule, 14(g) & Policy 4-002 A(5)

If U Could Finish was disrupting or degrading myUCF, why didn’t they notice before my Reddit post?

“Users shall not […] degrade or disrupt [myUCF's] normal operation”

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Golden Rule, 14(g) & Policy 4-002 A(5)

“Servers in the enterpise [sic] data center are monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week by an operations staff and software.”

- Enterprise Systems and Operations, Computer Services & Telecommunications, UCF

https://publishing.ucf.edu/sites/itr/cst/Pages/EsoServices.aspx

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Golden Rule, 14(g) & Policy 4-002 A(5)

  • Additionally, degradation of myUCF implies previous satisfaction

  • Degrade - to lower to an inferior or less effective level

  • Disrupt - to interrupt the normal course or unity of�
  • Interfere - to be inconsistent with and disturb the performance of previously learned behavior

“Users shall not […] degrade or disrupt [myUCF's] normal operation”

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Golden Rule, 14(g) & Policy 4-002 A(5)

“Users shall not […] degrade or disrupt [myUCF's] normal operation”

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Golden Rule, 14(g) & Policy 4-002 A(5)

“Users shall not […] degrade or disrupt [myUCF's] normal operation”

http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/06/bing-and-google-agree-slow-pag.html

User effects from website load times from Google and Bing data

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Golden Rule, 14(g) & Policy 4-002 A(5)

“Users shall not […] degrade or disrupt [myUCF's] normal operation”

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Golden Rule, 14(g) & Policy 4-002 A(5)

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Golden Rule, 14(g) & Policy 4-002 A(5)

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Golden Rule, 14(g) & Policy 4-002 A(5)

  • Based on my numbers, I’m not taking away from the system.�
  • I’m helping students create a better experience.

“Users shall not […] degrade or disrupt [myUCF's] normal operation”

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Golden Rule, 14(i)

“Any violation of the University of Central Florida Use of Information Technology and Resources Policy”

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In Closing

Student Conduct Case

Creativity

I will use my talents to enrich the human experience.