User:VAjanovski

Vangel Ajanovski

Vangel V. Ajanovski is an Assistant professor at the Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering, at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Macedonia.

The Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering (FCSE) is the leading Macedonian higher-education and research institution in the computing field, with 60 full-time teaching and research staff members and nearly 4000 students. The Faculty offers many study programs ranging from undergraduate 3yr and 4yr studies at the B.Sc. level, through several M.Sc. programs, up to Ph.D. (D.Sc.) level.

Dr. Ajanovski scholarly interests span many computing and related disciplines: databases and information systems, software engineering, computer graphics, e-learning, development of computer-science and it education and curricula. He is teaching undergraduate courses on: Databases, Information Systems, Analisys and Logical Design of Information Systems, Physical Design of Information Systems, Software Construction, Computer Graphics, Digitization and E-presentation; and master courses on: Information Systems Development Processes, Big Data Analytics, and Management of Databases.

In his free time, he enjoys listening to music and occasionally produces some electronic music. Has an "eye" for photography. Loves films and cinematic experience.

Web page: https://ajanovski.info

Faculty listing: http://www.finki.ukim.mk/en/staff/vangel-ajanovski

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Activities

IRC Activity

Part 1:

• How do people interact?
  • The style of discussion is informal. The structure itself is linear, but using special pre-agreed customs and rules the participants managed to keep some structure.
• What is the pattern of communication?
  • Discussion topic by topic, then action by action in each topic. Round-the-table statements by each participant.
• Are there any terms that seem to have special meaning?
  • Obvious meetbot commands. + Some jargon that is customary for the project.
• What advantages might IRC have over other real-time communication methods (like Google Chat or Facebook Messenger?) Are there potential disadvantages?
  • Main advantage is the informality and ease of access, especially with web-based clients. Informality makes it great tool for a simple meeting place, like a city square or bazaar where a group agrees to always be in case they want to meet each other, when they are online. They would not need accounts, registration, special installations etc. It should be imagined as a coffee shop or bar or pub, good for small talk, informal open discussions, informal news/updates.
  • Main disavantage is that it based on a loose network, and occasionally inter-node communication drops and people suddenly and without warning leave the discussion "channels". Another big issue is that the platform as a minimum can not be considered trust-worthy. Unless one performs special registrations and procedures for verification, one can not be sure that the participants are truly who they claim to be. There are ways to solve this, but in general new users should be taught how to take care of these issues so that they don't turn out victims. Third issue is that there is no structure in the discussions, it is just a simple chat. One can try to impose rules, or use special meeting support software clients that take special commands and practices so that a structure is implemented. This is usually rather hard to follow.
• Can you make any other observations?
  • There are questions by participants, followed by answers by other participants and a general discussion where it is rather hard to follow who responds to what unless one understands the exact context.
• Bonus question: Why didn't Heidi and Darci's actions get picked up by the meetbot?
  • Actions were picked up, but they were not assigned to heidi or darci. Their nicknames were incorrectly spelled so the bot could not assign them their actions.

Part 2: nothing to deliver, should have successfully installed IRC client

• Done, I use Pidgin. To students I recommend the web-based Freenode client at https://webchat.freenode.net/

Part 3: observations of the #a11y channel communications and how they differed from the sample dialog in Part 1.

• No discussions whatsoever in the several days I have been tuned-in this channel.
• As a contrast to the activity in part 1, I can comment on other channels that I frequented in the past. Most discussions are generic on and off-topic discussions, sometimes support requests are answered. Chatlogger bots are the norm, while meeter bots are rarely used on general public channels, but are in use in some developer channels.

Part 4 (optional): a list of at least 5 commands that will work in the channel that was created, and what they mean.

• /topic sets channel topic
• /op gives op rights to nick
• /kick a nick out of the channel
• /mode setting mode of channel operation
• /voice gives voice to nick

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