TWC - Week 07

Another week of TWC, and i really want to comment on one of the questions discussed in class.

How does one achieve the difficult and complex tasks of balancing environmental and business concerns?

Impossible. Basically, to put it very frankly, business people do business to earn money, to profit. It would be easy to say that by taking away something from the world, the business can do CSR to give back something in return. However, are businesses really giving back what they are taking away? I really feel that the answer is no!
First if all, what the businesses are doing most of the time is to take away an apple and put back an orange which does not solve the root problem of the lack of apple at all.
Secondly, how many businesses in the world can afford to spend money on balancing environmental issues? Some company find it hard to even cover their losses. Some are lucky just to be able to break even. Some that just started to earn small money needs to have enough money to upgrade their business and bring it to the next level. Only a few companies really have grown to the scale where they are able to spend their money on curbing with environmental issues.
Third, even if large companies are spending their money on balancing environmental problems, how influential are they against the world's consumption?
Be it that one day the world knows that earth will be destroyed in 10 years time if we do not do anything to sustain it, i believe that instead of spending money on healing the earth, people will invest and spend more money and resources on technologies that enables them to live in another planet.

How optimistic are you with regards to Green Technology for sustainable development?

I certainly believe that people who will profit from Green Technology will continue to create green technology and people who loves the environment or loves new and creative things will go for it. If huge amount of resources can be put into Research&Development of Green Technology, i believe that green technology might be able to provide people with even better standard of living in time to come, at the same time curbing the world's environment issues. However, for everyone to take such huge steps of risk is a challenging tasks to accomplish.

Will you ever accept lab meat farming?
An interesting discussion was made again. Will vegetarians be able to consume meat since it doesn't involved killing life? Quoting our prof, "they would need to trace down to the first cell used". And i agree with the theory of why kill a chicken when all you need is a wing or the thigh? Imagine a future where chicken thighs are grown from a tree? Or even an apple that taste like pizza? I believe that most of us will say "Yuck!" to that, but the future generation will be able to accept them.

Again.. the speed of change of most of these things around us has been so rapid that no one should ignore what is going on. I feel that TWC is a course that everyone in the world should go through so that we are all aware of the reality we are living in.

TWC - Week 06

During TWC's lessons, i realized that it is the videos that left the most impression so i shall share another video which professor introduced this week by Microsoft.

Future medical technology from Microsoft


A statement the professor has mentioned today is that: Healthcare - waiting time = loss of economy
The creation of such medical technology will increase efficiency, decrease the waiting time that everyone hates, and bring in more economy value to the society.

Is this technology achievable within the next 10-20 years? Highly possible. The advancement of the current technologies that we have now are what people once considered was impossible. The future that Microsoft has envisioned was as my professor has shared in class, a mixture of existing technologies from all over the world combined. They just need a common platform to integrate together to create wonders.

There was a short debate in class. Will such advanced technologies make the healthcare industry more affordable or more expensive? Some says that it will be lower, because there is more efficiency and that by being one f the more advanced healthcare technology service provider, you would have already gain fame and popularity, thus gaining lots of business. There is not need to jack up the prices. However, some says that the price will be higher because it costs a lot of money to buy and integrate these systems together.

Then, the issue of price comes in. A fellow classmate presented on a topic talking about counterfeit drugs. In some country, people are willing to pay a smaller amount for counterfeit drugs thinking that the effects are all the same. Because the current medications provided are so expensive, these poor people who consume counterfeit drugs to save money faced the consequences of adverse side effects from counterfeit drugs. So various suggestions were made in class to solve this issue. One of the solutions mentioned was to sell the medications at very low prices so that counterfeit drugs will not earn much even if they tried to lower the selling price. This would discourage the poor people from buying counterfeit drugs.

However, there comes the question of whether people will still spend so much money on innovation if they are not paid well for it. One solution which was already in place was that governments will talk to the innovators and negotiate on an appropriate price so that it will benefit the country and its people. Part of the requisition of these technology will be absorbed by the government themselves so that both the citizens of the country as well as the innovators for the drugs will have a win win situation.

Before this lesson, i was very clueless about the medical industry world. Though i know that technology is vital in the healthcare industry, i have never envisioned the healthcare industry to also use such powerful technology. This set me to think that besides a business making money, IT solutions can practically be applied anywhere as long as you can find the root cause of the issues.

TWC - Week 05

This week, our lesson's objective is to equip us with:
1. a conceptual framework for intelligently considering the potential economic, social and commercial impact and significance of technology innovation.
2. a solid foundation for considering issues of development, technology policy, change management, and the management of technology.

Under the topic Information and Communications Technology(ICT) and World Change (Mass Media, the Internet, Wireless, Interactive Telecommunications) - Past, Present and Future, we were shown a few interesting videos.

Web 3.0 video

The videos talks about the type of web technology that we are using now and in the near future. It talks about Web2.0, the present technology where web sites are user-centric and allows interaction and information from the users instead of just allowing static web surfing. The world is shifting towards a Web3.0 environment where the web is intelligent and omnipresent. This is like a continuation of existing technology and allows user to add in their information and allows the web to collect extra information from the users. Also the technology will be embedded within many appliances in our daily life such as the hand phone, electrical appliances that we use and so on.

I like the idea of living in a Web3.0 environment where i can access/create/modify information anywhere, anytime, with anyone. That would make things so convenient and bring the whole level of human development and interaction to a whole new level.

Project Natal-Meet Milo Video

Project Natal-Meet Milo is quite impressive in my opinion. A virtual character whom you can communicate with intellectually, a technology that allows data to be transmitted into a virtual world instantaneously and a simulation of real world reaction of surroundings through user gestures making the interaction as close to reality as possible.

However, as much as i would like to see this new technology surface in reality, i felt that many people will lose the social skills to interact with real people in real life. No matter how much you can talk to "Milo", it is still programmed to react in a certain way. The idea of virtual world is new and interesting. People whom are unable to pay as much to travel could travel to different countries in a virtual world. Games could also be developed with such technology to develop a brand new fantasia which i believe, is the real next IN thing. A total 4-D experience stepping into a virtual world and practically moving in it. THAT, i would look forward to.

What is cloud computing?
I would say, cloud computing, a current IN thing that most of the people is using, a technology that allows people to just connect to the cloud(which is the internet), and use the service that provides virtual space(as long as it is not stored on your computer), is greatly used by the number one search engine Google. As much as i love the i-technologies and devices provided by apple, i love the google chrome that Google has created. It comes with a webstore and works the same as apple's appstore. They provide us with a virtual 5Gb thumbdrive known as GE.TT, which allows you to store your data freely in the cloud, and allows you to share it with any friends. For people who can't afford photoshop, good news for you. The have also provided applications like Aviary Image Editor which works similarly to the commonly used photoshop options. Of course, there are way much more applications available. So check out your google chrome webstore if you have not, and download the chrome if you are still living in the I.E or mozilla fox world.

What is knowledge management?
Taken from wiki, to explain knowledge management, it simply means comprising a range of strategies and practices used in an organization to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and experiences. Such insights and experiences comprise knowledge, either embodied in individuals or embedded in organizational processes or practice.

In the current world filled with collected data, who is there to analyze it? With current technologies, information is readily anywhere. However, in order to truly make good use of these data, which might allow companies to realize hidden market, uncover new business opportunity as well as cater to more of the customers' needs, they need knowledge management!

Are we using IT to capture the potential information in our country?
Well, i would say that i wouldn't be surprised if most of my information on the internet is now being accessed by the government people. In order to keep the country safe, certain measures has to be taken. However, that does not mean that we do not have the right to be angry at these actions since our privacy were invaded.

Looking at the questions on another perspective where we ask ourselves, are we capturing information and making use of them efficiently and effectively to improve the well-being of our country? The answer might comprises of many yes and many no. However i strongly believe that profiting organization should really look into knowledge management to bring their organization to the next level.

TWC - Week 04

This week, the lesson is to equip us with:
1) a conceptual framework for intelligently considering the potential economic, social and commercial impact and significance of technology innovation
2) a solid foundation for considering issues of development, technology policy, change management, and the management of technology.

The lesson start off with a very interesting video "Who Moved My Cheese?". Base on the video, there are 2 group; the mini people and the mice. Both groups tried to find cheese. However, once they found the cheese, the mini people assumed that the cheese will always be there. But the mice has noticed the change in supply every day and ran off to look for more cheese.

The video shows how most people can't accept the fact that situations do change, and that if they don't change according to the situation, the good old situation will never come back and live will never move on!

I feel that this video alone can relates to many situation in our daily life, for example relationships. We know that in life many thing keeps changing. Including relationships with people. We can not always stay with one group of people and stay within our own comfort zone. People around you meets new people and move on with life without you if you always stay on the same spot. If we choose to live in self denial and assume that nothing will change, one day you will look around and find that no one is left.

Another interesting video shown to us was "First Follower: Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy". This video shows how a lone nut, who has the gut to stand alone and look ridiculous, dancing weirdly and eventually became a leader when the first follower follow that lone nut.

First point to take note is, you have to be easy to follow. The lone nut will never become a leader until the first follower showed up. If you find that the lone nut is doing something great, be courageous and follow the lone nut. The whole situation changes when the first follower appears for the lone nut. The first follower transform the lone nut into a leader. It is crucial for the leader to embrace the first follower as an equal. And once there is a second follower, it is the turning point. It proves that the first has done well. Now that three is a crowd, more people will join in the momentum, and now they have the movement. People who choose to join now knows that they won't stand out or be ridiculed and that they will be part of the in-crowd if they hurry. Now, the rest of the people will join because they don't want to be out of the crowd.

I guess this video really reflect about the Bubble Tea craze that happened about eight years ago. Someone brought in the creation of bubble tea, it was easy to replicate and sell. Slowly more people joined in. Then everyone starts to sell bubble tea. However in the business world, too many is a crowd and of course, bubble tea business busted.

I guess it really is very important to become the first leader. And being the first and second follower is very crucial to get the trend started. However, you have to be smart and think through the consequences of following blindly. The first few followers and the leader might know what they are in for. But for people who joined in just to be "in-the-crowd", i find that it is rather stupid and that they won't get much out of the whole situation.

I really love all these videos that were shown in class. Because it is easier for me to understand and learn these interesting perspectives. I will rate the lesson 8/10.

Individual Report - Outline

Weather Forecast


Executive summary
Throughout the history of mankind, there has never been a day where people live in an environment totally unaffected by weather. The impact of weather in our daily life has gone through many evolutions and yet they are still as crucial and threatening to human lives as ever. Human has been trying to understand, predict and even control weather since way back in history. This lead to the invention of weather forecast methodologies ranging from praying for godly divination in the past where people believe that weather is so unpredictable that only god could help them, to the current advanced technology of placing a satelite in space to monitor weather changes and adjusting their living conditions accordingly in advance. The once impossible task of predicting the weather has become information so easily accessible through media such as TV, radio, and internet etc. Now the interesting question would be, will human be contented to just predicting weather and adjusting their life accordingly or will they start to think of alternatives like altering the weather in future? 

Background/introduction 
What is weather forecast?
Why do people need to forecast weather?

Historical perspective

·        Impact/Importance of weather

o   Why people need weather

o   How people make use of weather

·        How people forecast weather

o   Technologies used

o   Godly divination

·        How people make use of weather forecast methodologies to control people in the past

o   Past Korean/ other country if available

§  Harvest, rich, power

Current situation

·        Impact/Importance of weather

o   Why people need weather

o   How people make use of weather

·        How people forecast weather

o   Technologies used

o   Godly divination

·        How people make use of weather forecast methodologies to live the present life

o   Avoid natural disaster

o   Grow more crops etc

Future considerations

·        Impact/Importance of weather

o   Why people need weather

o   How people make use of weather

·        How people forecast weather

o   Technologies used

o   Godly divination

·        How people can control the weather and impact of such actions

o   Balance of the world is gone

§  Natural disaster in other area of the world

§  Politics and religions view

o   The pros and cons

Conclusions
Throughout the history of mankind, weather has proven its crucial role in impacting human life both positively and negatively. Methodologies of weather forecast have evolved along with technology advances and yet they are unable to achieve 100% accuracy for their prediction in the current times. To further improve the current weather forecast technology to near 100% accuracy might be possible ten years down the road. However, the possibility of creating technology to alter the weather itself is a mystery. Along with the possibility of unpredictable disastrous consequences such as affecting the natural cycle of nature which might hasten the destruction of mother earth, the mere thought of the creation of such technology brings thrills to one such as myself and at the same time sends shivers down the spine. Despite the possible issues, being able to come up with one solution after another is the power of the human mind, which leaves the question of altering weather unanswered.

TWC - Week 03

On our third lesson, we have two objectives, mainly to be equip with:
1) A conceptual framework for intelligently considering the potential economic, social and commercial impact and significance of technology innovation;
2) A solid foundation for considering issues of development, technology policy, change management, and the management of technology.

However, due to a small hiccups, our week 2's presentation topic is brought backward to lesson 3. I was one of the presenter. So let's just start with what i have presented.

I shared an article "High Technology and Human Development" by Stephen K.Ainsah-Mensah. Reason why i chose this article is because he led me to think about issues like how we human have been trying to advance our technology blindly, destroying the environment and how these resources used to build our technology for war could have been better reallocated else where.

His final message which I picked out from the article was that "It is the irresponsible proliferation of, say, war technology, high-tech products, among others, that are in need of criticism and have to stop." Which i agree with him. I feel that in the society that we have now, though people are enjoying themselves, living in high-tech houses, driving huge cars, purchasing all the high-tech products for pure entertainment purposes, there are many people who don't even have a roof over their head. When has the world become so unbalanced? Why are people so focused on building war technologies and harmful products that will destroy the environment and themselves? Why can't they just reallocate these resources to the ones who are really in need? Why has the world been devoid of all love and become a power driven world? Why is it that the one with the biggest gun has the right to say? These questions were hounding within me after the presentation was over.

However, i know that due to the lack of time, i did not do a good job bringing these messages across to the class. Which i deeply regretted because i have just lost one chance in which i could have change someone's mind.

Moving on, on the topic of Technology and Industrial Development: Toward Sustainability, one of our classmate Samantha C***, she brought forth a very interesting article "Masdar City: The World's Greenest City". The article talks about an eco-friendly city that produce zero waste.

Masdar City is a custom-designed settlement, "the world's first zero-carbon city," It would rely entirely on renewable energy — mostly solar — and would produce zero waste. There would be no traditional cars inside the city — all transportation was to be via PRT vehicle — and it would use half the energy of a settlement of the same size. The urban layout — by the green-minded British architect Norman Foster — would combine classic Arab design with 21st century technology.

I find this innovation to be very interesting and really look forward to the day it will be complete.

Key takeaways from lesson 3 was that, personally, i really have to work harder to live life with no regrets. Looking at the effort of certain part of the world to make the world a better place really inspire me to do more for this world that i live in. Of course, there are many times in life where you can't control the situation nor change the world. But the truth is, if everybody thinks that he cannot make a difference, no one will.

My rating for the lesson.. 8/10. 2/10 was due to my extreme tiredness. I find it so hard to concentrate on not sleeping in class..