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.
Sunday, 11 September 2011
Friday, 9 September 2011
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?
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.
Monday, 5 September 2011
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..
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..
Sunday, 28 August 2011
TWC - Week 02
Finally had some time to blog about week 2's lesson!
Our professor has introduced this diagram to us that helps us how to identify between:
1) A rising star
2) A dominant star
3) A falling star
The key takeaway of that diagram, which i believe is the observation that he stated:
"Societies/Corporations/Organizations at different stages of innovation leadership and technology dominance display very different behavioral traits and operational attitudes… "
True enough, why did so many dominant players fell and how did certain companies overtake the existing dominant companies of the industry and became the dominant player themselves? It all lies on the attitude and behavior, the mindset of the organization.
Next, he showed us a few video. My favorite was titled "History of the World in seven minutes". Which i personally finds that the usage of music to bring out the message of the video is very interesting and unique. In this case, i would say that music is a technology, a tool that made this video successful. I am very sure that the video would not have achieved its desired result without this technology.
After the videos, we had our classmates to present on their oral presentation. My favorite topic would be Technology and Human Development. The fellow classmate has mentioned about the technology of cloning human.
She mentioned a few interesting facts such as cloned human or cloned beings behaves EXACTLY THE SAME as their clones. Wow? It means to say everything that you do, and how you think, will be the same. But i guess it is impossible. Say for instance, i slap A. Will B feels the pain? Not likely.
I remember a pro to human cloning. One might say that the clone will be able to provide the original with the vital organs that the original needs to survive in any case that the original needs it. However, would it be right to kill the clone to save the original? Is the clone not considered as an alive being then?
I guess the key takeaway for me on that day was really:
1) To think again whether technology really have more pros than cons
2) I will never be able to catch up with technology
Next, he showed us a few video. My favorite was titled "History of the World in seven minutes". Which i personally finds that the usage of music to bring out the message of the video is very interesting and unique. In this case, i would say that music is a technology, a tool that made this video successful. I am very sure that the video would not have achieved its desired result without this technology.
After the videos, we had our classmates to present on their oral presentation. My favorite topic would be Technology and Human Development. The fellow classmate has mentioned about the technology of cloning human.
She mentioned a few interesting facts such as cloned human or cloned beings behaves EXACTLY THE SAME as their clones. Wow? It means to say everything that you do, and how you think, will be the same. But i guess it is impossible. Say for instance, i slap A. Will B feels the pain? Not likely.
I remember a pro to human cloning. One might say that the clone will be able to provide the original with the vital organs that the original needs to survive in any case that the original needs it. However, would it be right to kill the clone to save the original? Is the clone not considered as an alive being then?
I guess the key takeaway for me on that day was really:
1) To think again whether technology really have more pros than cons
2) I will never be able to catch up with technology
Tuesday, 16 August 2011
TWC - Week 01
Hi all, to whoever is reading this blog. I am not someone who is good at writing down my thoughts, so opening this blog is definitely not my idea, but the requirement of the course I am studying in.
Technology and World Change. How strange? Today when i was asked to think about what is Technology and World Change, all i could think of is that I am so sick and tired of chasing after the new technologies that keep emerging. As a Information System student, i have learnt lots of technologies and how to implement them, and i know that all that certifications will never bring me to where i want to be in the IT world because even while i am studying about something, it is getting expired and new technologies are coming up to overtake the old ones.
Within the 3 hours lecture that we had in class, my professor did an interesting thing. Instead of teaching non-stop, he showed us this YouTube video call Guns, Germs and Steel. Click on the link the see it. After the video, he asked the question that was asked in the video "Why is it that white people developed so much cargo, but black people had so little cargo of their own?"
Yes. Why? Though there were certain explanations such as geographic differences and pure luck and coincidence, I think likewise. Yes, to a certain extend, if you live in a land filled with resources, you are able to produce goods with them. To say that such occurrence happens without luck, it would be to boast. Just look at Japan for example, living in the ring of fire, we would all agree that they don't have much luck. Allocating resources to disaster recovery as well as disaster prevention are slowing down or even preventing Japan from fully utilizing their resources and become an even more advance and strong country. Back to the question posted to us, besides blaming the differences between the blacks and the whites base on geographic location and luck, I agree with one of the classmate who mentioned that the white used available technologies in the world and made use of them. Personally i also think that given available resources, if you don't do anything about it, how will you ever advance?
So to me, the answer is pretty much explained by how contented you are with what you have, how much change are you willing to take up in order to live a better life than how you are living now, how lucky you are to be in whichever situations that you are in now. After thinking about the possible answers, i felt that instead of answering his question, i want to ask the black people "why aren't you doing anything about it?" In summary it is all human decision i guess.
So to me, the answer is pretty much explained by how contented you are with what you have, how much change are you willing to take up in order to live a better life than how you are living now, how lucky you are to be in whichever situations that you are in now. After thinking about the possible answers, i felt that instead of answering his question, i want to ask the black people "why aren't you doing anything about it?" In summary it is all human decision i guess.
For the first day, that's pretty much what i managed to remember. The most interesting thing is, before the lesson, i felt nothing about the three word "Technology and World Change". Now, i feel like i am looking forward to what this course has got to show me about the world that i am living in now.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)