This video was fascinating.. in fact I watched it more than once. I was showing this to some others and I was anxious to create a peekaboom account. I was astounded at the fact about the amount of time people play solitaire around the world (and also players that played ESP for more than 10 hours). I guess I underestimate other peoples time.
The CAPTCHA concept was an interesting segment and I also thought the remarks about "other" industries are using them for spam was very intriguing. I'm curious to see what other games will be created to capture more information about images and tags in the future. Perhaps these games could be marketed to inmates.. they have time to solve these simple problems.
If only we could use human computation to help solve world and economic issues...
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Wharton On Managing Emerging Technologies
Summary:
Emerging technologies are the future for many industries and will tranform many existing industries. As defined in the preface, "Wharton Emerging technologies Management Research Program was established in 1994 and was comprised of faculty and senior executives to analyze emerging tech and develop strategies for its success across all lines of an organization. The preface defined 7 different priorities top help managing emerging technologies.
The first chapter talked about the disruption emerging technologies can have on an organization and that a required mindset and skillset are needed to be successful in the implementation process. Emerging technologies can do great things for companies and create new opportunities and competitive advantages. But, it can also destroy a business if not carefully planned. Emerging tech can have great complexity and uncertainty which create great challenges for an organization to manage. Understanding knowledge from experiements, experience, and how a customer uses the technology can help give organizations an upper hand with deriving and implementing emerging technology. But, learning from the mistakes is an invaluable lesson. The paradox a company must accept in order to be successful - commit but be flexible. There are few simple answers in emerging technology and learning managing the ambiguity can lead to the best rewards.
Comments:
Necessity is the mother of invention - pioneers are able to identify and understand the necessities and develop strategies to exploit these ideas. But, as the book stated, many pioneers fail. Companies should understand that implementing and investing in emerging technologies are risky but the rewards can be great. Apple didn't get to be #1 in the portable music device market by waiting to see what other companies were doing. They learned quickly from projects like the Newton handheld that if it doesn't catch on, try to reinnovate the product (i.e. the new iphone). I'm interested to see how the other chapters outline the framework for managing the technology and examples of how other companies have succeeded and failed.
Emerging technologies are the future for many industries and will tranform many existing industries. As defined in the preface, "Wharton Emerging technologies Management Research Program was established in 1994 and was comprised of faculty and senior executives to analyze emerging tech and develop strategies for its success across all lines of an organization. The preface defined 7 different priorities top help managing emerging technologies.
The first chapter talked about the disruption emerging technologies can have on an organization and that a required mindset and skillset are needed to be successful in the implementation process. Emerging technologies can do great things for companies and create new opportunities and competitive advantages. But, it can also destroy a business if not carefully planned. Emerging tech can have great complexity and uncertainty which create great challenges for an organization to manage. Understanding knowledge from experiements, experience, and how a customer uses the technology can help give organizations an upper hand with deriving and implementing emerging technology. But, learning from the mistakes is an invaluable lesson. The paradox a company must accept in order to be successful - commit but be flexible. There are few simple answers in emerging technology and learning managing the ambiguity can lead to the best rewards.
Comments:
Necessity is the mother of invention - pioneers are able to identify and understand the necessities and develop strategies to exploit these ideas. But, as the book stated, many pioneers fail. Companies should understand that implementing and investing in emerging technologies are risky but the rewards can be great. Apple didn't get to be #1 in the portable music device market by waiting to see what other companies were doing. They learned quickly from projects like the Newton handheld that if it doesn't catch on, try to reinnovate the product (i.e. the new iphone). I'm interested to see how the other chapters outline the framework for managing the technology and examples of how other companies have succeeded and failed.
WSJ - Don't Fence Me In
IDS (Intrusion Detection Systems) are becoming more popular for businesess as they worry about the security of their data. These systems certainly have their place in business and the article mentioned the financial losses from cybercrime. I am sure that for the 1 company that reports cybercrime, there are 10 companies that don't. Cybercrime can destroy a business and I think coupling this technology with other technologies such as firewalls and other access controls is a must for every businesses. But, because all of these things put overhead on the network (including AV and other host based scanners) and speed will always be a tradeoff until processing capabilities can be improved.
False positives is and will always be an issue because the enviroment in which it monitors is so dynamic. I think education of users as to the dangers out on the web and how to protect yourself and the company can help eliminate many issues associated with IDS. Companies should also invest a good portion of the money for an IDS into the setup and maintenance. These systems are complicated to administer and become easily outdated without regular and routine maintenance.
False positives is and will always be an issue because the enviroment in which it monitors is so dynamic. I think education of users as to the dangers out on the web and how to protect yourself and the company can help eliminate many issues associated with IDS. Companies should also invest a good portion of the money for an IDS into the setup and maintenance. These systems are complicated to administer and become easily outdated without regular and routine maintenance.
WSJ - Predictions of the Past
Summary: The article evaluated technology predictions from 1998 to determine if the trends and changes in technology over the next 10 years would come true. The article looked at the following areas:
- Changes in social dymanics
- The new wave of desktop PC technology and computing power over 10 years
- Cell phone usage in US
- Obtaining electronic music
- The use of E-books and E-book technology
- Online Education versus brick-and-mortor institutions for learning
- Outsourcing and emerging countries that benefit from technology
- The banking industry and electronic transfers
It was interesting that predictors did not forsee the social impacts of online tools. Chat was very popular in the 90's and today. I find it hard to believe that they did not believe that individuals would not want to be more creative and expressive using different tools and channels to connect with friends,relatives, or colleagues.
The PC prediction was to be expected looking at trends in technology over the last 20 years and the leaps and bounds made in personal computing capacity and capability. I thought that they might actually be further ahead than they are today.
I wasn't too surprised over the increase in cell-phone usage as I see children at 5 years of age with their own cellphone these days. With the mass adoption of cellphone for both personal and professional use, it's no wonder that 81% of the pop have a cell phone (some have as many as 2 or 3).
The electronic sharing of music was in it's peak around the late 90's and early 2000 with Napster and other P2P music sharing apps. I am surprised that mini-disc didn't do more for the advances in digital music players and the sharing of music.
I've tried ebooks and reading online and I don't like it. If there was a way to decrease the contrast and make it easier on the eyes, I think more people would be utilizing this technology. I've seen the ebook kiosks in airports and I'm interested in trying that the next time I travel.
Online instutions have their place but I think it's hard to beat a brick-and-mortar classroom to share ideas and learn. Even with online courses, sharing information and concepts I find is more difficult because body language and sometimes tone are left out. Having resources online has been wonderful (i.e. library resources for doing research).
Outsourcing to emerging countries has shown to be both successful and detrimental to our economy. I'm sure this will be discussed more in class.
I contribute to the electronic banking industry and I was happy to hear that forecasters were wrong about this technology. The majority of my banking activity is done through electronic payments and transfers as this has been commonly accepted by most of the younger generations.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
New Emerging Tech Topic - A Brain Chip to Control Paralyzed Limbs
The innovations and emerging technologies in the biomedical field is quite fascinating to me. I found this article on Tech review called "A Brain Chip to Control Paralyzed Limbs". Essentially, a "tiny chip containing 100 electrodes that record signals from hundreds of neurons in the motor cortex, the part of the brain that modulates movement. A computer algorithm then translates this complex pattern of activity into a signal used to control a computer or prosthetic limb." This opens many doors for patients suffering from paralysis and offers returned motor function for the physically impaired.
WSJ Articles - Thinking about Tomorrow
Summary:
The article addressed how technology will change over the next 10 years in all aspects of our life. The article specifically mentioned changes:
The article addressed how technology will change over the next 10 years in all aspects of our life. The article specifically mentioned changes:
- our shopping experience will change and become more personal
- video games will improve and become more realistic and interactive
- media such as TV and movies will evolve to be of better quality and improved viewing experience
- our social networks become better integrated and inform of us events
search for things online - how we receive the news and protect our privacy online
How we Shop: The shopping experience will change greatly in the future. The experience will become more personalized both in marketing to us as we shop in stores and online. Shopping will allow us to be more self-sufficient in getting what we need more quickly and easily through touch screen and wireless technology. By tracking user preferences, this technology will help me find what I am looking for while also offering me alternatives to my product. Because I am a shopper that doesn’t like to shop around, I like when alternatives are presented upon my finding an item.
How we play games: Photorealism is becoming better and better for the gaming consoles. The visual experience for users will change as graphics and videos become more lifelike, with the possibility of personalizing yourself into the gaming through side stories and replicas of your own face. The movement away from a controller by using cameras to monitor movement allow for new opportunities to enhance the gaming experience which I am really excited about. In playing the Nintendo Wii and online games, I’ve seen the revolution in how we play games. I look forward to the day when I can feel more “immersed” in the game and have all of the senses utilized (currently just sight, sound, touch). How will online play change and how will playing with a friend in the living room become more realistic?
How we watch media: We can watch media on many types of handheld devices today allowing us to be entertained while being mobile. Much of the media of today has moved out to the web for greatly flexibility in reaching target and new audiences. 3D technologies are increasing as well as picture quality to give movie goes a better movie experience. The article mentioned that hologram technology will give the realistic feeling of having an actor on stage in your living room. I’ve seen preliminary holographic technology (through videos online) and it has a way to come before it will work. Will lighting conditions in homes be altered to improve the viewing of this technology?
How we make and keep friends: Text messaging and social online networks allow people to connect with old friends and meet new friends. I’ve become a facebook user and this technology has been great to find old friends and meet new friends. The networking not only connects me with old friends, but compares my preferences with theirs as it relates to movies, music, and media. I learn new things about them without having to ask.
How we search: In the article, it talked about how the search has moved from the computer to handhelds and how quickly we can now find information. GPS technology helps bring new markets to us and allows us to easily access information. At times, I feel like this technology promotes information overload. As the example in the article illustrated, if I am driving in my car and my GPS alerts me to restaurants in a .25 mile radius while looking for a place to eat, this would be fantastic. If it would also recommend new places that I have not visited but might be interested in, this would greatly enhance my dining out experience.
News and Privacy: Much of the news we receive today comes from friends and online sources. The channel to get our news is so dispersed we need to be careful of the credibility of the source. We have many new ways of receiving the news in real-time and I think the handheld devices will become the dominant player for receiving new stories. Because we now tend to broadcast our own news via blogs, websites, GPS, we must be careful that others don’t use this information to take advantage of us. We should also be hesitant on what we choose to share online and how we can share the information in a secure manner.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
World Economic Forum Article Discussion
Articles of interest from the World Economic Forum:
23andMe -- the ability to find others with a similar genetic pattern opens many doors for healthcare. Imagine fighting a new disease and being able to network with others who are fighting the same illness. The ability to find donors for treatment and to share experiences could bring a huge paradigm shift to healthcare. If it wasn't $1000, I'd try it.
InSightec -- The issue I have with modern medicine is that some doctors feel that invasive surgery is the only way to treat certain illnesses and diseases. InSightec could do great things for treating breast cancer (which can have terrible physical side effects) and I'm an anxious to hear more about this technology.
Neurosynaptics Comms - With the idea of telemedicine, I am interested in when the technology will be good enough that doctors will be able to perform surgeries from a remote location using high speed internet to transfer back images of the patient and using robotic arms (or machines)to actually perform the surgery .
Kayak.com - I have used this service and I really like how it aggregates my results from other vendors to find the cheapest price on flights. I believe there are other competitors in this industry that are doing the same thing but perhaps kayak could use it's services in other industries (i.e. compare a clothing brand across 5 major retail stores, a model of car across 5 different dealerships). This will help consumers find the best price without the hassle of doing large amounts of research. The chart feature is really neat if the user is flexible on travel dates. I find this is one of the most difficult tasks to do is research different dates easily and quickly. This worked great.
Lumio - I have seen this technology many years ago when it was used to project a keyboard on an office desk. The person sitting at the desk was typing on this "virtual" keyboard and, from what I remember, the user found this very uncomfortable on their fingers. Perhaps other applications could prove to be more effective for this technology than the virtual keyboard. Correction: After looking on their website, this could be huge in the medical industry where keyboards must be kept clean. Same goes for clean rooms like clean rooms in the semiconductor industry.
23andMe -- the ability to find others with a similar genetic pattern opens many doors for healthcare. Imagine fighting a new disease and being able to network with others who are fighting the same illness. The ability to find donors for treatment and to share experiences could bring a huge paradigm shift to healthcare. If it wasn't $1000, I'd try it.
InSightec -- The issue I have with modern medicine is that some doctors feel that invasive surgery is the only way to treat certain illnesses and diseases. InSightec could do great things for treating breast cancer (which can have terrible physical side effects) and I'm an anxious to hear more about this technology.
Neurosynaptics Comms - With the idea of telemedicine, I am interested in when the technology will be good enough that doctors will be able to perform surgeries from a remote location using high speed internet to transfer back images of the patient and using robotic arms (or machines)to actually perform the surgery .
Kayak.com - I have used this service and I really like how it aggregates my results from other vendors to find the cheapest price on flights. I believe there are other competitors in this industry that are doing the same thing but perhaps kayak could use it's services in other industries (i.e. compare a clothing brand across 5 major retail stores, a model of car across 5 different dealerships). This will help consumers find the best price without the hassle of doing large amounts of research. The chart feature is really neat if the user is flexible on travel dates. I find this is one of the most difficult tasks to do is research different dates easily and quickly. This worked great.
Lumio - I have seen this technology many years ago when it was used to project a keyboard on an office desk. The person sitting at the desk was typing on this "virtual" keyboard and, from what I remember, the user found this very uncomfortable on their fingers. Perhaps other applications could prove to be more effective for this technology than the virtual keyboard. Correction: After looking on their website, this could be huge in the medical industry where keyboards must be kept clean. Same goes for clean rooms like clean rooms in the semiconductor industry.
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