TWC Session 6

This week’s lesson is on biobusiness revolution in the area of healthcare and biomedical sciences. Biobusiness is commercial activities that are based in an understanding of life sciences and life science processes. It constitutes over 25% of global GDP and employs some 40% of the world’s labor force. Biobusiness had great potential to cause impact to our lives and economies. It can impact our health to the food that we eat. The biobusiness industry, in the area of healthcare, is growing and expanding very quickly. There is one chart in the slides which shows that countries had spent a huge sum of money on healthcare; it made up most of the global expenditure. Since there is so much investment on biomedical research and high focus on human life, biobusiness is perhaps the key for achieving sustainability.

Besides that, on another graph, it shows a trend in the communicable and non-communicable disease patterns. It shows that more developed countries had more chronic diseases whereby developing countries suffer from communicable, maternal, perinatal and nutritional conditions.

We went through this quote by Albert Einstein which says “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” This tells us that we should always plan ahead as only through planning then it will lead to real impacts.

We then went on to discuss on the various reading. The fourth reading that is on disruptive innovations in healthcare discusses on whether the problems in US healthcare industry can be solve by disruptive innovations. It looks at the factors that are cause by resistance within the system to accept the new technologies or systems. It also discusses on the need for leadership to embrace disruptive changes in healthcare sector so as to build a higher quality healthcare system as well as to lower the cost of healthcare system. Companies that is able to come up with cheaper and more convenient disruptive innovations will be a threat to other big companies that are focusing on sustaining innovations to meet high end customer’s needs. This is because they will make it very hard for big companies to enter the market.

There are five persons who had presented this week. I feel that this week’s presentations are very interesting and that all the presenters had presented very well. I have some thought about the second presentation which talks about bring immortal. I think that being immortal will result in one to get older mentally.  If one is to stay forever, their memory will degrade as the time passes.  This is because the brain and its ability to store is limited, and the person has to keep piling up the things that he got to remember over decades. I believe this will eventually clog up the brain and the recalling process will slow down. The immortal life and experience may be endless, but the brain’s ability to store and recall them it not. It would not talk very long before the brain gets piled up with both important and unimportant information!

Overall I think that healthcare services will be cheaper in the future where there are more innovations which means that that there will be a greater number of people who can have access to medical services. Besides that, with more innovations, it will be much more convenient for people to get consultations and treatments.

Individual Topical Report Outline (RFID)

Radio Frequency Identification

Executive Summary

This paper attempts to discuss the benefits of using Radio Frequency Identification Tag and the potential challenges it faced. It will examine what is used before Radio Frequency Identification Tag is invented and the disadvantages that are caused by the previous technology. It will also look at what are some of the uses of Radio Frequency Identification Tag and it advantages of using it. It will then discuss on how Radio Frequency Identification Tag will shape the future. In addition, the paper will also address the issues and challenges faced by using Radio Frequency Identification Tag.

Background/ Introduction

·         Definition of radio frequency identification

·         How is radio identification tag revolutionary change

·         Types of radio frequency identification tag

·         How does radio frequency identification work

Historical Perspective

·         Before RFID was invented, barcode were used.

o   Explanation of barcode

o   Talk about how barcode is used in supply chain

o   Disadvantages of using barcode in supply chain

o   Talk about how barcode is used in library

o   Disadvantages of using barcode in library

·         Disadvantages of barcode

·         Magnetic fare cards used before EZ link card

·         Disadvantages of magnetic farecards

Current Situation

·         How RFID is used in supply chain management

·         The advantages of using in supply chain management

·         How RFID is used in transportation (EZ link card)

·         The advantages of EZ link card / contactless card

·         How RFID is used in library

·         The advantages of using it in library

Future Considerations

·         Usage of RFID in supermarkets  (RFID and value proposition)

o   RFID reducing transaction costs by achieving transaction efficiencies which causes reduction at transaction costs.

·         Many of the business will reshape their business  model (Reshaping existing business models or creating new business models with RFID)

·         Increased number of people using RFID.

Issues / Challenges

·         Immaturity of the industry.

·         The Next Big Privacy Concern: RFID “Spychips”

Conclusion

·         Summary of the issues discussed

·         Reiteration of key points raised

References

TWC Session 5

Today’s lesson is unlike other sessions. We only covered one topic this week which is ICT and world change. We focused on how ICT has changed from the past to the present and what it will be like in the future. We started off the lesson by watch video of Milo (Microsoft’s Project Natal). The video shows way of playing games had changed.  This video shows that this game is able to recognize voice and he reacts to your body movements and facial expressions; Milo is able to recognize emotions, whether you are afraid, scared or lying to him. But I think that these technologies are not just limited to games. In the future, it may be use to do other things such as taking care of children when parents are not around.

We moved on to talk about some of the areas where ICT evolved.  We watch another video entitled Evolution Web 1.0, Web 2.0 to Web 3.0. This video shows how web had transformed throughout these years. We also watch a video on cloud computing. Before this lesson, I didn’t know what is cloud computing, I didn’t know that we are actually using cloud computing. I think that cloud computing is a very good technology because it allows people to exchange files and documents. This way, people will benefit from information that is shared by another user.

There was a quote by Bill Gates that says “The first rule of any technology used in business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation will magnify the inefficiency.” It says that technology plays will vary according to the systems you have in place. If you use an operational model but if is not structured, technology will not help you but will eventually make your life more difficult. However, if you have an operational and structured model, technology will make it more efficient and effective. Buying technology to automat will not help in any way if you don’t have all the right systems in place. Therefore, we have to learn to think through the problems and fix it from the root of the problems before applying technology.

We had also discussed on the potential risks and dangers with ICT. There was a quote by Albert Einstein which says “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology had exceeded our humanity”. I think that this is true as more and more issues such as security concerns, identity theft and invasion of privacy are arising. Hence, I think that people should be careful while using these technologies.

TWC Session4

This week’s lesson is on technology and world change. We started the lesson on talking about some driver of world change. There was a quote in the slide “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent; it is the one that is most adaptable to change” by Charles Robert Darwin. I think that this is definitely true in today’s tough and competitive environment. If one is not adaptable, they will most likely lose out to its competitors. There are major changes everywhere and it forces businesses to rethink about the way that they are doing things. They have to open to changes, learn to be flexible and push boundaries to their competitive limits.

We also talked about the revolutionary and evolutionary change. Revolutionary change is a disruptive change and the current way of operating cannot work anymore. One cannot carry on doing things that way they used to do it. On the other hand, evolutionary change is incremental changes and this change is always happening. I think that evolutionary change is better than revolutionary change because this change is predictable and people can slowly plan. Revolutionary change happens within a relatively short period of time and this would indicate that the risk can be high, but the payoff can be profound.

There are two presentations on the drivers of world change. One of them presented on whether alternative energy can be replace by fossil fuels and the other on presented on how social media changes the world. The rise of social network and the fact that it is everywhere has definitely changes the world in many different aspects. Its changes the way people communicates, the way of doing business, the way you meet people, the way people advertise and so on.

The second part of the lesson is on change management and change leadership. We discussed about leadership and management. Leadership is setting people who lead the change; they set new direction or vision for a group that they follow. Management is people who direct people in a group according to the principles or goals that they have already been established. I think that these two must go hand in hand and they are complementary. If you were to separate them, then problems would occur. This is because there must be someone to set the direction and encouragement to motivate a team to achieve organizational success and another person to direct the team and allocate of resources to maximize efficiency in achieving identified goals.

I am one of the presenters for this topic. I presented on how technology changes the CIO’s role. The article states that the CIO has been transformed from the past to present. It says that times have change and business has become much more IT-aware and IT-literate, and sees the need to get more involved in IT so that business benefits are delivered. As a result, IT has become more influential and has driven changes to the CIO’s role. And I think that CIO now must have business brain instead of only possessing technological skills. CIO has to think of how to make use of new technology to create new business opportunities to ensure their business’s survival.

Overall, I learnt many things related to the drivers of change, change management and change leadership. It is important for one to adapt to change since it has a lot of impacts on the different aspects of your life, the way you do things and it is also very important for survival.

TWC Session 3

The topic for this week’s lesson was on Technology and industrial development toward sustainability and technology and innovation management. We started the first half of the lesson discussing on industrial development from linear to cyclical. The traditional linear approach is bad for the environment as it does not take the negative externalities such as pollution into considerations. It brought economic well-being at the cost of environmental well-being. Now, the world is changing and is moving towards the cyclical approach. This approach is using of the earth's treasures as a foundation for sustainable fashion and lifestyle. The cyclical approach is driven by sustainability and presents an opportunity for innovation, growth and value creation that promises to bring both economic and environmental well-being.

Our professor had showed us a video entitled The Story of Stuff. This video is critical of excessive consumerism and promotes sustainability. This video shows us that the consumer driven culture is affecting out future generation. After watching this video, I start to think a bit more critically about the media that I consume. And this video has definitely raised my awareness about the often hidden impacts of production and consumption.

There are two presenters for the first part of the lessons. One of them the documentary entitled develop or die and the other one presented on role of technology in sustainable development. Both of the presentations are quite interesting. One question that was discussed in class was whether biofuel was sustainable. I think that it is possible for biofuel to be sustainable. I believe that it will be sustainable as long as it is produce from a sustainable feedstock which is always available and if the feedstock is grow is the right land and country.

We started the second part of the lesson with a quote from Tom Peters. It says that one cannot do the same thing all the time and still is able to succeed. Because of innovation, things changes from time to time. One had to constantly upgrade its skills and constantly change in order to be successful. We move on to talk about the Shahi Landscape Model for Technology Assessment. This framework consists of valley opportunities, summit opportunities and the cloud opportunities. I have learnt from this framework that we should focus on the summit opportunities approach. This approach puts people, technologies and resources together to capture the value of proposition. This approach will help the raise the standard of living and increase business revenue.

There are 3 presentations for the second half of the lesson. All of their presentations were interesting but I like the article on How Apple Got Everything Right By Doing Everything Wrong most. It shows how apple’s innovation helped the company to position itself ahead of its competitors and at the forefront of the technology industries. Overall, I learnt that in order for your business o survive, you have constantly come up do research and come up with new ideas. If not, your business will be left behind and overtaken by other companies. Also, sustainability is important, but one had to make sure that they are doing it in a way that will benefit the future generations.

TWC Session 2

There are two topics that we had covered in this week’s lesson. The topics are technology, society and global dominance and technology and human development. We started off the lesson by discussing on how to identify innovation leaders and dominant players. We used a concept that was created by our professor. This concept allows us to classify a country as a rising star, dominant player or falling star. The traits of a falling star are open perspective, optimistic, hungry to learn from others and keen to invest in new ideas. Conversely, the traits of a falling star are closed perspective, pessimistic, not interested in learning from others and not keen to invest in new ideas. As for the dominant player, it is one with is on top on the pyramid. Well, I think that in order to be a rising star, one must remain hungry and be willing to learn new things. Those that are staying on the same spot thinking that they are at the top on the hill or those that are doing something that are not progressive shows that they are on the way to becoming a falling star.

This is the first week where we have student lectures to teach us more about the topics that we will be covering. The first presenter presented on Google. I think that Google is not making us stupid but it is making us smarter. With Google, we get to access to a whole lot of information easily and quickly. And I also think that Google is not making us be like one another; I believe that is has got to do with how the information is used.

We had two presenters who presented on the second topic. One of the presenters mentioned about how new technology can allow humans to live for a limitless amount of time. I think that this has its own advantages and disadvantages. If we were to stay forever, we will not feel sad when someone close to us has passed away, but I bet that there will be insufficient land since people are producing and no one leaves the world. The next presentation was on technology and genetic engineering. We discussed on parents being able to choose their own child’s features. If this were to happen, I think it might lead to a situation where human further dwell in the endless chase for the perfect appearance. And no people will be taking up low paying jobs if babies were engineered into extremely intelligent, artistic, athletic geniuses.

Our professor also showed us a video entitled The Millennium Development Goals. This video is about eight international development goals that entire international community have agreed to achieve by the year 2015. Its goals are improving social and economic conditions in the world's poorest countries. I think that having these goals is definitely a good thing but I think that it is too idealistic and not quite feasible.  All the goals may not be achieved but there are definitely some progresses and I believe that the number of people who are suffering from poverty and hunger will be reduced.

Week 1 Lesson

This is the first TWC lesson and before attending this lesson I didn’t know much about technology. To me, technology is something that makes my life a lot easier. I treasure all the gadgets that I have and I doubt that I will be able to survive without my phone or computer.

The lesson was started with a video entitled “Shifts Happens”. This video shows us a lot of figures and facts which was quite frightening. I only realized that the world had changed so much after watching the video. One thing that I learnt was that technology has been causing the world to evolve at a very fast pace and that technology is slowly becoming a part of our lives.

We were also shown a website that shows the historical timeline. I think that this is a very interesting website as it shows when things were found or invented. I certainly learnt many new and amazing facts from this website. I never knew that the first fish was found 500000000 years ago and the first form of speech was from 200000 years ago.

Another video that we watched was “Guns, Germs and Steel” by Jared Diamond. This video shows why there is such inequality between those who have advanced technology and those who still live primitively. In that video a Papua New Guinean raised question to Jared Diamond. That question was why you white men have so much cargo and we new Guineans have so little. This question was discussed in class and several reasons were mentioned. Well, as for me, I believe that it is mainly due to environmental and geographical factors. Papa New Guineans and westerners were born at very different places. It just happened that the westerners were born at a place with resources and opportunities that enabled them to have so much more cargo. It certainly has nothing to do with the different race but the two factors that were stated above.

There was a picture in our slides that shows that technology had increased the number of obese people. Well, I think that it not really the situation. I think that it actually depends on yourself and the choice you make. One should bear in mind that technology is developed with the purpose of making our lives easier. It has never been designed to incapacitate us.