First and foremost, what are consumers? – as defined by Wikipedia, “a broad label for any individuals or households that use goods and services generated within the economy. The concept of consumer occurs in different contexts, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary.” Typically every one of us are consumers, every day we consume different products and utilize different man – made creations / products. Every day, we go shopping and buy something to eat. We consume something and that is why we are called consumers. Historically, we as consumers are passive. We tend to see products passively. The market has the capacity to demand and control the products as well as the prices of the stuff they made. And as consumers, we simply abide to them. We just let the market do as they please. Also as consumers we need to be responsible. Being a responsible consumer means being aware of your rights and the consumer protection services provided by law and various government agencies. Be a proactive consumer and actively protect your right to choose of safe, reliable quality products. When it comes to choices, as consumer, it is everyone’s basic right to choose, however, you can be equally responsible in keeping yourself informed of how really good and reasonable you are about your choices. As a responsible consumer to start with, there are millions of products that are offered worldwide but you must be selective in protecting yourself from misleading advertisement and shun consumer products that don’t serve the best interest to consumers. Only patronize consumer goods offering better concession and value. Monitor and note down products that adhere to the ethics of truth in advertising and refrain from being misled by unscrupulous vendors and advertisers. Every Consumer has the right of choice and access to products that are in compliance with quality and safety standards set by the government regulatory body. It is also of anyone’s right to approve or reject from onerous terms and restrictions in service contracts for telecoms, internet, electricity and other services.
Other globally recognized rights in store for every consumer to wit:
• To be given the facts and information to make right choices.
• To select from a range of quality and reasonably price goods and services.
• To be protected against any hazards that can affect one’s health or life.
• To be duly represented in policy or in product development to obtain proper consumer education.
• To get a fair resolution of just claims.
• To respect everyone’s right to live and work in a healthy and sustainable environment.
Along with these rights, every consumer has to be vigilant and critically aware of the social and environmental impacts of his or her choices.
As the trend in technology continues to influence us in every aspect of our lives, we consumers have evolved and break the traditional passive consumers. We have broken the seal that binds us to the traditional way of passivity. Now we are labeled as “prosumers”. A way different from passive consumers, prosumer means proactive consumers. Hence the name suggests. The death of the consumers means that there is a new breed of consumers in this era. And that new breed is called PROSUMERS.
A new survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit predicts that by 2013 customers will be the most important source of innovation within organizations. The term "prosumer" defines a situation where the line between producer and consumer blur.
In the past, customers have often been involved in product development. However, this has typically taken place near the end of the product development process. Now Web 2.0 or social media is making ongoing interactions between customers and companies feasible.
This prediction for the growth of "prosuming" will not be a surprise to many. Companies like Proctor and Gamble, Nokia and Lego are doing it today with tremendous success. Research and development costs are decreasing, customers actually want the new products and features, and prosumers become passionate advocates—before the product is launched.
In times to come, the consumer will not be content with riding pillion. They will want to actively drive and shape the market, thus the name implies. Proactive consumers are those who are a section of consumers who are no longer part of a passive market upon which industry dumps consumer goods but who are an intrinsic part of the creative process. Customer-led innovation is inevitable, most marketers and advertisers aver citing the rush of hobbyist-hackers to improve everything from Legos to computers to solutions to arrest hair fall. The term “prosumer” isn’t a new one. It’s been around the marketing world for years, but in today’s world of the social web, it has taken on a new importance that marketers can’t ignore. The term “prosumer” has transformed from “professional consumer” to “product and brand advocate”. Rather than simply “consuming” products, people are becoming the voices of those products and significantly impacting the success or failure of companies, products, and brands, particularly through their involvement on the social web. In simplest terms, no longer are businesses completely in control of their products, brands and messages. Today, consumers are in control. The leaders of this shift are the members of the social web — bloggers, microbloggers, forum posters, social networking participants, and so on, who spread messages, influence people around the world, and drive demand. Prosumers are the online influencers that marketers must not just identify but also acknowledge, respect and develop relationships with in order for their products and brands to thrive. The high level steps to leveraging the power of prosumers are as follows:
1. Identify the key online influencers for your product, brand, business or industry (i.e., the prosumers).
2. Acknowledge those people (e.g., send product samples, ask opinions, etc.).
3. Join the online conversation where those people already spend time.
4. Develop relationships with those people by interacting with them, providing useful information, and being accessible and human.
5. Leverage the opportunities of the social web by creating your own branded destinations such as a blog, YouTube channel, Twitter profile, Facebook group or fan page, LinkedIn group, podcast, etc.
The bottom line to connecting with prosumers and to get them talking about and advocating your brand, products and business is to deliver content that adds value to their experience with your brand. Then, don’t be afraid to let them take control and spread your messages. That’s where the power of the social web and online influencers to drive word-of-mouth marketing farther than ever comes into the picture, and that’s the ultimate goal for marketers.
Product champions
On an average a proactive consumer or for brevity prosumer will speak to nine people, compared to a consumer who will speak to two people about the same thing. They are human media, a powerful word-of-mouth brigade. They are brand evangelists, so to say. The prosumer as defined above is a proactive consumer who is an enthusiastic outlet of sorts, who goes out of his way to promote the brand he likes. He becomes the product champion, an evangelist of sorts.
Trend spotters
Prosumers are of particular value to marketers looking to anticipate future trends. They are an early warning system about consumer next and a true conversational currency. For the marketing giant, they are an important enough category to be studied. And for marketers, they both reflect and shape markets. Being highly communicative, they pickup what others are thinking and reflect it through the lens of their own experiences. And, being interested in innovation, they gather information widely. They could be jostling in the malls, arcades and stores, foraging for bargains, discounts and promotional offers. Today’s consumers cannot just be propositioned; they need in a brand a promise of sustained tenure of togetherness. He goes on to add that a brand must be good to cohabit with; it must create that space where brand prosumers can keep each other company.
Value plus
The change in stance is reflected clearly in cosmetics. There has been a distinct evolution in the offering, from where the product is simple (nail enamel, lipstick, skin cream, hair color) to the brand morphing into an institution. Pond’s as a brand is not just a solution that we can apply. Instead, it is a complete program in itself— the Pond’s Institute. Thus Pond’s is not just a skin cream or moisturizer for a basic need; it is a brand integrating product and service solution. The idea to continue with the consumer offering and take it to the next level is that of the prosumer. The evolution of the digital camera best illustrates the point. For ages, photography was considered an art form to be practiced only by the eccentric few who had loads of money to develop tons of film rolls too get those few treasured shots. Not any more. Since its inception, digital photography has gained immense popularity. Major factors influencing trend were the case of handling and low running costs and these advantages were publicized by prosumers. The idea was simple: break free from the clasp and clutter of manual cameras and embrace its more popular cousin, the digital camera.
Emotional connect
Advertising mavericks are now turning to emotions as a plank to cut across the clutter. A brand’s equity that is built over intangible parameters also takes a longer time and effort for a competitor to be able to neutralize. The birth of many a great brand owes much to this idea. Like Marlboro Country, where the flavor is the outdoors, the ruggedness, the self-sufficiency and the solitude. The caring Nivea male, the Johnson& Johnson mom, the Six Sigma of Motorola, the Nike jogger are more such examples. Prosumers resent heavy-handed attempts to beat them into submission, preferring instead high-quality, entertaining advertising work. Good advertising flatters their well-developed sense of discernment. Prosumers are the approximately 20-30% of people t the vanguard of consumerism. It is difficult to fool them. We have moved on to the next level in the consumer need ladder. With increasing product parity and technological equality, consumers are looking beyond a straightforward solution. Communication for more and more services utilizes functional benefits more as a support rather than as a driver.
As the social web has grown and tools like Twitter, blogs, Facebook and YouTube have allowed communications to flow faster and further than ever before — inevitably causing the world to shrink and real-time to be the expectation — people have changed. Those changes affect most aspects of our daily lives, including our roles as individuals with buying power, and that’s a shift that businesses and their employees need to understand if they want to stay profitable in the future. In simplest terms, people have moved from being CONsumers to PROsumers with far more influence than ever before.The term “prosumer” isn’t a new one. It’s been around the marketing world for years, but in today’s world of the social web, it has taken on a new importance that business leaders and marketers can’t ignore. The term “prosumer” has transformed from meaning “professional consumer” to meaning “product and brand advocate.” Rather than simply “consuming” products, people are becoming the voices of those products and significantly impacting the success or failure of companies, products, and brands, particularly through their involvement on the social web. No longer are businesses completely in control of their products, brands and messages. Today, consumers are in control. The leaders of this shift are the members of the social web — bloggers, microbloggers, forum posters, social networking participants, and so on, which spread messages, influence people around the world, and drive demand. Prosumers are the online influencers that business leaders and marketers must not just identify but also acknowledge, respect and develop relationships with in order for their products and brands to thrive.
The high level steps to leveraging the power of prosumers are as follows:
• Identify the key online influencers for your product, brand, business or industry (i.e., the prosumers).
• Acknowledge those people (e.g., send product samples, ask opinions, etc.).
• Join the online conversation where those people already spend time.
• Develop relationships with those people by interacting with them, providing useful information, and being accessible and human.
• Leverage the opportunities of the social web by creating your own branded destinations such as a blog, YouTube channel, Twitter profile, Facebook group or fan page, LinkedIn group, podcast, etc.
The bottom line to connect with prosumers and to get them talking about and advocating you, your brand, products and business is to deliver content that adds value to their experiences with your brand online. Then, don’t be afraid to let them take control and spread your messages. That’s where the power of the social web and online influencers to drive word-of-mouth marketing farther than ever comes into the picture, and that’s the ultimate goal for business leaders and marketers.
There is a vision, a bright shiny vision of a new future in which museums and their users become conspirators in the process of capturing, preserving and interpreting culture. These new museums will be open, democratic, agile and able to reflect the shifting patterns of life in contemporary society. This vision is informed in part by the vocabulary of the Digital Revolution - a post-Web 2.0 vocabulary of ‘prosumers’ and ’perpetual beta’ which denotes a basic attitudinal shift in the process of producing and delivering services. These new models, even where they don’t involve technology, are intrinsically connected to a technological world-view. A picture in which there are no barriers to entry, a Digital meritocracy where both tools and content are open to all to use, where you can go from idea to business to millionaire in the space of a week. Ever since the 1950’s, technology has earned its keep by promising more than it is capable of, and the new era is no different. Although the code may be open-source, the community of people who are able to do anything with it represents just as much of an oligarchic closed shop as the Athenian aristocracy. This glamour - the illusory and fleeting appeal of vogueish technologies which makes it impossible to discern real, lasting social movements from tiny whorls of Digital possibility - is dangerous for any sector which embraces it too readily, and particularly so for one as delicately positioned in society as Cultural Heritage.
Resources:
http://openculture.collectionstrustblogs.org.uk/2009/05/21/prosumers-seriously/
Monday, December 20, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Trends and Opportunities in Convergence
CONVERGENCE.
Convergence, whenever I encounter this word, I always think of change. Changes must be made in order for us to move on and catch up to this fast paced world. Whenever there is convergence, trends and opportunities follow. According to whatis.techtarget.com, they defined Convergence as: “In general, convergence is a coming together of two or more distinct entities or phenomena. Convergence is increasingly prevalent in the IT world; in this context the term refers to the combination of two or more different technologies in a single device. Taking pictures with a cell phone and surfing the Web on a television are two of the most common examples of this trend.” Moreover, Mr. Garry Foster noted that: “Convergence is a concept of bringing together technology products and services in a unique and meaningful way. A perfect example is a cell phone with a digital camera. The challenge for tech companies — from a device perspective — is to find the right combinations that are appropriate to their purchasing public. Some companies will try to load up anything on their products as though it were a Swiss Army Knife. “
Everywhere we see examples of convergence in products and business: today car manufacturers produce automobiles that all look the same on the body chassis, for they were designed in wind tunnels, further researching to attain perfection and market dominance. As a result, they all have similar features, and they targeted for the same markets. Personal Computers have become mobile phones and mobile phones become entertainment centers. Mobile Phones have become cameras and cameras have become personal organizers. Also, telecom companies have become media houses. As a result, convergence will transform every aspect of the IT industry, together with all communications, media, music, film, TV and other entertainment. But convergence can be boring, destroys variety, breeds monopoly, kills invention, adds unwanted options, makes life more complicated - and robs consumers of choice. When every product offers the same features, and is a similar price, where is the competitive advantage except by making your own products even cheaper? – The product with the lowest price wins in this regard. There is a lot of convergence that took place since the beginning of the 21th century. But before anything else, let me discuss first about the technological convergence.
Technological convergence.
Technological convergence is the trend wherein innovative technologies merge into new and updated technologies that bring together a wide array of options. For example, the merging of Sony – a Japanese consumer electronics company, Sony Corporation, and Ericsson – a Swedish telecommunications company to form Sony Ericsson and produce high quality and innovative mobile phones. Utilizing the capacity of Sony’s electronic prowess and Ericsson’s expertise in telecommunications, they have set the trend for the new and innovative era – Walkman’s and Cyber shot’s line up of mobile phones stole the lime light of portable radios, mp3 players and digital cameras. This paved the way of portable and all in one music player and digital camera. Walkman series focused and targeted audiophiles and the like, making this a big hit when Sony Ericsson released the very first model of the Walkman Series – the Sony Ericsson W800i. Cyber shot Series focused on the camera side, entering the boundaries of digital cameras, making your point and shoot camera outdated. By converging technologies, there will always be a trend as well as opportunity, take for example of Sony Ericsson, Sony and Ericsson saw the opportunity to merged their companies to form their new brand to serve and kick start the new era of mobile phones. And turns out to be a good decision for them because when they released their Walkman Series, they have set the trend of music portability, they delivered a successful and innovative musically gifted handset and make people screaming for more. In the past, each entertainment medium was device specific, meaning video was to be played on a television by using a video player of some sort, music was to be played on a cassette tape or compact disc player, radio was to be played on an AM/FM tuner, and video games were played through a console of some sort. Similarly, different communication media used their own proprietary technologies. Voice conversation was carried on using a telephone, video communication briefly used high-end video phones, facsimile copies used fax machines, and e-mail used a computer. Those were the times before the technological convergence took place, historically, technology handled one medium or accomplished one or two tasks, through technological convergence, devices are now able to unify and made it as one portable device. Technological convergence in the last few years has resulted in devices that not only interact with the media they are primarily designed to handle, but also with a number of other formats. For example, the PS2 video game console’s primary purpose was to play console games, but, also it was capable of playing back video discs and music cds, also able to connect to the Internet for online playing. Similarly, modern DVD players are capable of playing DVDs, and also of playing music CDs, displaying photos from photo CDs, playing encoded video in formats such as DIVX or VCD, and playing DVD music. Technological convergence also leads to devices that are designed specifically to replace a number of different devices. Such as the iPod, originally conceived of as a portable music player, but is now touted equally as a portable video player, photo album, and radio tuner. Pushing the traditional portable music players, dedicated photo album et al down to the brink of extinction. In addition, mobile phones, as well, have evolved far beyond their humble beginnings as a simple voice and text communication devices that make people connected, eat their way through the territory and functionality of portable digital music players and digital cameras. With the creation of the internet way back 1969 up to now, the internet is perhaps the most widespread example of technological convergence, for all entertainment technologies – from radio to television, from video to books and to games – can be viewed, listened and played online, mostly with greater functionality than they have in their native technology, also Communications technologies with the aid of the Internet can push through replacing fax machines, telephones, video phones, and the postal service to the edge.
TRENDS in Technological Convergence.
What is Trends? Trends as defined by google: showing how new technology is altering the way we live our lives, and stable and consistent patterns over time. To illustrate further, in mobile phones, the trend nowadays was the proliferation of mobile phones with a touch operated display, or widely known as “touch – screen mobile phones”. Historically, way back then, mobile phones were just a simple candy bar shaped and only have basic functionality – call and text, and also have some basic sort of entertainment for killing time. From candy bar shaped mobile phones down to QWERTY phones and now came the touch screen generation. At first, people were skeptical on jumping on the latest trend on mobile phones. But as time pass by and technology allowed more and more features to fit on a mobile phone, people gradually accepted this trend and touch screen phones were selling like hotcakes.
OPPORTUNITIES in Technological Convergence.
Whenever there is a trend in technology, there will always be an opportunity. As we face the advent of touch – screen mobile phones, the screen manufacturer’s sees this as a lucrative opportunity. Not all mobile phone makers makes their own screen display, they have other manufacturer that manufactures the screen display for them. As the demand for touch screen mobile phones rises, their manufacturing output also rises. This creates more jobs to meet the demands of the consuming public. The technology present now at hand poses a great help in the convergence. Utilizing the latest technology to create the newest and coolest trends known to man was of great profits to every technopreneurs out there the wild.
Convergence in Media.
Convergence in the context of media refers to the technology driven unification of different media channels. For many years different media were clearly separated: broadcast TV, broadcast radio, newspapers, books, video and film, recorded music etc. with the introduction of internet and other digital methods of distribution have paved the way for the changing of the traditional way of media. Nowadays, a digital connection or physical medium can carry any type of media content. For example videos can be distributed on a mobile phone such as short movie clip or a music video; also music can be shared over the internet. This not only means that different types of media are converging, but also that media and platform are converging. In addition to convergence at the distribution level there are areas in which the same content can be re-packaged across media: for example, computer games and films use the same content in different ways and get distributed across many platforms.
TRENDS in Media Convergence.
Digital, and platform convergence go hand in hand with media convergence. Media can be distributed across different platforms ( ps3, xbox, news forecast ) digitally with respect to the currently available technology at its disposal. News nowadays can not only be seen on the comforts of our home but also over the internet, such as BBC, CNN and Yahoo! News. Those news companies have crossed the boundaries of traditional news forecasting and lead the way to the new age of news forecasting straight from the source via the internet. Virtually, most of the publishing companies have their digital version of their publications online. Also, in the music industries, they have morphed into something new and embraced the ever changing technologies and convergences. Traditionally, music makers distributed their music products via the “physical” platform or should I say, through CD’s and DVD’s, but now, they have also eat through online via iTunes and other related music centers online. Same goes through to the games industries, at first, the games were only available through game cd’s, dvd’s and blue – ray. But now, it is digital. You can play online and download legitimate and legal games online. With the advent of media convergence, there came the social networks – wherein people from across the world have connected with each other online. Exchanging information and contacts, this further makes the world virtually smaller.
OPPORTUNITIES in Media Convergence.
Trends = opportunities. Due to the convergence of media, I have the opportunity to communicate with my mother form abroad without paying too much money. Way back then, I used to text my mother abroad occasionally due to the high rates of the short messaging service ( SMS ) abroad. But now, I can use the web and chat to her instantly – and also it is very economical. In every convergence, the underlying technology was always the core of it. Media convergence took place with the aid of the latest technology ready at hand.
CONVERGENCE in Society.
As technology continues to complicate and uplift the lives in every human being around the globe, the society also acquires the ability to improve across the curve. Historically, the society we currently live on doesn’t look the same say, 50 years ago. The society back then was diverged. They look at it differently. There were a lot of chaos and anarchy in the society during those times. Wars and protests were significant. A lot of killings and desaparecidos that took place in the community and pose a vast amount of fear in the minds of the people living within it. In a nutshell, those were the times were you wouldn’t dare to live with. But not, things have greatly changed. Combining the latest trends in technology and security paved the way of the transformation of the new society. People now converge with the society, with the technology, and with the media to come up as a complete and productive individual.
TRENDS in Society Convergence.
The advent of networking sites such as facebook, friendster, myspace and the likes proved to be the source of the trends in the society. People now use a great amount of time on these social networking sites to connect with their friend and / or colleagues.
OPPORTUNITIES in Society Convergence.
As social networking sites continues to lure people into it, the advertisers as well as web and game developers continue to make profit out of this.
Sources:
http://graphics.stanford.edu/~bjohanso/cs448/
http://www.globalchange.com/technology-innovation-future-trends.htm
http://moneyterms.co.uk/media-convergence/
Convergence, whenever I encounter this word, I always think of change. Changes must be made in order for us to move on and catch up to this fast paced world. Whenever there is convergence, trends and opportunities follow. According to whatis.techtarget.com, they defined Convergence as: “In general, convergence is a coming together of two or more distinct entities or phenomena. Convergence is increasingly prevalent in the IT world; in this context the term refers to the combination of two or more different technologies in a single device. Taking pictures with a cell phone and surfing the Web on a television are two of the most common examples of this trend.” Moreover, Mr. Garry Foster noted that: “Convergence is a concept of bringing together technology products and services in a unique and meaningful way. A perfect example is a cell phone with a digital camera. The challenge for tech companies — from a device perspective — is to find the right combinations that are appropriate to their purchasing public. Some companies will try to load up anything on their products as though it were a Swiss Army Knife. “
Everywhere we see examples of convergence in products and business: today car manufacturers produce automobiles that all look the same on the body chassis, for they were designed in wind tunnels, further researching to attain perfection and market dominance. As a result, they all have similar features, and they targeted for the same markets. Personal Computers have become mobile phones and mobile phones become entertainment centers. Mobile Phones have become cameras and cameras have become personal organizers. Also, telecom companies have become media houses. As a result, convergence will transform every aspect of the IT industry, together with all communications, media, music, film, TV and other entertainment. But convergence can be boring, destroys variety, breeds monopoly, kills invention, adds unwanted options, makes life more complicated - and robs consumers of choice. When every product offers the same features, and is a similar price, where is the competitive advantage except by making your own products even cheaper? – The product with the lowest price wins in this regard. There is a lot of convergence that took place since the beginning of the 21th century. But before anything else, let me discuss first about the technological convergence.
Technological convergence.
Technological convergence is the trend wherein innovative technologies merge into new and updated technologies that bring together a wide array of options. For example, the merging of Sony – a Japanese consumer electronics company, Sony Corporation, and Ericsson – a Swedish telecommunications company to form Sony Ericsson and produce high quality and innovative mobile phones. Utilizing the capacity of Sony’s electronic prowess and Ericsson’s expertise in telecommunications, they have set the trend for the new and innovative era – Walkman’s and Cyber shot’s line up of mobile phones stole the lime light of portable radios, mp3 players and digital cameras. This paved the way of portable and all in one music player and digital camera. Walkman series focused and targeted audiophiles and the like, making this a big hit when Sony Ericsson released the very first model of the Walkman Series – the Sony Ericsson W800i. Cyber shot Series focused on the camera side, entering the boundaries of digital cameras, making your point and shoot camera outdated. By converging technologies, there will always be a trend as well as opportunity, take for example of Sony Ericsson, Sony and Ericsson saw the opportunity to merged their companies to form their new brand to serve and kick start the new era of mobile phones. And turns out to be a good decision for them because when they released their Walkman Series, they have set the trend of music portability, they delivered a successful and innovative musically gifted handset and make people screaming for more. In the past, each entertainment medium was device specific, meaning video was to be played on a television by using a video player of some sort, music was to be played on a cassette tape or compact disc player, radio was to be played on an AM/FM tuner, and video games were played through a console of some sort. Similarly, different communication media used their own proprietary technologies. Voice conversation was carried on using a telephone, video communication briefly used high-end video phones, facsimile copies used fax machines, and e-mail used a computer. Those were the times before the technological convergence took place, historically, technology handled one medium or accomplished one or two tasks, through technological convergence, devices are now able to unify and made it as one portable device. Technological convergence in the last few years has resulted in devices that not only interact with the media they are primarily designed to handle, but also with a number of other formats. For example, the PS2 video game console’s primary purpose was to play console games, but, also it was capable of playing back video discs and music cds, also able to connect to the Internet for online playing. Similarly, modern DVD players are capable of playing DVDs, and also of playing music CDs, displaying photos from photo CDs, playing encoded video in formats such as DIVX or VCD, and playing DVD music. Technological convergence also leads to devices that are designed specifically to replace a number of different devices. Such as the iPod, originally conceived of as a portable music player, but is now touted equally as a portable video player, photo album, and radio tuner. Pushing the traditional portable music players, dedicated photo album et al down to the brink of extinction. In addition, mobile phones, as well, have evolved far beyond their humble beginnings as a simple voice and text communication devices that make people connected, eat their way through the territory and functionality of portable digital music players and digital cameras. With the creation of the internet way back 1969 up to now, the internet is perhaps the most widespread example of technological convergence, for all entertainment technologies – from radio to television, from video to books and to games – can be viewed, listened and played online, mostly with greater functionality than they have in their native technology, also Communications technologies with the aid of the Internet can push through replacing fax machines, telephones, video phones, and the postal service to the edge.
TRENDS in Technological Convergence.
What is Trends? Trends as defined by google: showing how new technology is altering the way we live our lives, and stable and consistent patterns over time. To illustrate further, in mobile phones, the trend nowadays was the proliferation of mobile phones with a touch operated display, or widely known as “touch – screen mobile phones”. Historically, way back then, mobile phones were just a simple candy bar shaped and only have basic functionality – call and text, and also have some basic sort of entertainment for killing time. From candy bar shaped mobile phones down to QWERTY phones and now came the touch screen generation. At first, people were skeptical on jumping on the latest trend on mobile phones. But as time pass by and technology allowed more and more features to fit on a mobile phone, people gradually accepted this trend and touch screen phones were selling like hotcakes.
OPPORTUNITIES in Technological Convergence.
Whenever there is a trend in technology, there will always be an opportunity. As we face the advent of touch – screen mobile phones, the screen manufacturer’s sees this as a lucrative opportunity. Not all mobile phone makers makes their own screen display, they have other manufacturer that manufactures the screen display for them. As the demand for touch screen mobile phones rises, their manufacturing output also rises. This creates more jobs to meet the demands of the consuming public. The technology present now at hand poses a great help in the convergence. Utilizing the latest technology to create the newest and coolest trends known to man was of great profits to every technopreneurs out there the wild.
Convergence in Media.
Convergence in the context of media refers to the technology driven unification of different media channels. For many years different media were clearly separated: broadcast TV, broadcast radio, newspapers, books, video and film, recorded music etc. with the introduction of internet and other digital methods of distribution have paved the way for the changing of the traditional way of media. Nowadays, a digital connection or physical medium can carry any type of media content. For example videos can be distributed on a mobile phone such as short movie clip or a music video; also music can be shared over the internet. This not only means that different types of media are converging, but also that media and platform are converging. In addition to convergence at the distribution level there are areas in which the same content can be re-packaged across media: for example, computer games and films use the same content in different ways and get distributed across many platforms.
TRENDS in Media Convergence.
Digital, and platform convergence go hand in hand with media convergence. Media can be distributed across different platforms ( ps3, xbox, news forecast ) digitally with respect to the currently available technology at its disposal. News nowadays can not only be seen on the comforts of our home but also over the internet, such as BBC, CNN and Yahoo! News. Those news companies have crossed the boundaries of traditional news forecasting and lead the way to the new age of news forecasting straight from the source via the internet. Virtually, most of the publishing companies have their digital version of their publications online. Also, in the music industries, they have morphed into something new and embraced the ever changing technologies and convergences. Traditionally, music makers distributed their music products via the “physical” platform or should I say, through CD’s and DVD’s, but now, they have also eat through online via iTunes and other related music centers online. Same goes through to the games industries, at first, the games were only available through game cd’s, dvd’s and blue – ray. But now, it is digital. You can play online and download legitimate and legal games online. With the advent of media convergence, there came the social networks – wherein people from across the world have connected with each other online. Exchanging information and contacts, this further makes the world virtually smaller.
OPPORTUNITIES in Media Convergence.
Trends = opportunities. Due to the convergence of media, I have the opportunity to communicate with my mother form abroad without paying too much money. Way back then, I used to text my mother abroad occasionally due to the high rates of the short messaging service ( SMS ) abroad. But now, I can use the web and chat to her instantly – and also it is very economical. In every convergence, the underlying technology was always the core of it. Media convergence took place with the aid of the latest technology ready at hand.
CONVERGENCE in Society.
As technology continues to complicate and uplift the lives in every human being around the globe, the society also acquires the ability to improve across the curve. Historically, the society we currently live on doesn’t look the same say, 50 years ago. The society back then was diverged. They look at it differently. There were a lot of chaos and anarchy in the society during those times. Wars and protests were significant. A lot of killings and desaparecidos that took place in the community and pose a vast amount of fear in the minds of the people living within it. In a nutshell, those were the times were you wouldn’t dare to live with. But not, things have greatly changed. Combining the latest trends in technology and security paved the way of the transformation of the new society. People now converge with the society, with the technology, and with the media to come up as a complete and productive individual.
TRENDS in Society Convergence.
The advent of networking sites such as facebook, friendster, myspace and the likes proved to be the source of the trends in the society. People now use a great amount of time on these social networking sites to connect with their friend and / or colleagues.
OPPORTUNITIES in Society Convergence.
As social networking sites continues to lure people into it, the advertisers as well as web and game developers continue to make profit out of this.
Sources:
http://graphics.stanford.edu/~bjohanso/cs448/
http://www.globalchange.com/technology-innovation-future-trends.htm
http://moneyterms.co.uk/media-convergence/
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Exercise 3 (Due on before December 6, 2010, 1pm)
Your reflections/learning's/thoughts on the video clip of Guy Kawasaki: MAKE Meaning (at least 2000 words)
Last meeting, our facilitator let us watched a short video clip of a certain guy who was a former Apple employee, he talked about how start up company should aim and how to stay successful. His name was Guy Kawasaki; he was the founder and Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures. In the video clip, Guy Kawasaki spoke to Stanford University students in October, 2004. He believed that those companies who set out to make a positive change in the world are the companies that will ultimately be the most successful. After I watched the video clip, I found out that for start up companies to succeed, they should build their foundation on making their company’s meaning. Making meaning means that this start up companies should not aim to make money and more money alone, and neglecting the client’s welfare and satisfaction. Instead, start up companies should do their best to leave a mark and a brand for their client’s welfare. Start up companies should keep in mind that by establishing a meaning to their brand based on the costumer’s general welfare they are making money out of it. By doing that, this start up companies will eventually succeed in the business because their foundation was to uplifting their client’s welfare, status and lastly, their trust to the company.
Guy Kawasaki cited 3 keys on how to make meaning. And here it goes.
IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF LIFE
Guy Kawasaki wanted that start up companies to shift from the traditional “making money” mindset to “making meaning and then money” mindset. The traditional mindset of start up companies was to earn and earn money without thinking the welfare of the general public – this mindset is a poison to the start up company – why? Because with that mind set, starts up companies are just merely thinking of their profits alone, they do not care of the clients and customer’s concerns. By changing the mind set of start up companies to make a meaning, they embrace the general public’s concerns and their clients. They gave meaning to their products and creations – and these products are of great help to their target clients. This kind of start up companies can be considered as innovators of the world. They constantly think of ways on how to improve further the quality of life with the products that they create. For example, people overlook the advent of touch screen mobile phones, but when Apple Inc., released the very first Iphone, the world craves to have one even though it costs an arm and a leg to acquire one. Iphone set the standard, rather, innovated the touch screen mobile phone, and the rest of the world followed. Before the Iphone revolutionized the way touch screen mobile phones interacted, the current ones were of an average status. Iphone brought along the very intuitive and responsive touch screen experience on their creation. Truly, Iphone outclassed the phones in the touch screen class. And after that innovation, different mobile phone companies tried to dethrone Iphone’s innovative approach, claiming they have the best blah blah blah technologies, that they have this features blah blah blah. Since then, mobile phone companies always tried to outdo Apple’s creation. This only proves that Apple looked for better way to help improve the lives of their clients and customers. Furthermore, Apple increased the quality of their lives by giving their money a value through Apple’s innovative products and services. Guy Kawasaki cited 3 key points on how starts up companies make a meaning on their existence. First was to improve the quality of life, second was right a wrong and third was prevent the end of something new. First was to improve the quality of life – it is very important to consider start up companies to look for ways to improving the quality of life of their customers as well as the people and also not to destroy Mother Nature. Take for example of Apple’s innovation on Iphone, this little device once crazed the world. Moreover, a very good example of improving the quality of life. In addition, one can also improve his or her quality of life by taking some of this tips I found over the web:
• CREATING YOUR VISION. We do have vision in our life. So it matters a lot when we set those visions and making it to happen.
• KNOW YOURSELF. Of course, we need to know ourselves deeply. So that we can utilize our potential to its maximum output.
• MAKE SIMPLE SWITCHES. How hard is it to be an employee all day? One should take some break and do other things in your task list. So that, your mind can rest and prepared for another tiring job the very next day.
• REWARD RIGHTEOUSNESS. Santa has his naughty or nice list, children are rewarded if they done a good job at school. Moreover, we also need to pay in return the righteousness that we have done in our life by simply treating yourself to a fancy restaurant or see a good movie.
• BLISS OUT. After a tiring work, you should also need to unwind. Free yourself from stress and depression. This helps a lot.
Also, in improving the quality of life even at work:
• Create a flexible personal vision.
• Don't confuse your real identity with the roles you play at work
• Develop healthy personal habits.
• Be a compassionate worker
• Turn relationships into partnerships
• Be responsive to situations, not reactive.
• Be a good citizen and create a healthy community around you.
• Listen to and learn from the lessons of life.
RIGHT A WRONG
Most companies want to make you happy so you’ll come back and recommend them to your friends. But when you find a company that’s not making the grade, how do you resolve the problem? That questions the integrity of such companies. Even though, the companies itself knows that they at the wrong ones, they still commit the same mistakes all over again. Take for example Kellog’s company, sounds familiar? – yes, a multinational cereal company, its headquarters is located in Battle Creek, Michigan, U.S. the issue? – Kellog’s shipped boxes of children’s' breakfast cereal with Spiderman toys containing mercury batteries. You read it right, they included a heavy and toxic element onto a children’s food. They shipped this product to Maine. We already know the harmful effects of mercury in our body. Even in small amounts, mercury is toxic and poses a significant health and environmental hazard also mercury is a well-known neurological poison that causes all the symptoms of ADHD, such as hyperactivity and poor concentration. And Kellog’s continue to ship their products instead of recalling it. Do you know why? Because at Maine, there was no law that prevents this kind of stuffs. But even if that’s the case, the Kellog’s company should know better the harmful effects of adding mercury contained battery on their products!. Double thumbs down for Kellog’s. They failed to see the negative impacts of their doing on the society and nature. They were very wrong. Immediately, New York has made it illegal. A new law, signed by Gov. Pataki, goes into effect January 1, 2005, banning mercury from kids' cereal boxes, righting the wrong doing of Kellog’s and preventing the further spread of the unhealthy cereal food. Another example is the hacking of Google by the Chinese people. China’s Politburo directed the intrusion into Google’s computer systems in that country. The Google hacking was part of a coordinated campaign of computer sabotage carried out by government operatives, private security experts and Internet outlaws recruited by the Chinese government. They have broken into American government computers and those of Western allies, the Dalai Lama and American businesses since 2002. The report said that the hackers wanted to get the addresses of activist.
PREVENT THE END OF SOMETHING GOOD
Companies nowadays often fails to see what makes their clients fulfilled and satisfied. They kept on making products in a linear manner. They keep on the evolution way rather than on the revolution.
This was the transcript of Guy Kawasaki during his speech at Stanford University: “ The first things I figured out, and learned, sometimes the hard way about entrepreneurship is that the core, the essence of entrepreneurships is about making meaning. Many, many people start companies to make money, the quick flip, the dotcom phenomena, and I have noticed in both the companies that I have started, and founded and being associated with that those companies that are fundamentally founded to change the world, to make the world a better place to make meaning, are the companies that make a difference, they are the companies to succeed. My naive or romantic belief is that, if you make meaning you probably make money, but if you set out to make money, you would probably not make meaning and you won’t make money. So my first thought is you need to make meaning that should be the core of why you start a company. There are three ways to make meaning. First is to increase the quality of life. My background is the Macintosh division of Apple Computer, and I can tell you with total certainty that we were not motivated by making money, we were motivated by changing the world, to make people more creative and more productive, we were trying to increase the quality of life for the Mac users. And that was a great motivation that kept us going through many difficult periods. We were waking up in the morning thinking how we could change people’s lives. A second way to make meaning is to right a wrong, you know this fish is going to die after jumping out, But to right a wrong means that you find something that is wrong and you want to fix that. This is particularly applicable to non for profits, there is pollution, crime, abuse, they just... They very core is to end up wrong. And the third way to make meaning is to prevent the end of something good. You see something beautiful, something wonderful and you just can stand the fact that that is being changed ruined. So I asked you as you start your companies, your non for profits, your churches, your schools whatever you are starting, please have one of those three motivations, one or more of those motivations. If you don’t have any of those motivations, I suggest that you rethink what you are doing. ”
Truly, Guy Kawasaki is an incredible man.
Sources:
http://www.naturalnews.com/001325.html
http://borntoexplore.org/mercury_poisoning_and_adhd.htm
http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2009/09/20/eight-ways-to-improve-your-quality-of-life-at-work/
http://www.ehow.com/how_4551198_improve-quality-life-today.html
Last meeting, our facilitator let us watched a short video clip of a certain guy who was a former Apple employee, he talked about how start up company should aim and how to stay successful. His name was Guy Kawasaki; he was the founder and Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures. In the video clip, Guy Kawasaki spoke to Stanford University students in October, 2004. He believed that those companies who set out to make a positive change in the world are the companies that will ultimately be the most successful. After I watched the video clip, I found out that for start up companies to succeed, they should build their foundation on making their company’s meaning. Making meaning means that this start up companies should not aim to make money and more money alone, and neglecting the client’s welfare and satisfaction. Instead, start up companies should do their best to leave a mark and a brand for their client’s welfare. Start up companies should keep in mind that by establishing a meaning to their brand based on the costumer’s general welfare they are making money out of it. By doing that, this start up companies will eventually succeed in the business because their foundation was to uplifting their client’s welfare, status and lastly, their trust to the company.
Guy Kawasaki cited 3 keys on how to make meaning. And here it goes.
IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF LIFE
Guy Kawasaki wanted that start up companies to shift from the traditional “making money” mindset to “making meaning and then money” mindset. The traditional mindset of start up companies was to earn and earn money without thinking the welfare of the general public – this mindset is a poison to the start up company – why? Because with that mind set, starts up companies are just merely thinking of their profits alone, they do not care of the clients and customer’s concerns. By changing the mind set of start up companies to make a meaning, they embrace the general public’s concerns and their clients. They gave meaning to their products and creations – and these products are of great help to their target clients. This kind of start up companies can be considered as innovators of the world. They constantly think of ways on how to improve further the quality of life with the products that they create. For example, people overlook the advent of touch screen mobile phones, but when Apple Inc., released the very first Iphone, the world craves to have one even though it costs an arm and a leg to acquire one. Iphone set the standard, rather, innovated the touch screen mobile phone, and the rest of the world followed. Before the Iphone revolutionized the way touch screen mobile phones interacted, the current ones were of an average status. Iphone brought along the very intuitive and responsive touch screen experience on their creation. Truly, Iphone outclassed the phones in the touch screen class. And after that innovation, different mobile phone companies tried to dethrone Iphone’s innovative approach, claiming they have the best blah blah blah technologies, that they have this features blah blah blah. Since then, mobile phone companies always tried to outdo Apple’s creation. This only proves that Apple looked for better way to help improve the lives of their clients and customers. Furthermore, Apple increased the quality of their lives by giving their money a value through Apple’s innovative products and services. Guy Kawasaki cited 3 key points on how starts up companies make a meaning on their existence. First was to improve the quality of life, second was right a wrong and third was prevent the end of something new. First was to improve the quality of life – it is very important to consider start up companies to look for ways to improving the quality of life of their customers as well as the people and also not to destroy Mother Nature. Take for example of Apple’s innovation on Iphone, this little device once crazed the world. Moreover, a very good example of improving the quality of life. In addition, one can also improve his or her quality of life by taking some of this tips I found over the web:
• CREATING YOUR VISION. We do have vision in our life. So it matters a lot when we set those visions and making it to happen.
• KNOW YOURSELF. Of course, we need to know ourselves deeply. So that we can utilize our potential to its maximum output.
• MAKE SIMPLE SWITCHES. How hard is it to be an employee all day? One should take some break and do other things in your task list. So that, your mind can rest and prepared for another tiring job the very next day.
• REWARD RIGHTEOUSNESS. Santa has his naughty or nice list, children are rewarded if they done a good job at school. Moreover, we also need to pay in return the righteousness that we have done in our life by simply treating yourself to a fancy restaurant or see a good movie.
• BLISS OUT. After a tiring work, you should also need to unwind. Free yourself from stress and depression. This helps a lot.
Also, in improving the quality of life even at work:
• Create a flexible personal vision.
• Don't confuse your real identity with the roles you play at work
• Develop healthy personal habits.
• Be a compassionate worker
• Turn relationships into partnerships
• Be responsive to situations, not reactive.
• Be a good citizen and create a healthy community around you.
• Listen to and learn from the lessons of life.
RIGHT A WRONG
Most companies want to make you happy so you’ll come back and recommend them to your friends. But when you find a company that’s not making the grade, how do you resolve the problem? That questions the integrity of such companies. Even though, the companies itself knows that they at the wrong ones, they still commit the same mistakes all over again. Take for example Kellog’s company, sounds familiar? – yes, a multinational cereal company, its headquarters is located in Battle Creek, Michigan, U.S. the issue? – Kellog’s shipped boxes of children’s' breakfast cereal with Spiderman toys containing mercury batteries. You read it right, they included a heavy and toxic element onto a children’s food. They shipped this product to Maine. We already know the harmful effects of mercury in our body. Even in small amounts, mercury is toxic and poses a significant health and environmental hazard also mercury is a well-known neurological poison that causes all the symptoms of ADHD, such as hyperactivity and poor concentration. And Kellog’s continue to ship their products instead of recalling it. Do you know why? Because at Maine, there was no law that prevents this kind of stuffs. But even if that’s the case, the Kellog’s company should know better the harmful effects of adding mercury contained battery on their products!. Double thumbs down for Kellog’s. They failed to see the negative impacts of their doing on the society and nature. They were very wrong. Immediately, New York has made it illegal. A new law, signed by Gov. Pataki, goes into effect January 1, 2005, banning mercury from kids' cereal boxes, righting the wrong doing of Kellog’s and preventing the further spread of the unhealthy cereal food. Another example is the hacking of Google by the Chinese people. China’s Politburo directed the intrusion into Google’s computer systems in that country. The Google hacking was part of a coordinated campaign of computer sabotage carried out by government operatives, private security experts and Internet outlaws recruited by the Chinese government. They have broken into American government computers and those of Western allies, the Dalai Lama and American businesses since 2002. The report said that the hackers wanted to get the addresses of activist.
PREVENT THE END OF SOMETHING GOOD
Companies nowadays often fails to see what makes their clients fulfilled and satisfied. They kept on making products in a linear manner. They keep on the evolution way rather than on the revolution.
This was the transcript of Guy Kawasaki during his speech at Stanford University: “ The first things I figured out, and learned, sometimes the hard way about entrepreneurship is that the core, the essence of entrepreneurships is about making meaning. Many, many people start companies to make money, the quick flip, the dotcom phenomena, and I have noticed in both the companies that I have started, and founded and being associated with that those companies that are fundamentally founded to change the world, to make the world a better place to make meaning, are the companies that make a difference, they are the companies to succeed. My naive or romantic belief is that, if you make meaning you probably make money, but if you set out to make money, you would probably not make meaning and you won’t make money. So my first thought is you need to make meaning that should be the core of why you start a company. There are three ways to make meaning. First is to increase the quality of life. My background is the Macintosh division of Apple Computer, and I can tell you with total certainty that we were not motivated by making money, we were motivated by changing the world, to make people more creative and more productive, we were trying to increase the quality of life for the Mac users. And that was a great motivation that kept us going through many difficult periods. We were waking up in the morning thinking how we could change people’s lives. A second way to make meaning is to right a wrong, you know this fish is going to die after jumping out, But to right a wrong means that you find something that is wrong and you want to fix that. This is particularly applicable to non for profits, there is pollution, crime, abuse, they just... They very core is to end up wrong. And the third way to make meaning is to prevent the end of something good. You see something beautiful, something wonderful and you just can stand the fact that that is being changed ruined. So I asked you as you start your companies, your non for profits, your churches, your schools whatever you are starting, please have one of those three motivations, one or more of those motivations. If you don’t have any of those motivations, I suggest that you rethink what you are doing. ”
Truly, Guy Kawasaki is an incredible man.
Sources:
http://www.naturalnews.com/001325.html
http://borntoexplore.org/mercury_poisoning_and_adhd.htm
http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2009/09/20/eight-ways-to-improve-your-quality-of-life-at-work/
http://www.ehow.com/how_4551198_improve-quality-life-today.html
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Exercise 2 (Due on before November 30, 2010, 1pm)
Try to walk around somewhere and discover technopreneur idea ...your experience(s) .. at least 2000 words
Here we go again, the long series of assignments though it was expected anyway, let us get down to business the techno way. A couple of days ago, I had travelled the streets of Davao City just to think of something techno, or should I say serendipity tour. Even though I almost circled the whole city, I barely thought of something good. But, I should try, I better shoot the star and miss, than shoot the sh*t then hit, in other words, I better be trying then failed than failing at all without trying. Even though, I will eventually learn something from my experience. The good news came, because just last week, when my tito informed me to get some package located at Talomo district, I got excited because it was my first time to travel at that place, I immediately asked for directions and jeeps to ride on. During the course of the trip, I passed by Davao Memorial Park. And then the serendipity tour kicks on. I immediately imagined that how about taking the bird’s eye view of the memorial park and then make a program out of it and present it via GUI form to the potential clients as well as the old ones. With a click and click, pan and zoom of a mouse, a client can see the overview or bird’s eye view of the memorial park. Also the client can see the vacant slots on the memorial park and the prospective client can make a reservation on that vacant slot for the future. Did you ever got lost on the memorial park when visiting someone else’s tomb, or should I say, when you visit a friend’s tombstone? Worry no more because there is an integrated map of the memorial park, thus preventing visiting people from being lost. Aside from being a virtual map of the memorial park, it will also act as an information center and advertisement hub. In addition, the program will display the names of the departed loved ones that are resting on each spot. Also the client can also access the virtual map via the internet by using personal computer or their very own mobile phone, the latter making it portable and on always on the go. I got to this idea because back in my hometown, our public cemetery was very crowded, you can easily saw the crowded and unarranged placement of the tombs, also going through and finding the tomb of your loved ones was a pain in the ass. It would be a great help if my idea will be implemented on my hometown’s cemetery and also for every memorial park / cemeteries around the world.
I was always fascinated by airplanes; I always ended up watching it whenever I saw one. Thus, another techno idea will be based on airplanes. Here we go. My techno idea goes like this: how about installing a navigation system on the airplane itself without relying on the ground traffic controller? This system will include voice guided navigation, voice operated system and collision detection system thus providing safety on the pilots as well as the passengers. This navigation system will utilize global positioning system making good use of the satellites up above the sky for pin point accuracy. Also this navigation system will show the pilot and co-pilot where on earth they are exactly and this system will scan the surroundings of possible approaching aircraft that is on their course and will notify immediately the pilots to avoid mid air collisions. In addition, this navigation system will include a weather tracker that gets updated every second so that the pilots will know before hand the change of weather along their course. I have seen some air accidents due to human error in the traffic control stationed in the ground courtesy of the National Geographic Channel’s Air Crash Investigations. Wherein the air traffic controller failed to notify the pilots that their planes are in the collision course, resulting to a fatal mid air collision between a commercial plane and an air freight plane, no one survived to that horrible accident. So, I imagined that installing the navigation system on every plane will be a great help to the pilots concerned as well as to the passengers.
Television sets had been greatly improved as time progresses. From simple black and white television to colored ones. And now the world had been enjoying the latest state of the art 3D TV, we also had LED ones. Plasma TV’s and LCD TV’s had their fingers crossed due to the advent of this latest technologies. But as technology pushes the limits of TV’s, only a unique spec can make or break a product catalogue. My other techno idea encompasses TV’s this time; let’s tackle it the future way. Join me after a short while. How about having a TV like the ones used in Minority Report? Wherein the users just have to wave /move / flick his hand to move things in the projected images. Also, the TV will have a motion sensor that will be used to register the different hand movements of the user, for example, instead of using the remote control to change channels or to turn the volume up or down, the user will just have to do a couple of pre programmed hand gestures in order for the channel to change and also for the volume. Waving your hand upwards makes the volume to go up, down means also to volume down, also by waving to the left or right; this movement will force the channel to change. And by making a circle sign, the user will access the TV’s menu; all you have to do is select and click. Just like touching a touch screen device virtually or touching it in the thin air, it’s the sensor’s job to register and perform the programmed action that is assigned to every movement. By using also the motion sensor, it can be of an advantage to save power, how? Just by simply detecting the slightest movements. If, the sensor can’t pick up or sense movements in front of the TV, then this force the TV to go to “sleep mode” thus saves some energy. I imagined this idea from the latest game consoles like Nintendo Wii, Microsoft’s Xbox kinect and Sony’s Playstation Move, wherein those consoles were equipped with a motion sensor and enabling the user to move their body in order for a command to register and perform. This will be a touch operated TV without having to touch it directly. I think there is currently no TV set that offers that functionality.
I always ride on a bus whenever I travel back to my hometown. Just around an hour and a half travel without bumping onto the busy and traffic road along the highway going northbound. Since I step my foot into Davao City, whenever I travel back to the city after visiting my hometown, I always experienced that every bus must have to stop for a while and let the armed soldier to come up the bus and inspect it, I always end up going outside and wait for the inspection to end up. It was quite a hassle for me for always going outside the bus. And due to these circumstances, I formulated an idea that in every inspection point, the government of Davao City should install an X-ray like device capable of detecting foreign and deadly baggages that may pose dangerous treats to security, peace and order. The bus / vehicle will just simply pass by and will be scanned for security reasons.This X-ray like will scan and its output to the screen will have a color thus indicating a dangerous items inside the bus. Also the X-ray device will utilize a radio signal jammer, this critical technology will be very essential because this stops / prevents any radio triggered detonators.
Today, mobile phones had become a part of our day to day living. We could not leave it behind our house. We use mobile phones as our alarm clock, replacing the old and traditional clocks that we had at home, in school or at the office. We use mobile phones to communicate with distant relatives and friends, we even use mobile phones for recreation purposes and networking stuffs. Truly, mobile phones are extensions of our own self. Mobile phones represent its owner. That is what I think about mobile phones these days. Some of us even transact businesses online over the mobile phone. When the worst case scenario happens, should I say, your mobile phone got stolen, how would we protect our sensitive data that still left on the stolen mobile phone?
Here we go again, the long series of assignments though it was expected anyway, let us get down to business the techno way. A couple of days ago, I had travelled the streets of Davao City just to think of something techno, or should I say serendipity tour. Even though I almost circled the whole city, I barely thought of something good. But, I should try, I better shoot the star and miss, than shoot the sh*t then hit, in other words, I better be trying then failed than failing at all without trying. Even though, I will eventually learn something from my experience. The good news came, because just last week, when my tito informed me to get some package located at Talomo district, I got excited because it was my first time to travel at that place, I immediately asked for directions and jeeps to ride on. During the course of the trip, I passed by Davao Memorial Park. And then the serendipity tour kicks on. I immediately imagined that how about taking the bird’s eye view of the memorial park and then make a program out of it and present it via GUI form to the potential clients as well as the old ones. With a click and click, pan and zoom of a mouse, a client can see the overview or bird’s eye view of the memorial park. Also the client can see the vacant slots on the memorial park and the prospective client can make a reservation on that vacant slot for the future. Did you ever got lost on the memorial park when visiting someone else’s tomb, or should I say, when you visit a friend’s tombstone? Worry no more because there is an integrated map of the memorial park, thus preventing visiting people from being lost. Aside from being a virtual map of the memorial park, it will also act as an information center and advertisement hub. In addition, the program will display the names of the departed loved ones that are resting on each spot. Also the client can also access the virtual map via the internet by using personal computer or their very own mobile phone, the latter making it portable and on always on the go. I got to this idea because back in my hometown, our public cemetery was very crowded, you can easily saw the crowded and unarranged placement of the tombs, also going through and finding the tomb of your loved ones was a pain in the ass. It would be a great help if my idea will be implemented on my hometown’s cemetery and also for every memorial park / cemeteries around the world.
I was always fascinated by airplanes; I always ended up watching it whenever I saw one. Thus, another techno idea will be based on airplanes. Here we go. My techno idea goes like this: how about installing a navigation system on the airplane itself without relying on the ground traffic controller? This system will include voice guided navigation, voice operated system and collision detection system thus providing safety on the pilots as well as the passengers. This navigation system will utilize global positioning system making good use of the satellites up above the sky for pin point accuracy. Also this navigation system will show the pilot and co-pilot where on earth they are exactly and this system will scan the surroundings of possible approaching aircraft that is on their course and will notify immediately the pilots to avoid mid air collisions. In addition, this navigation system will include a weather tracker that gets updated every second so that the pilots will know before hand the change of weather along their course. I have seen some air accidents due to human error in the traffic control stationed in the ground courtesy of the National Geographic Channel’s Air Crash Investigations. Wherein the air traffic controller failed to notify the pilots that their planes are in the collision course, resulting to a fatal mid air collision between a commercial plane and an air freight plane, no one survived to that horrible accident. So, I imagined that installing the navigation system on every plane will be a great help to the pilots concerned as well as to the passengers.
Television sets had been greatly improved as time progresses. From simple black and white television to colored ones. And now the world had been enjoying the latest state of the art 3D TV, we also had LED ones. Plasma TV’s and LCD TV’s had their fingers crossed due to the advent of this latest technologies. But as technology pushes the limits of TV’s, only a unique spec can make or break a product catalogue. My other techno idea encompasses TV’s this time; let’s tackle it the future way. Join me after a short while. How about having a TV like the ones used in Minority Report? Wherein the users just have to wave /move / flick his hand to move things in the projected images. Also, the TV will have a motion sensor that will be used to register the different hand movements of the user, for example, instead of using the remote control to change channels or to turn the volume up or down, the user will just have to do a couple of pre programmed hand gestures in order for the channel to change and also for the volume. Waving your hand upwards makes the volume to go up, down means also to volume down, also by waving to the left or right; this movement will force the channel to change. And by making a circle sign, the user will access the TV’s menu; all you have to do is select and click. Just like touching a touch screen device virtually or touching it in the thin air, it’s the sensor’s job to register and perform the programmed action that is assigned to every movement. By using also the motion sensor, it can be of an advantage to save power, how? Just by simply detecting the slightest movements. If, the sensor can’t pick up or sense movements in front of the TV, then this force the TV to go to “sleep mode” thus saves some energy. I imagined this idea from the latest game consoles like Nintendo Wii, Microsoft’s Xbox kinect and Sony’s Playstation Move, wherein those consoles were equipped with a motion sensor and enabling the user to move their body in order for a command to register and perform. This will be a touch operated TV without having to touch it directly. I think there is currently no TV set that offers that functionality.
I always ride on a bus whenever I travel back to my hometown. Just around an hour and a half travel without bumping onto the busy and traffic road along the highway going northbound. Since I step my foot into Davao City, whenever I travel back to the city after visiting my hometown, I always experienced that every bus must have to stop for a while and let the armed soldier to come up the bus and inspect it, I always end up going outside and wait for the inspection to end up. It was quite a hassle for me for always going outside the bus. And due to these circumstances, I formulated an idea that in every inspection point, the government of Davao City should install an X-ray like device capable of detecting foreign and deadly baggages that may pose dangerous treats to security, peace and order. The bus / vehicle will just simply pass by and will be scanned for security reasons.This X-ray like will scan and its output to the screen will have a color thus indicating a dangerous items inside the bus. Also the X-ray device will utilize a radio signal jammer, this critical technology will be very essential because this stops / prevents any radio triggered detonators.
Today, mobile phones had become a part of our day to day living. We could not leave it behind our house. We use mobile phones as our alarm clock, replacing the old and traditional clocks that we had at home, in school or at the office. We use mobile phones to communicate with distant relatives and friends, we even use mobile phones for recreation purposes and networking stuffs. Truly, mobile phones are extensions of our own self. Mobile phones represent its owner. That is what I think about mobile phones these days. Some of us even transact businesses online over the mobile phone. When the worst case scenario happens, should I say, your mobile phone got stolen, how would we protect our sensitive data that still left on the stolen mobile phone?
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Exercise 1 (Due on before November 23, 2010, 1pm)
Your reflection/learning's on Technopreneurship 1 (at least 2000 words)
Almost 5 months had passed, the first semester had just ended and I managed to pass the memorable and hand shaking technopreneurship 1, you know what I mean, the series of thousands and thousands of words we need to comply because it was one of the requirements in order to pass the subject. Eventhough that’s the case it was a good and bold strategy that our facilitator had executed on our class. He was able to push us to our limits, the limit of my thinking capacity in which I need to write some thousands of words and create a unique business idea. It was not an easy ride for me because I cannot imagine myself in complying those thousands and thousands of words a while back then. But due to my determination to pass, I managed to comply those memorable brain-draining some sort of content writing stuff. Moreover, I’m thankful to our facilitator for the past semester, it was a memorable semester to me.
And now, we are tasked to write our reflections or learning’s during our past subject which is Technopreneurship I. Here we go. As far as I had remembered, our facilitator gave us a task, he draw a 3 x 3 grid of dots. He asked us to connect the dots without lifting our pen and only in one stroke in a piece of paper. And then we followed. After a while he called us one by one and asked us if we did get to connect the dots. Some of my fellow classmates got to connect it. I managed to connect it but I failed to follow his instructions, I lifted my pen by doing so it wasn’t considered “connected” because I “cheated”. Oh! Before I forgot, our facilitator gave us 3 major rules when inside our class room, first was PhD: our facilitator did not want us to call him “sir” he wanted us to call him by his first name Randy. At first I felt awkward but managed to get along somehow. Second major rule was Time: Randy is very strict when it comes to time. If you came late in his class you will show your talent. Just like in show time, the rest of the class will be the judges and also Randy. He will thumb down to your performance if he feels it is not enough and you’ll be forced to repeat in front!. Last major rule was Fun: Randy wanted his class to be full of fun. As the name suggests. Back to where I left of, after Randy connected the dots himself, he said that our activity was to expose us to think outside the box. To think beyond what has been given, beyond borders, beyond the limits of our imaginations. I learned that from his lecture. Also, I learned from him that the present mind set of parents as well as students that at first go to school, get good grades then land a good job. I admit that was also my mind set back then. But Randy gave me a turning point, he made me change my mind set. He was saying that with the help of technopreneurship, you go to school, get good grades and be the boss. A way different and lucrative mind set. I’ll just need to be creative and unique in building my techobiz someday in the future. And then Randy gave us an assignment to visit food chains and think of ways of improving it by using technology. The next meeting was scheduled for our movie screening inside lab 1, our class room. The title of the movie was “Pirates of the Silicon Valley” not to be confused of with some Disney film. This film was like a docu drama of the 2 software giant’s humble beginnings – Apple and Microsoft. It was somehow related to our subject because the film introduces unique business ideas and how the key people managed to survive to the competition. I learned many things in that film, one of those was that Bill Gates was a clever technopreneur and Steve Jobs trusted Bill Gates which turned Apple vs. Windows battle for supremacy. Also I learned that Steve Jobs was the best technopreneur for me. He has many unique ideas and principles that catapulted him to the top of his career as a technopreneur. I very much liked his saying that “stay hungry, stay foolish”- means that we should not be static, we should continue to be curious and invent new ideas that are essential to the people. Considering the people as your target client in your technobiz someday. After our film viewing, Randy gave us assignments in relation to the movie we previously watched. And I promptly complied. And then the next meeting Randy introduced us the SEED Model in which, our focus in Techno 1. S for self-mastery, E for environment-mastery, E for enterprise-mastery and D for development-mastery. We managed to tackle the self-mastery during the course of the first semester. This self-mastery comprises of a lot of different but relevant test that are essential to one’s self, hence the name self-mastery is all about. The first test was the Personality Traits test. The purpose of the personality test is to assess the match between your personality profile and the required job profile, and thus screen out candidates. It is very likely that as part of your job selection process you will have to face a personality test. While the job interview examines your overt behavior, the personality test aims to reach deeper, and expose those areas you might not be aware of, thereby providing recruiters with a more comprehensive profile of your personality. The information provided by the personality test, coupled with the interview and the other psychometric tests including aptitude tests, helps the evaluator to put the pieces together and get an overall impression of the applicant. Moreover, in our personality traits test, I managed to get a relatively high score, in which translates to a some what technopreneur in Randy’s scale. Im quite amazed by my score because I did not see my self as a technopreneur but somehow I’m relieved. This personality traits test also served us a prelim exam for us. Whew! The next test we took that falls in self-mastery was the AQ test, this time we consult the web and googled for the rest of the test. At first I took the AQ test by mistake because it was for autism! Haha! But I managed to take the other and right AQ test. Whew! Such a waste of time. The AQ test or Adversity Test is one of the several factors enabling you to evaluate the strength of your business - testing how well you might withstand unexpected adversity. The information gained from this test can help you see your business' weakness and to prepare you to gain your banker's support perhaps before you need it. Also this test was to evaluate oneself on how you manage the adversities in life, or should I say, how you turn your failures into success. The next test was the EQ test or the Emotional Quotient test this term was to describe a person's ability to understand his or her own emotions and the emotions of others and to act appropriately based on this understanding, also to reveal your emotional reactions to difficult situations. Since businesses need some personal touch in order to survive, we need also to assess our EQ. It is of great help. And lastly, the IQ, the test everyone knows. The most important criterion in assessing our intelligence is the IQ test. The aim of an IQ test is to measure our intelligence, which supposedly is an indication of our own potential. But where does the test come from and does it really measure potential? Intelligence quotient or IQ, is a score derived from a set of standardized tests that were developed with the purpose of measuring a person's cognitive abilities ("intelligence") in relation to their age group. It is expressed as a number normalized so that the average IQ in an age group is 100 — in other words an individual scoring 115 is above-average when compared to similarly aged people. The PT, AQ, EQ and IQ tests were important for a technopreneur to be evaluated with. We need to evaluate each test in order for us to have a guide or assessment in which we made our decisions that is critical in the business. After taking the entire tests, we still have to dig deeper into our own self, so that we may be able to come up with unique business ideas in this era. The next series of self-mastering skills were to find the things that we love, hate and best at. By doing this, we push through the boundaries of our self and try to discover our hidden talents or abilities that regards to technopreneurship. By knowing the things you love, hate and best at enables you to create or invent something unique to the end user or clients you wish to make business unto. You can pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses of your business and you have the power to patch things up according to your will. For example, you love gadgets and you are best at making that gadget more unique and customized. Considering the example, you will have a bird’s eye view on the situation; you can focus on the strengths and make it more appealing. Also do not forget the things you hate or your irritants, this also serves as a warning so that you can avoid that bad vibes. The final test in self - mastery was to know your role in your home, in school, in the society and in the world. Given the condition that Randy has stripped up all our roles, therefore we must find new roles that matches those criteria’s. By doing this I managed to learn new things about myself, this test paved the way for me to know myself better. The entire test that I took was all important for my well - being and self - mastering. I do hope that I will fully utilize my knowledge in the next technopreneurship subject. I almost forgot, we had one last activity before we say goodbye to our techno 1 subject, the Business Proposal!, anyways, this business proposal was done by a group of 5 students. We chose our members as well as our leader for the group and to be presented during our succeeding classes. We formulated our business proposal basing on our irritants, what we love and best at. By incorporating those 3 factors, we should come up with a unique business proposal. We managed to create one business proposal considering those 3 factors. We were confident that our business idea shall be accepted, but unfortunately it was utterly rejected and we need to create another business proposal again so that we can still present our collected ideas to the class. In the long run, we managed to create one business proposal and thankfully it was accepted. Hurray!
To sum it all, this subject, IT – Elective 1 or Technopreneurship 1 was a fun, memorable, enjoyable subject I had enrolled last semester. Plus, I liked Randy’s facilitation on our class. I eagerly wrote thousands and thousands of words I actually asked myself, is this still IT? It seems like I’m an AB English student. But by doing that, it managed to make me to further use my brain and enhance my thinking capacity and also my writing skills. From time to time I constantly checked his forums for updates and possible assignments. I enjoyed and I learned a lot during the course of this subject.
And now, a new semester has begun and we are back to business, back to where we left of last semester, I’m excited for the new and exciting lessons to discuss and still the thousands of words to write.
Almost 5 months had passed, the first semester had just ended and I managed to pass the memorable and hand shaking technopreneurship 1, you know what I mean, the series of thousands and thousands of words we need to comply because it was one of the requirements in order to pass the subject. Eventhough that’s the case it was a good and bold strategy that our facilitator had executed on our class. He was able to push us to our limits, the limit of my thinking capacity in which I need to write some thousands of words and create a unique business idea. It was not an easy ride for me because I cannot imagine myself in complying those thousands and thousands of words a while back then. But due to my determination to pass, I managed to comply those memorable brain-draining some sort of content writing stuff. Moreover, I’m thankful to our facilitator for the past semester, it was a memorable semester to me.
And now, we are tasked to write our reflections or learning’s during our past subject which is Technopreneurship I. Here we go. As far as I had remembered, our facilitator gave us a task, he draw a 3 x 3 grid of dots. He asked us to connect the dots without lifting our pen and only in one stroke in a piece of paper. And then we followed. After a while he called us one by one and asked us if we did get to connect the dots. Some of my fellow classmates got to connect it. I managed to connect it but I failed to follow his instructions, I lifted my pen by doing so it wasn’t considered “connected” because I “cheated”. Oh! Before I forgot, our facilitator gave us 3 major rules when inside our class room, first was PhD: our facilitator did not want us to call him “sir” he wanted us to call him by his first name Randy. At first I felt awkward but managed to get along somehow. Second major rule was Time: Randy is very strict when it comes to time. If you came late in his class you will show your talent. Just like in show time, the rest of the class will be the judges and also Randy. He will thumb down to your performance if he feels it is not enough and you’ll be forced to repeat in front!. Last major rule was Fun: Randy wanted his class to be full of fun. As the name suggests. Back to where I left of, after Randy connected the dots himself, he said that our activity was to expose us to think outside the box. To think beyond what has been given, beyond borders, beyond the limits of our imaginations. I learned that from his lecture. Also, I learned from him that the present mind set of parents as well as students that at first go to school, get good grades then land a good job. I admit that was also my mind set back then. But Randy gave me a turning point, he made me change my mind set. He was saying that with the help of technopreneurship, you go to school, get good grades and be the boss. A way different and lucrative mind set. I’ll just need to be creative and unique in building my techobiz someday in the future. And then Randy gave us an assignment to visit food chains and think of ways of improving it by using technology. The next meeting was scheduled for our movie screening inside lab 1, our class room. The title of the movie was “Pirates of the Silicon Valley” not to be confused of with some Disney film. This film was like a docu drama of the 2 software giant’s humble beginnings – Apple and Microsoft. It was somehow related to our subject because the film introduces unique business ideas and how the key people managed to survive to the competition. I learned many things in that film, one of those was that Bill Gates was a clever technopreneur and Steve Jobs trusted Bill Gates which turned Apple vs. Windows battle for supremacy. Also I learned that Steve Jobs was the best technopreneur for me. He has many unique ideas and principles that catapulted him to the top of his career as a technopreneur. I very much liked his saying that “stay hungry, stay foolish”- means that we should not be static, we should continue to be curious and invent new ideas that are essential to the people. Considering the people as your target client in your technobiz someday. After our film viewing, Randy gave us assignments in relation to the movie we previously watched. And I promptly complied. And then the next meeting Randy introduced us the SEED Model in which, our focus in Techno 1. S for self-mastery, E for environment-mastery, E for enterprise-mastery and D for development-mastery. We managed to tackle the self-mastery during the course of the first semester. This self-mastery comprises of a lot of different but relevant test that are essential to one’s self, hence the name self-mastery is all about. The first test was the Personality Traits test. The purpose of the personality test is to assess the match between your personality profile and the required job profile, and thus screen out candidates. It is very likely that as part of your job selection process you will have to face a personality test. While the job interview examines your overt behavior, the personality test aims to reach deeper, and expose those areas you might not be aware of, thereby providing recruiters with a more comprehensive profile of your personality. The information provided by the personality test, coupled with the interview and the other psychometric tests including aptitude tests, helps the evaluator to put the pieces together and get an overall impression of the applicant. Moreover, in our personality traits test, I managed to get a relatively high score, in which translates to a some what technopreneur in Randy’s scale. Im quite amazed by my score because I did not see my self as a technopreneur but somehow I’m relieved. This personality traits test also served us a prelim exam for us. Whew! The next test we took that falls in self-mastery was the AQ test, this time we consult the web and googled for the rest of the test. At first I took the AQ test by mistake because it was for autism! Haha! But I managed to take the other and right AQ test. Whew! Such a waste of time. The AQ test or Adversity Test is one of the several factors enabling you to evaluate the strength of your business - testing how well you might withstand unexpected adversity. The information gained from this test can help you see your business' weakness and to prepare you to gain your banker's support perhaps before you need it. Also this test was to evaluate oneself on how you manage the adversities in life, or should I say, how you turn your failures into success. The next test was the EQ test or the Emotional Quotient test this term was to describe a person's ability to understand his or her own emotions and the emotions of others and to act appropriately based on this understanding, also to reveal your emotional reactions to difficult situations. Since businesses need some personal touch in order to survive, we need also to assess our EQ. It is of great help. And lastly, the IQ, the test everyone knows. The most important criterion in assessing our intelligence is the IQ test. The aim of an IQ test is to measure our intelligence, which supposedly is an indication of our own potential. But where does the test come from and does it really measure potential? Intelligence quotient or IQ, is a score derived from a set of standardized tests that were developed with the purpose of measuring a person's cognitive abilities ("intelligence") in relation to their age group. It is expressed as a number normalized so that the average IQ in an age group is 100 — in other words an individual scoring 115 is above-average when compared to similarly aged people. The PT, AQ, EQ and IQ tests were important for a technopreneur to be evaluated with. We need to evaluate each test in order for us to have a guide or assessment in which we made our decisions that is critical in the business. After taking the entire tests, we still have to dig deeper into our own self, so that we may be able to come up with unique business ideas in this era. The next series of self-mastering skills were to find the things that we love, hate and best at. By doing this, we push through the boundaries of our self and try to discover our hidden talents or abilities that regards to technopreneurship. By knowing the things you love, hate and best at enables you to create or invent something unique to the end user or clients you wish to make business unto. You can pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses of your business and you have the power to patch things up according to your will. For example, you love gadgets and you are best at making that gadget more unique and customized. Considering the example, you will have a bird’s eye view on the situation; you can focus on the strengths and make it more appealing. Also do not forget the things you hate or your irritants, this also serves as a warning so that you can avoid that bad vibes. The final test in self - mastery was to know your role in your home, in school, in the society and in the world. Given the condition that Randy has stripped up all our roles, therefore we must find new roles that matches those criteria’s. By doing this I managed to learn new things about myself, this test paved the way for me to know myself better. The entire test that I took was all important for my well - being and self - mastering. I do hope that I will fully utilize my knowledge in the next technopreneurship subject. I almost forgot, we had one last activity before we say goodbye to our techno 1 subject, the Business Proposal!, anyways, this business proposal was done by a group of 5 students. We chose our members as well as our leader for the group and to be presented during our succeeding classes. We formulated our business proposal basing on our irritants, what we love and best at. By incorporating those 3 factors, we should come up with a unique business proposal. We managed to create one business proposal considering those 3 factors. We were confident that our business idea shall be accepted, but unfortunately it was utterly rejected and we need to create another business proposal again so that we can still present our collected ideas to the class. In the long run, we managed to create one business proposal and thankfully it was accepted. Hurray!
To sum it all, this subject, IT – Elective 1 or Technopreneurship 1 was a fun, memorable, enjoyable subject I had enrolled last semester. Plus, I liked Randy’s facilitation on our class. I eagerly wrote thousands and thousands of words I actually asked myself, is this still IT? It seems like I’m an AB English student. But by doing that, it managed to make me to further use my brain and enhance my thinking capacity and also my writing skills. From time to time I constantly checked his forums for updates and possible assignments. I enjoyed and I learned a lot during the course of this subject.
And now, a new semester has begun and we are back to business, back to where we left of last semester, I’m excited for the new and exciting lessons to discuss and still the thousands of words to write.
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