Week 5

The topic for this week's TWC session was ICT and World Change(Mass Media, the Internet, Wireless, Interactive Telecommunications) Past, Present and Future. We talked about how infocomm technology progressed throughout the times, some areas of interest were mass media, internet, gaming, wireless technologies, cloud computing and knowledge management. the 3 areas which stood out to me were internet, gaming and knowledge management. I've always been using the internet and thinking that the only thing that changed about it over the years was the connection speed and the type of information. But it had actually changed from web 1.0 to 2.0 and now 3.0. Content on 1.0 was contributed by corporations, 2.0 by users via blogs and social networking sites while 3.0 is a system where the computers cleverly put together information about the user to let the user enjoy a more customized experience. Gaming refers the change in interaction between the user and the games(microsoft now has the kinect which does not have any controllers). Knowledge management describes the flow from data to becoming information to becoming knowledge(mixed with experience) to becoming wisdom.

The thing about moving into the ICT age, there is need for companies to change their way of managing people to that of post industrial. Instead of treating people as a cog in a big machines, employers are now expected to treat employees as individuals who 'can make a difference', who have ' excellent ideas'(empowering employees). Another interesting discussion in class was about green knowledge, managing knowledge and ensuring that expertise and knowledge is kept within the company. I feel that humans being selfish and wanting to feel indispensable might lead to chief knowledge officers having a hard job. The concept of CKO is also a new concept to me but seems like a necessary introduction to companies, but it doesn't seem that many companies have this position. Another interesting takeaway for me would be that of project natal and the possibilities this could bring. Project natal is the idea of capturing knowledge in the virtual form, and you can interact with this form. An imagination would be that your family members of 5 generations are captured into this virtual form whereby you can consult them for their individual expertise whenever you need. This aptly reminds me of the portraits of wizards and witches in the Harry Potter series.

Presentations include the 'Future of Television', 'Intelligent Nation 2015(Singapore)', 'Cloud Computing' and 'Free Economy and digital markets'. I preferred the last presentation most as it discusses the idea of free vs freemium, enabled by ICT. With ICT, data and software can be made infinitely many, reaching out to the masses across many parts of the world to create awareness among consumers, creating a market for your own product. Consumers only pay for the extra stuff(exclusive content). Being an information systems student myself, this and ICT appeals to me so i would rate this session a good 9.5 out of 10:) 9.5 because there always has to be room for improvement or people would be complacent and stay stagnant.