TWC Session 5

The session was mainly about Information Communication Technology (ICT) and the world. We discussed the main areas that ICT are seen in the world, such as Mass Media, Internet, Cloud Computing.  Following that was the debate whether ICT is considered a driver of world change presently and what is lacking for it became a major driver of world change in the future. Lastly, some potential risks and dangers with ICT that can also be seen as the “slowing” down of the process of it becoming a larger impact for the world.

An interesting point is the debate about ICT being a driver of world change. As discussed, ICT is not a fully driver of change at this present point. Though ICT is in many areas such as Mass Media, Internet, Cloud Computing, Information Technology , it is just skimming the surface on most of them. At the moment, ICT is only used to collect and process the information available, rather than continuing it to further develop the information into knowledge and finally, wisdom. The concept is based on the point on Knowledge Management. Hopefully, there will be more initiative to further developing ICT and not be satisfied with where it is at presently.

Perhaps another reason why ICT is not developing as fast as the other revolutions is due to the dangers or potential risks of ICT. Every new innovation definitely has downsides. For the case of ICT, the more crucial factors of concerns I feel are security and invasion of privacy.  Using the case of the innovation of Cloud Computing which is an up and coming technology, there are too many concerns that slows down the process of development. Big companies and even countries are having doubts in entering the Cloud Computing, having the fear of espionage or privacy issues, this leads to the slower development of the software. A more realistic example is the hacking of PS3, where the hackers were able to access the information of the PS3 users. This caused a big spectacle of Cloud. Operators of Cloud Computing have to develop the technology further and at the same time gain the confidence of the world that the technology is stable. These concerns need to be met before Cloud as well as ICT can further develop and be a world driver of change.

Project Natal has brought about a fruitful discussion in the session. Project Natal is a technology that allows humans to interact with an IT programme. Throughout the course of humanity, humans have humanized pets such as dogs, and other animate or inanimate objects. Soon, IT will too be humanized. Hints of this can be seen in the gaming arena. Xbox by Microsoft is a good example, with the recent launch of “Kinect”. This technology uses a camera and motion sensors to detect the movements of a participant of the game, and reflect the exact motions into the game/screen. Presently, this is the most “developed” technology in this arena and I feel that it is a “testing” platform for more to come in the future when applicable to real-life.

The key takeaway from this seminar is the fact that ICT has not reached its full potential and is still in progress to become a major world driver of change. The developments of ICT will be interesting to take note over the next 10 or 20 years.

Further discussion can be on how ICT is in the different areas of the world and how ICT can be improved in these areas.

8/10!