Alright this is the 7th week into TWC module, and this week talks more about this huge biobusiness revolution topic and focusing especially on agribiology, genetically modified food to be exact. Although next week is recess week, I'm totally not excited about it because my recess week is labelled projects week. Monday to Friday every single day, I have project meetings. Not to mention all the assignments to be due, individual research essay for this module! It's going to be a hell of a week for me! Ok enough of ranting, time for serious biobusiness here...
Prof Shahi kicked off the lesson with a thought provoking quote, "When we are able to grow the resources we need, we will finally be on the road to sustainability". I fully agree with this statement that prof said. If the world continues to consume food,energy,materials,fuels and goods at the current alarming rate, it is only a matter of time the world will run out of resources to feed us humans. Prof showed us an interesting 'happy tree friends' video http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=GKEAXOnogZU&feature=player_embedded showing us humans as 'PEST' that leech on Earth's resources and ruin its environment and pollutes the air, destroying Earth as a result. After we are down with Earth, we will go on to other planets and do the same. The objective of many space NASA projects to other planets is to seek useful resources for our consumption and usage. So, in order for us not to leech on Earth resources, we need to find new ways to keep our consumption sustainable for the long run. Prof gave a very interesting idea, for example if every household has this machine which you can convert biowaste into energy, how cool and effective it'll be. It'll be one of the greatest invention ever in my opinion. I believe the idea and concept is already being extensively researched but we need to make it affordable and efficient enough to churn out a high conversion rate of energy that is sufficient for our usage.
This week focus is on agribiology, biobusiness in agriculture and food. Prof shared with us this unsung hero behind Green Revolution- . His video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcwnWxy-YzU&feature=related I have never heard of this man before just like the rest of the class but after Prof talked about him, I realised he is indeed a man worthy of respect and admiration. His contribution to the world in solving world hunger is tremendous. I saw a quote in reading 6 which is quite shocking, food production must increase by 70 percent to feed the world population in 2050. The consolution is that the report went on to state that the required increase in food production can be achieved if the neccessary investment is undertaken and policies conducive to agricultural production are put in place. Looks like all is not gone, we have hope now. The world is not going to die of hunger! But hold on! Increasing food production is not enough, food security is the main cause of concern especially in rural areas. Food security is a condition where all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food prefereneces for an active and healthy life. I believe that this main concern needs to be addressed alongside increasing food production. What's the point of producing lots of food volume but none of it reaches the right people which are the poor in rural areas.
This week presentations talks about the idea of GM food. In my opinion, I strongly agree with the acceptance of GM food as I believe it is a fantastic way to reduce world poverty and increase food production. Some skeptics may argue about the detrimental effects of such GM food but lets think about it. Would u rather have no food on ur table and starve to death right away or would u rather have food which COULD or COULD NOT be harmful but at least u wont starve to death. So far there's no prove of such harmful effects and it probably does not have any! Prof mentioned that there are many food we're eating now are GM food. Are we going to freak out right now and start finding out what are those GM food and avoid eating them? I believe that for those who are rich and can afford organic food, please go ahead and eat them but do not stop other people from eating GM food which are definitely much cheaper and affordable.
Rating is 7/10. I wish to see more discussion on the environmental and industrial aspect of biobusiness rather than just agribiology.
Wednesday 28 September 2011
Tuesday 20 September 2011
Lesson 6: Biobusiness Revolution: Healthcare and Biomedical Sciences
Hey guys! It's week 6 already, 6 weeks into Uni life and things are getting more and more hectic with mid term exam coming soon,tons of projects to do, and assignments to hand up. Ok I shall be prepared for this heavy workload in uni and just try my best and tackle it and do well in it. This week of TWC, we looked into Biobusiness. This area of technology seems foreign and complicated to me at first but it is in fact a 'big thing' in the technology field. It constitutes over 25% of global GDP and employ some 40% of the world labour force (and this is in 2001, ten yrs ago) Biobusiness just means commercial activity based on an understanding of life sciences and life science processes. Biobusiness is used in many industry sectors like the biomedical sector where u have healthcare, herbal traditional medicine where I'll talk more about it and we had a presentation on it too. There's also the food industry, environmental and industrial biobusiness and other biobusiness like nanotechnology. This week will concentrate mainly on biobusiness in healthcare. What struck me most is when prof talks about the US healthcare and he quoted that more than 70% of healthcare spending goes to the last 1 year of the people life. He even showed us an interesting video called "Sicko" where it talks all about US healthcare and how atrocious the system is. I remember watching it before last time and till now I still remember this part of it. They talk about how expensive it is to get healthcare services in US and some people even have to migrate to Canada to get their healthcare services which is much cheaper than in US. Despite the advancement of healthcare in the biobusiness industry, I feel that what is the point of this when the government and the companies are controlling the industry and making it unaffordable for people to use it. There may be lots of arguements for this, like companies need the money for their R&D so they cant sell it at a low cost. I feel that we need to work on improving the healthcare system in countries, making it affordable for people. One of the readings talk about disease management where the elderly people get involved in technology to help keep their doctors informed of their medical status and from this, they can get constant help from the doctors. Things like this is very good to improve the healthcare level in the country and countries should go towards this system. In one of the presentation, we talked about Singapore going towards such management system. I shall go into the presentations next.
This week, we had 5 presentations and they were all really good as usual, making me feel the stress and pressure because I still haven't presented. Dont worry guys, I'll try my best not to disappoint the class and definitely give it my best shot for the presentation. Priya started off presenting on the future of Singapore healthcare. I believe like Singapore, many developed countries face the problem of ageing population and this problem must be tackled before it gets too late. In her article, it talks about using technology to help solve this problem just like the disease mangement system. I believe this is possible but only if the user interface for such devices are very simple and legible to read. For example, my dad will only use phones which has easy to read interface like the iphones. When u make a call, the keypad is very legible and easy to read. Although the msging keypad seems a little small for him to read, no wonder my dad dont really use sms. Next, Jethro talks about a very interesting topic of immortality. To be honest, I find his presentation abit dull and boring however his discussion questions brightens up the class. To answer his question, in my opinion, I feel that there are many considerations for being immortal, it is very hard for me to decide on this matter. If u're immortal, you can have all the time in the world and do many many things. However, one may feel since u have so much time in ur life, life will get bored and everyday u'll just be doing nothing and wasting your time and life away.I think at this moment, I'll lean towards living my life as it is right now. The last presentation, Surbashene talks about herbal medicine and traditional medicine. To be honest, as a Chinese myself and also based on my personal experience, I have more faith in such chinese traditional medicine which may not have much medical support. I remembered I tore my calf muscle when I was serving the army. I was brought to the western way of treating it which is to do physiotherapy. After doing for sometime, I realised that the recovery is very slow and I'm getting really impatient. So, I turned to chinese medicine, I went for accupunture, massage, and chinese medicine. In the end, I recovered much faster and now Im up and running all thanks to chinese traditional medicine. I still remembered after the first session of treatment, I can already feel a great improvement in my leg and I thought to myself what a great miracle. Seriously...
Personal rating: 9/10
This week, we had 5 presentations and they were all really good as usual, making me feel the stress and pressure because I still haven't presented. Dont worry guys, I'll try my best not to disappoint the class and definitely give it my best shot for the presentation. Priya started off presenting on the future of Singapore healthcare. I believe like Singapore, many developed countries face the problem of ageing population and this problem must be tackled before it gets too late. In her article, it talks about using technology to help solve this problem just like the disease mangement system. I believe this is possible but only if the user interface for such devices are very simple and legible to read. For example, my dad will only use phones which has easy to read interface like the iphones. When u make a call, the keypad is very legible and easy to read. Although the msging keypad seems a little small for him to read, no wonder my dad dont really use sms. Next, Jethro talks about a very interesting topic of immortality. To be honest, I find his presentation abit dull and boring however his discussion questions brightens up the class. To answer his question, in my opinion, I feel that there are many considerations for being immortal, it is very hard for me to decide on this matter. If u're immortal, you can have all the time in the world and do many many things. However, one may feel since u have so much time in ur life, life will get bored and everyday u'll just be doing nothing and wasting your time and life away.I think at this moment, I'll lean towards living my life as it is right now. The last presentation, Surbashene talks about herbal medicine and traditional medicine. To be honest, as a Chinese myself and also based on my personal experience, I have more faith in such chinese traditional medicine which may not have much medical support. I remembered I tore my calf muscle when I was serving the army. I was brought to the western way of treating it which is to do physiotherapy. After doing for sometime, I realised that the recovery is very slow and I'm getting really impatient. So, I turned to chinese medicine, I went for accupunture, massage, and chinese medicine. In the end, I recovered much faster and now Im up and running all thanks to chinese traditional medicine. I still remembered after the first session of treatment, I can already feel a great improvement in my leg and I thought to myself what a great miracle. Seriously...
Personal rating: 9/10
Tuesday 13 September 2011
Lesson 5: ICT and World Change
As usual, week 5 lesson overshot the time and ended late again, making me rush like mad for my next lesson. But this is not something bad! I'm not complaining. This is in fact something good! The class always has very engaging discussion and interesting presentation such that 3hr 15mins is definitely not enough time for it. I'm begining to enjoy more and more of this Technology world change lesson. Every lesson I learnt something new and useful, about technology, about the world, about government policies and many more things.
This lesson talks about ICT and how it has changed the world or will change to world in future. One very common example of ICT is of course the Internet. The internet is a big driver of change in the world. It has brought about many possibilities and how the way we do things. From the web 1.0 where we just receive static information from the internet to web 2.0 where we can interact more with the internet through facebook,blogging etc, now we're moving on to web 3.0 where the internet can predict and knows what we want and react to it. Prof Shahi also introduced this concept of cloud computing. At first it sounds like some high tech 'dont know what is it' term, but after showing us a simple video of what it is, I have a much better understanding of it. Alot of things in the internet now we use are using cloud computing concept, it's just that we are unaware of it. For example the Google Doc where users can edit information together, just like how our TA sent us the google doc form for us to fill in our blog name. Makes it much easier for him rather than all of us sending him email n flooding his inbox.
One key takeaway message is how can these ICT help to deal poverty issues, and different issues in the world. In the slides, there's this quote "Today's real borders are not between nations, but between powerful and powerless,free and fettered, privileged and humiliated." One interesting thing that prof mentioned is that we can relate more to the university students of other countries than the uncles and aunties in our own countries. This is true to a certain extent, because university students all uses the internet, computers, facebook, and whatever that is in the net. This way we have common topic and interest and we are sort of on the same wavelength. However, the uncles and aunties in the coffeshops do not use such technology so we do not relate much to them, creating a sort of digital divide. This is something sad but true. That's why u see parents creating facebook accounts to communicate with their children. More and more older generation people are more willing to learn how to use computers so that they can relate to the younger generation and not feel left out. More must be done in third world countries to introduce these technologies to them so that they will not feel powerless and left out. The creation of cheap less than $100 laptops is a good start to get them involved.
This week's lesson has 4 presentations. Firstly, Melissa presented on Future of television. Her presentation is very well done in my opinion with very nice powerpoint slides using mac keynote. How I wish I can just add the Aston Martin to cart.haha. Her question is regarding tablet pc compared to the traditional television. I believe that traditional television will still be neccessary because the size of tablet is too small and the viewing experience will be whole lot different than the big wide size of television. Tablet viewing is also very individualistic and selfish where u can share with ur whole family. There goes your quality family bonding session of watching tv shows tog. Next, Shaak talks about free economy and the very creative idea of 'freemium' which many companies are using now. For example, apple iphone applications where many aps are free but u can pay a premium to get better features. This idea is working out very well and I believe is the way business should go. But one problem with this is hackers can hack into the system and make freemium totally free. For example jailbreaking your iphone and u can download all the supposedly paid apps for free. One thing about technology is that there is alwys the problem of hackers. Hackers can steal people's credit card details, passwords, important information like wikileaks and etc... It is very hard to stop them despite many strict security measures. So the question is, how safe are we in today's world if everything is going online like cloud computing...
Personal rating is 10/10. Great class but I do hope we can try n end on time so I do not need to rush for my next lesson... I should prob warn my juniors next time never to put another lesson just right aft TWC. haha.
This lesson talks about ICT and how it has changed the world or will change to world in future. One very common example of ICT is of course the Internet. The internet is a big driver of change in the world. It has brought about many possibilities and how the way we do things. From the web 1.0 where we just receive static information from the internet to web 2.0 where we can interact more with the internet through facebook,blogging etc, now we're moving on to web 3.0 where the internet can predict and knows what we want and react to it. Prof Shahi also introduced this concept of cloud computing. At first it sounds like some high tech 'dont know what is it' term, but after showing us a simple video of what it is, I have a much better understanding of it. Alot of things in the internet now we use are using cloud computing concept, it's just that we are unaware of it. For example the Google Doc where users can edit information together, just like how our TA sent us the google doc form for us to fill in our blog name. Makes it much easier for him rather than all of us sending him email n flooding his inbox.
One key takeaway message is how can these ICT help to deal poverty issues, and different issues in the world. In the slides, there's this quote "Today's real borders are not between nations, but between powerful and powerless,free and fettered, privileged and humiliated." One interesting thing that prof mentioned is that we can relate more to the university students of other countries than the uncles and aunties in our own countries. This is true to a certain extent, because university students all uses the internet, computers, facebook, and whatever that is in the net. This way we have common topic and interest and we are sort of on the same wavelength. However, the uncles and aunties in the coffeshops do not use such technology so we do not relate much to them, creating a sort of digital divide. This is something sad but true. That's why u see parents creating facebook accounts to communicate with their children. More and more older generation people are more willing to learn how to use computers so that they can relate to the younger generation and not feel left out. More must be done in third world countries to introduce these technologies to them so that they will not feel powerless and left out. The creation of cheap less than $100 laptops is a good start to get them involved.
This week's lesson has 4 presentations. Firstly, Melissa presented on Future of television. Her presentation is very well done in my opinion with very nice powerpoint slides using mac keynote. How I wish I can just add the Aston Martin to cart.haha. Her question is regarding tablet pc compared to the traditional television. I believe that traditional television will still be neccessary because the size of tablet is too small and the viewing experience will be whole lot different than the big wide size of television. Tablet viewing is also very individualistic and selfish where u can share with ur whole family. There goes your quality family bonding session of watching tv shows tog. Next, Shaak talks about free economy and the very creative idea of 'freemium' which many companies are using now. For example, apple iphone applications where many aps are free but u can pay a premium to get better features. This idea is working out very well and I believe is the way business should go. But one problem with this is hackers can hack into the system and make freemium totally free. For example jailbreaking your iphone and u can download all the supposedly paid apps for free. One thing about technology is that there is alwys the problem of hackers. Hackers can steal people's credit card details, passwords, important information like wikileaks and etc... It is very hard to stop them despite many strict security measures. So the question is, how safe are we in today's world if everything is going online like cloud computing...
Personal rating is 10/10. Great class but I do hope we can try n end on time so I do not need to rush for my next lesson... I should prob warn my juniors next time never to put another lesson just right aft TWC. haha.
Friday 9 September 2011
Individual Topical Review Paper Outline
Technology Advances in Transportation : Flying Cars
1. Specific Innovation of Interest
Flying cars which means mass produced vehicles that can be driven on the road and also take off and fly in the sky. This flying car must be practical to use and available to all public.
2. Rationale for Selecting this Innovation
This innovation will change the way people travel. Travelling time will be greatly reduced and the problem of traffic congestion which is prevalent in most cities will be solved when cars are taken to the air. With flying cars, there may not even be a need for airplanes travel. The travelling methods of people will change drastically with this revolutionary innovation.
3. Proposed Approach to Development of Paper
Executive Summary
Sitting amidst a sea of cars in bumper-to-bumper traffic on an endless expressway, have you ever daydreamed about your car taking off and flying over the road? Imagine if you could just flip a switch and unshackle yourself from the asphalt!
Traffic jams are the bane of any commuter. Many of us spend an hour or so stuck in traffic every week. The growing population is partly to blame for our congested roads, but the main problem is that we are not expanding our transportation systems fast enough to meet ever increasing demands. One solution is to create a new type of transportation that doesn't rely on roads, which could one day make traffic jams a 20th century relic. To do this, we must look to the sky.1
Background/ Introduction
Short history of flying cars
In 1917, Glenn Curtiss came out with the first flying car called 'Curtiss Autoplane'. The Autoplane never truly flew but manage to do a few short hops. In 1937, Waldo Waterman came out with the 'Arrowbile' which is a three-wheeled car powered by 100 horsepower Studebaker engine. However it did not work due to lack of funding. In 1946, Robert Fulton developed the 'Airphibian' but it did not work out due to lack of financial backing. In the 1940s, ConvAirCar was developed, a two-door sedan equipped with a detachable airplane unit. However it was not successful and crashed on its third flight. Next, Moulton Taylor invented the 'Aerocar' which was considered on of the most successful flying car to date.1
These pioneers never managed to develop a viable flying car, and some even died testing their inventions. However, they proved that a car could be built to fly, and inspired a new group of roadable aircraft enthusiasts. With advances in lightweight material, computer modeling and computer-controlled aircraft, the dream is very close to becoming reality.
Historical Perspective
Brief history of transportation
It started in about 3500BC, fixed wheels on cart are invented - the first wheeled vehicles in history. Other early wheeled vehicles include the chariot. Then in 2500BC, horses are domesticated and use for transportation. The first vehicle to move under its own power for which there is a record was designed by Nicholas Joseph Cugnot and constructed by M. Brezin in 1769. From then on, cars have taken over the world by storm and it is the most widely used method of transportation today.2
Current Situation
Without automobiles in our life, we may still be riding horseback across town. We could get no where fast and there would be far less travel in the world which means far less money being made. However, with the ever increasing rate of cars on the road, traffic congestion are going to cost people time, money and many more problems. Thus, the introduction of the flying cars where people can travel in the wide airspace where traffic congestion will no longer be a problem of today.
Currently in the market, U.S. company Terrafugia developed the flying car called the Transition Roadable Light Sport Aircraft which will be manufactured by 2012, can be transformed from a car to a plane in just 30 seconds.3
Positive Arguments for Flying Cars
-Cool
-Solve traffic congestion problem
-Save time on travelling
-Aid in warfare, stealth mission and mobility of tanks
Negative Arguments for Flying Cars
-Practicality and safety issues
-Costly at first, will create a have and have-nots gap
-Security and privacy issues
-Pollution
-Better alternatives like improving public transport
References
1. http://auto.howstuffworks.com/flying-car1.htm
2. http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_history_of_transportation.htm
3. http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/109522/20110207/flying-cars-terrafugia.htm
1. Specific Innovation of Interest
Flying cars which means mass produced vehicles that can be driven on the road and also take off and fly in the sky. This flying car must be practical to use and available to all public.
2. Rationale for Selecting this Innovation
This innovation will change the way people travel. Travelling time will be greatly reduced and the problem of traffic congestion which is prevalent in most cities will be solved when cars are taken to the air. With flying cars, there may not even be a need for airplanes travel. The travelling methods of people will change drastically with this revolutionary innovation.
3. Proposed Approach to Development of Paper
Executive Summary
Sitting amidst a sea of cars in bumper-to-bumper traffic on an endless expressway, have you ever daydreamed about your car taking off and flying over the road? Imagine if you could just flip a switch and unshackle yourself from the asphalt!
Traffic jams are the bane of any commuter. Many of us spend an hour or so stuck in traffic every week. The growing population is partly to blame for our congested roads, but the main problem is that we are not expanding our transportation systems fast enough to meet ever increasing demands. One solution is to create a new type of transportation that doesn't rely on roads, which could one day make traffic jams a 20th century relic. To do this, we must look to the sky.1
Background/ Introduction
Short history of flying cars
In 1917, Glenn Curtiss came out with the first flying car called 'Curtiss Autoplane'. The Autoplane never truly flew but manage to do a few short hops. In 1937, Waldo Waterman came out with the 'Arrowbile' which is a three-wheeled car powered by 100 horsepower Studebaker engine. However it did not work due to lack of funding. In 1946, Robert Fulton developed the 'Airphibian' but it did not work out due to lack of financial backing. In the 1940s, ConvAirCar was developed, a two-door sedan equipped with a detachable airplane unit. However it was not successful and crashed on its third flight. Next, Moulton Taylor invented the 'Aerocar' which was considered on of the most successful flying car to date.1
These pioneers never managed to develop a viable flying car, and some even died testing their inventions. However, they proved that a car could be built to fly, and inspired a new group of roadable aircraft enthusiasts. With advances in lightweight material, computer modeling and computer-controlled aircraft, the dream is very close to becoming reality.
Historical Perspective
Brief history of transportation
It started in about 3500BC, fixed wheels on cart are invented - the first wheeled vehicles in history. Other early wheeled vehicles include the chariot. Then in 2500BC, horses are domesticated and use for transportation. The first vehicle to move under its own power for which there is a record was designed by Nicholas Joseph Cugnot and constructed by M. Brezin in 1769. From then on, cars have taken over the world by storm and it is the most widely used method of transportation today.2
Current Situation
Without automobiles in our life, we may still be riding horseback across town. We could get no where fast and there would be far less travel in the world which means far less money being made. However, with the ever increasing rate of cars on the road, traffic congestion are going to cost people time, money and many more problems. Thus, the introduction of the flying cars where people can travel in the wide airspace where traffic congestion will no longer be a problem of today.
Currently in the market, U.S. company Terrafugia developed the flying car called the Transition Roadable Light Sport Aircraft which will be manufactured by 2012, can be transformed from a car to a plane in just 30 seconds.3
Positive Arguments for Flying Cars
-Cool
-Solve traffic congestion problem
-Save time on travelling
-Aid in warfare, stealth mission and mobility of tanks
Negative Arguments for Flying Cars
-Practicality and safety issues
-Costly at first, will create a have and have-nots gap
-Security and privacy issues
-Pollution
-Better alternatives like improving public transport
References
1. http://auto.howstuffworks.com/flying-car1.htm
2. http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_history_of_transportation.htm
3. http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/109522/20110207/flying-cars-terrafugia.htm
Wednesday 7 September 2011
Lesson 4: Drivers of World Change/Change management n leadership
Lesson 4 was yet another engaging lesson filled with interesting presentations from my fellow classmates. Totally enjoyed all their presentation and admire them for the great effort put in. Although I haven't presented yet, I can already sense n feel the huge amount of effort one need to put in for the presentation. So, dont worry guys, I'll do my utmost best for my presentation in week 10. Seems quite long from now but it's going to come soon...
At the start of the lesson, Prof Shahi talks about the driver of world change. There are the environmental drivers, scrientific, social, demographic and many more drivers of change in the world. I believe that globalization is a main big driver of world change. As prof mentioned, we all need to adapt to change and be the forefront of change. We cannot remain complacent and live in our own world, we need to be aware of what is going on in the world, what is changing, what is the newest trend and we have to capitalise and adjsut ourselves to the change. There are two types of change, 'Evolutionary' and ' Revolutionary' changes. Evolutionary is just a small incremental change, like improving of things. For example, the ipad did a evolutionary change to come out with ipad 2. Revolutionary change is different, it is a big destructive change, something radical. For example, the introduction of ipad,tablet pc compared to laptops. Small portable on the go size tablet doing almost all the capabilities of the traditional laptops. Smartphones are also a big revolutionary change from the past. I remember ten years ago, I had my first handphone. It was a no colour, just black n white phone which can only do the basic messaging and calling. Now, with the smartphone, we can surf the net, and do so many more functions and applications we can ever imagine. The challenge now is, what's next? What is going to be the next revolutionary change of handphones? But no matter what is the case, I'll be more than prepared to adjust myself to it. *Iphone 5 is coming out in Oct...Cant wait...haha.
The next part of the session is about Change management and Change leadership. Prof Shahi showed a very interesting video of leadership. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU7dxkIz1Vs I found the full video of it in the facebook page. This is extremely funny and interesting video about this guy dancing. The idea behind it is that the leader must step up and be daring to do things differently, revolutionary. It is not easy to get people to follow u and agree with u. But u must perserve on and continue and once people slowly understand, they'll follow u and more and more people will start to join u, just like herd mentality. I think this works the same for many inventions and innovations. At the start, it is not easy to put across ur 'radical' innovation idea but as a leader, u must have the guts and drive to carry on. It is also important that u have a wingman, someone who is like your bestman who can aid u and help to manage ur innovation idea. A leader give the vision but the manager carries out the change. In the slides, there is a Pessimism- Time Curve. When I see that graph, I find that it works the same like in a relationship. At the start of the relationship, everything is honeymoon, so u'll feel very happy n optimistic. then gradually u'll find problems with each other and u'll reach the informed pessimism stage. Then after you overcome ur problems and get to know each other more, you'll reach the informed realism and u'll slowly be on yr way to happiness. If only realationship can be happy and optimistic all the way... ok this is not related to technology world change...
This week presentations are very well done. I gave 10 points for two persons' presentations (other than the fact they are my good friends), but they gave really intriguing presentations. Deco presented first about social media. Although he speaks with an accent which I dont really catch at times, I think his efforts are still commendable. His presentation is really long. But I do agree with his points of how social media are changing the world now. Our class is using facebook as discussion and I'm writing this blog so that other people can see and comment. There's a point I would like to highlight is that businesses are using social media to promote their business and services. This is exceptionally useful for businesses especially new start ups with low capital. Sometimes on facebook, I would see my friends advertising their newly opened blog shop. With the internet and social media, businesses can be started out with very low capital, the introduction of blogshops. I believe the trend to go for business is online business. With the low start up capital and wide network of the internet, it is very conducive for business start ups. I do hope I can start my online business soon... Gan Kee Lui presented next about Energy change. Something interesting I picked up is this 'Speed Hump' idea. This is extremely cool if a car can charge up its electricity by going past a hump. Sounds like those car racing crazy games. Just wondering how would it actually work...
Personal rating for this session is 9/10 again. Great class. Look forward to the next lesson!
At the start of the lesson, Prof Shahi talks about the driver of world change. There are the environmental drivers, scrientific, social, demographic and many more drivers of change in the world. I believe that globalization is a main big driver of world change. As prof mentioned, we all need to adapt to change and be the forefront of change. We cannot remain complacent and live in our own world, we need to be aware of what is going on in the world, what is changing, what is the newest trend and we have to capitalise and adjsut ourselves to the change. There are two types of change, 'Evolutionary' and ' Revolutionary' changes. Evolutionary is just a small incremental change, like improving of things. For example, the ipad did a evolutionary change to come out with ipad 2. Revolutionary change is different, it is a big destructive change, something radical. For example, the introduction of ipad,tablet pc compared to laptops. Small portable on the go size tablet doing almost all the capabilities of the traditional laptops. Smartphones are also a big revolutionary change from the past. I remember ten years ago, I had my first handphone. It was a no colour, just black n white phone which can only do the basic messaging and calling. Now, with the smartphone, we can surf the net, and do so many more functions and applications we can ever imagine. The challenge now is, what's next? What is going to be the next revolutionary change of handphones? But no matter what is the case, I'll be more than prepared to adjust myself to it. *Iphone 5 is coming out in Oct...Cant wait...haha.
The next part of the session is about Change management and Change leadership. Prof Shahi showed a very interesting video of leadership. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU7dxkIz1Vs I found the full video of it in the facebook page. This is extremely funny and interesting video about this guy dancing. The idea behind it is that the leader must step up and be daring to do things differently, revolutionary. It is not easy to get people to follow u and agree with u. But u must perserve on and continue and once people slowly understand, they'll follow u and more and more people will start to join u, just like herd mentality. I think this works the same for many inventions and innovations. At the start, it is not easy to put across ur 'radical' innovation idea but as a leader, u must have the guts and drive to carry on. It is also important that u have a wingman, someone who is like your bestman who can aid u and help to manage ur innovation idea. A leader give the vision but the manager carries out the change. In the slides, there is a Pessimism- Time Curve. When I see that graph, I find that it works the same like in a relationship. At the start of the relationship, everything is honeymoon, so u'll feel very happy n optimistic. then gradually u'll find problems with each other and u'll reach the informed pessimism stage. Then after you overcome ur problems and get to know each other more, you'll reach the informed realism and u'll slowly be on yr way to happiness. If only realationship can be happy and optimistic all the way... ok this is not related to technology world change...
This week presentations are very well done. I gave 10 points for two persons' presentations (other than the fact they are my good friends), but they gave really intriguing presentations. Deco presented first about social media. Although he speaks with an accent which I dont really catch at times, I think his efforts are still commendable. His presentation is really long. But I do agree with his points of how social media are changing the world now. Our class is using facebook as discussion and I'm writing this blog so that other people can see and comment. There's a point I would like to highlight is that businesses are using social media to promote their business and services. This is exceptionally useful for businesses especially new start ups with low capital. Sometimes on facebook, I would see my friends advertising their newly opened blog shop. With the internet and social media, businesses can be started out with very low capital, the introduction of blogshops. I believe the trend to go for business is online business. With the low start up capital and wide network of the internet, it is very conducive for business start ups. I do hope I can start my online business soon... Gan Kee Lui presented next about Energy change. Something interesting I picked up is this 'Speed Hump' idea. This is extremely cool if a car can charge up its electricity by going past a hump. Sounds like those car racing crazy games. Just wondering how would it actually work...
Personal rating for this session is 9/10 again. Great class. Look forward to the next lesson!
Thursday 1 September 2011
Lesson 3: Sustainability and Innovation Management
This is week 3 lesson 3 into this Technology world change module. Things are getting more and more interesting with more information flooding into my head. like what prof has mentioned. this module is like "GP on steriods" I kinda agree with him on this because there are just too much information to digest and read up on. Technology is not just technical or electronic aspect of things but it is interpreted as the practical application of things in life. This broadens the scope of technology and really makes me think even harder of issues that technology caused/can cause/or can solve! Lesson 3 talks about how to make technology sustainable and how to manage the innovation process of it.
The first part of lesson 3 is on Sustainability of technology and industrial development. Prof showed us this video "story of stuff" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLBE5QAYXp8 It talks about the way we're living our life now and using the 'linear' system is in crisis because we live in a finite planet where our resources are limited. So we have to go from "linear" to "cyclical" in the sense of recycling, biofuel technology etc. I went onto youtube and found a critic video to this "story of stuff" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5uJgG05xUY It is very interesting to see how the critic tear down her arguments and challenge her claims and statistics. After reading through the readings given in session 3a, I realised that the role of government is very important and essential in technology innovation. For example, in Singapore, the government is looking into the future of hybrid electronic cars. These hybrid cars are generally more expensive than the conventional petrol based cars so naturally people will not want to buy them. So the government issued out subsidies for these hybrid cars to attract more people to buy them. Without actions like this from the government, the future of hybrid cars will be gone and we'll all be stuck with using pollutive petrol based vehicles.
The second part of lesson 3b is on innovation management. I read through reading 4 which is written by Prof himself on bisbusiness landscape. The idea of the valley, summit and cloud opportunities is very interesting. I hope to be able to use this model in future and try and make cloud opportunities into summit opportunities. This is very effective when you are looking for a profitable business or enterprise to start up. Next, Prof also talked on the R-D-A translation process. When I see this model, I thought of a project meeting where many of us have many ideas and new insights to contribute but only a handful or few ideas would really work and make the project a success. Like I said, government contribution is essential in managing the innovation process. For example, the EU launch of the emissions trading program. With this program, they will give out incentives to company to do the R&D to come out with new innovations to reduce carbon emissions. Without the right incentives and government regulations, companies will just continue to pollute the atmosphere and not behave responsibly.
This week, the class has five presentations. All the presentations are very interesting and insightful. I would like to mention a few here. There is a presentation on Apple and it talks about the man behind Apple which is Steve Jobs. I believe he has done a really good job in managing Apple and giving it the right direction. I'm happily using Apple products now (iphone,ipad,macbook) and I hope to see more new products coming out from Apple. Now that, Steve Job has stepped down from Apple, the future of Apple would greatly rely on Tim cooks the new CEO which Steve Job has appointed. I really hope that he can come out with the next big thing rather than just coming out with minor improvements on products that are already in the mkt like the iphone 5, ipad 3. I'll patiently be waiting for the next i(dont know what) product that he can/will launch. But I'll still not lose faith in Apple.
Personal rating for lesson 10/10
Very interesting lesson with 5 presentations and lots of stuff to learn.
The first part of lesson 3 is on Sustainability of technology and industrial development. Prof showed us this video "story of stuff" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLBE5QAYXp8 It talks about the way we're living our life now and using the 'linear' system is in crisis because we live in a finite planet where our resources are limited. So we have to go from "linear" to "cyclical" in the sense of recycling, biofuel technology etc. I went onto youtube and found a critic video to this "story of stuff" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5uJgG05xUY It is very interesting to see how the critic tear down her arguments and challenge her claims and statistics. After reading through the readings given in session 3a, I realised that the role of government is very important and essential in technology innovation. For example, in Singapore, the government is looking into the future of hybrid electronic cars. These hybrid cars are generally more expensive than the conventional petrol based cars so naturally people will not want to buy them. So the government issued out subsidies for these hybrid cars to attract more people to buy them. Without actions like this from the government, the future of hybrid cars will be gone and we'll all be stuck with using pollutive petrol based vehicles.
The second part of lesson 3b is on innovation management. I read through reading 4 which is written by Prof himself on bisbusiness landscape. The idea of the valley, summit and cloud opportunities is very interesting. I hope to be able to use this model in future and try and make cloud opportunities into summit opportunities. This is very effective when you are looking for a profitable business or enterprise to start up. Next, Prof also talked on the R-D-A translation process. When I see this model, I thought of a project meeting where many of us have many ideas and new insights to contribute but only a handful or few ideas would really work and make the project a success. Like I said, government contribution is essential in managing the innovation process. For example, the EU launch of the emissions trading program. With this program, they will give out incentives to company to do the R&D to come out with new innovations to reduce carbon emissions. Without the right incentives and government regulations, companies will just continue to pollute the atmosphere and not behave responsibly.
This week, the class has five presentations. All the presentations are very interesting and insightful. I would like to mention a few here. There is a presentation on Apple and it talks about the man behind Apple which is Steve Jobs. I believe he has done a really good job in managing Apple and giving it the right direction. I'm happily using Apple products now (iphone,ipad,macbook) and I hope to see more new products coming out from Apple. Now that, Steve Job has stepped down from Apple, the future of Apple would greatly rely on Tim cooks the new CEO which Steve Job has appointed. I really hope that he can come out with the next big thing rather than just coming out with minor improvements on products that are already in the mkt like the iphone 5, ipad 3. I'll patiently be waiting for the next i(dont know what) product that he can/will launch. But I'll still not lose faith in Apple.
Personal rating for lesson 10/10
Very interesting lesson with 5 presentations and lots of stuff to learn.
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