Blogger Notes

We started the web group presentations this week. The topics covered this week were:

1. Epidemic Management
2. Sports and Technology
3. The Crowd Platform
4. Green Technology

Epidemic Management: (http://www.wix.com/epidemicmanagement/2011)
The solutions proposed were really interesting on how to improve epidemic management as a whole through the use of technology, especially through social media and cloud computing services. However, I wonder if enough will be done to ensure that the information spread will be reliable enough. The internet has been growing so rapidly that more and more users now have access to it. Will there be an information overload, so much so that the reliability of such information is questioned?

Sports and technology: (http://www.wix.com/twcgroupf/technologyandsports)
The groups future perspective on the sports industry is certainly intriguing. With the help of nanotechnology, it seems like sports can be enhanced to a higher level of enjoyment, both to the athletes and the spectators. Again this comes with the question on whether ethics will play a bigger part in sporting events, as the technology seems to be enhancing the athlete's performance more and more. Where lies the threshold? Will this be a quest for who has the best sporting equipment, over the true capability of each athlete?

Crowd platforms: (http://www.wix.com/jessiechoo2010/crowdplatforms)
My team got to present on the crowd platform, and I enjoyed our presentation to share our insights into the crowd platform. Crowdsourcing is indeed a rising star in many many industries to source for better and cost-saving solutions. Despite its pros and cons, we should be looking out for this trend, and leverage on any positive opportunities that come out of it. I believe smart-sourcing would be a possible solution to the epidemic management solutions in terms of information reliability.

Also, I've gained alot of insights through the feedback about the crowdfunding platform. It seems like it will still take awhile for society to gain trust in investing through such platforms, and I can't wait to see how crowdfunding will turn out to be in the future, especially in conservative markets like Asia.

Green technology: (http://www.wix.com/thekingofcontroversy/masterpage-of-wigup)
The team has introduced a lot of ideas of green technology that are used all over the world, and talked about the possible implementations in Singapore. Despite its costs, I feel that we need to act now before it's too late. I do hope that green technologies will grow rapidly, and be sustainable enough with low costs so that more countries can utilize this for the benefit of the world's environment.

We started the web group presentations this week. The topics covered this week were:

1. Designer babies
2. Nanomedicine
3. Space Travel and Tourism
4. The Plastic Vortex

Designer babies: (http://www.wix.com/designerbabies/twc-group-blog)
It was interesting how there were so many different ways of employing the designer baby technologies. Despite its controversies, I look at this positively, as it could possibly evolve to genetic modifications to prevent birth defects / diseases even before the baby is born.

Nanomedicine: (http://www.wix.com/zhipengd89/nanomedicine)
The technologies shown were amazing! It was really interesting how these nanobots could possibly be the solutions to many of the diseases that currently exists. If this technology were to pull through, I hope that the less fortunate people will also have access to such technology. It would be quite sad if such technology would not be able to benefit all due to the income disparities that's happening between developed and developing countries.

Space Travel: (http://www.wix.com/g12space/spacetravel)
Space travel seemed to be so impossible 10 years ago, and many were in awe of the lucky astronauts who were able to fly up in rockets. Through space tourism could possibly be the next rising star in the travel industry, I cannot help but wonder if we as a society is ready to explore such unfamiliar territory. Also, will we all be responsible enough so that we would not cause a epidemic of space junk problems?

Plastic Vortex: (http://www.wix.com/piratehook/the-plastic-vortex)
I think the presentation did its objectives of raising awareness, at least in the class. It was fascinating yet scary how rubbish from land could travel so far into the middle of the sea. Again this leads me back to my concern in the space travel, on how we as a society are ready and responsible enough to do space travel. I feel raising awareness is not enough, and there should be harsher laws set to deter people from throwing rubbish without thinking of the consequences.