Here's the big word that begins with "U" for this week: "Ubiquitous". Something that's ubiquitous is omnipresent, everywhere at the same time. Pretty intense idea, huh? Also something that doesn't exist. This is one of those words invented to describe religious concepts that have never been witnessed. The obvious example is God. God is supposed to be ubiquitous: everywhere at once, looking in and keeping track of everything and listening to 5 billion prayers all at the same time. God pretty much has to be ubiquitous to have all those qualities that people say he does. I mean, God just wouldn't be God if he needed a beeper, or call-waiting, would he?
You may have noticed the internet has begun to reach God-like proportions. Well, there are some who would have that become literally true. They want to create what they call the ubiquitous internet.
To me, this seems like the ultimate in marketing hype. Capitalists have always wanted to convince people that their product is everywhere, that everyone is doing it. But what if that were true?
Here's what is being planned for the internet - it's just in the research phase at this point, but you know how fast the computer industry moves these days. They want to put the internet into everything. It'll be in your car, helping you find out where you are and giving you information about wherever that is. The internet will be in your house, turning lights on and off for you, operating all of your appliances. There won't be any separate TV or computer anymore. It'll be all around you, with displays in every room. The internet will also be there in this way at your place of work. You won't need to sign in anymore, because the building itself will be able to sense when you enter and when you leave. The internet will even be on or in your body in the form of a medical implant or a badge that communicates with whatever internet sensors are nearby.
Wow. Isn't technology wonderful? It really is impressive that they're soon going to be able to do this kind of stuff. I won't deny that the ubiquitous internet could do some really remarkable things.
The question that remains unanswered is why the ubiquitous internet is needed. Do we really need to have a connection to some international communications network to turn on a lamp in our living room, to heat a cup of coffee in a microwave, or play music on a stereo? What's the advantage? Maybe we're developing this ubiquitous internet simply because it's possible. We can have it, so we make it.
I suspect that there's more to this idea than just a love of high technology, though. I see the ubiquitous internet as the logical end of a long-standing pattern of increasingly intrusive market research. In the old days, companies got information about consumer behavior by conducting formal studies with paid respondents. Quite a bit of this sort of research still goes on, but it has been supplemented with electronic information gathering.
Credit cards are useful to market researchers because they leave a trail of transactions recorded by computer that can be studied for patterns in consumptive behavior. This information isn't just interesting. It's valuable. A credit card company can sell this information about your buying habits to marketing firms, who then send out junk mail to you without you having to ask for it. What a convenience.
This system has grown into a tighter net as the power of computers to gather and organize information has grown. Banks are now planning for the near total replacement of untrackable paper currency with electronic money cards. Soon you may not be able to make a single purchase without it going on your permanent record.
The internet is just the latest tool for secretive information gathering about your life. In many respects it already is ubiquitous. Through the use of little programs that they call "cookies", web masters can track all of your activity on the internet. In some cases, even the contents of your hard drive can be read. This is the equivalent of a company being able to look through your personal files.
The scary thing is that all of this intrusion is done without your knowledge, much less your permission. Haven't you noticed how some commercial web pages take an especially long time to load? That's because the web page is busy putting its cookie programs onto your hard drive and downloading the cookies already left by other by other web pages that you've visited.
Microsoft is one of the worst cookie cutters out there on the internet. On practically every page they have some sort of program gathering information about you. This is why it's so dangerous to have Microsoft as a virtual monopoly in both the operating system and web browser markets. With no competitors, nothing could stand in the way of Bill Gates in his drive for the power to find out about everything that you do. With the onset of the ubiquitous internet, nothing would be off-limits to the Microsoft spies. Every minute of the day Microsoft would know where you are and what you are doing.
So what do you have to fear? You never do anything wrong, do you? You never make any mistakes or do anything you don't want someone to know about, right? Do the virtuous really need privacy anyway? What have you got to hide?
Well, it doesn't matter what you have to hide. The fact is that you have the right to hide anything that you want to, so long as it isn't directly related to criminal behavior. This principle is in the Constitution. We are supposed to be protected from unreasonable search and seizure, remember?
Watch out, because that protection is being eroded, bit by bit, with every electronic transaction being made, with every new connection of the internet to our every day lives.
Not to worry, says Bill Gates. The development of the ubiquitous internet is a service being done for our convenience.
The idea that there should be a limit to convenience amounts to heresy in today's world of compulsive consumption. It's a shame that the internet has become a tool for electronic spies, because it also can be a powerful tool for individual expression. Nevertheless, when the time comes for me to make the choice between a convenient Big Brother watching over me and an inconvenient seclusion, I know what my decision will be.
Insight
Basically, this article mentions more about the disadvantages of ubiquitous internet which include exposure of privacy information, unnecessary of certain products and hackers. In my opinion, the growth of internet is equal to the importance of internet. The advance in internet technology will cause the internet become part of us. In the end, every human being needs to get himself connects to the internet and half of the daily activities will be on the net. Is this a good thing or bad?
References:
The Growth of the Ubiquitous Internet,Viewed 28 August 2008
Link of the Article
Friday, August 29, 2008
Article: The Growth of the Ubiquitous Internet
The Emerging of RFID in Future
With the development of RFID technology in its usage and designs, it becomes one of the technology that plays a vital role in business industry. There are more practical uses of RFID that have emerged with the continuing of technology development. The innovation in RFID is for example like product tracking, transport payments, automotive, inventory systems, smart cards, retailing and medical industry continues to evolve in its usage which i am going to share with u below. Nowadays RFID made a big impact in e-Commerce compare to e-Commerce during the olden days. It affects in a way that it can bring customers and businesses the mobility, convenience and fast way in doing business transactions.
RFID is a technology that can transmit, process and store data for its consumers and also for its businesses. These applies that a company are able to do multi task transaction in between with the usage of RFID. For example a company that controls transport payments, customers are able to pay their toll by just passing by the reader of the RFID without any hassle (easy, fast & convenience)
Basically, the current usage of RFID in the world e-Commerce:
· Transport Payments
· Product tracking (disease tracking in animal, shipping, books, baggage)
· Automotive (tires of car, car keys-theft protection)
· Inventory system (tracking of inventory)
· Smart cards (payment or accessibility)
· Medical industry...& whole lots more....
Come & think of RFID in casino which features product associated with RFID that can change the face of gaming devices as with the one we played today. In this way, RFID will able to save the house money & make gaming fun for customers which a win-win deal for everybody in the casino!!!!Its easy for both customers and the casino itself as chips are inventorized without touching or running them through counter. Machines, customers, food or anything that needed to be accounted can be identified, instant head count of casino patrons in emergency situations. Instant & iinovative!!!!Right????
How about RFID in advertisements??? Visualize that u r driving thru a new town where signs direct u to a business by using RFID dash mounted receiver that may speaks in multi languages.
In the near future, Real Estate signs may be outfitted with RFID tags so you can park in front of them and enablesyour audible in-car-reader that will display all the pertinant information about the house in the comfort and safty of your car! RFID devices for advertising are only limited by your imagination. Imagine RFID signs can sell your product as you drive by them!!!Less cost for business company, does not pollute the environment with ads lying around and convenience for customers. moreover it benefits in creating awareness in the memory of customers.
E-Commerce is a world where both technology and transactions are involved. Technology makes it better and convenience for customers to do business transactions more conveniently and that is why technologies like RFID emerge in e-Commerce offering multi benefits to customers like easy items returns, smart appliances, personalization and easy shopping.
References:
RSA Laboratories, “RFID, A Vision in the Future”, viewed 25 August 2008, http://www.rsa.com/rsalabs/node.asp?id=2117
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Oh! Thats cool.......Can I do that too?
Nowadays, service and consumer centric approach is the way forward in doing business especially in the digital world. These bring about innovations and new technologies to collaborate in synergy for effective fulfilment in terms of how products and services are delivered to the end user. In this effect, Converge network solutions for e-commerce plays a prominent role by bringing new platform in integrating different service-oriented systems which are designed to improve the way business is done in the new economies.
Part of what we see now are availability of different new innovations and technologies from Biometrics to VOIP services which provides cheap voice calls over internet protocols and also technologies such as RFID that ease inventory management and supplies. These innovations are basically an essential part of doing e-business as which we have learnt how early adopters set the market pace.
However, some of these technologies like destructive technologies alter the norm by bringing in new approaches and tools that affect larger aspect of the market. A good example is the Cellular Telephone or Hand-phone as they are called in Malaysia. This type of service completely change the way we transact business and the level of how information is transmitted. Customers can use these technologies to pay for items in stores or even transfer funds using m-commerce platform and e-banking.
( http://safaricom.co.ke/index.php?id=228 )
No doubt innovativeness in terms of technological development has brought about opportunities in how we transact business either online or offline it also has its consequences of unethical behaviours and actions which are not new to our society but another way of doing the same crime on a different medium. Certain question arises on implementing new technologies like RFID which in my opinion is a tracking device that can be use as a “Big Brother” in countries where human rights are serious issues. Personally, I am less worried about privacy issues because to me I prefer dealing with intuitive sellers that monitors my buying habits in order to recommend products and services that tally with my preferences, these could in another way ease my interaction with sellers and the time I need to compare and decide on a particular service either online or offline.
Furthermore, I hope to get personal opinions on the following issues;
- Are innovations and much of emerging technologies beneficent to our lives?
- How do we handle issues of policy vacuums created by new technologies in areas like privacy, copyrights and intellectual property?
- What are ethical issues associated with new technologies?
As much as I want to talk about these issues I guess people have different perspective which I look forward to receiving them on this blog.....
References:
http://safaricom.co.ke/index.php?id=228
The Ubiquitous Internet
Ubiquitous Computing: Big Brother's All-Seeing Eye - Part 1
Introduction
Ubiquitous Internet means connection between virtual internet and physical world at anytime, anywhere by anything, anyone.
I found an interesting article relating to ubiquitous internet access on campus of University of Nottingham. Students are enjoying internet access anytime anywhere, buy merchandise using e-wallet, make free phone calls and unified messaging service within the network of the campus. Wouldn’t it be more interesting if they can expand the services from campus to a big city in near future?
Ubiquitous Internet and e-Commerce
Ubiquitous Internet will create a lot of opportunities for e-commerce. The first one will be the telecommunication company. The emerging technology has improved the connection to internet from dial-up in the past to broadband and wireless now. Many telecommunication companies are starting to build their networks and providing Wi-Fi services. Besides, internet users are continuing demand for faster speed connection. Therefore, the telecommunication company with the most wireless “Hotspots” and fastest network in the future will be capable to control in this field. An example of a country with wide broadband penetration will be South Korea. By increasing the numbers of cyber café, hotspots and reduce the internet access fee, South Korea has reach an 83% of penetration rate.
The next important thing for ubiquitous internet will be the mobile devices. Examples of mobile devices such as PDAs, laptops, mobile phones and other devices must be capable to connect using wireless. Consequently, the application of these mobile devices must include big display size, battery power and memory, high security and high connection maintenance. For example, Yahoo! Go has built a gateway to mobile internet but only to certain hand phone models only. In present days, people making phone calls through network service provider such as Celcom, Digi and Maxis and charged based on duration of call. It will become more flexible and cheaper if we all connect to the internet with our mobile phones for communication.
Lastly, with ubiquitous internet, we can connect many devices with internet. With the technological convergence between internet and the devices, we can make our life a lot easier. I had put videos on the ubiquitous computing innovated by Korean in this blog. As the technology is emerging frequently, the “internet of things” is beyond of our imagination. In future, almost every physical thing can be digital transform and virtual items can be realistic. As for myself, I would like an ATM machine which automatically prints out cash from my bank account when my wallet is out of money.
Ubiquitous Computing: Big Brother's All-Seeing Eye - Part 2
References:
Top 10 Most Connected Cities, viewed 27 August 2008
How To.com
Total Broadband Experience - Extreme Broadband, viewed 27 August 2008
Extremebb.net
Yahoo! Mobile, viewed 27 August 2008
Mobile.Yahoo!Go
Introduction 2 RFID......
RFID is beginning to revolutionized the way business in done and in a way a part of technology in e-Commerce. RFID is first used in the supply chain but now it evolves into various business purposse like RFID in apparel, RFID in advertisement, RFID in automobile, RFID in medical, and a lot more to come. With increasing usage or implementation of this technology, large research will be done to enable more usage of it and price that will decline will enable all industry in using this technology.What is RFID??
RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification which it is a kind of technology that uses radio waves in doing automatic identification relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders. It is more similar to a small electronic device that consists of small/silicon chip and antenna that might be capable in carrying 2000 bytes of data or maybe less than that. It can be both attached or implanted into a product, animal or even person. This RFID device act the same as a bar code or even a magnetic strip enacted behind a credit card or even ATM card enables information available just with a scan of the device. Mainly, the key feature of this technology is the ability in instant tracking of tagged object.How It Works??
RFID should have several components in its system like tags, tag readers, edge servers, middleware and application software. With this complete system, RFID enables data transmission, data storage and tracking purpose. The tag of RFID will transmit data which being read by RFID reader or tag reader and data being processed based on the particular application.Pros & Cons!!!
Pros:
· Able to scan within distance
· Low maintenance
· Accessibility and availability
· Unique Features
· Mobility
· Low cost due to increasing demand
Cons:
· Read range and Interference
· Non-standardized standards
· RFID reader and tag collision
· Privacy and security
This is mainly a general understanding of RFID...Please proceed to The Emerging of RFID for leaving comments. Thanks.
References:
Technovelgy, “What Is RFID”, Viewed 25 August 2008, http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Technology-Article.asp?ArtNum=20#Security
RFID Journal, Viewed 25 August 2008, http://www.rfidjournal.com/
Wade, J, “Pros and Cons of RFID”, Viewed 25 August 2008, http://203.6.199.77/articles/ad/0c0213ad.asp
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
What R Innovation & Emerging Technologies in e-Commerce???-A General Explanation
Basically e-Commerce may be still at an early stage of development in Malaysia but not in other well-developed country. e-Commerce will keep evolving with the affect of innovations, technologies, different institutions & industries & other parties with vested interests. With the emerging development in technologies like The Internet vs. Private Nets, security system (encryption, public key, cryptography), infrastructures in e-Commerce (EFT, digital cash), online catalogs, EDI, blogging, smart cards (Octopus Card, Touch n Go), RFID, Mobile Commerce, and etc.........
:)
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