TWC WEEK 5 – ICT AND WORLD CHANGE

Society of today relies heavily on the use of info-communication technologies (ICT). And of course, this is a known fact to all of us. In fact, the world has benefited through the means of ICT. Such drastic change allows us to research on any information all over the world within a short timeframe, know of all the first hand news through mass media as well as enhancing our way of interaction with different forms of communication means. Thus, getting to know information of today is said to be readily available.

I agreed with what Prof. mentioned in class, “Automation of efficient operation magnifies efficiency” and vice-versa. It is definite that this meaning holds truth. But it does not always mean that efficient operation will eventually result high efficiency, low or average efficiency may result in un-circumstances too.

The digital divide, till today such problems exist. Are measures like providing the less needy, un-developed countries with the appropriate ICT knowledge and skills going to be helpful? I would go for this idea. There is a saying which states “give a person a fish and it will fill his stomach, teach a person to fish and it will fill his stomach forever.” Therefore, we should think about the rationale of rather trying to improve the disparity of digital divide, why not solve it. By treating the problem, this enables un-developed countries to adapt to ICT and ride on the benefits of it, moving away from digital divide.

Although ICT can do us good in many ways, still we have to be cautious of the dangers of ICT. There are always pros and cons to every idea that comes along.

Food for Thoughts on readings:

There are many readings and the readings on Cloud computing differentiates itself from the rest.

Having said that, cloud computing has contributed to efficiency in private and public sectors, promoting growth, competition and business creation. Such application allows us to access all our documents from any device anytime anywhere. Goggle doc is one good example. Cloud computing generally saves on huge cost and creates multilateral network effects among businesses. Thus, it certainly have a great impact on the global economy since the use of cloud computing provides huge benefits as compared to traditional use of storage through servers. However, It cloud computing is seen to remain limited for the future years ahead, where it will have significant macroeconomics impact. Ultimately the most fundamental of this IT is the size of its fixed cost savings. All in all, the use of cloud computing definitely has its drawbacks like systematic risk, security and privacy issues, reliability, data governance and lastly the complexity of usage. However, applying cloud computing policies have to be studied in a way to optimize the process of adoption of the new technology and to strengthen its benefits.

Creation of ICT also helps in the pursuing the millennium development goals (MDGs). I feel that government should do something such as to exercise a choice that will secure the future for today’s generation. How do we include ICTs into MDGs agendas?  Basically, ICT can be used to enhance the capacity to monitor, measure, and report on the progress of these goals. It is vital that ICTs too provides a role in development and not just economy growth

Also, the networked world today allows us to bond from one to one, one to all and many to many. Expansion of access to the network provides more powerful human to machine interfaces. Thus, it tells us that today’s centers of information and resources become ever less important.  One important factor we have to consider will be to balance control and freedom of such uses and this leads to the second law of technical change: Expect unexpected effects.

In conclusion, I feel that ICT has more to come with new innovation and creation which will provide much more in the future.