Cool Web Tools - StupeflixOne possible future for Technology - Pushing Sales
Pushing sales to your Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)/Cell phone, who would have thought that technology, would be possible and yet most of the pieces are in place to do so.
Imagine if you will, you make a trip to the grocery store to do some food shopping and on you hand-held computer/cell phone you get a message pushed to you advertising your favorite fruit, "bananas, being sold at $.29 a pound for today only – limit 5 pounds…"
Or, how about shopping in the mall and while walking by The Gap, you get a message that "Levi’s brand jeans will be on sale today in your size for $20 a pair, limit 2 pair". In terms of a social network, we will see a day wherein all kinds of sales and/or information will be pushed to use from a variety of sources.
One obvious saving are time to produce and print fliers to most who don’t care for the literature anyway.
How about sending a bar-coded image for that coupon? You're probably asking yourself if it's possible...well, it is. I just took a trip to Washington DC, and the airlines are currently offering to push a bar-coded image for a boarding pass to my mobile device for my flight!
Mobile ComputingHere in the US we are afforded many luxuries but Technology is still expensive. Nonetheless, mobile devices can be obtainable for those in developing countries as well as here in the US. Using these devices truly levels the playing field with access to information that was once only attainable by the rich. It can also afford individuals access to additional training options using mobile devices with the thought of advancement in work environments.
Perhaps the most extensive example of using a mobile device the students in the Computer-Based Honors program at the University of Alabama we developing applications for iPhones and iPod Touch which would push out reminders to those who have type 2 diabetes along with providing resources for managing their diabetes and collecting (pulling) data on how successful they were in maintaining blood sugar levels. Pulling from this data for self-management, research efforts can compare traditional patient-care practices to those practicing self-management.
Specifically what is of interest is then notion of pushing information and pulling information for research and for helping those who need self-management.
Please visit the Horizon Report 2010 for more information!
Cooperation, collective action, participatory media and complex inter-dependencies play a significant role in the ways we organize and process to perform tasks. We have moved to a more independent society. Because of this independence, we are now moving back to integration with others, although we still collaborate with others using our television, phones, and computers. While working independently provides us insight to others thoughts – after all, nothing grows in a vacuum, not even thought and logic.
1. Temperance and restraint are necessary – in all things as we are known to use up resources (prisoner’s dilemma) because we often don’t use rational
2. New forms of Cooperation create new Economic Forms - open source develops new forms of development and wealth – peer-to-peer – this can create global market solutions that have not been seen in the past for open source production such as Linux and Mozilla, Amazon has opened its API to further use and development, Wikipedia for resources by inputs from around the world, Bit torrent turns every down-loader into an up-loader, etc.
Simply put, collaboration causes growth but not necessarily to become better people.
