Technology in Business

Explain using examples, the following concepts.

* Convergence

* Technological determinism

* Repeating cycles of techno-economic revolution

* The Singularity

Convergence: the act, degree or point of converging; the evolutionary development of resemblance.

IN OTHER WORDS. Convergence concerns a process or emergence of boundary loss; of many tending to one.

Technological determinists argue that technology and its invention change the world (socially, organizationally and culturally).

Repeating Techno-Economic Revolution New developments in technology changed the nature of communications and hence business.

* Everybody invested on the back of 紧跟着the "New Economy" and the financial markets went mad.

* And then the bubble burst.

* However, by then a changeover had been made, organizational habits had been transformed, a new infrastructure was in place . . . and there were some new millionaires!

"The Singularity" - a time when the impossible becomes possible due to the emergence of beyond human intelligence.

* The Singularity may occur when human beings directly fuse with熔合technology, and/or we take control of matter on an atomic scale. 原子标度

CLOUD COMPUTING

* "Google Docs in Plain English"

* "Genentech's story" (Google Apps implementation)

* "Salesforce.com: What is Force.com?"

Questions: What is cloud computing? What opportunities and potential drawbacks does it raise for organizations? Will cloud computing continue to be a deterministic technology?

Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable 可配置的computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. Privacy Legal

AUGMENTED REALITY

* "Layar Augmented Reality 2010: Discover, Play & Premier of the Floaticons"

* "LEGO DIGITAL BOX - augmented reality kiosk system"

* "TAT augmented ID"

Questions: What is augmented reality (AR)? Is augmented identity a step too far? What other applications do or may exist beyond those shown in these videos? Will AR be a deterministic technology?

3D PRINTING & BIOPRINTING

Questions: What is 3D printing? How may it help us to solve global challenges and make things in new ways? Is