Computing has changed a lot over the last many years, but it seem that we can meaure this change in the applications and value that they bring.
In the enterprise, computing is seen as the engine for the basic day to day management of services and production. It also becomes a major vehicle for communication within and without the enterprise. Part of this communication covers areas such as provide information on services and products, selling the products and interacting with suppliers and purchasers of those products. With all this information in a growing database, management can extract and model data to make decisions such as best areas to focus, areas to invest and also those that should be discontinued.
As we look at the applications within the enterprise, we see an extension of this for the consumer. Using the example of the landline phone, we see that it became a standard part of communication and thus the eventual success of cell phones that represent the concept of been always connected.
Well, it would seem that voice communication by itself would be always be enough to stay in touch but with the availability of data using communication, this piece is becoming more important increasingly. There are currently several ways to stay connected in the data world but there is still lack of full integration in all areas. For example, the consumer wants to see whats happening around locally and international, make direct decisions for example on a stock trade or purchase anything. The other pleasant side is someone on vacation may want to show someone live a monument or event that is once in a lifetime.
The main enablers to achieve this level of integration are adequate and portable computing power plus appropriate and cheap bandwidth for sustained communications. To connect this together, there is also need for versatile applications. Some of these are VOIP, voice recognition and data mining technology.
While we can talk of these possibilities in the developed world and most urban centers, there is still a gap for information infrastructute in rural and underdeveloped countries. This is very much the case even in developed countries as well. The question that lingers is, how to make the leap for these areas and what would be appropriate to these cultures? It may be wrong to assume that just providing a computer and communication would simply bring these persons into the fold. It may be relevant to understand how these people value this need and how would they interact with such system. This comes to the issue of literacy; are they literate in the standard languages that is been used for mainstream communications?
Looking at the success of cell phones in developing countries, it seem that there exist some need to be connected and the beauty of the cell phone is that people can communicate in whatever language that they wish to communicate. On the other hand, the internet pages or services may not exist in many native and undocumented languages. This means that translation in some form would be helpful to reach these populations. This could solve by either educational means or develop technology to accomplish the same results.
Many times, the view is always that uneducated persons does not represent much of economic impact, thus the motication for investment is nulified. This may not be an accurate assessment since from simple observation we can see that a vast majority of the worlds population leaves in poorer countries or poor conditions. This means there is an oppurtunity to brings these people into the economic mainstream and create even larger economic impact.
To solve these intricate problems need further analysis and research, the dicussion will definitely continue on this.
Here is a link to review in the meantime - http://www.isoc.org/oti/articles/1196/sadowsky.html
Another good one - http://cse.stanford.edu/class/cs201/projects-00-01/third-world/
