Is IT the solution to traffic jams?

18

October

2017

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Traffic jams, a well-known problem and daily frustration for a lot of people in the world. It will become dramatically worse and more widespread without big changes in how people and products get around. Fortunately there are new innovative technologies that can bring changes in order to solve this problem, which is called smart mobility. Smart mobility is all about information sharing in traffic to enable an intelligent infrastructure among all its users. It basically means adding intelligence to the world of traffic and transportation. (ITS infographic, 2015) In this blog three innovative technologies are shortly exposed, arranged from most to less likely to solve the traffic jam problem in the short term.

Mobile applications
By making quick traffic data available and offering private services, traffic smartphone applications can suggest people what to do on the road. It can for example suggest the most efficient route from A to B, adjusting along the way based on real-time speed and traffic information from other users. (Lowy and Pritchard, 2015) These applications can provide a better traffic flow.

Smart Cars
Vehicles are becoming smarter these days. Some cars on the road are already equipped with technology that let them interact with the surrounding environment of the car. Smart cars go even further, and can communicate with other smart cars on the road. Information about speed, direction, whether someone is breaking or an accident happened ahead, are all examples of information that is shared among these cars and on which the car can react. (Lowy and Pritchard, 2015) The ultimate smart car won’t even need a driver. These cars are called autonomous or self-driving cars and can ensure that roads are used way more efficient.

Drones
The performance of drones is rapidly increasing and in several industries they are already testing with drones to change the way of doing business. Amazon for example is testing with drone delivery and in Dubai they are testing with drone taxis. (Oswald, 2017) (Clemence, 2017) Both of these implementations could significantly decrease the amount of vehicles on the roads. Moreover, drones can also replace cars or be used in multiple other ways in order to solve the traffic jam problem.

Which technology will succeed according to you in order to solve traffic jams? Is there a singular solution for the problem or are there multiple? And what other innovative technologies can you come up with that can contribute to solve this problem? Let me know in a comment below.

 

Video of drone taxi in Dubai:

References:

  • Clemence, S. (2017, Sept). Dubai stages first public test of volocoptor drone taxi. Accessed on the 17th of October 2017 on: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-26/dubai-stages-first-public-test-of-volocoptor-drone-taxi
  • ITS Infographic Behind the scenes (2015). https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten/publicaties/2015/12/02/its-infographic-behind-the-scenes
  • Lowy, J. and Pritchard, J. (2015, Jun). Traffic in the US is going to get worse – but things are changing. Accessed on the 17th of October 2017 on: http://www.businessinsider.com/5-ways-to-solve-the-nations-worsening-traffic-problem-2015-6?international=true&r=US&IR=T
  • Oswald, E. (2017, May). Here’s everything you need to know about Amazon’s drone delivery project, Prime Air. Accessed on the 17th of October 2017 on: https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/amazon-prime-air-delivery-drones-history-progress/

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Cryptocurrencies, boom or bubble?

12

October

2017

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Probably you have heard about cryptocurrency and the underlying blockchain technology more than once last couple of months. A lot of articles about cryptocurrency have popped up in all kinds of media and more and more people are getting familiar with the concept. Key players on Wall Street express their thoughts about cryptocurrency publicly, and lots of people are speculating about the future of this new payment method. Expectations of how cryptocurrencies will evolve vary widely, which is reflected in the strongly fluctuating prices.

Rise
The first cryptocurrency appeared in 2009, which is known as Bitcoin. It was established after a white paper of a person or group using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, about an innovative peer-to-peer electronic cash system. (Vishesh, 2017). Soon after, many other cryptocurrencies followed. In the beginning of September there were over 1000 currencies recorded, from the well-known Bitcoin to the obscured Coinye West, with a total market value of around $150 billion (which fluctuates rapidly). (“China vaardigt..”, 2017)

Definition
Cryptocurrencies are digital or virtual currencies that enable peer-to-peer exchange in a decentralized system, without the intervention of another third party like a financial institution or government. (Rouse, 2015) Cryptocurrencies can be seen as digital cash money. The main technical innovation is not the digital currency itself, but the blockchain technology behind it. For further understanding of the blockchain and cryptocurrency technology, you should definitely watch the video below the article.

2017
In the year 2017 so far, many cryptocurrencies have risen dramatically in value. In the graph in the appendix the returns of eighteen different cryptocurrencies are shown, from the 1st of January until the 16th of August. As you can see, even the lowest return of these eighteen currencies was still plus 251,3%. However, last month the prices of many cryptocurrencies declined dramatically after the news that China banned initial coin offerings (ICO) and bitcoin exchanges, which shows the instability of the cryptocurreny markets. (Rapoza, 2017)

Future
Some leading economic experts are criticizing cryptocurrencies and warn investors that the value of cryptocurrencies will collapse eventually. (Jones, 2017) On the other hand, some experts predicting that this is just the beginning of a new. (Caughill, 2017) Today, Bitcoin reached a new record value of more than $ 5,100 and seems to be back on track. It’s possible that predictions of a cryptocurrency future are overblown, but I tend to say that cryptocurrencies will become the mainstream in doing our payments and prices will continue to rise. What do you think of the future of cryptocurrencies? Let me know in a comment below.

References:
• “China vaardigt verbod uit op lancering nieuwe cryptomunten” (2017, Sept 04). Accessed on 12 Oktober 2017 on: https://www.businessinsider.nl/china-vaardigt-verbod-uit-op-lancering-nieuwe-cryptomunten-bitcoin-daalt/.
• Caughill, P. (2017, Aug 26) “Expert Predicts Bitcoin Will be Worth up to $20,000 in the Next Three Years” Accessed on 12 Oct 2017 on: https://futurism.com/expert-predicts-bitcoin-will-be-worth-up-to-20000-in-the-next-three-years/.
• Jones, B. (2017, Oct 10) “Harvard Professor: “In the Long Run, the Price of Bitcoin Will Collapse”” Accessed on 12 October 2017 on: https://futurism.com/harvard-professor-in-the-long-run-the-price-of-bitcoin-will-collapse/.
• Rapoza, K. (2017, Sept 28). “What China Ban? Cryptocurrency Market Cap Rebounding” Accessed on 12 October 2017 on: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2017/09/28/china-ico-ban-bitcoin-crypto-currency-market-cap-returns/#3e95622f6c21.
• Rouse, M. (2015, Dec). “Cryptocurrency.” Accessed on 12 Oktober 2017 on: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/cryptocurrency.
• Vishesh, V. (2017, Aug 2). “Is blockchain technology the new internet?” Accessed on 12 Oktober 2017 on: https://www.standout.sg/single-post/is-blockchain-technology-the-new-internet.

Appendix:
cryptocurrency returns

Video:

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Technology of the Week – How crowdfunding platforms bypassed financial intermediaries [Group 41]

6

October

2017

3.67/5 (3)

Traditionally seen, the financing industry has always played a vital intermediary role in the world economy, by moving funds from entities with money to invest, to those who have a clever idea and need money to develop it into a business. (Zachary, G., 2010)

The rise of the internet brought major benefits in the financial market, by bringing together demand and supply. This led to the development of Platform Mediated Networks. Platform mediated networks ties two distinct groups of users together in a network. The value of a two-sided market increases as the number of users increases, which can be referred to as a “network effect”. A rise in a platform’s network effect will increase the willingness-to-participate of existing and prospective users, which will subsequently lead to more users and in turn a higher value of the network. (Eisenmann et al., 2006) This phenomenon brought new opportunities to the centuries old dynamic of the financing industry to be seized, which resulted in the global rise of crowdfunding in 2009. (Kolakowski, M., 2017).

The basic principle of crowdfunding can be seen as: a little money, times, a lot of people who like the idea (the crowd). With the use of a platform, entrepreneurs can directly access thousands or even millions of potential investors. (Mollick, E., 2014)

As a result, the ‘demand side’ is not dependent on a limited number of investors anymore. The entrepreneur basically does not need to get his investment via conservative intermediaries. With this, the bargaining power of such intermediaries has decreased significantly as they are bypassed in the process of crowdfunding. On the other side of the spectrum, these platforms allow individuals to invest in the ideas they like. This will also attract more people to present their business ideas on a shared platform. A scholarly example of the generation of a positive cross-side network effect. (Eisenmann et al. 2006).

Crowdfunding shifted the financing industry to a more transparent, information rich and participatory private capital market, via the use of easily accessible platforms, open for everyone on earth. Reflecting on recent years, there is a major increase since the introduction in 2009, where crowdfunding has grown from less than 2 billion dollars in 2009 to more than 12 billion dollars in 2015. With an accumulating amount of crowdfunding platforms throughout the years

With the harmed trust of many people in the traditional financial institutions, the full potential of crowdfunding is not reached. Maybe even, it just got started. With the highly promising developments in new technologies such as blockchain, crowdfunding platforms are becoming an even bigger threat to the conventional financing industry. Crowdfunding is the venture capital of the future and everyone on earth will have the opportunity to fulfill his business’ dreams!

References (including references used for video):

Caldbeck, R. (2013) Why Crowdfunding is Disrupting Finance. Available at https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryancaldbeck/2013/08/14/why-crowdfunding-is-disrupting-finance/#6bbcf7ce7830. [Accessed 4 Oct. 2017].

Eisenmann, T., Parker, G., & Van Alstyne, M. W. (2006). Strategies for two-sided markets. Harvard business review, 84(10), 92.

Kolakowski, M. (2017) Financial Services Industry Basics. Available at https://www.thebalance.com/the-financial-services-industry-1287307. [Accessed 3 Oct. 2017].

Mollick, E. (2014), The dynamics of crowdfunding: An exploratory study, In Journal of Business Venturing, Volume 29, Issue 1, Pages 1-16.

Zachary, G. (2010) A brief history of your investors (and their investors). Available at http://venturehacks.com/articles/history-of-investors. [Accessed 3 Oct. 2017]

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