Future predictors: tech and innovation in TV series

4

October

2021

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Imagine yourself on a Friday night turning on your television for a new episode of your favorite show. Almost everyone has had that moment when the story develops and shows some incredible innovation that you wished you had in your own life. Everyone fantasized a bit and drifted away in the moment.

Technological innovations that were impossible at the moment of production in series is a phenomenon that has occurred on multiple occasions. The original Star Trek franchise showed spaceships with capabilities that are possible now but were just imagination at production. One could even argue that the creative minds that made up the idea could have inspired innovators in their development.

More recent examples are in the popular Netflix series Black Mirror where a society is based on likes, online platforms and that currency and status is completely based on your personal branding on such a platform. A shock went through Europe when newspapers revealed that this could be the truth and such a platform was developed in China and it wanted to organize its society based on Big Data.

In the last 2 years we were all front row spectators of an innovation process one would have expected to take multiple years: the development of Covid-19 vaccines. Whereas the fight against other diseases like HIV/aids or Alzheimer’s are still in process and have been for decades, the development of this specific vaccine got fast tracked due to determination. 

If tech specialists and innovators would decide to put their shared focus on one of the proposed technologies, the development of that would be in reach. This is helpful as a solution to many problems, but also comes with a darker side. This is perfectly depicted in the trailer of the new Dutch movie “De Sterfshow”.

With the rise of technology, we also see the dark side of development and innovation in tech. Online criminals using phishing or other scams or hackers trying to access data. We are at a certain point where basic knowledge just is not enough anymore to be safe on the web. With so many new possibilities it is time for a lot of people to wake up and be aware. More than ever legislation is behind technological development and technological innovation has a free pass and can only be kept in check in hindsight. We should be aware of the benefits that Big Data brings, but also wake up to the possibilities of the downside and the slippery slope we are on. Before you know it, something we held as impossible will be released soon and available for all. Social norms could change and something that sounds terrifying could be just one decision away from reality.

https://nypost.com/2018/09/19/chinas-social-credit-system-is-a-real-life-black-mirror-nightmare/

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Digital Transformation Project – Creating a sustainable non-profit monopoly

13

October

2016

5/5 (4) Introduction

Netherlands Standardization Institute (NEN) has been supporting the standardization process in the Netherlands for over 100 years. Standards are often voluntary agreements between market players that joined one of NEN’s 480 standardization committees. They are laid down in documents managed by a standards organization, such as NEN. Popular standards include ‘ISO 9000 – Quality management’ and ‘NEN 7512:2015 – Health informatics – Information security in healthcare – Requirements for trusted exchange of health information’.

NEN is currently managing over 33.000 standards, which are available on their online store or for sale at their office in Delft. As some of the standards are required to be used by Dutch law, part of these documents are made ‘open access’ to the general public. Because NEN is a non-profit business organization, the profit margin on the sale of these standards is minimal. Parties interested in the standardization procedure bear part of the costs of the standard development process. This income, together with the proceeds from the sale of standards and the transfer of knowledge in training programs, ensures that NEN can carry out all its duties.

Standard development process

The development of a standard usually takes a few years and is divided into several stages. The first stage in the development of a standard is understanding the market demand and create a new work item proposal (NWIP). When there is enough support, stakeholders will be approached in the preparation stage. When there are enough interested stakeholders, the committee stage will occur. A committee will be formed out of the stakeholder’s pool. This committee will discuss the content of the new standard in the enquiry stage. This will occur in around-the-table meetings. Standards will be saved in Microsoft Word documents. The documents will be saved in a database called the ISOlutions program and automatically shared with other committee members. After the committee discussed and confirmed the content of the standard, there will be a ballot in the approval stage. Whenever there isn’t a majority supporting the standard, the content will be reviewed in the enquiry stage. However, if there is a majority, the standard will be approved and published in the publication stage (ISO, 2016).

Current model

The current strategy of NEN to consult its customers is to reach out through press releases. In this way, certain parties know that NEN is about to undertake a new activity that they might find interesting to join or comment on. A press release is shared on NEN’s own website (www.nen.nl) and send to specific publishers of magazines in a field coherent with the activity to reach experts on that field. Additionally, these press releases are shared in one of NEN’s sixteen email newsletters. Another more recent method of reaching out to potential customers is to share these press releases on LinkedIn with the aim of reaching a different audience (i.e. the audience that does not visit NEN’s website or reads these magazines/newsletters). However, as LinkedIn is not convenient for this approach and limited in terms of reachability (i.e. articles are usually only shared within NEN’s existing network) this method is not as effective.

Disruptive model

Through a community all stakeholders can get involved in the process of drafting standards: a community will make it easier to get in contact with other stakeholders to interact with a centralized system. Additionally, questions can be asked and answered among other stakeholders who are in the same field and therefore have a lot of inside knowledge. Also, by being active in the community answering questions, these experts will be more visible for third parties bringing additional value. Also, NEN deals currently with 150 questions a day about the norms. This can decrease when stakeholders can ask the questions in the NEN community and therefore will save NEN a lot of time.

A prospective community can be combined with NENCrowd (NEN’s crowdfunding platform) to offer additional benefits to backers. In this way, price differentiation is realized and thus a larger potential customer base can be served. This also works vice versa: If NEN’s prospective community attracts a lot of users, more and more people are getting involved. This can cause an increase in financial contributors.

Thank you for reading! Team 76

References

ISO (2016). ‘Voting and membership in ISO’ retrieved 11 October 2016, from
http://www.iso.org/sites/ConsumersStandards/voting_iso.html

www.NEN.nl

 

 

 

 

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A different taste of VR

5

October

2016

No ratings yet. The virtual reality world is changing rapidly, Google just announced their vision (no pun intended) on VR headsets with the Google Daydream View. Many other companies have their headset already on the market and our now developing applications for these devices (Lamkin, 2016). Consumers are slowly starting to get into virtual reality, Deloitte Global predicting that at the end of this year VR will have about $700 million in hardware sales. Of which the vast majority is focussed on video games but in the longer term VR is likely to have multiple applications (Lee & Stewart, 2016).
Virtual reality hardware offers visual and audio content to replicate a realistic environment. Immersing users into a simulation that allows them to feel like as if it was reel. However this illusion remains incomplete, only satisfying sight and hearing. So that’s why Ubisoft developed the Nosulus Rift, which will offer gamers a different immersive experience while playing the game “South Park: The Fractured But Whole”. This game has a new character whose superpower is farting. And since a fart is not visible, Ubisoft created a new VR wearable device that users need to strap onto their nose and will make them able to smell the farts of the characters (Passary, 2016). Ubisoft is showcasing this device at game conventions where people can try-out the game as well as the headset. Some of the reactions give a good indication of how well the device works. “A horrible, noxious gas” according to Farokhmanesh (2016) and Dingman (2016) says “it can make you retch and feel like you want to die!”
Then the questions arise, is this a good development for VR? Will it help VR become the next chapter in the continuing disruption in technology and innovation? The Nosulus Rift is more than just showing a new way to experience VR, it opens a large field of new opportunities in the sector of VR. Helping VR become integrated into our lives and workplaces in the near future.

Sources
https://www.wareable.com/headgear/the-best-ar-and-vr-headsets
http://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/technology-media-and-telecommunications/articles/tmt-pred16-media-virtual-reality-billion-dollar-niche.html
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/174579/20160822/forget-oculus-rift-meet-nosulus-rift-this-wearable-tech-will-let-you-smell-fart-in-new-south-park-game.htm
http://www.polygon.com/2016/8/19/12550744/south-park-fractured-but-whole-nosulus-rift
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3116197/software/south-park-the-fractured-but-wholes-fart-simulating-nosulus-rift-almost-made-me-vomit.html

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The dictatorship of big data

3

October

2016

5/5 (2)  

Your smartphone, Facebook and Google, they are all being ‘smart’. Meaning they gather a lot of data about you. Nowadays, even cities and governments are becoming smart. For example, police services are experimenting with algorithms which can predict the possibility of criminality based on large amounts of data. Thus, police services can send agents on a preventive basis. Furthermore, data about citizens is not only used for investigations, but it is also taken into account when the government is laying down a policy. Consequently, computers and data will become more and more important in politics.

 

 

On one hand, this development seems helpful to reduce crimes and make decisions about government policies easier. On the other hand, we should be aware of the fact that companies and governments are gathering lots of data over the last years thinking they can optimize the world. The main idea is; if you have enough data, the truth will automatically appear, so managers and politicians should do what the data tells them to do. Hence, this is leading to a dictatorship of big data, which makes this development sound quite alarming.

However, due to globalization and digitization, the world has become too complex. In the digital economy everything will namely be connected. Like social networks, infrastructure, electricity and internet of things. This connection also means that everything will be dependent on each other. Therefore, the idea of using a supercomputer which will tell what to do is not very realistic.

If the development continues as it is currently doing at the European Central Bank for instance; stimulating economic growth by buying stock of selected firms instead of only buying government bonds. Then, society will become a planned society where governments decide which companies are doing well  and which are performing poorly in the stock market. Justifying their investment choices by huge amounts of big data.

 

Sources:

http://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2016/08/19/we-bouwen-aan-een-dictatuurvan-data-3333699-a1517178

http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/384395/hubfs/blog-files/minority-report.jpg?t=1460641844950 (image)

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