Wednesday 30 November 2011

Pondering IT forward



The ever-accelerating adoption of mobile technology can only lead one to realise this apparent fact; our civilization at large is fast venturing into a pseudo-digital era. Fast as it may be though, it is also conspicuous that at the rate we’re adopting all this mobile technology, it’ll be a good while before we reach the “bio-technical” reality imposed on our thoughts by your common tech fantasy movies.
Nevertheless, I don’t think that’s the altitude we are plotting to reach by our adoption of technology as of yet which, in itself, is passively overlooking the significance of “green” technology (another topic for another day). Which brings about a few short philosophical questions (so to speak); are we employing all current mobile technology fast enough? What is hindering our “shift” (as I like to call it, rather than “change”) to a completely digitally-aware reality?
Naturally, utilisation of new mobile technology starts at enterprise-level, meaning they (the enterprises) are indirectly responsible of what gets the spotlight and what doesn’t, which then is gradually inculcated to the general public. As such, I’ll be delving into the business side of mobile technology.
(Note: I will leave these points quite vague)

The choices of individual members of the workforce can easily be blamed as the culprit that is overshadowing the “shift” of a sole, integrated, centralised bionetwork which, I believe, is the genesis for all change at a technological level. Let’s face it, this single bionetwork thing is proven fruitful at offices; though limited, they use an operating system and its office automation tools that works best with their designated software/hardware at the best functionality/price ratio and is guaranteed to be future proof. This mindset, it would seem, is yet to extend to the mobile sphere. This is largely to do with the lack of need of such an intersection methinks, of course, I’m not talking about executive level personnel here. On exactly that note, I think we’re already falling behind schedule and at the same time downplaying the efforts of some magnificent mobile technology manufactures and some other brilliant mobile services (of course I’m not going to elaborate on that point)
That sort of makes one wonder what would happen if we created that need; what would happen if some enterprise with respectable history for technological innovation were to step forth and set a new bare minimum that high (and sensible). Of course, simply creating the need without considering the organisational impact and some (moral) feasibility this kind of change would bring, is futile.

Yes, I foresee a fairly considerable number of benefits this “shift” would bring such as a single point of reception/administration which can possibly be a new sector by itself (think the movie Matrix), ease of future training (everything would be done in iteration format meaning deployment of new skills and keeping up with future changes would be as easy as adding a piece of a puzzle), complete elimination of fragmentation on both the hardware and software front, a singular cloud (processing, provisioning, synchronizing) etc. On the other hand, I think the initial experiment will only be benefitting the highly qualified as this would be an exercise to get right the first time if it is to transform any kind of higher level infrastructure, meaning selecting the best possible candidates for the job and succumbing to no political charity laws. I also fear the overhaul itself would almost lead to the extinction of the lower qualified human workforce. But that’s the reasoning of a fool, an intelligent person thinks like this; it would enforce better skills training on the least qualified, and in the process separate the sheep from the goat (in terms of what IT skills are more sustainable than others).

Back to those questions; are we employing all current mobile technology fast enough? What is hindering our “shift” (as I like to call it, rather than “change”) to a completely digitally-aware reality? No, we’re not adopting all current mobile technology fast enough and it is our freedom of choice (and lack of education) that is hindering our shift to a more digitally-aware reality. Well, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I’ll keep the rest to myself so if I’m wrong I don’t make a total fool of myself.

(Please note: the image on this post is not my property. I downloaded it from the http://www.theverge.com/2011/07/14/microsoft-one-ecosystem-pcs-tablets-phones-tvs-windows-brand-over/ site and I, by no means, have any affiliation with the aforementioned site. For any possible damages caused or assertion to the contrary, please feel free to email me)