Categories
-Cross Currents 13.3 E-Business 2.0: Reinventing Web Commerce 13.5 Inventing the Future: E-Commerce Tomorrow: The Never-Ending Game 8.3 Specialized Networks: From GPS to Digital Money

Is the Dollar an Endangered Species?

When you get past all of the emotional trappings, your money is nothing more than a symbol of value, and it’s only as good as the trust we place in it. This TED talk suggests that we may be headed into an era of multiple monies.

Categories
-Updates 1.0 Creating Communities on the Living Web 13.3 E-Business 2.0: Reinventing Web Commerce 4.3 System Software: The Hardware-Software Connection 4.4 The User Interface: The Human-Machine Connection 8.7 Social Networks

Android Phones Show a New Face(book)

Rumors of a Facebook phone have rattled around the tech world for quite a while. Today Facebook announced not a a phone, but software that can convert many Android phones into Facebook machines. Facebook is available in app form on most smart phones. But the new Facebook Home software will replace the Android home screen with a Facebook-centered home, making it possible for social networkers to keep Facebook at the center of their phone experiences. Will Android phone users click Like?
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/04/facebook-android-home-phone/?cid=6882274

Categories
-Cross Currents 13.3 E-Business 2.0: Reinventing Web Commerce 8.5 Interpersonal Computing: From Communication to Communities

A Human Statue Talks about Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding—funding a project by asking many people for small contributions—has exploded in popularity because of Internet tools and social networks. Crowdfunding is being used to fund high-tech ventures, microbusinesses, charities, and artistic expressions. In this entertaining, moving TED talk, musician Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls talks about a dimension of crowdfunding that’s rarely discussed: the emotional connections that happen when we ask friends, fans, or strangers for what we need. She argues that Internet tools aren’t as important as our attitude about asking.
ted.com/talks/amanda_palmer_the_art_of_asking.html

Categories
-Updates 11.1 Where Computers Work 13.3 E-Business 2.0: Reinventing Web Commerce 13.5 Inventing the Future: E-Commerce Tomorrow: The Never-Ending Game 3.2 Output: From Pulses to People

3D Printing May Change Everything—and Soon

We’ve been hearing about 3D printers for quite a while. But according to this Planet Money story on NPR, the 3D printer may soon be showing up all over the place, changing the way we live, shop, and work in profound ways.
npr.org/blogs/money/2013/01/04/168627298/3-d-printing-is-kind-of-a-big-deal

Categories
-Updates 13.3 E-Business 2.0: Reinventing Web Commerce 8.5 Interpersonal Computing: From Communication to Communities 8.7 Social Networks

Crowdsourcing the Car

The Internet naturally lends itself to peer-to-peer communication and commerce. In this short TED talk Robin Chase explains how she’s using technology to make car sharing easy and profitable.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2012/12/10/166890714/forget-the-register-stores-use-mobile-to-make-sales-on-the-spot

Categories
-Updates 13.3 E-Business 2.0: Reinventing Web Commerce 8.3 Specialized Networks: From GPS to Digital Money 8.4 The Network Advantage

Mobile Devices and the New Shopping Experience

Smart phones and tablets are changing the way we shop, and the change is happening at digital speeds. In some stores, you can pay by flashing your smart phone and have a receipt mailed from the clerk’s tablet. No cash, no plastic cards, no paper, no waiting. This NPR story surveys the world of mobile-tech shopping.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2012/12/10/166890714/forget-the-register-stores-use-mobile-to-make-sales-on-the-spot
 
 

Categories
-Cross Currents 13.3 E-Business 2.0: Reinventing Web Commerce 13.4 E-Commerce Ethics 7.4 No Secrets: Computers and Privacy

The Never-Ending Sales Pitch

If you’re tired of ads now, just wait ’til your smart phone gets a little smarter. It may soon deliver sales pitches to you based on your location, the weather, nearby friends, the contents of your last Facebook post, or just about anything else it can link to you. As your privacy slips away, your cash becomes an easy target for savvy tech companies.
huffingtonpost.com/bianca-bosker/the-age-of-continuous-consumption_b_1833454.html

Categories
-Updates 13.3 E-Business 2.0: Reinventing Web Commerce 13.4 E-Commerce Ethics 13.5 Inventing the Future: E-Commerce Tomorrow: The Never-Ending Game

3D Body Scans for Better Fitting Jeans?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2012/06/04/154284798/do-these-pants-make-me-look-body-scans-for-a-better-fit
We’ve grown accustomed to the idea of computer body scans in hospitals and airports. But are you ready to be scanned in the dressing room of a clothing store? Or in your home for an online retail purchase? If scan-for-size technology catches on, digital devices may be taking your body measurements to ensure that the clothes you buy fit perfectly. This NPR story has the details.

Categories
-Updates 13.3 E-Business 2.0: Reinventing Web Commerce 7.3 Database Trends

The Big Impact of Big Data

One of the biggest buzz words in the computer industry today is actually two words: Big Data. Massive increases in computing power have made mountains of data accessible to businesses and governments. How does big data affect you? A page on the IBM site gives a quick overview of the business world of big data, while a pair of NPR stories aired in late 2011 focus on the impact of big data on our lives.

Categories
-Updates 13.3 E-Business 2.0: Reinventing Web Commerce 8.3 Specialized Networks: From GPS to Digital Money

QR: Quick Response or Quickly Replaced?

QR Codes–those odd, pixellated squares that are popping up on everything from business cards to billboards–are designed to make it easy for people to use their phones to get more information quickly. But as this NPR story suggests, a newer technology called near-field communication has the potential to make QR codes seem as old-fashioned as Pac-Man.
If you’d like to try making your own QR codes for free, like the one pictured here (the code for this site) try this Online QR Generator.