Patients Face Rebuilding with 3D Printed Parts - Book Report/Review Example

ID: Public URL: https www.ever com/pub/research9210/livenews ANNOTATIONS Introduction This is a compilation of recent issues that emerge in the field of technology in form of annotated bibliography. They cover a diverse range of themes: from social media, hardware technology and innovation. The notation may provide insights not just about the content of each source but their implications and relevance to organizations. BBC News, 2014. Patients face rebuilt with 3D printed parts. BBC, [online]. Available at: [Accessed 6 April 2015]. In this article, a patients face is reconstructed using 3D printed parts (BBC, 2014). There are many stories that narrate different outputs such as car parts, a 3D-printed house and even miniature working machines. What all these indicate is an impending revolution in product development. It raises questions such as the ability of consumers to make their own products as well as opportunities like cheap and accurate product development. Data-driven innovation for growth and well-being, 2015. OECD, [online]. Available at: < http://www.oecd.org/sti/ieconomy/data-driven-innovation.htm>. [Accessed 17 March 2015]. The economic case for the Internet and all related technologies can be depicted in the collection of huge data made possible by the advanced computing and networked capabilities. This information published in the OECD website is just one of the materials that report the increased attention on the subject as a part of modern organizational focus as reflected in actual practice and strategy. Simply put, big data is the humungous information collected, stored and analyzed in complex database management systems. The paper effectively outlined how strong computing power allows these activities to be accomplished in a short time, using meager resources (OECD, 2015). The reader, therefore, has clear understanding about how organizations are able to gain insights about consumer and market behavior so that they are able to respond accordingly, especially in the area of product development and consumer relationship management. All in all, big data is seen as a major factor influencing the decisions of organizations and their management and this material supports it. In addition, it covers almost all operational aspects from product development, human resource management to logistics. DeMetz, A., 2015. The #1 Thing IT Managers Would Do To Strengthen Their Information Security Policies. Forbes. [online]. Available at: . [Accessed 17 March 2015]. This article has identified an unexpected top threat to an organizations information security: its employees. The idea is that employee activities pose as much danger to information security as external forces (DeMetz 2015). This is important primarily because the conventional cyber security model is oriented outwards, building mechanisms that protect information from hackers and unauthorized third party data access. The threat posed by the employees and their activities undermine the efficacy of this model, which is unfortunately the norm and, therefore, currently in place for many organizations. The article pointed out that the solution is simple. Organizations must adopt a policy that ensure employees and their practices and use of internet and IT channels be strictly regulated. However, his arguments, which weakens his main points, might not be the easily accomplished in real world scenario. Regulating and monitoring employees and their activities might be challenging. Worse, for some organizations, it could be repressive and deterrent to productivity. There are those who depend on the cultural openness of the workplace in the pursuit for innovation, creativity and, therefore, competitive advantage. Instituting tighter IT controls and even penalizing certain activities with respect to the use of the Web as well as communication could impact employee morale and even hamper the way things gets done, such as in the area of collaboration, teamwork and outsourcing. Fingas, J., 2015. Amazons grocery service stops delivering beer and wine. Engadget, [online]. Available at: [Accessed 6 April 2015]. This article reports the elimination of beer and wine in Amazon’s product offering (Fingas, 2015). It should be interesting for managers because of two important factors. First, there is the insight gained on the increasing sophistication and scope of the ecommerce industry. Secondly, which only serves as an implication, since it was not included in the article, is the challenge entailed in the ecommerce process, particularly in the area of logistics. This can also be true in the case of the regulatory areas. Questions arise with respect to selling goods to consumers located in various regulatory environments. Gallman, S., 2015. Divorce by Facebook: New York woman gets OK to file papers online. CNN, [online]. Available at: . [Accessed 6 April 2015]. This news article reports a landmark case wherein Facebook and possibly other similar Internet platforms are now recognized as legal tool (Gallman, 2015). Here, there is a focus on the human interest aspect to the story so its implications on the tech industry are not thoroughly explored. Being able to investigate this aspect further is important because this development establishes a precedent that gives the Internet a more pervasive role in our lives. McGregor, J., 2015. Microsoft launches a pilot program for hiring autistic workers. The Washington Post, [online]. Available at: [Accessed 6 April 2015]. Recently, this news made the rounds of not just in the Internet but in major news organizations as well because it is certainly news worthy. It involves a pilot program to be launched in Microsoft, which entail the hiring of autistic workers (McGregor 2015). With the use of technology, the company is optimistic it could make this sector of population more productive. This is a pioneering effort that should encourage organizations to expand their corporate social responsibility strategies. In using hardwares and softwares, more opportunities are opened so that they are able to have meaningful impact to society. Perez, S., Slidejoy Snags $1.2 Million To Put News And Ads On Android Lockscreens. TechCrunch, [online]. Available at: [Accessed 6 April 2015]. The article above is one of the many evidences of the continuing changes in the way organizations sell their products to their consumers. First, there was the Internet variable. Now, there is an emergent mobile device factor. Many of these types of articles are all about revenue generation for app makers (Perez, 2015). Buried underneath this development is the issue of efficacy for advertising organizations. There is, for instance, the question about how to guarantee that advertisement reaches the right market. Rash, W., 2015. Blackberry, Samsung Alliance could save Blackberry in Enterprise. EWeek. [online]. Available at: . [Accessed 17 March 2015]. This article provides several insights to the mobile phone industry, particularly how device manufacturers navigate competition. The past few years, Blackberry has struggled to stay afloat with the onslaught of competitors that threatened to eliminate it from the market just how Nokia was gobbled up and eventually discarded by Microsoft. This is important because, for a time, Blackberry was a market leader in the mobile device industry. A string of CEOs and strategies have been implemented in a bid to find a winning formula to steer the Canadian company to profitability once again if not to reclaim its lost position. This recent article reports one of these strategies. What is significant, however, is the fact that Samsung is a major player in the mobile industry. This news article cited Blackberrys development of Enterprise services for Samsungs devices (Rash 2015). The partnership could also expand from this initial collaboration as previous reports show that Samsung is interested in acquiring Blackberry. Whatever the case is or whether there is truth to this speculation, a new IT product or value proposition is in the offing and this is targeted towards organizations and managers. This is not included in the article but its content certainly leads to this implication. That is, therefore, its utility for researchers and managers. This is particularly important in the way employees use their devices for work. Reed, B., 2015. Apple Pay has a long, long way to go. BGR. [online]. Available at: < http://bgr.com/2015/03/19/apple-pay-adoption-rate/>. [Accessed 16 March 2015]. There is a great pessimism found in this article. It appears that the author is predicting a possibility of failure or a very slim chance of success (Reed, 2015). This reminds one of how many people during the early 1990s were ardent skeptics about the Internet. What is buried underneath this article is the potential of online payment in the way business is conducted in the general in the very near future. Certainly, this article did raise some valid points. This includes the attitude of people about using smartphones to buy products and services. There are several challenges to be addressed in addition to the more conservative consumer psyche: that about security. Questions regarding the risks and potential for theft are still needed to be addressed. These themes were no thoroughly covered. Rodriguez, M., Ajjan, H. and Peterson, R., CRM/Social Media Technology: Impact on Customer Orientation Process and Organizational Sales Performance. Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness, 8(1), p.85-97. The above article explored one of the social media applications in actual business strategy, specifically sales and marketing. The findings is that social media is critical today in customer orientation so that they are more inclined to have favorable attitude towards products and organizations, translating to sales in the process (Rodriguez, pp. 94). There were no empirical evidences provided that directly link sales and social media. Herein rests the weakness: it is not comprehensive enough. This paper could have achieved more if it included other aspects besides customer orientation. The author should have considered that the main challenge for organizations and managers is to ensure that social media is aligned with its strategies and objectives. And one of the neglected areas is how social media can be used as a direct sales platform. There is no question that social media is popular and pervasive. There are currently billions of users all over the world and the frequency usage of is certainly astounding. An important aspect in this Internet platform is the networking involved. An individual is not only connected with his friends and family but he or she also has access to other contacts: those connections of each of his direct contacts. It is for this reason why the platform is no longer exclusively used for entertainment, for keeping tabs with what is happening with acquaintances and meeting new people. Rather, there is now a business/economic dimension to this phenomenon as more and more organizations are turning to it for their organizational strategies. Triggs, R., 2015. Freemium models and in-app ads spur growth in mobile app revenue . Android Authority, [online]. Available at: [Accessed 6 April 2015]. The Freemium business model is aligned with what the Internet is all about because both are concerned with what is free, open source and user empowerment. The recent news cited above is an indication of this position. It found the free applications actually gave many technology companies revenue in the past few years (Triggs, 2015). There is an opportunity here, which was not mentioned by the article. That about how the concept of Freemium and the web could become a profitable strategy for organizations in other industries besides those in the technology industry. Thierer, A., 2014. The Internet of Things and Wearable Technology: Addressing Privacy and Security Concerns without Derailing Innovation. [pdf] Fairfax, VA: George Mason University. It is not uncommon to hear pundits say that wearable technology is the next big thing in the tech world. But is this really the truth? The answer is, of course, still uncertain mainly because this type of technology is still in its infancy. The above article proposes a model that predicts a variable that can determine success: a focus on the role of regulatory framework so as to balance privacy and security issues with innovation. There are valid arguments here such as the imperative for policymakers to draft regulations that ensure ethical use of consumer data (Thierer, 2014, pp57). However, the paper mentioned adaptation, which was not thoroughly explored. This is the downside to the author’s arguments. Wearable technology’s impact will only be significant if there is high degree of adoption. And any discussion about policymaking should consider this aspect because it will ultimately determine what the consumers want, including the relevant issues that could concern them. Velazco, C., 2015. Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge review: Samsungs best phones in years. Engadget. Available at: . [Accessed 4 April 2015]. The Samsung Galaxy S6 was announced in the first week of March. It is notable as a Samsung product because it signaled the orientation of the trajectory that the companys design language would take in the future. Above is a detailed review of the S6 Edge that provide enough information on evolution of the product, including insights as to its potential impact on the market and the industry. Clearly, the edged screen could be considered an industry innovation on the part of the company and this came about as a response to the growing competition in the global mobile phone market. For Samsung, the motivation for the revolutionary design was to address the criticisms leveled against the quality of its hardware especially when compared against its closest competitors, Apple and HTC (Velazco 2015). In addition, however, there is also the pressure to lead, being the top Android device manufacturer. With its humungous resources, it was able to come up with this incredible hardware, which is now being hotly anticipated for release. Specific to managers or business organizations, the impact may be felt in the area of enterprise services. This may be the case when Samsungs own version of Android, with its extremely effective multitasking and multi-user capability, is further refined so that mobile devices are increasingly used as a tool for productivity. Winfrey, G., 2015. The Future of Cloud Computing--and Why Your Resistance Is Futile (Infographic). INC. [online]. Available at: < http://www.inc.com/graham-winfrey/what-cloud-security-will-look-like-in-2017.html>. [Accessed 16 March 2015]. The information contained in this comprehensive infographic show how cloud computing is no longer a mere alternative platform or a web-based technology in its introductory stages. As the data in visuals show, an overwhelming majority of organizations recognize the importance of cloud services and use the platform not just to store and secure information but, most importantly, to run their computing systems as well (Winfrey, 2015). The figures and statistics in this infographic do not indicate its coverage. Whether the information is global in scope still needs to be verified. However, it would appear that the data applies to the US, the European countries or multinational organizations. The reason for this is that cloud computing requires a huge amount of Internet bandwidth. There are still many countries that have low Internet speed and a significant number even suffer low internet penetration. Wouters, A., 2014. Apple & Google: A comparative analysis of marketing, approaches and strategies. Czeck Journal of Social Sciences , Business and Economics, 3(4), p.31-43. It is not uncommon to find people in the web engaging in passionate debate about which operating system or which device is better: IOS vs. Android or Android device vs. the Iphone/the Ipad. All these are consequences of the differences in business models adopted by two of the worlds tech giants, Google and Apple. The above article dealt with just one aspect of their differences: marketing strategy. However, the author successfully provided several insights on the overall business models for each by successfully illuminating what each company focuses on when communicating their product to their consumers (Wouter, 2014, pp.33-34). This indicates priorities particularly in product development. The findings and discussion is aligned with the real-world scenario. The Google model is all about openness. The products such as Android, Gmail and other Google services are offered free or at low cost in a bid to secure wide usage. The result of this business model is an empowered experience, where the user has the freedom especially when interacting with Google-powered devices or Google services. The Apple model, on the other hand, is focused more on stability and the quality of user experience. It is for this reason why it follows a closed model, with the company exercising a great degree of control. The comparison of business models is important because these two dominate both the hardware and software sold in the mobile computing market. This debate can be critical for organizations and managers mainly because their business - one way or another - is impacted by Google and Apple products. There are even companies who may be faced with a choice between the Apple and Google platforms in order to leverage their own operations or drive their competitive advantage and profitability. Managers who are concerned about enterprise services or information security are faced with a tough decision because each has their respective pros and cons in the context of the requirements unique to their organizations. Conclusion This activity has revealed several important data that outline the direction of current technological development. Particularly, the insights reveal the permeation of mobile technology today and how it is changing people’s lives and organizations’ operations. Additionally, they provide the clues and an emergent framework as to how technology and this particular mobile device industry would impact human lives in the future. References BBC News, 2014. Patients face rebuilt with 3D printed parts. BBC, [online]. Available at: [Accessed 6 April 2015]. Data-driven innovation for growth and well-being, 2015. OECD, [online]. Available at: < http://www.oecd.org/sti/ieconomy/data-driven-innovation.htm>. [Accessed 17 March 2015]. DeMetz, A., 2015. The #1 Thing IT Managers Would Do To Strengthen Their Information Security Policies. Forbes. [online]. Available at: . [Accessed 17 March 2015]. Fingas, J., 2015. Amazons grocery service stops delivering beer and wine. Engadget, [online]. Available at: [Accessed 6 April 2015]. Gallman, S., 2015. Divorce by Facebook: New York woman gets OK to file papers online. CNN, [online]. Available at: . [Accessed 6 April 2015]. McGregor, J., 2015. Microsoft launches a pilot program for hiring autistic workers. The Washington Post, [online]. Available at: [Accessed 6 April 2015]. Perez, S., Slidejoy Snags $1.2 Million To Put News And Ads On Android Lockscreens. TechCrunch, [online]. Available at: [Accessed 6 April 2015]. Rash, W., 2015. Blackberry, Samsung Alliance could save Blackberry in Enterprise. EWeek. [online]. Available at: . [Accessed 17 March 2015]. Reed, B., 2015. Apple Pay has a long, long way to go. BGR. [online]. Available at: < http://bgr.com/2015/03/19/apple-pay-adoption-rate/>. [Accessed 16 March 2015]. Rodriguez, M., Ajjan, H. and Peterson, R., CRM/Social Media Technology: Impact on Customer Orientation Process and Organizational Sales Performance. Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness, 8(1), p.85-97. Triggs, R., 2015. Freemium models and in-app ads spur growth in mobile app revenue . Android Authority, [online]. Available at: [Accessed 6 April 2015]. Thierer, A., 2014. The Internet of Things and Wearable Technology: Addressing Privacy and Security Concerns without Derailing Innovation. [pdf] Fairfax, VA: George Mason University. Triggs, R., 2015. Freemium models and in-app ads spur growth in mobile app revenue . Android Authority, [online]. Available at: [Accessed 6 April 2015]. Velazco, C., 2015. Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge review: Samsungs best phones in years. Engadget. Available at: . [Accessed 4 April 2015]. Winfrey, G., 2015. The Future of Cloud Computing--and Why Your Resistance Is Futile (Infographic). INC. [online]. Available at: < http://www.inc.com/graham-winfrey/what-cloud-security-will-look-like-in-2017.html>. [Accessed 16 March 2015]. Wouters, A., 2014. Apple & Google: A comparative analysis of marketing, approaches and strategies. Czeck Journal of Social Sciences , Business and Economics, 3(4), p.31-43. Read More