Tag: Information technology

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Suppose that the progress made within IT/tech in general is beneficial to humans, how do we know?

In recent updates to our blog we might have suggest other wise. However we want to be clear there are clear benefits being made in all kinds of circumstance like in business, education, security, health, manufacturing, environment, science, space and of course in general to our virtual worlds, where we create the likes of world metropoles which has never been seen before. But behind everything there seems to be a lot of by products that push new perspectives.

So starting from this week forward SWEIT wants to initiate a new series of “pros vs cons” articles, where we list services related to Information Technology and question our selfs and our ideas about it. We begin with:

  1. The World Wide Web / < The internet > ….sometimes referred to wide-area network (WAN)

I think we all can agree upon that the advantages & benefits of outweigh the disadvantages in reference to what the internet enables for us all. But lets take a step back and see where it all started. It stems from the vision of securing messages between interconnected computers and it was the Information Processing Technique Office  (IPTO) at DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) who got funded to create ARPANET (the forerunner of internet as we know it). 

IPTO was envisioned to “support research on the conceptual aspects of command and control.” and the CCR (Command and Control Research) project was assigned to IPTO in 1961 through ARPA . It purpose was to provide a better understanding of organizational, informational, and man-machine relationships.
Previously different computer hubs were not enabled to communicate to each other from different sites because they consisted of different networks that were not compatible. Logically one would want all messages that was sent from one site to another, to be retrieved by the sites that the message was intended for, even in circumstances where the sender goes offline.

This was where the idea to set up one network took off! One network where sites in different regions could join and function as one system, even when if site goes offline there are sites online that’s keeps the network functioning. To create this vision, intermittent message processor where used (now called routers) as part of enabling a infrastructure to send and received small individual packages of information.

The packages were routed over a shared network, where each node/site routed the packaged onward to another node/site until it reaches it’s destination. So if you today have a router connected to the internet, you act as the intermediate and together all of our routers contributes to enable the vast reach that the internet has today.

“The more we engage in doing everything online, the more there’s going to be bits of our life that we probably don’t want to be part of our public online profiles. “

Since there are alot of users of the internet, many companies are enabling platforms or marketplaces that collect data, which can provide insights about the users and the products. It should be generally known by now how websites mine every bits of your data, meaning the more we do everything online, the more data of our public profile online is gathered. 


If you never heard about Cambridge Analytica, please read up on the ways we are providing tools for corporation and power to states in how to influence our behavior. But SWEIT are actually concerned for the impatiences the smart devices and computer technology might be causing us in the future.  Even J.C.R. Licklider him self (the man who enabled and pioneer interactive computing and the internet) mentioned that buyers of personalized computers will insist on “easy to use, easy to learned and quick to learn”. Providing insight that patience don’t seem to increase with the use of ICT devices, rather that an attitude for faster learning will be on demand which might come at the risk of increasing impatience when demand is not met.


And how often are we not agitated when stuff does not work properly? I mean today we are surfing the net daily from all parts of the world, with the potential of bringing huge benefit to goods and services for the users and of course to the regions that enables internet bases services. But when do the use of the technology such as the web becomes destructive for the environment and to society at large? 

The internet based companies continues to concurred out a lot of our local healthy business practice and isolates humans a bit to much in certain areas. What previously was sold at the local squares, was later sold at the local market, but more is now transitioning to be sold through e-commerce.. even food. This in turn creates more delivery and less social life in the cities or squares that previously reflected a pulse of life and today often are bypassed without looking up from the screen we touch daily. So it begs the question: Where is internet disturbing healthy societal practices? Let’s list the good and the bad:

Pros:  Making communication easy, making information more accessible, enables services such as paying bills, buying stuff and finding answers online direcly from your home. 
Providing more efficient practices to business, education, security, health, manufacturing, environmentally,science, space and potential development for all users.

Cons: Easy way to become isolated causing us bad health, Addictive – Who haven’t been stuck behind the screen? Exposes us to poor integrity, who haven’t shared your personal info to just to continue with what your where doing (playing games, entering a site, shopping?), easy the increase over consumption and decrease your part of the local economy when no longer physically connected to the business spaces in your region. 

Test: How much c02 is realized by going down to the local square to make your grocery’s compared to ordering it through the web? 

The square scenario: A bit sweaty if you buy many things, but that should be beneficial to my health. And I myself did not affect the environment by visiting the square. Environmentally friendly indeed.

The online web scenario: by contrast if I would of order the same stuff through the web, the deliver would contribute to more emission… How much is hard to say. But SWEIT actually asked a few of the delivery drivers on the street (4 randomly) about how many kilometers they drove per day and they seems hesitant to say exact numbers, but on average they easily drove more than 100km per day.

Lesson learned? Don’t isolate your self to long! Activate yourself, take a walk or a shopping tour and find the things you can be provided with locally and contribute to the local economy and be part of the atmosphere. And if you are sick or don’t have time to walk to the square, sure take the cost for ordering through the web, but try to prioritize yourself to explore your community another time;) 


Stay tuned for next weeks update!

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21 billion devices and still counting… Eco-friendly?

Internet of things today consists of approximately 7 billion devices (this is without accounting for mobile phones nor computers!) and is predicted to reach 21 billion devices year 2025! The thing with mobiles phones and computer are that these devices currently seems to transition into what looks more like a merger. For example Samsung is about to release a new “computer line” with 5G that is described as a series based on the company’s galaxy smart phones. In addition to that analysts even refers the Note20 Ultra 5G to “the power phone” that “works like a computer”. So the definition computer or mobile phone are merging some what or their definitions might soon only be one of many smart device references in the IoT matrix. 


This is all interesting for sure and the evolution to smart cities, smart business and smart homes are probably around the corner for many, but have you ever stopped to reflect upon how this might effect e-waste/the climate? According to UN’s Global E-waste monitor 2020, we generated a record 53,6 million tonnes of electronic waste world wide 2019. That number has been around 50 million tonnes a per year the last decade! Now however we see a trajectory that shows an increasing consumption of electronic devices which in turn seems to generate an increased level of e-waste. But this don’t seem to be a transitory, because the UN report also predicts the level of e-waste to reach 74 million tonnes by 2030! So what are ICT companies and electronic device makers doing to make an effort to battle the climate issues that they themselves are a part of?

 
When looking at several companies websites, the majority have a lot of references about sustainable approaches and climate friendly intents, but several of these climate friendly policy’s are quite often a complex reading. In fact there are studies that have concluded that several environmental policies that companies use, are not readable at average comprehension levels. By using analysis methodology and readability scoring a study for example scored an environmental policy so complex that it would require 22 years of education to be understood (equivalent to a PhD)! Not as intuitive has their end-user manuals for sure.

But to the companies defense the studies was made a few years ago, so hopefully more people within the affected companies have learned to understand the policy or hopefully a few changes has been made since.

So what if a fancy environmental policy actually is enough to free a big international company from is climate responsibility? I mean if you are truly sustainable and climate friendly would you not want to be transparent with what climate risks and affect your company have each year? Similar to the initiative that the British aspire is business to do through implementing mandatory TCFD, short for “the global Task force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure”, that is currently voluntary. Initiatives like these has been raised by several investor groups, recently such a proposal was raised to Berkshire Hathaway who was among the few companies in Action 100+ coalition that totally failed in every criteria. But the proposal was not adopted and leaves Berkshire Hathaway’s climate risks disclosed. So while being one of the biggest, if not the biggest power companies in the US (Berkshire Hathaway Energy) with a net zero goal, you would of thought a environmental policy of such a big corporation would be proud to present their progress in reducing their climate impact..

But to often big companies seems to be reluctant to be transparent about their intent of a product or company. Be it with good intention or for the lack of time.. But we need to face it, everyone today face the challenge to “make money” and be sustainable at the same time. And that has not been the initial business plan for many of our worlds biggest companies to date, which in turn makes the shift to a green economy risky for some companies that might have to questions their purpose more and more.  

When we look at recent product updates to the electronic devices, it actually seem to go the opposite way of sustainable practices while claiming they are more eco-friendly. For example more and more electronics makers do make more efficient and cleaner devices, but the devices are likely to last only a few years before actually becoming part of the increasing e-waste that we raise concern about in this article.

Product life-cycles are increasingly becoming less lengthy and less lean for society, since you will not be able to repair them by design. This increase of e-waste keeps trashing our planet meaning going the opposite route in the fight against climate change. And of course making it costly for the end consumer, since if a small thing is broken, you will have to send the entire devices for repair due to several parts being clued together, where as before a specific part could be repaired by the end user/customer or small repair shops. So while big tech verbally aspire to be eco-friendly, we mostly see evidence of it by the materials used, but neither policy’s or designs shows a healthy eco-friendly approach. Making electronics devices more and more short term investments for the end consumer, who rather would enjoy a transparent long term relationships if they truly want to see an eco-friendly and sustainable electronic consumer market.

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Recent evolution of IT devices post potential climate-risk? Computers to Mobile Devices…

In 2011 Gartner downgraded its forecasts for PC sales repeatedly. First in December 2010 the given forecast would be around 407 million units sold, representing continued growth from 2010 (when approx. 351 m. units sold). However in total Gartner made a “hair cut” to that estimation and took out an expected 54m PC sales in nine months.

What’s interesting about these predictions was that computers sales globally peaked in 2011 and it has been down ever since. Last years sales reflect 275 millions units sold. 
Note that last year (2020) we doubled the amount of internet users to 5,053 millions users, compared to the year 2011 when there where “only” 2,267 millions user. So how did the amount of users increase if the computer sales don’t reflect it?

You guest it. As the research firms probably was progressing during 2011, the mobile divces market would go viral. Computers at the time had more processing power than what they actually needed in most cases.
Making way for new products such as tablets and mobile phones to enable simpler tasks and make “mobile work” more affordable. Approximately 472 million mobile phones were sold 2011 (almost doubling from previous year) and sales peaked around 2018 with a volume around 1556 million units sold.

But new users keeps on getting connected through the use of mobile phones. Last year was not far from the peak, having around 1535 million mobile units sold. With similar volumes of mobile units sold each year, it’s not hard to understand that the users of the world wide web has grown past the computer based users.

But reflecting on the users base of “the internet”, there are more phones users than computers user. Making Android by far the most used operative system in the world, which launched 2008.  Taking over the crown from Windows Operative system that was first launched 1985. But in the last two years it seems like both computer & mobile phones sales are on a upward trajectory.. 

Does this mean even more computers & mobile devices are poised to be sold in the future, making a new peak? What that does that entail?

New battle of the operative systems or is there a new upgrade on the horizon? More e-waste to come? Is the electronic devices risking the outcome of our current climate fight?

Stay tuned for next update. Where we will take a glimpse of the e-waste generated by electronic devices and reflect upon the ever changing IT environment.

( Volumes info source : www.statista.com ) 

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Electronic age: I.T. to the moon! Now Mars!

Visual of Mainframe computing evolving to clouds (cloud computing is the next stage)

4. Electronic age can be defined starting around 1940 and right now.

But this age reflects a cross road moment, where Information Technologies creates new branches of sub-domains and humans creativity lets these sub-domain takes on a form of it’s own. Lets mention just a few and see if we can find some nostalgia:

The electronic era enable humans to enter space now over 60 years ago! From Gagarin’s historic 1961 space flight and Neil Armstrong’s flight to the moon in July 20 1969! All due to computer language & internal computer memory that made computer reprogrammable and even more efficient to use in new circumstances!

The era also opened up the digital gaming market, through Mainframe simulations that around 1970’s evolved into classic arcade games. It would only take a decade before the rise of the gaming consoles of the likes of SEGA, Nintendo to evolve and create a new culture, where we could enjoy 2D games such as Super Mario on the NES (8-bits) or Sonic the hedgehog through SEGA!

Not to forget fantastic games such as Settlers, Backpacker and Diablo on the modern day computer! Gaming evolved in par with increase computing power such of more memory processing & storage power etc. The gaming industry is actually a part of the entrainment industry all of which have been enabled by Information Technology! I.T. transformed during this era and has continued to grow ever since! Just to put some perspective, the video gaming market is expected to reach a whopping $277 billion in 2025!

But lets not stop there, because the electronic age gave birth to the world wide web (www went public 1991) commonly known as the internet (or “the net”) that you are using now and probably everyday!

It literally created additional ways to communicate with Information Technology on a virtual scale, which SWEIT believe is just in it’s infancy. We expect to se a big increase of transitions from analog to virtual platforms on the net! The net that is evolving more to a cloud of networks that will expose us to a very different world that will emerge from the likes of IoT, Mixed Reality, Additive Manufacturing also known as 3D printing and mush mush more! SWEIT also hopes to contribute in this future through new collaborations globally and regionally! And of course by knowledge sharing!

We hope you have enjoyed the journey through the four phases of Information Technology!

Stay tune for more info!

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Electromechanical era: The birth of mass-media

Photo collage with references of the era. Communication designs that still is visible around us today.

Electromechanical: between 1840 and 1940.

SweIT would like to put the Electromechanical era, some what in reference to steam power and sometimes we more simply reference the period “The birth of mass-media”.

If we want to understand how steam initiated a new era for IT, we should be transparent about the inventions during this era. It started 1810 rather then 1840’s, if we would be allowed to acknowledge the transition from the Printing press (Gutenberg) into the updated automatic steam engined printing press, that Friedrich / William Koenig invented in 1814.

The new printing press rolled out 1,100 pages an hour (extremely more efficient than previous alternatives) and the technology was adopted by The Times Magazine, which in turn put The Times in a leading position and way ahead of its competitors in printing and labour costs.

The increase efficiency of Information Technology opened up for new ways to use IT. Now the citizens became increasingly the focus and the masses would become more and more exposed to what is today called media (journalism, services, propaganda, lobbying and entertainment).

To give a reference the electromechanical aspects, this was also the era where the teleprinter (electrical telegraph) evolved through a bunch of inventions by a number of engineers, including Samuel Morse, Alexander Bain, Royal Earl House, David Edward Hughes, Emile Baudot, Donald Murray, Edward Kleinschmidt, Charles L. Krum and Frederick G. Creed. This invention provided additional ways for communication to travel! The electric telegraph is the forerunner to our modern day mobile technology.

Both the teleprinter and the steam printing press took the western world by storm and ignited the first industrial revolution!

Stay tuned for next week update about the fourth phase of Information Technology!

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The Mechanical era: The beginning of sharing information, data and big ideas

PHOTO COLLAGE WITH REFERENCES OF THE TECHNOLOGY

Mechanical: between 480s and 1840
(In litterature this period really starts around 1450 A.D. but for this article the start was rather from 480’s reflecting the Chinese woodblock press technology (IT). However it could of started earlier still)

The mechanical age shows the first connections between our current technology and its ancestors. The mechanical age can’t really be defined to start directly after the the “premechanical” era, since studies shows written Sumerian language was developed already around 3100 BC and commonly used for it’s tablets and coins. So there should be an overlapping era, due to transitions made in technology and approaches around the world.

But SweIT would like to dedicate “the start of the Mechanical era” to around 480s to 1400s due to the wide use of Chinese woodblock printing, that became a popular form of creating content around the world, until the transition to the new European printing press technology provided by Johannes Gutenberg around 1450 (inspired by the woodblock printing).

But between 1450 and 1840 many new technologies evolved and were developed. The interest to automate the process of symbols, words, and calculations, exploded!


From a climate and resource perspective: We should perhaps be thankful today, that some inventions were never built. The picture above portrays the scale of Charles Babbage idea of the programmable computer from 1837!

There were lots of different machines invented during this time, but not yet any machine that could do more than one type of calculation in one, like our modern-day computers (calculators). And make notice, there was no outspoken worries at the time about if this era was sustainable or not . If you look at the size of some of these inventions, the time and resources invested for the end results compared to the power behind them, it seems today absolutely ludicrous why anybody would ever attempt to use them. But as always new technology did the same to people then, as it still does now days. ALL of this creativity that we pour out of us selfs, can have HUGE impact on society..

Stay tune for next weeks update! Then we will enter the third phase of Information Technology!


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Who would of known? IT might have originated from Neanderthals…

La Pasiega Cave Art (Neaderthal)
La Pasiega Cave Art (Neaderthal) Photo: P.Saura

Information Technology is not something new, it’s been around for ages. In fact it’s been here ever since Homo sapiens and if history is right, it might also suggest we should adapt to a more regenerative mindset to not follow the faith our fellow Neanderthals did due to climate changes.

Humans are thought to first been able to communicate through the use of sound expressions or simple drawings known as petroglyths which usually we call cave paintings or rock carvings today. The earliest rock carvings date back to at least 45,500 years ago and is located in Indonesia and is a picture of a wild pig. However there is also a study from 2018 that have found cave paintings dated back early as 64,000 years ago which are located in the Iberian Peninsula and it is said to be evidence that the first sort of petroglyths seems to have come from Neanderthals.

This might suggest that there might be more than 4 phases that we should divide the history of Information Technology in. However SWEIT would not want to confuse people with our own definitions of this era. So since we lack a good term for the “Neaderthals period” we will include it in the Premechanical period for now.


Premechanical: Between 64000 and 1450A.D.
(In literature this period is 30.000 b.c, but for this piece it also reflects 64.000 years bc. due to new findings made in the last decade)

More studies and findings concludes that the Neanderthals had the ability to speak and use language much in the same way modern day humans have been doing for ages, but more evidence of Information Technology such cave arts, might suggest the evolution between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals might be more semantics than we previously thought. It might even suggest that these fellow human beings, that probably were more a reflection of us selfs might have thought us a thing or two. Before the Neaderthals went instinct due to what might have been caused by climate change, they might actually have thought Homo Sapiens the use of Information Technology.

Stay tuned becuase next week, SWEIT will focus on the second era of Information Technology!

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