Can technology stunt community growth and personal development?

Could it be that, despite the rising importance and inarguable necessity of technological advancement, we are actually doing harm to society?

We know technological advancement is good, and makes some things possible that could never have been dreamed of even 10 years ago. In education as well, this has created new ways of delivering content and, to a certain extent, revolutionised schooling - just look at CIDA as an example of the benefits.

Reading this post about online education by Jeremy from Huddlemind Labs, as well as this article about e-learning by the Department of Education, it's obvious that this is a part of our future, and probably a very big part at that.

The big flashing warning sign - if we take education online and remove students from interactive classes, how will they develop the ability to interact at a social level? It's already difficult enough with kids in schools interacting with others every day. But if half of the children were to sit at home with little interaction, we must be cautious of raising a generation of individualistic loners with no ability to communicate with others, let alone function as part of a team.

This is not an argument against using technology to educate, but rather just a thought that this needs to be managed as we make these changes. I believe that this is a huge opportunity sitting and waiting to be developed - the management of children's social and educational development at the same time. If a workable solution can be created, not only can we improve education throughout the country, reaching far and wide, but also improve the strength of community and thereby improve everyone's quality of life.

[And with all the talk of "free" around and SA's [slow] move towards free education, here's a link to something I wrote a while ago: what is mahala education actually worth?]

OpenID/SDSN ID’s for the real world

Hash wrote a good summary of efforts underway locally to eliminate the pain and hassle of maintaining your identity online in fifty different locations [sometimes it feels like you’re living fifty different lives]
However, sitting somewhere the other day filling in application forms made me wonder how easily this solution could be applied “offline”.

How about this:

• a chip in your ID book [which is apparently on the way already] linked to…


• an online database that you maintain yourself with all your personal details [with varying levels of authorisation, allowing you to set how much of your information a vendor can see, from just name and telephone number for the local video store, to comprehensive family and medical aid information for a hospital/chemist]
  You can give any vendor all the information that they require by just a swipe and pin number.

No more ridiculously long forms. No more wondering what your work postal address is. Not having to arrive half an hour before your first appointment to make sure you can somehow scribble down all that information, particularly when you feel terrible and just want to get home to bed.

I think this would be great. So guys, once SDSN is done, please make sure this on your to-do list. It would save us all a lot of hassle. Thanks!

Are technological advances good for us?

I'm sure anyone hearing that would say "What a moronic question! Of course they are.", but there's a little bit more to it than meets the eye.

I'm sure you've been to a shopping mall, most of which have paid parking with those fancy little machines that only take certain coins and notes [and usually not the ones I happen to have on hand]. One thing I saw the other day, which I haven't seen in a while, is a place with paid parking that still has the little booth with someone sitting inside taking your payment as you leave.

The technology [being the electronic ticketing machine] has almost entirely replaced manual parking attendants, in the space of a few years. But is this a good thing?

Yes, the electronic system has its benefits, but I would have to say these are mostly for the business concerned and not for its customers. Lets look at the facts:

What does the company [I'm referring to the venue, eg a shopping mall] gain?
- More reliability? Yes - machines don't take sick days or days off
- Less labour issues? Yes - no pay disputes, etc
- Information? Yes - reporting on ticket sales, capacity, etc [surely]
- Admin relief? Yes - generally outsourced

So its obvious to say better technology is great for the business!

What does the customer gain?
- Security? No - safer to have people at the booms
- Enjoyment? No - queues to pay can be long, and no smiling face at the booth
- Cheaper? No - not that I've ever seen. Have you?
- Less hassles? No - a person can sort problems out on the spot, a machine can't

We all know - customers are key to the business! So exactly what do customers get from this wonderful technological advance?

And in this lies the hidden value destruction - whereas I might not mind going to a mall and paying for parking when things run smoothly [ie someone in a booth; manual process], I can get incredibly upset when dealing with machines and tickets that don't work. The people add something... something intangible, that the machine can never replace, and in the end, that affects my [as the customer] view of that shopping mall/business/whatever.

And what about for our economy?

Three words - forty percent unemployment.

I accept this is not the only answer. Technology also creates jobs, creates opportunities for growth, changes lives. All I'm saying is, we need to think it through carefully before just pushing ahead.

110MB of competition for Vinny Lingham?

Is Vinny Lingham onto something with his virtual hosting at Synthasite? With a track record that includes IncuBeta [R25m from Mark Shuttleworht's HBD], chances are its not all pie-in-the-sky.

It's great to see them leading the way in the technology testing battlefield here locally, taking off with Amazon's EC2. Besides that, the guys know how to choose server names too!

Enter the concept of 110MB, currently featured on KillerStartups' Top 10 listing. According to the write-up, its not just free, but feature rich too. This could be a powerful tool for leveraging small businesses through the roof, and we should start playing with it too.

Now all we need to do is get more of our population online [Paris set an amazing global example! How can we do this here?] and get lower cost technology to really speed up the process. Perhaps once Gautrain is done?