One of the driving factors for me in my work is seeing the change and potential for change in technology in general, both in the places that I work and in the world at large.
Most companies, even technically capable ones are blinkered in their adoption of technology. They may understand providing a website, and even an intranet, but then miss the potential to use various tools to create employee identification with the company, to engage in new ways with existing customers, and to raise their profile to increase their business. They also miss many areas where a product could make use of various existing technologies to create something novel.
A part of the is conventional business culture which seeks to control things from above, and which naturally tends to resist letting go of this control to create a more personal voice, and to embrace technologies and techniques which are not already familiar. Another major reason is that companies generally hire looking for skills that match with their existing requirements – this doesn’t necessarily introduce the broader horizons and fresh thinking which allows those other avenues to be pursued.
Some companies obviously do understand. Google’s 20% time would be a particular example, where staff are actively encouraged to spend some time on their pet ideas, and their Labs projects show a range of different ideas being explored. Others, like Apple, have also made a huge success of taking not necessarily new ideas, but external ideas and making something which raises the bar. Similarly, Intel and others have their R&D departments, always pushing for a way to advance the status quo. It’s just that a great many don’t. Wherever I’m working, I try to bring new ideas for avenues where technology and strategy could be applied in ways that haven’t already been considered – a mix of my personal interests and ideas drawn from the different approaches taken by previous employers.
On a wider level, my interest is in the situation that will be provided to my children. In addition to driving me towards working hard to provide as well as I can for them, it adds a particular focus to my existing interest in where technology has shaped and will shape the world. Looking at growing up with a BBC Micro from the age of 4, and taking my first steps in programming at a later stage with BBC Basic, computers have advanced so far and penetrated so much of everyday life that it’s a very situation for a child now. My youngest daughter is taking her first steps in programming at the age of 5, and has so much more exposure to computers already – she plays games, as I did at that stage, but also has educational software, an edutainment console, and likes drawing and colouring on the computer, too.
The internet-connected world that we live in now was largely a Sci-Fi dream in the early 80′s, bringing immediate news availability and video calls to the grandparents to my kids. It’s only a matter of time before they start engaging with their peers on social networking sites of some description, and they’ll be able to look back at a childhood where most of the events that they’ve attended to will have a photographic record at least.
We’ve now reached a point where high quality video training on a wide range of subjects is freely available, even up to degree level teaching, from Khan Academy, Stanford online courses, MIT resources, and more. If someone wants to learn about pretty much any academic subject, they can find materials for their level. While there is still a need for charities providing books to impoverished areas where education remains scarce, initiatives like Negroponte’s One Laptop Per Child are perhaps more important as a window to a connected world, a resource for all educational needs, and a communication tool, all in one. What we need to see are efforts to join up the dots, connect resources like Wikiversity with charitable efforts to examine and authenticate knowledge acquired from this increasing free resource, to provide global, free academic accreditation so that with a net connection anyone can gain creditable academic qualification without worrying about debt.
Obviously education won’t solve all of the world’s problems. Ubiquitous clean, cheap energy remains probably the goal, since this could power desalination for clean water, underground lighting for multi-level farming, and help resolve transportation and communication challenges. For that reason I’m interested in hearing anything about Fusion reactor research, and wonder whether despite (or perhaps because of) the Fukushima reactor problems, Thorium-based Molten Salt Reactors should also be investigated. However, aside from working briefly with a former nuclear reactor technician, all I’ve learned about that has been relatively elementary coverage from the likes of New Scientists, Wikipedia, etc. As it stands it’s an interesting subject, but I’ll keep my focus more on programming and computer-related technology.
The real question is what current technologies will do the most to shape the future? Obviously video calling is fairly widely available (using Skype, FaceTime, 3G video calling, etc), but not nearly as widely used. I hope to see video communication becoming more commonplace, perhaps with some always-on connections where more places are set up with video and screens to permanently connect 2 locations – for bringing families, communities and offices together.
The tranformation of media production is also underway and can be expected to continue. You can already self-publish ebooks, albums, videos and software, but there is still further to go in the ‘democratisation of publication’. We’ll presumably see more instances where an individual appears out of nowhere, produces something that ‘goes viral’, and creates their own niche and market without any big company support, and technology is a part of that – consumer recording technology now reaching a level where publication-ready material can be produced on a very limited budget.
I’d also like to see computers used more extensively in schools. At the moment too many schools have virtually no web presence, an externally provided educational resource, and set a really bad example for ICT use in general. Relative to NHS IT efforts, it would be very simple to provide some standardised services to all schools to allow them to enter basic contact information, photos, key staff information, term times, announcements and so on. It would rapidly save money, too, as currently all of these announcements are printed en masse and handed out to all the kids. Similarly, efforts could and should be made to make as much of the reference materials used in schools available in a shared resource.
I’d like to see schools start to support learning about a wider range of subjects, too – some compulsory (such as key knowledge about rights and obligations in everyday life), and some supporting voluntary learning. Part of the reason for this is that while in the past covering the basics (Reading, Writing, Arithmetic) and a trade could be sufficient, in modern life we are offered contracts barely understood by most for mobile phones, insurance, employment, agreeing to participate in leisure activities, gym memberships, etc. We have a far greater need to understand legal matters than in the past. We also have areas that are worse covered than in the past, such as cooking for yourself, or knowing enough to manage your own finances. Hopefully at some point education will catch up to genuinely prepare our children for the modern world.
The world the kids are growing up in is an exciting time, and so much is available to them which would have astounded me as a child. I hope to be able to guide them into the communications side safely and with confidence, and hope that their first few decades see as much positive transformation as mine has. And here’s hoping that they see a similar boom period just as my parents ultimately benefitted from a sustained period of unbroken growth, rather than facing problems affording adequate housing as so many of my generation are – technology may help with this, too, if work practices change to decentralise and reduce the pressure on housing in city locations, or automated transport simplifies minimises the drudgery of commuting for many.
. Looks like I learned something from it after all. I know I completed the Machine Learning course, because you know your marks as you go along and there’s no final exam, but I don’t have a letter of completion yet.