Who Owns the Future Chapter 2

Aristotle believed that technology could not do as humans do and the evolution of it would free humans. I imagine that back then it would be a repulsive idea for a machine to be capable of the same skills as humans, but now it is simply a piece of what is to come. We already ask Seri what something is or how to get to a certain location so it wouldn't be a surprise for robots to be the next step, especially since everyone's generation is becoming the easy and now generation. The only issue is how much easier it would make our lives because I honestly fear that we will get so caught up in things coming easy, that we won't notice that we're slowly being pushed out of our own economy starting with employment. The unemployment rate is already high, so imagine if we do decide to rely on machines to handle the "little jobs" that finances someone's life. I'm not oppose to the idea of continuing to evolve with technology, I just caution us to be careful to not get so caught in taking the easy way out to the point where machines are doing what we do to make a paycheck.

The No Stage for Decision Making in Community Collaboration

Some social organizations make the mistake of ignoring the no stage of community collaboration because they're so infatuated with their own ideas, they forget to account the customers' needs into their decision making. Of course everyone believes that their ideas are good, but sometimes the outcome is bad for the business. For example in 2012 McDonald's had this idea to promote themselves through twitter by starting the trends #meetthefarmers and #mcdstories. Unfortunately, customers took it upon themselves to use that as an opportunity to tweet their bad experiences at McDonald's. I'm sure when they brainstormed this idea, they did not factor in the misuse of a twitter trend. All in all when it comes to being a social organization or even dabbling into the social media bucket, one should carefully consider the no stage.

The Data Revolution

I'm not sure how I feel about the new revolution of data simply because it allows more vulnerability, but I guess it could be a good thing simply by not having to access more than one place for information and to remove the pain of having to fill out information more than once. It possibly will allow more people/communities  to come together, but putting all my information in one place is kind of risky business, but I guess that's something that has to personally grow on me.

Amazon Student

Amazon has several different communities within their website, but the main one that caught my attention was Amazon Student Membership. It allows you to rent electronic textbooks, trade in old text books for new ones, and several other school resources as well. It also gives you an opportunity to be a prime member for free for a certain period of time which allows you to buy things at a cheaper price, ship faster, and even stream cheap movies to your laptop. It was a wonderful idea to expand their market to students because students are always looking for a way to save. Amazon Student is an excellent marketing strategy mainly because students come in different age groups. So while, they're reaching out to a specific community, it is beneficial to people of different age groups.

Being Less Dependent of Technology

My grandmother's generation always questions what would we do without electricity because they believe my generation relies on technology too much. I can honestly agree to her to an extent because I believe people rely on technology so much to the point that they cannot think nor do without it. I don't believe technology nor the people who invented/improved said technology are to blame because that's an issue within us. We lack the independence to be able to do things without our cellphones, music, etc. For example, I can't walk to class without listening to my music nor do I believe anyone else can. I am not saying technology is a horrible thing that was introduced to mankind, I'm simply questioning our independence or even control to do without it.

Mass Collaboration & Amazon

By allowing the users of amazon to have an Amazon account or to sign up to be a part of the Amazon community, they are providing their customers with participation. When they allow members to provide individual contributions such as being able to sale and buy, they are being collective. They encourage transparency by allowing customers to rate and comment on products bought and sold. Amazon also allows anyone to access the website from anywhere at anytime, which persuades persistence. Amazon allows you become an associate by advertising certain products on your website in order to encourage emergence. In conclusion, Amazon has made it a point to include the six principles of mass collaboration in their services.

Amazon

Amazon allows so many people to either buy, sell, or rent a variety of things ranging from books to electronics to clothes. Basically, Amazon maintains a high demand because they want to meet the needs of every potential customer. There are a few kinks that they have to work out with electronic orders such as ebook, apps, etc. If you buy a tangible good from amazon, the return/refund process is easy, but let's say you accidently buy an ebook on the wrong card and want to switch the billed card or simply return/refund it. You actually have to call them and have them refund the book as oppose to clicking the refund button like you would if it was a regular book. In conclusion, as Amazon progresses in the marketing area to meet the ideals of every customer, it wouldn't hinder them to advance in their customer service as well.

"The New Digital Age" vs "You Are Not a Gadget"

In chapter one of "The New Digital Age" Jared Cohen and Eric Schmidt express their beliefs that as technology develops, it will make us more efficient in the business world. Also, as it progresses it will be able to operate on its own, which will provide us with more time to put into other things. On the other hand, in You Are Not a Gadget" , Jaron Lanier explains that as technology evolves, it will decrease the need for humans to work because technology will be capable of doing everything better. I believe that both of their theories are reasonable because the whole point in technology is efficiency and    eventually it will advance to the point of being able to operate on it's own. I personally believe that we depend on technology too much and it will eventually fire back on us. For example, in the past people were able to do everything on their own, but now people have troubles multiplying 12 by 4 without picking up a calculator. Technology already does everything for us now, so the only thing left is for it to become superior.