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Technology has always been at the heart of business growth. Technology develops at an exponential rate and businesses have to keep up. Remember the days when a

Will Michael

Situation: Marketing has been transformed by technology. Ads are found everywhere and there are specialized ads that target a specific group of people. Businesses need to keep up with new marketing techniques by gaining new skills. Marketers must have sufficient experience with dealing with technology. Technologists in combination with marketers are becoming key to successful marketing. Social and Ethical Significance: With marketing expanding to the Internet and mobile devices, some of the limitations that marketing used to have are now diminished. No longer are ads confined to billboards and flyers. Now there is a whole other world of possibility. Markers can affect people through their phone, laptops, tablets, watches and even glasses. This open up so many doors for marketing. One aspect of marketing that has been expanded is the reach that campaigns can have. More places to put ads means more eyeballs on the ads. Companies can also target market. Using data from people, companies can target ads to specific people whom they believe the ad will be most effective. The article mentions that some marketing people believe that targeted marketing is not improving and companies are just wasting their money. This is something that the business owners need to think about when making marketing decisions. Stakeholders: Marketers: People who work as a marketer now have to think about other aspects of marketing like how the technology works and what type of online marketing would be most effective. Marketing business owners: Business owners will have tough decisions on deciding who to hire to market. Employees will be expected to be more than just a create advertiser. They will have to know how to work with technology in real-time. Owners will also have to determine to what extent to they want to advertise online. IT systems: Although no systems were specifically identified in the article a few technologies that marketers use for research and to reach people inc

Situation: Robots are now being invented to aid in farming. This particular farm built a robot to prune and de-sucker grapes. Social and Ethical Significance: People and Machines - People being replaced by technology is a reality that we must face as it is a reality that we are beginning to see. Obviously when machines replace people, jobs are lost which is never a good thing. But that's not all we should be worrying about. When machines start to perform human tasks, we lose the skill and knowledge that comes with completing those tasks. So technology taking over tasks could either lead to depletion of common knowledge that humans have but it could also go be good because it will leave room for humans to focus on more important issues and knowledge, while machines take care of the mundane chores. IT Systems: GPS Gyroscope - Part of security. The robot knows when it has been lifted off the ground Artificial Intelligence - grape recognition Plant recognition Hard drive Synchronization of cameras Built in security - The robot won't start if it is an unknown area and can self-destruct Stakeholders: Farm Owners - The way their business is conducted could change Farm workers - They could lose jobs or have to learn new ones Robotic Engineers - They are interested in the new technology being used Applications to Specified Scenario: Changing how companies function is only one piece of what technology is changing. Technologies like this robot in the article could be applied to many different areas in the world. One example is security and surveillance. The robot in the article watches plants all day. It wouldn't be hard to alter the cameras to recognize people too. These robots also have tools that they are able to use. Wouldn't it then be possible to give the robots weapons and have them enforce the law? Or go to war? What would that mean for us humans? The upbringing of Artificial Intelligence will induce lots of change and raise various ethical considerati

IBM made a very wise comment regarding businesses in the age of technology, and how things are changing radically for all businesses, and in the long term, for all consumers as well. The IT system and issue at stake here is the future of businesses who choose to not adapt to new technologies, and transform their businesses in the world of technology in our day. Specifically, the article refers to "digital transformation," but does not touch upon an important topic we have discussed in ITGS, being the ethical implications involved in making such a transition. Beginning from the positive aspects of such a transformation, and specifically in the long term, these include: - more buyers - no data loss - better data management/analysis - improved business models through online systems - better quality marketing -- more effective So, in terms of these factors, one could say that such a "digital transformation" would definitely be worth the effort in the long term. However, ethical implications must also be considered, which include potential spreading of data to the wrong people, "filtering" the minds of consumers through online marketing, but also violating the consumer's privacy by noting down what they purchase each time and exchange a list of the consumer's interests to other businesses. In conclusion, we can see that such a digital transformation in terms of technology in relation to businesses can be both good and bad; this entirely depends on the effort that is put in the creation of this system, how well the system is maintained, and to what extent the system is targeted for attacking.

Hello! I liked how you incorporated that one of the biggest technology companies in the world has the same changes as some smaller companies; and the one thing that they have in common is the change of technology. I also think that your article choice was linked nicely to ITGS because it develops on the idea of Information technology changes throughout many societies.

Summary of the article: With technology, criminals and terrorists can use media to send threats, images and can even broadcast their crimes. 2 stakeholders: The criminals who use media and the viewers who end up watching their broadcasting. 2 social/ethical issues: With this technology, it is easier for terrorists to create a propaganda and they can easily spread fear by broadcasting their killings. For example, ISIS' videos include the killing of journalists, aid workers, government soldiers, etc. They would post this on the internet uncensored so anyone can watch everything that happened and may be unethical to certain cultures. We probably can't stop them from continuing to post these videos but there should be at least a program or a person who would censor the more gruesome parts. In the example of Mohamed Merah used in the beginning of the article, he used a Go Pro camera, his laptop and a USB drive to create a video documentary of his killings.

A woman in California was using Wi-fi assist on her iPhone, and it caused her major data charges on her phone bill. Wi-fi assist is suppose to help connect the phone to Wi-fi hotspots when they come up, or change the connection if the current connection is low. This should ultimately lead to having a smaller phone data bill. However, that was not the case for this woman. She sued Apple because of the false advertising. Apple advertised this new feature, however it does not work the same as it is advertised. Instead of changing the Wi-fi when the connection is low, the phone switches to data usage without notifying the user. AppleInsider mentioned that Apple did not state the specific details of this feature. Because of this mistake, users could lose up to $5 million dollars. The mistake will not reach that many people, because many people today are on higher data rates anyway. It is unknown what happened with the legal matters of the Californian Woman.

Summary of the Article: Major newspaper companies such as the NY Times, and Al Jazeera, emphasise on the need for websites for their articles, to give news under a good amount of time. Stakeholders: Those companies who now need to spend more money and resources in order to provide both paper print and online copies of their news articles. The people who used to read the North Adams Transcript on a daily basis. Social and Ethical Significance: Reliability and Integrity - The fact that news outlets now work on a globalised, 24/7 and instant response system, means that they need to be able to take the risk to upload or run an article about certain news, that a random person must have claimed. As a result, if the news is unreliable, the news publisher is at risk and fault for running a story without backing their facts with suitable evidence. Intellectual Property - Usually there are videos or images online that are taken and uploaded by a person and the news outlets find it as the best feed for the certain news article or live upload. The person responsible for capturing the video or image has the right to reclaim the image from the news outlet if he/she deems necessary. That way, news outlets have to be very cautious about using images and videos, about the certain live news. Application to various scenarios: There are many examples about how news outlets have been warned yet not fined for using copyrighted or unreliable information.

Situation: With countries such as the UK and India already implementing e-voting as their main method of voting for their desired candidates, it is hard not to see that e-Voting is slowly taking the concept of voting for elections, to a new front. Social and Ethical Significance: The article brings to us the example of the 2003 elections in the UK and how e-Voting "failed to make an impact to the people." That was moreover, because there were many people who didn't own a smart device/laptop, and a few didn't even know what the internet was, yet. The Issue with e-Voting then was that it hadn't made the impact because it wasn't the primary method of communication yet. Online voting has been trialled all over the world now, in hopes that it may be implemented in the future. However, developers have claimed that they see major amounts of issues with the softwares and networks/servers that are online. They claim that the reliability and security standards are very hard to meet, when it comes to e-voting systems. Furthermore, they have stated that th requirements are very tough and too high to be met, unlike other transactions. "Online banking suffers problems but refunds are possible after checking your bank statement. You can't 'refund' a vote and 'vote statements' can't be provided to check your vote was correctly recorded as that would enable vote selling and coercion." Stakeholders: Candidates - If the servers are mendled with by a virus or hacker, the results of the ballot could potentially be rigged and the candidate would lose his/her chances of winning the elections. Voters - If the servers are mendled with by a virus or hacker, the voter's vote can potentially be changed, and as a result, the voter feels a loss of security.

Situation: Technology is making businesses more optimised, efficient, and faster. Social and Ethical Significance: The ways that businesses work have changed over the past few years, is all due to the advancements in technology, that allow the companies/businesses/industries to work much quicker, efficient, and cover a much wider horizon, to achieve profits. The use of technology helps in allowing instant communication to any location around the globe, a more optimised mode of production of goods, services or a certain product, a much better, more efficient inventory management, allowing zero loose ends, and not to forget, better management of finances, anywhere at any time. IT systems: Well, IT systems in businesses vary from company to company. However, I'll take the example of a hypermarket chain, and name it X. X would have formal employees,as well as normal employees using personal laptops and smartphones, and that would require IT technicians to create working servers for the company. There would be a website portal for those who would like to order online, as well as customer calling services etc. Then, X would have checkout machines; some self-checkout and some, standard checkout, and these checkout machines would require regular maintenance to make sure it's in proper working condition. Then there would be barcode scanners all around the stores to check prices of a product in store. Application to Specified Scenarios: Supermarket and Hypermarket companies such as Asda, Carrefour, Spinneys, Choithram's, etc run using a similar system as described in the IT systems.

I agree that business and technology are accelerating the news industry a lot.

Situation : Lots of other popular musicians are trying to make it harder to pirate music online because they believe that the The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a law that governs intellectual property on the Internet, is too lose and needs to be reformed. Social and Ethical Significance: Influence on regular people who are law abiding citizens: This does not have that much of an impact to these people although it is important to consider that they are law abiding most likely because they believe that the musicians deserve to make money from the music they produce, so they are happy that people are speaking out. On the contrary, some people just follow the law and will not be affected by this article. Influence on regular people who are not law abiding citizens with pirating: This is important to these people because as the issue and pressure on the government is brought up more and more by popular musicians, laws may have to be passed and these people will not be able to pirate music any more. Then again, there are always loopholes to this, but at least big musicians are speaking out to raise awareness. Musicians : This is an important step for musicians trying to protect their industry. As technology increases more and more, so does the rising threat of pirating and the many loopholes people are finding with new apps. So, if enough musicians put more and more pressure on the government to change laws, then they may see action in the future with laws preventing piracy. Stakeholders: Musicians - They are trying to make as much money as possible, as they rightfully should, so their finances and career depend on their popularity and music being bought abiding by the law. Non-law abiding citizens - If these people can't buy music illegally, then they will have to follow the law and buy music/support the musician the right way.

One of the articles for network threats

An article relating to targeted advertising through the use of installed cameras within billboards. These tiny cameras gather details about passer-by - their gender, approximate age and how long they looked at the billboard. Social and ethical significance: 1)Privacy and anonymity - although Quividi claims that the process is completely anonymous, the details of the camera's recordings must be stored in a central database which, if not protected properly, could be susceptible to hackers and other perpetrators of crime. 2) Security - the safety of the data stored in the central database will be in danger if not properly protected. The data will most likely contain details of a person's identity. 3) Surveillance - the cameras must be connected to a network in order to to function to its full capacity. Once again, these cameras could be hacked into and used for surveillance purposes, which leads back to the issue of privacy and anonymity on the street. The general public, who are one of the stakeholders, are deeply involved in this matter as it is their identity that is being scrutinized by a small camera - in most cases the public are unaware that the billboard is identifying who they are and their presumed interests. The company, Quividi, is another stakeholder in this issue as they are responsible for this new technology. The advantages of this kind of "ultra-targeted advertising" is that companies can now know for sure what kind of advertisements to place and where, without the need of analysing the kinds of people that live in the particular area of interest etc; the camera installed in the billboards have the ability to do it themselves. Also, as the billboard is digital, there is no manpower involved in constantly changing the large billboard every other week or so. The main disadvantages to this is of course the invasion of privacy for the public but also the maintenance that would be required to keep the camera clean as well as updated

Technology has helped businesses in lots of ways in this case, Facebook launched a tool for nonprofits to raise money. The company is partnering with 37 organizations in order to try the new option, which enables users to set up pages where they can share videos, pictures and more about their organization. These features come with normal Facebook pages, so the special parts are where they can collect money towards a goal, and donations in general. People can now also donate on certain posts where the nonprofit puts a button to make donations easier. When this feature is enabled nonprofits and donors who support a cause(s) will change completely, especially since Facebook is a page where social movements and certain posts gain quite a lot of attention. Facebook currently has over a billion users, having this feature means that thousands of people will now be able to donate instantly, only needing to press a button to do so. Socially and ethically this feature is a big pro for Facebook and the world in general, when donating is this easy people will support more nonprofits, removing the hassle of going to different webpages or going in person donations will increase. People who are helped by these organizations are going to see more benefits since nonprofits can now raise money faster. Despite the fact that these are for social causes it also raises some concerns, Facebook is known to be a place where posts can cause social pressure on people. We have all seen the "Like and share this post if ________", it is very common, and a great way for pages to make themselves popular. A similar outcome could be placed when presented with these new features, and people might start saying "Donate to this post if you feel sorry for _____", making people succumb under social pressure, which might be even stronger if many of your friends and relatives donated. It is also important to note that fake pages might be setup and many people might donate money where it ends up in

Good analysis. It's crazy the amount of power social media sites like facebook has.