Life in the informaton age -employment

Life in the information age- employment

IntroductionThis week I am going to discuss life in the information age. In the fore coming weeks my aim is to .discuss some of the aspects which have been positively affected by the information age. The aspects I will discuss in the following weeks are: employment, education, entertainment and crime prevention. Each of these aspects will contain many examples and illustrations too give you a real feel of what life in the information age is actually like.

Society has changed particularly when we look at how jobs have been made ‘easier’ by technological advances in recent years.

Employment

Information technology is highly important in today’s society; there are so many jobs that require computers in today’s society with many employers looking at people who have basic and specialised computer skills in order to carry out their job successfully. Many employers would consider people without basic computer skills at least unemployable because of the amount of time in the workplace that is spent alone working with computers and the relevant software. If we take the typical checkout staff at a supermarket for example, without basic computer skills they couldn’t possibly use the electronic point of sale to scan products bar codes for the main computer to send product price back to the EPOS in order to make a transaction (the electronic fund point of sale for the customer to pay for their items).

The way in which people work has changed. A shift has occurred here, however IT is not necessarily the cause but the ‘spark’ for the change to have happened. You may now notice that nearly all office staff is now expected to have basic computer skills in order to carry out certain tasks. This viewpoint gives you a sense of how important information technology has been for society in general going from that rural sense of community where hard labour was required into a life where computers seem to dominate every aspect of life. If we look at how some of the equipment used in the 1980s for example compared to modern day IT equipment you will see a dramatic change in appearance and capability.



                                          

These two pictures of computers that I have shown here really do show the change in technology over the past 3 or 4 decades. The early 1980s computer-left at best would have had a decent word processor, not the most effective office tool; however in recent years computers have evolved so significantly with the invention of the internet being a huge turning point but also how powerful they are becoming, for example recent adverts have now shown computers can have a 6GB RAM compared to earlier models this year with only 4 GB RAM. This piece of evidence helps you to understand that this is the information age where technology dominates everything we will do in our day-to-day lives.

If we look at specific jobs for example where IT is used you will see that life in the information age has had a huge affect on how we carry out our jobs. For example artists can now use specially designed graphic software, managers can now word process documents (in the 1980s a typewriter would be neared with someone trained to use it properly). What IT has brought to society is more time to do the activities that we wish to do, however so few people have the skills in which to use basic IT equipment such as computers, word processors etc. However some people argue that letting machines do everything for us is bad because a typical human will not get enough exercise in their lives. This certainly is the viewpoint of (NICE) National institute for clinical excellence as they argue that the sedentary lifestyle is being promoted through IT.

However what are the advantages of the information age?

If we look at a typical sales rep for example many changes have occurred to his/her job that benefits them quite significantly.

Having to travel around will lead to an expense in petrol and possible rush hour queues making the sales rep frustrated and generally quite tired. However 1 piece of technology has helped in their job the mobile phone, the phone has enabled the sales rep to quickly contact clients quickly and portably it has been important to ensure petrol isn’t wasted and rush hour queues are avoided by status updates on smart phones such as blackberry. Secondly ,the sales rep would have to carry around coins to use a public call box wherever they are to call the office or a client, the mobile phone means this isn’t required which is a huge benefit to the sales rep because let’s face it we all lose coins now and again. Also a sales rep will need a diary to record important dates in, however the normal way isn’t needed because the mobile phone has that too for example the new apple 4Gs Smartphone lets you record key dates and through voice recognition you can see what important events are happening throughout your day. The sales rep also won’t need a calculator because it is on their mobile phone, so by giving you these examples you can see firstly how versatile technology has become in our lives and secondly how much freedom technology gives us.

Satellite navigation also has become very important in the job as sales rep. Part of their job is to travel; they have to travel to their clients to get potential business for their product/s. The sales rep normally would have had to carry around a road atlas as a guide to where they are going however with the sat nav a quicker and more efficient route can be made to avoid queues and make a more relaxing journey.

Teleworking

As I have previously stated the introduction of ICT in the world has changed many people’s work patterns. The introduction of the internet has enabled many people to communicate with the company absolutely anywhere. Teleworking means to work from home through the direct use of IT; many people will tend to slip their time full time and part time between home and the office. Statistical around 7 million people in the UK will use IT away from home whether that is part time or full time.

Advantages of Teleworking

Work when you choose to- If you are a person who likes to sleep most of the day then Teleworking would particularly suit to you because you can work whatever hours you choose to. I think this is a good advantage because it allows people to structure their day instead of being stressed about having to do work as soon as they get up.

Time is saved- On estimate the average person will spend around 4 hours travelling to work a week that is almost certain to cause stress such as having to get to meeting quick in the morning. What Teleworking provides you is extra time to be able to do work without having to travel anywhere, this in turn brings another advantage in what the amount of fuel you will have to spend or paying for public transport is drastically reduced. I think this is a great advantage to an individual because people do moan about the hours they have to work in the day.

Having to park your car- For the people that own a car one of the biggest disadvantages you are faced with when going to work is finding a place to park. With Teleworking having to park your car isn’t a problem anymore because all the work you do is directly done at home via your computer or your laptop.

Employment for other people- Certainly one of the biggest advantages for the company is that they can employ people ho doesn’t live in the area. If there is a shortage of staff that lives in the area then they can employ people throughout the country and even abroad who are willing to work from home.

Disadvantages of Teleworking

Working longer- One of the biggest disadvantages that a person will face is that may end up working longer hours at home compared to the office. For example you may decide that would will do a bit extra to get work out of the way while compared at an office for example you probably would do work that is specific for that day. I think it is a major disadvantage because stress is caused by long hours and many may continue to do work without a break.

Socialising- When working at home you will find that there is no social aspect involved. This for me this is one of the biggest disadvantages that IT has brought to society in that we are turning from having to work with people into a society where everything can be done for us without the assistance of others. There is no team spirit involved at home, and you can end up feeling quite lonely at times when you aren’t able to talk to anyone because they are working elsewhere.

Hours being put in by employees- it is difficult to understand whether or not the employees are putting in the right amount of hours that they should e putting in. Many workers are unmotivated to do work and for employer finding this information out can be difficult. For me this is a big disadvantage because people can claim to of done 6 hours for example, this mean that employers are paying out more money than they actually should and they aren’t receiving the work that they should be getting from employees.

My experiences after researching- I know someone that does this kind of work, they said that to do it properly you must be well motivated, have regular breaks and have sufficient sleep in order to work these long hours. I think that this kind of work is not very good because even though fuel is being saved and you can wok whatever hours you like there are social aspects to consider and being motivated enough to work at home.

Online entertainment

Entertainment





This week I am going to discuss IT involvement in the entertainment industry. Some of the entertainment aspects I am going to discuss this week are:


Catch-up T.V services on the internet e.g. BBC I player
MMORGP games on the internet e.g. second life



A short introduction


The catch-up T.V service has become quite large in recent years with an estimated 44% of people between 15-34 using BBC I player. Most interestingly in particular BBC I player is expanding into the console gaming industry by allowing online members to access content through its service. The service itself is quite appealing; particularly for people that work long shifts and miss TV programmes that they would of like to have watched. The MMORPG franchise seems to be on the rise in popularity with the soon to be released MMORPG game: Star Wars the Old Republic which was favoured more than a 3rd instalment of its Xbox counterpart. What this piece of evidence tells you is that the MMORPG series is becoming very popular.


Advantages of Catch-up T.V services

Fewer advertisements – You may notice that sometimes at regular intervals the annoying advertisements come up when you are watching a T.V programme. With internet T.V, at the start of the programme an advertisement will come up that will last approximately 3 minutes or so. The advertisements will only come up in this period, which is a major benefit for the consumer because they can watch the programme throughout without interruption creating a more enjoyable environment in which they watch T.V.








Watching TV when you want to-



The biggest advantage with internet T.V is you can watch TV when you want to. People now seem to be using internet capabilities of watching TV through systems like 4OD or ITV player. We will usually have problems with recording; however internet TV changes this because it has already been recorded for us to watch instantly.



Watch shows you have never heard of-

Another advantage of Internet TV is the ability to watch shows that you may never have heard of. You will notice that you can type in a search criteria, and listening will come up which you can choose from. Adding on from that shows can be re-watched even after they have been around for quite a long time which is great if you happen to be bored of something to watch.



Bills- You as the consumer have an advantage in that you can access great T.V shows for free. You can use sites such as BBC I player to catch-up with TV shows for free so you don’t really need to have a large bill on your T.V service if you are getting this service. However latter I will discuss why this may not necessarily be the case.









Disadvantages of internet T.V


Quality of internet T.V- The biggest disadvantage is the quality of internet T.V programs. I have noticed that on BBC I player for example the quality compared to normal T.V drops quite significantly which is a worry as the aim of internet T.V is to make consumers enjoy their T.V experience. The quality for me resembles one like pirate copies of films so can a person enjoy their T.V experience when the quality its self is poor? In my experience I have seen very poor quality catch-p programs from BBC I player so having a catch-up T.V service on your computer may be better.


Range of what you can watch- Not every T.V channel has a catch-up T.V service. This is fai8rly annoying because you may find that recording directly from your T.V is the only way to catch-up on that particular program. In addition to that recording can have its problems such as accidently turning of the T.V box for example, so overall internet T.V is great for the popular channels but not good if the program you wish to watch doesn’t have an internet catch-up service available.









Subscriptions- I have noticed that Sky’s catch-up T.V service requires a subscription particularly on Xbox Live where you need two subscriptions: from Sky and Microsoft. For Sky and Microsoft this is an advantage because they make money out of subscriptions, however it is not good for the consumer when they have to pay too access the content which can be off –putting for people wanting to catch-up on T.V.









Broadband access- To be able to stream content you need to have broadband access with minimum speeds of 256kbps. The biggest disadvantage with this is that slower speeds lead to more dissatisfaction with lag periods in the streaming of content and random faults. Also you will have to pay for broadband so in a sense internet T.V is not free because you have to pay initial charges anyway to access it.


My experiences of internet T.V- Overall my experience has been good, there were periods of lag in the watching of shows which was annoying. The quality of the T.V could have been better because there were periods of pixilation in the steaming of the content. On the plus side there were barely any adverts involved which improved my experience of using it, so overall I recommend using it in the future.


MMORPG games


Advantages of MMORPG games


Teamwork- MMORPG games promote communication and teamwork between other gamers. These games welcome others into the community allowing players to socially connect with other people around the globe, increasing confidence skills in communication. Most MMORPG will have clans/groups which allow users to communicate better and more enjoyably feel powerful in being part of a group. Most MMORPG will also allow formation and tactic goals which means teamwork is even more important and increases communication and strategy skills for learning.








Goal setting-MMORPG offer gamers themselves many pre-set goals for the players such as completing quests and reaching new levels. Quests generally require players to collect certain items, explore new areas to level up. Experience points help the gamer to reach the next level. These Pre-set goals allow gamers to set themselves a challenge and go out of their comfort zone.








Self confidence- MMORPG offer the biggest advantage of all that will be stated self-confidence. When players complete quests they are rewarded with experience points as well as in-game currency and/or an item they can use. When they reach new levels they have access to better equipment for example to complete harder quests faster. Completing harder quests is great and boosts self-confidence because it gives them a sense of achieving something. Teachers have been known to use it to boost confidence of their students.









Relieving stress /tension- One of the biggest advantages is the stress relieves that MMORPG’s offer. Taking anger out on creatures for example after a hard day is better than venting their frustration on family/friends where arguments can be created. MMORPG offer a controlled environment for them to do this and in most cases works as people are able to do hard quest with a bit of aggression from the person playing the game.


Disadvantages


Leaked information- database information on the system always has the potential to be leaked, which means you information can be accessed by hackers. You should always look to make sure that the information you are giving to the database is not your real information, make it up because it is a lot safer than giving your real information.








Unknown people- you should always take a degree of care when talking to individuals you don’t know because, you have no clue about what they are capable of and who they are exactly. It is best that you don’t communicate at all with other people and just play the game your own way just for safety reasons.


Online broadband/connection- the main disadvantage is that you will have to have internet connection in order to be able to access MMORPG games. Broadband /internet connect is not free and will require a cost along with other equipment you will need to be able to play MMORPG games online.

My experiences of MMORPG- I like MMORPG games because they are fun and you can be anyone you like in the world designed. Creating hostile clans in the world is good because it presents other people with a challenge to beat these people. Overall they have bad points which I have discussed however the new Star Wars MMORPG is highly anticipated among people as it is seen as the revival for MMORPG games. I recommend them if you are bored and have nothing to do.

Download services

Download services

A short introduction to download services.

Download services are becoming a dominant source for downloads amongst people. We now have the ability to download near enough everything that could be bought in a shop. The mobile industry itself is benefiting from download services, 41.1% of smart phone uses downloaded apps or software for their phones.

The download services that I am going to discuss are:

1)      Patches.

2)      Upgrades on software 

       After completion on this whole section i will update it and include more examples so this is a taste of what is to come.

Patches

What are patches?

A patch is a type of programme that is made available by a software company to fix problems like bugs on a piece of software, glitches, security problems, or even to just simply make that piece of software run more smoothly. One of the most notable patches is hot fix by Microsoft; a hot fix is a patch that can be installed without having to restart the system which is great if it is something as important as updating a web sever for instance. A Hot fix can also described as a programme that automatically will update your computer to make your computer browsers run more smoothly and even to address security issues that may have been caused by a piece.

 Advantages of patches

Local servers- Downloading patches from local servers can be faster than downloading patches from an online service, which means that you can receive a potential important update faster than usual. By downloading patches quickly it will mean that you will have more time to complete other tasks that need to be finished elsewhere. I also personally think it may also be worth mentioning that downloading patches locally instead of an online service may mean that your security potentially won’t be compromised from threats such as viruses, so there is good reasoning into downloading from local servers.

Internet access not needed- Computers that don’t have internet access can receive updates on their system. This means that your computer/laptop can continue to receive important updates for your system to help remove bugs/glitches on your system to make it run more smoothly and effectively. In addition to that any software that you as the user have put on your system can receive updates top remove any glitches that may have occurred prior to the release of that piece of software. I personally believe that having these patches made available for people that don’t have internet access is good because they will have software on their system that needs to be updated to remove glitches/bugs on that software.

Fixing bugs and glitches- The main advantage when discussing patches is that it sorts out any potential bugs/glitches a user may have encountered on a system or piece of software. It can be considered an advantage if the user experiences periods of ‘lag’ on the system, because these patches ensures that the glitch is sorted out, and ensures the smooth running of the system. I personally believe this is a good for a user because they can enjoy their purchase while the company that made that system enjoys some income whilst keeping the user happy with the smooth running of the system.

Disadvantages of patches

Taking up of HDD space- One of the main disadvantages when discussing patches is it takes up hard drive space which is annoying because if you have a low amount of storage space you may not be able to put more programmes on your system without deleting updates. Deleting these updates will almost surely bring back those glitches experienced before by the user, leading to dissatisfaction and probably extra costs of having to upgrade their system.  I personally believe that patches should be made available only when the HDD space it will take up is kept to a minimum because for a user it’s annoying if your HDD space runs out which means extra costs for the user.

Compatibility with business software- Patches has have been known in recent time to be compatible with business software so knowing exactly what to download and when to download is important. You as the user should be aware that if it is a programme update leaving it for a week or so may be best until it has been fully tested because it can have implications for the running of your computer such as making it run more slowly. I personally believe that companies don’t seem to understand the implications that patch can have on users systems, so perhaps a beta test should be run on these patches to check that for all systems it is fine just to remove any negative comments that may be made about the patch.

My experiences of patches – I personally actually think that most patches work fine for me especially the security updates. I have experienced glitches on computer games that were very annoying, but when a patch was made to stop that glitch in the game it worked fine, so overall I can only be happy with how patches work and run. I suppose in a sense some may not like patches, because if they were using that glitch to cheat in game they cannot do, so you can understand why patches are met with hostility however I personally like them because bugs are very annoying and stop enjoyment in computering.

For my last discussion for this week I am going to talk about upgrades on software.

Upgrades on software

Advantages

Improvements- The main thing to remember when upgrading computer software is that as our computers become more and more advanced the things that we can do with they increase as well. Upgrades on computer software allow us to take control of those extra features and as such we have the ability to be more interactive with our systems and in a sense personalise it to what we usually use our computers for. I personally believe that upgrades on software are great because there may be a few faults. /omissions on a previous upgrade that need to be addressed and as a result we can have a better system through a simple upgrade.

More efficient system resources- Every time you as a computer user open a new programme a competition occurs with other existing programmes for system resources. However what happens when there are no resources remaining, your system will gridlock. However if you upgrade you’re   software carefully you can reduce the amount of memory being used which leads to faster and smoother running of that piece of software.

Crashes- 

I think it is fair to say that nearly every computer user has experiences of computer crashes of some sort which for all who have experienced it result in panic and frustration at the same, however all these problems can be averted by proper maintenance of software on your system. Corrupt files can cause programs to stop responding, but regular maintenance can repair those corrupt files and keeps everything running in a manner that you as the user will feel most confident in when crashes may occur in the future. I personally believe that you should regularly maintain your computers software because extra costs need to be made when repairing your system by a repairman so it is defiantly worthwhile to do.

Better security – I think it is fair to say that we cannot take security on our computers for granted considering the personal data that we hold on our computers. Proper software maintenance assists in system security, so users should check for patches on system security and other security related updates because it removes problems before they have occurred for you. I personally believe this is highly important, even though we have anti-virus software on our systems, better security elsewhere can make our system less likely vulnerable to threats, and considering the magnitude of viruses/threats now updating your systems is of the highest importance.