Travel, Technology and More…

My laptop bag is generic with 2 short handles and a long shoulder strap. The other day when my daughter was carrying it, she tripped over the shoulder strap, trailing below, and landed knee first on the laptop. The screen was shattered and it was a tough decision on whether to replace the LCD screen or the laptop.

A quick search and a couple of phonecalls revealed that the replacement price of the LCD screen was 25% of a brand new laptop with superior specifications. The laptop was setup with all the software regularly used and had all the data and setting up a new computer with it seemed like a whole lot of time and effort and this led to replacing the screen.

That my friend is just the background to the real problem – e-waste management. At the service center to replace the LCD screen and battery, the technician asked if he could pack the shattered screen and old battery. What would I do with the useless stuff and asked if there was a buyback program or recycling system available. The technician informed me that I had to dispose of the old battery responsibly as it had lithium in it but had no suggestions as to where and how I could do so, expect to store it in a cool, dry place in an anti-static pack.

The battery could be refurbished, however the cost of doing so would be more than that of a brand new battery. So the old parts are generally collected and sold in bulk by weight to e-waste collectors who usually strip them for the metal and sometimes components. Only a small percentage of ewaste is recycled and the rest is dumped into landfills.According to the UN Environment Programme, the worldwide total for  e-waste could be 50 million tons per year.

e-waste

E-waste is a variety of electronic products that have either met the end of their useful life or have been superseded by ‘new & improved’ models or gadgets that include, but are not limited to  computers, televisions, monitors, laptops, cell Phones, VCRs, stereos, copiers, fax machines and so on.

It is a challenge tackle e-waste responsibly as computers and gadgets have increasingly shorter life spans. Recent studies show that the component materials of electronic items threaten human health and the environment, especially water and air. Cathode ray tubes (CRTs), the glass picture tubes found in television and computer monitors, contain five to eight pounds of lead. Computers contain heavy metals such as lead,chromium, nickel and zinc. Plastics used in casings are often difficult to sort and recycle, and can pose a health and safety risk to workers.

Large amounts of e-waste have been sent to countries such as China, India and Kenya, where lower environmental standards and working conditions make processing e-waste more profitable. Around 80 % of the e-waste in the U.S. is exported to Asia. Infact, Guiyu in China is the largest e-waste site on earth with an estimated 150,000 e-waste workers. Indonesia too is a dumping ground for old electronics from developed countries in a trade deemed illegal by the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, an international treaty addressing the uncontrolled dumping of such materials, which came into force in 1992 and was ratified by Indonesia a year later.

A common statistic online is that a whopping ‘68 percent of consumers stockpile used or unwanted computer equipment in their homes‘. One really effective solution is to sell it. Yes, sell it.

In Indonesia, it is easy to upgrade to a new mobile phone a ‘tukar tambah’ – trade in scheme where the shopkeeper will also move all your contacts and data to the new mobile device. This is a great option to storing the old device at home gathering dust. The same schemes are often available for TV sets and home applicances.

Some dealers also provide a similar trade in service for laptops and computers. Here are some links to such services in jakarta:
1. Buy sell old laptops
2. Sell your old computers
3. Singapore based recycling center

A very infomative presentation on e-waste management in Indonesia here

Computers have changed everything in the business world. From the way we manage data, provide customer service to the way we share information and more. Technology has taken nearly every function to an entirely new level.

Corporate knowledge is usually diffused among papers, emails, files on server drives, and people’s thoughts. It is a major challenge to collect it all in one central repository. The people that retain this information are the company’s greatest asset and when they leave, large chunks of this information are usually lost. The organization and preservation of this corporate knowledge to be collected, organized, shared, searched and utilized is called knowledge management.

This growing corporate knowledge is the company’s greatest asset. As employees innovate the systems they use, this knowledge base is updated in real time ensuring that current and future employees are benefiting from the most recent and relevant experience the workforce can offer. The consequences of employee turnover and changing workforce is minimized or removed all together. The long term result is a more innovative, nimble and productive corporate culture. As aptly put by Benjamin Disraeli, ‘The more extensive a man’s knowledge of what has been done, the greater will be his power of knowing what to do.’

Is it simply the cataloging of all the documentation that resides on server hard drives, Outlook inboxes, and the filing cabinets of employees? Or is there something more scientific and strategic about it? Is it an archiving function appropriately delegated to a support team, or should it be something on the CEO’s radar?

There are no one-size-fits-all solutions available; nor is there a specific technology, product, or vendor offering custom knowledge management practices. The corporate specific business objectives drive the knowledge management (KM) strategy to create value and to leverage, improve, and refine the firm’s competences and knowledge assets.

NASA’s four primary success factors for KM are in this graphic below:

The IT based KM tools usually fall into one of the following categories:

• Groupware systems – facilitate collaboration between workers. They may assist workers in sharing appointment calendars or sending messages between them. The best known groupware system is Lotus Notes. Many web based collaborative tools are also effective.
• The intranet and extranet – is essentially a small-scale version of the internet, operating with similar functionality, but existing solely within the company. It allows for the integration of multimedia communication and can act as a platform for groupware applications and publishing. It not only enhances collaboration, productivity, and socialization, but also to influences organizational culture and acts as a repository for embedded knowledge. Intranet wiki are one such example.
• Data warehousing & data mining – the process of warehousing data, extraction, and distribution to discover meaningful patterns and rules.
• Decision Support Systems – to access and manipulate data so as to enhance decision-making and problem solving.
• Content management systems – are responsible for the creation, management, and distribution of content on the intranet, extranet, or a website.
• Document management systems – systems that aid in the publishing, storage, indexing, and retrieval of documents.
• Artificial intelligence tools
• Simulation tools – are used for modeling a real world scenario and for testing the effects of scenarios which are either unsafe or not economical to perform in the real world.
• Semantic networks

Knowledge Management is more about managing people, culture, and organizational practices. Effective KM initiatives use technology tools to support and enhance the business objective driven practices. Overly ambitious projects, a lack of attention to organizational cultures, and unsophisticated technology have doomed KM efforts in the past. But approaching knowledge management in a simpler, more tactical fashion where the emphasis is placed on the application of knowledge can be the key. Identifying your organization’s KM priorities, carefully focusing your communities of practice on these priorities, and upgrading your intranet to be a more of a knowledge platform will help you quickly develop a relevant, meaningful, and beneficial KM initiative.

Confused over what technologies to embrace this year? The buzz on tech trends for the coming year point at cloud computing, mobility, virtualization, and a slew of other technologies. Tech business priorities focus on improving productivity, followed by reducing operational costs, and improving customer service.

The top ‘10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2012’, according to Gartner, the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company covered everything from increased use of media tablets, to the explosion of mobile-centric applications (predicting 70 billion available apps by 2014), through to ‘Big Data’ challenges, next-generation analytics capabilities and social networking.

The Mobile Age. With the Smartphone now ubiquitous–and the tablet gaining ground–SMEs will begin mobilizing their core business applications en masse in 2012. While email and other collaboration tools might already be second-nature for mobile users, areas such as mobile payments, time tracking, and field service apps should see increased adoption. The possibilities of what we use our Smartphone’s for now are endless and very naturally at the forefront of all trends. While iOS dominates the tablet market today, Gartner says it expects iOS/Android will dominate the market with 80% of tablets shipped by 2015.

• Mobile Interfaces. The user interface (IU) paradigm is changing to adapt to mobile-centric interfaces emphasizing touch, gesture, search, voice and video. HTML5 – the fifth iteration of the HTML standard lets developers create richer, more interactive applications than ever.
• Mobile Apps. Apple and Android provide hundreds of thousands of mobile apps to mobile users. This is expected to grow from consumer-only phenomena to an enterprise focus.
• Location marketing. Listing on Foursquare or Google Places, location marketing is becoming an increasingly important part of doing business.

Internet of Things. The Internet of Things (IoT) is a concept that describes how increasingly consumer devices will connect to the Internet with the technologies for identifying, sensing and communicating. Key elements of the IoT include:

• Embedded sensors: Sensors that detect and communicate changes are being embedded, not just in mobile devices, but in an increasing number of places and objects.
• Image Recognition: Image recognition technologies strive to identify objects, people, buildings, places logos, and anything else that has value to consumers and enterprises. Smartphones and tablets equipped with cameras have pushed this technology from mainly industrial applications to broad consumer and enterprise applications.
• Near Field Communication (NFC) payment: NFC allows users to make payments by waving their mobile phone in front of a compatible reader. Once NFC is embedded in a critical mass of phones for payment, industries such as public transportation, airlines, retail and healthcare can explore other areas in which NFC technology can improve efficiency and customer service.

Mobil Cloud Services

Move to Cloud Computing. It’s the best fit for SMEs. Basically, cloud computing means that applications, files and documents reside in an offsite data centre, not on your computer’s hard drive, and you and your employees can access them via the Internet, anytime and anywhere. Advantages include:

• Cost savings. You eliminate the need for a costly infrastructure and, depending on your budget and needs, can pick and choose the services you want to outsource. You can increase or decrease the amount of storage required to match your stage of business and you aren’t purchasing servers that are under-used when you install them, then overburdened as your business expands.

• Security. Contrary to concerns  of data security with cloud computing, good providers offer better security and privacy than most SMEs have internally because they have 24/7 monitoring, management and reporting features that many companies might not otherwise be able to afford. In addition, data stored in a cloud does not suffer fire damage or theft.  

Social Enterprise. Enterprises will be driven by social media with increasing ease of access, allowing businesses to produce, find and convey information more effectively. However, businesses must ensure their social media campaigns are tailored to suit not merely the clients’ needs, but also the platforms. The seamless integration of social media with Smartphone’s further adds urgency to adapt all corporate communications to this platform.

Gamification. Broadly speaking, gamification aims to integrate game dynamics to a website, online content or campaign in a bid to drive participation and, ultimately, awareness of your brand. The idea is to add gaming elements to tasks and processes that are ordinarily tedious to consumers.  Technology research company Gartner predicts gamified services will become as important to companies’ marketing departments as Facebook or Twitter.

Rather than becoming overwhelmed with all that technology offers – and is likely to offer – take a good look at the services that will benefit your small business the most. The trick is to use technology to your advantage.