Session 5

Session 5

Today’s lesson we discussed the changes and impacts brought about by the development of information technology. This topic is very relevant to us because we are living in a connected world where everyone is being connected in some ways or another. I think most of us will be unable to survive without Internet or handphone for just a single day.

One key take away from this lesson is the difference between web 2.0 and 3.0. This is the first time I hear about the differences and I think this improvement though not revolutionary, has great improvement to the Internet development. The integration from web 2.0 to 3.0 is the semantic web links information together in a way that is both useful and automatic rather than manual and disjointed. In other words, the website is able to provide more intelligent search results based on our request as all the information and data are jointed through the semantic web. This improvement not only improves working efficiency but also enhance accuracy during research. Moreover web 3.0 allows user engagement, which is a very useful tool in today’s web page. Web users able to freely express and share their thoughts and ideas to one another through this useful function and thus further enhance the channel of communication.

During the presentation, one of the speakers brought up the issue of Ford cars can be used as a source of Internet. I think this idea of combining cars and Internet into one is a very good idea. However regarding the usefulness in terms of enhancing safety and implementation in Singapore, I hold a different opinion from most of the classmates. I think that safety will not be greatly enhanced due to this technology because firstly when accident happens, the driver will not have enough time to react to the computer. As for the congestion issue, currently in Singapore every expressway there are electronic signboards that update drivers regarding the road condition and radio stations constantly broadcasting road conditions as well. Hence with these infrastructures in place now, is it worth investing a huge amount of money into this industry??? One very important factors to be considered is that if Singapore government decide to implement it, then it should enforce every car to install it because if only some cars installed the system then the system will not serve its purpose. Hence in order for the system to work, every car on the road must install the system. As a result, car price is going to rise and demand for cars may fall as a result. Another issue to consider is the privacy issue which has brought up by one of the classmates during lesson. With this system in place, many privacy and security issue will arise. For example, terrorists will be able to track the travelling route of the president as well as the surrounding environment, security force etc. that will increase the chance of terrorism. Hence, in my opinion even if this technology made available in the near future, due to all these considerations it will be very unlikely to be implemented in large scale in Singapore.

Overall I give this lesson 8/10 because I think the topics that we discussed today are pretty interesting and the individual presentations have shown improvement compared to the past.