Week 1 Group Task --- Wu Hao (William)

·         Identify a specific application of a technology in the workplace

·         Is this use innovative?

·         Is the technology leveraging change?

·         If so what kind of change: Sustaining or disruptive?

A specific application of a technology in workplace is the wireless phone (unlike the personal mobile handset, the wireless phones connect to the office LAN and make office people easy attached without extra charges).  Rapidly as the development of technology, the elaboration of wireless technology, no matter Bluetooth, Red ray or WLAN, stimulates the interaction in the workplace. Wireless phone is a perceptible instance that keeps people connected wherever they are working.

Innovation is the development of new customer value through solutions that meet new needs, unarticulated needs, or old customer and market needs in new ways. It’s not just doing something for the very first time. In my point of view, the wireless phone is an innovative use:

      1.     As an application in workplace, wireless phone provides positive changes in convenience. For instance, during office hours, one single employee may receive hundreds of emails and tens of phone calls. A wireless phone would set free his/her hands and reply to those emails while talking to a person on the phone. Important phone calls won’t be missed even if he/she is not at the office table.

2.     Another innovative function of wireless phone is integrating the audio and video (with a camera) despite of distances and Time Constraint. For business, teleconferencing can be conducted at any time of the day. Time differences between countries do not matter when people adopt this method of communication because they save money and time for attending cross-world meetings. For educational institutions, mainly long-distance education programmes, have reaped enormous benefits from teleconferencing and video conferencing. Professionals and students are able to listen to lectures, analyse shared materials, and hold group discussion and even one-on-one talk with the instructor.

      The technology is leveraging change. Changes may come out when problems occur. There are a few disadvantages of wireless phone technology, for instance, technical problems and comparative high cost of setup etc. Each disadvantage may indicate a further solution in the future. 20 years ago, it was seldom to see telephones in Chinese families, due to peoples’ demands, the manufacturer and communication carrier cut down the fares and telephones become very popular in China.

      Similar to the example, wireless phone may have problems, but it is the vast international environment that boosts the demands. There is no doubt the functions of wireless phone will be enriched in the future with other hi-technologies. Since the basic function of wireless phone never changes, and the changes to wireless phones are mostly positive, meanwhile it will influence other technologies to change, therefore, the change is sustaining.

References:

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-video-conferencing.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovative#Business_and_economics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovation

      http://green.sunnylandstrust.org/Conferencing_Pictures/Forms/DispForm.aspx?ID=31&RootFolder=%2FConferencing_Pictures%2FPhoto2010-03-19(USC)