Chapter 8 Click-alongs

Click-Along 8-2 (p. 287 Intro Version)

Update: quality-of-life & economic issues

As with nearly everything in information technology, the social and economics effects can sometimes change as rapidly as the hardware and software. This Click-Along updates some of the adverse effects described in Chapter 9.

Environmental Problems: E-Waste Threatens Health & Environment

In a February 25, 2002, report, Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia (see www.svtc.org), the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition of San Jose, Calif., along with the Basel Action Network and other major nongovernmental organizations, reports on the effects of the global exporting of electronics waste, including computer monitors and circuit boards. The report says that 50%- 80% of the electronics waste collected for recycling in the United States is sent to China, India, Pakistan, or other developing countries, where valuable metals are extracted by primitive methods that are toxic to the workers involved and the environment. For instance, Chinese women, wearing no protective gear, use coal-fired grills to melt lead solder from circuit boards. Others smash lead-laced CRT monitors with hammers. (There are 2 to perhaps as much as 6 pounds of lead in average 18-inch TV sets and computer monitors.). Clouds of acrid gasses are given off. Remaining scrap is dumped into rivers and irrigation ditches, poisoning the groundwater.

The irony, of course, is that much of this equipment gets to Asia by way of "recyclers" in the U.S., most of which are not capable of finding a new home for the donated equipment or of reducing it to usable material. Most recyclers remove selected items that are relatively modern and sell the rest for pennies to wholesale brokers.

The Basel Action Network is a watchdog group that tries to enforce the 1989 Basel Convention, an international treaty intended to limit the export of hazardous waste and get developed nations to deal with the problems within their own borders. The United States is the only developed nation that has signed but not ratified the treaty. Most European countries have agreed to ban the export of hazardous wastes to poor countries, but not the United States.

Electricity Consumption: Power Drains

Many electronic devices-PCs, TVs, VCRs, stereos, cable boxes-use power when they're in standby mode or even when turned off. Energy leaked in this way accounts for 5%-10% of all residential electricity consumption in the United States, according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. For instance, a personal computer will leak 14.9 kilowatts per hour of electricity every year-enough to power a 60-watt light bulb for 10.3 days.

Internet Isolation

Although the evidence in the text would seem to have settled the question as to whether the online life leads to a lonely life, the Stanford University political scientist who touched off the controversy, Norman H. Nie, refuses to agree with critics that Internet interaction is its own form of human contact. In a book The Internet in Everyday Life, Nie and colleagues D. Sunshine Hillygus and Lutz Ebring report the findings a survey of how 6,000 Americans spend their time each day. Nie is still skeptical that the Internet increases the social contacts of its users. In his next study, he expects to show whether Internet users are happy, socially, adjusted, or depressed.

Online Gambling

Online gambling sites exist in a gray area. Although illegal in the U.S., legal, licensed Internet casinos are located in places such as Antigua, Barbuda, Costa Rica, and Australia. Those sites and ads for them have grown significantly in recent years. Estimated online gambling revenues have gone from $1 billion in 1999 to $3.5 billion in 2002. More than 1,400 sports gaming sites have sprouted since 1995, attracting an estimated 5 million users, according to one New York market research firm. Although American law makes it illegal to place bets using phone lines (hence the Internet), hardly any bettors have been prosecuted. Despite the trends, however, credit card companies such as MasterCard and American Express are banning transactions at gambling sites. For experts on addiction, the biggest concern is that the convenience of online gambling-of being able to do it at a computer while in your pajamas-will remove some of the natural deterrents to what can be a devastating affliction.

The Gap between Rich & Poor

It has been argued that a "digital divide" exists in which those with access to computers earned more than those without such access. In 1997, only 37% of people in families with incomes from $15,000 to $24,999 used computers at home or at work, according to the Census Bureau. By 2001, the proportion was 47%. Among those with incomes exceeding $75,000, the rise was from 81% to 88%, a more modest increase.

During the second Bush administration, officials targeted some Clinton Administration programs aimed at reducing government-sponsored attempts to bridge the divide. Among the programs were tax incentives for companies bringing Internet access to poor and rural areas; the Education Department's Community Technology Centers Program, which helped finance computer activity centers for students and adult education; and the Commerce Department's Technology Opportunities Program, which provided money and services to organizations needing help with technology.

Critics argued that half the new jobs for workers without college degrees require daily use of computers, often including use of the Internet, and that the income gap between workers who use computers and those who don't is continuing to widen. One big difference, according to a 2002 Ford Foundation-financed report, Bringing a Nation Online: The Importance of Federal Leadership, is that more Americans with higher incomes use a computer at home (80% of those making $75,000 or more a year) compared with those with lower incomes (only 33% of those with incomes of $15,000 to $35,000).

Click-Along 8-3 (p. 290 Intro Version)

More on AI

Artificial Intelligence is developing rapidly; it focuses on the edge of what can be done with computers. Scientist Patrick Henry Winston says that AI isn't the same as psychology because of the emphasis on computation, and it isn't the same as computer science because of the emphasis on reasoning.¹ Engineers use AI to solve real-world problems; scientists use AI to explain intelligence and represent knowledge.

• Expert systems: As your textbook described, expert systems are a part of the field of artificial intelligence. Many companies use these systems not only to use experts' collected knowledge to solve problems and do research; they often also use them to guard against valuable employees leaving the company and taking unique knowledge with them.Companies may also wish to prepare for the retirement of a valuable employee. And, expert systems free up the experts from answering the same questions over and over.²
• New uses of AI: AI scientists are working on many new applications. Among them are these:

--Gaming: AI can help sophisticated computer games adapt to the player's level of expertise and make the game more interesting and challenging.

--Language translation: AI technology may be able to translate a website in a foreign language into a language that you can understand.

--Computers with emotions: AI technology may be ale to be used to enable computers to react to users with human emotions and to interact with users.

--Scheduling: AI is being used to create complex employee schedules for such companies as home-repair and appliance installation services.

--Home sensors: In about 8-10 years, some AI experts think that a person's new home will have intelligent computer-based sensors that will, for example, send signals to the kitchen when you wake up so that your coffee is ready when you get to he kitchen. They will also turn your shower on to just the right temperature. The shirt you put on may have sensors to tell it whether to direct body heat toward you or away from you, depending on the temperature in the room. Your refrigerator will display and print out a list of grocery items that you need. Once you approve the list, the refrigerator will order the groceries online. Then you go into your office, which immediately lights up. You tap your compuphone, which is a 3D-enabled, broadband powered, true-color multimedia kiosk that can double as an interactive TV set, a six-way videoconferencing console, a digital diary and address book, and a computer and that can automatically connect to a police station, hospital, fire station, or house security system.³ "You tell the compuphone you want to speak with your girlfriend and it connects you. As soon as she answers, the lights in the study dim. Her image floats a metre away from your face. You press a console and her 3D image doubles. You can hear her speak as though she were right next to you."⁴

--Improving human performance: A leading AI researcher says that it won't be long before we'll have embedded computers hooked up to our biological systems. What will that mean? "Load a couple of CDs into your kid's built-in ROM, and school will be a thing of the past . . . People will not only b able to scan themselves but [medically] treat themselves as well."⁵

A recent 405-page report from the National Science Foundation made the following statement: "Understanding of the mind and brain will enable the creation of a new species of intelligent machines that can generate economic wealth on a scale hitherto unimaginable. Within a half-century, intelligent machines might create the wealth needed to provide, food, clothing, shelter, education, medical care, a clean environment, and physical and financial security for the entire world population. Intelligent machines may eventually generate the production capacity to support universal prosperity and financial security for all human beings. Thus, the engineering of the mind is much more than the pursuit of scientific curiosity. It is even more than a monumental technological challenge. It is an opportunity to eradicate poverty and usher in the golden age for all human kind."⁶ Too much to hope for? We hope not.

 

¹Kyle Schurman, Artificial intelligence & expert systems, Smart Computing, July 2002, pp. 180-185.

²Schurman, 2002.

³Raju Chellam, Glimpse of a digital future, Business Times (Singapore), August 8, 2002.

⁴Chellam, 2002.

⁵Editorial, The Toronto Star, 2002.

⁶Dan Farber, What utopia can technology deliver? ZDWire, 2002.

Click-Along 8-4 (p. 290 Intro)

More e-business

Research organizations such as Forrester Research predict that business conducted over the Internet-e-commerce or electronic commerce-will total $1.5 trillion in 2003. E-commerce started out with business taking place over an electronic network, such ad Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and banking networks of automatic teller machines (ATMs). Then came the arrival of the public Internet in the early 1990s, followed by the burgeoning World Wide Web and numerous security measures (firewalls, encryption) so that business could be conducted online in relative safety.

There are several advantages to doing business on the Internet. The system is always on, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is available all over the world. It supports niche markets not easily or cost-effectively served by traditional means (specialty jewelers, for example). It eliminates the middleman between seller and buyer. Information is available quickly. Customers have many choices.

The Types of E-Business

E-business of the sort that generates revenue is of two sorts: B-to-B and B-to-C.

Business to Business (B-to-B). Most e-business is between businesses and is known as business-to-business (B-to-B or B2B) e-commerce. Among the types of B-to-B organizations are those providing computer services, retail distribution, professional services, supply-chain (manufacturing), marketing, production, office equipment, and supplies, and training and educational services.

Business to Consumer (B-to-C). Probably the kind of e-business that you're most used to is business-to-consumer (B-to-C or B2C) e-commerce, as when you order a book from Amazon.com or flowers from 1800flowers.com. This category includes the direct sale of computers and electronic goods, health-care products, tourism and travel services and products, home products, cars and trucks, entertainment, and hobbies. Online auctions such as those offered by eBay, for example, have been hugely successful ways of linking buyers and sellers online. Banking and financial institutions, such as Citicorp, Ameritrade, and Charles Schwab offer a variety of financial services.

How You Can Use the Web for Personal E-Business

You can buy all kinds of things over the Internet, and in many cases get services and bargains that are otherwise hard to find. Some examples:

• Shopping: It may sound like sexist stereotyping, but research done for The Wall Street Journal found that men like to play games, watch sports, and shop for power tools whereas women prefer shopping for clothes and the home. Men's favorite websites were Fileplanet.com (game demos and add-ons), Harborfreight.com (tools), Gamespy.com, Pricewatch.com, and Foxsports.com. Women's favorite sites included Bountyfamilyu.com (paper towels), Chadwicks.com (clothing retailer), Ltdcommodities.com, Oriental.com, and Talbots.com.
• International crafts: Websites exist that allow consumers to buy crafts directly from artisans around the world, cutting out the middlemen importers. Some examples www.irbis-enterprises.com, novica.com, eZiba.com (major crafts), www.net-kenya.com/globalcrafts, www.peoplink.org.
• Proofreading of term papers: Students not confident of their proofreading skills can submit their term papers or other documents for proofreaders, who are available 24 hours a day, some with one-hour notice. Proofreading services include proofreadnow.com, editavenue.com, and e-accurateenglish.com.
• eBay support services: Several companies exist to service buyers and sellers on the auction website eBay. Examples are Pongo and Ipix, which offer image hosting of pictures of wares being posted; Andale and AuctionWatch, which apprise sellers of the number of bidders who have viewed their items; Eppraisals.com, which gives online estimates of items up for auction; and WinningBid Pro! (www.umklaydet.com) and iSnipeit.com, which help buyers by automatically submitting the winning bid with seconds of the auction's completion.
• Bulk movie tickets: Big movie houses now let individuals buy bulk movie tickets online a discount, such as 50-ticket blocks at $5 each redeemable at any theater in the chain. Check uatc.com for United Artists, www.regalcinemas.com for Regal Cinemas, amctheaters.com for AMC, and enjoytherealldeal.com for Loews Cineplex.
• Automobiles: Research by J.D. Power indicates that people who use the Internet to buy a car or research car prices pay an average of $400 less than people who buy the same car through a dealer without going on the Internet. The best way to buy a car online is to first search online at Edmunds.com and ConsumerReports.org to see which cars meet your needs and the invoice prices. Then you should go to a dealership and test-drive the car. Once you know what you want, you should then submit online purchase requests to at least two websites, one run by the car manufacturer and one from an independent car-referral site such as Autobytel.com or Carpoint.com. Shoppers can also check the price on CarsDirect.com. You can buy the car online or you can give the dealer a chance to match any price you've been quoted on a website.
• Wedding planning: Certain services are available on the Web that can help plan everything from flowers, cake makers, photographer, honeymoon, and other wedding-related services. Examples are WeddingChannel.com, ModernBride.com, Blisezine.com.
• Preparing for a baby: A variety of websites exist for helping offer advice, support, medical information, and baby gear. Examples are thebabycorner.com, Babycenter.com, RightStart.com, GapMaternity.com, Thebabyoutlet.com, and ecobaby.com.

Consumer Guides

E-business isn't only about buying and selling. You can also get information about products at consumerreports.org, consumerreview.com, and consumerguide.com.