At this moment I am sitting in a cafe on the street of Manchester city center. It is neither the layout of the cafe nor the taste of the coffee that attracts me (don't get me wrong, the coffee is good here). What I am enjoying now is the wireless Internet connection.   As someone who is from the Internet generation, I have experienced strongly how technologies can impact people's lifestyles and find that the Internet is impeartive for me. While  surfing on the web, I am thinking about writing some stuff now.

It is believed that the world is witnessing a revolutionised transformation led by technologies, which is ultimately determined by the rapid advancement of the Internet and the WorldWideWeb.  There has been dramatic change in the rate of Internet use age in the last decades.  According to the Internet World States (2007), the first three top countries in Internet usage up to now, the US, China and Japan have got 211, 137 and 86 millions of users.  The UK Office for National Statistics (2006) also reported that the growth of household having broadband connections increased from 54.4% in 2005 to 72.6% in 2006 and the ratio was only 18% in 2003.

Under such rapid expansion of ICTs, it is arguably true that the benefits of living in a networked society are not equally distributed to everyone. Some believe that technologies are the key to improving industry productivity and building a civilised society, whereas some think that the troubles created by the Internet are outweighing the values it created.

RFID

Technology advancement has always played an active role in the progress of human society, too often technologies that can bring a positive impact on industry productivity and facilitate human lives will attract the most attentions. The emergence of RFID technology has no exception.  The retail industry is perhaps the first one that recognised the potential of RFID and used it aggressively in the business world. Wal-Mart was the first retailer who adopted RFID and the motivation is more or less to do with competitive advantage. As Rutner et al (2004) indicate that Wal-Mart’s aggressive stance on RFID is because it believes that by being first to deploy the technology can sustain a competitive advantage. In the UK, the wave of RFID was led by retailers like Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer the embracement of RFID already took place a few years ago. (Jones et al 2004)

The reason why RFID has become retailers’ favourite is revealed by Srivastava’s (2007) comment: “Clearly, the advantage to customers of a retail store deploying RFID is a speedier checkout. If every item in a consumer’s shopping basket is tagged and the necessary reader is suitably installed, there should no longer be any need to lay the items on the belt and manually scan each one for purposes of determining the final bill. On the other hand, retailers can achieve automated and seamless flows of stock by integrating RFID throughout their suppliers systems.”

In a broader social context, the implications could be even more valuable. Deploying RFID to keep track of pupils has become a viable option to enhance their safety. Legoland in Denmark, a public leisure park, is building up its attractiveness through RFID to assist families concerned for the personal safety of their children and elderly relatives. RFID is also being used by hospitals to track mentally challenged patients and newborns as well as facilitating the delivery of health care by its ability to determine the location of a patient within a hospital.  (ITU 2005)

Surely not every innovation is perfect and RFID may also bring harmful effects if not handled carefully. The mandated requirement of adopting RFID from dominating retailers like Wal-Mart is likely to bring potential conflict over the supply chain the not all suppliers have the financial and technical capability of adopting such technology. Spekman and Sweeney II (2006) argue that RFID deployment can bring problems via two sources: one is the physical barriers and another is interpersonal impediments that bring destruction of trust and collaborative behavior.

Individual privacy is also a serious concern. The ultimate purpose of using RFID to interpret and share consumer data has a high degree of intimation to consumer privacy. Ohkubo et al. (2005) suggest that leaking information pertaining to personal property and tracking the consumer’s spending history and patterns, and physical whereabouts are two main trust issues related to RFID. In 2003, the launch of a campaign against retailers that employ RFID by the UK’s leading human rights and civil liberties organization, Liberty was sparked by a report saying one major retailer was using RFID to automatically take photographs of customers when they selected packets of tagged razor-blades from the shelf.

Convergence technologies

The Internet and the digital and telecommunication technologies have dramatically impacted human society. The last decades has seen a consistent development of the convergence technologies. The Internet has evolved from a traditional static object to something much more dynamic and interactive. Mobile phones are no longer limited to be a tool for making phone calls, but rather becomes a more entertaining console. This has encouraged the emergence of proliferation of information about lifestyles, cultures and economic issues.  

For developing countries, convergence technologies have revealed a greater potential in their social and economic development. Boza (2001) indicated that in Latin America countries like Peru and Chile, Internet and telecommunication devices have proved their value in helping small-medium companies, farmers and artisans to connect to participate in the global economy. In developed countries, latest convergence such as virtual reality is also playing a lively role in education and research. The University of Sussex now offer lab safety training by allowing students to interact with a virtual lab environment. (University of Sussex 2002)

Meanwhile, the wealth created by convergence technologies may in some areas be offset by their waste. E-waste has become a serious threat to worldwide environment, especially developing countries. In 2003, there was 70% of the heavy metals in landfills in India came from wasted computers and consumer electronics equipment (BBC 2003). In addition, concerns related to skill shortage still remains. A study in 2006 by recruitment firm Russell Reynolds Associates indicated that 65 per cent of senior UK executives believe convergence has created a skills gap and only 19 per cent of the 125 respondents surveyed from media and technology organizations thought there were ‘very prepared’ for staffing challenges.  (VnuNet 2006)

 E-learning

Fortunately the Internet has left us some means to solve knowledge shortfalls. The transformation of education through ICTs has enabled organisations to delivery training across national and time boundaries.  Webster (2001)’s study revealed that the learning curves of e-learning student were 60 per cent faster than classroom counterparts. The UK’s BAE Systems has already launched its Virtual University (VU) by co-operating with Thomson NETg to provide 350 online courses which covers a series of professional skills. The initiative saves £1.5 million per year due to reduced travel, accommodation, room and tutor costs. (Fallon 2005) The potential of the Internet in education is not recognised only by business. A survey by The Chronicle of Higher Education (citied in Wild et al 2002) indicated that 60 per cent of US colleges and universities offered online courses in 2000 and 92 per cent plan on expanding their online programs in 2001.

Surveillance

Another debate regarding ICTs is the use of surveillance. It is true that as a country progresses, the guard of individual’s welfare and safety will emerge on the government’s agenda. Although being considered to be great intimacy to individual privacy, some findings show that positive effects resulted from CCTV devices has taken place. It was discovered by Armitage et al (1999 citied in Gozens et al 2005) that CCTV had a significant impact on decreasing all recorded property crime (burglary, car crime, criminal damage, handling stolen goods and fraud) in Burnley. Webb and Laycock (1992 citied in Gozens et al 2005) also found CCTV installation at London Underground stations reduced robberies compared with a control group.

 On the other hand, things are so not clear-cut because surveillance has gained some bad reputations. Wood (2005) indicated that surveillance devices encouraged the voyeurism culture to a extent that Japan experienced an apparent epidemic illicit  “upskirt” photography and South Korea experienced the illicit photographing of women in changing rooms etc. (Kim 2003, citied in Wood 2005) Intimation at workplace was also a spreading because of surveillance. A poll in the USA by Louis Harris found more than 89 per cent of Americans concerned about invasions of workplace privacy (Minehan, 1999). These facts are brining increasingly concerns about the use of surveillance devices and making the balance between ensuring citizen safety and keeping citizen privacy becoming a difficult task for governments.

Conclusions

It is obvious that technologies have been a double-edged sword ever since they were invented. Although the debate around the prevention or the adaptation of ICTs is likely to be ongoing, ICTs are still one of the key elements contributing to the progress of our society and culture. The impact can be seen in every aspect of our life. Even for people who have witnessed few advantages provided by technologies, developments in ICTs should not be stopped as they are needed in the combat against technological garbage.  People, regardless of their nationalities and professions, must recognise that everyone has the responsibility for how technologies are used.  Technologies could become the most beneficial tool that has ever been created in the history, however, they might also become the disastrous that human beings never experienced, all depending on in whose hand they are in.