Basic Technology Review
Here is a list of review terms to help make sure you are ready to deal with the material in this course.
Here is a useful exercise to test your understanding of some of the most basic technological and economic relationships associated with computers and the Internet:
In February 1994, I bought a high quality laptop for $3,200 and in May 1998, I again bought a high quality laptop and paid $3,200. How were these machine different? IN May 2001 I again purchased a new laptop for $2,100. And, yet again, I purchased a laptop in October 2003 - $2,200
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1994 The microprocessor was a 486 40MHz, 60 MIPS It had 8mb of RAM The hard drive had 200mb of space. The screen was 8" at 800X600 resolution It had a modem operating with 14k speed |
1998 The microprocessor was Pentium II 233MHz, 400MIPS It had 64mb of RAM The hard drive had 4gb of space. The screen was 13" at 1024X768 resolution It had a modem operating at 56k speed It had a CD drive and a USB port |
2001 The microprocessor was a Pentium III 850 Mhz, 1.5BIPS It had 256 mb of RAM The hard drive operated at 7200 rps and had 20GB of space The screen was a 14" operating at 1024 X 768 The modem operated at 56K It had a CD/DVD drive |
2003 Microprocessor - Pentium M - 1.6 Ghz, 2.5BIPS 512 mb of RAM Hard Drive - 40 GB 13" screen @ 1280 X 1024 Wireless WiFi B and G 11mbs |
Depending on the measure used, the 1998 machine was many times (two to twenty times) better than the 1994 machine and yet it cost the same (actually a little less in real terms.) The 2001 machine was about 4 times faster than the 1998 machine, had 5 times as much data storage space and 4 times as much memory. (If you don't understand the comparison specs on the computers, you are on the wrong side of the "digital divide" and will need to start at a lower level than this test.) This same comparison could be done for any four year interval between about 1985 and 2000. How is this possible? If you think this happens for all or even many products, you need to come back to planet earth. While you're at it, explain how the U.S. economy recently has been able to grow so fast with such high increases in productivity, low rates of unemployment, and low rates of inflation.
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What is happening? Why does technological change have such a profound impact?
In contemporary world we are experiencing radical changes in costs, prices, computing power, products, innovation, organizational - social - and political change brought on by the IT revolution. The declining cost of creating, manipulating and moving information makes it more valuable:
Changes in the IT Industry
What are the trends in e-business/e-commerce? January 05, 2005 eMarketer's team of analysts and researchers give their predictions of what to look out for in 2005 in the Internet, e-business and emerging tech arena.
Alternative Advertising: While paid search will continue to dominate online advertising in 2005, the growing fear of digital video recorders (DVRs) stealing eyeballs from TV commercials will increasingly impel brand marketers to devote more of their budgets to "alternative" vehicles. Senior Analyst David Hallerman explains that for some of these traditional companies, that alternative will simply mean more online advertising — eMarketer expects over 27% spending growth for rich media advertising and 21% for overall online ad spending in 2005. In addition, marketers will increasingly incorporate the Internet into word-of-mouth campaigns, making the referral buzz more effective than it has been offline only. RSS: RSS (Really Simple Syndication) will grow as a pervasive form of content syndication. Supporting the idea of alternative advertising, eMarketer Director of Research Yael Marmon says we should expect to see advertisers attempting to leverage RSS as a platform for targeted advertising.
AOL Changes: AOL has lost 4 million subscribers in the last 2 years. It's dial-up business is stagnating as Internet users migrate to broadband. In 2004, online advertising revenue made up approximately 11% of AOL's total revenue. By the end of 2005, AOL will be hoping that online advertising revenue will make up close to 20% of its total revenue (it plans to open its doors to non-subscribers) as its access business continues to decline. On-Demand TV: Consumers are taking more control of their TV experience. "DVRs on their own will not change the TV landscape," says Senior Analyst Ben Macklin, "but combine the power of time-shifted viewing and ad skipping with the increasing availability of video-on-demand and broadband entertainment, and we should begin to see changes in the landscape." Advertisers need to embrace the new environment in order to find and target their audiences. Wireless Broadband: Look for more wireless broadband in 2005, as well as more consolidation among operators, particularly throughout the Americas. TV is also coming to wireless handsets, in the form of clips and even streaming video. Senior Analyst Noah Elkin warns, "Don't expect consumers to throw out those 42-inch plasma sets in favor of tuning into 'The Apprentice' on their cellphones, but operators will push this sort of value-added service nonetheless, hoping to drive up consumers' monthly bills." This year, wireless broadband will begin to challenge operators' high-speed 3G. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID): Wal Mart's deadline
is January 2005 for it's top suppliers to start sending RFID-tagged
goods to its warehouse in Dallas. IDC estimates US retailers
and their suppliers spent roughly $90 million in 2003 on RFID,
and AMR Research estimates consumer goods companies, many of
which supply retail giant Wal-Mart, spent $250 million on RFID
tags in 2004. Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP): Though growth in the number of VoIP users was slow in 2004, eMarketer Senior Analyst Steve Butler says it should pick up significantly in 2005. Awareness among businesses and consumers grew in 2004, as telecom and cable providers rolled out their VoIP offerings. Linux: In 2005, eMarketer expects Linux adoption in the enterprise to continue, especially as part of the server upgrade cycle. IDC recently projected that the Linux marketplace, including servers, PCs and packaged software, would rise by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26% between 2003 and 2008. Cross-Channel Retail: Retailers will think of their online stores less as unique, standalone channels by increasing their efforts to integrate inventory management fufillment activities and marketing across all sales channels — stores, Web sites and catalogs. They will also spend more time studying the behavior of cross-channel shoppers in order to create incentives that keep these shoppers from browsing in their online/offline stores but then making their actual purchase with a competitor. IT Security: Security has been one of the top three
IT priorities among businesses for the past 3 years, as Morgan
Stanley reported in 2003 that security was the top network spending
priority among US CIOs for 2004. eMarketer expects this trend
to continue in 2005.
95% of the changes from the IT revolution are in front of us What are the historical origins of this revolution?
What happened to bring on the IT revolution?
One of the best overviews of the economic impact of the Internet is in the following set of articles:
Where are we in the cycle of change created by the Internet?
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