A glimpse in the near future of Cyberspace
By Fereniki Kantarzi & Georgi Angelov
It is an evidence how much, the ways people communicate, have changed in the last years. Expectations for what the future for the future holds are very high because of that and the future of communication seems to be promising. Everything changes rapidly, the ways people do business are changing and the customer needs are developing accordingly. The ways people do business will eventually determine the future communities and future communications. The supply chains are shifting and new markets are opening up, this means a new much more interconnected generation is emerging. The new generation is a generation that doesn’t know life without the digital aspect of it, thus they are the ones that will change much of the processes have been going on for a while now, to make them digital.
Communities and new age communication means people everywhere having access to the internet and the majority of them will be able to have access to the internet through their mobile devices. Communication is instant, information flows everywhere; people’s attention is getting very selected only to what is important. People get together for common interests, common beliefs and common ambitions, working towards a more efficient and interconnected future. In the real life people get together to do business and solve problems, in the future cyberspace people will gather digitally discussing and creating new ideas about their own interests and passions.
In the future, communications and digital communities will be updated instantly and constantly. It is expected that all the media and broadcasting companies will be fully focused online, with the TV, newspapers, radio and other traditional media to be decreased or disappeared. In the near future New York Times will create a daily plastic paper that will sell for 1$ and it will be updated on the way.
The new generations are becoming digital citizens of the world being able to communicate with people from anywhere in the world for business or common interests purposes. The citizens of the world will be people’s partners by innovating and co creating future products and services together. For example, people that have passion with fashion and clothing have limitless possibilities to enjoy fashion, creating and designing clothing, styling on the virtual world and enjoy picking out clothes from everything that is available online which is much more fascinating than going to a local shop. Likewise in the future, there are limitless possibilities for people that love chemistry, like forums, seminars, virtual laboratories and various discussions about future developments and expertise knowledge on the field.
The digital communities and digital communications have limitless capabilities and are providing the opportunity to stay connected with people from all around the world; those are the two factors that make internet so irresistible and fascinating for the human nature.
There quite a few technological trends that will emerge in the new future. To begin with, the mobile device industry is about to explode. The mobile devices connected to the web are already high in many parts of the world and is kicking off, in the rest of the world. The future for the mobile devices is limitless; some of the possibilities that will emerge are in getting personalized shopping offers as somebody walks through a local mall. The possibility of getting information about a certain restaurant, while passing by and scan it, in order to find information about the menu options and the prices of the certain restaurant. Communities with people rating the service of a certain restaurant or other shop will be immediately available by scanning the certain shop through the mobile device.
Another technological trend that is emerging and will be much bigger in the future is about the virtual worlds. There are virtual worlds for different purposes, such as socializing and entertaining. In those virtual communities people are able to create a whole new ‘reality’ for themselves. There is a possibility to create an avatar and live in the virtual world as somebody wishes to. Once again the possibilities are limitless. People think about those virtual worlds as the second chance for life, since anybody can experience a very different life like the real one. In the virtual world people are doing businesses and are having personal lives. People have hobbies and social life. The feeling of freedom that the virtual world gives is the one that many people would like to have in their real lives as well.
In the future, the way businesses will be evaluated won’t be based only on financial performance but also on environmental impact and their contribution to the global community. Companies need to integrate new ways, more sustainable processes manufacturing and in the office, in order to keep up with competition. In becomes fanatically important the performance that a company has, influencing the environment and its contribution to the global community for a better global future. Thus, sustainability is another massive technological trend that is going on for a while now and becomes bigger as the time passes by. People are constantly trying to find new ways to minimize carbon emissions and apply sustainable processes and methods in every aspect of their lives. The digital communities and communication tools have contributed in a more sustainable living, in the near future the difference between the real and the digital life won’t exists anymore. Everything will be integrated on mobile devices and platforms that will show relevant information when needed in every aspect of life and in every location. The impact that the technological trends and developments will have in the near future for the human community will be dramatic. The digital communities and communication methods have as a main goal to make people feel free and simplified their lives.
In today's world people find it ever easier to work together, share files and meet online. This is done through the usage of technology and allows companies and organisations to be even more cost and time efficient, spending less on resources and saving energy while becoming more virtual.
People are used to the old ways of executing their jobs in terms of the need of being together, interacting face to face with their co-workers which on its own is nice, however it is unavoidably leaving carbon footprints. We live in a world mainly driven by science and through that people have come to the realization that the system will fail without us taking care of it. Many companies have decided to go green and erase the carbon footpint mentioned. This issue has been addressed by many and as an answer to it new collaborative technologies are emerging which allow a way to be present at your workplace in every possible way except physically. These technologies make the need of taking a taxi or a plane or even printing out a document obsolete. Such innovations will inevitably drive companies into being greener while reducing expenses, time and carbon emissions
People are used to the old ways of executing their jobs in terms of the need of being together, interacting face to face with their co-workers which on its own is nice, however it is unavoidably leaving carbon footprints. We live in a world mainly driven by science and through that people have come to the realization that the system will fail without us taking care of it. Many companies have decided to go green and erase the carbon footpint mentioned. This issue has been addressed by many and as an answer to it new collaborative technologies are emerging which allow a way to be present at your workplace in every possible way except physically. These technologies make the need of taking a taxi or a plane or even printing out a document obsolete. Such innovations will inevitably drive companies into being greener while reducing expenses, time and carbon emissions
of travelling to work.
There has been a revolution in the way that people work and communicate while working. The age of electronic communication has brought many conveniences to our lives such as e-mail, voice mail, smart phones and organizers, video conferencing – these make remote teamwork and mobility a reality. A reality where work has become seamless – it is in a constant state of motion between office and home and phone, which makes it difficult for a person to draw the line between his job and private time. All these rapid changes in the working environment makes it seem as if ones job is not at a particular physical place but rather it is everywhere around him and could be accessed through the numerous means of technology, it is now in cyberspace and is universally accessible.
In order to execute meeting many companies have endorsed a new type of technology for online and mobile platform meetings. The company Citrix has a product called GoToMeeting, which has captured the attention of many progressive and innovative organization. What the software allows you to do is Web-conferencing, demonstration and collaboration capabilities to those who want to work with colleagues internationally around the globe. The benefits of using such software are many, however the most distinguished ones are the fact that the environmental impact is lowered to a minimum because there is no need to travel in order to meet, operational costs for the office are removed, while employees are happier and their productivity is potentially increased. According to Citrix Online`s report if 40 percent of Americans worked from home half time, it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 5 million tons – which is equal to taking more than 9.6 million cars off the road for one year. (gotomeeting website, 2011)
Another way in which organizations in the future can further reduce their expenses while saving the world is by embracing the idea of “The Paperless Office”. This has been a dream to many organizations for the past decade, because it would save them energy for printing, shipping and sharing paper documents. One of the best solutions for getting to the paperless office is by using the completely free Google Docs. It is basically one of the many great services that Google provides, it offers the possibility of sharing documents, drafts, notes, memos or any kind of text based file. This is a great opportunity for any type of business to reduce its costs and to maximize efficiency.
In order to further advance into the venture of “going green” modern organizations need to take steps towards Cloud computing. This is a great way to make all the company's documents available to every single employee. Services like Box.net revolve around a simple but powerful idea: “people should be able to access and share their content from anywhere”. The company itself has grown very rapidly since its creation in 2005, adding around 250,000 users every month and having more than 100,000 businesses as users varying from small companies to Fortune 500 organizations today. Storing information and documents online can make companies greener, and overall energy costs are potentially reduced with the implementation of Cloud computing. These innovative solutions can facilitate telecommuting and remote working removing the difficulties that workers face today in terms of struggling to access content behind a firewall or remotely logging in into a VPN. (boxnet website, 2011)
It becomes an unquestionable fact that the more virtual a workplace becomes, the more energy efficient it would be. Many companies should look for ways to do more things virtually and to provide their employees with tools for collaboration so that they could work from anywhere. Virtual teams and telecommuting has become a common practise for many businesses today and many others are currently reshaping in order to be able to utilise these new technologies in the near future. Virtual Teams work in a pretty simple way, basically interaction between employees is conducted mainly online through a combination of electronic systems. Although members of such meetings may never actually meet in real life, this type of arrangements provides many advantages that will bring an organization closer to its goals. Such an advantage is that a company no longer has borders, people could work practically from anywhere, this saves time and travel expenses and also eliminates the difficulty of accessing experts. Teams are easily organized no matter the physical distance between members, which also makes it possible for organizations to use outside consultants without the need of bringing them to the workplace which again potentially reduces travel expenses and time. Not only that but this way it is easier to retain the best employees regardless their location.
Although all these steps towards becoming more virtual seem very easy to take and overall profitable to an organisation they carry many challenges and obstacles that need to be overtaken in order successfully doing business. So far the biggest challenge recognised is managing the performance of employees. The management has to constantly monitor and direct the process of work in order for it to be carried out according to the needs of the organisation. Performance management is an ongoing process of improvement and in general it needs to be clearly defined, the management also has the role of encouraging and facilitating this performance which means that the management has to serve as a compass for employees and to provide constant direction, orientation and feedback. Not only that but also provided the fact that the workplace is virtual then comes the challenge of communication hence the importance of not over relying on e-mails since they are one-way communication tools. Management need to be able to effectively take part in the online meetings and sharing of files between employees in order to monitor and guide them, also to provide feedback.
The ideal virtual workplace is one in which there is mutual trust between the employer and the employee. As we are constantly moving towards virtual offices, companies need to explore new ways of communicating and doing business. The basic limitations of non-face-to-face interactions will lead to significant changes in the work environment however those who are thinking ahead and are willing to embrace and use the new ideas and tools efficiently will be the creators of the new age office – the virtual office – one that is efficient and has great collaboration capabilities.
Sources:
4. 1BITC, 2011,
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