WHEN PEOPLE AND TECHNOLOGY COME TOGETHER FOR THE BENEFIT OF SOCIETY.

As written by Sandi Hunter I recently attended the burial of a great friend, and during the service, someone said that our memories of her would live on in our hearts and on her Facebook page. The fact that Isabella still had a Facebook profile with current updates on it gave those of us who were there that day the impression that she was still among the living even though she had passed away. Later on that day, I mused on how dramatically our lives have been altered by technology and the internet in such a short period of time, and how there is so much more to come than the most of us can ever begin to conceive. We are now more connected than ever before thanks to social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and others. These sites have allowed us to learn more about individuals than we ever could have previously. Everything that they are doing, where they are, personal data, images, and more is uploaded online. This includes both public and private information. People are eager to share personal information with you, even if it is something they would never have told you or you would never have known. Through the power of the internet, computers have evolved into a powerful method to link people all over the globe and, as we are beginning to see more and more, a way to change the world. Computers were formerly looked of as a pastime that was mainly for nerds and individuals who were socially uncomfortable. However, the advantages that modern technology provides to everyone of us are not limited to only communicating with other people via social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter; these advantages extend far further. Mobile apps now make it possible for consumers to engage in their preferred online activities using the portability offered by their phone or tablet computer. I was in the grocery store waiting in a lengthy queue, and I saw that out of every 10 people, four of them were tapping away furiously on their phones. I sneaked a glance at a few of them to see what they were doing, and I saw that they were either using Twitter or Facebook, checking their email, looking at news feeds, or sending a text message. Spend any amount of time in an airport lounge, and you’ll see that the vast majority of individuals have their phones out and are engaged in activities that are considerably more intriguing than the hum of the airport around them. Technology is now an ingrained part of our routines and is no longer kept at a distance from us. Because of our smartphones and the internet, we are all linked to one another in a very direct and intimate manner at all times. Even when we are separated from our loved ones and close friends by distance, we maintain the sense that we are still very much connected. Our business, our hobbies, and even our relationships can now be easily managed from the convenience of our smart phones, which frees us from the shackles of our home computers. When my firm, worldprofit, introduced the live business center five years ago, it was cutting edge in terms of the interactive technologies it included. Our website visitors were able to see live video that we streamed to them. When people arrived at our website, they were taken aback to see someone on the screen greeting them and wishing them a good day. The folks were taken aback and perplexed! At first, they were unable to figure out who was talking to them or how it was that somebody was communicating with them. Now, many years later, individuals are more at ease while dealing with their computers and phones than they were back then. FaceTime on the iPhone, for instance, has made it very simple for users to communicate live with one another, whether it be their family or their coworkers. Webinars were previously unheard of but are now rather popular. Web-based conferences and meetings are easy for consumers, save money for businesses, and are also good for the environment since they result in fewer individuals going to gatherings. At this time, WorldProfit provides its members with a customized version of the live business center, which they are free to use and incorporate into their own websites. They are able to communicate with potential consumers in real time, allowing them to welcome site visitors, respond to their queries and concerns, give customer care, make offers, and ultimately complete purchases. The number of people starting firms from their homes and venturing into company ownership has soared as a direct result of the widespread unemployment and global unrest. An individual who works from home has amazing freedoms and opportunities to generate money because to the advent of the internet. These opportunities include blogging, advertising affiliate marketing programs, selling items, and providing web-based services, amongst others. I can’t help but reflect on the fact that despite the fact that there are now more than seven billion people on earth, the internet has made the whole planet seem more smaller and more accessible. The advancement of technology has helped improve all of our lives. Ideas may even be elevated to a higher level when individuals with similar perspectives work together. Perhaps the advancement of technology will be the factor that brings us closer to discovering solutions to issues and treatments for illnesses. Just take a look at these tales to get an idea of what the future has in store for us as a result of the positive impact that technology driven by people is having on our world. A group of people who play video games solved a chemical problem in September of this year that had stymied experts for years. The players were able to achieve this goal by participating in a shared online game known as “foldit.” foldit is a computer game in which participants are able to assist in significant scientific research by folding protein structures. The folding of proteins and how they work is the primary topic of interest. Proteins are a component of all living things and have been linked to a variety of disorders, including Alzheimer’s, cancer, and AIDS. according to statements made by foldit’s staff, “We are currently gathering data to determine whether or not the ability of humans to recognize patterns and solve puzzles makes them more effective than the currently available computer algorithms at the job of folding patterns. If this proves out to be correct, we will be able to teach computers human folding techniques, which will allow us to fold proteins more quickly than ever before.” More than 236,000 people have signed up to play the game, which means that there is a tremendous amount of collective brain power available to find solutions to issues and an enormous and ever-expanding corpus of information from which to draw. This paves the way for the discovery of “crowd-sourced” remedies to age-old issues, such as Aids and other illnesses that have afflicted humanity for a very long time. Consider the example of the New York Times, which asked its audience of readers to help solve a genuine, ongoing medical issue. The reader was given access to the essential information about a disease, and they were tasked with diagnosing the issue. There were a total of 300 readers who participated, and within the first half-hour after the question was posted, a proper diagnosis was determined, with many more accurate replies following shortly after. Consider what this means for the shared body of information. a swarm of bright minds collaborating to find answers to issues originating from every region of the world. Finally, what occurs when great technical brains collaborate for their own particular reasons, yet the side-effect of such cooperation is a benefit for the whole human race. Recently, the artificial intelligence researchers Peter Novig of Google and Eric Horvitz of Microsoft got together to talk shop. Even though these two businesses are great rivals in the economic world, they both understand the significance of artificial intelligence to the development of future technologies. Both of these brilliant minds have given public talks on how machine learning methods have progressed in recent years by ingesting vast amounts of data and finding out how to interpret text or transcribe voice based on that information. Siri, the voice-activated assistant for the new iPhone 4s, is now available, but this is only the beginning. Users of the new iPhone 4s already know this. information is comprised of data, particularly large volumes of data. The more you know, the more power you have. The future has in store a great deal of promise. Imagine the ways in which every person on the planet will benefit from the development of new technology that can extract specific data for the purpose of problem resolution. This new technology will be able to do everything from preventing traffic jams and providing accurate medical diagnoses to putting an end to oil spills and facilitating space travel and research. There are no restrictions at all. Facebook started off as an unintentional early experiment in social networking. What we are finding today is that social media and other forms of massed pooled data have the potential to play an important role in both the social adaptation process and actual survival. sandi hunter is the director of website development at worldprofit inc., where she also serves as the author of this piece. worldprofit offers a variety of services to the community of home-based and small businesses, such as hosting, design, webconferencing, traffic, advertising, search engine optimization, safelists, traffic exchanges, training, and resources. This year marks the beginning of the 18th year of operation for worldprofit. reposted by Cacey Taylor of World Cash Machine with the author’s permission at http://worldcashmachine.com. battle for privacy – You have no idea how closely someone is watching you; for a free video of yourself, go here.

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