SESSION SIX

Today’s lesson was pretty interesting and fresh! The topic was on Biobusiness and I honestly had little idea about this topic before I went into class. Biobusiness, as we can infer from the term, is the commercial activity based on the understanding of life sciences and life science process. For example, the everyday pharmaceutical, healthcare are all part of Biobusiness. It has an increasing share in countries as well as the world’s GDP.

This is one of the tables Prof showed us as trends of global burden of disease. From the table, we can compare the differences in causes of death from 1990 to 2020. We can see that lower respiratory infections dropped from the top cause of death in 1990 to the 6^th in 2020, while the heart disease rose from the 5^th top cause of death in 1990 to the top cause of death in 2020. In 1990, it is perhaps hard to imagine that heart diseases and major depression would be the top 2 cause of death in 2020. However, in today’s day and age, it is of no surprise. There is a new global middle class rising from emerging countries and people are more affluent all over the world. We are able to afford to eat comfortably, and sometimes perhaps, excessively. Despite increased awareness of obesity and education on eating healthy, there are still 1 billion adults overweight and 300million obese worldwide today. This statistics is a stunner and it is increasing rapidly. This is why is not surprising why heart disease is the top cause of death as obesity will lead to heart diseases. Adding on, in today’s context, efficiency and productivity is crucial. This is has caused increasing stress levels as having to constantly meet deadlines. Stress will also contributes to aggravating the heart and therefore lead to a heart disease. Stress also contributes to depression, which is the second top cause of death in 2020. There are lots of reasons why people go into depression and perhaps rising divorce levels, stress levels, deprivation are some examples why people do so. I personally agree that the heart disease and major depression will be the top 2 causes of death in 2020, however, I do not agree that war will appear in the top 10 of causes of death. The world today is so globalized and connected that countries are so dependent on each other. China has huge amounts of bonds in the US, Singapore has large reserves in Switzerland banks, currencies are pegged against the US, every country is so economically interconnected with one another. Thus, I feel that waging war will be farfetched in the future, and will not be in the top 10. Even if there is war, it will be an economic one.

Also, during the lesson, one question was brought up about counterfeit drugs, whether or not we are able to stop counterfeiting drugs. Personally, I think it’s not possible at all. Firstly, there is just too many syndicate groups out there to actually bust each and every one of them. Even if we manage to bust one, another one will pop up. Why? The reason is simple, there are huge profits to be earned in this business. Due to asymmetric information by consumers, it is easy for these syndicates to bluff their way through. Besides, since aesthetically it is exactly the same as the real ones, consumers will not question. This makes the business more lucrative as it is an essential to consumers. Secondly, the procedures to check if the drugs are real or not is time consuming. Since it is not possible for investigators to check on the spot, they have to run several tests before being able to detect if it is counterfeit or not.

Another question brought up during class was also if technology will cause healthcare to be more expensive or not. I did not get to voice out my opinions but I feel it technology will cause healthcare to be cheaper. Initially, yes healthcare will be more expensive due to fees needed to pay the researchers and practitioners. However, the technology will become a fixed cost whereby when it is used commonly by people, it will be made cheaper. An example is that of LASIK. Initially, when it was first introduced, it was a revolutionary breakthrough in the medical field. A treatment cost about 10k in the past, however now, it only costs an average of 3k. Therefore I feel that technology will eventually cause healthcare to be cheaper.

I would rate the lesson 9/10 as I had an enjoyable time learning new stuffs :)

TWC Group 8 Outline

Technology and its impacts on e-commerce

Introduction

• General background on e-commerce
• Which parts of e-commerce this paper will be covering
• What interested us in choosing this topic

Background

• Revolution of e-commerce(significant event in history that sparked the e-commerce trend)
• Why the world is moving towards e-commerce
• how it affects our lifestyles

Issues

Pros

For consumers:

• Convenience

o Consumers no longer need to step out of their homes to purchase goods

o Transactions can be completed in the comfort of their homes

o Buying and selling 24/7

o Easily compare goods

• Increases variability of goods available for sale

o Boundaries of sale no longer defined

o Consumers are allowed to choose from a variety of sources

o Not limited to only their own country

o Global shipping, freight

o Consumers benefit from increased choices

o Goods can also become cheaper due to competition from a variety of sources

o Make more informed choices with feedbacks given by other buyers

For retailers

· Niche product retailers may find themselves having reasonable sales volumes than before

o Niche products usually in low demand in most retail stores due to exclusivity and price

o But with e-commerce, better exposure and opportunity to connect with more groups of people who wish to purchase such goods

· Logistical and administrative problems due to human errors are removed

o Transactions and business are done virtually

o Little or no human contact i.e salesperson

o Lesser chances of human error when doing invoices, etc…

o Accounts more easily managed as transactions occur using technology and not manually

o No need for receipts

· Establishing new business relationships and opportunities

o Ease of commercial transactions and communication

o Online advertising to boost sales

o Reach out to a wider consumer base

§ Sales volumes benefit

§ Profit margins rise

o Reach out to new business partners

§ Find new product manufacturers

§ Costs can be reduced in the short run due to wider pool of suppliers on hand

§ Find new business partnerships

§ Benefit the corporation in the long run

· Ease of starting up/maintaining

o No or low start up cost

o Can be started up immediately

o Low barriers to entry

o Low maintenance cost

Cons

Security

· Possibility of important information being stolen

o (Personal details and credit card information when making online payment)

· The site might not be the actual Company that users are actually looking for (Hoax)

Reliability and credibility

· Product scams (online frauds and misrepresentation of products and services)

· Biased reviews

· Advertisement placed on the web pages might be seen as in collaboration with the company

o Deemed as trustworthy but its actually virus

Competition (High-level)

· Other competitors are also venturing into e-commerce (low barriers of entry and minimal start-up costs)

· Physical shops are losing attractiveness in the market

The lack of human touch

· Valued Added Services might be compromised

Discussion and analysis

o Legal

• Copyrighting

o Economic

• Impacts to the company by bringing more profits or less

o Social

• Human touch

Future consideration (where we might go)

o Virtual fitting room

• Online fashion consultant
• Solutions for people who wants fashion advice

o Solve security issues of e-commerce and m- commerce

o TV innovation

• Combine Kinect software with iPad functions

Conclusion

SESSION FIVE

Today’s topic is on ICT and world change, from the past to present, and what to expect in the future. This topic is no stranger to anyone at all, ICT is everywhere around us. While I am typing now, I am already using a part of ICT. Everyone around us owns a mobile phone, laptop, uses the internet etc, therefore we are all familiar with the benefits of ICT. However, is ICT really flawless?

ICT has been an integral part of our daily lives, and it is undeniably shaping the world in almost every way. It has certainly changed the rules and ways of communication, sharing of different views and opinions, transmitting of information, gaming etc. Information is being transmitted at an unprecedented rate, we can now access to hundreds of thousands of articles in split seconds. The world seems to be “shrinking” in a way as the information we can access to seems limitless.

In Singapore, I feel that ICT can and should be introduced to more schools and slowly integrate into the education system. The reason to justify my stand is that I feel that ICT can be a catalyst to cultivate more thinkers and to allow students to think out of the box. We do find many differing opinions on same issues thanks to the ingenious development of ICT which allows two way communication between the author and reader. This will trigger the student’s ability to think and to have a view on their own. The textbook is an essential provider of knowledge, but at the end of the day, it is still limited. The internet will expand their knowledge and also make learning more hands on and fun.

ICT is not all the great and it does have its drawbacks too. Since the day Internet is introduced, governments have already started tracking and filtering every movement of its citizens on the Internet. The Internet we use every day to source for information, chat with friends is the same Internet that terror groups use to spawn their activities. While some people may feel it’s an invasion of privacy, I feel that this is absolutely necessary and vital. Especially since the 9/11 attack, online security needs to be tightened and scrutinized. Another drawback is that cyber crimes are on the rise. Despite all the warnings of scams online, some gullible groups of people still do fall for them. Also, another alarming issue is that children now can have access to pornography and violence videos uploaded online. This is the duty of parents and they should keep a watch on them.

During the lesson, “cloud computing” was brought up. I thought I knew what this term was, but in fact, it was much more than what I thought it was. I was amazed at the convenience cloud computing bring about and also how it could significantly help businesses to strive. When businesses execute similar system, newcomers will be able to settle down in the office quickly enough as the system is universal across companies. This will reduce their training times and also cut costs.

Another interesting video was brought up in class today. It was a video of a virtual human being being able to feel and respond. It really showed me how amazing existing technology is but yet at the same time it’s really creepy. The boy in the virtual world had a “human” part to him, and after watching this video, how do we actually differentiate humans? Is he human?

I would rate the lesson 8/10. My knowledge of ICT has been taken to another level :)