What company/business is having the greatest impact in the world today, either positive or negative?
Cloud services brought the greatest impact to the world. According to IBM homepage (2017), Cloud computing means computing as a service over the internet. Cloud computing often referred to as simply “the cloud,” is the delivery of on-demand computing resources – everything from applications to data centers – over the internet on a pay-for-use basis.
I consider there are six drastic impacts which Cloud services brought; Social network, E-commerce, Crowdsourcing, Crowd-funding, Working style and Education. Gratton (2011) described the Cloud becomes ubiquitous; rapidly developing technology will create a global infrastructure upon which are available services, applications and resources. Cloud allows anyone with a computer or handheld devices to use these services from every corner of the world.
As a positive opinion, developing Cloud services promote globalization and diversification. Additionally, it will be easy to receive services that could not be accepted due to constraints such as location and time. Works become speedy and efficiently. On the other hand, discretion or evaluation is left to individual from the organizational. Therefore, as a negative opinion, there is a fear the disparity due to individual ability will expand further. Moreover, Employment and wages will be culled, as labor will flow to AI and low-cost wages. The opportunities for face to face are reduced and people may feel more lonely.
6 impacts Cloud services brought to the world
1. Social network
Social networking sites (SNS) have become the major personal networking platform. Statista (2017) showed As of the first quarter of 2017, Facebook had 1.94 billion monthly active users.
Ex. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, Google+, WhatsApp, WeChat, Pinterest, LINE
2. E-commerce
According to eMarketer (2016), total retail sales across the globe will reach $22.049 trillion in 2016, up 6.0% from the previous year and it also estimates sales will top $27 trillion in 2020.
E-commerce: Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, Rakuten
Online payment: PayPal
3. Crowdsourcing
Daily Crowdsource (2017) indicates Crowdsourcing is the process of getting work or funding, usually online, from a crowd of people. The word is a combination of the words ‘crowd’ and ‘outsourcing’. As crowdsourcing can outsource talent from around the world, not only to workers in their own country, it will change the form of employment and payment in the world.
Ex: oDesk, Eklnce, witmart.com, Freelancer.com, 99designs, ImageBrief, ZOOPPA, Local Motors, talenthouse, Million You, Design Crowd, crowdsRING, eYeka, Chaordix, InnoCentive, Amazon Mechanical Truk, Clickworker, CrowdFlower, collective bias, agentarything,
4. Crowd-funding
Crowd-funding platform offers entrepreneurs opportunity to generate funds for their new venture.
Ex. Indigogo, RocketHub, Peerbackers, Kickstarter,
5. Working style
Cloud computing brings the innovative tools. These permits to telecommute or work from anywhere in the world.
Sharing knowledge: Google Drive, Dropbox, Evernote
Teleconference: Skype, Google Hangout, Apper.in
6. Education
According to the Business Insider (2015), there are 37 best websites for learning a new skill. We can learn interactively at our own pace and at any place through the websites and apps. Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organization created in 2006 by educator Salman Khan with a goal of creating an accessible place for people to be educated. It provides short lectures by using YouTube videos (Khan Academy web site, 2017). edX, a massive open online course (MOOC), provides online courses from the world’s best universities. The MIT and Harvard University created edX in 2012. In 2016, edX has around 10 million students taking more than 1.270 courses online (edX web site, 2016). Coursera also provides world’s best courses, online, for free. It founded by Stanford professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller. In 2017, it had more than 24 million registered users and more than 2,000 courses (CardRates.com web site, 2017).
References
Business Insider. (2015). The 37 best websites for learning a new skill. Retrived 3 June, 2017, from http://www.businessinsider.com/the-37-best-websites-for-learning-a-new-skill-2015-8
CardRates.com. (2017). Education for the Modern Era: Transform Your Financial Life with Online Classes from Coursera and 149 of the World’s Best Universities. Retrived 3 June, 2017, from http://www.cardrates.com/news/learn-finance-online-from-worlds-best-universities-with-coursera/
Daily Crowdsource. (2017). What is crowdsourcing. Retrived 3 June, 2017, from https://dailycrowdsource.com/training/crowdsourcing/what-is-crowdsourcing
edX. (2017). Year in Review: edX in 2016. Retrived 3 June, 2017, from http://blog.edx.org/year-review-edx-2016?track=blog
eMarketer. (2016). Worldwide Retail Ecommerce Sales Will Reach $1.915 Trillion This Year. Retrived 3 June, 2017, from https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Worldwide-Retail-Ecommerce-Sales-Will-Reach-1915-Trillion-This-Year/1014369
IBM Homepage. (2017). Retrived 3 June, 2017, from https://www.ibm.com/cloud-computing/learn-more/what-is-cloud-computing/
Khan academy. (2017). Retrived 3 June, 2017, from https://www.khanacademy.org/about
Lynda Gratton. (2011). The Shift: The future of work is already here. [Kindle version]. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com. Location No. 384-396.
Statista. (2017). Number of monthly active Facebook users worldwide as of 1st quarter 2017 (in millions). Retrived 3 June, 2017, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/
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