Management of technology Essay

Explain the term â€Å"Technofact. † How can it be used to define Technology, and Management of Technology? Explain the value and advantage of the term Technofact, compared to other definitions and common agreement about technology. Explain the weaknesses, missing elements, and contradictions in this term. Technofact is a reproducible object created by humans. By reproducible I refer to any product (tangible or virtual) of which the intention of its human creator was to make more of exactly the same, using the same methodology. Once we’ve defined technofact, we are able to focus the term technology around this entity, and to define it as the capability of creating technofacts (or the human capability of creating reproducible objects). Technology is not the technical object itself but rather the capability of creating it over on over again. Other fields of science concentrate on understanding and gathering knowledge around the entity that is in the center of the science in question while the technology â€Å"science† is a capability, which is more than merely an understanding. On top of the knowledge gathered, the term encapsulates the creation itself, the know-how. The different aspects of the means to establish that capability ought to be coordinated and managed, thus, management of technology can only be defined if we separate the term technology from the objects, the technofacts, as one can not manage objects. Most of the traditional definitions of the term technology are either inaccurate or too broad. Inaccurate when the definition refer to objects (tools, products) as the technology itself. Too broad when the definition refer to any human activity (van Wyk), which might include forms of art that can not be considered as a technology. Another broad approach can be found in definitions that consider any nature manipulation as a technology (is navigation by stars a technology? ). There are three cases in which I find difficulty with the term technofact as the central entity that technology deals with: 1. When the product has an inherited random element: Consider a computer program that creates random melodies (or drawings) pleasant to the human ear (or eye), based on some mathematical rules. The program itself is obviously a virtual technofact, but are the new melodies or drawings created by it can also be considered technofacts? Obviously, they are being created over and over again using the same technology, but each time the program produces something different. 2. When the product is a natural object or resource: For example in agriculture. Carrots cannot be considered technofacts, but there is obviously a technology to grow carrots. The tools which are used in the process (a plow or a combine) are technofacts, which farmers use to produce the crop itself, but they are not the reproducible product the technology deals with. Another examples can be mining technologies. The end product is the extracted material, which can not be considered a technofact. 3. When the product is an action: For example, the capability to lift heavy weights. A crane is a technofact, but it is not the reproducible object this specific technology enable to reproduce. The reproducible object in this case is not an object but rather an action. What is a â€Å"Technology-Based Organization†? Give an example for a TBO and non-TBO. Can a company be a TBO for a limited time? Explain and give an example. A technology based organization is an organization that uses technology to create economic value or to create a competitive business advantage over other competing organizations. The organization can be continuously pursuing technological improvements, manufacturing technofacts or both. This kind of an organization will be perpetually considered a TBO. On the other hand a non-TBO organization can become one for a limited time, if it incorporates a new technology to improve its processes, thus creating an advantage over its competitors. During the process of assimilating the technology and the time that takes other players to use the same technology, a non-TBO organization can be considered a TBO, as it creates economic value using technology. Consider an imaginary traditional dairy that used to produce milk in the old milking fashion, using the farmer’s hands and a big nice bucket. At some point the farmer decided to acquire a milking machine from his engineer friend that had recently established a milking equipment factory using his own inventions. The farmer installed the machine in his farm and taught his kid how to use it, so he can peacefully retire. During the next couple of years, the farmer’s kid gained an advantage over his neighbor farmers, bought more cows, made a small fortune and established a new dairy company (which he called after his dad). Few years later, after all the other farmers had done the same, the farmer’s kid decided to install digital thermometers in the dairy (acquired from the very same milking equipment factory), and became the leading milk provider to the entire region, with the reputation of having the freshest milk around. Again, achieving an economic advantage using new technology. This dairy had become a TBO for short periods of time during its existence, while the milking equipment factory that had invented and manufactured the machinery was a TBO throughout the years. Explain the term â€Å"White Spaces† in the context of technological innovation. How could this term be used in an organization to help planning and decision making about innovation? White spaces are the two optional gaps between technologies and applications. The first gap exists when there is a need in the market but no solution to match it. The second gap takes place when there is a technology out there that has the capability to produce a technofact that no one knows what to do with. A technofact that did not yet find the â€Å"ultimate product† it enables (where there’s a way but there is no â€Å"will†). Innovative organization can either fill up the first gap by pursuing new technologies to match the unanswered market needs, or they can focus their efforts around understanding the potential of existing technologies and to use them to develop new groundbreaking applications. Outlines the dangers and risks associated with rapid technological development to society and individuals. Are you pessimistic or optimistic about it? What can and should we do as a society and as individuals to benefit from technology and avoid the risks. The dangers and risks that rapid emerging technologies incorporate can come in many ways, shapes and forms according to the technology domain. From the lose of privacy through health jeopardizing, moral issues and mass destruction weapons, they all have one thing in common – the rate of the technology adoption and development has become faster than the rate of the ability to comprehensively understanding its implications. Successful technologies are spreading swiftly, acquiring life of their own and â€Å"forcing† people to use them in order to survive in the modern society. Even if a certain individual decides to rebel and not to use a specific technology directly, it still might change the environment this person lives in, to affect and endanger im just the same (e. g. cellular phones). The lose of freedom inflicted by some technologies is a big price of its own that society and individuals have to pay. History tells us that panic from new technologies had always existed, and we are probably experiencing the same unjustified fear of the unknown that the car inflicted on society a hundred years ago. But the problem with history is that it can only explain the past, while the present is unlike anything humanity imagined before. I don’t believe that governmental regulations aiming to restrain technology can work in the long run, but in order to control at least some of the risks, governments should cooperate globally on some issues to regulate technologies similar to the way new medicines and drugs are treated. As individuals, we must take responsibility for our health and moral values, to deal with it at all times among ourselves, to be aware of the risks we are taking and not to become blind addicts for anything new. Still, I’m pessimistic as for the capability of mankind to do that and overcome its basic selfish nature.