I have always been intrigued by simple solutions to complex problems.
Bloomberg Businessweek has a great example of how a Fulbright Scholar studying in Beijing solved the smog problem for many people wanting to reduce the danger to themselves and their families.
Air Filters that purify the air can cost around $800, and often one is needed for each room.
But Thomas Talhelm founder of Smart Air Filters found he could do the job with a simple HEPA filter, fan, and velcro strap to hold them together for just $33/kit.
He tested the results and found that he could remove 90% of particles 2.5 microns and above in the room.
Talhem’s biggest problem now are copycat DIY air filters hitting the market.
If only inventors could come up with a simple solution to protecting intellectual property in places where either there aren’t rules or they aren’t strictly enforced.
When innovations are so easily copycatted, there is less incentive to problem-solve and think out of the box, and that’s a problem for society where the s___ really hits the fan. 😉
This video (2011) by Aish.com is terrific! The story of Passover–“Google Exodus”– with all the technology of instant messaging, email, social networking, mapping, and more.I love how they make the traditional and sacred, new and promising again by “letting people go” and being able to see and interact with it in modern terms.
While some may find it challenging not to lose the essence of the old, when keeping it fresh, I think the past becomes more meaningful when we can truly integrate it into our daily lives.
I personally am still not comfortable with the idea of online Passover Seders or DIY Haggadah’s–and I don’t think I ever really will be–probably more because of guilt at not following strictly and the concern that people may change things so much as to either misinterpret or actually distort the truth of G-d.
However, I do think that we can strengthen regular people’s connection to their past and their faith only by truly bringing it in our present and looking to the future, as well.
The world of religion-can often be filled with controversy between those that maintain iron-clad religious practices from thousands of years ago and those that seek evolving routes to religion and G-d today.
When we can use technology to help people bridge the religious divide, we are helping people connect with their G-d and choose good over evil in their daily lives.
Neither modernism nor technology is inherently “bad,” and we do not have to run away from it–or escape through the Red Sea from it.
Rather, faith in the Almighty, in His hand that guides all, and in the doing good in all that we do, are fundamental to religion and can be shared online and off, as G-d is truly everywhere and in each of us.
Sometimes, I wonder when Orthodox people probe and judge with incessant questions of “What Shul do you go to?” “What Yeshiva do your kids attend?” “Do you keep Kosher?” and more, I imagine G-d looking down on his “people of the book,” not with satisfaction that they follow his commandments, but with disdain for how people can hurt others and not even realize that is notreligious.
While I agree that unguided, people and practices can go astray, I also believe that automatic suspicion and rejection of new things is impractical and actually harmful.
Modernism and technology can be a blessing, if coupled with faith and integrity.
Congratulations to Aish.com for the good work they are doing in helping people integrate the old and new in a balanced way.
The Wall Street Journal, 24 September 2007 reports that “new [DIY] tools let businesspeople avoid the IT department and create their own computer applications…and no knowledge of computer code is required.”
How does this benefit users?
“Users say they are saving time and money by creating their own applications”
They “are able to build exactly what they want, without having to explain what their looking for to someone else.”
“Others like being able to wite programs that would have been too minor or personalized to bother the IT department with.”
“Adjusting DIY programs…can also be simpler than asking the IT department for program tweaks or updates.”
What are the downsides?
“There is some risk in the lack of a track recod for such companies [offering these DIY services], and in the possibility that a provider will fail, leaving its customers without access to the applications they developed online.”
“Some businesspeople may underestimate the effort required to write their own programs.”
Strangely enough, the article leaves out some of the biggest gaps with DIY application development, such as:
Approval by the organization’s IT governance to ensure that the ‘right’ projects are authorized, prioritized, funded and monitored for cost, schedule, and performance.
Compliance with an organization’s enterprise architecture to ensure such things as: business alignment, application interoperability and non-redundancy, technology standardization, information sharing, and strategic alignment to the target architecture and transition plan.
Assuring IT security of applications systems, including confidentiality, integrity, availability, and privacy.
Following a defined, repeatable, and measurable structured systems development life cycle (SDLC) approach to application development.
The WSJ article actually compares DIY application development to when businesspeople learned to create their own PowerPoints presentation rather than having to run to the graphics departments to build these for them.
While there may be a place for DIY application development for small user apps (similar to creating their own databases and presentations), from a User-centric EA perspective, we must be careful not to hurt the enterprise, in our efforts to empower the end-users. A balanced and thoughful approach is called for to meet user requirements (cost effectively and quickly), but at the same time protect enterprise assets, meet strategic goals, and assure overall governance of IT investments.
andyblumenthal 