Convergence of Voice and Data Telecommunications Transmissions

I was assigned to give my comment on an article written by Bob Cullen, Vice President, Sales & Marketing from Hollingsworth & Vose Company which I found very informative and interesting to read.

It was about the convergence of voice and data telecommunications transmissions lately which has change the lifestyle of most society in the world. Many giant companies has venture into telecommunication technology business nowadays because they have done studies and believe the big return of investing in such businesses. Companies like Microsoft, Motorola, AT&T and Nortel have started to venture into new businesses that involves new networking technology and telecommunications transmissions.

Today, E-Commerce has taken place in the business world and the number of customers using E-Commerce has increase tremendously. In fact, many companies are strategizing their use of E-Commerce in order to keep current with their respective industries.

As a conclusion, I share the author’s view on the changes of data and information technology has somehow changes not only companies in doing their business but also the lifestyle of today’s generation. More changes is expected to come into place as technology changes very fast lately.

Communication Technology Keeps Getting In The Way of Communication!

I just read an interesting article written by Helen Wilkie about how communication technology has given a negative impact to our daily life. Just imagine, two people in an office sitting next to each other but communicating among themselves using the e-mail and not confronting or facing each other to discuss about work matters. Truly, this is what happened nowadays anywhere in this world.

Human touch is no longer an important element these days as the generation today has a high tendency of doing things in a more easier way using communication technology. The question is how can we resist using the latest technology in communicating as it is being exposed every day through mainstream media. The government is also encouraging the people to be up to date with the latest communication technology with the hope that Malaysians will not be left behind in the fast moving world.

Apart from making human more individualistic, communication technology has also made some of us to be inconsiderate especially when using the cell phones, selfish by not caring about other people and also sick due to lack of exercise. As mentioned in this article, many surveys in fact has shown that young people in high school to be over weight and unfit due to the amount of time they spend in front of their computers.

Now that most of us are aware the negative consequences of communication technology to human, it is very much important for scholars to sit down and discuss on how to minimise these problems. I couldn’t agree more the fact that we really need to keep a close eye on where communication technology is taking us.

The Digital Ages of Man

This article was written by Richard Naish, a games consultant, published in a magazine this year. It is about the pitfall of having Digital Immigrants (DIs) from the baby boomer generation purchasing and designing learning for the Digital Natives (DNs) of the Generation Y and Millenial Generations.

I must agree with the fact that the older generation has to use its age-grown wisdom to accept the natural arrogance of the new generation and adapted to their needs. In other words the DIs do need to adapt both their e-learning purchasing habits and their e-learining design techniques for DNs.

There are 8 common differences between DN learners and their DI teachers which includes DN Learners prefer receiving information quickly from multiple multimedia sources while on the other hand DI Teachers prefer slow and controlled release of information from limited resources. Another significant difference between the two parties is that DN Learners prefer parallel processing and multitasking while DN Teachers prefer singular processing and single or limited tasking.

DNs have been brought up using digital technologies simultaneously. So, it is natural for them to prefer multitasking in terms of utilising gadgets involving technologies. Surveys also shown that most youngsters today owned personal computers, mobile phones and even logged on 24 hours a day using the Instant Messaging System.

As a conclusion, whether we like it or not, there will always be differences between the two parties as they have different mind settings and agenda due to the generation gap which is obvious.

Facilitating Long Distance Relationship between Malaysia Grandparent and Grandchildren Living in the UK through Computer Mediated Communication

This article is a research done by Nazean Jomhari and Sri Hastuti Kurniawan from the University of Manchester, UK with regards to long distance relationship between grandparents and grandchildren of Malaysia in particular. It was found that research about grandparents-grandchildren is yet to be explored in this part of the world. I believe grandparents-grandchildren relationship are different based on the cultures and customs practiced by each continental or even among countries. Moreover, if we are talking about relationship through computer mediated communication which refers to the internet technology that are being used in Malaysia for example, we are still left far behind as compared to the usage in Singapore, Taiwan, Korea and Japan for example.

Statistics show that Malaysian students studying overseas have declined tremendously especially in UK & Eire as well as Australia in 2002. However, the it was believed that the number will increase due the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) new mission to ensure at least 75% of the lecturers in the public institutes of higher education posses the Doctor of Philosophy qualification and its equivalent and 30% of the lecturers in the polytechnics and community colleges posses the Masters’ Degree and PhD and their equivalent.

This article is focusing on how Malaysian students living in the UK maintained relationship with their grandparents back in Malaysia especially through internet like internet relay chatting (IRC) or even video conferencing. I personally believe that though modern technologies allow long distance relationship between grandparents and grandchildren to become closer but as it is now, the technology gap between the two generations are still big. The older generation are still comfortable using telephone to communicate with their grandchildren abroad. However, I do not see this thing will continue in the near future. This is because communication between grandparents and grandchildren through e-mails has been accepted positively and widely by Malaysians. As such, I foresee the grandparent in Malaysia and grandchildren in the UK relationship through computer mediated communication will definitely takes place very soon.

Highly-cherished

This article was written by Sharmila Nair and published in The Star dated 17th January 2007. It is about the latest trend among youngsters in Malaysia who run their daily life using electronic gadgets like laptops, handphones, iPods or PDAs. Nowadays, it is rather normal to see young people especially in big cities today “playing” with their notebooks or laptops at cafes like starbucks, coffee bean where wi-fi spots are almost available in these premises. Not to mention those using high technology handphones and Ipods walking by the streets.

Parents today are also very open minded and willing to spend to ensure their children will not be left left far behind in benefiting technology which are in high demand lately. Though these parents themselves are not that keen in using technology gadgets, they will somehow try to fulfill the needs of their children just to make them happy. However, I reckon only parents with high income can afford to do this while the lower incomes will not be able to purchase even a personal computer for their children.

The positive side of this issue is youngsters exposed to modern technology gadgets finds communication easier thus making life more exciting and interesting. On the other side, the negative impact of youngsters being too much exposed to modern technology gadgets is they will also be easily influenced by subversive elements if parents do not monitor the usage of these instruments by their children.

As a conclusion, it is very important for parents in providing all the techology needs by their children to take certain measures to avoid addiction to these technology gadgets that will lead to more serious problems in the future.

Communicating For A New Age

COMMUNICATING FOR A NEW AGE

First of all, please forgive me for taking so much time in updating my blog. This is due to some working commitments and the fact that I have to travel to Wilayah Persekutuan Labuan just recently and stayed there for 5 days conducting training session on ISO 9001:200 as well as doing field auditing on the Quality Management System developed by the company I’m working with. This took place since 17th – 22nd May 2008.

I had the opportunity to read an article sent to me with the topic “Communicating For A New Age” based on an interview with the President of Kinsey Consulting Services, Carol Kinsey Goman last week and found it very interesting. The article discussed mainly on how ways of communication has progressed so dramatically in the workplace globally.

Nowadays, the present Generation Y as mentioned in the article has been promoting a more informal and collaborative approach and style of communications in the workplace. As a comparison, the Veteran Generation (1927 – 1945) approach of communications was heavily hierarchical, with communication neatly controlled and cascaded through the ranks. Then comes the Baby Boomers generation (1946-1964) whose expectations of their employers led to less effective company hierarchy and an increased importance in communicating shared company vision and values. While the Generation X (1965-1983) agreed with the importance of the organisation’s vision and values but at the same time demanded better working arrangements.

The question is how does it happen and why people change their ways of communication. I strongly agree with the statement that the advent of the computer has enabled humans to move randomly from working on one thing to another. The evolution of today’s communications technology are moving so fast that if we fail to take advantage of it, we are sure to be left behind. We just have to accept that ways of acquiring knowledge have also moved from a linear way to a more parallell fashion.

I am very attracted with the remarks in the article emphasising on the important step on communicating with the younger generations has been moved from the “passive” or “pushing” communications to the “active” or “pulling” communications. Ironically, this is just exactly what we are experiencing now. It is so obvious that Generation Y will easily lose their interest should inactive involvement occurs in receiving information. In other words, today’s generation has the tendency of exposing themselves to communications be it in the workplace or at the outside world. In fact, this generation introduces new communication methods like text messaging and blogging. They are willing to spend more to get connected to their employer more easily in order to keep themselves up to date with the latest development on certain relevant issues.

Generation Y are also said to be highly sceptical of things happening at their workplace. As a result, they would prefer to employ grapevine, use peer recommendation and obtain information in a informal process. This can be true because information spreads very quickly through today’s communication gadget. Though this phenomenal is not healthy, there is nothing much that we can do about it as bad news will always be sensational to spread about. To avoid this negative attitude, employer should take preventive actions by making sure the right information is being disseminated at the right time to the right person.

Changing communications pattern that you are comfortable with is very difficult. Even if changes had to be done, it will definitely take sometimes. I have to agree with this remarks because it’s quite difficult myself to ask my parents even to send me Short Messages System (SMS) should they have anything to inform me. That reflects the technology gap between just two generations. Can we just imagine if it involves 3 or four generations relatively.

Therefore, idea of creating segmentation in the workplace between the veterans and the younger staffs is not an ultimate solution to this issue. I believe by doing so, especially in Malaysia, the sense of respect to the senior staffs will not surface. By all means, the younger staffs have to respect the experiences gained by the veterans and not be errogant just because of the knowledge gap about the latest technology in communications.

In conclusion, I personally believe that we should not create barriers with the older generations although they might not be able to cope with the fast moving world controlled by the fast growing of communications technology. The goverment of Malaysia should take steps in ensuring the big gap in understanding modern communications between generation at the workplace narrowed down so that organisations can move forward in a more positive manner.

Thanks and regards..

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Assalamu'alaikum w.r.b. & Salam Sejahtera

Pertamanya, saya bersyukur ke hadhrat Allah s.w.t. kerana dengan limpah kurnia dan keizinanNya, saya diberikan ruang dan kesempatan untuk mewujudkan blog ini khas bagi memenuhi keperluan subjek Pengantar Teknologi Komunikasi (CCT 1023) untuk kursus Ijazah Sarjana Muda Komunikasi di Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) kampus Kuala Lumpur.

Sudah pasti harapan saya agar, blog ini menepati kehendak subjek dan juga kemahuan pensyarah, Puan Siti Syamsul Nurin Mohmad Yazam yang akan menghantar artikel-artikel untuk saya ulas di blog ini sepanjang semester April 2008/2009. Insya Allah, saya akan mencuba memanfaatkan sepenuhnya ruang yang ada ini bagi tujuan tersebut.

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