6/26/2023 SION 8411

SOCIAL INFORMATICS EXAM

Brilliant Mzizi
ST10125117
Question 1

1.1 Ethics are a set of rules that govern an individual’s behaviour, these are moral principles
based on different social and cultural groups and values define the standard of behaviour as
they are unique amongst individuals and in technology, we describe ethics in two principles
which are:
Whether the technological innovation is benefiting the society and to what scale do
organisations value ethics.
Empowerment within the society and the way of living life as well how humans
conceive ethics and values in a technological era.
1. Zuboff (1988) two types of information technology exist first an automating technology is
designed and implemented to lessen or deskill the processes which make up the work by
substituting technology for human labour , greater control and continuity over the work
process can be achieved and second information technology can be designed and
implemented to upgrade or enrich the processes which define the work, the objective of an
informated technology is to remove the most boring repetitious, dangerous and mindless
tasks from the work, leaving human labour to perform the creative ,challenging ,intellectual
and satisfying work (Orlikowaki,1988).

1.3 Web 1.0 is the first stage World wide linking web pages and hyperlink it enables information,
portal and uses table to position and align elements on page. Web 2.0 this platform gives users
the possibility to control their data and its mostly user generated content and the read write
web, therefore it allows anyone to be a content producer and therefore there’s underlying
concepts such as the following:

Rich internet application which defines the experience brought from desktop to browser.
Service oriented architecture which defines how web 2.0 applications expose its
functionality so that other applications can integrate the functionality and produce a set
of much richer applications. (feeds, RSS)
Social Web which enables how web 2.0 tend to interact much more with the end user
and making the end user an integral part.

1.4 Sustaining technologies & disruptive technologies, sustaining technologies are incremental
improvements to existing technologies such as smart cars and solar grids therefore its impact within
the society improved quality and reducing environmental impact. Disruptive technologies are
innovations bring about emerging new markets or alter existing markets by providing well improved
products and services such examples such as smartphones ad artificial intelligence, some of benefits
are innovation and creativity. Technological determinism believes that advancements in technology
are the moments that bring each new phase in humanity.

1.5 Meta data is non predefined data model that is not organized in a pre-defined manner and Big
data is an all encompassing term for nay collection of data sets so large and complex that it becomes
difficult to process using on hand data management tools or traditional data processing applications
therefore Big data refers to extremely vast amounts of multi structured data that typically has been
cost prohibitive to store and analyse.
Question 2

2.1 Pros and cons of this assertion in relation to ICT:

Introduction:

ICT has changed the way we work, shop and entertain ourselves although it has improved life in
many ways, we need to be careful about how we use it, long hours spent at a computer can have
complications for our health and safety. Computers and Internet access are rapidly transforming the
workplace environment.

Discussion:

Computers and internet access have transformed the way many people work, business rarely
produces written letters or reports or use typewriters anymore and documents are more likely to be
sent by email than by post or fax, employees with laptops or smartphones can work from home or
while they travel.Marnewick(2014) argues there are positive to an employee having a computer,
especially one with internet access, the use of email to interact with colleagues and clients as well
access a host of information online to help with research related task but there are negatives, too the
internet is full of distractions and employees may prefer to play games and update social sites.

Many employers give their workforce the option to be based at home, a secure internet connection
provides access to the company’s network, shared files and emails, some of the advantages are as
follows:

No travel costs or time wasted traveling to and from work.

Some of the disadvantages:

It can be lonely working from home and they may not feel part of a team
There are arguably more distractions at home than in the office
It may prove difficult to separate work from home life.

According to Marnewick (2014) Technology has changed the way people shop and the way that
shops and retailers operate, the range of products available online continues to grow and people are
increasingly more confident buying online. Almost can be bought on the internet, including
electronics, furniture, books, CDs, DVDs and food. Some companies only operate online and do not
have high street stores, this keeps their cost down and results in cheaper prices for customers, the
rise of online stores has created a range of new jobs for people who build, Desing and run the
websites and shopping online has its advantages but it has its disadvantages:

Advantages of online shopping:

Its convenient it can be done at home, during a lunch break or even on the move using a
smartphone.
There’s no need to ravel and you don’t have to queue.
Its easier to compare prices and find the best deal online.
There’s greater variety there are more shops online than on any high street or shopping
centre.
 Disadvantages of shopping online:

Goods might not arrive on time

Therefore, ICT has changed the way we live and do everything in our daily aspects of life and
therefore its very partial to adapt.
2.2

Introduction:

People use technology to make day to day tasks easier, technology is continuously changing our
society in many ways just as much humans have influence towards technology which determine the
evolution of humanity and therefore society can be defined as a community, nation, or broad
grouping of people having common traditions, institutions and collective activities and interests.

Discussion:

The influence of humans towards technology mainly been to the effect of making information more
accessible and developments in information technology has helped humans to improve their daily
services, therefore information technology has also had major impact on the society as a whole.
Mishra (2017) argues that humans are able to extract information as to what their needs be, in the
business space individuals are able to monitor businesses performance and this enables the business
to highlight arears where they are not making most use of their resources. Meanwhile in the in the
educational sector the process by which education establishments distribute information have
become increasingly diverse and the effectiveness of the process has also improved (Mishra,2017).

According to Mishra (2017) the internet and other related technologies such as electronic mail, also
enable collaborative projects to be undertaken between geographically distant groups, the process
by which educational establishments distribute information have become increasingly diverse and
the effectiveness of the process has also improved due to human influence. Technology and society
cannot be separated we use technology, depend on technology in our daily life and our needs and
demands for technology keeps on advancing, humans use technology to travel, to communicate, to
learn, to do business and to live in comfort.Bushan (2017) argues changes arise as result of
development and innovation in technology and development of the means of transport benefit from
the new method of transportation and mobility of goods and also development of the means of
communication electronic medias like radios,television,internet improved the way we exchange idea
which develop our society.

According to Bushan (2017) within the health care sector technology has helped in saving many
innocent lives and it has helped business and organizations save time and cost of production,
improved methods of agriculture technology together with human influence has helped to meet
food requirements of people all over the world. Some of the negative impacts resource depletion the
more demand for new technologies and advancement, the more pressure we put on environmental
natural resources and lack of social bonds the more humans isolate themselves with technology the
fewer bonds will form(Bushan,2017).individual devices are becoming more energy efficient, the
increased over all use is causing high consumption and negative effects that technological
advancement is having is far greater when it comes to developing mind of children. The other aspect
would be more technology we utilise the more damage to environment.

Conclusion:

Technology is like a coin which has both negative and positive impact, if we use it for positive things,
it will have positive effect on the society and vice versa and the idea is to use advancement in
technology to make business and life more efficient.
2.3

Introduction:

Web 2.0 refers to a collection of technologies and techniques that mobilize highly distributed, latent
resources by facilitating voluntary individuals’ action within sustainable communities, use of formally
managed blogs for distributing announcement and restricted wikis as platform for team archives and
document distribution and second life as a meeting support tool or training platform.it enabled a lot
of professionals across the world during COVID to interact digitally.

Discussion:

One of the most opportunities that Web 2.0 offered during the COVID19 was the service-oriented
architecture as basis for corporate infrastructure ajax and RSS as a tool for implementing web-based
systems and portals thus enabling interactivity within the societies. The covid pandemic created a
greater need reduce contact within the societies thus implementing digital divide which Web 2.0
provided in terms of contract tracing applications, therefore digital technologies where utilised by
the societies to build a new future through economic growth, job creation, the reduction of
inequality and greater sustainability.

According to Barcena (2022) During Covid 19 digital technologies fostered ecological innovations that
contributed to societies and also sustainable development by reducing environmental impacts and
optimizing resource. New business models were developed as part of initiatives optimizing the use of
existing resources by multiplying the opportunities for employing capital goods. The move towards
the Web 2.0 introduced the digital economy which enables the consumers to meet their needs
through digitally without interaction with other individuals as the pandemic made it difficult for
people to socialise and all this resulted in an increase in consumer welfare, accompanied by a
reconfiguration of the digital skills needed for more advanced digital consumption and for the new
labour associated with potential benefits resulting to enormous opportunities.

The economic and social crisis generated by the covid 19 pandemic and physical distancing measures
precipitated many of the changes and thus resulting to challenges as some people within the society
had to adapt to the new norm which perceived as weakness and struggle for their daily lives as well
professionals in work place environment, therefore with so many individuals not having access to the
internet if forced the situation resulting to disruptive innovation amongst businesses and societies.

Conclusion:

Web2.0 played a crucial role during Covid 19 pandemic serving to ensure that organisations were
able to connect through digital grid and participate during the pandemic crisis.(Barcena,2022)
2.5

Introduction:

Big data is similar to small data but bigger and having big data requires different approaches such as
techniques, tools and architecture with an aim to solve new problems in best efficient way and
therefore there’s key enablers which are increase of storage capacities, increase of processing power,
availability of data which serves as disruption and for example leveraging big data to build
sustainable healthcare systems.

Discussion:

Disruptive technologies work by offering at least initially little in the way of performance but plenty
in terms of cheapness, convenience and ease of use as such they appeal to a different class of
customers, carving out new markets for themselves before going on to have the potential for
transformation within the business organisations (Ashima,2014).Big data analytics is currently
helping organisations to crunch the data that’s generate each and every day and one of the best
examples will the Johannesburg stock exchange with it all international transactions for goods and
services that data get collected and organised as well as structured accurately for visualization, which
results to use of specialised software tools and applications for predictive analytics, data mining ,text
mining, forecasting and data optimization.

As the technology that helps an organization to breakdown data silos and analyse data improves,
businesses are transformed in all sorts of ways.

Conclusion:

Enterprise are increasingly looking to find actionable insights into their data, many big data projects
originate from the need to answer specific business questions and with the right big data analytics
platforms in place an enterprise can boost sales, increase efficiency and improve operations
customer service and risk management.
Reference list

1. Lester, C., 2019. A study on driverless-car ethics offers a troubling look into our values. The
New Yorker, 24.
2. Ho, J.C. and Chen, H., 2018. Managing the disruptive and sustaining the disrupted: The case
of Kodak and Fujifilm in the face of digital disruption. Review of Policy Research, 35(3),
pp.352-371.
3. Zuboff, S., 1996. The emperor’s new information economy. In Information Technology and
Changes in Organizational Work: Proceedings of the IFIP WG8. 2 working conference on
information technology and changes in organizational work, December 1995 (pp. 13-17).
Springer US.
4. Fleerackers, T. and Meyvis, M., 2019. Web 1.0 vs Web 2.0 vs Web 3.0 vs Web 4.0 vs Web
5.0–A bird’s eye on the evolution and definition. Flat World Blog.