Tech Voyagers Guide to Innovation

 In a pervious blogging post, I talked about the founders of GovWorks. They were a company that had multi-million dollar deals that went bankrupt in a little over a year. During their time, they had a series of failures that lead to their demise. One of those failures was when robbers broke into their corporation, and stole computers and important files. This was during a time where the internet was still new, and cyber crime wasn't as much of an issue - like it is today.  With the internet as large and popular it is today, it should come as no surprise that millions of cyberattacks occur daily. Some of the most popular attacks are: Phishing, Malware, and Ransomware. Phishing is when messages are sent from false people or companies with a purpose of stealing information from a victim. Malware is a dangerous software program designed to cause harm to a victims computer and steal information. Ransomware is like malware, where if downloaded onto a victims computer, it will block ...

 Its important to understand how innovation can be both a good and bad thing based on the situation and context.  To do that, we need to talk about what the World Wide Web did to society when it was released to the public. The word we are going to focus on is "disintermediation". Disintermediation is when middlemen are removed, letting producers and consumers deal with each other directly. When the World Wide Web became a public commodity, it allowed individuals to create spaces for consumers to directly access information about products, services, or opportunities without relying on others to help them. This was good for the consumers, but a terrible situation for those who relied on others needing help.  Another phenomenon occurred called "convergence of technologies ," where multiple technological innovations came together to create a type of business or product that normally wouldn't be possible to make. A great example of this is iTunes, which came about be...

If you are like me, a mid to late 90's baby, you probably don't remember the dot com bust that happened in the early 2000's. For most generations born from 1994 and above, the internet was simply just there. Forever a part of our lives, forever existing within our realm of being. The internet hasn't been around as long as we might think, and much like trends come and go, the web also had its moment of fame. Instead of it dying out completely, it had what we call a "bust". Some of the best lessons in life are through hardship and failures, and the dot com bust is a fantastic lesson to learn when it comes to innovation. I was first introduced to the dot com bust by one of my Professors for my Technical Communications major. He had fun and colorful slides that matched the energy of what the dot com bust was about. See, each slide was designed to mimic the craziness of the dot com era, where tons of websites were being created, investors were throwing money, and e...

I had the wonderful opportunity to meet Erick Hanberg during one of my classes. He is an author of many types of books, with his main focus on non-profits, and providing types of advice for those working or in non-profits. In class he spoke about the affect of AI on authors, and how AI is integrating itself within the creative writing field. The class brought a unique perspective to the challenges that AI has brought to authors, as well as some hope on how it can be used not to ruin creative writing, rather to assist it. Mr. Hanberg also described some of the business tips he recommends to people, and how he managed to gain success in the beginning of online book selling. He went over in detail the challenges he faced with advertisement, and how Amazon made a large difference in his book selling. He also tied this into working with AI, and gave us a chance to see how AI has improved with creative writing. A big reason why Amazon allows authors to use AI in their writing, or allowing au...

 So you have a great idea. Be it digital, physical, or a type of service, everything has to start somewhere. There's a couple of routes you can take, whether you choose to start a small business or get investors for a large company, you always need to start at the beginning. Sometimes, your idea becomes a startup - a new business starting operations that has the opportunity to grow to great proportions. But I am not here to tell you what the best way to begin a startup, rather, I am recommending to research past companies that tried to start and failed. The best way to learn what not to do is to experience, but fortunately for us, we have the internet to learn about failures before we experience them. One really good example of a bad startup is from a documentary directed by Jehane Noujaim and Chris Hegedus. The documentary is appropriately titled "Startup.com", and takes you on a journey with the company called govWorks.  I am going to spoil much of the documentary as I ...