Using Blogs in Organizations

Blogs are used internally to keep employees up to date about what`s happening in the organization, be it special events, important information or simply for employee feedback.

It`s a way for the organization to build a closer relationship with their employees, by allowing them to post anonymous suggestions or ideas to improve certain aspects of the company.

It is used externally to create better relationships with their customers, which in turn leads to improved customer service and better products & services.

Disadvantages would be that too many employees waste time on blogs instead of doing thier work, and an additional problem would be that the blog may not be used for company related issues but but as a virtual bulletin board or gossip page.

Actual and Potential Disadvantages of Smart Dust

Actual and Potential Disadvantages of Smart Dust

• According to Chan & Perrig, authors of Security and Privacy in Sensor Networks, Smart Dust "lacks security settings which makes it easy to retrieve sensitive information"(Government and Military use). This flaw is extremely dangerous because in the wrong hands it can lead to extreme acts of terrorism, and information can be falsified by those outsiders who have a high knowledge of this technology(2003). In this case Industries concerned are the government, military, economic and financial sectors, and energy plants.



• "Chip design, size and limited capability due to battery" as well as low purchasing cost making them easily available to everyone, i.e. not regulated (Hoffman, 2003; Chan & Perrig, 2003).



• Another extreme case would be the use of Smart Dust "to keep tabs on residential house activities as well as listening in on phone calls" (Chan & Perrig, 20003). Here, the whole population is at risk i.e. invasion of privacy and security threat.


• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQMj-v5f4m0&feature=related

Actual and Potential Advantages of Smart Dust

Here are some of the many actual and potential Advantages of Smart Dust
(organized by Industry)

Factories

Improve manufacturing processes by "sensing out of range vibrations in industrial equipment" (Hoffman, 2003)

Keeps rooms at a certain temperature (Hoffman, 2003).



Warehouses

Monitor Inventory levels

Can be implemented as product tracking system (Gorder, 2003).

Can be implemented for tracking shipments made by truck, rail or airplane (Gorder, 2003).




Government

Acts as "invisible spies" on their enemies (Gorder, 2003).

Gathers information such as "voice, temperature, and location" (Gorder, 2003).



Scientific

Helps solve or explain strange climatic events (Gorder, 2003).

Helps scientists learn more about different animal and plant species by "observation, tracking ,monitoring temperature and chemical compositions" (Gorder, 2003).

Energy Plants

Monitoring production levels (Gorder, 2003).

Sensing changes in temperature (Gorder, 2003).

Residential Use

Monitor water consumption levels or electricity usage (Hoffman, 2003).

Helps reduce these levels and save energy (Hoffman, 2003).

Regulate house temperature (Hoffman, 2003)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iGSbuUNdKg&feature=related

Smart Dust has the potential to replace ...

In the near future, Smart Dust will mainly replace surveillance and tracking tools such as cameras and movement detectors. You might wonder why only these systems? Well, numerous articles (Hoffman, 2003; M2 Communications, 2005) describe Smart Dust core operations or tasks as monitoring and tracking a wide variety of information.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/79572/Smart_Dust

What exactly is Smart Dust Technology?

I chose to blog about Smart Dust because it is an emerging information technology that I have never heard about prior to our MIS class and I find it fascinating.

According to Pam Gorder, author of Sizing Up Smart Dust, Smart Dust is a collection of extremely small wireless sensors that gather information and transmit it to a desired user. This technology was invented by Kris Pister at the University of Berkley in California (Gorder, 2003).

http://www.dustnetworks.com/

Smart Dust "which measures roughly 5mm", can easily be placed virtually anywhere in the world. Its job is to transmit a variety of information such as "sound, vibrations, temperature, moisture, chemical composition" to a specific computer network (Gorder, 2003).