The use of blogs by organizations

The blog is a tool that has advantages and disadvantages for an organization. Let us take a real example! There is a blog that I follow for beauty advice that is called beautybooty411. She basically tests out beauty products and recommends them or warns us to stay away! Companies will send her products to test out and discuss it on her blog.

The advantage of using blogs is that it is another form of advertising your product indirectly. In this case, I trust her opinion because she is a girl like me that doesn't work for that company so there is no reason for her to push a product if its not really good. I also like to see if others have comments to share about the products in discussion. Several products I have not ever heard of but when I see that she really recommends it, I am really tempted to try it out.

A disadvantage is that there is no filter as to what can be put up. So she can report back negative things about a product and I would definitely avoid it. A blog can promote a product but this doesn't mean it is always a positive promotion of your product.

Disadvantages of Smart Dust

It is difficult to believe that such an innovative idea could have disadvantages but like anything else there are some disadvantages linked to smart dust. Many concerns are raised on privacy, security and environmental impact.

Privacy is probably the first thing anyone would think of after reading my first blog about Smart Dust. Privacy is often called the dark side of this technology. Due to the size of the motes it is very easy to spy without a person's knowledge. this can also be a tool used for corporate espionage.

Security issues are raised as well with Smart Dust. Smart dust is networking computing devices that raise the same security concerns as a computer on the internet. The biggest is is that motes in a network are re-programmable. The new software would only have to be programmed on one mote that would then pass it along the network to update each mote. Although it is difficult do there is always that possibility that an organization's data can be compromised.

Throughout my posts, I have mentioned several times the examples on saving energy. It is very ironic that a disadvantage for Smart Dust is it's environmental impact. It evident that motes are made up of environmentally unfriendly components. There are times where motes will be placed in remote or desolate areas and to retrieve them is difficult and expensive. There are times where the motes will fail and be abandoned in the environment.

information retrieved by:

http://www.uhisrc.com/FTB/Smart%20Dust/Smart%20Dust.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartdust#Applications

The advantages of Smart Dust

In general, Smart Dust will speed up processes in any industry. Communication will be readily available when needed. As mentioned in the previous blog, What can this it potentially replace, this can potentially be a great method of saving energy costs. A company will be able to have a system to control the lighting and temperature depending on the use of each room. Imagine not having to worry about shutting lights or lowering heating when you leave? We are all humans and it happens often that lights are left opened or heating is left at its highest when it's not needed. the energy saving and cost savings would be at an advantage to all these companies in any industry.

"We could basically dump these things in a can of paint, paint them on the walls," he said. "We estimate that smart technology like this could save between $5 and $7 billion if we can deploy it, and reduce about 30,000 tons per year of carbon emissions around the country."

ReadMore: http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2001/05/44101#ixzz0kLDynELP

Most companies have a factory or plant setup and an office setup. When looking at a plant, advantages include the cutting costs, the rise in safety and the efficiency increase. Let us explore examples that prove these advantages. Reducing the loses in inventory by having every product with a mote. Factories will always know when and where their products and materials are. Monitoring quality of the products will help avoiding the waste of products. Factories will avoid any quality issues when their products are sent out.

In an office setup, most advantages are related to energy cost savings. One of the best potential advantages is each office worker will have their own preferred working environment. By having sensors on each person the humidity, temperature sensors will be controlling each person's individual preferences. I think that an enjoyable environment is key to having more productive employees.

http://robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu/~pister/SmartDust/

What can this IT potentially replace?

This tiny technology will eventually be an asset that is customized to each person's needs. There is a possibility that Smart Dust will replace quite a few things in today's world. Let us take a simple example of customizing motes to sense light, temperature and the presence of people in rooms of your home. the Smart dust system can sense when the room is empty and send signals to a controller that can automatically switch lights off and lower the temperature. This will eliminate the need for timers on appliances or lights.

http://www.uhisrc.com/FTB/Smart%20Dust/Smart%20Dust.pdf (page 7)

Smart dust will also be able to replace your computer keyboard with a virtual keyboard by glueing the motes to your fingertips.

Techniques in security systems in your home can be replaced by this because this system would be a lot harder to detect in a house and the it is wireless so this would make it much more difficult for intruders to disable the security system.

Techniques linked to tracking inventory will be more efficient.You will know where your products are and what shape they're in, at all times.

http://robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu/~pister/SmartDust/

Something that is very fascinating is the possibility of creating interfaces for the disabled. having motes that sense motion on a quadriplegic's face will be able to send commands to devices such as a wheel chair, computer, house appliances, etc. This would finally bring a disabled person closer to independence. These would be a new tool for the disabled.

http://robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu/~pister/SmartDust/

While researching what Smart Dust could potentially replace, I realized that this technology would be replacing a lot of jobs that are being done by us, people. Reasons for this replcement mainly would be to make processes more efficient or in many cases monitor areas that are dangerous for us to access.

SmartDust..... an introduction

Smart Dust is a new emerging technology that is made up of very small sensors that are also called motes. As you can see in the picture to the left these sensors are very tiny when compared to a penny. A mote is a tiny computer that has a power supply, one or more sensors and a communication system. http://www.uhisrc.com/FTB/Smart%20Dust/Smart%20Dust.pdf

Motes are intended to be purchased and placed in clusters. the purpose of smart dust varies because there are several types of sensors that can be placed in these motes that can cater to one's needs.several possibilities of sensors include sensors for temperature, light, sound, position, acceleration, vibration, stress, weight, pressure, humidity, etc. However, keep in mind that not all motes must include sensors.

These motes can be of great use but how can we gather information from these sensors, one might ask? These tiny computers communicate through a radio link.a mote can transmit information at a distance of about 3 to 61 meters. Today, power supply is supplied by a battery or by tapping into a power grid. However, as the motes shrink in size it is not to anyone's surprise that the motes will be powered by solar power or maybe even vibration power.

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/mote1.htm