by DAN CALLOWAY
Published 15 October 2010
WEAVERVILLE, NC - Many of today’s applications used in business, academia, the medical field, and others are network-based 
as opposed to non-network-based, traditional systems, or even legacy systems that were prominent in the decades just prior to the onset of the Information Age and the advent of the desktop computer and networks that linked them together. In the last quarter of the 20th Century, the industrial age underwent a metamorphosis, due in large part to the societal-centered technological revolution that was taking place around information. The technological revolution, which began in the early ’70s, literally transformed the way that we think, the way we conduct business, we learn, we communicate, we live, we make war, and we die. Rouse (1999) suggests that the explosive growth in networking brought about with the onset of the Information Age in the 1980′s is primarily responsible for linking people and systems together, thus globally providing instantaneous access to information resources never seen before.
Prior to the development of the network concept and the global Inter-network, software applications that were in existence ran primarily on mainframes and mini-mainframe systems. These applications were, in essence, self-contained applications running on standalone systems such as DEC and VAX platforms, and were supported by non-network operating systems such as UNIX. Data that was processed on these system platforms were not shared with others or accessible by others but remained self-contained to the platform that processed them and were only interfaced with human operators via desktop terminals tied into the mainframe and mini-mainframe systems. With the technological revolution, spurted by the military and academia, the need to share information with one another, even across vast distances, grew exponentially. The first true network was developed by MIT in order for various departments within the University to share information with one another on networked host platforms. The Department of Defense’s need to share information for national security and other military purposes brought about the development of ARPANET, the first true Internet-based networking system that permitted collaborative sharing of data across the network with various military organizations that needed it. Thus, in the Information Age, the rapidly emerging integration of PCs and communications networks and broadcast networks is making information available to everyone at anytime on a global scale (Rouse, 1999).
What is important to realize in the modern Information Age and the development of network-based applications and systems is that this technology not only has afforded one access to the rest of the world in real-time, but gives the rest of the world access to you (Rouse, 1999, p. 118). Networks and the applications that run on them permit people to remain connected no matter where they might be globally. Examples of these applications are Skype, Microsoft Net-Meeting, and Microsoft Instant Messenger, to name a few. Other network-based applications such as Go-to-Meeting, and PC-Anywhere, allow individuals and groups of individuals to telecommute on a business level so that they can conduct business with one another without ever having to meet one another face-to-face (Rouse, 1999, p. 118). Network-based applications, such as Web browsers and the websites that they connect us to have opened up a whole new avenue of business, such as eBay, Amazon.com, manufacturer-specific websites, and many others. Advances in online business known as e-Commerce have introduced a plethora of new products and services and have provided a rich resource of opportunities and creativity not available prior to the Information Age (Rouse, 1999). As Rouse aptly points out in his article on connectivity, the Information Age and the sharing of information through networking has had dramatic impacts not only on individuals, but also on governments, on business organizations, the military, and academia as well (pp. 119-120).
An aspect of networking and connectivity, which was not discussed in Rouse (1999) or any other reading for this week’s discussion is the pervasive, ubiquitous, and sentient nature of Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) networking. This networking paradigm has transformed and continues to transform the business world through its direct impact upon the supply chain and upon society as a whole in a very positive way because RFID networking and smart tags have allowed inanimate, static objects to be connected to each other and to humans (Calloway, 2010).
“The storing, interpreting, and use of relevant information is becoming the primary concern in the next decade [2010-2019] due to the increasing merger of analog and digital media, and context. In the next decade, RFID smart tags implanted into static objects and the development of the RFID network known as The Internet of Things will allow pervasive computing, ubiquitous computing, and sentient computing, to transform our very environment—not just our computers—such that it will become smarter because computing power and connectivity will be embedded into it” (Calloway, 2010, p. 1).
The implications that RFID networking and smart tagging have on society are many-fold. Smart tags embedded in pallets of material that are stored and shipped around the world give the receivers of these goods the ability to track their progress in the supply chain as well as provide a status of their condition along their transport routes. As a result, retail outlets can now determine when material they have ordered is shipped and can more adequately determine when the material will arrive in their stores or their remote warehouses. The cost savings that are realized from smart tags embedded in palletized material result in savings that retailers pass on to its customers, reducing the cost of goods to the consumer. Moreover, smart tags connected to the RFID network have found their ways into other industries such as the medical field, automobile industry, pharmaceutical industry, applicance and clothing manufacturing, home manufacturing, GPS tracking, and utilities metering to name a few.
References:
Calloway, D. (2010). RFID Microchip Technology and the Internet of Things. Retrieved from http://www.dancalloway.com/assets/Documents/RFID_and_the_Internet_of_Things.pdf.
Rouse, W. B. (1999). Connectivity, creativity, and chaos. Information Knowledge Systems Management, 1(2), 117-131.
Dan Calloway
predecessor, Opera 10.63 Stable, then I just don’t know what I’ve been missing.
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