Mike Liebhold

Mike talked mostly about what type of technology will be available in the future and how it can effect the world and our daily lives. Some of the concepts he discussed was Context Aware Computing, Cloud Computing, Abundant communication, Sensor Fusion, and Augmented Realities. Out of all these concepts, I found Cloud Computing to be the most interesting because my company is starting a sister company next year that is similar to that concept. It is a SaaS (Software as a Service) hosting company. SaaS hosting is where there is a network hosts a platform where software can be used in some sort of UI(user interface). I believe in the future as connectivity becomes faster this is how mobile devices will work. All of the complex computations will be done on a "Cloud Computing" network but the information will be shown on some sort of mobile device. This will make mobile devices as fast as super computers!

Gattaca - Chris Stroud

Gattaca helps magnify and give the perspective of how everyday discrimination can possibly perpetuate into orchestrated and socially acceptable discrimination in the future. Currently most discrimination is frowned upon and whatever discrimination there is it is generally not the norm and is brushed under the rug to be either hidden or ignored but we are presented with a frightening insight on how far the human race may possibly go in the pursuit of perfection and excellence. If the ideas in the movie are carried on for longer I suspect that ‘god babies’ will no longer exist and certain social or government pressures or even laws will prohibit natural procreation because if discrimination naturally progresses to be more acceptable then that seems like the next logical step in its evolution. The mind set of ‘god babies,’ the perpetuated individuals in them movie, had the thought process of Vincent ; “For someone who was never meant for this world, I must confess I'm suddenly having a hard time leaving it. Of course, they say every atom in our bodies was once part of a star. Maybe I'm not leaving... maybe I'm going home.” Society not only thought of them as nuscense but so did they. Since my theory is that discrimination is on upward path with out and signs of leveling off or even decreasing then what type of world would we live in where genetic discrimination is not enough?

Hegemony is defined as the “preponderant influence or authority over others.” What better way to describe the overall theme of this movie? Power is given to those who a predisposed to it before thay are even born; “We want to give your child the best possible start. Believe me, we have enough imperfection built in already. Your child doesn't need any more additional burdens. Keep in mind, this child is still you. Simply, the best, of you. You could conceive naturally a thousand times and never get such a result.” Those who are not given power either stay where they are or there are some, Vincent, for instance who strive to be part of the higher and more privileged class. This correlates with how out society operates today. Either we accept or stature in life or work twice as hard as everyone else in order to ‘change our stars’ so to speak.

Team: Premonition

Team Members:
Steve
Thu
Joane
Amy
Geeta
Chris

Office Space - Chris Stroud

Could the software company the characters worked with benefited from Human Resources type of management?

Yes, the company and employees would have benefited more Human Resource management opposed to the bureaucracy it was. By encouraging workers to work harder and getting rewarded for those benefits employees would be more inclined to be happier and not settle for the bare minimum. Since they were stuck in a position where they were not rewarded for excelling they never developed a yearning to excel in the company and were inevitable stuck. This is why Peter was promoted, he stuck out and was different.

“We get caught laundering money, we're not going to white collar resort prison. No, no, no. We're going to fucking federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison!”

This quote comes from a turning point in the movie where Michael conveys his concerns with implementing the software that will later rob this software company of over $300,000. Michael uses the communication as a channel to transfer information

Chapter three - Chris Stroud

I am in an organization that greatly leans toward the Human Resources approach. I work from home and talk to my boss maybe a few hours out of the week and haven’t seen him in many months. With this type of internal structure breeds independence and creativity but can easily sway towards dishonesty and laziness if employees aren’t properly motivated and happy. I have an open forum of communication with management there isn’t many formalities within the company. I see this type of organization becoming more and more dominant as knowledge workers become more prevalent.

Chapter two- Chris Stroud

I can relate greatly to the concept to communication as a Strategic Control in reference to my job. Before my boss was my boss we were friends before I became his employee (we are still friends). When he communicates to me he understands that it has multiple goals; communicating effectively as a manager but also realizing we are friends. “Communicators must be able to recognize the constraints of the situation and to adapt to multiple goals simultaneously, such as being clear, assertive, and respectful (pg. 32).” The potential problem with this relationship is that it may not be completely fair to other people in the organization because they do not have the same friendship as I do with the boss which may have ethical implications since I can easily favored in some situations.