Advantages and Disadvantages of Digital Revolution

How the digital revolution can be interpreted as a wicked problem.

Digital revolution has resulted in changes brought about by improved communication technology and digital computing during the latter half of the twentieth century. Despite the fact that digital revolution has significantly modernized the way things are done, concerns have been raised against the emergence of digital world. As such, digital revolution can be interpreted as a wicked problem in the following scenarios:

Digital revolution has led to increase of electronic commerce and mobile commerce. This development has also resulted in increase in the Internet fraud (Rubin 2006). Without proper skills and knowledge of how to effectively use the Internet, consumers face risks of identifying potential theft and using online tools for phishing their private information. Given the nature of online transactions, it is easier foe fraudsters to disguise themselves and mislead unsuspecting consumers into sending them their finances.

Information sharing and privacy has become a general concern in digital revolution. The ability of the digital platform to store large volumes of information presents a possibility for unauthorized tracking of individual activities and interests. Without careful application of digital technology, there is a possibility that people can collect substantial personal information that can lead to creating an individual’s profile. This information can be used for fraudulent purposes such as selling them to marketing agencies without the user’s knowledge.

Digital revolution also led to the emergence of copyright infringement and trademark issues. The ability of consumers to illegally reproduce and distribute original works which are protected has dramatically changed the intellectual property phenomena. Copyright infringement is critical especially in the film, music and television industries (Rubin 2006). With regard to this, individuals that struggle to produce their intellectual innovations are not well compensated for their efforts. Unscrupulous individuals, instead, take the full benefits of this hard work by reproducing and redistributing these materials without legal permission.

How the digital divide poses an issue and/or opportunity for business.

The concept of digital divide refers to the fact that there is a discrepancy among the population in opportunities to benefit from the Internet potential (Lloyd Given and Hellwig 2000). Digital divide might be in the form of economic divide where some people can not afford to buy digital equipments such as computers, usability divide where people have no skills of using computers even if they were availed; and empowerment divide whereby even if individual had computers and know how to operate them, they can not exploit the full potential that technology provides.

Businesses can take advantage of the digital divide to increase their market operations and hence profitability (Lloyd Given and Hellwig 2000). For Instance, organizations can stimulate business growth in these marginalized areas by outsourcing their services such as call centers, data processing and other professional services. These initiatives will, of course, require initial investment in training this population on digital technology use. After the necessary skills will have been acquired by the disadvantages community, businesses can then start rolling out their operations on commercial bases. This move will stamp an organizations presence and goodwill in these areas for a considerable period of time. Similarly, these organizations could commercialize educating the disadvantaged communities on information technology and computer literacy.

Businesses can also roll out their operations in these areas without necessarily having to significantly educate the local population on technological usage (Wavier 2001). Services like electronic commerce and mobile commerce can be availed in these regions. Since modern technology presents efficiency and agility of service provision, the idea of e-commerce and m-commerce will be well embraced by the local consumers. The bottom line is that before any business successfully takes advantage of digital divide, there must be a primary infrastructure on which operations will rely on.

Bibliography

Lloyd, R., Given J., and Hellwig O., 2000. The digital divide: Some explanations. Vol. 7 (4). pp. 345-358.

Rubin, M 2006, Droid Maker: George Lucas and the Digital Revolution. Gainesville: Triad Publications.

Wavier, P.,2001. Bridging the digital divide: Refocusing on a market-base approach, An AEC perspective. The Australian AEC Study Centre, Months University, Melbourne, Australia.