Business Commons^™

The Impact Of Technology, Katina Michael

Professor Katina Michael

Consumer electronics have revolutionized the way we live and work. Most students that I know would rather forgo expensive clothing labels than do without their branded smartphone. In fact, some of them would forgo food altogether if it meant their phone could be “always on” and “always with them”, clipped onto the belt buckle, strapped into a pants or jacket sleeve or increasingly into the open palm of their hand. Something happens when our basic needs as humans are overtaken by some other need that was once a distant want at best- plainly confusion in our ability to rightly determine …

Are Disaster Early Warnings Effective?, Kerri Worthington, Katina Michael, Peter Johnson, Paul Barnes

Professor Katina Michael

Australia's summer is traditionally a time of heightened preparation for natural disasters, with cyclones and floods menacing the north and bushfires a constant threat in the south. And the prospect of more frequent, and more intense, disasters thanks to climate change has brought the need for an effective early warning system to the forefront of policy-making. Technological advances and improved telecommunication systems have raised expectations that warning of disasters will come early enough to keep people safe. But are those expectations too high? Kerri Worthington reports. Increasingly, the world's governments -- and their citizens -- rely on technology-based early warning …

Glogging Your Every Move, Lisa Wachsmuth, Katina Michael

Professor Katina Michael

"It is one thing to lug technologies around, another thing to wear them, and even more intrusive to bear them... But that's the direction in which we're headed."

"I think we're entering an era of person-view systems which will show things on ground level and will be increasingly relayed to others via social media.

"We've got people wearing recording devices on their fingers, in their caps or sunglasses - there are huge legal and ethical implications here."