The Tower and The Cloud

This is a New EDUCAUSE e-Book. The emergence of the networked information economy is unleashing two powerful forces. On one hand, easy access to high-speed networks is empowering individuals. People can now discover and consume information resources and services globally from their homes. Further, new social computing approaches are inviting people to share in the creation and edification of information on the Internet.

Empowerment of the individual—or consumerization—is reducing the individual's reliance on traditional brick-and-mortar institutions in favor of new and emerging virtual ones. Second, ubiquitous access to high-speed networks along with network standards, open standards and content, and techniques for virtualizing hardware, software, and services is making it possible to leverage scale economies in unprecedented ways. What appears to be emerging is industrial-scale computing—a standardized infrastructure for delivering computing power, network bandwidth, data storage and protection, and services.

Consumerization and industrialization beg the question "Is this the end of the middle?"; that is, what will be the role of "enterprise" IT in the future? Indeed, the bigger question is what will become of all of our intermediating institutions? This volume examines the impact of IT on higher education and on the IT organization in higher education. 

Enjoy the read.

Life in 2050

What picture do you have of the future? Will life in the future be better, worse or the same as now? What do you hope about the future?

Futurologists predict that life will probably be very different in 2050 in all the fields of activity, from entertainment to technology.

First of all, it seems that TV channels will have disappeared by 2050. Instead, people will choose a programme from a 'menu' and a computer will send the programme directly to the television.

Today, we can use the World Wide Web to read newspaper stories and see pictures on a computer thousands of kilometers away. By 2050, music, films, programmes, newspapers and books will come to us by computer.

Then, 'Holographic Feedback TV' will have arrived. Holograms are pictures that have height, width and depth kind of 3d.

Simple holograms exist today and 'virtual reality' games are already popular. By 2050, we will be able to see, smell and touch the things that we see on television.

In what concerns the environment, water will have become one of our most serious problems. In many places, agriculture is changing and they are growing fruit and vegetables to export. This uses a lot of water. Demand for water will increase ten times between now and 2050 and there could be serious shortages. Some futurologists predict that water could be the cause of war if we don't act now.

In transport, cars will run on new, clean fuels and they will go very fast. Cars will have computers to control the speed of the car and there won't be any accidents. Today, many cars have computers that tell drivers exactly where they are. By 2050, the computer will control the car and drive it to your destination. On the other hand, space planes will take people halfway around the world in two hours. Nowadays, the United States Shuttle can go into space and land on Earth again. By 2050, space planes will fly all over the world and people will fly from Los Angels to Tokyo in just two hours.

In the domain of technology, robots will have replaced people in factories. Many factories already use robots. Big companies prefer robots because they do not ask for pay rises or go on strike, and they work 24 hours a day. By 2050, we will see robots everywhere in factories, schools, offices, hospitals, shops and homes.

Last but not least, medicine technology will have conquered many diseases. Today, there are electronic devices that connect directly to the brain to help people hear. By 2050, we will be able to help blind and deaf people see again and hear again. Scientists have discovered how to control genes. They have already produced clones of animals. By 2050, scientists will be able to produce clones of people and decide how they look, how they behave and how much intelligence they have. Scientists will be able to do these things - but should they?

How will life in 2050 be like? This article is written by Cristina Nuta for FamousWhy.com. The image is on the Future Life Experience Museum in China.