Don’t worry about the Earth, it will survive humans

The idea of protecting the Earth and it’s ecosystems comes deep within our misunderstanding of this planet’s history. The Earth has gone through many cataclysmic events. The last disastrous event wiped out the dinosaurs and many other living species. But here we are, the Earth is still there, teeming with lives of millions of different species. Although the planet’s survival is inevitable, as long as the sun shines, living things on Earth don’t possess the Earth’s incredible survival capacity. And we humans may one day face the cataclysm for which we are responsible. Chances are we are very unlikely to survive global warming, climate change, severe drought, floods and many other manmade disasters.

            There is a big question we should ask ourselves: Do we have the time and the potential needed to reverse the changes and save ourselves and our civilizations? Yes we do.  Look at your surroundings and see the enormous technological advances we have achieved. You start to think that we are capable of almost everything we want. We just have to stop prioritizing money and start thinking about getting together to solve the worldly problems we have. Right now we are suffering from hunger, religious conflicts, global warming, illiteracy and many other serious problems. We probably won’t see the next century if we don’t take immediate actions to limit our willingness to exploit the natural world. Because of our excessive resource consumption, the Earth will run out of the oil we so badly need. But look around you. We have managed to turn the fifth largest planet of the solar system into an interconnected small village, where the outermost place is a click away. Can’t we use technology to generate power without using oil? Can’t we recycle our plastics? We can do many other great things to solve the toughest problems of our time. I always have faith in our brains and conscience. I go with Carl Sagan, who once wrote “For all our failings, despite our limitations and fallibilities, we humans are capable of greatness.” We have traveled to the moon and have seen the most distant galaxies. We can’t afford to wait for the demise of our time.

KM Class Work 3

Knowledge Management

Class work 3

Concept and Mind Mapping tools

The concept mapping technique was developed by Prof. Joseph D. Novak at Cornell University in the 1960s. Concept Mapping is an approach to represent information and knowledge in a graphics. It is often used as a reference of what goes inside a project or a brainstorm within an organization. Concept mapping has many uses including generating new ideas, communication, learning and designing complex structures.

Some good example of Concept and Mind Mapping tools are:

Visio: Microsoft

Mind Genius: Microsoft

Free Mind: Online  

ClassWork 2

Environmental Technology

Environmental Technology: It is a field where technology is used to help the environment in order to sustain a better future for humans. It is also referred as Clean or Green Technology. This field includes Green Chemistry, Environmental Monitoring and Sustainable Development. Environmental Technology is also used for finding new energy sources.

Examples of Environmental Technology:

 

·         Biofiltration

·         Biosphere Technology

·         Bioremediation

·         Composting toilet

·         Desalination

·         Doubly fed electric machine

·         Energy Conservation

·         Energy Saving Modules

·         Environmental Devices

·         Hydroelectricity

·         Hydrogen fuel cell

·         Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion

·         Solar power

·         Thermal depolymerization

·         Wind power

·         battery-powered cars

Note: Above examples are taken from Wikipedia.

Water Purification: Removing germs, dust and other dirty elements in the water by using filters. A large population from the developing countries doesn’t have access to safe water. And statistics show that thousands of people die from drinking dirty water each year.

Air Purification: With hundreds of millions of cars and uncountable number of factories, the air we breathe is no longer filled with the oxygen we need. Carbon Dioxide has filled the atmosphere in the last 50 years, warming the planet as well as the atmosphere around it.

Waste Management: Now the world’s population has reached 7 billion people. We all dispose some amount of waste every day. A small city like Sulaimani has an average waste of 700 tons a day. If we abandon these wastes, diseases spread around and many people will fall victim.

Chapter Questions 6-10

Chapter 1 Questions 6-10

Question #6: What are the difficulties in the notion of knowledge as 'actionable' information?
Answer: If some knowledge has not been stored properly then it might has been altered. In that case you shouldn't be taking action on a doubtful knowledge.

Question #7: How can lessons from the old bardic traditions assist modern-day knowledge management?
Answer: By storing data and information we can make sure that we have a reference to go back to if we need. If we don't store our data and information we may need them and they are gone. There is no way to get it back. So storing data and information is a good lesson for KM.

Question #8: What are advantages and disadvantages of different writing media such as clay, papyrus and parchment for storing knowlwdge?
Answer: One advantage is that when you write on clay and the other two medium is that they are durable. But the disadvantage is that they are not durable for long.

Question #9: How fallible is modern-day storage of knowledge on computers when many software programs become obsolete in less than ten years? How easy will it be to dicipher the bytes on DVDs and CD-ROMs in 100 years?
Answer: It is difficult to be at the same pace as technology. So it is not a wise decision to store you data on storages that are not reliable for future use. Always look for something that has flexibilities in terms of usage and interface. It is going to be very difficult to dicipher bytes on today's Discs 100 years later.

Question #10: What lessons can we draw from ancient libraries and libarianship for the creation, storage and preservation of knowledge?
Answer: The lesson is that we need to document our information and lable it properly. Otherwise it will not be easy managing knowledge when you have no idea what the knowledge is about.

Knowledge Management_HW1

Ernst And Yound Case Study

Question #1: What are potential ways forward to overcome the problem of an ageing workforce at Ernst and Young?

Answer: Managing workforce in all companies is not an easy task. If you have an ageing work force, managing them and maintaining their knowledge is increasingly difficult. One way to make sure that your workforce is up to date is by introducing new technologies into your firm. For example, if the former employees of Ernst and Yound who were known as "Boomerangs" didn't have facebook then it would have been very difficult for Helen Wash to contact those former employees. So by keeping your workforce up to date with current technologies, you can get rid of losing important people in your firm.

Question #2: How would you codify critical knowledge of clients and industries currently being lost when employees retire?

Answer: Documenting knowledge is one of the best ways to manage knowledge. Whether the knowledge is about clients or industries. Writing down the knowledge and storing it is one of the best ways to keep your knowledge managed because knowledge can be lost or altered otherwise. Chinese Whispers is a proof of what happens to knowledge if you don't write it down and store it.

Question #3: What are the strength and pitfalls of using social networking sites such as Facebook for Ernst and Young?

Answer: Using social networking site such as Facebook can enhance the working environment by connecting the employees together. It can also be useful to contact employees once they are absent or when they are no longer employees. Contacting your former employees is very important, because sometimes your former employees are the only ones who can solve your problems. Their experience in your firm can save you big troubles. But on the other hand using a social networking site such as Facebook for Ernst and Young can distract employees and slow down the work flow within the firm.