Kyle Hoffman's Blog

The keyboard was originally designed to conform to two human hands for optimized typing.  Unfortunately as technology has advanced the size of electronic devices we use has become smaller and smaller and the traditional keyboard has followed suit.  Nowadays keyboards are found on devices no bigger than a few inches across and are operated with only one or two fingers.  Despite recent adaptations to the traditional keyboard such as word prediction and auto completion these tiny keyboards are often slow and prone to typos.  To deal with these problems a group has come up with a radical new design for typing called The 8pen designed specifically for typing on small mobile devices.  The technology works through a series of figure-eight finger movements that correspond to letters.  Despite the products ingenuity and it’s low $1.50 price, the 8 pen software it is making little headway in replacing the traditional keyboard on mobile devices.  After 30 years of being the only option for typing, the traditional QWERTY keyboard has formed a strong position in the consumers mind as the number one way to type.  The 8pen faces a significant barrier to entering the market as consumers have spent their whole lives learning how to type on a traditional keyboard and can’t be bothered to learn a new system.  For the 8pen to be successful they will have to brand their product as faster, simpler and more efficient way to type while associating their product as the way of the future.

I recently read an Article in the Globe and Mail discussing how the Canadian company Embridge is facing possible government actions after several oil spills occurred due to their unmaintained oil pipeline.
This brought me to the question if it was Embridges social responsibility to monitor its pipeline and preemptively replace portions of it that were still functional.  Freidman’s theory that companies should have no social responsibility seems to be the path that Embridge has taken as they have repeatedly refused to spend stockholders money on replacing their current pipeline with newer pipes.  Up until now this viewpoint has been profitable for Embridge but after there most recent pipeline leak they are are facing possible government fines, costly cleanup for the leaks and a temporary shutdown  of their pipeline until it has been repaired or replaced.  The American government is also considering further regulation of the pipelines standards which could end up costing Embridge more to replace the entire pipeline.  Had Embridge followed Freeman’s stakeholder theory and considered the repercussions they could face by ignoring their social responsibility to the community and environment, they could of avoided the new fines and regulations that threaten Embridges future profit in the area.