After reading Winston Liang’s blog post on a recent in class presentation on Entrepreneurship and Urthecast, his post left me with some interesting points to ponder upon. First he addressed how the cameras have not even been installed, yet we were approached in class with slide upon slide of fascinating images of the images the camera would be able to capture. Secondly, Winston mentioned the same concerns that I had about the camera’s ability and what that would mean for individual privacy. If the camera has the powerful and High Definition abilities that is claims it is capable via an external blog interview conducted by IT Pro Portal and by the presentation made in class, then it does put some of our earth’s inhabitant’s safety at risk.

Currently, Google Earth is a virtual map of our globe accessible online. It us used to locate certain areas of interests and for pure entertainment of the wonders of our earth. However, it is a stagnant image and does not include the live-play back features and social media aspect that Urthecast boasts. I believe that this does raise some concerns about whether this product will create more benefits or harms to our society.

For example, privacy breeches include being able to track individuals, or follow their activities with the added social aspect. You would also be able to see if someone was breaking into, say a house. This creates a whole new platform for monitoring the world and how it behaves. Corporations would be able to track consumer behaviour and certain countries would run into issues with national security. While I agree that this new invention does transform our view of the earth, whether our society has a need for this is uncertain. When considering to build on an idea or not, I believe that it is important to consider all sides of the idea including its societal and economic implications. Wouldn’t you agree that privacy is an important issue with this new idea?

After reading an article on Performance Management from the Globe and Mail, I summed up the following 5 points and applied it to my own work experience.

–5 Reasons Why Performance Management is Good–

1. It improves company relationships, leads to profitability and long term success
2. Although it is tedious for employers, it allows them to lead by example
3. Employees can self-evaluate
4.There are various methods that can improve work progress:
a) face to face discussions
b) SMART: Specific goal, a Measurable outcome, Achievable by the employee, Relevant to the business’s objectives, and Time-bound.
5. As a company, every unit will know what they need to focus on, how to achieve and measure it.

Applying this my past work experience, I find that our performance reviews did have a very similar effect. When we reviewed them face-to-face with our managers, we were able to discuss what was done well and areas of future improvement. I think that performance management is a very important tool in all businesses. Even though smaller businesses usually skip this process I think that conducting performance review even once a year sets a good foundation of company expectations and overall progress. This will help establish a clear objective within the company and bring the company together to work towards a common goal.