Category: Technology

Internet users will exceed 2 billion by the end of this year. This means that almost 1 out of 3 people in the world will have access to the world wide web. The number of online users has doubled since 2005. Only in this 2010, 226 million people have become new Internet users, and two thirds of these are from developing countries.

This emphasizes the importance of the Internet in any business. It is the best way of communicating with the clients and show them what the business has to offer them. Social networks, such as Facebook, have become an essential media to connect with current and potential clients.

Moreover, this gives more opportunities for entrepreneurship to develop. There are many new businesses which are solely based online, and they are as profitable as any other. For example, Oscar Rodriguez founded his own diamond online store. In his first three months, he sold $200,000 worth of diamonds.

This gives an idea of the potential that the Internet and all its features has to offer to businesses and new entrepreneurs.

Further reading:
Internet users exceed 2 billion
Oscar Rodriguez online diamond store

On October 3rd, 2010, both Peru and Brazil held elections. Peru held mayoral elections, while Brazil held general elections. Despite Brazil having a much bigger population than Peru, they could determine the results that same Sunday night, whereas it is uncertain until now, one week later, who was chosen to be the Lima mayor (the most important one given Lima is the capital city).

The most obvious reason seems to be that Brazil used electronic voting, and Peru did not. It is true that Brazil is better economically to implement this type of voting, but Peru has been consistently growing in the last years, and was one of the few countries which was not really affected by the world economic crisis. Anyhow, Peru is a centralized country, with all the development concentrating in Lima.

In Brazil, more than 100 million people voted and it was determined that there had to be a run-off to select the ultimate president. In Peru, about 6 million people voted to choose Lima’s Mayor, who is not announced yet. Anyways, this is not really that long for Peru standards. The fact that there is less than 1% of difference within the two top candidates has been crucial. Additionally, some votes are under revision suspecting an electoral fraud. Considering these two factors, then it is clear why a winner cannot be determined yet.

Peruvian authorities say it will take some more days, and the people are anxious to know the final decision and somewhat angry to know that our geographical neighbours are much more effective.

Further reading: Lima closest elections in years

We can say that the main objective of technologic devices is to help humans be more effective in whatever they are use these for. In the case of academic learning, some Universities are trying to implement new devices, such as Amazon’s Kindle or Apple’s iPad, to some of their MBA programs. But, to what extent are these new devices useful for learning?

Our new generation is definitely technologically savvy, mainly given because personal computers already existed when we were born. However, in the case of reading, it is very different reading from a screen than from paper. Some people find it much easier using normal textbooks rather than laptops or computers, but this may be because the latter make it easier to get distracted (i.e. Internet).

One issue with technology is how fast it develops. Just consider that most companies in the world are still running Windows XP with Microsoft Office 2003. Keeping up with technological advance is certainly very difficult.

In any case, technology can certainly be used in learning. Using devices such as the iPad increases the variety of ways of learning. Animations, videos, podcasts, and so on, could help very much in learning.

Further reading: MBAs and technology