Sunday, July 28, 2013

The Next Internet – Healthcare, Education, Governance


Internet has changed the way we connect, the way we communicate and the way we share .
Internet has changed the way we express, the way we entertain and the way we get enlightened.
Internet has changed the way we explore, the way we experience and the way we enjoy the world.
Now its time to move on to the next level and see whats going to be changed with this Internet communications.
Internet is already disrupting these three spheres of our life and this is going to be big in coming days.
  • Healthcare
  • Education
  • Governance
If there is one aspect of life, which even after spending billions and billions into technology, we are still unable to cope up to the challenge, its Healthcare.
We are making huge progress in Biosciences and creating an enormous impact by curing the most deadly diseases on the planet. Internet will help these fruits to be available for all. A patient in Africa can connect with a doctor in India or a doctor in United states and get treated with the help of telemedicine or e-medicine facilities. Internet is helping to get more people to access to healthcare and decrease the costs of healthcare in various countries. Some internet startups are trying to disrupt the Complex US healthcare system and this is another list of startups in SanFrancisco.
Heartbeat online“In rural Bangladesh, 90 percent of births occur outside hospitals. A mobile-notification system alerts clinics to dispatch nurse–midwife teams, who are now present in 89 percent of births. In China, a public–private partnership created a cardiovascular-monitoring system that allows patients to self-administer electrocardiograms and transmit data to specialists in Beijing, who can suggest treatments by phone. At New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital, a venture with General Electric uses smart tags to track the flow of hundreds of patients, treatments, and medical assets in real time. The hospital estimates it could potentially treat 10,000 more patients each year as a result and generate $120 million in savings and revenues over several years.” – McKinsey Quarterly Report.

saupload_Computer-Doctor
There are internet startups in India which ease the pain of various healthcare related tangles ranging from  getting a doctor appointment ,to advise on symptoms , to have a discussion with doctors ,to buy pharmacy online, to buy healthcare products online and much more . Complete list can be found here .Working in a healthcare organization , it is exciting to know what progress can be possible.

Education is the only solution to elevate people out of poverty and there are at least 20- 30 % of world population with very low income levels and cannot afford a meal day .To make education accessible for all and available for all, Internet plays a key role. Khan Academy is pioneering in flattening the education field .Anyone who has access to Internet can be educated . Right now, the growth of  MOOC courses which started offering free online education is super successful. Coursera , Udacity and edX are complementing the school/college education and also helping people gain free knowledge.Everyone , even a PHD should try these out.
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There are internet platforms offering tutoring services, offering textbook rentals, offering test preparation services, consolidating video lectures,providing virtual classrooms and most importantly developing educational games . Some exciting list is here and the possibilities are endless. Students now have the entire knowledge at their fingers thanks to Wikipedia and Google. The tablet revolution is turning the tide of how education is perceived  and is disrupting the Education landscape in a way that was never imagined , equalising the Education advantage across the world. Social platforms like Linkedin enables to connect professionals like never before and engage more.
India is not far behind this revolution, though there is a lot to pickup the race and there are some exciting internet platforms striving for the change.

Finally, the most important change that just started is the way how governments perform their Governance.
freedom
Obama has successfully used the Internet trends to maximize his victory chances and projects like CodeforAmerica are changing the landscape on how internet can be put to public use. Almost all the government agencies in many countries have online grievance redressal systems and are used effectively for tracking the people issues.Many governments are already using the Web to improve services and reduce waste. Governments can also use IT to better engage citizens, as South Korea has done with its e-People site, which helps citizens send online civil petitions for policy changes or reports of corruption. Our next world leaders are moving to the internet for their political aspirations and be more reachable to their electoral franchise. Media , now a days takes almost any news and issues from the buzz on SocialMedia and which in turn shapes the political discourse of a country.Its widely acknowledged that Facebook and Twitter played a major role in Arab Spring . Technology is transforming and bringing a new wave of democracy in Africa.
NSDL-establishes-new-unit-for-e-governance-projects
In India, we have internet platforms like PRS legislative  documenting the legislative procedure and is bringing the complex constitutional process to common man.Andhra Pradesh has pioneered in e-governance initiatives helping citizens bringing government functions to his doorstep  .Almost every state government is pursuing e governance initiatives and trying to bring transparency. Open Data initiatives are catching up in India and Govt of India has officially announced open data platform.Some government agencies are active on SocialMedia are resolving queries.And very recently the main political parties have taken their battle to the internet sphere with mocking websites. Almost every news channel takes the issues which are on buzz on SocialMedia and on internet. Major political parties now have  digital campaign management teams. It is estimated that SocialMedia plays major role in election outcomes in India, in the coming general Elections.

!!! The world is flattening more , Thanks to Internet.

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Sunday, July 21, 2013

Websites of the Week - Programming special

Hello all, Programmers of the World , this edition is dedicated to all the programming junta of the world , who  slog out day in and day out, churning out thousands of lines of code with caffeine and pizzas as inputs . This is in memory of Douglas Angelbart, the internet pioneer and the inventor of mouse , who propelled all these graphics we see today on our little screens.He has given this demo video called as Mother of all demos which demonstrates the mouse, file processing and some other intricate details of Computer processing,this demo was given in 1968.

There is a professional holiday called  'Programmers day' in Russia and is celebrated on 256th day of the year.

We see some awesome website and want to know what all technologies are used in building that, Go to buildwith.com  and check out all the intrinsic backend details of a popular website.

Sometimes you might be annoyed when the hand palm brushes the touchpad and it changes the position of cursor in the document/programming editor . Use this utility called touchfreeze and it freezes the touchpad whenever your are typing.

Do you wish to know what all popular opensource projects are going on round the planet , checkout this  ohloh website.This a network  website for all open source programmers out there.

Its not that software is only opensource now, Raspberry pi  is the opensource hardware and they are some very good implementations of it.

At last, Browse the complete internet history at this website.

Bonus: Dear Tennis followers like me, you can get a Federer autograph like this.Looking for someone in swiss,who can help :)

Quora thread of the week :
In layman's terms, what are the major programming languages, and what are they used for? (Love the first answer).

Android App of the Week: There have been some rave reviews about this hacking tutorial app on Google play store. Checkout if interested.

Cheerio.. Bye Folks..

Comparison of Election manifestos for 2024 Indian general election - BJP Vs Congress

  Some kind soul has compared both the manifestos and linked here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yzUa5PXtgJg_mXJxsLH4zFIcA6Ohy5ho/edit...