Getting the big picture

Lots are happening in the technology space and this is because how people are currently using Internet to interact, socialize and share content. It is amazing to see how user behavior has opened up numerous opportunities to make business and do research. Last year (2007) I was at a conference, Communities and Technologies at MSU, to organize a workshop http://ebusiness.tc.msu.edu/cct2007/page4g.html on SMEs. The conference was an eye-opener for me. It was a first experience for me to be in a conference, where I do not just meet computer scientists but researchers and practitioners from various domains like social sciences, information science, management studies, ethnography etc, etc. There, I was amazed to find out about two main things: (1) how Internet is being used as a warehouse of information, or as a platform to interact and (2) how ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) is being used as a tool to connect the world, to uplift the lives of the under-privileged communities or to help the small businesses make money, i.e., to make a better living. Attending the various presentations, subsequently going over different articles, helped me to see the big picture: the common users are extremely powerful and they can do many things; they set directions in how technologies move; companies get new avenues to make money or researchers find new problems to solve. Technology (ICT) is a great enabler to help the users and in turn, users use and then find new ways to use the technology, which the technologists themselves might not have envisaged. This was my inspiration for me to look beyond research problems and take a holistic view of the technological world and see where new opportunities lie.