Modern and Contemporary Computing

Question: Discuss about the Modern and Contemporary Computing ? Answer: Introduction Contemporary computing started its journey from the early nineteenth century. Since then the popularity and advantages of modern computing grew more and more. It came in like a blessing to modern civilization that brought about a revolutionary change in the way of living of present generation. Modern computing can be seen as an assemblage; with the over the top high-tech technological innovations that help improve the daily life style of modern people. The invention of newer and smarter technologies had brought positive impacts on business, economy, education, career and what not. The autonomous electronic devices with new and improved software and hardware components, database security, increased speed and power of processing etc has made it a lot easier as well as secure to lead a life of luxury and comfort (Prell, 2012). Modern computing is very closely related to the study of Science and Technology and its positive and negative impact and social and cultural life and economy at l arge. Actor Network Theory Actor Network Theory, created by Bruno Latour and Michel Callon in 1960, occupies a significant part in the studies of Science and Technology. It focuses on the man machine interactions and the various aspects of its impact on the sociological and technological attributes. With the advent of modern contemporary computing, the relationship between man and machine has grown to be stronger and closer. A.N.T. theory utilizes this aspect to analyse a system on the perspective of the human and non human actors involved and their interactions as a network of systems. With the help of Actor Network Theory, a story can be analysed from a sociological as well as a technological view point. The A.N.T. writers have termed these human and non human actors as actants and the objects that are interchanged between them is referred to as token (Hayes, 2011). Actor Network Theory covers a large aspect of Science and Technology studies that analyses the questions and answers regarding the utilization o f various technologies and their impact on society, their relationship with the sociological attributes as well as the vast effects it makes in our everyday lives. Why It Is Suitable For Studying Computing Actor Network Theory is very useful in lot of aspects of modern and contemporary computing. Using AN.T, we can distinguish the human and non human actants in a system or network and thereby define the relationships among them. Actor Network Theory characteristics deals with the evaluation of statistical analysis documentation, surveys and case studies that provide a knowledge base to identify the technological factors and their individual impact on modern society. The fundamental concept of A.N.T. is solely dependent on the study of Modern Computing theories. Story 1: An Example of Mobile Cloud Computing Best Practice 2009 had over 4 billion mobile phone users across the world. In early 2014 the number of users grew to be over 6 billion. Cetrom provides easy mobile cloud computing services to support the customers especially those who travel constantly. With the IaaS of cloud platform the internet-ready devices can be used for lots of activities other than just making calls. It helps them enhance their productivity and boost their performance by facilitating mobile email and mobile apps. They provide the customers the freedom to use any devices such as Blackberry, Android, iPhone, iPad etc to avail their cloud services (Matthewman, 2011). Actants: One of the interesting approaches of ANT is that this theory places the non-human objects and the humans on the same plane. In order to be able to explore the inter-relationships among them, first we should identify these actants. The success and popularity of cloud computing in todays world is sure to bring tremendous change in society, culture as well as global economy. According to A.N.T theory, the actants in this context can be both human and non-human. The non-human actants are the business organizations as well as industries that support cloud computing services to their consumers. Procurement of cloud is also supported through credit cards and anyone is allowed access to it. When the impacts of cloud on IT are judged, it can be said that cloud implementation will no longer be within the boundaries of specific IT departments. Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) has made it possible for the non-tech-savvy users to create their own application using PaaS (Platform as a Service). Further, global economy is also changed: the need of outsourcing is reduced as cloud is providing services to customers and host communication around the world (Khachidze, 2012). Business and marketing strategies are changed as busines ses no longer need to invest in expensive infrastructures, instead they can connect to the internet and utilize clouds data as well as applications that are already available in the cloud. Story 2: Amazons Big Data Predictive Analytics Success When it comes to Analytics, one cannot simply omit mentioning Amazons name. Amazon analytics has brought revolutionary improvements to their business revenues. Big datas power of predictive analytics is smoothly utilized to customize the organizations business, marketing as well as advertising ways. Predictive analytics can be very useful in predicting the user and customers interest and future activities. Success of big datas predictive method is also prominent by Facebooks over use of analytics to extract users information and accordingly show them pages and advertisements that will interest them. Actants: From the perspective of actor network theory, the human and non human actants involved in the underlying big data predictive analytics story are identified and thereby the overall network or process i.e. how the system interacts and operates depending on the nature of interrelationships between these actants are analysed. First and foremost thing is to categorise these actants in the story (Chen, Yung and Zhu, 2012). Actor network theory identifies the technological actants as tools and techniques used in predictive analytics such as data mining and database management activities, data processing and transmission mediums, networking measures, technical functionalities behind extracting the raw customer data and process them, access mechanisms etc. The computing theory as an assemblage can be used as an effective tool to inspect the methods how data and knowledge information can be transformed into valuable assets of expertise and the way it occupies a social and material dem and. Furthermore, the social studies are affected by the large number of fields and high volume complexity of big data analytics such as data mining, predictive tools and data linking. The technological actants described above plays a huge role in the social life of people through the interaction with human actants (sociological aspects), for example, database users, customers, large industrial businesses, various organizations operating on electronic commerce infrastructures as well as data mining predictive tools to facilitate marketing and business, users of social media and networking websites. The impact of predictive analytics can be huge on the social as well as technical platform. Based on the Actor Network Theory, the implementation of data mining and big data is analysed and the actants are distinguished as the organizations and business who utilize it and the customers and users on whom the theory is applied (Tatnall, 2011). The organizations can really be favoured by this technology as they can use it to increase their revenue and discover smarter business strategies. But on the other hand, the customers and users privacy and security of information is as stake. The over use of predictive technology to extract users personal data can be quite beyond the ethical limit to some extent if we look at the social point of view. A set of legal laws or government regulations need to be followed to preserve internet users privacy and confidentiality of information. Conclusion Modern and contemporary computing plays a vital part in the lives of civil society as an assemblage. Various components of computing related to social networking and social media, business and electronic commerce, online marketing etc paves the path our social, political, economical as well as cultural habits and beliefs. With passing days, the number of newly invented smarter high-tech technologies is growing and it is sure to change the overall outlook and lifestyle of modern generation over the years (Cafaro and Aloisio, 2011). 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