Social media platform will make better employment market

In post 3, I discuss the UN sustainable goal to assure everyone has a decent job and keep the economic growth, which is the key factor to have a stable and healthy society.

To achieve the goal, in the view of an information engineer, I think the government can use the power of the Internet to build a social media platform for the employers and employees. In the platform, the employers can post their need for the labors. They can filter out and give interview opportunities to the labors they want. For the employees, they can upload their online resume and apply for the positions they want. And the platform is not just a normal recruitment website. The members on the website can share the interview experience and introduce company environment for those applicants. And applicants can ask the questions if there is any doubt. I think the interaction between the employers and the employees can make the employment market more mature and clear, which can make the rule more suitable for everyone. The role of the government can be the coach, consultant, and mediator between the management and the labor. If there is any dispute, the government can offer the mediation service to solve the problems. The direct power can ensure the right for all groups of people. The government can also collect the one-hand data from the labor market and make more precise policy to improve the country competitiveness.

I think this platform can solve most of the problems and achieve the sustainable goal of offering a decent job to everyone and keeping the economic growth by using the power of the internet. As the spreading impact of the internet, the power of employers will be de-centralized and fairer to everyone.

*photos are downloaded from the google searches

UN sustainable goal 8, decent work and economic growth

The UN sustainable goals are set for transforming the world by 2030. Among the 17 goals, I think the most important one is the goal 8, decent work and economic growth.

As the saying goes, “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day and teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.” Letting everyone feed themselves well and have a family seems simple, but a fatal problem for every regime. In imperial China, if a drought hit the mainland China, leading the famine, and the emperor did not handle the problem well, it may result in the uprising of the people against the regime. Hence, making everyone feed themselves well is the necessary factor of a proper life.

Not only feeding people well, assuring the work opportunity and economic growth is also the way to make sure the people to chase for the better quality of life. When there is a group of middle-class people in the society, mostly, they are the most eager people to chase for the political reform so that avoiding broaden the gap between the rich and the poor. I think middle-class people are the most important factor to sustain the steady society because they are able to balance the wealth of society and have the specific skill to contribute to the country. They are also able to monitor the government so that they will not deprive the benefit of them, resulting in the better quality of the government. Hence, I think the most essential UN sustainable goal is to make people have decent work and keep the economic growth well. It can make virtuous cycle among all the group of people in society.

*photos are downloaded from the google searches

 

Context, application in real life, and IoT issue

It has been a month since the class IERG3320 started, and the most interesting lecture for me is the context and context-computing on week 2-2. It introduced the concept about the context, which is defined that an agent’s understanding of the relationships between the elements of the agent’s environment. For example, imagine we drive on the road, we are the agents who keep perceiving the information that the changing environment gives. When we see a red traffic sign, we feel endangered and raise our alertness. In the example, we, or the agents, perceive the information from the traffic sign and understand the meaning or feeling the sign gives on the streets, which is the environment.

 

There is a similar technical application for the context, like Amazon Go. Amazon Go is a technique that by tracking the people action and the mobile device, we can simply buy the stuff in a store without waiting in lines and checking out. The technology behind it is that when the customer comes to the store and shows the mobile device, the camera will track the person and its mobile device location, when the customer picks up something to the shopping cart, the sensors on the shelf and the cameras will identify it and synchronize the information to the app on the mobile device. Once the customer leaves the store, he/she will pay the bill automatically on the device. It eliminates the time-wasting problem during the peak period.

This kind of application relies on the technology called the Internet of Things, or IoT. Imagine that we live in a world that everything can connect to the internet, and our mobile device is like the passport to everywhere. Wherever I go, the mobile device can catch the information from the surrounding internet device. For instance, if I walk on the sneaker street in Mong Kok, my mobile device will get the surrounding information, like the shop information, restaurant information, etc. I think it is a progress, but still, the privacy will be a problem since there is no privacy if we are under the world fully connected to the internet. For example, in China, the government is experimenting to use the CCTV to monitor the citizens with the face recognition technology. The advantage is that we can reduce the crime rate and catch the criminal more easily and efficiently. However, if we are under supervision for every second, then the government will have great power to control our daily life. Like the novel 1984, the government can strictly limit the freedom of speech and action by the CCTVs all over the world. I think absolute power corrupts absolutely, we may need a new political rule in the future.

*photos are downloaded from the google searches

What is information and what does it mean to me as an information engineer?

To start this topic, I would like to define the term, information. I think information is the content that can be conveyed, interpreted, and meaningful.

The evolution of the form of the information can be thought of as the evolution of the way people interact with each other. The most ancient form of information is the word, and the word, an abstract symbol, can be documented and interpreted into meaningful and readable concepts. The word helps the people reserve the knowledge and improve the efficiency of communicating with each other. People can write the letter with words, and transmit the letter to others who can interpret the words and receive the idea that the writer wants to convey. After the scientific and industrial revolution, as the technology improves, the way and the content of information can be conveyed and documented in a totally different way. First, the camera was invented in 1827, the graph can be saved to negative film; then, the phonograph was invented to play the recorded voice, in 1888, the first movie is shot in France. The information had come to the age of image, voice, and the video. Although the image, voice, and the video were a huge leap compared to the word, however, the information still cannot be transmitted freely and spread to the mass people immediately and virally. Finally, in the late 20 century, the internet was installed throughout the world. People can interact with each other in the global network, and the cost to send the information has greatly reduced. For example, Facebook is the leader in the social network industry, the users can share their posts and videos on the social platform, and the information can be transmitted all over the world without any cost. The internet has changed the way the information is propagated and strengthen social interaction value of the information.

As an information engineering student, I think the way the information is transmitted is passive currently, and I believe that AI is the next dominated technology in the near future. With the AI technology, the information can be recommended to the people who may be interested in by the algorithms. AI can also analyze the content of the information by itself, for example, Facebook has the technique to distinguish who the person is in the photo, and Youtube can distinguish and generate the subtitle automatically when the video is playing. Such great progress of the application has influenced and benefitted our life a lot with the AI technology. However, we still have more problems to solve like the auto-driving car industry. If we can build a network among the vehicles and the vehicles can communicate with each other, then it can estimate where the traffic jam will happen and re-arrange a new route to the destination, which will reduce the time-taking risk.

Living in the information-overwhelming era is a blessing and a curse, many people waste most of their time getting the useless information and most of the internet-addicted people are leaving the real world for the virtual stimulation, in the movie, Ready Player One, raised a social issue that whether living in a virtual world benefits or not. I think it is a good lesson for us to think about.

*photos are downloaded from the google searches