Sports Management: Social Implications

This post will focus on the social implications of utilizing software and systems for sports management with relation to Web 2.0 technology which currently exists.

‘Web 2.0 is a trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to facilitate creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users.’ (wikipedia.com)

Today, there are two categories of sports which we have come to know. The conventional sports which we are all aware such as football, rugby, tennis etc. However, given the number of people turning to computers for entertainment purposes by playing computer games, E-Sports are slowly becoming more popular in recent years as many people seek to compete professionally.

‘Electronic sports, abbreviated e-sports or eSports, is used as a general term to describe the play of video games as a professional sport’ (wikipedia.com)

-It is estimated that there are over 5 million volunteers offering their free time to help sports organizations. With the use of sports management software, many of these tasks can be automated such as organizing league tables, contacting team members and more.

-Sports management software offers a more rapid response then conventional manpower. Repetitive and unproductive tasks can be conducted by the system meaning people associated with the sports have more free time to partake. This may lead to greater retention of staff as they can now focus on their love for sport itself rather then mediocre tasks associated with the operation of it.

-It acts as a support network for volunteers, players and management associated with the sport.

An example of sports management software is TeamSnap

• A new service from Portland based SparkPlug; TeamSnap brings amateur sports management to Web 2.0. Anybody who has coached or managed a sports team knows how much work is involved. Managing team rosters, fees and event schedules is a time consuming chore. TeamSnap aims to simply the management of the various aspects of running any sort of team by providing an online destination, a CRM tool of sorts for amateur sports management

Features of TeamSnap

• Built in support for rosters
• Scheduling
• Player availability
• Payment tracking
• Private forum
• Bulk email sending
• Private messaging
• Photo sharing service
• Statistics
• Refreshment organizing

The management software is currently free during its beta phase with the intention of offering a free version post beta. It offers simplicity for small sports management tasks like local teams and customizability and advanced features suited to larger, more professional sporting events.

The social implications associated with software such as this is that users of it can interact with each through the use of message boards to organize when training will happen, match times, who will be playing on the team and much more. Individuals associated with the sport no longer need to be restricted to meetings to sort out such issues. This software can also act as a marketing tool for the sports team by allowing people to become involved in how the team is performing, look at pictures of players and matches they have played to date as well as share their thoughts etc in chat rooms, private messaging, message board and more.

The social implications of Web 2.0 technology in relation to sports management are quite clear. It helps to free up time for those involved meaning more focus on the sport, makes it simpler for volunteers to communicate with each other, creates a community of interested parties and should reduce pressure in terms of cost management and frustration.

Kids being raised by the internet.

Though im loathe to repeat a story from our sensational newspapers today, I will anyway (and from that paragon of responsible journalistic integrity the Daily Mail too!).

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=542968&in_page_id=1766&ito=1490

 20 hours a week at the computer? I think thats probably better than 20 hours a week in front of the television. At least with social networking sites there is a degree of social interaction occurring rather than zombiefication in front of the latest “dancing celebrities making over an airport departure gate” bbc show.

Assisting people with dementia - The social implications

In today’s society we are faced with the huge problem of an ageing population and a falling birth-rate. What this means is that there will be more older people within the population who may require care once they reach old age. A falling birth rate will result in a fall in the number of economically active people to support this ageing population. As a result of this we as a society face a number of problems such as how will we support the care of these people when they reach old age if the younger generation is shrinking. 

The following facts support the claim of an ageing population and a falling birth rate.

• In several countries, notably Austria and Germany, childlessness is a key cause of the falling birth rate. (http://www.cer.org.uk/pdf/e790_17jan08.pdf)
• By 2020, 25% of the EU’s population will be over 65, mand by 2050 spending on health and long-term care is expected to triple, though the total wealth for this age group is predicted to reach €3000bn. (http://www.ehealtheurope.net/news/2783/ec_looks_to_it_to_help_support_older_people)
• At present, this working age population is swollen by this group (Baby boomers). As they move into retirement, the non-working population is set to increase sharply- while the numbers of working age will decline. (http://www.cer.org.uk/pdf/e790_17jan08.pdf)
• Europe’s changing demographic profile poses political, economic and social challenges that are as important as climate change, security and globalisation. (http://www.cer.org.uk/pdf/e790_17jan08.pdf)

As the current population is ageing and living longer we have the associated problem of diseases which become more prevelant at old age. Dementia being one of them. “Dementia is a condition characterised by a progressive decline of mental abilities accompanied by changes in personality and behaviour. There is commonly a loss of memory and skills that are needed to carry out everyday activities”. (http://www.kingshill-research.org/whatis/)

Dementia poses a huge treat to society. It does not only affect its sufferers but society as a whole. As i have already explained how can we support an ageing population that are living longer if the birth rate is declining? who is going to look after and support these people once they move into old age?. One way of trying to resolve this problem we are facing is the notion of assisted living and the COGKNOW concept. The aim of COGKNOW is “Research for the needs of people with dementia in Europe, helping people to remember, maintain social contact, perform daily life activities and enhance their feelings of safety”.(http://www.cogknow.eu/)  Whilst COGKNOW aims to help people with mild dementia navigate their lives we must take on board the positive and negative social implications such a concept of assisted living can pose on society.

Positive

• Reinforce older people’s involvement in the community through the development of new activities, and through new ways of becoming part of human networks. (http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/health/docs/events/indep-living-nov2005/24-25nov-report-final-draft-june2006.pdf)
• ICT (Information communication technology) as a toll can provide complementary support, give new opportunities, like homecare and support to mobility, and remove the social or geographic distances between elderly people and their families. (http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/health/docs/events/indep-living-nov2005/24-25nov-report-final-draft-june2006.pdf)
• Costs of residential care and hospitalisation are reduced. (http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/aio/87373)
• Real differences to the lives of individual people with dementia and their care network of relatives, neighbours and friends have been made.  (http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/aio/87373)
• A shortage of healthcare professionals, in part due to the ageing population. (http://royalsociety.org/displaypagedoc.asp?id=23425)
• The training needs of professionals working with people with dementia are better understood. (http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/aio/87373)

Negative

• At present, the majority of of older people do not yet enjoy the benefits of the digital age - low cost communications and online services that could support some of their real needs - since only 10% use the internet.  Severe vision, hearing or dexterity problems, frustrate many older people’s efforts (21% of the over 50s) to engage in the information society. (http://www.ehealtheurope.net/news/2783/ec_looks_to_it_to_help_support_older_people)
• Household adoption of ICT has been rapid, particularly among the young and those in the labour market, but much slower among older people. In 2006, 55 per cent of people aged 50 or over in Great Britain had not used a computer in the previoud three months. For those aged 16 to 30, the figure was 13 per cent. (http://www.citizensonline.org.uk/site/media/documents/1805_fda0307.pdf)
• Healthcare professionals, patients and carers can often have unrealistic expectations of what healthcare ICTs can deliver.  (http://royalsociety.org/displaypagedoc.asp?id=23425)
• Publicly provided healthcare systems have limited resources to tackle unlimited demand, which results in serious cost constraints.  (http://royalsociety.org/displaypagedoc.asp?id=23425)
• Healthcare professionals are more likely to resist the introduction of ICTs if they belive that it inhibits their ‘clinical judgement’ and adversely affect the professional-patient relationship.  (http://royalsociety.org/displaypagedoc.asp?id=23425)

It can be noted that “Healthcare ICTs will have an important part in dealing with the expected increase in patient focused healthcare, in chronic disease management and in adapting to the ageing population”. (http://royalsociety.org/displaypagedoc.asp?id=23425) ICT  will play a vital role in helping both patients and carers with diseases in old age such as dementia that are becoming more apparent with todays ageing population.

Social Implications of Open Innovation

Companies can no longer afford to keep all aspects of innovation in-house and must adopt open innovation as a more effective answer to meet the demands of the modern and fast evolving business environment. Open innovation encompasses numerous new approaches to collaborative and co-operative innovation between companies when developing and launching new services and products for their mutual benefit.

Open Innovation requires a different way of thinking in comparison to the more traditional product development cycle. This new mindset needs to be more cooperative and less command-and-control - and its new innovators need to be literally open-minded. There are drawbacks to open innovation and barriers to overcome before it can be successful for all parties involved.

There are three social factors which can hinder the innovative potential of a company.

Apathy - Innovation takes a lot of effort for a potentially exciting but uncertain reward. Rather than take leaps into the unknown it is often easier and more predictable to drag out a bit more performance or profit from an existing product or to shave costs off production. There is an element of bravery involved with open innovation that does not often sit well with today’s businesses, which are largely managed to minimise risk.

Culture and tradition - Companies have much invested in their innovation processes. The traditional stage by stage model of project management is popular, tried and tested. Open innovation, however, opens up the funnel that needs to be adapted to encompass flows of technology and ideas outside an organisation. Traditional development can be compared to old-fashioned analogue technologies and open innovation to a digital regime with fewer ‘bandwidth’ constraints and more emphasis on connections.

Psychology - It can be difficult for a business steeped in the principles of competition to embrace cooperation. There is a suspicion of outsiders and an ingrained habit of secrecy. Employees are rarely trained to exploit external innovations. Will people really give their all for a ‘not invented here’ invention? How do you encourage employees to supply a flow of high-potential innovations to a huge corporate machine?

However, the benefits of Open Innovation far outweigh the barriers. The sharing culture of Open Innovation enables wider global connections giving companies access to more knowledge. Open Innovation can also build creative communities, which help companies access far more smart, creative people than they could ever employ. Technology companies such as IBM, HP, and Cisco are starting to adapt their internal product life-cycle and development to accommodate open innovation.

Funny skit on how facebook can “take over your life”

Found this on youtube and thought it funny!

Social Implications of Social Networking

There are very serious repercussions to online social networking sites if you are not careful. Sites like Myspace and Facebook are an excellent medium to catch up with old friends and meet new people with similar interests but they can also be a hindrance to you both personally and professionally. Social Networking is a service that can be both used and abused.

One of the most important implications of social networking is that whatever you post online is a permanent record. All those photos of you partying with friends, stupid pranks captured on video, negative comments, and intimate secrets that you write have your name stamp on them. It’s commonly known that employers from all areas (not to mention potential partners and university recruiters) use these sites to get an overlook of who you are as a person.

Social networking sites can provide a great platform to meet people with common interests and to share advice. However, it can also provide an open invitation to predators, those who seek personal information for identity theft and other scams, and those thousands of companies seeking to market their products and services to you. It is important to be as careful meeting strangers online as you are meeting them everyday offline.

Another danger social networking brings to its users is time wasted. You can’t replace any of those hours spent online reading jokes, watching videos, or engaging in frivolous conversation. Spending time on your friends’ pages is never as fun as being together in person. Wasting time complaining about your bad day at university online is never as productive as actually doing your assignment.

Research from Global Secure Systems (GSS) and Infosecurity Europe 2008 suggests social networking sites - such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo - are costing UK corporations close to £6.5 billion annually in lost productivity. Which sounds an impossibly large figure, but here’s the maths:

The poll was carried out amongst 776 office workers, who admitted to spending at least 30 minutes a day visiting social networking sites whilst at work, that’s a minimum of 10 hours a month which equates to 3 weeks of every year with two respondents who were so hooked that the spend 3 hours visiting these sites everyday. The end result is potentially billions of pounds in lost productivity maintain GSS, plus the extra demand on bandwidth which is an additional cost to a business in terms of efficiency, maintenance and resources.

Social networking is not all bad however, corporate social networks such as LinkedIn can open leads to new opportunities or jobs. Facebook groups such as Microsoft with its 28,937 members allows you to network with people with the same interests opening the possibilities for research projects. Bebo, Facebook and Myspace allow you to connect, share photos and video with friends you might not see often. But it is important to be careful, keep profiles safe and private and know that all information you post is forever. If you don’t want your granny to know, don’t post it online!

some social implications of blogging

Blog Assignment

What are the significant social implications?

Positive implications -

Gives everyone with access to a computer and the internet a voice on any topic they want. Great forum for debate and discussion (the consequences of which are relatively outside their control and touched upon later)

-In a sense this is compatible with the essence in which the internet was created. CERN and Tim Berners-Lee developed the internet to share information and research between computer users

-Active communication between people and communities on other sides of the globe. Useful for research graduates, businesses or at a personal level people with shared interests, however bizarre they may be (!)

-Easy to use, often free to use, compared with website design and administration. Encourages everyone to use.

-Another form of journalism. Due to blogging’s easy access, anyone can research topics and give their informed or hair-brained opinion on any given subject. Some bloggers have achieved fame/infamy through the popularity of their blogs. Those in the public eye can take advantage; for example David Byrne formerly of the Talking Heads keeps an online blog commenting on his day to day activities and views on life generally.

-Useful links can be posted on blogs for related topics, categories, sub-categories and tags. Has contributed to the proliferation and popularity of blogging as a means of communicating ideas

-Blogging is for some people an important way of expressing themselves; a natural continuation of keeping a diary. Some people who would be too afraid to speak out in public about issues can post their views anonymously. Citizens in countries with tight censorship laws have shown an increase of getting their views across without the fear of personal interaction between themselves and government affiliations for example.

-Developers can provide an insight in to their methodologies and the creative process through the use of a blog. Eg. Film Producers, Television Production Teams, Game Developers and Artists have used blogs to create interest in their products and make the public aware of their progress. A good example of this is Bioware and Bungie’s blogs when creating ‘Mass Effect’ and ‘Halo3’ which had links on the gaming website IGN.com.

Negative implications

-Recent calls for censorship of blogs as a result of ‘online bullying’. A very real phenomenon eg Kathy Sierra received death threats on her blog, prompting a police investigation in March 2007. Blogging can be another way for people to bitch about each other over the water-cooler and the opportunity for this to escalate to bullying is relatively unchecked.

-Calls for a code of conduct from bloggers to stem the tide of online bullying; given the spirit of free speech in which blogging thrives, is there anyway to really moderate the content of blogs?

-Blogs can (but rarely do) act as an entry-point for some people willing to engage in illegal activity. For example crime, underground or extremist organisations.

-Is blogging really constructive or another way to waste time in work or at home, avoiding real social interaction?

-How much time (and as a result money) do workers waste on their blogs at work? Not as much compared to social networking sites but nonetheless many blog sites are banned from workplaces.

-Blogging undoubtably contributes to the unreliability of information on the web. Rumours started on blogs very often turn out to be false or even libellous.

-The very real threat teens face from so-called ‘groomers’ who prey on underage users. They can have anonymous access to information about youngsters’ whereabouts and typical activities. Not as common as media makes out but certainly a real consideration for parents, as it is nearly impossible to gauge who is viewing a blog and what their motives may be for doing so.

-Blogs on sites like Bebo and Facebook are seen by some as being de-valued due to the proliferation of multi-national corporations which buy heavily in to these sites. If a corporation sees you have an interest in football and all of a sudden a Nike banner appears beside your blog, is your opinion de-valued, or is it no longer associated with you, the person? This style of advertising is common in facebook in particular.