Sport Management - The Future

Sport Management in the past primarily focused on recreational facilities in schools and youth centres. In the UK, It is compulsory for all school children to undertake P.E (physical education) lessons as part of the school curriculum. (Teachernet)

However at present and into the future we are seeing a shift away from this focus on sport management. Chelladurai explains that in the future sports management will focus on the following key aspects;

• Social Issues

“Americans find themselves working longer hours and reducing the time previously spent on spent in leisure activities. This ‘time squeeze’ is certain to affect the clientiele of many recreation programs just as it has every other group in our society” (S.J Young). In order to meet the needs of these time hungry consumers businesses must be prepared to adapt to changing market conditions.  There by providing a profitable service which is of economic benefit.

 

• Increased costs associated with consuming sport

Providing a sporting function needs to be profitable for the organisation. As the business focus upon sport becomes more apparent, business aim to reduce costs associated with providing sporting facilities.  Information systems in the future will help managers make strategic decisons based upon its sporting facilities, thereby maximising its efficiency.

 

• Public support for teams

 

For sports management in the future Information Systems will play a vital role such as those offered by Serva Sport. As businesses understand the benefits such systems will be adopted by more organisations as they aim to streamline their existing sport functions and maximise the potential profit they can harness from their sporting facilities.  Chelladurai comments “There is economic significance in sport”; Therefore with companies such as Serva Sport providing information system solutions this will allow the organisation to make strategic decisons based upon providing up to date information from accurate data.

The benefit of providing such a service would reduce overheads and maximise cost efficiency with the savings being passed onto the sport participant. As Serva Sport explain “Attract new members, volunteers and fans to their sport and to their organisation”, thereby making sport attractive and accessible to all and in doing so increase its potential as a viable profitable business function.

The future of dementia treatment - Bionics - We have the technology to remind you!

At first glance it may seem that the future of cognitive prosthetics for the alleviation of the symptoms of dementia would follow that of other technologies and computer systems. Normally you would expect to see an increase in power and capability of systems as well as a concurrent miniaturisation of those same systems.

Unfortunately when dealing with dementia sufferers these “advances” may not confer any advantages and may in fact be disadvantageous. 

Dementia sufferers and their carers, when asked their needs identified several key areas that they felt need to be addressed (http://www.cogknow.eu/overview/user-needs)-

1. memory problems of the person with dementia.

2. communication.

3. enough meaningful activities during the day.

4. feelings of safety.

5. information.

An increase in power and capability of the system would allow it to have many more features. But what?

Perhaps an evolution of the “smart home” concept (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_Home) where every facet of the home is integrated into the system? A system that monitors all doors and windows, while simultaneously keeping the heating at a suitable temperature and ordering in new milk for the bottle that has just been used?

Unfortunately, with dementia sufferers this kind of system would be more of a hindrance, offering much more than was needed and perhaps, confusing the situation and the sufferer more than before.

What about miniaturisation? Here, it would be advantageous to have less intrusive peripheral equipment such as, sensor nodes for a buildings doors. Unfortunately, a miniaturisation of the control systems would be counter to the needs of the dementia sufferer. As it stands, a flatscreen monitor is reasonably unobtrusive yet can demand attention when flashing an alert and can display large, easily, understood icons. A second palmtop-sized controller is the right size to be highly portable, yet not too small as to become easily lost.

Perhaps we must take a quantum leap forward to examine the future in this area? Well, It can be said that the old science fiction fables of mind and machine being melded together are getting ever closer with the development of bionic eyes (http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7216 , http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6368089.stm) and limbs (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5140090.stm , http://www.tfot.info/articles/1004/mind-controlled-bionic-limbs.html) that are connected to the nervous system and even controlled directly by thought (inductive and invasive systems).

Bionic Eye.

 

 Bionic Woman!

So, it is not unfeasible that within our lifetimes that a dementia sufferer will think to themselves, “Where are my house keys?” and a more advanced internalised system will be able to interpret this thought, find the sensor equipped keys, then flash a visual mark showing the keys location in the dementia sufferers sight. Other non-verbal reminders could be sent to the sufferer in a similar manner, such as a reminder to take a certain pill along with a picture of the pill itself appearing within the sufferers sight. A system such as this would have the additional benefit of being invisible to other people allowing the dementia sufferer to escape the unfortunate stigma that persists in society regarding dementia.

Whilst we are at the stage of utilising mind and machine “bionic” interfaces to combat neurological problems today (http://www.thestar.co.uk/barnsley/Surgery-turns-Clive-into-a.3759804.jp) it could be argued that by the time an integrated system that “cures” dementia (perhaps an implantable backup memory drive for the brain!) are developed fully, we will hopefully have developed treatment modalities that can eradicate the causes of dementia. For example, investigations into the use of stem cell therapy to repair and regrow neurological tissue are currently underway - http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2002/11.21/01-stem.html .

Until such time as the treatments are fully developed, tested and routinely used there is a clear need for the CogKnow system, and even whilst treatments are being rolled out in the future there will still be less developed markets requiring a less state of the art solution to their problems.

The future of open innovation

I’ve came across some interesting videos relating to ‘open innovation’ and the underlying drivers and facilitators effecting it and what the future holds for this concept. Rather then post all the videos here, follow the link below to view them.

Open Innovation videos

Another article I found relates to the possibility of users driving manufacturers out of business by developing their own forms of software and toolkits.

http://www.openeur.com/blog/en/2007/11/13/mcpc2007-hippel/

Also the article below is worth taking a look at as it mentions how openness has both positive and negative effects on the future trends of businesses.

http://www.rieti.go.jp/en/events/bbl/07012501.html

Social Networking: The Future

I’ll try and keep this more concise then previous assignment blog posts of mine.

The future of social networking websites is very much open to debate in terms of personal opinion. However, I’ve came across some interesting articles regarding this subject. A recent post on theregister.co.uk last month I found to be quite interesting as it highlights why these sites became popular in the first place and then slowly faded away slightly as users bored of the novelty factor. The key points that could be summarized from it are;

• Average time users spend on top three sites ( Bebo, MySpace and Facebook) is on the slide.
• User engagement is dropping off which affects the powerfulness of advertising.
• Once the novelty of MySpace wears off, most people only stop by to check out bands or watch videos.
• Facebook behaviour generally involves the process of joining to accumulate dozens of semi-friends, spy on a few exes for a bit, play some Scrabulous, get bored, then get on with your life, occasionally dropping in to respond to a message or see some photos that have been posted.

It could be suggested that these points may have no factual information to back them up and are very much personal opinion. However, ComScore tracked the number of U.S people using social networking sites and posted recent figures last month to suggest that there is a significant drop in traffic for many of the sites we have come to know and use.

Average Minutes per Visitor	Dec-06	Jan-07	Feb-07			Oct-07	Nov-07	Dec-07
Total Internet : Total Audience	1,764.90	1,746.90	1,721.90			1,817.70	1,732.70	1,684.90
MYSPACE.COM	234.6	227.5	184.8			192.9	196	179.3
BEBO.COM	213.3	417	302.7			231.8	246.8	173.9
FACEBOOK.COM	150.4	170.2	199.9			195.6	189.7	169.4
HI5.COM	22.7	34	28.1			53.6	62.5	56.6
FRIENDSTER.COM	39.5	38.6	31.5			109.2	69.8	39.2
Windows Live Spaces	17.3	14.6	17.2			14	13.2	14.9
LINKEDIN.COM	8	6.7	5			8.7	9.9	7.1
Unique Visitors (000)	Dec-06	Jan-07	Feb-07			Oct-07	Nov-07	Dec-07
Total Internet : Total Audience	174,199	175,559	175,653			182,206	182,362	183,619
MYSPACE.COM	60,887	61,524	64,443			71,982	68,746	68,905
FACEBOOK.COM	19,105	18,961	16,737			32,910	33,660	34,658
Windows Live Spaces	9,589	9,057	8,320			9,854	9,884	8,912
BEBO.COM	2,977	3,602	2,641			4,442	3,674	4,279
LINKEDIN.COM	872	1,122	1,211			2,782	2,784	2,868
HI5.COM	3,029	2,299	2,640			2,454	2,165	2,483
FRIENDSTER.COM	1,103	1,288	1,379			1,668	1,687	1,791

A brief look at the table above does show that there is a drop in traffic for some social networking sites. It is important to remember though that due to the level of competition that exists, it is inevitable that some of them have to suffer. At the moment it is hard to predict whether or not the future of social networking will involve one dominant site, if there will actually be any interest left in such websites or will companies like Facebook, MySpace and Bebo agree to a unified network whereby users can use the same login on all sites. Given the unpredictability of new trends on the Internet, no one quite knows.

Articles worth taking a look at:

Facebook Fatigue

Social networking sites slow down

The future of the Blog

Blogging has undoubtedly grown in size and in technology from its humble beginnings as a simple online text only diary. Blogs can now contain images, sound clips and video. However the future for blogging is somewhat uncertain.

Wharton legal studies professor Dan Hunter says that blogging is as significant a step as the introduction of the printing press in dispersing information.

Source (http://www.news.com/The-future-of-blogging/2030-1069_3-5654288.html)

However bloggers do not seem to have the same legal rights as a journalist would. It seems from reading materials about the future of blogging, that the legal implications involved with blogging may have an impact on what the future holds for the blog.

People who decide to video blog on youtube have been hit recently with youtube cracking down on so called copyright infringement.

There is no doubt that the future of blogging will become more networked, with people linking other peoples articles into their blogs. Social networking and blogging in the future will be inseperable.

It may also be the case that blogging will be large businesses main way of advertising. Companies such as Coca-Cola already have a blog at

http://www.coca-colaconversations.com

The advantages in the future to businesses such as Coca-Cola include putting a human face on the corporation.

With the introduction of viral videos to blogs the Coca-Cola brand can get exposure to customers around the world quite cheaply. For example the following Coca-Cola viral video has been online for a week and has already had well over 392,655 hits from youtube users all over the world.