Question

Questions:

1. What is e-waste? What is so dangerous about e-waste? Many well-meaning individuals thought that recycling was the answer to the e-waste problem. But why hasn't e-waste recycling yielded the results hoped for?

2. What are network effects? Think about the kinds of technology products that you own, or websites you use, that are subject to network effects. What sorts of exchange do these products leverage (e.g., information, money, software, or other media)? Give several concrete examples and explain them as clearly as you can in your own words.

3. Find an article online that discusses the problem of e-waste, preferably one that also proposed a solution. In your own words summarize and critique the article. Do you think it is a viable solution? Why or why not? Be sure to include the URL to your article.

4. Describe the impact that your chosen information system has on your organization. Be sure to consider both the positive and negative impacts. Over-dependence on an information system can be a negative impact, so also discuss whether your organization has any contingency plans for business continuity during system outages.

Posting must be a minimum of 250 words and no more than 5% plagiarism.

Answer 1

1. E-waste is nothing but the old technology laced equipments, which have been discarded by the users. This includes mobile phones, laptops, tv, dvd players, etc. In the 21^st century and with the evolution of technology, the versions of these electronic equipments are released in an agile atmosphere, at quite a tremendous pace. This has increased the rate of release of e-waste in the environment.

E-waste is usually considered quite dangerous. The primary reason being that e-waste really quite toxic gases and hazardous substances in the environment. Some of such substances are mercury, lead and cadmium. These can impact the overall environmental sustainability of the society. It can have ill effect on the mental and physical stability of the humans. Hence release of e-waste in the society is quite alarming. Though recycling of e-waste is possible, it is quite labor and equipment intensive. The time taken for such a process is also quite lengthy and the process is complicated and quite costly. Hence the recycling of e-waste is not a common affair and has not given substantial results.

2. Network effect is basically a phenomenon under which a group of people, usually comprising high number, collaborate to enhance the value of a product or a service. One of the most common example of network effect is the Internet. In the 90s, there were very few users who had access to the Internet. So, the value addition of Internet was quite low during that time. However, with time, people started embracing Internet and the overall usability of the Internet increased tremendously. In the 21^st century, people cannot imagine their life without the Internet. Internet facilitates the exchange of thoughts, information as well as money. So, we can state the network effect is quite evident in the Internet. With enhanced embracement, the overall value additional of the Internet to the society has increased considerably.

3. Article Name: Electronic Waste (E-Waste): How big of a Problem is it?

Author: Rubicon Global

Publication Date: Jan 16, 2018

In this article, the author starts by giving a brief overview about e-waste – what is e-waste, what comprises e-waste, etc. Then the author has proceeded to elaborate on the way human activities are increasing the rate of e-waste release in the environment and the impact of such a release in the environment.

E-waste basically is the discarded electronic equipments like mobile phones, tablets, computers, video game consoles, etc. The manufactures of the electronic equipments usually follow the agile model of production. So they come up with a newer version of the equipment, every 3-4 months. People, who have become quite tech savvy with time, discard their old equipments and try to embrace the latest equipments. This is increasing the overall rate of e-waste in the environment.

The primary effect of e-waste in the environment is as follows:

• E-waste releases toxic pollutants in the atmosphere which is increasing the cancer producing aerosols in the air
• E-waste is contaminating water with toxic metals like mercury, barium, lithium, etc. which is making the water poisonous for consumption
• The release of e-waste in soil is decreasing the overall fertility of soil and making the produce toxic and poisonous

So, we can conclude that stringent steps must be taken to keep a check on the release and recycle of e-waste to maintain the overall sustainability of environment.

4. I work in a departmental store, which is quite tech savvy. In a departmental store operation, some of the ways in which technological advances can be embraced, are:

• Management Information system (MIS) can be used to manage the customer details and keep a record of their regular purchase. This will facilitate the customer service of the store and make the customers happy.
• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) can be used to manage the inventory of the store.
• Data analytics can be used to study the past demand data, so as to predict future demand for items, sold in the store.

Some advantages of using advanced technology in the departmental store operations are:

• Operations like inventory management and reordering can be automated
• Consumer service can be improved considerably
• The employees can focus on the core operations as the non-core elements can be taken care by technology
• Turn- around time for any process will get reduced considerably

Some of the disadvantages of using advanced technology in the departmental store operations are:

• Store operations may become complex
• May lead to too much dependency on technology

Big Data is the technical term, used to denote large chunks of structured and unstructured data, supported and hosted by the company, which may be analyzed to improve the operations of the company and make predictions.

In the departmental store, Big Data can be incorporated to analyze the spending habits of the regular consumer. This will help the store to come up with customized offers which will help in customer retention and developing brand for the company.