TOPIC 7: EMERGING TRENDS IN INTERNET

BASED PROGRAMMING
T7.1) Emerging trends in internet-based programming
As social media, app stores and global availability become standard, many companies are
looking to enhance the online customer experience. And while retail and other transactions
via Internet are customary, more than ever companies are simplifying the ways in which
customers interact with their website and ultimately make online purchases. Here are eight
trends happening right now in global e-commerce that seek to enhance the user experience:

1. Micro-payments: Among the most revolutionary changes in the coming months—not

years—is the use of micro-payment systems from a variety of financial firms, e.g., Paypal,
Visa, WesternUnion, among others, including banks. This trend is facilitated by the W3C
working group that approved these protocols and technical standards for the interworking.
These systems will change not only how we carry money but how we value money and think
about purchases. (Consider how a purchase of $4.99 feels in a mobile app store vs. at
Dunkin‘ Donuts.) Payment systems that make it easier to buy online, coupled with mobile
technologies will accelerate the usage of global e-commerce applications.

2. Mobile technologies: More people access the Internet on their mobile devices than on any
other device. We are rapidly approaching the time (if we are not already there) where designs
must be created for the mobile web first, and for the desktop second. Mobile technologies
facilitate comparison shopping; with the advent of barcode reader apps and price-comparison
databases, a consumer could snap a bar code in Walmart and quickly reference product
reviews and prices on walmart.com (or compare prices with Walmart competitors). Mobile
technologies also facilitate impulse buys – especially with the advent of micro-payments tied
to the mobile device. Just recently, Starbucks customers can not only place an order with
their Smartphone, but also make a purchase.

3. Social media: As Facebook has become the most visited site on the Web, the role of social
media, including Facebook and its local clones such as Twitter, is increasingly important.
Social media sites increasingly act as points of entry to e-commerce sites, and vice versa, as
e-commerce sites build rating, loyalty and referral systems tied to social media. Group buying
(e.g., Groupon) is also gaining mainstream ground, with many ―deal of the day‖ sites
competing for an increasingly savvy consumer base, but improvements lie ahead as the social
aspects and user experience are refined.

4. Fulfillment options: I believe that users will want to have multiple fulfillments and return
options when interacting with a vendor: ship to address, courier, pick-up in store, return to
store, etc. Having many fulfillment options is how customers view their overall customer
experience. Some companies have made a business proposition online by being exceptional
in service to the online channel (e.g., Zappos).

5. Global availability: Increasingly, consumers want the availability to buy products from
foreign sites and have them delivered locally. Thus, currency and customs will be of growing
concern to many online retailers. Along with this, there will be concerns with local privacy
laws and restrictions on related data collection and storage.

6. Localization: While the trend is to globalize, what‘s often more important is to localize.
User Centric‘s (now GfK‘s User Experience team) research clearly shows that sites that ‗feel‘
local – with proper imagery, language, time/date, weights/measures, currency, etc. – resonate
far more than sites that seem culturally distant or sterile.

7. Customizability: Consumers want control, and want to be able to design the details of the
items they purchase.

8. Time-based availability: Some of the hottest and most successful sites are those that have
a time-critical response component. Sites like Groupon, Gilt and others capitalize on the
perception of limited-time availability. Creating a sense of urgency drives traffic and
purchase behavior.

T7.2, T7.3) Challenges & Solution of emerging trends in internet-

based programming
1. Job Losses
Computers, robotics, and automation are driving more and more of production. In turn this is
leading to an enormous impact on the number and type of jobs. An Australian report released
in June 2015 found that 40 per cent of the Australian workforce – or around 5 million jobs –
are at high risk of being replaced by computers in the next 10-15 years. This backs up the
Oxford Martin School‘s 2013 study finding 47 per cent of jobs in the United States are at risk
of being automated using artificial intelligence. We need to move urgently from a discussion
about protecting the jobs of today, to creating the jobs of the future.

2. Commercialization and innovation

There are significant emerging opportunities and challenges for commercialization and
innovation resulting from technological changes to becoming a more sustainable, broad-
based economy:

1. Reducing the tyranny of distance, boosting trade and creating new business models
but also promoting outsourcing of work overseas.
2. Internationalizing labour markets are expanding the skilled labour pool.
3. Developing commercially functional goods and services from new technologies often
takes a lot longer than expected.
4. Leveraging clean technologies to improve sustainability.
5. Fostering entrepreneurship and addressing constraints for Kiwi companies.
6. Addressing slow uptake of new technology due to redundancy risks or ease of
sticking with the status quo and supporting workforce mobility.
7. Managing business change in a disruptive and dynamic business environment.
4. On-demand economy
Stable, permanent fulltime jobs are increasingly being replaced by an anywhere, anytime
work model, facilitated by digital technology which is resulting in a shift towards more
contract work and a more rootless and flexible workforce.

The ―on-demand economy‖ is the result of pairing that workforce with smartphones and other
devices, which now provide far more computing power than the desktop computers which
reshaped companies in the 1990s, and reach far more people.2

The on-demand economy is starting to revolutionize commercial behavior in cities around the
world. Fast-moving tech companies competing in this arena have developed new models –
such as Uber, Handy and Air B&B – that are transforming industries which have been
historically slow to innovate. Transportation, grocery, restaurant and personal service
industries are seeing hyper-growth in the on-demand world.3

However this means a growing gap emerging between workers and their ultimate boss.
Ensuring workers retain their voice within their company is crucial to ensuring new business
models remain responsive. Emerging technology provides more ways than ever to ensure that
this remains possible.

The on-demand economy gives consumers more choice. Consumers may be winners, as can
workers who value flexibility over security such as younger workers, those with portable
skills in demand who attract higher wages, or those who don‘t want to work fulltime. But
those who value security over flexibility, have families or have mortgages are all threatened.
In addition, there are inequities for those who work in the on-demand economy but do not
qualify for superannuation and other benefits. Care is needed to minimize the impact of
change on employment rights and health, safety and environmental protections.4

Smart policy makers can‘t stand in the way of change. We can‘t outlaw on-demand firms.
But we can improve the ways in which we measure employment and wages, and we must
stop treating contractors and freelancers as second class citizens. In effect every contractor is
a small business with the insecurities, demands and potential that goes with that title.

5. Redefining work
Increasing use of digital business models alongside automation and computerization of jobs
will see organizations shift to a smaller number of highly skilled people with scarce skills
working in very different patterns, in order to enhance their competitiveness. Risk and change
management will be crucial to ensuring success here. This has implications not just on how
we manage work but also on the quality of life for our workforce. An AUT study into mobile
technology found it contributes to irregular patterns of work, amplifies social pressures
making boundaries between work and non-work indistinguishable, brings more work into
personal time, and speeds up the way organizations function. Defining when a person is
working and when they are not will be an increasing challenge.

6. Accessibility
Cheap computing power is transforming the way consumers and workers access technology
as even more sophisticated and powerful hand-held smartphones become available. This
eliminates some of the barriers for how work is done. Complex tasks such as programming a
computer or writing a legal brief can now be divided in component parts and subcontracted to
specialists around the world. It also gives greater flexibility – providing an opportunity for
workers and workplaces to create flexible working arrangements.

7. Big data
Big data is changing the way big business operates. Big data involves data collection and
mining to ascertain consumer preferences and behaviour trends that assist companies to
customise their offerings and specifically target their markets. Prompts on Amazon.com for
related book titles are one example of this.

Big data creates new markets and new opportunities. It also drastically increases privacy
risks and raises issues of resilience of cloud based applications and storage to hacking and
other vulnerabilities.

8. Education and Training

Our education system will need to adapt. There is a tension between a model of education
which is aligned to current industry demands churning out work-ready drones who will ‗hit
the ground running‘ and a model which enables rounded professional development and
boosts worker‘s capacity to learn and think in a world where creative and critical skills are at
a premium.

We are not currently training our workforce to be adaptable enough to changes in technology
or providing proper lifelong education solutions for retraining. More needs to be done to
prepare our workforce for the changes to come including looking at universal teaching
computing and coding in schools and improving how we teach technology.

9. Infrastructure
New Zealand is rolling out ultrafast broadband which is transformational. However there are
road blocks to UFB roll-out and uptake. There are huge opportunities for smaller
geographically distant countries like New world where IT has reduced the tyranny of
distance. This raises important issues around getting our infrastructure right inside New
world and reducing the digital divides that exist. We must have robust, resilient and future
proofed affordable international connectivity.

10. Digital Divide

Many people and businesses still lack basic access to broadband particularly rural,
communities. The cost of access to the internet, digital devices, and big data also means many
small businesses and lower income households miss out. This means some of our kids don‘t
get the education they need because they can‘t access the internet at home, our small
businesses are held back and too many New Zealanders miss out on their right to enjoy
access to emerging technologies. Technology is now essential to modern life and learning.
This divide applies not just within society but between countries and New world must ensure
it remains on the winning side of that divide. We are failing to deal with the growing digital
divide. We are losing ground because of lag in the ultra-fast broadband rollout. Schools,
businesses and homes need access to high speed internet as soon as possible while free WiFi
access in more community areas would do much to bridge the digital divide. Options like
Google‘s Project Loon to use high-altitude balloons to deliver internet to rural areas also need
to be explored further.