At Dell, we are always fascinated by the power of people and computers coming together to create even more than they could have done on their own. Not only have we seen the incredible force of social media on our own business, but we have also seen some of our products, like laptops, workstations and servers, power some truly amazing innovation. For example, two of our services, Educational Technology and EMR Solutions, are key contributors to the spreading of two of the wonderful collaborations listed below.
1) Human Genome Project
The Human Genome Project was a massive undertaking. Without computers, the work of sorting out that information would take the dedicated effort of an entire civilization. In fact, because computers improved so much during the course of the research, the project was actually completed two years ahead of schedule.
2) Revolutionizing Revolution
Revolutions occur when the human desire for freedom is combined with a galvanizing idea to change society. Today, face-to-face contact and printed calls to action have been joined by social media as ways to spread ideas and organize like never before. This impact is even greater when combined with cellphones allowing protestors to coordinate more quickly and safely. From Occupy Wall Street to the Arab Spring, the digital world has shown that it can change the real world. And the explosion of human information with interconnected digital collaboration in the world is only increasing.
3) Digitizing Books
You may feel like CAPTCHA, the all-too-familiar blurry scramble of letters required to access many websites, is a waste of time. So did the inventors of CAPTCHA, who went on to create reCAPTCHA. The words for this system are pulled from a massive database of words from scanned library books – so now, the 200 million daily users of reCAPTCHA are helping to preserve and decipher a huge digital archive… the epitome of humans and computers coming together for greater good.
Sources: Grossman, Lev (2008-06-05). "Computer Literacy Tests: Are You Human?". Time (magazine). Bajaj, Vikas (April 25, 2010). "Spammers Pay Others to Answer Security Tests". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-04-28 http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/google_inc/google_book_search/index.html
Studies show that integrating computers into the classroom lowers dropout rates - and schools with higher laptops to kids ratios see an even better result. However, the biggest impact comes when educators and technology come together in the right way…through things like routine developmental assessments and teacher collaboration.
5) Electronic Medical Records (EMR)
As medical records and communications move to a digital format, preventable errors will be reduced. Hospitals will be able to provide better care and doctors will have more time to spend on patients instead of paperwork.
Sources: http://www.chitrec.org/news/cdc-issues-latest-emrehr-adoption-figures-among-office-based-physicians http://www.medpagetoday.com/PracticeManagement/InformationTechnology/19928
6) Oil and Gas Meet Technology
Energy companies face growing demand and increasing costs. Computer technology helps them to predict the location of new oil and gas deposits. By speeding the process of exploration and reducing the number of exploratory wells needed, computer simulations reduce the costs and environmental footprints of energy exploration.
To post a comment
login or create an account
I'd love to hear what other people think are some other great human+computer combinations that make 1+1=3. Just add it to the comments.