Identifying Local Opportunities
Opportunity 1:
"GDP: Police didn't leak auditor documents"
https://www.gainesville.com/news/20200130/gpd-police-didnrsquot-leak-auditor-documents
This article concerns the leaked personal information of Carlos Holt, the city auditor. Holt accuses the police department of leaking his personal and medical information when it was sent to private individuals anonymously. However, the police determined after an internal investigation that the leak was not from their records, and were cleared of wrongdoing. The problem in this story is an issue of information protection and organization on the part of the police force, who would probably benefit from a more organized ledger of data flow within their offices. Holt clearly has a problem in that his information is leaked, but the police department also has a problem, since they had to devote time to investigate this claim when a more streamlined system could probably have been beneficial.
Opportunity 2:
"Crash Report: Pilot flew into turbulence to get to daughter's birthday"
https://www.gainesville.com/news/20200130/crash-report-pilot-flew-in-turbulence-to-get-to-daughterrsquos-birthday
This article talks about a pilot who chose to fly in unsafe weather conditions to be at home in time for his daughter's birthday. He unfortunately lost control of the airplane and crashed, and was found dead at the site. He was the only person on board, and the weather conditions likely made visibility an issue, as well as unpredictable wind patterns. The issue here is twofold, one problem being the pilot lacked instruments to accurately lead him through the difficult weather and the other in that the airport he flew out of was not able to stop him from flying in hazardous conditions. The airport has one problem, as it is unable to accurately document what flights come in and out of its airspace, and the pilot had a problem, as his instruments were not detailed enough to allow him to remain in control of the craft.
Opportunity 3:
"Inaugural Gainesville book festival explores local literary legacy"
https://www.gainesville.com/news/20200126/inaugural-gainesville-book-festival-explores-local-literary-legacy
This article reported on the book festival hosted by the Writer's Alliance of Gainesville, which was organized to explore and celebrate local literary talent and readers' favorite authors. The festival featured an oration of Robert Frost's poems, and the entire event sought to shed light on the tradition of written art in Gainesville. The problem here is that clearly there is an unmet desire for congregations of avid readers and writers in Gainesville and while other art forms have festivals to introduce new people to their crafts, the specific medium of writing has remained largely not shown. The people affected by this problem are readers and writers in Gainesville who want to communicate and spend time with like-minded people, and the Writer's Alliance of Gainesville is servicing that desire.
Opportunity 4:
"Spa day draws smiles, laughter from young cancer patient"
https://www.gainesville.com/news/20200125/spa-day-draws-smiles-laughter-from-young-cancer-patient
This article talked about a business called Trinity's Day Spa that sought to brighten the day of a young girl named Trinity, who was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. While the owner did not specialize in henna, she offered to do work for the young girl for free, as well as invite an princess Ariel impersonator to surprise the young girl. In this situation, two problems are being solved by this simple act of kindness. The young girl, Trinity, and her mom have a problem in that they would like for Trinity to receive professional henna art, but it is quite expensive and medical treatments are taking up their budget, and the spa parlor would like to bolster their sales through media, so by offering this free service they receive good publicity and both parties benefit.
Opportunity 5:
"Virtual reality training helps humans spot mental health woes"
https://www.gainesville.com/news/20200123/virtual-reality-training-helps-humans-spot-mental-health-woes
The article talks about new virtual reality technology being formatted to help caregivers and medical professionals identify and diagnose mental health issues in patients, as well as for regular people to identify these traits among friends and family. In this case, a problem was identified by the company Kognito, in that mental health identification was not interactive enough, nor as detailed as it could be to give people the best picture of what mental health issues look like. Thus, Kognito solves this problem for medical professionals and people wanting to gain a better understanding of mental illness to aid potentially ailing friends.
"GDP: Police didn't leak auditor documents"
https://www.gainesville.com/news/20200130/gpd-police-didnrsquot-leak-auditor-documents
This article concerns the leaked personal information of Carlos Holt, the city auditor. Holt accuses the police department of leaking his personal and medical information when it was sent to private individuals anonymously. However, the police determined after an internal investigation that the leak was not from their records, and were cleared of wrongdoing. The problem in this story is an issue of information protection and organization on the part of the police force, who would probably benefit from a more organized ledger of data flow within their offices. Holt clearly has a problem in that his information is leaked, but the police department also has a problem, since they had to devote time to investigate this claim when a more streamlined system could probably have been beneficial.
Opportunity 2:
"Crash Report: Pilot flew into turbulence to get to daughter's birthday"
https://www.gainesville.com/news/20200130/crash-report-pilot-flew-in-turbulence-to-get-to-daughterrsquos-birthday
This article talks about a pilot who chose to fly in unsafe weather conditions to be at home in time for his daughter's birthday. He unfortunately lost control of the airplane and crashed, and was found dead at the site. He was the only person on board, and the weather conditions likely made visibility an issue, as well as unpredictable wind patterns. The issue here is twofold, one problem being the pilot lacked instruments to accurately lead him through the difficult weather and the other in that the airport he flew out of was not able to stop him from flying in hazardous conditions. The airport has one problem, as it is unable to accurately document what flights come in and out of its airspace, and the pilot had a problem, as his instruments were not detailed enough to allow him to remain in control of the craft.
Opportunity 3:
"Inaugural Gainesville book festival explores local literary legacy"
https://www.gainesville.com/news/20200126/inaugural-gainesville-book-festival-explores-local-literary-legacy
This article reported on the book festival hosted by the Writer's Alliance of Gainesville, which was organized to explore and celebrate local literary talent and readers' favorite authors. The festival featured an oration of Robert Frost's poems, and the entire event sought to shed light on the tradition of written art in Gainesville. The problem here is that clearly there is an unmet desire for congregations of avid readers and writers in Gainesville and while other art forms have festivals to introduce new people to their crafts, the specific medium of writing has remained largely not shown. The people affected by this problem are readers and writers in Gainesville who want to communicate and spend time with like-minded people, and the Writer's Alliance of Gainesville is servicing that desire.
Opportunity 4:
"Spa day draws smiles, laughter from young cancer patient"
https://www.gainesville.com/news/20200125/spa-day-draws-smiles-laughter-from-young-cancer-patient
This article talked about a business called Trinity's Day Spa that sought to brighten the day of a young girl named Trinity, who was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. While the owner did not specialize in henna, she offered to do work for the young girl for free, as well as invite an princess Ariel impersonator to surprise the young girl. In this situation, two problems are being solved by this simple act of kindness. The young girl, Trinity, and her mom have a problem in that they would like for Trinity to receive professional henna art, but it is quite expensive and medical treatments are taking up their budget, and the spa parlor would like to bolster their sales through media, so by offering this free service they receive good publicity and both parties benefit.
Opportunity 5:
"Virtual reality training helps humans spot mental health woes"
https://www.gainesville.com/news/20200123/virtual-reality-training-helps-humans-spot-mental-health-woes
The article talks about new virtual reality technology being formatted to help caregivers and medical professionals identify and diagnose mental health issues in patients, as well as for regular people to identify these traits among friends and family. In this case, a problem was identified by the company Kognito, in that mental health identification was not interactive enough, nor as detailed as it could be to give people the best picture of what mental health issues look like. Thus, Kognito solves this problem for medical professionals and people wanting to gain a better understanding of mental illness to aid potentially ailing friends.
Hi John. Concern for one's privacy has become a large issue in recent years because of expanding technology. While, typically more technologically leads to privacy concerns, perhaps the police department could benefit from more security conscious technology (even though the leak was not from them). I also had an opportunity that dealt with privacy, but it was a result of a hack. However, not all technology causes problems as seen in your opportunity 5 where technology helps train medical professionals. Great post!
ReplyDeleteHi John,
ReplyDeleteWell done with this exercise! I really found your 5th opportunity to be quite neat and interesting. Virtual Reality/ Augmented Reality are a promising next-gen technology with a lot of opportunity- I know this first hand being a computer scientist. However, I feel as if sometimes people miss the mark with it. Sometimes there is a much simpler solution, and I feel that may have been the case in the 5th article. I'd be interested to see how Kognito fares in the future.
In addition, I'd be curious to see how you could expand some of these a little more using the what, who, what framework discussed in class. I feel that this may help you to flesh these out a little more beyond the surface.
Hey John,
ReplyDeleteGood morning! After reading your post and thinking about it, I enjoyed reading the content that you posted. I found the second opportunity you presented highly interesting because I would never of thought that a pilot would take such a high risk due to a birthday. I would not want to purposely fly into turbulence. Again great job because by putting these opportunities because then we can form ideas to change these problems.
Splendid Job