Microsoft Collaborative Work Technology Training

On a sunny Monday morning, 16/07/2012, all 40 of us GameChangers gathered at the Microsoft Indonesia office to attend Microsoft Collaborative Work Technology Training. We were introduced to the Office 365, a cloud-based service upon which we will collaborate throughout the challenge. And as you might notice from the blog title, it's also the product that our team's working on, yay :)

Having team members coming from various universities with different schedules, it is therefore crucial for us to have an efficient yet reliable method of communication and collaboration. Office 365 offers an integrated productivity solution with features like cloud-based Office Suite, emails and calendars, conferencing, file sharing, and more, which will surely make our tasks getting done easier and faster. Do check out the link above to see for yourself how helpful the service is. We basically just went ooh-and-aah-ing in awe when Kak Sandro and Kak Ferro from Microsoft Indonesia demoed how it works. Aaand, there's more! They also announced that all of us are going to get a free 1-year subscription of Office 365! What a pleasant surprise, I felt like an audience at the Oprah Winfrey Show.

What strikes me the most though, is this video they showed:

Don't you just wanna fast forward to 2019? Life in the future looks fine and fabulous, eh :P

But beneath those swanky Tony Stark-ish gadgetry, I think this video sums up what technology is (or should be) all about: enhancing mankind's quality of life. Newsweek magazine recently ran a cover story asking "Is the Web Driving Us Mad?". The article cites new scientific research to argue that the internet is causing depression, changing our brain structure, and creating other mental illnesses. Frightening much? Well then again, technology is just like a butcher knife, it's up to us whether we use it to cut up some juicy tenderloins or to go on a murderous rampage a la Jack The Ripper.

It is also up to us; as we step into the future, will we be turning ourselves into antisocial robots with eyes glued to super-thin-tablet screens? Or will we transform into a tech-savvy breed who collaborate knowledge faster and socialize easier?

I sure wish for the latter.

'Til next post,

-A.