Post e) The blog usage in organizations

Currently, many organizations use blog to achieve their organization goals. An example is the biggest airplane manufacture - Boeing.
Boeing’s blog can be found on the following link:
http://boeingblogs.com/randy/

By using blog, the organization will enjoy a lot of advantages.
For example, members in the organization can post their opinion, comments, and suggestion on the blog. Meanwhile, their post can be easily reached and followed. This method creates an effective communication channel across all level of the organization. The opinion or a problem that posted by a sales people may grab the attention of the management, and the problem can be solved before it out of control.


However, blog do have some disadvantages in the organizational context.
For example, members of the organization may spend too much time on blog and negatively affect their work performance.
Also, the posts on blog can be essentially made by everyone in the organization which makes the management the post a potential problem.

In brief, the advantage of use blog in an organization will outfit its drawbacks.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_blog
http://boeingblogs.com/randy/

Post d) What are the drawbacks of e-paper

Like most of other new technologies, e-paper still has some disadvantages.

E-paper has very low refresh rate, makes it not be able to show fast changing movies; therefore, organizations that need to show a lot of moving files may not be able to use e-paper technology widely.
Furthermore, e-paper can only show information, while a similar technology, called digital-paper, not only can show information, but also can create digital document by handwriting with a digital pen.

The following image shows a digital pen

In summary, e-paper has a few limitations that may limit its application in organizations.


References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_paper#Disadvantages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_paper

Post c) What will e-paper bring us?

E-paper has wide application fields.

E-paper can be used in advertising industry, for example, the billboard system. We can find billboard advertisement almost everywhere on the road side. However, to make the traditional billboard advertisement requires a certain amount of investment, also it takes some time to be produced and installed.
While with e-paper billboard system, the investment of printing and installation of the billboard will be reduced to zero.

Another application of e-paper could be on e-book readers. The e-book reader can be used to replace traditional books. With the help of e-book reader, a user can carry as many books as a library with him or her, and read the book anytime anywhere he/she want.

E-paper may lead to a weave of revolution in traditional publish industry. For example, some news paper publisher has already introduced e-paper newspaper. Also, some book publisher announced their e-paper book projects.

In conclusion, e-paper has a wide range of potential application.

References:
1) http://www.designvsart.com/paperspots.html
2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-book
3) http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/index.php/digital_tokyo/articles/video_worlds_first_full_size_e_paper_newspaper/

Post b) Why e-paper?

Illustration: distract caused by flash light

One of the major goals of the development of e-paper is to replace the traditional computer monitors.

Traditional computer monitors have a lot of problems while e-paper does not have.

Firstly, e-paper does not need backlight. In order to display images on the screen, traditional computer monitors have to emit strong enough light, which is called backlight. The lighting of the screen consumes a lot of power. Other problems such as to control the strength of the light, to illuminate the screen evenly, etc. will also have to be solved.

Secondly, e-paper do not need refresh constantly, while the monitors have to be refreshed constantly, which means to display images for more than 60 times a second. This is so important that refresh rate became an important parameter for a computer monitor.

Thirdly, e-paper has no glare problem. Glare is a problem for traditional computer displays. Glare is caused by reflecting of light from the computer screen. As we discussed before, the computer monitor have to emit its own light to show the image; therefore, the light reflecting from the screen will distract the user.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refresh_rate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glare_(vision)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backlight

Post a) e-paper

Illustration: An e-book reader that uses the e-paper technology

This blog is intended to discuss the e-paper related topics, such as the technology, the products, the application, etc.

E-paper is the abbreviation of Electronic Paper; it is also called Electronic Ink Display. In simple word, e-paper is a new display method to imitate the appearance of traditional ink on traditional paper on electronic intermediates.

E-paper is different from traditional computer monitors. Traditional computer monitors need backlight to illuminate it display, while, e-paper will reflect light in the same way as traditional paper, even better, it allow the user to write text and draw images on it, and keep the text and drawing for later usage.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_paper
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-book
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backlight