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Ask HN: What industry needs technical innovation?

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Re: Ask HN: What industry needs technical innovation?

#71

Post by pbhjpbhj »

PieSquared wrote: post #32
jasonlbaptiste wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, but that's pretty broad. Are we talking: -Learning materials? ie- textbooks -Learning software? ie- someone just kill blackboard already

Our county got smartboards in every school, and, the thing is, about a third of the teachers can actually use them effectively. And they cost 6000 dollars to lease . And our county is short on money anyways, so all in all people aren't really too happy about them... But at least it's a step towards progress.

Can't you make a smartboard with a laptop, projector and wiimote ... http://johnnylee.net/projects/wii/

Then you might want specific software but I'm sure it's available - tablet-PC software should probably do it.

Re: Ask HN: What industry needs technical innovation?

#72

Post by anamax »

adityakothadiya wrote: post #22

Immigration processing is one, atleast in US. I've still not understood why it takes 4-5 years to USCIS office to grant or deny residency of an applicant. How can that process be so slow? All papers and evidences are submitted on day one. Then why it takes 4-5 years to process back-log applications and then process yours. I know there is quota per country for per year. But not all quotas are full by all countries. Wh…

> I've still not understood why it takes 4-5 years to USCIS office to grant or deny residency of an applicant.

What makes you think that the delay has anything to do with the actual processing of the application?

Re: Ask HN: What industry needs technical innovation?

#74

Post by ippisl »

byoung2 wrote: post #4

Education

Education is starting to being disrupted by various companies: straighterline($99month college courses) , Guaranteach(personalized online learning for k12) , and quite few others. but it's a huge industry so there is place for many companies. but i'm not sure the big barrier here is good technology, probably making sales , and building contents are the barriers here.

Re: Ask HN: What industry needs technical innovation?

#75

Post by ippisl »

sorrow wrote: post #15
SamAtt wrote: post #9

As someone who works as an IT person in the Mental Health industry I'd nominate that industry. Mental Health has all the problems of regular health care times 10. To give the most basic example, there is no formalized charting system in the Mental Health Industry. You have standardized notes that are turned into the county but that's about it. The industry I work in (treatment of abused children who have been removed…

The medical industry needs (good) software that helps with diagnosis. This covers mental health also. You have symptoms of problem and it helps narrow down. Need a massive database of all known diseases as well as symptoms / remedies. Chart location data for origin of specific disease, (less likely to be rabies if Australia etc) and probability from all factors. Would require huge amounts of data as well as many man…

such software exist , there's one i know called isabel/isabel health or something similar.there are probably others.

from what i know there's quite a strong resistance from doctors to working with software that automates their jobs. such software usually slows the doctors (he need to type etc) do it's hurts productivity. but to really gain the monetary benefit from using such software, a cheaper , and less knowledgable healthcare provider should use the software(for example nurse doing some jobs of the family doctor like in minute clinics, or family doctor doing some jobs of the specialist). As you can imagine ,shifting jobs between providers in the healthcare industry is not an easy job:)

Re: Ask HN: What industry needs technical innovation?

#76

Post by ippisl »

SamAtt wrote: post #9

As someone who works as an IT person in the Mental Health industry I'd nominate that industry. Mental Health has all the problems of regular health care times 10. To give the most basic example, there is no formalized charting system in the Mental Health Industry. You have standardized notes that are turned into the county but that's about it. The industry I work in (treatment of abused children who have been removed…

could something like rethinkautism.com could be helpfull in your industry(treatment of abused children) ?

Re: Ask HN: What industry needs technical innovation?

#77

Post by alanthonyc »

nategraves wrote: post #60
alanthonyc wrote: post #42

Business Accounting The current quarterly system of reporting finances was (I believe) developed as a result of the Great Depression, to help inform the public of company status. The recent banking meltdown shows how inadequate this system is. Something more realtime is needed.

I think that's an interesting idea. I know that quarterly filings are an SEC requirement, but it's at least in part to help shareholders keep abreast of the goings on of the company in which they are part owners. It seems like completely realtime would overwhelm casual investors, but could provide for much more accurate trade decisions than those made on speculation and the current system of quarterly conference call…

Yes.

Another problem with the quarterly focus is that companies end up gaming the system (not in an entirely malicious way) in order to make the quarterly and annual results look good, almost like cramming for a final. It can detract from focusing on healthy long term growth.

Re: Ask HN: What industry needs technical innovation?

#78

Post by mediaman »

callmeed wrote: post #58
paulbaumgart wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think he means Blackboard, Inc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc . They have probably the worst UX I've seen in a web-app; their discussion board software I've had to use for a few classes- and it's abysmally pathetic. phpBB beats it by light-years. But apparently they have a monopoly thanks to some dubious patents.

No, I think he's referring to digital whiteboards that capture what is written on them. They've been around for a while (I remember seeing them at Tech/Edu conferences in the web 1.0 days).

Jason's referring to the web software.

Pie is referring to the digital boards on walls.

I think "he" may have been referring to two different people

Re: Ask HN: What industry needs technical innovation?

#79

Post by pg »

YuriNiyazov wrote: post #70
pg wrote: post #13

Presumably the fields that need innovation most are those that have some artificial constraint suppressing it. E.g. the music business, because anything good is ipso facto sued out of existence. Or the nuclear power industry, because the level of regulation becomes a barrier to entry to all but companies so bureaucratic they fit the government like a mold. So oddly enough, you're most likely to be able to achieve inn…

Can you give an example of a young company that managed to legally sidestep that sort of regulation?

Usually the way you do it is by replacing the whole industry that's regulated.
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