Life as a millennial has been exciting for me, more adventurous than the rollercoaster rides I used to have in Disney parks. My love for technology began very early with a boxy desktop PC which my father allowed me to use once in a while. As a child, I loved playing Snake on the popular phone of the early 2000s – the Nokia 3310. Gifted to me by my mother, it came with a stern warning not to lose this special piece of technology.
Finally, the day arrived when I saved up for a new slim LCD TV and decided to say goodbye to that bulky old CRT TV handed down from my parents. If I were to think of one major technological influence in my life, it would clearly be the Internet, specifically the email.
We take emails for granted today with thousands of them floating around our various inboxes. The quick transition from snail mail to email is truly mind-blowing. And to whom do we owe this amazing innovation? None other than Sabeer Bhatia – an Indian migrant in the US who was the founder of Hotmail – a company finally acquired by Microsoft.
According to Sabeer Bhatia technology has, in the last 20 years, completely transformed every known industry. A quote which appeals to me a lot is Mr Bhatia’s statement “Software is a manifestation of human thought. Ideas are worth much more than assets.”
It’s easy to forget that technology and software have all emerged from human creativity, they all started as organic thoughts within the human mind but were finally revealed to the world as an artificial object.
From Hotmail to Alexa – (L-R) Sabeer Bhatia and Rohit Prasad
Being in the marketing industry, the latest technological innovation that has forced us to take notice is Artificial Intelligence (AI). Today, Amazon’s Alexa has taken the world by storm. From commanding it to play music to controlling your smart appliances, Alexa is the next gen technology that is poised to make everyone’s life simple. And Alexa has an Indian connection, created by Rohit Prasad – an Indian engineer based in the US, along with colleague Tony Reid.
The contribution of Indians migrants the digital and technology space is not new. They are highly regarded – especially in the US – and have made massive contributions to the world, changing the way we operate today. Technology has changed the way we live, work and connect socially with each other.
Perhaps the next leap of faith will happen in Australia? Are we encouraging the best of talent across the world to come to Australia? Are we creating technology’s next Silicon Valley here in Australia?
With Australia’s rapidly rising diaspora and professional migration from India, I’m sure this won’t remain a distant dream.
Written by Sanchay Mohan, MultiConnexions Account Director and Head of Operations
Source
Business Today
Al Arabiya