Hard and Soft Technologies

Technology is understood as the set of work processes, techniques and machinery designed to transform daily activities. From prehistory to the present, technology has not stopped evolving. Among the various modalities, there is a classification that distinguishes, by means of the denomination of “hard”, to the machines and devices that one observes with ease, and another that with the title of "soft" includes intangible processes that allow surprising results, such as a teaching proposal educational.

Hard technologies

This section includes machines, tools, robots and telecommunications networks. Simply put, it is about tangible things. Regarding its general characteristics, we can highlight two:

1) are innovative tools that facilitate tasks and

2) provide greater velocity and efficiency than traditional procedures.

Plastic is one of the most characteristic materials of this type of technology. It is an organic substance, with a high molecular weight and that can be molded easily. This material has a smooth, waterproof surface, but it is not a good conductor of heat. It is made from cheap raw materials that can be easily obtained.

Plastics are divided into two groups: thermoplastics and thermosets. The former do not experience physical changes during their modeling and remain soft under high temperatures (this modality comes from materials of plant origin and mineral, such as cellulose or polyethylene). Thermosetting agents are formed from heat with or without pressure and it is a particularly hard product (the most commonly used raw materials are resins).

Soft technologies

The product of this type of technology is not tangible, since its purpose is to improve the functioning of institutions and organizations. This concept applies to companies, commercial activities or services.

A methodology educational, a system of accounting, a logistics procedure or a marketing campaign are examples of soft technologies. The important thing in them is not the what but the how and for this reason the idea of ​​know-how has become popular.

Offices 3.0 as an example of soft technology

Workspaces have been transformed significantly in recent years. The offices of the 21st century have two characteristics:

1) employees work telematically without the need to travel to a fixed location,

2) there is a platform productivity and communication that is grouped in the virtual cloud and that allows the use of all kinds of tools (power point, excel, email, conference services through skype, or systems of storage online).

The 3.0 offices do not have fixed hours, nor papers, nor offices. In short, thanks to technology, job It is no longer the place where the machines are.

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