Blog Wrap-Up. 12/12/11

Our final blogging assignment of the semester for our Management 455 class is to write a one-page memorandum about our experience blogging. However, I do not know how long of a blog will make up one page, so I am just going to give all of my thoughts and hope it is enough. To begin my blog, I will say that I thought that the blogs were bad for some reasons and also good for other reasons. One thing about the blogs that I did not like was that they had to be done every week and a few times I almost forgot about a blog being due and had to rush to my computer and start typing away so I could get a blog done. Another reason I did not like the blogs was because I would write what I remembered from the Management 455 classes that we had that week, but then I would look at my blog and think that it was too short so then I would have to try and rack my brain and go back and look at the prezi's and what not to try and figure out some more key points that I could talk about in the blog to make it at least a little longer. Now on to a few things that I did like about the blogs. I think that the fact that Dr. Thatcher made us use blogger this semester was a good thing because it got us to interact with and learn how to use this site which could come in handy later on. I may have a job one day where I am required to blog and this exercise would definitely make it easier because I would have already blogged some previously. I also believe that the fact that Dr. Thatcher had us write a blog every week for our Management 455 class definitely made me think more deeply about the topics we covered in class. I know personally that I thought more deeply about the topics we discussed in class because I knew that I would have to be able to remember some things to write in my blog every week. I knew that I would have to be able to think of some key things and be able to write a little bit about each key thing I mentioned so that I could fill up my blog for the week. Another thing I liked about the blogs was that they made me pay attention in class. I knew that I would have to be able to blog about the things we talked about in class so I had to make sure and pay attention and remember things from the lectures. In conclusion, I think that the fact that we had to do blogs did more good than bad. The few reasons that I did not like the blogs were outweighed by the good things that I received from us having to blog for our Management 455 class like experience with blogging, having to think more in-depth about topics we covered, and having to pay attention in class.

Blog 11. 12/4/2011

One day in class this week we watched a video. The video was about "the world is flat" theory that Thomas Friedman came up with. His theory says that the global reality is an all pervading, web-enabled platform. He also says that there are multiple modes and forms of sharing knowledge and work. He also says that the global reality transcends the boundaries of time, distance, geography, and increasingly, language. Friedman says that there are 10 world flatteners. 1. Political world evolved. 2. Web technologies evolve. 3. Workflow software. 4. Uploading 5. Out-sourcing 6. Off-shoring 7. Supply chaining 8. In-sourcing 9. Informing 10. Steroiding

Blog 10. 11/27/2011

We did not have class this week due to Thanksgiving break. So, I do not really have anything class related to blog about.

Blog 9. 11/20/2011

This past week in class we talked about several things. On Tuesday, Dr. Thatcher was not present and we watched two videos. The two videos we watched were episodes of a television show called "The IT Crowd." "The IT Crowd," is a British sitcom that revolves around three staff members of an IT department. The show focuses on the shenanigans of the three-strong IT support team. Two of the main characters are Moss and Trenneman who are technicians. The third main character is Jenn Barber who is the department's relationship manager. However, in one of the episodes we watched, there was a third IT worker who was a main character. I found both of the episodes we watched in class to be very funny. I thought that the episodes were very witty and hilarious.

Blog 8. 11/13/2011

This week in class we talked about hackers stealing people's passwords to various things. We talked about cracking in class, which is the process of recovering passwords from data that has been stored in or transmitted by a computer system. We discussed different ways that passwords are stored. One of the ways is in databases that describe who you are. Passwords are also stored as a one way function. Passwords can also be encrypted, some of which are picture based. In class we also talked about the anonymous attack. The anonymous attack is when people hack your password because either it has a weak encryption, they use guessing, they use the dictionary method, or they use brute force. Identifiable attacks on a password were also discussed in class. Examples of identifiable attacks are social engineering, dumpster diving, wiretapping, and shoulder surfing. Social Engineering can be pretexting, phishing, or baiting. We also discussed Kevin Mitnick, who is one of the most infamous hackers. There are three factors that determine how fast a hacker can get to your data. 1. Length/complexity of password 2. Speed of PC 3. Speed of internet connection.

Blog 7. 11/06/2011

I was sick and not able to attend class this week, but I believe what we talked about was the economics of abundance. The economics of abundance deal with cross subsidies. "Freemiums" were also discussed. Zero marginal cost to distribution was discussed because costs are incurred in production and things can be distributed with no appreciable costs to anyone. Labor exchange and a gift economy was also discussed in the lecture on the economics of abundance. The concept of "waste is good" was also talked about in class. Scarcity and abundance were also talked about in the lecture. Scarcity is "No," and abundance is "Yes."

Blog 6. 10/30/2011

This week in class we talked about long tails. There are two different parts of a long tail. The theory of the long tail says to, "forget squeezing millions from a few megahits at the top of the charts. The future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream." One part is the head, which is where the mainstream and the highest volume things are located. The other part is the tail, which is the bottom part and usually low volume items. We also talked about that now with the online distribution and retail that we are now in a world of abundance. We also learned that the secret to a thriving long tail business is to make everything available and to help people find it. There are nine rules to successful long tail aggregators. 1. Move inventory way in or way out. 2. Let customers do the work. 3. One distribution method doesn't fit all. 4. One product doesn't fit all. 5. One price doesn't fit all. 6. Share information. 7. Think "and," not "or." 8. Trust the market to do your job. 9. Understand the power of free.