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.

Blog 5. 10/23/2011

This week in class we talked about different websites like ebay, amazon, facebook, youtube, and etc. We talked about how those websites use the information you input to decide what type of ads and offers to show you. Facebook places ads on the side of their page that relate to your interests. Youtube puts ads for different things on all of their videos. Ebay and Amazon have a section of things that they show you that are similar to things you have looked at and bought in the past. We only had one session of class this week due to fall break so we did not talk about as many things as usual.

Blog 4. 10/16/2011

This week in class we talked about Facebook.com and Woot.com. We talked about those two websites and different things about them. We talked about how the two websites were built. We talked about key partners, key activities, key resources, value propositions, and customer relationships for Facebook.com and Woot.com. We also talked about customer segments, channels, the cost structure, and revenue streams for the two websites. We talked about all of those things in class on Tuesday this past week. This past Thursday, we had our projects about a technology due.

Blog 3. 10/9/2011

This week in class we talked about building a web business. We discussed the business plan for a web business, which is 1. Acquire Customers 2. Online Experience 3. Business Outcomes. We also talked about the "Business Model Generation," which has nine key parts. The first is customer segments, which is how an organization serves one or several customer segments. The second is value propositions, which seeks to solve customer problems and satisfy customer needs with value propositions. The third is channels, which is how value propositions are delivered to customers through communication, distribution, and sales channels. The fourth is customer relationships, which are established and maintained with each customer segment. The fifth are revenue streams, which result from value propositions successfully offered to customers. The sixth is key resources, which require assets to offer and deliver the previously described elements. The seventh are key activities. The eighth is key partnerships, which means some activities are outsourced and some resources are acquired outside the enterprise. The ninth is cost structure, which is the end result of the business model elements.

Blog 2. 10/2/2011

This week in class, we talked about disruptive technologies among other things. Disruptive technologies are technologies that help create a new market and eventually disrupt and existing market, displacing an earlier technology there. Some examples that we talked about that were disruptive technologies were Ipods, flat screen televisions, and automobiles. Ipods are examples of disruptive technology because when Ipods came along, things like walk-mans and cd players became a thing of the past. Ipods made it easy to buy a single song instead of having to buy a whole album. When Ipods came along, the art of making an LP and telling a story went away because people started buying single songs instead of albums. An automobile is also and example of a disruptive technology because automobiles made it a lot easier to transport things such as goods. Before automobiles came along, goods were moved my boats and trains among other things. However, now automobiles do a good portion of the transporting that boats and trains used to do.

Blog 1. 9/25/2011

This week in class, two presenters came from the company Cap Gemini and talked to us. The presenters talked to us about a lot of things, including what they studied in college, what they would do differently if they could go back to college, and what their jobs' entailed at Cap Gemini. I thought it was very interesting to learn about the company and what it was like to work for them. Cap Gemini sounds like a very interesting company after learning about them from their presenters. Another thing I liked about the presentation was when they gave us some tips of how to do things when out on business meeting with clients and things of the sort. I feel like it will be really helpful in the future to know how to act when I am at a bar or at a restaurant with a client. I think it will be good to know the etiquette I should use at those events. Also during this past week in class, we had a lecture from a worker at Radian6 over the computer. It was very interesting to learn all about the company and how they search through all different things that are on the internet looking for key words.