I just wanted to wrap it all up here by saying thank you to Professor Brown for a great semester. I do not think I have ever had a more interesting and interactive class experience & I am so proud to be able to say that I edited Wikipedia articles & that I created and maintained a blog throughout the semester!
I think I have done a lot of good, hard work, but I think it's value is far-reaching. I am sure that the skills I have learned and applied in BUAD477 will be very useful in my future in the business world. If nothing else, I have really come to realize how much the world of media and communication is really changing, and it's hard to believe that looking back to Febuary, minus Facebook, I had been missing out on this online community rage of our day.
Anyway, thank you Professor Brown, thanks Team F (we rock!), and I hope everyone has a great summer! Professor Brown good luck with everything in your future and all of your horse racing and saving efforts. When you are ultimately famous, remember your Spring 2007 BUAD477 classes! =)
au revoir!
Monday, May 21, 2007
2nd Comment on Teammate's Post
This post is in response to a post by my teammate Andrea that can be found in its original form, here!.
Anyway, this article & Andrea's response post are really intriguing - now that I think about it, with the way social media sites are working today, trust really is at the core. Basically, with content being determined, added, edited, etc. by interactive user communities on sites like digg.com, myspace.com, Wikipedia & others - trust among members of the community is very important. For example, on Wikipedia.com, if I am an active user that is constantly committed to editing articles, ensuring their accuracy, providing good conent, etc. I will be respected on Wikipedia and treated well within the community & my work will be TRUSTED by other users. But say I was constantly vandaliizing and not citing my content, adding incorrect information, etc. I am not going to be considered a valuable asset to the Wiki community & my work will not be trusted.
In today's world where content is changing constantly and being provided from many different sources, trust is very important. And a community of honest users can ensure the integrity of any site and allow for utmost trust among members.
Anyway, this article & Andrea's response post are really intriguing - now that I think about it, with the way social media sites are working today, trust really is at the core. Basically, with content being determined, added, edited, etc. by interactive user communities on sites like digg.com, myspace.com, Wikipedia & others - trust among members of the community is very important. For example, on Wikipedia.com, if I am an active user that is constantly committed to editing articles, ensuring their accuracy, providing good conent, etc. I will be respected on Wikipedia and treated well within the community & my work will be TRUSTED by other users. But say I was constantly vandaliizing and not citing my content, adding incorrect information, etc. I am not going to be considered a valuable asset to the Wiki community & my work will not be trusted.
In today's world where content is changing constantly and being provided from many different sources, trust is very important. And a community of honest users can ensure the integrity of any site and allow for utmost trust among members.
Comment on Classmates' Blog
Jess recently posted about John Battelle's Searchblog & the article regarding Cox's possibility of instilling a non-fast forward function into some of its programs on certain networks. I do agree with both Jess and with Battelle - here's why. Jess is right that this practice chttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifould really be a potentially good idea so that viewers do not fast forward through all of the commercials of a program. But on the other hand, this is almost SURE to cause a backlash - I mean, being forced to watch commercials?! How fair is that? We have to remember that we, too, are viewers and I do not think that the average TV watcher would be very happy if they sat down to their TiVo-ed program & the fast forward function was no longer allowed.
In fact, I just asked my brother to TiVo a show for me that I was missing tonight while working on this project. And believe it or not I hope to sit down to that show without having to watch any commercials - and I like commercials personally!
It's just all about convenience and consumer control - as discussed below. Rights and essentially privileges that have been given to consumers in the past - it is not such a good idea to take these away. Giving control & then taking it back will cause tension between producer and consumer & leave a lot of very unhappy, commercial-watching audiences.
In fact, I just asked my brother to TiVo a show for me that I was missing tonight while working on this project. And believe it or not I hope to sit down to that show without having to watch any commercials - and I like commercials personally!
It's just all about convenience and consumer control - as discussed below. Rights and essentially privileges that have been given to consumers in the past - it is not such a good idea to take these away. Giving control & then taking it back will cause tension between producer and consumer & leave a lot of very unhappy, commercial-watching audiences.
2nd post on class material
In class on May 2nd, we discussed digg.com & its influence on the world of news and http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifmedia. I particularly enjoyed the CNNMOney.com article, "How Digg.com is democratizing the news."
I thought it was really cool to read about digg.com - I didn't know anything about it previous to reading this article & class discussion about 'digg' but now that we have talked about it - I started noticing some webpages when I was doing a research project having a button for "Digg this." I think it is very true & really cool that WE, the consumers, basically control the content - especially on sites like Digg.com. It makes sense, I mean why not have news websites geared toward the content that people actually want to see and read.
This actually reminds me of a music website that my friend at work recently introduced me to - it is called Pandora and you can find it here. You should definitely check it out because it is basically a Digg.com version of Internet radio. How it works is that you basically enter a search and add artists or songs that you are interested in. Pandora then begins to play music based on your initial clues and preferences. From there, as each song comes up, you can choose to give it a "thumbs up," indicating that you like it & want to hear more music similar, or bury that choice & give it a negative rating, telling Pandora not to play that song or artist or music type, etc. again.
Basically you use your preferences to refine an Internet radio station that caters to your desires based on your ratings and commands.
Pandora + Digg.com = how cool! WE are in charge.
I thought it was really cool to read about digg.com - I didn't know anything about it previous to reading this article & class discussion about 'digg' but now that we have talked about it - I started noticing some webpages when I was doing a research project having a button for "Digg this." I think it is very true & really cool that WE, the consumers, basically control the content - especially on sites like Digg.com. It makes sense, I mean why not have news websites geared toward the content that people actually want to see and read.
This actually reminds me of a music website that my friend at work recently introduced me to - it is called Pandora and you can find it here. You should definitely check it out because it is basically a Digg.com version of Internet radio. How it works is that you basically enter a search and add artists or songs that you are interested in. Pandora then begins to play music based on your initial clues and preferences. From there, as each song comes up, you can choose to give it a "thumbs up," indicating that you like it & want to hear more music similar, or bury that choice & give it a negative rating, telling Pandora not to play that song or artist or music type, etc. again.
Basically you use your preferences to refine an Internet radio station that caters to your desires based on your ratings and commands.
Pandora + Digg.com = how cool! WE are in charge.
Global Neighbourhoods Article Response
An article on Global Neighbourhoods about marketing to women caught my eye.
Shel talks about his surprise at how long it has taken for women to spend more online than men. What I liked best about the post was learning that I fit right into the most highly attractive demographic for companies today - especially online companies. Personally eventually going into the Marketing world I hope to use my personal preferences as a basis for consumption desires of the target market I fall into - being a young woman may prove very resourceful in the near future if a company I may be working for wants to know how to best target and satisfy a target market that I fall into.
Shel explains that just as it is taking longer than he thought for blogging to be second nature, so too did it take a while for women & the Internet to collide fully.
The buying power of women online is rising. I still did not understand fully from the article whether or not sales of consumer products online has outnumbered computer sales online. But regardless, young women have become the most attractive target market for online retailing & to me, this makes sense - women do typically have a lot of purchasing power within the home and now this influence is moving online. It seems that the most successful companies will recognize this fact & take it into account in starting up a business or in deciding on the appropriate product offering mix. And that is bizarre with the Amazon connection - is that true?! Wow.
Shel talks about his surprise at how long it has taken for women to spend more online than men. What I liked best about the post was learning that I fit right into the most highly attractive demographic for companies today - especially online companies. Personally eventually going into the Marketing world I hope to use my personal preferences as a basis for consumption desires of the target market I fall into - being a young woman may prove very resourceful in the near future if a company I may be working for wants to know how to best target and satisfy a target market that I fall into.
Shel explains that just as it is taking longer than he thought for blogging to be second nature, so too did it take a while for women & the Internet to collide fully.
The buying power of women online is rising. I still did not understand fully from the article whether or not sales of consumer products online has outnumbered computer sales online. But regardless, young women have become the most attractive target market for online retailing & to me, this makes sense - women do typically have a lot of purchasing power within the home and now this influence is moving online. It seems that the most successful companies will recognize this fact & take it into account in starting up a business or in deciding on the appropriate product offering mix. And that is bizarre with the Amazon connection - is that true?! Wow.
Diva Marketing Blog Response
So being that one of my majors here at UD is marketing - one of Toby's posts caught my eye about the American Marketing Associations proposed new definition of marketing.
The best part about this blog post is the responses to it - with which I 110% agree! The new proposed definition is ridiculous & I hope someone from the AMA comes across Toby's blog & the comments that go along with it. The new definition they were proposing is LONG, boring, wordy, etc. - and focuses on institutions - ironically everything that marketing is not!
Being a potential candidate for the marketing world I do NOT want to see that as the definition of what I am doing - the 2004 version is much better which discusses the "delivering of value to consumers" and I like what other bloggers suggested about 'listening to consumers,' and 'delivering the right product at the right time...' and also basically defining marketing as learning what your consumers desire and then matching those needs or showing them that you are able to match them. Much simpler, to the point & realistic. I do not believe that someone in the world of marketing willingy wrote AMA's proposed 2007 definition of marketing - it just does not seem feasible to me.
Anyway, I think it's way cool how Toby posts information that she saw/heard/gathered, etc. and then opens it up to her readers for comments, their opinions, etc. It's such a cool community-building experience.
The best part about this blog post is the responses to it - with which I 110% agree! The new proposed definition is ridiculous & I hope someone from the AMA comes across Toby's blog & the comments that go along with it. The new definition they were proposing is LONG, boring, wordy, etc. - and focuses on institutions - ironically everything that marketing is not!
Being a potential candidate for the marketing world I do NOT want to see that as the definition of what I am doing - the 2004 version is much better which discusses the "delivering of value to consumers" and I like what other bloggers suggested about 'listening to consumers,' and 'delivering the right product at the right time...' and also basically defining marketing as learning what your consumers desire and then matching those needs or showing them that you are able to match them. Much simpler, to the point & realistic. I do not believe that someone in the world of marketing willingy wrote AMA's proposed 2007 definition of marketing - it just does not seem feasible to me.
Anyway, I think it's way cool how Toby posts information that she saw/heard/gathered, etc. and then opens it up to her readers for comments, their opinions, etc. It's such a cool community-building experience.
Evolution of Facebook Wikipedia Article
The Facebook Wikipedia article was by far the most comprehensive and detailed article that I chose to edit (probably why I put it off the longest because that definitely made it the most difficult to make changes to).
Anyway, I found some things to add (especially regarding Facebook's role in the VT shootings & its increasing prevalence http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifas a dominant form of communication in today's social networking and media society).
The article was very well-written & I hope that users take my content additions seriously & view them as good enough to remain on the site for some time to come! Afterall, they should really take it from me - afterall, I am an AVID Facebook enthusiast to say the least. I even have Facebook linked on my main blog page - referring to it as something like 'the main source of my procrastination' which it is! It amazes me that what started as a Harvard sophomore's laptop creation is now a HUGELY profitable worldwide network. Go Mark Zuckerberg! I am guessing that with the high level of accuracy and professionalism throughout this article, that my edits may be changed around a bit in the near future. As of now, all of my changes still stand as they were first published.
Here is a chronology of my Wiki edits for Facebook:
First Edit
-Added some info about privacy & Mini-Feeds
Second Edit
-Created "Status" section under "Additional Features"
Third Edit
-Contributed content to "Facebook memorials" section and even mention VT shootings
Hope you enjoy all of my Wikipedia work! It is often tedious & required a lot of time, but I think it is all worth it & hopefully my contributions overall prove useful to the Wikipedia community.
I ABSOLUTELY learned a lot in this process, and in fact was just showing off some of my changes the my roommates. They were impressed & I am impressed with myself! Afterall, I am not going to lie I came into this class & this project not knowing that Wikipedia is freely edited by anyone. That is certainly something important to know!
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