Blog about Twitter

Twitter is a text message style technology that happens in real time on the web. Each post has a limited amount of characters that can be posted per Tweet. I will take a little time to compare Twitter to a forum-style school technology called Blackboard and in-class discussions. The discussions in each of these formats are handled differently but it all leads to communication. Each format has its pros and cons.

When it comes to Twitter, the 140 character limit is hindrance for some people, myself included. It is difficult for some people to express their thoughts fully with such a small limit of characters. It helps you build on a skill called brevity. I know I need to work on that. There are times when long answers are needed but in many cases brevity is the way to go. Twitter also is open to everyone not just a select few like in a forum setting or an in-class discussion. It is a fast paced environment that has no boundaries for the most part. You can also follow anyone on Twitter (approval needed at times) and they could follow you in return. There are concerns about how difficult it is to follow posts if people don’t add the hash tags that are required to group comments about a subject or school topics. The backtracking can be a brutal process at times. Twitter is useful to some but not all. I’m still on the fence with it but I may turn the corner and get just as involved as millions of other people who live by this format. I’m not a shy person but some people are. I see how this can benefit people who are not comfortable speaking in public because a post is a little easier for some people to write rather than having the anxiety of getting a probable negative reaction from your classmates in person or in a forum style like Blackboard. It’s more personal in those other styles because it is a limited group of people rather than hundreds or even millions of people on Twitter.

 

Looking at Blackboard, the threads (discussions) happen amongst a group of students that are taking a specific class. The speed of the discussions in Blackboard don’t happen as fast as they do on Twitter. You say your piece and then you wait for the other students or your teacher to answer. It is a closed environment as opposed to the open environment like Twitter. I like this aspect because it makes it more intimate. You are not just a small cog in an enormous wheel that is called Twitter. This is also a little easier for people who don’t want to speak in person. You can review other student’s viewpoints and it may help you see things from a different perspective. You also have time to think about what you want to say. You don’t have the same amount of time I think it is an effective tool for people who are strapped for time. If you have a demanding job that can prevent you from making it to class on time or if you are traveling for work/leisure, this can be an effective way to get an education. This is like the middle of the road when compared to Twitter or in-class discussions. The only concerns I run into are the speed of this system and that you can’t access it on your smart phone. Blackboard has outages and it is just plain slow. There needs to be a number of improvements made to this system because it will most likely get phased out. It seems to be an old piece of software. It works well but to an extent. Speed is definitely one of the negatives.

 

In class discussion is the last one I will talk about. I feel in-class discussion are the most important discussions that a student can have. This is what is going to prepare you for the real world. There is no hiding behind a computer, phone, tablet or whatever you’re using to access Twitter or Blackboard. It is extremely important to build your communication skills because that is one of the most used skills in almost any job. In-class discussions are great because you can actually see people’s reactions and body language. It also helps the teacher get a better picture of who you are rather going by what they see online. What you post may be misconstrued because they don’t see the body language that comes with your discussion. These are skills that we are losing as a nation because we rely on technology so much. You don’t have to worry about battery life with an in-class discussion. There are some negatives, like the conversations being dominated by a select few in the class. Shy people will stay silent for the most part and not participate in any of the discussions. There is also the issue of absenteeism in classes. Students will miss class, which will take diminish the participation aspect. It can also go in the opposite direction where there is too much participation and it becomes difficult to hear or keep track of what is going on. Again, I feel this is the best form of discussions there is.

Social Network Sites

 

MySpace

I feel that MySpace has lost its luster big time. This website definitely took the world by storm at one point. It was so popular that in just two years it had grown from a brand new company to one worth $580 million dollars (Purchased by News Corp in 2005). In 2006, it had surpassed Google as the most visited website. But then along came Facebook and knocked MySpace off its perch. MySpace was sold last year for $35 million dollars to Specific Media Group and Justin Timberlake. This means that Rupert Murdoch lost over half a billion dollars on the investment. The reason why some of this occurred had to with News Corp allowing MySpace to grow stale and antiquated. It has a cluttered interface and it seems geared to musicians. There was never enough personal information captured other than your location and whatever you entered into your user profile. At one point, it seems like the owners had given up on developing for the website. It just seems too cluttered for me and there is no real visual appeal to it. I’m also not a musician so it doesn’t attract me as much. I like music but not to the point that it is all I do or listen to. It’s time has passed.

 

Twitter

Twitter is much bigger than I expected. They have a current user base of about 500 million. That is a ton of people. Now I understand the influence people have on Twitter from reading the articles in this class. When you have this many users, the influence you have on causes, products/services and anything else one supports or rejects can make or break certain companies/organizations. If millions of people consider one person’s word gospel, you can count on the fact that companies, music stars, athletes, etc…, will be careful not to ruffle their feathers. I was not too enthused initially about the 140 character limit because I do tend to be long-winded in my comments so I didn’t think that was enough. It just felt like I was sending short texts over the Internet. I didn’t find it appealing at all. After playing with it for this class, it grew on me. The ability to shoot short messages back and forth with family and friends is pretty neat. When I saw the capabilities to keep in direct contact with celebrities, political figures, large companies or any entity that was otherwise inaccessible to the average person, I was impressed. There has also been a number of important news that showed up on Twitter even before the news heard about it. In one of the articles we read for class, many lives in Haitiwere saved due to the twitter folk taking a stand against the Air Force in where they wouldn’t allow necessary food, drink and medical supplies in the country of Haitivia a Doctors without Borders cargo plane. This unified approach from the Twitterati helped make a difference. These are some of the things that pulled me towards Twitter, plus the fact that the interface is nice, simple and clean. It is somewhat visually appealing. You could easily keep up to speed with the Twitter app on your phone. It also has the capabilities of posting pictures, running a business, sharing videos and raising money to name a few. This company has a great product. Twitter is definitely much better than I expected.

Facebook

Facebook is the king in the Social Network field right now. They have a user base of about 1 billion people. That is an astronomical figure. Facebook is the most appealing to me out of all of the Social Networks. It’s definitely the one I use the most. You can access from any computer, phone or tablet (the list goes on and on). This is definitely the most comprehensive of all the websites. It seems to contain all of the components that most of the major social networks have. You can send short messages (or long ones) in your status updates (like Twitter), you can post music and promote artists (like MySpace) and you could post tons of photos so people could press the like button or comment similar to Instagram. Facebook seems to have the whole package. The largest appeal to me is that almost everyone has a Facebook so you could keep in touch with family and friends, no matter where they are. I could find long lost family members, friends, teachers and co-workers, which would have taken me years if I used previous old search methods (asking person after person where so and so is, or acquire a phone number). I could now find these folks in a matter of minutes if I do the right searches. I have also been able to organize events and family gatherings through Facebook. I also utilize Facebook to run a business because this allows us me to stay in touch with my partners and our customers/potential partners. This website is the most comprehensive to me because I have access (for the most part) to my“friends” personal preferences, photos, likes and dislikes, personalities and comments posted on photos or “walls”. This is a gold mine for small & large businesses alike because you have access to all types of information that will allow you to cater to all walks of life. It also has clean look to it in all of its forms, PC, Tablets, Smart Phones, iPhones or wherever else you access the website from. I have to be careful to monitor my time on the site because I use it for business and pleasure. People on the outside looking in may think it’s just for pleasure and they feel ignored. I think this is a problem for many people. That is why Facebook is so popular.

Instagram

Last but not least is Instagram. I did not see the value in this App at first. When I started doing some research, I noticed that they have a user base of about 80 million strong. It seems like it came out of nowhere because I wasn’t really on to it. It just seemed like a place where you just post pictures and people like them or comment on them. That is what the main point of it is in a nutshell. When I finally logged on and created an account, I saw how cool it was. There are a number of interest adjustments you can make to your pictures and link them together by assigning a common hash tag to them. This allows you to build a collection of pictures for pleasure or for business. You can promote clothing, venues, restaurants, the list is endless. It is extremely easy to use for the most part but I do find it a little confusing at times. I don’t like the fact that you can’t scroll through a person’s pictures with the finger swipe. You actually have to close each one and then open a new one. That does get annoying after a while. The presentation is also not as clean as some of the other Social Networks. There is also no personal information stored on your profile this is not too helpful for most businesses or advertisers. It is a niche market that they have done a great job in. I know I stated some negatives on this but I actually enjoy Instagram a lot. I will us much more often now that I’ve gotten my feet wet with it.

Social Networking

Social Networking was once considered a fad that might go away and then became something that is a major obsession in many people’s lives. This new age media can consume hours upon hours of a persons life and companies see that as an opportunity for gain on their end. In the Social Networking world you can get back in touch with old friends, family, old co-workers, teachers and the list goes on and on. You can also connect with current friends, family, co-workers or acquaintances. You can do things like set-up events and invite all of your “Friends” from Facebook or even promote your music, clothing line and products/services that you provide. The information that you provide on places like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc… are very valuable to companies out there trying to find an outlet to advertise their services. The ability to socialize with distant family members and friends has been one of the greatest things about Social Networking. I have been able to connect with people I haven’t talked to in years. The new and old pictures/videos are usually a delight to see, especially of you have known these people for a long time. It makes the world seem like a much smaller place even though some of your conversations on happening from the other side of the world.

Let’s look at Facebook as an example, many people who log on actually use their real name, email addresses, home addresses, bios, their hobbies and many more pieces of information that are enticing to advertisers. This is one thing Facebook has over a company like Google. In the article “Great Wall of Facebook: The Social Network's Plan to Dominate the Internet” Larry Page (Co-Founder of Google) was a little upset that Microsoft was able to purchase a 1.6% stake ($240 million) in Facebook. Microsoft was Google’s sworn enemy and this left a bad taste in Larry’s mouth. Facebook executives stated that they wanted nothing to do with Google. They saw Google as their main competition in being the dominant force on the internet. Google sees the potential in the valuable data that Facebook has in regards to their users. As was mentioned in the same article above “Internet users behaved differently on Facebook than anywhere else online: They used their real names, connected with their real friends, linked to their real email addresses, and shared their real thoughts, tastes, and news. Google, on the other hand, knew relatively little about most of its users other than their search histories and some browsing activity.” This is a gold mine for most companies. Facebook makes sure that it keeps this information away from Google search engines by blocking this “proprietary information”. This was definitely embarrassing for Google because they usually get what they want but in this case they didn’t and it was also publicized. This definitely added more fuel to the fire.

Social Networking allows companies to hear direct feedback from the customers or potential clients. This can be good or bad but I think it gives them an opportunity to hear the likes and dislikes of the public, so that they could adjust their approach accordingly. Companies can also use a site like LinkedIn for recruiting purposes. This can be a much faster and less expensive way of vetting the right candidate for an open position. I work at an outsourcing company that provides Business Process Outsourcing (IT Support, Facilities Management, Reception, Word Processing, Print Procurement to name a few) for a number of Fortune 500 companies like Bank of America, Pfizer, Wal-Mart, etc… Whenever we win a contract to provide a service we normally have a small window to staff a location with as little as 2 people to as much as 100 or more employees. This will require a number of resources in the form of managers interviewing numerous candidates, HR assisting with paperwork, Directors or VP’s coordinating the workflow. This amount of personnel can cost a lot of time and money. Utilizing something like LinkedIn will allow us to reduce the amount of resumes or candidates you have to view or see. It helps save on costs and gives us more bandwidth to get the place staffed more efficiently. Many companies are starting to lean towards this approach (ours included) and it has its benefits.

Now there are some “Dark Sides” to this. I will point out a couple of issues I see with it. The first one has to do with the obsessions that come out of Social Networking. There are many people that can’t go five minutes without checking Twitter, Facebook or any other Social Network. This approach seems to replace the human factor of being able to have a conversation in person. There are people that are so consumed by this in that it affects their ability to hold a conversation in real life. As a manager, I notice it in some of the candidates that apply for jobs at my location. It is hard for some candidates to hold an intelligent conversation. It is not something that seems to come natural in some cases. I have interviewed a number of candidates that speak in short sentences, can’t maintain eye contact, using text language like LOL or TTYL when responding to emails. This is very concerning because it takes away from their ability to function in the real world. I am concerned for many of the kids and the future of our society. Things like this take up a lot of our time and are fun but it can make us fall behind the rest if the world if our kids can’t prosper in the real world. The US will continue to fall behind other countries because our future stars can’t compete in the business world.  We are so reliant on technology that we barely ever speak in person anymore. That personal touch is needed more than most people think. We need to be really careful with that. In the article “ Is MySpace Good for Society? A Freakonomics Quorum”, Steve Chazin (Former Apple Marketing Director and current CMO at DimDim.com) recalls something that happened in his office “I remember one day a few years ago when our office phones and Internet stopped working. No e-mail, no voicemail, no Facebook, no Skype, and no Twitter. People came out of their offices and talked. I enjoyed that day.” If we need to wait for an outage to come out and talk to people, we are in some big trouble.

The second one is the privacy issue you run into. A lot of your personal can be bought and sold without your knowledge and it can end up in the wrong hands or with annoying advertisers. Hackers can go in and do some damage to you as well if they get a hold of personal emails, phone number or any other information they could get their hands on. Lastly, as a manager I come across a number of candidates and there are times when I would get the feeling that I know the person from somewhere. I do a little search on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn and I may come across the person. Then it clicks in my head that this is where I know them from. On occasion, the candidate would end up being a “friend of a friend” and the pictures alone may influence my decision. I focus on the comments as well because it can tell a lot about a person’s personality. I have actually made some of my decisions based on this because the references or research of a person’s previous jobs do not always net good results. This is why everyone has to be careful with their life online. This can influence one’s career. You never know who is watching…

The future of Social Networking is limitless. Being that they have been able to capture hundreds of millions users and even a billion or more, there is no telling where it would go next. Virtual worlds may become the next big thing where you could go shopping together, run a business together or even party together from anywhere in the world without ever having to step foot in a brick and mortar building. This technology will continue to evolve and we will continue to experience new obsessions. It will be an interesting future.

Blogs vs. Wikis

Wikis and blogs are two forms of communication tools that essential are made to reach multiple people but utilize different methods in achieving that. They are similar in a number of ways but are very different in others.
 

 

Wiki is a shared database that can be edited by anyone who has access to it. You can set up the amount of people you want to give access to or you can make it public. Blogs are similar in that way as well. You can limit your audience or make it unlimited. The difference with Wikis, is that, normally there are many authors and blogs normally have one. When you have many contributors, people wonder about the integrity of the information: is it real or fake? It will easily make you think, can someone intentionally sabotage the information. Some people can do that but others can actually revert it back to its original form. Since there are many authors in a Wiki, there are a number of checks and balances in place. Users will make sure that the content of the information is accurate and the value of the content remains high. There are a number of people involved in the wiki that would have a high knowledge of the subject matter. An example of this is a wiki that we use in my corporation, where we share knowledge on operations processes, procedures and best practices. We have an extensive operations manual that we are constantly updating in order to keep it current. It is used across 11 sites, so all of the managers and supervisors make changes and updates regularly. There are a couple senior management team members that monitor the content to make sure it is accurate and effective. One measuring stick for effectiveness mentioned in a PC World article "Go to the grumpiest people you have and have them test it. Hear their complaints. It will help you figure out how to provide a wiki that's helpful and not cumbersome." This is normally the one of the essential goals of a Wiki. If the grumpy people find it helpful, there is a good chance that everyone else will.

 

Blogs normally consist of one author or a corporation that communicates their views in a more personal matter. This comes across as more of a diary that is shared with the masses or a select group. Wikis are similar in that the information is intended to reach a target audience or the whole public in general. In the eyes of many, blogs have improved the way we receive up to date information. Let's look at a newspaper for example, if you buy it late in the morning, there may have been a couple of important stories that have taken place since it was printed. The newspaper companies are not going to reprint thousands of newspapers in order to keep up with the blog news. Blogs can have major impacts on the masses depending on the corporation, news outlet, celebrity, etc...One of the key aspects of blogs is the ability to comment on the posts. This allows you the ability to get instant feedback from readers, which was not available in previous media like magazines, newspapers and journals. This is a major difference from Wikis because they are less personal than blogs, in that it is not set up for comments like a blog is. There seems to be more freedom of speech with this format that with a wiki even though those freedoms are sometimes frowned upon as in the "Pentagon Keeps Wary Watch as Troops Blog" article. Not everyone agrees with this new form of communication but it does not seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.

I found this nice little video (see below) that explains the differences between blogs and wikis. It is a nice look into the pros and cons of each one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsFU3sAlPx4


Both of these tools are making big impacts in how we communicate and their popularity is growing rapidly. Blogs are great ways to get up to date, news and information. It also allows people to express what they are feeling and they will see that they are not the only ones feeling that way. There are many people that think the same way that you do and this form will expose that for you. Wikis is a great way to keep your information fresh and up to date. It also allows for check and balances in a much easier fashion. Gone are the days of having meetings every time something needed to be updated or a new strategy/procedure needed to be agreed upon. With the wiki, you can do this from just about anywhere. Just log onto the website and update or correct previous data. With the advent of technology, our reach becomes greater every time. Both tools have some great benefits to them.
Not sure if this was ever thought of but maybe creating a family wiki. Creating and updating a family tree. It would be great to gives access to all of your family members and have them update every time a major event happens with someone in their immediate family. It gives us the opportunity to see what is currently going on with everyone.
 
 
Articles Cited:
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/156066/seven_tips_to_success_with_a_corporate_wiki.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/us/09milblogs.html?ref=politics
 
Videos Cited:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsFU3sAlPx4

ebay: Community or Bazaar?

The title of my project is eBay: Community or Bazaar?

The Internet has influenced greatly our current sense of community. In the past, we just would have thought of our surrounding neighborhoods but now we have to ask additional questions when you hear the word community. Are you talking about your physical community or are you talking about a virtual community? Our whole concept of community has changed when you look at how the Internet has allowed us to reach people all over the globe with the click of a button. We can share ideas, interests, products, etc..., with almost anyone regardless of your physical location. Before the Internet was around, you were limited to in who you could speak to or who you could sell products to. Now a company like eBay comes around and you have to ask yourself, is this an online community or a place to buy goods. My approach is to figure out what category does eBay actually fall into (community or bazaar) or see if they fit in both categories. I will look at a number of perspectives and how it impacts the people who use the site. I have used it as well so I can give my own views on what category it falls into. eBay definitely has it pros and cons, which I will spend time on. I have a start up company that I opened up with a few of my friends and e-commerce is one of the tools we use for the business. eBay will be one of the tools we use for this business. I will research how eBay will help me become a successful business owner. This is definitely an great topic for this class but something that could also help create a successful business for us.