My Blog Summary

From China to Mount Everest, from video games to credit cards, here I am wrapping up my E-Business course and Blog experience... where do I start??

First thought that comes to mind: I had lots of fun writing a Blog. As I see it, much better than handing in a weekly paper. The Blog gave me a wide understanding of an area I didn't know much about. Sure, I've heard of Blogs before, I know what it is, but I've never even read one. At first I was a bit panicked, being on exchange in a foreign country, I was afraid my English and knowledge of technology won't be good enough to fit the expectations.

However, I realized this can become a great experience for me, searching the net once a week, reading articles about new technological advances and finding my favorite topics to write about, expressing my thoughts and feelings and sharing my posts with my Prof, as well as my family and friends. I grew to be very proud of my Blog posts and no doubt this experience had taught me a lesson for life about self-esteem.

Most of the material covered in the course was familiar to me from previous IS courses I've taken back at my home university. Although, I liked the fact that this course was deeply discussing Internet issues since the world and IT is pointing in that direction and I feel it's practical and essential to practice and gain knowledge in this area.      

Thank you ; )

Computer Games for Women?!

I'm the eldest of four sisters, we all loved our Barbie dolls. Computer games were never my cup of tea. Although, there was a time somewhere in my childhood, when I was crazy about Super Mario and I loved my cool Nintendo Gameboy… but that quickly lost my attention at some point around the age of 12...
However, during my weekly Web wanderings, looking for an interesting topic to write on my (last) E-Business blog, computer games actually caught my attention. Well, frankly, what caught my eye was a small ad saying Microsoft started marketing computer games for women. Women? Computer games? Didn't make sense. I had to read further.
Anyone who is into gaming (unlike me) knows the latest development in computer games is motion games, where the player's movements appear on the screen. Of course we all know Wii by Nintendo. In the new game Xbox Kinect, launched by Microsoft this week, the player does not physically touch the device. This technology is based on a camera that's connected to the Xbox and catches every movement of the player standing in front of the screen. This way the player physically participates in the game and anyone standing next to him or her can actually join in. 

Microsoft identified an interesting advantage in the game, potentially opening a huge market share for them that has hardly been penetrated by the gaming industry - women. Yes, they're thinking: exercise! Many are familiar with the "Wii Fit", a very similar concept using a small step you stand on and play or exercise in front of the screen. But Microsoft's technology takes this concept one step further. Xbox Kinect is undoubtedly Microsoft's competitive answer to Nintendo, and it certainly seems that there is a tremendous potential. Watch the video link below to see the game in action! 

References:

The Gazette

http://www.examiner.com

Video Link

Internet in the Clouds...

If you were a professional mountain climber, would you be happy to hear that from Mount Everest summit, the highest place on earth, you can now easily connect to the Internet and make video phone calls? Nepalese Telecom Company argues that today it is in fact possible.

Around 3000 people have climbed to the Everest summit since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people to conquer the peak back in 1958. Fifty-two years later, last Thursday, a high-speed third-generation (3G) phone base was stationed at an altitude of 5,200 meters (17,000 feet) near Gorakshep village in the Everest region, by NCell, a subsidiary of a Swedish phone giant TeliaSonera.

No doubt, the installation will not only help tens of thousands of tourists and trekkers who visit the place every year, but also allow Internet access for locals. Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world, and despite the new station in Everest, telecom services cover less than one third of Nepal's 28 million population. NCell targets to provide mobile coverage to over 90% of the people in Nepal by the end of 2011. Lars Nyberg, chief executive of TeliaSonera, which owns 80% of NCell said to The Gazette: "This is a great milestone for mobile communications as the 3G high speed Internet will bring faster, more affordable telecommunication services from the worlds' tallest mountain".

On a personal note I must argue that with all the respect to technology, I feel like there's no where to hide from it anymore. Even Everest, that has always been a symbol of supremacy over mankind, has been defeated by technology. Despite all the benefits that grow along with any innovation, I feel one significant drawback: the world is becoming incredibly small.

References:

1. http://www.montrealgazette.com
2. http://www.teliasonera.com 

Cloud Phone

It costs 10 to 20 cents to activate. It basically lets groups of people share a single phone, while still maintaining individual phone numbers and private accounts. The "Cloud Phone" was presented by a company called Movirtu Limited earlier this month at the Pop! Tech conference in Maine, an event focused on new ideas in technology that benefit society at large.

There are over a billion people who use mobile phone services today but do not own a mobile phone handset. They borrow phones or they share a phone amongst family or they'll go to a street corner and buy a single phone call. The cloud phone allows people to have their own identity -- to log in and log out of other people's mobile phones, just like you or I would log in and log out of our e-mail account. By allowing them to log-in, they access a service -- which is called the cloud phone. After activating the user number, the call costs are the same as the existing tariffs on the prepaid network. Users can access their accounts from any phone. All they have to do is type in their special PIN code, and instantly make or receive calls under their own number.

So how is this different from maintaining a SIM card without a phone? First, the cheapest phone for SIM card would cost $20 to $25, and for someone who works for $1 a day that's six months savings. Second, it's not convenient to go through the trouble of taking the phone apart, replacing the SIM, turning it back on, etc. Third, it's very easy to loose a SIM card.

This amazing technology is already accessed today by thousands of people; however it's not as easy as was expected. Mobile operators are demanding profitable business models. 

For further reading please visit http://www.movirtu.com/.

Video: Nigel Waller - CEO : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pykQabzlbik

References:

1. Meet The 20-cent Cloud Phone
2. http://www.poptech.org/
3. http://www.switched.com

The Power of the Internet in China

Readers who can’t read Chinese—or even those who can but don’t spend time surfing the Chinese Internet—will be surprised by many research findings. Despite China’s authoritarian political system, censorship and surveillance, the Chinese Internet is a highly contentious place; debate is fierce and passionate. While political realities prevent the Internet from being a medium for open political organizing as it is in most democratic countries today, research shows how outraged citizens have used the Internet to expose and bring down corrupt officials. New organizations in particular have used the Internet to raise awareness for causes and expand membership.

Internet businesses have an incentive to promote controversies and debate—as well as creativity and lighthearted fun—as a way of gaining customers and traffic. Access to sites offering diverse political opinions remains highly restricted, even as Chinese intellectuals and activists regularly brave the constraints to post new statements. The government is also targeting what it calls unhealthy content on the Internet.

China's online population, already the world's largest, has expanded to 298 million (according to BBC News, January 2009). This marks a 41.9% increase on the previous year and is still growing fast, said the government-linked China Internet Network Information Centre to BBC News. The study also showed huge increases in the number of people in China accessing the internet through mobile phones. At the end of 2008, the number of net users in China, which has a population of 1.3 billion, was almost the same as the entire population of the United States. 

CHINA'S INTERNET USE (Jan 2009)

Total users: 298 million

Year-on-year increase: 41.9%

Mobile net users: 117.6 million

Internet penetration: 22.6%

References: 

1. Graphs: Internet May 2008, CNNIC July 2008

2. BBC News, Jan 2009

3. "The Power of the Internet in China: Citizen Activism Online", by Guobin Yang. Columbia University Press, 2009.

10.10.10

Talking in class about security issues of IT systems, this week brought up an interesting discussion about the 10.10.10 virus. Reminded me a little of the "Bug 2000" we were all afraid of ten years ago. The date has set off alarm bells with some superstitious people on the internet who fear it could cause their computer's clocks to jam, or for a new virus to be let loose. A Facebook page has been set up with the title "Will my computer still work on 10/10/10 at 10.10am?", while other sites talk about the possibility of hackers unleashing viruses at that time.

Computer security firm Sophos has shot down rumors: "It's just the kind of scare that people love to murmur about, and share with their online friends, but I'm afraid it has no basis in fact," Sophos' Graham Cluley wrote in a blog post. "The reason why the 10th October has received attention is because of the cute quirk of the numbers reading 10/10/10," he said. "But even that's not a new idea. For instance, in the run-up to March 3 2003, I had to debunk rumors that the Internet would stop working at 03/03/03".

This date was a reason for a big fuss around the world and for many major creative events to take place– weddings, births… a few examples I found online: Brazil held a big festival in Belem, Australia made a mass picnic event (6000 people!!) on a bridge in Sydney, as part of the campaign for the 2022 World Cup Games, in Windsor, Canada was a big boat race event and many more.  

Reference: http://www.telegraph.co.uk

"Skype-Book"

Skype and Facebook, according to All Things Digital, will soon announce a partnership, integrating a number of functions between the two, giving the user the ability to call, video-chat or SMS Facebook friends from Skype. Although video chat features have been brought to us via numerous Facebook applications, they haven’t really been impressive to become the first choice for users.

The partnership between the two will give a big advantage to both companies, considering the fact that Skype is stronger in Europe while Facebook is stronger in North America. Adding together the users: 560 million registered in Skype and 500 million Facebook users (while some overlap), will surly offer growth opportunities for both sides, allowing access to new users. While Facebook connects between friends and Skype brings low-cost phone communication, this partnership seems almost obvious.

For some time now, Facebook was looking into mobile and video chat tools. As for Skype, the online-calling-space giant, it wants to be present where users are moving: Facebook. So, if both services are free, where's the revenue? "There is a lot of money in click-through ad revenue and in licensing," Laura DiDio, principal of ITIC, told the E-Commerce Times.

Both platforms are already successful. So what is the lure for a partnership? It is very likely that the real motivation behind this move is actually a third party: Google. "The common enemy between Facebook and Skype is Google. Given the threat of Google, and given Facebook's desire to move into mobile applications and phones in general, the partnership is logical" said DiDio.

References: All Things Digital , ecommercetimes.com

Group Buying Sites

A fast growing Internet shopping trend of group buying sites is proving to be highly beneficial for both consumers and businesses. Based on a very simple model, the sites offer customers great online-deals on any product from a cup of coffee to a cosmetic lotion. So how does it work? Suppose the retail price at the shop is $500, the site offers to sell it for $480 if at least three units are demanded, price will drop to $450 if five units are demanded, $400 for eight units and so on.  The sales' status is updated and displayed on the Web, this way the buyers can follow the deal and jump in whenever they like.

The sites negotiate these deals with the retailers, in exchange for delivering a large number of customers, with no advertising fee. They make their money by taking a portion of the revenue from these deals, and also some advertising. This trend, first caught on US market, is now gaining steam in China. More than 300 Chinese sites are competing with each other, some small sites which focus on a specific geographic area or product-category. Other big and successful give different offers to a larger geographical range. Low entry barriers and extremely low costs lead to this competition.

This is another example of the massive bargaining force the Internet allows to consumers and also a great example of another win-win situation in the B2C/B2B processes you can create online.  

References: 

1. China Group Buying Sites Gain Steam

2. Krishnan & Ravi (2003), Group Buying On The Web: A Comparison of Price-Discovery Mechanisms, University of Pennsylvania.

CRM for Isracard

In class we were discussing different CRM systems and their contribution to business processes. A month ago Isracard (Israeli Master-Card Company) launched their new CRM system, which started working in less than six months - a very short period of time in relation to such complex project. The system now operates in all 600 calling centers of the credit card company. Financial scope of the project was about one million dollars.

This CRM system is based on an innovative concept developed by IBM, of a virtual desktop for the user, which is basically a shell. This concept enables the organization to establish a CRM system built on different components that exist in the organization, and create the connection between them - without having to rewrite existing applications.

The solution is called "Expeditor", and it allows the service representative to activate various components of existing systems under the new shell. Within the same umbrella were implemented a few different Microsoft CRM modules. All The systems were connected together; allowing users – i.e. representatives of service – a transparent extraction of data.

Oren Cohen, director of Isracard service centers, said: "Thanks to this system, along with other information systems… we've optimized and improved customer service, and service representatives' access to information. Response time decreased, and also the incoming requests quantity decreased by 19%".

As an Isracard customer, I believe this is great news not only for Isracard, but for us customers too, especially when you have no choice but to wait on the phone while the service representative puts you on hold…

Reference: article by Yehuda Konportz Sept. 16, 2010 from: www.pc.co.il

INSTANT

For my first blog I decided to pick a topic from the news, something that was recently introduced to us, another small but significant change in our everyday life.

This week Google launched the "Google Instant", a new feature that gives search results as you type. The results change as you keep typing and the search box gives you a prediction of what you're looking for, in grey letters. The idea came from the fact that people type slowly but read fast, and Google wants to help us find the info we're looking for as fast as possible. By using "Google Instant" the search time decreases by 2-4 seconds per search. Seems like a pretty small and insignificant change, but just think for a moment how much time of your day you spend searching the internet, working, studying, playing, etc.

Many people found this search method rather distracting, for they know what they are looking for when typing it. Furthermore, inappropriate content, such as pornography or violence that can easily pop up inadvertently while typing, was a disturbing fact. These concerns were predicted by Google beforehand. For the distraction issue, the user can delete the instant search application. In addition, the old search method remains the same, and so do the results. For the second argument, Google users can add the "Safe-Search" set in order to filter the content. On this matter they announced that auto-complete text will exclude those words automatically.    

I find it amazing that still there are more holes to fill, more needs we have that we didn’t even know about. Again, technology proves us that our lives can be better, faster and easier. Internet has become, whether we like it or not, the center of our business and social life. In that sense, we need the best tool in order to find our way through the web spending as little time as possible.