Social Media Project

This week, I worked on a group project with other members of my ISM 3004 class. It was really interesting to work in a group as an online class because I wasn't sure how it was going to work, but it actually worked pretty well which surprised me.

I learned how to use Wikispaces, which is a tool I've heard of but confused with Wikipedia, since the abbreviation is Wiki. Luckily, everyone was able to log on to the website and work on the document, I would say it's similar to Google docs.

We chose Southwest Airlines and learned about their different social media outreaches, which was pretty neat. I covered Instagram and Pinterest, two mediums that were relatively new to me. Instagram wasn't accessible online and came up in code, oddly, so I used my smart phone to look up the company and found them at southwestair. They posted pictures primarily on their planes and some of their customers. Pinterest, on the other hand, seemed to focus more on the former Southwest Airlines images (from 1973 and 1968), namely the female flight attendants.

I think the experience and reading over the report gave good insight into a company and let different members of the team learn new things about Southwest Air that we didn't know before.

You can access our report on Southwest Airlines here.

Week 13: Starbucks Campaign (Clear)

One of my favorite parts of this week's lectures was about Starbucks, not because I love coffee (I actually don't like it), but because they have a campaign to help the 9.1% of people who are unemployed.

Maybe you've heard of the campaign by now, it began in November, but if you haven't let me brief you about it. They are selling red, white and blue bracelets for $5 for the Create Jobs for USA Fund, a partnership with Opportunity Finance Network to encourage small business growth (a picture of the bracelet is below).

Starbucks has more than 700,000 Twitter followers and 5.5 million Facebook, which helps with their social media leg of the campaign. They can, and should, use social media to promote this minimum $5 donation to help people in need. For those who have jobs, Starbucks links that they can help fellow Americans who have struggled before and make sure the donation goes to create and sustain jobs throughout America.

Link to image

This campaign is important to businesses because it helps businesses. The campaign entails social media, which is present in nearly every business in the United States, maybe not in every form, but whether it's Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare or another, there tend to be customers participating online rather than not communicating in this way.

By reading a little more about the campaign, it really hit home that they are trying to help small businesses, so this is more than just a CSR initiative, it's help Americans. The campaign launched November 1 where patrons could donate online at www.createjobsforusa.org or at one of nearly 6,800 company-operated stores in the United States. If you want to learn a little more about the campaign, click here to go to the Starbucks newsroom.

Week 12: Telecommunication and the Internet (Clear)

So, I thought I knew all about the Internet, but that was until I watched the lecture and learned more than I realized. One of the biggest things I didn't realize is that Internet with the capital I means the global Internet we use daily whereas internet with an i means any internet or the internet layer.

I guess that's a good place to begin.

So a little background information is the Internet is a network of connections connecting businesses, government agencies, educational institutions and individuals. It is made-up of small and large websites.

One of the most important things is the inter connectedness of the visitors, those using Google, Youtube, Yahoo and Facebook (for example), are more connected than those using niche and community sites, which are smaller and don't have as many links to other sites.

Something to note is that no one owns the Internet in any real sense, but people do own parts (like rights to their website). It is designed to be redundant and fault-tolerant.

Here are some of the basics:

• A network is two or more computers connected together to share data. Any device it is connected to is a host.
• A network application is any application that requires a network to function.

Now that you have an understanding of what is going on, let me explain a little of the history so you know how it has evolved:

• 1970s: The Internet was used for e-mail, file downloading and transfers
• 1990s: It was used for the World Wide Web and instant messaging
• This century: It is used for Web 2.0 (Wikipedia and Youtube are examples), social networking (such as Facebook and Twitter) and streaming media (through Hulu and Netflix)

The goals of networked systems are as follows:

• Connect resources, which signifies the "ending of tyranny of geography"
• Communication medium to connect people (examples are Facebook and Skype)
• e-Commerce to save time and money (businesses can use this to be more efficient. By saying to save time and money it doesn't mean by using the Internet they instantly save money, it means more time efficiency)

The categories of network use:

• Interactions between a person and a remote database (a person and Walmart -- online ordering)
• Person-to-person communication (such as eBay and how one seller lists their product and another person purchases)
• e-Commerce (B2B, B2C, P2P, etc.)
• Entertainment (such as gaming)
• Ubiquitous computing (embedded in daily life)
• The purpose of a computer is to help you do something else
• The best computer is quiet, invisible servant
• The computer should extend your unconscious
• Technology should create calm (be helpful)

Currently, connected devices are laptops, iPhones, XBOX and others, but in the future devices such as refrigerators, microwaves and even cats. Because of the increased connections, we are running out of unique IP addresses which will pose a very big problem soon.

Overall, it is very important to know this information to be aware of what is going on and hopefully prevent massive expenses. The Internet is the connection to basically everything and is vital in today's fast-moving business world. 

Below is a Youtube video introducing what the Internet is. It's from 1994 when it was just evolving, which is an interesting take:

Hope you enjoyed this week's post!

Database Project: Microsoft Access

Before this project, I had never known how to make a database and now I've made one. I really enjoyed learning about the different steps and the products to use, I always compiled things in Microsoft Excel and calculated what I wanted to know on my own. Now, I know the difference between making a table, query, form and report, which is very exciting. A table gives the basic data, query answers questions about your data, form is to make the data entering process less time-consuming and repetitive and reports give the information from the table and query in an attractive manner.

One way I can enhance the functionality of the database is by adding text labels to the forms to indicate what is going on. This will provide clarity. Another way is by adding a validation rule to make sure the proper amounts are used, such as the zip code range to be more specific to certain areas of Gainesville.

Week 10: Microsoft Access (Clear)

Each week I take an exciting adventure to learn something new in my class and this week was about a Microsoft product I've never heard of, let alone used. Maybe you know what I'm referencing, you might if it's Microsoft Access.

Let me briefly explain, this is a wonderful (and newly discovered product to me) product that will help you keep databases. If you own a business, this could be a great tool, or maybe you just like to look at numbers for a class project, it would be another asset that can help.

So, now that you're briefed on what the product is, let's dive in and I'll explain what a query is.

I know, another term you may not have heard of before but don't worry, I'll help you out.

A query is just a fancy way of saying how to describe data, it breaks it down into different parts such as planning, optimizing, etc.

Now that you're caught up on what a query is, let's talk about how to make one!

First, open Microsoft Access. You need to open the database by going to your recent (or another one you want to work in) and then click it. Select the table you want to work in.

How to create a query: Go to the ribbon bar at the top and click create. This will let you pick query design button and then you select the table you'd like to use as the source of the information. Click add.

Now, you can specify which fields you'd like to have in the results (this is in the bottom half of the screen). Click on the data sheet view.

In the design view, click the design icon in the top left corner, this is right under the file button. Now you can sort! (Kind of exciting, especially for those of you who love your organization). You can sort in the query definition in ascending and descending orders, this is for single items. In multiple fields, you click in both fields that you want and sort (in the record of each field).

And, you're done! It's that simply. It's so easy to do and really helps.

You're wondering how it's beneficial in the business environment and my question to you is how can it not be beneficial? As I mentioned, businesses can benefit by sorting their data. Any business from a corporation to a mom-and-pop shop can have some help from using databases to organize their information.

In case you're still a little unfamiliar with what Microsoft Access is, here's a YouTube video to help explain a little more.

Have a great week!

Week 9: Moore's Law (Clear)

Moore's Law was the topic of this week's class. It was named after Gordon Moore, a co-founder of Intel. Here's the historical background of how the technological landscape has changed over the years:

• 1500: ideas for mechanical computing started with Leonardo Davinci
• 1896: the Tabulating Machine Company was formed for mechanical methods to count the U.S. population for the Census. Later the company became IBM (International Business Machines)
• 1904: John Ambrose Fleming developed the first commercial diode vacuum tube, but Edison discovered this earlier and deemed it worthless. This allowed the electrical switch to turn on and off a thousand times faster than any contraption to date
• 1926: first semi-conductor transitor invented
• 1944: Harvard and IBM developed the Mark 1 (main frame computer). It weighed about 10,000 pounds and took up 51 feet in length, 8 feet in height and 2 feet in depth. 
• 1958: Texas Instruments built the first integrated circuit. This led to the modern processor and led to smaller computers to be produced.
• Early 1960s: 2,000 computers in use in the U.S.
• 1965: first microcomputer developed. It cost $18,000 (the PDP8 was the model) and there were 50,000 sold
• 1975: Altare 8800 sold at $397 without a keyboard, mouse, monitor or interface. It included the Intel microprocessor and 256 bytes of memory
• Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak hacked this to create a computer with a display, built-in keyboard and disk storage: this was the apple

Moore's Law is chip performance per dollar doubles every 18 months. The next generation of chips should be twice as fast and cost the same thing as 18 months ago.

It's important to understand price elasticity which is the rate at which demand fluctuates with price change. High price elasticity means when the price drops, there will be a spike in demand.

The five waves of computing are how computers have evolved over the years. The five waves of computing are:

• 1960s: main frame (Mark 1 for batch computing with punch cards)
• 1970s: mini-computers (smaller than room-sized Mark 1, had a series of switches)
• 1980s: personal computers (Macintosh introduced in 1982. Uses a mouse and graphical interface)
• 1990s: mobile computers (laptops, personal computing devices)
• 2000s: ubiquitous computers (now an integral part of your life)
• referred to as the Internet of Things
• Cisco estimates that by 2020, there will be 50 billion things connected to the Internet. Intel claims there will be 31 billion things by 2020.

As a manager, you need to consider some questions:

• How long will your computing equipment remain useful?
• What does this mean for capital expense budget?
• What does it mean for your costs associated with maintenance?
• What does it mean for training budget?

Also, keep in mind the Death of Moore's Law. There are three inter-related forces: size, heat and power that threaten to slow down Moore's Law. This means there is only so much smaller in size, less heated and less use of power that can be accomplished.

Here is a website that gives a better understanding of Moore's Law: http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2008/09/moore.ars

The site showed me how effective Moore's Law has been over the year and the origins of it. It goes more in depth on explanation and really explains any questions you have.

Business is important because we have to know what is coming and what more to expect in the future. In the questions to consider, it's important to think of these before making purchasing decisions to get the most out of your investment.

Until next time...

Excel Project

This week, I created an Excel project using information from 100 males and females ranging in age between 20 and 59 years old. This was not an easy assignment, but I learned a lot.

I used information my professor provided and added statistics to it, such as finding the average heart rate, average increase, target heart rate, highest heart rate, if the target was achieved, etc. One of the more interesting parts of the spreadsheet was figuring out how to mark yes or no for making the target heart rate. This was pretty cool because I learned how to make formulas and have them work, which I've always wanted to do and it helps knowing to put = before any formula you want to make (otherwise it just won't work).

Below is a screen capture of the average increase of the participants in the research. As you can see, females tended to have better results than males.