Topic 4 - Digital Design

Question 1

In two paragraphs explain why a customer centric Web site design is so important, yet so difficult to accomplish.

The internet has grown exponentially since its birth and you can no longer define a "typical" internet user. The internet has become mainstream and now we need to cater for a variety of users, with users over the age on 75 being the lowest percentage users. All good website designs concentrate on accessibility, usability, visual design and information design. The process of creating a website is not just placing words and pictures on a screen, its not just visual. You first need to grab a customer's attention so that he or she stays for longer than 3 seconds, then you need to keep him or her there.  A designer needs analytical skills, graphic design skills, information architecture skills, language skills, intuitive design skills, accessibility design skills and search engine optimization skills. All the skills just mention does not cover security, data protection, or any of the capabilities needed in the back-end.

A website is designed for the customer, therefor it needs to be customer centric. What is the point if your website does not attract any customers. There are so many websites that has so much to offer but because of its design or layout prospective customers just pass it by. For instance a really good website that implements pop-ups will often chase a customer away. If the language is incorrect you tend to close the window, a nice curly font might look really nice printed but on screen it makes reading difficult. You need to consider the target audience, you might find something easy to navigate from one page to another, but you designed it of course you know where to find something., but will your audience?

Question 2

Define the term ‘presence’. Write an additional paragraph that describes why firms that do business on the Web should be more concerned about presence than firms that operate in the physical world.

Presence is a state of being.

Having a web presence is easy, anyone can do it, but doing it well is what will set one site apart from another. With brick-and-mortar firms you need to consider location and reputation, once online location does not come into play unless you need to order something from a different country. Reputation does come into play but for a fraudulent site to close down and open in another name is no real bother. When someone is searching for a specific product on the web it takes 1 minute with the help of a search engine to find what you are looking for, because of instant access a customer will most likely not ask friends where the best place to find this product is. If a customer cant find the desired product then they might choose to ask others if they know where to find it. A firm needs a good web presence in order for it to do business and stay in business.

Question 3

*Usable Doesn’t Have To Mean Ugly ‘for a web design to be truly beautiful, it has to be functional, have purpose and contribute in some way to the website’s intuitiveness, usefulness and branding. All of these things contribute to the overall effect of a design’. This is a quote from one of the articles on web design linked on Web pages that suck. Find a web page that ‘does not suck’ and discuss the features that make it work

http://anyilu.com/

The website I chose is a good website because it is clean and minimalistic. The designer has made the site intuitive and it only offers one level, meaning you don't get lost going deeper and deeper into the website. The website does not take long to load and although you do not realize that they sell shoes from the start you do know it is fashion related. Once you scroll down you realize their main aim is selling shoes.

The bottom of the screen offers links to important sections like Contact Us, FAQ, Shipping and Returns, etc. As is the norm these days you can link what you are looking at to Facebook and other social sites, which in turn serves as advertising.

 The designer also kept in mind that the customers have different screen sizes and the screen content minimizes when you resize it. I also opened the link on my mobile phone and that has also been catered for. The designer definitely aimed to reach as many people as possible on as many devices as possible. The color scheme is neutral and has a very classy feel to it so it would not put most people off except maybe an adolescent audience.

Topic 3 - Security and Privacy

Question 1

See if you can find an example of a privacy breach that was reported in the Australian or international news in the last 6 months. What were the consequences?

Target admitted that between November 27th and December 15th 2013 approximately 40 million credit and debit card accounts may have been impacted due to a security breach. On January 10th target said that the hackers stole personal information from as many as 70 million customers. According to Target their first priority is preserving the trust of their clientele. Based on reported data target alerted authorities and financial institutions immediately after it was made aware of the breach. They later admitted that they ignored early signs of a Data Breach, security software picked up suspicious activity after the cyber attack was launched. The loss did not only impact individual customers but it also tarnished the brand, the U.S. chain reported declining sales of 6.6% in the fourth quarter in 2013.

On March 16th Target reported that 80 actions have been filled in multiple states and they expect more to be filled. Target's Chief Information Officer Beth Jacob resigned on Wednesday 5th of March, although it is reported that the resignation was Jacob's decision, many feel that she was forced to be the scape coat.

Target is partnering with a forensics firm to conduct an investigation of the breach. It has come to light that the breach started as an attach on one of Target's vendors. According to a fraud analyst Target could be facing losses up to $420 million as a result of the breach, Target will also need to upgrade its retail system to handle the more secure chip-and-pin credit and debit cards. This upgrade carries a cost of $100 million.

Security is a major concern in today's world, in the case above half a billion dollars of damage was caused to the second largest retailer in the U.S. due to a smaller business with an estimated $12.5 million in annual revenue. Target would have been protected against a direct attack and to bypass this obstacle the hackers concentrated on a vendor through phishing attacks that was introduced to the Target network. In this scenario the human element was the greatest risk and I believe this will remain the case, there are several very secure networks in existence and networks will become more secure due to necessity but the human element will remain the weakest link.


Lessons learned from Target breach's malware attack. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/tech/2014/03/21/lessons-learned-target-breachs-malware-attack/6673499/

Report: Cyber Security has $1.5B impact to San Diego - 10News.com KGTV ABC10 San Diego. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.10news.com/news/report-cyber-security-has-15b-impact-to-san-diego-032014

Target Admits It Ignored Early Signs Of Security Breach « CBS Miami. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://miami.cbslocal.com/2014/03/16/target-admits-it-ignored-early-signs-of-security-breach/

Target Confirms Unauthorized Access to Payment Card Data in U.S. Stores | Target Corporate. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://pressroom.target.com/news/target-confirms-unauthorized-access-to-payment-card-data-in-u-s-stores

Target Says It Ignored Early Signs of Data Breach | Top Tech News. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.toptechnews.com/news/Target-Admits-to-Early-Mistakes/story.xhtml?story_id=11100CG36UN0

Target CIO resigns in wake of massive data breach. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.cnbc.com/id/101449488

Question 2

What AmI technologies are identified in the case?

Technologies identified:

Iris Scanner (Biometrics)
Video
Profiling Technologies
Location Implants
Sensor Networks
Surveillance Systems
4G Mobiles
High Capacity Optical Storage Devices

What drives DMC’s officers to take the actions they took?

 In my opinion the main drivers of DMC's actions are money and secrecy. No one was aware of the data being collected on them so from their point of view they stood little chance of being found out. If they admitted the breach they would not only be advertizing that they have been gathering data but government agencies would not be so willing to approach them. The amount of money they would get from government agencies would be large, just consider the severance package paid to the DMC president.

If the Governments mentioned where aware of the security breach they themselves would have agreed not to make the security breach public, it would cause unrest amongst their citizens if they became aware of the government gathering information on them.

DMC is the clear market leader in the aggregation of AmI data. Are there any comparisons you can make to technology companies today?

There are multiple companies that gather data in today's world from social networking sites like Facebook and Google Plus to Online Survey Companies. Now admittedly these are not seen as technology companies although Google is a definite contender. Facebook has introduced several online technologies as well as having made social networking very popular. Recently they bought a mobile phone application, WhatsApp, and many have raised their concern about this application posing further opportunities for Facebook to gather personal data. Data Mining is a very lucrative field and I believe this will just grow.

How realistic is the description of governments using the technology and prohibiting immigration from states with no AmI data aggregation information?

Very realistic, it is already difficult for people from certain countries to obtain visas to visit other countries. For example Pakistani's have difficulty obtaining visas to both America and Australia based on their history with terrorism. Although I disagree that a whole country should be punished because of the actions of few, I do understand why they have put this measure in place and I support their underlining reasoning. If they can find a way to narrow the span of this discrimination why not use it? But it would not be wise to rely on this data alone, they should not stop someone from entering a country based on an assumption that someone MIGHT do something.

What would be the impact of this digital divide?

I am not sure what the impact would be, I think there will be 2 major groups. One that screams discrimination and the other would scream "It's about time". This question poses a real dilemma to me, I am against discrimination, any type, I am a firm believer that people can change. Look at Australia, this is a country came to be what it is today in part because of convicts being sent here. I come from a country riddled with racism thanks to Australia I have lost all my inhibitions related to race.
BUT I firmly believe that a country has a duty to protect its people first.

List some of the ‘unintended consequences’ described in the case.

1. It was unintended that the breach became public knowledge.
2. Government agencies would not have wanted it be known that they have been purchasing information.
3. I believe public trust would be impacted.

 

Topic 2 - Navigating the Web

Part 1

A. What are the four (4) main points Michael Rappa makes about search? Please write them on your blog page.

1. Search engines allow users to find services or products online. Because of this companies need an online presence, companies can opt to pay search engines a fee to list their advertisements.

2. Users are not aware of the many ways to search, from a users prospective it only takes a word or phrase to get the needed results. Google for instance provides ways to search news articles, educational publications and journals. An approach of less is more would result in better results.

3. Michael Rappa states that users do not understand what a search engine is and describes it as a database with a list of URLS and key words.

4. He then moves on to discuss the ranking algorithm used by search engines that determines how the results are presented to the user. 

B. Watch or read the Marissa Mayer interview. Marissa says ‘search is in its infancy’. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? What is your personal experience with search?  There are no right or wrong answers here, I just want your opinion.

I do not believe that search is in its infancy, not that I mean to say that search is all grown up but my opinion is that search is probably at the toddler stage. The video we viewed are 5 years old and technology grows at tremendous speed. For instance if you do a Tafe course as a stepping stone to get into Uni, let say Advanced Diploma of Computer Systems Engineering, after completing this course you decide to take time off, either to travel or maybe to work in order to save money for uni. You can only take 2 years off before your Advanced Diploma becomes irrelevant. 

My experience with Search has been positive, the more I have been searching the better my result seems to be. In part I believe this is because I have learned which type of searches give the best results and in part due to the growth of search.

C. Please watch the Bill Joy video, and it will give you a good background to the Internet and particularly to the emergence of the World Wide Web. 

1. So what are the 6 webs?

Near Web - Which means you are near the computer ie sitting in from of the computer.

Here Web - This means that the web is with you at all times, example of this is a smart phone.

Far Web - This means using the web where you are 'far' from the device. An example is watching TV from your couch.

Weird Web - Web controlled through, for example Bluetooth.

B2B web - Business computers communicating with each other.

D2D - Bill Joy describes this as embedded machine intelligence in ordinary life.

2. Could there be more?

Yes there could be more.

3. What does it mean for business?

Businesses need to adapt to technology. They need to be aware of the potential growth and exposure offered by technology.  I believe businesses are adapting well, for instance if you look at smart phones and the multitude of applications provided by businesses keep growing. I can use internet backing on my phone and it allows me to use a 4 digit pin instead of a 8 digit customer reference number and a password.

Topic 1 – Introduction to eBusiness

Week 1 

Questions

 

1 - Internet risks – give examples of four things that can go wrong with a transactional site?

 

Virtual vs Brick & Mortar:

A survey conducted on British Consumers shows that 88% of adults are not willing to accept lower levels of customer service offered by online businesses compared to the level of customer service in store. A business stands a chance of loosing customers to competitors if they do not ensure customer service is up to scratch.

Ease of use:

       Often times the designer of a website does not consider the user's level of IT understanding
       when creating a website. It might be creative to add extra bells and whistles to a website but it
       can make the website difficult to navigate. If a business does not take care in design phase of a
       website it stands a chance of loosing potential clientele to competitors.

Security:

      A Major concern of any transactional website is SECURITY, not just for consumers but for the
      business itself. Not only does the business stand a chance of loosing customers but the business
      integrity also stands to diminish.

Double Booking:

       Although online consumerism has grown exponentially there are still chances of a transaction
       being possessed more than once, not only due to some technical issue such as transaction
       queuing but also because while the transaction is being processed the user is not aware that
       clicking the wrong button might cause the transaction to go through more than once.


West, Claire. "Fresh Business Thinking, Information, advice, ideas, inspiration from practitioners." Fresh Business Thinking, Information, advice, ideas, inspiration from practitioners. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. <http://www.freshbusinessthinking.com/business_advice.php?CID=3&AID=663&PGID=1#.UyTsYoWjLdM>.

Adams, Chanel. "The Disadvantages of Online Transaction Processing." eHow. Demand Media, 29 Apr. 2010. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. <http://www.ehow.com/list_6403498_disadvantages-online-transaction-processing.html>.

2 - Write down a definition for each:

A) E-commerce:

A type of business model, or segment of a larger business model, that enables a firm or individual to conduct business over an electronic network, typically the internet. Electronic commerce operates in all four of the major market segments: business to business, business to consumer, consumer to consumer and consumer to business. It can be thought of as a more advanced form of mail-order purchasing through a catalog. Almost any product or service can be offered via ecommerce, from books and music to financial services and plane tickets."

"Electronic Commerce - ecommerce." Investopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. <http://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/ecommerce.asp>.

B) E-business:

 "E-business (electronic business), derived from such terms as "e-mail" and "e-commerce," is the conduct of business on the Internet, not only buying and selling but also servicing customers and collaborating with business partners."

"e-business (electronic business)." What is ?. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. <http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/e-business>.

 The distinction between E-commerce and E-business is that E-commerce a faction of E-business, while E-business encompasses not only transactions but also services clients, internet based interactions, etc.

3 - What is the difference between buy side and sell side eCommerce?

Buy side e-commerce are online transactions between a business and it suppliers.

Sell side e-commerce are online transactions between a supplier a business and its customers.

4 - Describe the different types of eBusiness

Business - to - Business (B2B)

A website that sells a product to a middle-man that then sells its products to the customer falls under the B2B model.

Example of B2B website - Constantcontact.com


Business - to - Consumer (B2C)

A website following the B2C model sells its product directly to the customer.

Example of a B2C - http://www.pumpkinpatch.com.au/

Consumer - to - Consumer (C2C)

A Consumer-to-Consumer website is a website that offers me the chance to sell something to you.

Example of a C2C - http://www.ebay.com.au/


Consumer - to - Business (C2B)

A website, for example a foodies blog, that markets a product for a fee for a business is a Consumer-to-Business website.

Example of a C2B - https://www.ipoll.com/


Business - to - Government (B2G)

A business website that sells its product to the Government follows the B2G model.

Example of a B2G - http://www.b2gmarket.com/

Government - to - Business (G2B)

This model is used by the Government to approach businesses.

Example of a G2B - https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-business-innovation-skills

Government - to - Citizen (G2C)

This website is used by the Government to approach citizens for example to register a birth or auction repossessed property.

Example G2C - http://www.humanservices.gov.au/

"Tutorials Point - Simply Easy Learning." E-Commerce Business Models. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. <http://www.tutorialspoint.com/e_commerce/e_commerce_business_models.htm>.

5 - Which digital technology has the highest penetration rate? Explain and source your answer.

Smart Phones has the highest penetration rate. The demand for smart phones have grown and keeps growing yearly. The reason for this is that smart phones offer more than just the ability to make a call or send a text. We use it to browse the internet, fill in and submit forms online, navigate us to our chosen destination and play games, to name a few. In some countries smart phones are the only device used to access the web as can be seen in the chart below from http://mobithinking.com/mobile-marketing-tools/latest-mobile-stats/b#mobile-only

Smart phone usage are forecast to 1.7 billion in 2017. Apart from this technology offering us so much and being small enough to take anywhere its price is also decreasing, which obviously makes it more accessible to more people.

Below is the predicted growth by region:

"Global mobile statistics 2013 Home: all the latest stats on mobile Web, apps, marketing, advertising, subscribers, and trends... | mobiThinking." Global mobile statistics 2013 Home: all the latest stats on mobile Web, apps, marketing, advertising, subscribers, and trends... | mobiThinking. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. <http://mobithinking.com/mobile-marketing-tools/latest-mobile-stats>.

"Australia's Content Marketing Blog." Smartphone Use in Australia. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. <http://blog.marginmedia.com.au/Our-Blog/bid/81865/Smartphone-Use-in-Australia-The-Advantage-for-Marketers>.

"Global mobile statistics 2013 Part A: Mobile subscribers; handset market share; mobile operators | mobiThinking." Global mobile statistics 2013 Part A: Mobile subscribers; handset market share; mobile operators | mobiThinking. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. <http://mobithinking.com/mobile-marketing-tools/latest-mobile-stats/a#smartphoneforecast>.

"Global mobile statistics 2013 Part A: Mobile subscribers; handset market share; mobile operators | mobiThinking." Global mobile statistics 2013 Part A: Mobile subscribers; handset market share; mobile operators | mobiThinking. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. <http://mobithinking.com/mobile-marketing-tools/latest-mobile-stats/a#topsmartphonecountries>.

6 - List: Four drivers to adoption of sell-side e-commerce by business.

1. Increased Sales - online presence provides more exposure which in turn brings in more customers 
2. Reduced Operating Costs - there is no need to have business premises in a prime location which reduce real estate costs for example.
3. Reduced Marketing Costs - The costs are reduced since the marketing is done online as compared to TV advertising and Radio advertising.
4. Competitive Pressure - An online pressence allows a business to compete with competitors.

7 - List: Four barriers to adoption of sell-side e-commerce by business.

1. Start Up Costs - If the costs of the proposed e-commerce site is to high it might not be a viable solution.
2. Running Costs - An online presence needs to stay current and in most cases have running costs, a small business might not have the capital to support this.
3. Lack of Time and/or Resources - A business might not have the resources nor the time available to dedicate to an online presence.
4. Lack of Skills - An online business needs staff to have at least basic knowledge of the internet.

8 - What are some examples of Digital Information?

1. DVD's
2. CD's
3. Memory Cards
4. Internet
5. The Cloud
6. Portable Hard Drives and USB's