Topic 11 – Web 2.0/3.0

Questions

Select five applications that you have not heard of before from Popular URL’s Web 2.0 awards or the webware awards and describe on your blog page how they could be useful to a business.

http://uncrate.com/style/

This is a great website that offers some unique products aimed at men. Businesses can use this website to promote products. The site does not seem to sell the products themselves but its more like a massive advertisement of all things men might be interested in. But many businesses can use this site to promote their products especially if it is a product completely new to the market.

http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/

This site is basically an online magazine aimed at home makers. This is a great opportunity for websites to promote products anything from furniture to groceries. Users can subscribe to get newsletters emailed to them promoting new articles, the site also promotes an End the Hunger campaign which businesses can use to promote a healthy image.

http://www.engadget.com/

This site reviews products, mainly tech products and it is a good opportunity for businesses to promote products and their features compared to other similar products on the market. There is a downside to this though, if your product does not compare or surpass current similar products you could be buying bad publicity.

http://www.intomobile.com/

Another tech website but this one concentrates on mobile phones and all things concerning them. With this site businesses' can not only promote their phones but also their operating systems, hardware, mobile phone carriers, tablets and applications. Businesses that do not have anything to do with mobile phones such as banks, grocery stores and pet shops can use this site to promote their applications if they have the desire to create one, which in today's world is almost a must.

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/011742.html

This site is basically a community dedicated to building a more sustainable future. This might not be a direct financial gain to businesses but it does offer them a way of promoting their brand. It offers the opportunity to collaborate with other professionals to address specific design challenges and in participating businesses can be exposed to new and innovative ideas that they can then implement, the can also provide ideas that might not have been thought of before.

Topic 10 - Trust

Questions 

Question 1 - What does this meant by the following statements?

Image from: http://www.freeimageslive.co.uk/search/imagesearch.cgi

Trust is not associative (non-symmetric)

Trust is not necessarily a two way street, just because Pieter trusts Paul does not automatically mean that Paul trusts Pieter.

Trust is not transitive

Trust does not automatically extend. Pieter and Paul trust each other but that does not mean that Pieter automatically trust the people Paul trust, and Paul does not automatically trust the people Pieter trust.

Trust is always between exactly 2 parties

Trust is established between 2 parties. If a third party joins the equation it trust is established individually between party 1 and party 3, and party 2 and party 3. 

Trust will involve either direct trust or recommender trust

Paul trust Pieter directly, based on Paul's opinion and experiences with Pieter. This is direct trust. Pieter recommends Paul get legal advice from Lily because she is trustworthy. Paul trusts that Lily is trustworthy because of this recommendation. This is recommender trust.

Question 2a -  Have a look at the following websites. What are some of the elements that have been incorporated to increase your trust in the sites? If there are also some aspects which decrease your level of trust describe them as well.

http://www.eBay.com.au

Increase Trust:

1. Customer Support
2. Policies
3. Feedback Forum
4. Reputation
5. Secure Payment - uses a known payment facility

Decrease Trusts:

1. I am bias where eBay is concerned, I have used it for many years and all distrust is based on individual sellers not eBay as an entity. A good example of "trust is not transitive".

http://www.anz.com.au

Increase Trust:

1. Contact us information
2. Secure Log-in
3. Security information

Decrease Trusts:

1. None that I can see

http://www.thinkgeek.com

Increase Trust:

1. Contact us
2. Privacy and Security Information
3. Customer Service
4. Returns and Exchange information
5. Log-in

Decrease Trusts:

1. None, I like the feel if this site. 

 

http://www.paypal.com.au

PayPal seems to have changed their site and not for the better.

Increase Trust:

1. Reputation
2. Past experience

Decrease Trusts:

1. Not intuitive anymore, hard to find:
1. Contact information
2. Policies
3. Security Information.

Question 2b - Find a web site yourself that you think looks untrustworthy.

http://goodrichjumps.com/index.html

1. No contact information - there is a phone number that cant be trusted.
2. The fact that the site has been badly designed gives the impression that it is not to be trusted.
3. The color scheme does not allow me to spend much time on the site so I cant really investigate its authenticity. But then again the short time spent there does not offer much.

 

Topic 9 - Channel Conflict

Discussion

See the discussion forum (in week 9) and comment on the microsoft article profiled there. Discuss the case on your blog in terms of channel conflict. 12 months on after the release of Windows 8, is it still an issue?

 I am not a fan of Microsoft, I believe it is a monster that is just growing and growing, I dont know why I have this dislike for Microsoft, I am sure I once had a reason a long time ago.... but I have forgotten and to be honest the reason has probably become redundant. And lets face it apart from my dislike to Microsoft, this would not be the first time that Microsoft acted like a villain. Just do a general search "Microsoft back stabs IBM" and Google will provide you with many stories, and the result will not only show Microsoft as the villain but IBM, Toshiba, and many others make business decisions that benefit themselves and harm the other.

From a business perspective I dont think Microsoft did anything wrong in creating its own tablet. What business does not choose to expand? If you see an opportunity take it. The business world is competitive, this is nothing new. Every one knows that if you have an idea you keep it to yourself or make sure you are protected against that idea being taken. In saying this I want to add I like nothing better than seeing the underdog win, and this in it self is just another cycle... the underdog wins and wins again and keep on going and soon the underdog becomes the top dog, it gets criticized and blamed and then there comes another underdog wanting to become the top dog.

I dont think this channel conflict is still an issue, technology grows at such a fast rate that issues need to be dealt with at a very fast rate, and new issues and ideas form even quicker.