Week 11 Post

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

About.com is a webpage that provided useful information on almost everything. This webpage allows people to discuss topics through forums and discussion pages.About.com could be useful for a company if the company wanted to know an answer to a question. It also lets recognized companies to write about topics on this site.

Hulu.com

Hulu.com is one of the most popular video hosting website which allows viewers to upload/view videos. Youtube is one of its major competitor although in Hulu the contents gets deleted after a certain period of time. It is of great use to advertisement companies who can advertise their products.

www.grooveshark.com

Grooveshark is an online free jukebox service, which offers free music to users. The music can be played using online audio player. It also lets users download music from the webpage or save a song as a favorite

Mint.com

Mint.com is a website which provides assistance for small companies to manage their financial situations. They interact directly with the company's bank account and provide assistance

Dimdim - This website helps business professional to host meetings online without having to meet up in person. This website helps professional and businesses save a lot of time and money.

Week 10 Post

1) What does this meant by the following statements?

Trust is not associative (non-symmetric):

Trust is not associative because the trust between a buyer and seller cannot always be the same. The seller might have higher trust thinking the buyer might buy the goods with the money agreed pon or the seller might have a lesser trust on the buyer if he is providing the right products.

Trust is not transitive:

Trust is not transitive because it is not easy to achieve the trust of a buyer. The seller needs to work on this and prove that he is trustworthy with a certificate. For eg, we can look up for the feedback given to that seller

Trust is always between exactly 2 parties:

Yes, the trust between the buyer and the seller is the most important thing.

Trust will involve either direct trust or recommender trust

Direct trust is the trust of the consumer he has on the seller himself because of his previous experience whereas recommender trust is the trust obtained from other people with their experiences with the same seller.

a) 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:

When doing the payment on bay, it opens up as a secure site which is trustworthy. In terms of seller, there are feedbacks from people all over the world that you can look up before buying stuff

http://www.anz.com.au:

The home page itself is "https" page, which is a secure page. Before logging into ANZ, it gives warning about recent threats, which are helpful.

http://www.ozrural.com:

While not unto the standards of the above two websites, this is a local website which is trust worth as long as major transactions don't take place

http://www.paypal.com.au:

Paypal is one of the most secure sites, which allows people to pay for items purchased online with a guarantee for the money.

2b) Find a web site yourself that you think looks untrustworthy

http://www.how-to-clear-acne.com/how-to-get-rid-of-acne-scars.html- this website looks like a spam website to me.

Week 8 Post

Q1: eBay is one of the only major Internet "pure plays" to consistently make a profit from its inception. What is eBay's business model? Why has it been so successful?

EBay is an online auction and shopping website in which people and business buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide. EBay business model is the broker model. EBay has been rather successful because most people have a rather good experience. EBay is a website which tries to ensure that people are being genuine. If and account seems to be fraudulent then eBay would delete their account. EBay has safety measures to ensure that people are not being ripped off.

Q2: Other major web sites, like Amazon.com and Yahoo have entered the auction marketplace with far less success than eBay. How has eBay been able to maintain its dominant position?

EBay dominates when compared to Yahoo and Amazon. The main reason behind this is, EBay allows users to sell items up for auction. If item is sold the seller gets the benefits and eBay gets their commission. Whereas, with Amazon and Yahoo, sells their product which they do have it their stock. This is the reason why eBay dominates when compared to Yahoo and Amazon.

Q3: What method does eBay use to reduce the potential for fraud among traders on its site? What kinds of fraud, if any, are eBay users most susceptible?

EBay website provides security tips to the buyers and the sellers to reduce the risk. EBay recommends Pay Pal for all money transaction, as it considers this is the safest way. But if the eBay users uses any other payment method other than Pay Pal, they website consider that as a risk. The most important benefit of using Pay Pal is, if the buyer is not happy with the item purchased or if the sellers think the seller is fraudulent, Pay pal refunds the money back to the buyer. EBay users cab be exposed to Identity theft, Buyers fraud and Sellers fraud.

Q4: eBay makes every effort to conceptualize its users as a community (as opposed to, say "customers" or "clients"). What is the purpose of this conceptual twist and does eBay gain something by doing it?

EBay does make every effort to conceptualize its users as a community as it would prefer their users to visit again. EBay offers promotional deals to attract users and make them a active user by making them to buy and sell, so it benefits the user as well as the Website.

Website offers many items that are hard to purchase in a physical store. Buyers can buy products from other countries without traveling.

Q5: eBay has long been a marketplace for used goods and collectibles. Today, it is increasingly a place where major businesses come to auction their wares. Why would a brand name vendor set-up shop on eBay?

Online shopping is getting popular, recently. People prefer doing online shopping rather than going to a shop physically. Online shopping saves time, saves money and there are so many options. Brand name vendors would set up shops on eBay because there are countries where physical brand stores would not be available, so by selling it online it would benefits the buyer as well as the brand.

Week 7 Post

Write a one paragraph describing the Turing test and another paragraph describing an argument against the Turing Test, known as the about the Chinese room.

Turning test:

The turning test is a approach which determines a machines capability to demonstrate thought. This demonstrates a computer/system operating without the need of a user (operator). The turning test, tests “whether or not a system is intelligent” (University of Alberta, n.d). When looking at turning testing Alan Turning came up with the test and described it as when a person/human is having a conversation on the computer/system. If the person/human cannot “distinguish the machine from a human” the system would be deemed as intelligent. This can be interpreted as when a person is on a computer and receives replies the person does not know it is a computer not another person replying to their instructions.

Chinese room:

The Chinese room argument shows that if the system uses Chinese symbols then the system would pass the turning test. This argument shows that if the system replies with Chinese symbols the user may think it’s another human, which it is not. This in theory would be a successful turning test but the system might just send out Chinese symbols but the symbols do not make sense with the question or conversation. Searle states that a Chinese speaker communicates with the system can the system responds in Chinese the person might think it is another person but the system might not actually be intelligent. This demonstrates that the Chinese speaker may think it is another speaker who may not know how to read the symbols properly.

Can virtual agents succeed in delivering high-quality customer service over the Web? Think of examples, which support or disprove the question or just offer an opinion based on your personal experience.

There are different things to be considered for a virtual agent to succeed in delivering high-quality customer service over the Web. There are few companies, which have virtual agents to provide customer services. Most of the virtual agents scan the keywords present in user's question and provide an answer. Sometimes the response will be relevant but most of the time, it would be not relevant to the question. In my personal experience most of the time virtual agent responses are not relevant which sometime useless.

Week 6 Post

Week 6: Digital markets

Question 1

a) What experiences have you had with shopping online?

My experience with online shopping will definitely include eBay as the best. I have personally bought many items on eBay. EBay gives us lots of choices from al over the world and help us decided what exactly we need amongst those products. We can either bid or buy the products for a fixed price, which is very convenient.

b) Describe a good experience.

My experiences with online shopping have always been good. One of the very good examples would be a HDMI cord that I could not find in the local electrical stores, which I found it online from the Unites States. They shipped it to Australia in the next couple of days, which was a really good experience.

c) What did you like about the online store you used?

The things i liked the most about eBay was it let’s us choose what exactly we want and when we want it. We can actually watch the items in a list and wait for the right time to purchase it, which is amazing. The other thing is we can buy stuff for cheaper rates when they come from a different country where they are originally manufacturer, which is really helpful as well.

d) Describe a bad experience.

One bad experience was with a product that I bought online from a different country for a very cheap price. The product was exactly the same as what the description in the site was but the quality of the product was bad. So we actually don't get to physically see the product or try it in person before we buy it.

e) What problems did you have with the online store?

Say if I bidding on a product that was going to end the next day, if the site is down or if the internet is down that particular day then we will miss the product that we wanted. There are also chances where products can be fake or imitation of the original products.

h) Should we expect to see the prices of goods and services rise or fall due to the migration of consumers online?

In my opinion this entirely depends on the country's economy. The prices are likely to go when the economy is down and vice versa.

Question 2

a) The dispersion of prices (that is, the spread between the lowest and highest price for a particular product) will narrow.

The dispersion of price is completely acceptable because most consumers look up for different products mainly for it's quality and price.

b) The importance of brand names will decrease.

This in my opinion will never decrease but will keep increasing. This is mainly due to my personal experiences. I did not know many brands personally before but now I am slowly getting to know many major brands.

c) Price competition will make all products cheaper.

Yes, the prices will definitely get cheaper when newer and advanced products are introduced in the markets. For eg,Computers which were expensive before are now cheaper due to the release of laptops.

d) Digital markets will become dominated by a handful of mega-sites, like Amazon.com.

Yes, digital markets like eBay and Amazon are taking over the world in Ebusiness these days.

e) How do you think the balance of power between buyers and sellers will change?

Following the standard of ethics and sticking to them strictly can only maintain the balance of power between buyers and sellers.

f) Prices are cluster online.

Yes, this might depend on the quality of the product or it might just be cheaper or expensive depending on the availability of the product in that specific country.

g) Online prices are elastic. (I.e. immune to change up and down with demand).

Depending on the demand for that product in that country, the prices are likely to be expensive or cheaper.

h) Online prices are generally transparent (the extent to which prices for a given product or service are known by buyers in the marketplace.).

Yes, online prices are very transparent. This might give the consumers an idea of what the price of the product is in markets or online.

Question 3

a) What types of m-commerce services does your cell phone provider offer?

My mobile provider that is Optus provides such m-commerce as:

· Paying bills online,

· Emailing

· Bluetooth

· Games

· Internet

b) Which of these services do you use?

I use almost all the above.

c) What types of transactions do you perform through your cell phone or other wireless device?

I personally use my phone's wireless to recharge my phone online and for Internet banking

e) What is your opinion of wireless advertising/mobile marketing?

It is one of the most useful ideas to have wireless on the phone which could be accessible no matter which part of the world you are. It feels like you have the world in your hands.

Week 5 Post

1) What is the Mobile phone use /100 population - compare Australia, USA, China, India

· Australia: 100.3

· USA: 97.4

· China: 66.09

· India: 67.06

2) Internet use population - compare Australia, USA, China, India

· Australia: 68.2

· USA: 74.9

· China: 16.8

· India: 7.7

3) Compare main strengths and weaknesses of Australia in the survey

The main strength of Australia includes its political and infrastructural environment. Australia's individual readiness is also another major strength

The main weakness is the market environment where Australia has to import most of the products from a different country. Other weaknesses include business and Government readiness

4) What does the survey suggest to you about the Information Technology readiness of Australian business compared to Australian consumers?

This survey suggests that Australian business readiness is ranked 21 compared to individual Australian consumer, which is ranked 12. This shows that the Australian consumer is ranked higher than Australian businesses.

Week 4 Post

1) Looking at the site useage, what does the terms visits, page views and pages/visit mean? What does the bounce rate mean and does it vary 
much from day to day?

The term Visits means how many users have visited the website. Page view means how many web pages has been viewed in this website. Pages/Visit means the average page views by all the visitors in the website. Bounce rate is usually when the user goes to a different pages or site from that website. The bounce rate does vary from day to day such as average is 36.94%, according to the Google Analytic website.


2) Now look at the traffic sources report. What are the three sources of traffic and where has most of the traffic come from?

The three sources of traffic are Direct Traffic, Referring Sites and Search Engines. The most of the traffic comes from Direct Traffic.


3) What was the most popular web browser used to access the site?

Internet Explorer - Contribution - 47.77%



4) How many countries did visitors to Foliospaces come from and what were the top four countries?

Australia

United States

United Kingdom

Pakistan



5) Having clicked every possible link on my analytics, make a few comments on (a) What you can track, (b) What you can track over time and (c) What you can’t track.

What you can track:

· Visits

· Page views

· Time on site

· Bounce rate

· Traffic source

· List of countries that the user comes from

· User overview

What you can track over time

· Number of visits

· Number of times pages have been visited

· How long people spend on a page

· Number of countries which visit the website

· Bounce rate

What you can’t track

The gender of the user

· The direct location of the user

· Age of the user



6) what do the following terms mean? These are just a few, you may like to add some more and perhaps include them on the Moodle glossary.

High bounce rate:

How many times a user/person left the website after entering. Generally this means the website isn’t relevant and the user might not return to the website.


Key words:

In the context of the internet keywords are when searching for a website keywords allow the user to find a relevant website that contains the keywords which the user is looking for.



Average Page Depth:

Average page depth means on average the user visits pages on a site.

Click through rate:

Click through rate is when a user clicks “on an ad then divided by the number of times the ad is shown”



Click:

Click means pressing a button on a mouse.

Cookie:

Cookies are stored data such as small text files which is data about websites visited.



Impression:

Impression is viewing a website or looking at an advertisement.

Hyperlink:

A Hyperlink is a text or image that when a user/person clicks onto it the hyperlink takes then user directing to the website.

Navigation:


Navigation is when a person goes to a website through an Internet browser.

Page view:

Is when the Internet page is viewed.

Session

A session is how long the user is on the website for.

Unique Visitors (or Absolute Unique Visitors):

Unique visitor is when the website identifies the user using an IP address


URL:

This stands for Universal Resource Locator. This “identifies a file is on the Internet” 



Visitor:

A visitor is a user/person who visits a website



Visitor Session:

A visitor session is the amount of time a user/person spends on a website



Comparison-shopping:

To shop for bargains by comparing the prices of competing brands or stores

Week 3 Post

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

Customer centric websites are websites, which basically are designed specifically for customers to cater for all their wants and needs. A customer centric website is very important yet difficult to accomplish because the company has to aim the website to cater for the consumer’s wants and not necessarily what the company thinks the consumers want and need thus advertising products which are somewhat popular and not products which do not sell. The company needs to advertise products which consumers want and advertise them on the website

The design of a customer centric webpage is another important aspect that needs to be considered. If the website is not user-friendly the consumers wont last long. When designing a customer centric web site the company has to ensure that the website is catering for the consumers needs of convenience, speed and price. Hence the website should cater the all the needs of consumers no matter if they are buying the product or not and it should also be reliable and faster to use.

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.

The term presence can be defined as “being present; existence, occurrence or attendance at some place or in something”

The presence in terms is certainly very essential because in today's world, it is easier to spot a physical business like a shop on the street but in terms of online businesses, it is very hard for the consumers to the know the existence of some businesses unless they are advertised on popular medias. Therfore the presence is very important for online businesses.

3. Write three paragraphs to briefly describe the things that Real Estate Agents can best accomplish through (1) their web sites (2) Mass media advertising (3) Personal contact

Websites:

Almost all realestate have started using WebPages to advertise properties be it home or a business location. It is rather convenient for the consumers instead of having to physically spot the properties that they are interested in. Virtual tours come in handy in such websites. They provide the consumers with similar effects of almost going and seeing the properties in person.

Mass media advertising:

Mass media plays a vital role in a real estate business. The major mass media include television, radio and catalogues. By advertising in one or all of these, the consumers get a better idea on what is available and what they actually want rather than going through a whole bunch of properties that they are not even interested.

Personal contact:

Personal contact is the direct contact between the consumers and the real-estate people t offer them a qualitative service by catering the specific needs of the client. Personal contact does play a important role for some clients who are looking for something extra-ordinary and hence the end results are better.

Week 2 Post

Part 1 - Navigation

One of the biggest challenges for businesses and customers alike is navigating the Internet. This week please answer the following questions on your blog -

1) Listen to the podcast on Navigation which can be found on the Digital Enterprise Page (Google - the digital enterprise).

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

Database

Collection mechanism for adding data into database

Search protocol to enable users to query the database

A ranking algorithm that determines the resuts are presented to the user

b) Watch or read the Marissa Mayer interview. Write a paragraph or two, on four points made by Marissa Mayer, that you think were the most interesting or significant for business. There are no right or wrong answers here, I just want your opinion.

Marissa Mayer, the vice president of search products and user experience at Google made a few interesting points concerning business. The points I found most interesting were:

· By using her experience at Google Mayer talked about how they created the prototype. She discussed how they used the feedback and information gathered from users of the prototype to see if it satisfied their needs. They also used this information to see where they need to improve. Businesses have to do this to see where they need to improve their product and even to see if the product is successful. If companies do not use the feedback that they obtain then the company might hit some obstacles and not know how to deal with issues surrounding a particular product or service. Companies need to satisfy consumer’s needs and wants or consumers would not buy or use the product/service.

· Mayer also talked about advertisements on the internet. Businesses can pay such internet sites/businesses like Google to advertise their business since people browse search engines. People browse search engines and may pay attention to ads being advertised. Mayer states “the amount of attention that a user pays on each page...is fundamentally different” . This means that when ads appear on search engines when people are searching information the ads might only attract or catch the focus of a few people but not everyone. Companies can use this information to their advantage by having advertisements on the internet that attract the user’s attention.

Week 1 Post

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

Credit Card Fraud

Phishing

Identity Theft

Personal information compromised


2) Write down a definition for each:

a) E-commerce:

E-commerce refers to the buying and selling of goods or products over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer network.

b) E-business:

Electronic business is defined as the application of information and communication technologies in support of all the activities of business.

3) What is the difference between buy side and sell side e-Commerce?

Buy-side e-commerce refers to transactions to buy/procure resources needed by a business from its suppliers and the difference is that sell-side e-commerce is the transactions that are involved with selling products to a businesses customers

4) Describe the different types of e-Business

B2C: B2C stands for Business to Consumer as the name suggests, it is the model taking businesses and consumers interaction. Online business sells to individuals. The basic concept of this model is to sell the product online to the consumers.

B2B: B2B stands for Business to Business. It consists of largest form of Ecommerce. This model defines that Buyer and seller are two different entities. It is similar to manufacturer issuing goods to the retailer or wholesaler.

C2C: C2C stands for Consumer to Consumer. It helps the online dealing of goods or services among people.

B2C: B2B stands for Business to Consumer. It is the activity of businesses providing consumers with products or services. An example of Business to Customer transaction would be a person buying a product from a retailer.

C2B: C2B stands for Consumer to Business. It helps consumers or individuals offer products and services to companies and the companies pay them.

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

The digital technology, which has the highest penetration rate, is mobile phones.

A new study by ABI Research today confirms that mobile subscriptions worldwide passed the 5 billion mark. (MoBlog)

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

Drivers to the adoption of sell-side e-commerce:

Expansion of their market -

Businesses could become difficult to do business within specific geographic locations. It can be beneficial for businesses to utilize sell-side e-commerce to increase the amount of consumers they can target across a larger geographic area.

Decrease amount of inventory needed - This will benefit the business would be able to implement timely manner distribution system reducing the amount of inventory they would need to store.

Reduced Costs - Physical space is not required. This will reduce the cost by saving the rent and labor wages. Commercial tax imposed on the business can be limited.

Reduced risk of Cost - Trading can be done anytime and from anywhere. Whereas, Physical stores are closed after the trading hours, so business is not done before or after the trading hours.

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

Start Up Costs - Cost involved in starting up a e-Commerce business will be the major barrier.

Time and Resources - As trading can be done anytime; the business should be supervised by all the time. This involves staffs, which involves cost. If the business expands a physical location is required which involves cost time and resource.

Lack of knowledge - Lack of knowledge provides a barrier because a person without basic knowledge of e-Business would lose the business and well as the investment.

Lack of Communication - Communication plays a vital role in e-business because without effectively communicating what their service or product is can lead to dissatisfaction and eventual decrease in business.

8) How might a restaurant in Sturt Street Ballarat benefit from an online presence?

Online presence for a restaurant in Sturt Street Ballarat will benefit the growth of restaurant in different ways. Internet users would be able to place online order. Costumers can check the trading hours of the restaurant. Costumers can reviews the restaurant. Even menu and prices can be searched.

9) What are some examples of Digital information?

- Internet

- Mobile Phones

- CD's

- DVD's

- Television

- Digital Camera's

- E-books

- Video Consoles

10) What is the semantic web? Are we there yet?

The Semantic Web is an evolving development of the World Wide Web in which the meaning of information and services on the web is defined, making it possible for the web to "understand" and satisfy the requests of people and machines to use the web content.

No we are not at the stage of semantic web yet.