MB362 Electronic & Mobile Commerce

This module focuses on the business value that we can obtain from the Internet and wireless public networks.

Sunday, January 30, 2005

Seminar 4: "Flash Presentations"

No lecture for the day. Watched a series of animated presentations of business proposals.

An article for the week:
Price of Free Internet Mail Might Be Too Costly
By Jack M. GermainE-Commerce Times 01/27/05 5:00 AM PT
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/39865.html

Sunday, January 23, 2005

Seminar 3: "Selling on the Web & Marketing on the Web"

Lesson three was a difficult one. We learn about
-Revenue models
-Building a Web Presence
-Network-based business performance vs SWOT
-Focus on benefits sought
-Definition of a market
-Market segmentation (Technotoys, Mobile Pros,Sophisticates, Socialites, Lifestylers)
-Types of Web Marketing
-Web Marketing Strategies

It's a Sunday and I spent my day with my group-mates doing Flash. All of us had zero knowledge on Flash and luckily we were willing to try and learn how to create a flash. Managed to do simple animations and insertion of sounds to our presentation through trial and error. Great sense of achievement felt though our flash presentation was not a fantastic one, it's made with a lot of effort and sweat. Cheers to "The Incredibles"!

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Exactly What Is Spam?
Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, Wilson Internet Rocklin,
CAJan 12, 2005, 14:31 PST

http://www.wilsonweb.com/art/email/spam-definition.htm

To sum up: Spam is generally defined as unsolicited e-mail. However, it is considered legal to rent permission-based lists for e-mail campaigns. The CAN-SPAM Act in the US makes it illegal to send deceptive e-mails and to continue to send e-mails to people who have unsubscribed or opted out (among other things). If you live in Europe and Australia, sending e-mail itself is illegal without permission from the recipient. Canada has no specific anti-spam legislation at present.

In our seminar we have learnt that spam is a type of e-mail marketing. E-mails are considered as spam when we don't wish to receive them in our e-mail inboxs and we never subcribe to them. To me, spam mails are very irritating and unreasonable. My Hotmail account only has a storage size of 2MB and with spam mails, I keep running out of storage space for my incoming mails. Being forced by this situation, I have to set filters to my web-based mailbox and sometimes, important e-mails ended up in my Junk Folder instead of Inbox. E-mail marketing is getting out of control! Spam mails please go away.

Sunday, January 16, 2005

Seminar 2: "Internet & the WWW"

In lesson 2, the class is introduced to the technology infrastructure and mark-up languages which is being used in Internet.
-Markup languages (HTML and its tags, layout)
-A few recommended websites to aid in design of webpages using the markup languages.(eg. www.webmonkey.com/)
-Web clients
-Public & Private Networks, VPN
-Intranet & Ethernet
-Discussion of products/services
-Coming up with a HTML file with a list of our project group members

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Hollywood Wants BitTorrent Dead
By Xeni Jardin, Wired News
10:15 AM Dec. 14, 2004 PT

http://wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,66034,00.html?tw=wn_story_page_prev2

Hollywood movie studios launched new legal action Tuesday against operators of sites that help connect people to movies on three major peer-to-peer file-sharing networks: BitTorrent, eDonkey and Direct Connect. BitTorrent is able to handle very large files such as digital copies of feature-length films efficiently and thus attracted Hollywood's attention. In the United States and the United Kingdom, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPPA) which is the main lobbying arm of U.S. film studios filed civil lawsuits against more than 100 operators of BitTorrent "tracker" servers that point to locations where digital files of movies, music and other content can be found. The MPAA's legal actions are targeted at people who operate tracker servers, not individual downloaders of BitTorrent content.

This article is worth our attention. Nowadays piracy is everywhere and digital copies of music, movies, animes and other copyright products are downloaded with a click of mouse in the internet. Such acts are becoming a norm for people who have internet access because downloading digital copies simply means that they don't have to pay to cds or vcds in stored and also able to own a copy of a movie or music songs. Songwriters, musicians and movie studios are starting to protest against piracy and operators of peer-to-peer networks. Should we stop p2p networks or should we continue to download free music and movie for our benefit?

Monday, January 10, 2005

Seminar 1: "New Phones"

In lesson one, we were asked to identify the features we would like to have in our "New Phones". With my partner, the following features are what we wanted in our "New Phones".
1. Biometric functions (for security, personalisation - making the user feel that it's HIS/HER own phone.)
2. Voice recognition functions (Make the phone work for you instead of pressing the keypads, simply use your voice to control your handphone.)
3. GPS (Knowing where you are and finding your way out, in times of crisis, it can be life-saving too to find victim's location!!)
4. Remote control (Especially designed for lazy people like me! A type of remote control which can control TV, switches... when it's digitally set to be controlled by your HP.)
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I've found an article related to handphones.

Motorola gears up for home networking
Published: January 7, 2005, 3:53 PM PST
By
Michael Kanellos Staff Writer, CNET News.com

http://news.com.com/Motorola+gears+up+for+home+networking/2100-1041_3-5517613.html?tag=nefd.hed


LAS VEGAS--Some people want the PC at the center of the home. Motorola is trying to make the cell phone that critical device. Networked-home concept is becoming a reality and use of handphone is one of the way to gain control of homes. It's now possible to let homeowners get a video feed of their car in the driveway through a surveillance system with the help of the handphone. Videoconferencing phone for homes is available currently.

This article makes me wonder how information technology is going to play a part in our everyday life in future. Being able to control your home using handphone is time-saving and making control more convenient and simpler.

Monday, January 03, 2005

Results of analysis

Task: Analyze your information requirements- are there interesting patterns (sources, uses, failures, the match between cost and value, etc) that you can explore further?

For the 2 days when the information requirements are being noted down, these 2 days happened to be days when I spent time with my family and relatives.
Other than educational information which i would wish to know, information which I usually required are about daily life such as simple as breakfast, where is my medicine and the sources are from my family members (mother, father, sister).

I can classify the information I required into 2 categories: Educational and Daily life.
Educational information are info which enhance my knowledge or info which I need for my studies. Typical sources where I get these info from are from internet, newspaper, news on TV.
Daily life information are info which help me relax or info which help me during my daily life (breakfast, lunch, dinner, time, where objects are?). Typical sources where I get daily life info are from my family members.

There is no relationship between cost and value. Cost here is monetary cost while value is more of non-monetary cost and is more of benefits and satisfaction. For eg. if I wish to find out more information about Tsunami, the info is of medium value but at no or little monetary cost(Internet). How to value information depends on individuals, as in, different people have different view on how valued an information is to the person himself/herself in particular.

Saturday, January 01, 2005

Weblog for 1st Jan 2005


Time:DayInformation required/useMy locationSourceCostValue
3.30amLocation of Panadol (headache)KitchenDrawers$0.10medium
9amTime (Wake up)BedRadio clock$50low
9.15amWhat to wear?BedroomWardrobe0low
9.30amWhat's breakfast?Dining tableDad$2low
10amEntertainment newsLiving roomCable tv$52/mthlow
10.30amLocation of carCarparkMummy0low
11amLocation of toiletMt Vernon ColumbariumSister0low
11.15amName of my 4-month-old nephewMt Vernon ColumbariumCousin0low
11.30amWho else is coming to pay respects to my late grandparents?Mt Vernon ColumbariumMummy0low
11.45amSequence to pay respectMt Vernon ColumbariumMummy0low
12pmWhose house to visit?Mt Vernon ColumbariumMummy0low
12.30pmWhat's for lunch?5th Aunt's flatMummy0low
12.45pmWhere's lunch?5th Aunt's flatDad0medium
1.15pmInformation about financial freedomLiving roomBook0medium
3pmWhere to nap?SofaFlat0low
4.30pmWho disturbed my nap?SofaSister0low
4.45pmLocation of toiletLiving roomDad0low
5pmWhere are my sister and mother?Living roomDad0low
5.15pmWhere are my slippers?Living roomDad0low
5.30pmWhere is my family heading next?Living roomMummy0low
6pmHTML scripts to make tableComputerInternet$39/mthlow
6.15pmWho's online?ComputerMSN Messager(Internet)$39/mthlow
6.30pmTV programmes at nightComputerInternet (SCV online programme guide)$39/mthlow
6.45pmLooking at other OOBE3G blogsComputerInternet$39/mthlow
7.15pmCreating a blogComputerInternet (Blogger)$39/mthlow
7.30pmLatest Chinese pop songsLiving roomRadio Clock$50low
8pmAbout TsudamiLiving roomTV (Channel News Asia)$42/mthmedium
9pmPrime Time NewsLiving roomCable TV$42/mthmedium
10pmBloggingComputerInternet$39/mthmedium

Weblog for 31st Dec 2004


Time:DayInformation required/useMy locationSourceCostValue
10am SaturdayTime (wake up)BedHandphone alarm$50low
10.30am

What's for breakfast

Dining TableSister$2low
11amNewsComputerInternet (Straits Times Interactive)$39/mthmedium
11.30amWhen is my friend coming to my house?Living roomHandphone (sms)$0.05low
1.30pmRunning Real Player software (watch drama series)ComputerComputer0low
3.15pmTime to go to hair salon?Living roomMummy0low
3.30pmWhat hairstyle to cut?Hair salonHairstyle magazines$12low
5pmAssignment guidelines of MB362ComputerInternet (Edventure)$39/mthmedium
5.30pmE-mailComputerInternet$39/mthlow
6pmHow to create a blog?ComputerInternet$39/mthmedium
7pmNews UpdateDining tableNewspaper$0.80medium
8pmWho's online?ComputerMSN messager (Internet)$39/mthlow
9pmRemoval of spywares/adwares on my computerComputerInternet$39/mthlow
10pmEntertainment NewsLiving roomCable TV$42/mthlow
11pmWhich lecture notes have been posted online?ComputerInternet (Edventure)$39/mthlow
11.15pmPrint time-table (Sem2)ComputerPrinter0low
12amSend New Year's SMS greetingsBedHandphone$0.05/smsmedium