Ok, so old habits are very hard to break (‘scuse me while I top up my coffee cup and grab a handful of chocolate bullets). My old habit is that I am a marketing gal from way back I can’t help but look at most things from a marketing or business perspective. It is this habit that tweaked my interest when I read in O’Reilly Media Inc (2010) about Amazon.com recently. Now I know and use Amazon.com and have done for quite a few years but I never really considered its success until reading the article. I was really impressed by the dotcoms’ initiative to enhance its existing data by adding publisher supplied cover images, and index, and sample material. The most significant evolution was to trust the users to annotate the data, with their own contributions thus making Amazon.com the primary site on books and also a great reference source. Constantly evolving, harnessing the collective experience and intelligence of its users, it is a self fulfilling organism. The more users visit the site, the more material and annotations are added, thus increasing the level and quality of the site and therefore increasing its user numbers.
Brings me back to an old text book of mine called The Customer Driven Company: Moving from Talk to Action. Whiteley (1991) in which he propounds the virtue of “saturating your company with the “customers’ voice”. Amazon has evolved and adapted from a website that supplies a product to a service provider perspective and in doing so they have as Whiteley (1991) pg 87 explains liberated its “customer champions”. They have done this by Whiteley (1991) pg 92 “engaging every person’s whole mind in improving your organisation” or as it applies to Amazon.com engaging every user’s whole mind in improving your website. Whiteley emphasizes that listening to customers requires open communication. I couldn’t help but notice the parallels between rules for traditional business success and their mirroring in current Web 2.0 successes. (Fascinating eh!)
Whiteley, R. (1991). The Customer Driven Company: Moving from Talk to Action. U.S.A. Addison Wesley
O’Reilly Media Inc. (2010). What is Web 2.0? Retrieved from http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html?page=3#designpatterns
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Saturday, June 12, 2010
To be or not to be a tech junkie - that is the question
Having devoured week 1 & 2 readings and ilectures for this course (web101) I am more aware and reflective of the saturation of media that intrudes into our lives from the Internet and technology in general.
The sudden trend of families reliance (dare I say addiction almost) to technology within our homes. Dad's on the mobile talking business all night. Mums on facebook checking out who Jenny Longbottom remarried. Amber is texting while doing her homework and Billy is on the PS3 with some kid (i hope it's a kid) who lives across the other side of Australia.
No one is connecting anymore. I have been reading about a few social experiments that people are conducting in their own homes, you know the ones where all devices are removed for 6 weeks / 6 months. After the initial DT's and tantrums subside (and that's just mum and dad). People start connecting on a more personal level, the intervention of TV's, mobile phones and laptops is removed and people start relying on one another for interaction. Got me thinking about introducing a one night a week moratorium on all technology for us. Maybe a board game a book and some connection the old fashioned way. I'm not saying to wipe it all together or that it's all bad (Gosh i am the biggest tech floosie in our house). I'm just thinking i would like to try and strike a balance
I was also thinking about the way in which the Internet has inadvertently brought about a level of accountability in communication that we have not seen before. This includes me in my home or politicians in Canberra (who can forget "Utegate").
You can't play dumb anymore (and I was really getting good at that) and just blame Australia post for that cheque that you really sent last month. If your working with the Internet to communicate with people or pay bills or snooping around for whatever reason just remember every click can be traced, every site you visited is cached, every version of that website you may have created as a joke is recorded out there somewhere.
The sudden trend of families reliance (dare I say addiction almost) to technology within our homes. Dad's on the mobile talking business all night. Mums on facebook checking out who Jenny Longbottom remarried. Amber is texting while doing her homework and Billy is on the PS3 with some kid (i hope it's a kid) who lives across the other side of Australia.
No one is connecting anymore. I have been reading about a few social experiments that people are conducting in their own homes, you know the ones where all devices are removed for 6 weeks / 6 months. After the initial DT's and tantrums subside (and that's just mum and dad). People start connecting on a more personal level, the intervention of TV's, mobile phones and laptops is removed and people start relying on one another for interaction. Got me thinking about introducing a one night a week moratorium on all technology for us. Maybe a board game a book and some connection the old fashioned way. I'm not saying to wipe it all together or that it's all bad (Gosh i am the biggest tech floosie in our house). I'm just thinking i would like to try and strike a balance
I was also thinking about the way in which the Internet has inadvertently brought about a level of accountability in communication that we have not seen before. This includes me in my home or politicians in Canberra (who can forget "Utegate").
You can't play dumb anymore (and I was really getting good at that) and just blame Australia post for that cheque that you really sent last month. If your working with the Internet to communicate with people or pay bills or snooping around for whatever reason just remember every click can be traced, every site you visited is cached, every version of that website you may have created as a joke is recorded out there somewhere.
The intergalactic interconnectedness of people
So after condensing week one information into a single day i am feeling really good. The old grey matter is firing up and it lead me to thinking about what Mr Licklider and Mr Vint Cerf would be thinking about the evolution of their humble beginnings with "Intergalactic Computer Networks" and "packet switching". No one could have imagined a network so vast and instantaneous and sometimes a little bit scary.
When i think about the enormity and all consuming nature it has taken on I see an image of poet John Donne reciting "No man is an island entire of itself". Donne's idiom of the connectedness of lives has never rung so true as right here in the 21st century and our spiralling propulsion into the world of the Internet. Although some may argue that it inhibits true connection (physical) with others (we are all holed up with our laptops surfing the net while friends and family are talking / visting / playing sport) but on another level (a virtual level) we are all more connected that ever before in world history.
Someone sends one quick email with a clip of a baby's infectious laugh and they have literally started a ripple across the world of people downloading and feeling the warmth of that innocent moment
Unfortunately as with all good, there is bad (I eat an apple, i eat a chocolate bar) and this is mirrored in the virtual world of the Internet. If an item of communication is dispersed with the intention of doing harm then a little piece of Lickliders dream dies and we are all lessened by this malice, not just physically (OMG the blue screen of death!) but also spiritually, the overriding question posed by Donne at the conclusion of his poem is "ask not for whom the bell tolls - it tolls for thee" after all if were all so interconnected by the Internet then perhaps that malice diminishes us all.
When i think about the enormity and all consuming nature it has taken on I see an image of poet John Donne reciting "No man is an island entire of itself". Donne's idiom of the connectedness of lives has never rung so true as right here in the 21st century and our spiralling propulsion into the world of the Internet. Although some may argue that it inhibits true connection (physical) with others (we are all holed up with our laptops surfing the net while friends and family are talking / visting / playing sport) but on another level (a virtual level) we are all more connected that ever before in world history.
Someone sends one quick email with a clip of a baby's infectious laugh and they have literally started a ripple across the world of people downloading and feeling the warmth of that innocent moment
Unfortunately as with all good, there is bad (I eat an apple, i eat a chocolate bar) and this is mirrored in the virtual world of the Internet. If an item of communication is dispersed with the intention of doing harm then a little piece of Lickliders dream dies and we are all lessened by this malice, not just physically (OMG the blue screen of death!) but also spiritually, the overriding question posed by Donne at the conclusion of his poem is "ask not for whom the bell tolls - it tolls for thee" after all if were all so interconnected by the Internet then perhaps that malice diminishes us all.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Getting the lay of the blog
Hi fellow bloggers? bloggees? blogs? people who interact via blogs?
My first foray into the blog world
I am starting this blog as part of a university course that revolves around the Internet and such
So, this blog, i think, in addition to some notes made via an ancient method of communication called.......(no! not rock art) pen and paper, will be my learning portfolio. (Did i just hear someone snore?)
The ramblings of a person trying to come to grips with a tertiary education that should have been completed 22 years ago. I guess i got side tracked. I digress........a lot.
I have already hand written my first and second weeks reflections in my notepad and will transcribe into my next posts. Am sure you are all excited by this juicy little tempter but you will all have to wait until i get some more time. The washing machine is singing its ever haunting and luring sound - beep...beep....beep. I am drawn like a paramour to it's lemon fragrant freshness. Hmmm this blog thing could prove dangerous, up until now all these kooky thoughts just used to float around in my head until i forgot them, 4 or 5 seconds max Click Here .
My first foray into the blog world
I am starting this blog as part of a university course that revolves around the Internet and such
So, this blog, i think, in addition to some notes made via an ancient method of communication called.......(no! not rock art) pen and paper, will be my learning portfolio. (Did i just hear someone snore?)
The ramblings of a person trying to come to grips with a tertiary education that should have been completed 22 years ago. I guess i got side tracked. I digress........a lot.
I have already hand written my first and second weeks reflections in my notepad and will transcribe into my next posts. Am sure you are all excited by this juicy little tempter but you will all have to wait until i get some more time. The washing machine is singing its ever haunting and luring sound - beep...beep....beep. I am drawn like a paramour to it's lemon fragrant freshness. Hmmm this blog thing could prove dangerous, up until now all these kooky thoughts just used to float around in my head until i forgot them, 4 or 5 seconds max Click Here .
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)