tree video source - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5L8TCp5FIE

Sadly, Semester last Post

The semester has come to a close but to me one of the best classes taken at Empire. I would never have known the many options we have on the web to make our jobs much easier or more creative without this class. I've been given many new tools to practice with and grateful. Also grateful for the opportunity to meet and correspond with good people. I wish you all and your families a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.
John-

Chapter 7 - E-Business

Chapter 7 starts off with a great phrase, when it comes to e-business "geography and time no longer matter". The opportunity for businesses exploded once technical barriers were broken down. Consumers are now able to conduct business or shop during any period of time and in any country. I myself wanted a map of the underground system in London and found a nice novelty shop located in London itself that had one, cheap and inexpensive to ship to me here in the United States. As business demand increase, businesses are also able to increase as well by installing PC network systems and personnel to manage them. This allows a business to handle multiple customers at the same time. For example a call center that is located in India will handle a large business located in the U.S their customer needs or trouble with a product. E-business permits a company to manage their websites to particular advertisements for a product but also embed other pertinent links that can give the consumer additional information. For example twitter and facebook accounts can be set up in an e-business home page account.

E-Business has also become huge in the vacation travel and shopping markets. These businesses are able to give the consumers excellent photograph or video samples of what they are offering the consumer. What makes this all possible is the technology necessary to manage these systems. In my organization a supply chain management system has become essential to manage not only products ordered but also costs associated. E-business has also given anyone the opportunity to create their own online business and be able to sell items on ebay for instance.



http://www.canstockphoto.com/illustration/ebusiness.html#file_view.php?id=3189915
http://www.expedia.com/Rome.d179899.Destination-Travel-Guides
Shelly, G.B., Napier, H.A. & Rivers, O. (2010) Discovering the Internet Complete Concepts and Techniques, 3rd edition

Chapter 6 - Networking

Networking computers what a great opportunity for business to not only be connected in a building but also in a region. My organization encompasses multiple counties and by utilizing LAN and  MAN technology setups it's like working next door to each other. Our business became instantly connected once the technology was installed. Of course we quickly rely and become dependant on it. 2 years ago our system crashed and we needed to go back into the basics to function. Fortunately many of us dinosaurs are still here that knew the basics. Today's youth have grown up with these internet tools as being their basics. Coaxial cable has become obsolete now with fiber optics becoming the best way to transmit information. In the homes wireless routers are very popular with being able to have multiple PC's in the household all using at the same time. Beware though that you make sure security settings are in place. A couple venders were telling me that they drive into neighborhoods looking to see if their wireless card will find an unsecured network so then they can access their own vender accounts instead of finding a starbucks that offer the service.



















Conferencing and other opportunities such as skpe give computer users a method for real time business meetings or just a chance to realx with a loved one who can be as far away as Bagdad. My friends had a son in military and weekly they could skpe with him which was very reaasuring compared to past wars when families had to wait for the mail which of course was already many days later after it was completed.



http://www.canstockphoto.com/illustration/network.html#file_view.php?id=5748285
http://www.canstockphoto.com/illustration/skype.html#file_view.php?id=3703477
http://www.fotosearch.com/photos-images/mail-bag.html

Chapter 5 - Getting More Out Of The Internet

or.......squeezing every drop we can out of the internet by using a variety of excellent portals. Every day we use consumer type portal to find various information on news, weather and general topics. You can also make these portals more personal and specific to yourself as called horizontal portals. Vertical portals are gateways towards a particular interest; say for instance automobile repair and DYI type web sites. A new phenomenon the past few years has been online banking and paying differnt type bills (mortgages, utilities etc). Of course most business have their own as well. Mine does and I have security user rights associated for accessing.Students and teachers have an abundance of links to encyclopedia and dictionary sites that will give easy and credible access to a wealth of information. And of course with a busy year of work and school, what better way then to plan and see so many areas in the globe to vacation at when it's time to relax.

And of course you can't stay at the resort the whole time so why not surf the area for potentials links of what else to do when on vacation. You'll also be able to see videos and picture of what each attraction will have to offer.
And of course, who can forget shopping,  Shopping, Shopping


sources
http://www.fotosearch.com/UNZ001/u18474924/
http://youtu.be/kJQ9vYQFh4s
http://www.clipartof.com/portfolio/kjpargeter/illustration/3d-silver-robot-surfing-on-a-credit-card-over-a-laptop-97413.html

Souncloud, this is a great website that will allow any business or someone who just wishes to get out there with sound bite information. Musicians can easily upload tracks of their music that give so many the opportunity to hear and decide if the tracks are good or not. This is also a way to create a mini commercial for a personal business which can give the listner another feel for the people who own or work there. Teachers can do quick tutorials etc.
This course has opened up so many new options out there that will help me not only in the workplace but actually have some fun doing this. I need to play a little bit more in the site and see if I can change the timer settings of how much recording can be done.




Audio Recording on Sunday morning by jbsjr1


http://soundcloud.com/jbsjr1
http://www.clipartguide.com/_search_terms/cloud.html

Chapter 4 - Social Media "Be My Friend"

My Father lived in Texas, it was the greates thing to hear that sound of the IM when he'd contact me. No more long distance phone charges and no more waiting for an email reply back. Immediately social networking began with time direct conversations between family and friends. These were also set up so that you could have numerous people on at the same time. Now using similar technology we have texting, twitter, blogs and facebook to name a few that instantly keep us connected. Of course these tools while giving us easy communication abilities should still be looked upon as unguarded, not censored private thoughts that not place our views and opinions to the entire public.The web is constantly reviewed by parties looking for negative posted communications that can jeopardize a persons employment.



1. Turning customers off with your personal beliefs – In an attempt to show customers your human side, you run the risk of alienating or offending them with your opinions and beliefs. This is especially true if you decide to discuss politics or religion. A simple Tweet talking about your support for a certain candidate or a policy can upset some of your customers and cause them to boycott your business. That’s why I recommend staying away from sensitive issues whenever possible.
2. Overlooking the importance of print – Sure, the number of people who get their information from blogs and social networks is constantly increasing. However, that doesn’t mean you should write off the print media altogether. Coverage in a major newspaper or magazine can still provide some great results for your company, so be careful not to get overly obsessed with the novelty of social media.
3. Decreasing your productivity – One of the biggest dangers of social media is that it can quickly transform from a powerful marketing tool into a huge time waster. You need to make sure you outline social media goals and a plan for how you’re going to reach them. Once you have a plan in place, make sure all of your social media activities are in line with this plan so you don’t end up wasting hours doing nothing.
4. Worsening your customer service – Ideally, social media can improve your customer service. JetBlue, H&R Block, and Comcast are just a few examples of companies who’ve been successful using Twitter for light customer service tasks. However, if your business plans to do the same, you need to be careful. Make sure your employees are well-trained on how to provide customer service through Twitter, and be sure they understand how to not cross the line of being too informal (a huge danger with social media).
5. Burning yourself out too early – If I’ve seen it once, I’ve seen it a thousand times. A key decision maker at a company hears about this “hot social media thing”, and decides his company needs to start blogging and Tweeting. They blindly jump in with no plan, and blog and Tweet furiously for a few weeks. Of course, they don’t get any results because: 1) They don’t have a plan and 2) they don’t really know much about social media marketing. As a result, they get burnt out, proclaiming social media to be an overhyped waste of time. The reality is they never gave themselves a chance for it to work.

http://www.ereleases.com/prfuel/social-media-obsession/

http://www.oldapps.com/aim.php?old_aim=1

http://www.canstockphoto.com/illustration/social-media.html#file_view.php?id=7880430

PLN - Update

As I progressed through this course the above video depicts how my PLN developed over the semester. Started as seeds which slowly grew into a trunk and various branches of knowledge. I have learned many new items this semester which will surely help me in my profession. My favorites of course are Jing, Google advance search engine and Google docs. But like the branches reach towards the sun, I need to reach to my teams with some of this same knowledge. Knowledge gained is 50%, to achieve 100% it needs to be paid forward.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i4yrPeuofI&feature=related

Chapter 4 - email Has Taken Over Our Lives

Now that the email accounts are created for both professional and personal needs, there are many things that be done with these accounts so that they are managed effectively and efficiently. Contact emails can be set up in address books in which you’ve created by slececting “new address book” and then place all the contact email addresses into that folder. This way if you wish to send an email to a whole group you simply select that address and it automatically populates the “To” line on the email. This can be done with any type of email account whether at work or gmail, yahoo mail, roadrunner etc.

These accounts can also be set up with any mobile device so that you are constantly near your email accounts. Of course in the business world today that basically means you are also constantly accessible as well !! With both desk top and mobile access to all your email accounts you can also manage these accounts. View, delete, save emails as you prefer otherwise you'll have a flood of them.

sources:
outlook mail
roadrunner.com
gmail.com
jing.com
http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&sa=X&rlz=1T4ADFA_enUS456US457&biw=1280&bih=822&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=6VfUTUaFjr_0IM:&imgrefurl=http://www.skinz.org/free-clipart/free-email-clipart.html&docid=VgtA4yLAb3paUM&imgurl=http://www.skinz.org/free-clipart/email-graphics/other-clipart-1.jpg&w=360&h=350&ei=sN_bTqPVGOXl0QH_1pWGDg&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=93&sig=106659514633347530239&page=1&tbnh=148&tbnw=143&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0&tx=54&ty=84

Chapter Four - the beginning of email

Created this Voki character but for some reason the code only showed the picture and did not permit a playback ??  Thankfully I have Jing.

I can still remember when email evolved in our organization during the late 1990’s. Once email was implemented, communication among our selves was instant. Email was a new and exciting format to enhance our business communication needs. It was also a quick way to get immediate response and documents from our colleagues. In order for the organization to provide email capability for their employees various hardware equipment such as servers and computers needed to be installed at each employee’s workstation. A company was setting up their own private maintained computer network that the company authorized their user group or as called the “Intranet”. Fiscally, for a business during the 1990’s this was a very costly initiative for them by needing to purchase computers for every employee. Also developed were personal email accounts that were by paid subscriptions to various providers such as Prodigy and AOL. Once a person created their own personal or professional email accounts certain etiquettes were designed to follow such as what and how you wrote an email, make sure it is appropriate, the right addresses are included and to be aware that many things written in an email can give wrong perception to reader. Whether received and sent, emails can also be stored in various folders for accessing at a later date. Also archiving systems are now inplace to reduce memory storage on your email accounts. Once these accounts are full, until you delete old sent-received emails your account can become frozen. Junk email can quickly fill your email account so a user needs to be careful of what emails they open from unknown sources. Another great tool, emails received that are of interest or contain important information can be quickly forwarded to a friend or colleague.

sources

http://www.voki.com/create.php

http://cybercoyote.org/security/av-email.htm

Shelly, G.B., Napier, H.A. & Rivers, O. (2010) Discovering the Internet Complete Concepts and Techniques, 3rd edition 

project back up