Seminar 3 Review

Well, this was the longest seminar I attended for this course till now. For the first half of the seminar, we mainly concentrated upon "The Collective Intelligence or the Crowd Wisdom (or Madness)". We discussed how some thought that the decision made by a crowd or a large number of participants diminishes the quality of the discussion and the decision made while some believed that a group of people in the right circumstances make decisions which are better than what the smartest person from the group could have thought of individually. The professor gave us the example of a U.S. submarine, Scorpion which disappeared in 1968. He told us how the investigative team, using their collective intelligence and expertise, had estimated the location correctly to couple of hundred yards!

We went on to discuss some of the problems faced by a crowd and how the participants perform to them. It was pointed out by the professor that according to a research done in the working of the crowd participation in the greatly popular show "Who wants to be a Millionaire", the audience could answer the question correctly 91% of the time! That is an amazing percentage considering the audience is not a panels of experts that specialized in the fields. The crowd from the TV show is the perfect example to show how they tackled cognition problems i.e. problems with definitive solutions.

I will always remember how the crowd tackles coordination problems. The professor gave an excellent example, describing how people "swim" their way through traffic in Bangkok. But neither will I forget the example for problems faced related to cooperation among people to get work done in the public work sector. The auto-rickshaw emitting a huge cloud of smoke on the road reminded me that it was the cooperation of the people together that helped the laws and policies materialize.

I understood what a major factor diversity was in enhancing the collective intelligence of the crowd after I found out about the excellent job the crowd does on the TV show I talked about earlier. It also reminded me of this case one of our core subject lecturer mentioned one
day. He told us about a senior who had gone for his IA (Industrial Attachment) in a big company. Although he was just employed as a intern and not a regular staff, he managed to solve a significant problem that the company was facing using only the basic knowledge he had about the related field. The company, as a result, gave the student an excellent feedback for his work and awarded him for his work after his attachment was over. This example came to my mind when diversity and independence were being discussed in class. It was clear that even though he was not an expert in the field he could solve the problem the in-house experts at the company had overlooked or given up on just by thinking independently. The company by asking him to join as an intern in the company had diversified their employee base and it paid off for them.

I also remembered this news article I had read on a news site even before I had taken up this course. It was about an increase in the prices of Sony Corp. shares after Goldman Sachs, one of the largest investment banks in the world, changing the rating of the company in its listings. These are the listings many of the world largest banks and financial securities companies subscribe to and follow. Fortunately, I found the link to the news article. Click on the link to read the full article (Source: January 8,2007 -CNN.com-) Bless the news archives! I wondered at that time why so many blindly followed its ratings. Everybody can make mistakes even large investment banks! Even they fire their investment bankers now and then. I would say this piece of news clearly represents the cascading effect the professor was talking about in class. The small investors follow the big ones in the surge and end up losing a lot of money.
"Because this is a Goldman upgrade, everyone is paying attention," says Ken Masuda, a senior dealer in equities in a leading Japanese company providing financial services.

We also went on to discuss how this collective wisdom affects the results on Google search. After Professor Gilbert explained to us how the "spider" searches and assigns tags to web pages and we get more relevant results. Here is a chart that explains the process:
Source: HowStuffWorks.com (Click on the link for more info)

One of the slides, shown posed the question, "How is Web 1.0 and 2.0 different?"

To explain this, the professor gave us a simple example. He compared Web 1.0 to a paper encyclopedia that people used to own (maybe still do) which not only became outdated after some time, maybe even by the time one bought it, but only gave a one perspective of the events. On the other hand, sites like Wikipedia use the Web 2.0 concept and helps provide readers with different viewpoints on the same issue thereby presenting a more neutral stand all issues.

During this seminar I also got to revise some of the concept from my marketing module. We discussed how a company can more efficiently and accurately conduct its market research and set an approximate production target and also control pricing using online simulated communities like the widely popular Second Life. I had once stumbled upon this "game" a while back and read up its description but never really thought how companies could have been using the players in this game to solve their problems in the real world!

The professor also mentioned Apple's iPhone and how a service provider can increase its market share by introducing the product in Singapore. Interesting enough, I had just read something related a day before the seminar. One of the Canadian companies, Rogers Wireless is going to provide the iPhone to its users exclusively in the country. (Source: Gizmodo) So will one of our own try something similar, time will tell... or the web anyway!

We had also started to discuss about Mobile Commerce just before the end of the seminar. We briefly discussed ideas which can help make it more convenient for people to buy movie tickets, pay for parking using cellphones and the mobile networks already in place. The assignment for this week is somewhat related to this topic and I hope I can do well in it.

Seminar 2 Review

Now that the 2nd Seminar for MB362 is over, I can gladly say that it was as interesting and informative as the first one.

"The Impact of Fixed Mobile Convergence Technology on Market Entry". This was the case given to the class for the case analysis for this week. It was a case study done by the Professor himself, covering a brief history of the telecommunication industry in Singapore and the market situation that existed when StarHub was about to enter Singapore's market. It was interesting to read what all factors actually influenced StarHub's strategy when it was planning to enter the market. The case focused on the impact of the introduction of FMC (Fixed and Mobile Convergence) services on the market and the companies that did business in the market at that time.

We also covered the technology behind the Internet and the World Wide Web. I already had some idea about the history of the Internet and how it came to be available to the public from another course, but it was the first time I got to know about E-mail and Usenet.

We then moved onto the development and implementation of the hypertext language and to its evolution into HTML, XML and finally xHTML today. It is amazing to see how the idea of Mr. Vannevar Bush about a 'futuristic' device called Memex. He described the device as a mechanical desk linked to an extensive archive of information which will be able to automatically follow references from any given page to the specific page referenced and display it. This was way back in 1945. It is believed that this idea inspired the invention of the hypertext system.

Next we discussed briefly why it was important to improve upon the protocols (TCP/IP) that controlled the data over the internet. The protocol should be able to transfer data more efficiently so as to provide a smooth channel between the web applications and the access technologies like Ethernet LAN (Local Area Network), Wireless, DSL etc. We went on to discuss the IP (Internet Protocol) v4 and v6, its capabilities and advantages over the previous versions.

I had virtually no knowledge about the protocols used in wireless services before this seminar. During the seminar, we got to know a little bit about the 802.11 protocols and the speeds the new protocols will be able to achieve. We also researched online a bit about IEEE and how it sets the standards for these protocols.

We also got to try our hands on coding HTML for a while. I was glad to find out that I still remembered a lot from the time when I had learnt HTML back in school. I am looking forward to do some coding and refresh my memory.

During the later half of the class, we also looked at 3 blogs which featured my blog as well. I hope to keep improving it and at the same time learn more and more about the topics discussed in the subject.

Just to make this post a little more interesting I dug up some interesting information.

Media accreditation for bloggers in US

It seems Bloggers, for the first time, have obtained media accreditation to attend and report on a trial in the US Federal Court. They will be able to transmit the trial proceedings via an internet video feed. It seems this is the first time bloggers have been awarded press accreditation to such a trial.

The Venice Project - Free internet television!

Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the founders of Skype, recently unveiled "Joost", a test version of an online television service that will be free to users. Talk about disruptive technology! It is expected to deliver a "near-TV" quality service. I am really curious to know how are they going to advertise this service on cable TV! Some say it will have to compete with video sharing sites like the popular YouTube. If Joost's quality is as good as it claims, I dont think there will be any reason for anybody to visit YouTube.

Fake or the real deal?

Seems the gadget site, Gizmodo.com got a tip about a smartphone by Google! Yes, you read it right. The people at Gizmodo along with many readers are skeptical about the the accuracy about this piece of information. I am not so sure either. But it sure makes you wonder what is going to happen if this phone is launched. I am sure Steve Jobs would be hoping this is a fake.

Here is a picture from the site. The phone is supposedly called "Google Switch"...

Source: Gizmodo

I hope you liked reading this post as much as I liked writing it. Later.

1st Seminar Review

Our 1st Seminar for MB362 started with Professor A. Lee Gilbert giving us a brief overview about the subject and its structure. I had gone through Course Link only half an hour back so I had some idea what the course was going to be about. Before I came to the seminar, looking through the vast amount of links and information along with the instructions and requirements for the subject, made me think it was going to be a tough subject to handle (and score in). Now after attending the 1st seminar, I feel I have found a subject I am genuinely interested in and one I will enjoy studying.

To start, Professor Gilbert informed us about the Wiki we are going to be using as the "text" for the subject. I had seen some other sites having a link to their "Wiki" but never really thought of exploring what it was about. He had mentioned earlier Web 2.0. It seems to me now that Wiki IS Web 2.0 in progress. The basic idea is a more interactivity and a bigger knowledge base than what one person alone could hope to achieve. It would be exciting to work on the course material we are going to use later for our own exams and at the same time update it to match the current trends to make it a better tool of learning.

As we started our discussion on Disruptive Technologies, Professor Gilbert introduced us to Clayton Christensen. At that time, I had no idea who he was or what he had achieved in his field. My curiosity was raised enough that I decided to find out about him a little more. What I found left me in awe. His educational qualification and the numerous awards he has received over the years shone his brilliance. According to his biography, he is a “seasoned entrepreneur”, founder of three successful companies, and has written some of the best business books ever written.

In the discussion, almost everybody agreed that download of online music was one of the most significant disruptive technologies. After some time it was clear that online file sharing/ illegal download of content has made the entertainment industry suffer the most. It was also pointed out that some people had benefited from this new technology, mostly young music bands who had found a cheap way to publicize themselves and even sell their music.
Another technology that was mentioned was VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). There was a discussion how VoIP is going to change the way telecom industry does business and how companies like Singtel and Starhub are changing there strategies to hold onto there market share.

The Professor also discussed Jeff Bezos and his site Amazon.com. He discussed with us his story and how he came to be one of the World's Wealthiest People. It was intriguing to know how he took a huge risk and and finally achieved success after a very disappointing start.
"I knew that if I failed I wouldn't regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is never trying."
He has nothing to regret now.
Professor Gilbert showed us the annual earnings of Amazon.com. The company after suffering huge losses had started making some phenomenal profits. It seems though that the companies net earnings this year is being predicted to be 20% lesser than last year dropping from $359 million to around $290 million. The point still remains that his innovative idea and his capability to take a risk and belief in his idea has brought him immense success.

We also talked about Apple launching its iphone. I had heard about it but when posed with the question, I wondered what made it so special. After some searching, I found out that it was Apple's first step into the mobile phone market. The iphone offers internet connectivity and network capabilities along with the usual mobile phone functions. It is being claimed by the company that it will run OS X, the operating system which is used in Apple computers and is being marketed as a smart phone but some initial reviews have doubted its usefulness. (Source: Crave, CNet).

Close to the end of the seminar, Professor Gilbert informed us about our assignment for next week, a case analysis on "The Impact of Fixed Mobile Convergence Technology on Market Entry". I am still to read it. It should make for some interesting reading.

More later. Visit the links for some more information.

Welcome!

Welcome all! This is my Electronic and Mobile Commerce Blog.

I sincerely wish you will read through my posts regularly and appreciate my work (Through your comments). I hope to learn a lot through this course about a field I am greatly interested it.

Thanks.