Creating and maintaining a blog

Before starting the MBA class ADSI6601, I didn’t know what a blog was. When the professor gave us this assignment, I was a little bit worried and I asked myself what did I get myself into. How I am going to write ten articles and post them on a web page in 5 weeks? I am proud to tell you that I have completed my first blog. It was a lot easier that I first expected. I used blogger.com to create my weblog, it was really user friendly. A blog is a great way to post your opinion on the internet and to share with others your point of view on a particular subject. Also, you don’t have to be a software designer to be able to do so.

Creating the blog wasn’t really hard for me. Personally, I had a harder time to maintain and write the articles. I don’t have a lot of imagination and writing 200 words on a subject without repeating myself can be a real challenge sometimes! When I write things, I usually go right to the point.

I did not only learn how to create a blog, but I also gain knowledge of some interesting internet sites that I didn’t know of, like youtube.com and secondlife.com. I have also learned more about my classmates and their opinions by looking at their blogs. It was really interesting to read the different articles that were posted in the last 5 weeks. I really enjoyed looking at the different format of the blogs and different tools we could use. Overall I really liked this assignment! It was different than the regular assignments we usually get to do.

youtube.com

You can find almost any video clips you are looking for on Youtube.com. Since its creation in 2005, the site has gain a lot of interests. It was recently bought buy Google for 1.65 billion dollars. The site has several uses. It can be used by politicians to promote their political platforms to younger individuals.
A lot of people use this site for entertainment purposes. There are a plethora of videos that can be viewed by the members of this website. This fact can create certain conflicts with companies who have copyrights of these videos. I have elaborated on copyright infringements in my article entitled illegal downloading.

Youtube.com can be very helpful to an unknown actor, comedian or musician. These people can post their various performances on this site so they can be viewed by potential employers or talent agencies. Therefore, Youtube.com could potentially open numerous doors to a performer who would not normally get these opportunities using conventional means to promote himself.

To sum up, Youtube.com is just another form of communication that is offered by the internet and its uses are quite varied, as I’ve demonstrated in this blog. Most noticeably, Youtube.com is a wonderful way to advertise.

Ethical and Social Issues of the technologies

What would you do and how would you feel if a picture of you would appear on the internet without your permission? With today technologies, taking a picture of someone without them noticing can be really easy. You just have to pretend you are looking at something on your cell phone and actual take a picture of the person in front of you. This scenario poses a very important ethical dilemma for internet users.

Websites like youtube.com make it very easy for an individual to post a video on the internet but what about it’s content, has that content been put on the web with the consent of the person’s who was filmed, should the individuals who use the internet have free reign on it’s content. These are only a few questions concerning the Internet that are prevalent today.

I firmly believe that no one should be aloud to post videos or pictures without the consent of the persons who was filmed or who had his picture taken. Those pictures or films can sometimes be intimate and private or they can be down right embarrassing. It is too difficult for a government agency to monitor such things, therefore it falls on the individual to show some restraint and not put things on the internet without the consent of all the parties involved.

Second Life

The first time I have heard about this site was in my ADSI6601 class. Secondlife.com is a virtual world on the internet, it is similar to the game The Sims but with more options. Also, Secondlife.com puts more emphasis on the ability to buy and sell virtual goods which permits it’s users to make a profit. The concept of the game is really good, but I can’t help but to think who would actually spend money on the internet for this? Apparently, approximately more than 1.5 million US$ was spent in the last 24 hours at that Secondlife.com. That statistic seems to indicate t that there are quite a There are a lot of people who are willing to spend real money on this website. Some people also make money with this site, for example if you open a night club and your night club becomes very popular you can make a significant amount of real money. If you are very creative, there are a lot of possibilities for someone to make some money.

Once against, this site is a useful tool for companies to advertise there products. Almost anything on the internet is an advertising tool.

Wireless

I always thought that exchanging information from point A to point B without any cable was an amazing technology. When you think about it, we use wireless everyday, a mobile phone, a GPS, a wireless mouse, a wireless internet connection, a blackberrie, a Nintendo Wii, just to name a few.

I never quite understand how it worked. I decided it was time that I learn. How can you send information in the air? The information is transformed into a signal that is sent by a wireless transmission from point A to point B. The different types of wireless transmission are microwaves, infrared and radio waves. Each wireless transmission works on a different frequency range and are measured by megahertz (MHz).

In the last decade, a lot of new applications for the wireless technology have been invented. Some people call this the wireless revolution and apparently we are just at the beginning stages. When I sit in a meeting and I see people looking at the blackberries every few minutes, I can't help but to think what is it going to be in twenty years from now? Are we going to be able to send our thoughts by a wireless transmission to someone else?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zj7txoDxbE

How can IT improve the operations of a company?

Due to globalization, companies are trying to find better ways to improve their operations every day to be able to reduce their costs. They want to be able to produce the same product or service for a lower cost. This is a real challenge when you look at the way costs are increasing; energy cost, wages, materials, etc…

In a lot of cases, companies decide to invest in information technologies. Sometimes, the investment in these technologies is accompanied by a significant cost. To assure that the implementation of the information technology works, it has to be aligned with the business processes. It also needs to have a really good implementation plan and to be flexible and ready to adapt to any problems that may occur during implementation.

An example of a good use of information technology is the automatic replenishment of Walt-Mart. When a product is sold at the store, the information is sent to the distribution center to replenish and that information is also sent to the suppliers to replenish the distribution center. This helps the Walt-Mart stores to reduce the inventory they carry and that helps them to reduce their costs. Another technology used by Wal-Mart is the RFID. The RFID helps managing and tracking inventory faster and with more accuracy. It could represent a lot of savings for big companies.

Is the internet safe ?

In the last decade, the services offered on internet have increase at a drastic rate. Just to mention a few services that are available online, we can now pay our bills online and buy everything a person could possibly need. To have access to those services, you must give personal and private information. Is it safe to give our social assurance number, credit card number, email, phone number, email? We are giving every bit of information to someone how could possibly ruin our lives by copying our identity. How can we be sure that the information is in good hands?
I usually trust government sites and bank sites, simply because I would imagine that they have good security and a control system. I now realized that hackers are really good at what they do. A good hacker could be able to access that information even on a government site. It is a race between the hackers and the updating of their security and control systems.

What would the government do if a hacker would enter and copy their information? What would be the impact? These are questions that I do not know the answers to but hopefully the government has the answers.

Illegal Download

A hot topic concerning the internet is the illegal downloading of movies, software and music. Since the creation of sites like Napster, Kazaa, Morpheous, just to name a few, there has been a constant battle between the industries affected by these sites and the consumer. Downloading these products without paying has a huge impact on the profits of these industries. The illegal downloading of movies represents a lost profit of approximately 20.5 billion dollars a year. Not only does it affect the profits of the industries concerned but it is also against the law. Every time someone downloads a file with a copyright that person is violating copyright laws. The methods that are used to download products (file sharing) make it nearly impossible for the authorities to enforce the law. The industries affected will have to use their might to influence lawmakers to make copyright laws more appropriate to their needs. They will also have to use alternative means to discourage people from illegally obtaining their products such as campaigns to educate the public of the possible side effects of this activity

Firewalls

As I was studying for my last exam, I realized that I didn’t know much about information technology. I have heard the word firewall many times at work and of course I didn’t have any clue what it meant. I was also too shy to ask one of my colleagues what it was. After reading a little bit about it in the course’s manual, I decided to do more research on the subject and to write about it on my blog.
One of the major concerns for businesses is to protect their information because if that information falls into the wrong hands, it could affect the business quite negatively. One tool that most companies use is firewalls. A firewall is a security system that prevents outsiders from entering private networks. I thought why are they not always effective? Apparently like anything else, firewalls need to be updated. The amount of updates is a decision for the user and it should not be taken lightly. The user should check the web site of the company for the latest updates.

Apparently, firewalls sometimes slow down your computer response time because it adds oversight to the flow of data. Sometimes for the companies, this can be a performance bottleneck. So be careful when you choose the firewall… don’t build it higher than you need.

Why Information Technology Matter

If we look at how business was conducted 20 years ago, we notice that companies would use an important amount of paper and also the companies of that era would be less efficient than they are today. If we look at the way we do business today, the amount of paper has been reduced considerably and we use different technologies to transfer information (email, internet). For example, information technoligy has greatly influenced the way business is conducted . In today’s business world, to be able to compete, a lot of capital is spent by companies on new technologies. Not only are companies investing more in technologies, they also spend a significant amount of their resoureces in fields that are related to technology.




Technology not only influences the way we do business but it also has a significant impact in our day to day life. Some services offered on the internet are really practical, like online banking, online shopping and online courses. These online services eliminate the long lines at the bank or stores and they also permit us to accomplish these tasks from the comfort of our homes. New services offered on the internet present a vast array of opportunities for businesses. Proof of this, is that more than 72% households in Canada own a computer and more than 64% of these households use the Internet from their home (2005).