Social Media Project

      
Social Media Project link : http://ism3004.wikispaces.com/Sprint


         The social media project was a project that took quite a while to complete. It was a different type of project from the other ones because the one requirement was to work with a few other people as a collaborative effort. At first, I thought it was going to be very difficult considering this is an online-type class, but it turned out to be easier to communicate than I thought. Using a combination of email correspondence and the discussion board, I think we effectively created a detailed wikipedia on the social media effort of Sprint. 


       We decided on Sprint because one of the team mates worked for Sprint and had some background knowledge into their social media efforts. Doing my part, which was researching and typing the YouTube, Wikipedia, and other social media, I learned a lot about Sprint. They had a much more extensive campaign than I was aware of. They use YouTube to market their 4G network and allow for viewers to respond positively or negatively about it. They also categorize individual phones that are on sale at the Sprint stores so that potential customers can read reviews or post one. 

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     The Wikipedia portion involve describing the details of the company and how it evolved as a company, but it only gave the cold hard facts. I don't think wikipedia is one of the better forms of a social media outlet just because as an interactive encyclopedia, it's important to stay objective. Other than generating interest by participating in the research, I don't see how this would be a great place to advertise. 

simplyzesty

       Twitter was a great area that Sprint excels in. The @sprintcare was a great idea to take care of individual problems while allowing other people to see the resolution. One of my team mates, Burton, wrote about this and said that he saw many more replies when @sprintcare was used than when the @sprint was used. Twitratr was a problematic part of the project, because I think it didn't accurately reflect Sprint as a corporation. Many of the people that tweeted were tweeting about negative problems with their phones because they were seeking out service. 

Week 13: Clear Social Media

Methods of Social Media Advertising


The rise and popularity of the internet has shown a growth in internet advertising as well. What started out as occasional advertising on websites and pop-ups that can be annoying have transformed into a more efficient and a more profitable way of attracting customers. Two behemoths in internet advertising are Google and Facebook have paved the way in the evolution of internet advertising and have used two methods of collecting revenue for themselves. 


The Hunt

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When using Google, people are on a specific fact-finding mission to search for something they want which can be for information purposes, looking for a product, looking for something for a business and Google's business model is based around targeting what customers are looking for and advertising similar products that companies have paid Google to advertise. Google uses the search history to advertise in other areas of the web. Web 2.0 has allowed Google to advertise in multiple areas and not just specifically on a Google Search.


The Hike

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Facebook employs this in their business model. Rather than aiming at the people that are concentrated on seeking out information, they target the people that are exploring their site for longer periods of time. Facebook mostly uses banner ads that charge companies by what is called CPM (Cost per thousand impressions). They place ads in various areas of the website and hope the placement leads to more interest. 


Below is a video of the new innovations in the advertising field that facebook is developing to target the right audience more efficiently

Week 12 Clear: Telecommunications and the Internet

IPv4 and IPv6
One concept I thought was very interesting in the lesson section was about the Internet Protocol Version 4. It is one of the most widely used versions on the internet today. As we have grown as a society, the number of connections to the internet have grown too (exponentially). This has led to a massive amount of different IP addresses for each device. The rise of mobile devices and other devices connected to the internet has led to an exhaustion of internet addresses. This was an unforeseen consequence because the people who created the original IPv4 were unaware of the amount of connections that would be needed in the future.

Brajeshwar Oinam

A resolution to this problem has come in the form of what is known as Internet Protocol Version 6. This has taken the previous limit of a little over 4 trillion unique addresses and has increased it to 340 undecillion internet connections (3.4×10^38). This limit should take us far into the future before having to come up with a different structure to the internet protocol.

Internet of Things
On the same note, when it was discussed that many items are being connected to the internet that were not previously, I got a little curious on the developments of modern technology in that field. Some of the newly connected items to the internet include a home's oven, thermostat, garage door, alarm system, electricity in the household, cars, everything electronic you can think of is being included in the internet connection. I reviewed a video that came from another section in this class called "The Internet of Things".


Below is a detailed explanation of IPv6

Week 11 Clear: Skills Track Access

This week we learned the generals of Microsoft Access. It's a great program for business use, but as far as personal use...it is a program that I haven't used very much. The videos discussed this week went over tables, queries, forms and reports. I will discuss each of them briefly below.

Tables

Tables in access are used to store the information in its most basic form. The table wizard can take information that was from an external source and sort it for you automatically by asking just a few questions about how you want the information sorted. Once everything's on the table it is there to be modified and formatted anyway you choose.

Brad Amidon

Queries

These basically are ways to get details on the information in a database. For example, if you wanted to know the seasonal sales for female shoppers in December, you could create a query to give you those detailed results back (if you had the information). 

Brad Amidon

Reports

Reports are used to create information from a source, whether it be from a table or query, and turn it into something that is printable and that can be easily understood by people who need to make decisions.

Forms

They make is simple to enter information so that it can be done quickly and easily without having to waste as much time moving from cell to cell. It also helps prevent wrongly entered items because there is not as much confusion. Microsoft Access gives you the ability to design very nice forms or just very simple ones.

Brad Amidon

Project- Microsoft Access

Microsoft Access is a very useful tool in the business environment, but one that I have never had a lot of experience with. I think this project helped me learn many things that I can take with me in my future career. It wasn't an extremely complicated project but one that made me go through the general aspects of Access so I could understand how all of the data are connected. The table activity showed me that I need to be aware of different "date formats" when trying to modify it. I realized the dates for "Date Left" were all in text format when they should've been in date format. The form creation taught me about how forms are created for the common person to enter data and how it should be made as easy as possible as to avoid confusion. The Query activity showed me that you can pull a very specific set of data and organize it as well. The report activity required me to take the query that I created and make a report out of it. This showed me the obvious reasons access has been vital to a company's core record keeping, because the information can be obtained and organized easily. Further, it can be put in a format that is easy to understand for people who are in charge of making decisions within a company. 


Maybe some additions to the database would include a form for exit memberships. In the instructions it was shown that the date for the end of the membership wasn't necessary because you can't fill out information on someone who is signing up and include the date they ended it as well. I do agree with that but there needs to be an easy way to modify this information about an exiting member through another easy-to-use form. Maybe include some other information on the exit form such as the reason they decided to leave. Another modification is to include more information on the new membership form. Simply filling in a postal address doesn't seem to keep up with the times. It would be nice to have such information as an email address or a phone number so these people can be contacted through other ways than regular snail mail. Another category could be "How did you hear about us?" this can be used for obvious reasons so that marketing decisions can be made to possibly increase membership. 

Clear Week 10: The Data Asset

Database Management


This week's chapters have been talking about Data and how it's used and stored within a company. Data has increasingly become more important and accessible to companies which has led to more money being spent in data management. After reading chapter 11 in the Gallagher text, I got a general idea of how database management works. 

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SQL
I learned about SQL which stands for Structured Query Language. It is the most general language when talking about database management. This language lies at the very core of database management programs such as Access, filemaker pro, and even used in the open source by Oracle's MySQL.

MySQL
This is an open source database management software that has been a very popular choice among businesses and web developers because of it's free nature. Its one of the letters in the LAMP software stack (the M) and all of the programs are based on MySQL

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What is MySQL

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Week 9 Clear: Michio Kaku's Discussion on the Future of Technology

The Future of Technology
Michio Kaku is a highly respected theoretical physicist of modern times, and he was in a video where he discussed his opinions on the future of technology. He discusses Moore's Law which states that the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. He gives examples of computers that are being sold are constantly being updated with newer and better processors that double in two years. He then describes the implications Moore's Law has on human existence

Types of Civilizations


Type 0 Civilization 

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Kaku describes a type 0 civilization as one that can barely use the resources of a planet and is still based on non-renewable resources such as fossil fuels. Inhabitants of this civilization still rely more on emotions and ideological principals more so than science. We are currently in this type.






Type 1 Civilization
This is a civilization that can fully utilize the power of the planet and has become a planetary system. Using solar power, geothermal energy, and can control the weather and earthquakes. Kaku states that us as a civilization will reach that stage in 100 years. 

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There are emerging type 1 civilization activities that show a transformation today. Examples include the internet, which is a planetary form of instant communication. A type 1 civilization economy is one like the European Union who puts aside their political differences to become more efficient as an economy. 




 Type 2 Civilization

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A type of civilization that can harness the power of the solar systems sun and can control all of the power within the planetary system. Kaku states at this point the civilization becomes immortal because all of the known events in sciences can't extinguish the civilization. They have the power to avoid it or survive it. 


Type 3 Civilization
A civilization that can harness the power of entire galaxies. They can transport across galaxies as well. They can potentially unlock all that is possible with matter down to the superstrings and multi-dimensions. 


Michio Kaku also stated that type 0 civilizations like our own are probably not as common as others because they die out before reaching a type 1 civilization. Our ideological opinions coupled with the use of nuclear weapons have put us at risk for not making it to the next step. 


The video discussing this is below:

The Future of Technology