Class Analysis

Overall, I’d have to say I enjoyed this class.  I have always had an interest in technology.  For this class, I had to update and maintain a blog.  I do read a few blogs regularly, but after doing my own blog; I have a new appreciation on how much work goes into maintaining a blog.  Updating a wiki is also something that I found interesting.  I use Wikipedia for a quick reference all the time.  I know that one of the reasons why it is so popular is because users operate it.  After using the class wiki, I now have a better knowledge of how wikis work.

One of the most entertaining aspects of the class was going to the different websites.  Learning about the waybackmachine was really useful.  I did not know that existed.  It was also cool to see the website about finding a hotel and matching it up to pictures on what you want to do on vacation.

The Carr article I also liked because it brought up many useful questions dealing with technology and the future.  I think that these topics will become more mainstream in the near future.  I wish we could have talked about his article “is google making us stupid?”

This class made me realize that I always have to be up to date when it comes to technology.  As was stated in class, when I do get a job, I will probably be one of the youngest and people are going to be looking to me for help on technological issues.

What is the best way for you to get information? (written, audio, presentation, pictures, etc.) What implications might this have for your presentation next week and beyond?

There is a wealth of information available online.  The best way to get information, depends on what information you are looking for.  Different websites offer different information.  To find information that is written, you would just go to the source that you are looking for that information.  If you are looking for news, just go to a news website.  If you do not know the location of the information you are going do find, you can search for it through a search engine.  The only rule here is to make sure that you are using a credible source when relying on information.  To find images, you can also either go to the source or use a image search engine.

For our presentation we are going to need to find ways to make Ruth Ann Minner’s blog more attractive to readers.  to do this we need to look at other blogs and analyze their strengths and weaknesses.  In what ways are the blogs’ user friendly?  Are there any aspects of these blogs that we should add to Ruth Ann Minner’s.  After gathering our ideas, we can make our recommendations.   With extensive research and proper implementation of ideas, I believe that we can accomplish our goal of increasing traffic to Ruth Ann Minner’s blog and make it one of the best governor’s blogs’ in the nation.

Class Day 4

For homework, we had to listen to the two podcasts on how the internet works.  These podcasts were loaded with information about this history of the internet.  Much of the information was technical and I honestly didn’t quite understand all of it.  When I thought I was beginning to understand what it was talking about, I heard something else that threw me off.  During class, we had a work sheet and were asked to write down definitions of as many of the words that we could remember which were in the podcasts.  When I saw the sheet, apparently much of what I thought I understood, I could not write down.  I knew that I had heard of them, but coming up with a clear definition was hard to do.   After class, I had a better understand on how many of the words are related and what purposed they served.  However, I think that if I am not surrounded by the technological jargon on a daily basis, I will again forget.  I believe this information is very valuable to have when going into a job setting.  I do not know how many people fully understand how the internet works or other new facets of internet use.  Having this knowledge will be beneficial as I would be able to help others make the most of their efforts in either projects or presentations.

Ruth Ann Minner Blog Recommendation

Ruth Ann Minner Blog

Making it conversational–to enhance return, comments, stats, etc “tapping into the blogging community” : Mark

what to add
-forums
-users
-reputation rankings?
-live chat?
-weekly pod cast?
-email signup
-personal blog roll
-share items
-permalink
-email to friend
-comments.
-youtube videos
-more pics/videos
-most popular/commented
-recent commented/ entires
-search function in blog
-weekly poll
-weekly recommendations
-philanthropy with progress meter

- Q+A with emails sent to her,post on site

-Hvae guest blog writers, Q+A with them.

epic 2015

epic 2015

Epic 2015, according to wikipedia, was released in Nov. 04.  The premise of this movie is that google is growing and in the future will create EPIC.  Evolving Personalized Information Construct or EPIC will be “a summary of the world — deeper, broader and more nuanced than anything ever available before … but at its worst, and for too many, EPIC is merely a collection of trivia, much of it untrue.”

While this might be a bit over the top of what could happen, it does not mean it does not have the potential to happen.  Google will have a lot of the worlds information as it builds its google books, maps, and directory has a bulk of world information.  Many people also use google for email.  One of the aspects of gmail is its large storage capacity.  With gmail, you never have to delete any email, because you can just archive it and it will be there forever. Google Checkout makes it easier to make payments online.   It is no secret that google has access to a lot of information.  But will the scenario described in epic 2015 happen?  I believe not.

But if it does, what is the worst-case scenario?  Will transition from computers into other aspects of technology.  Will they heavily invest into artificial intelligence?  Does google have the potential to become skynet, the fictional company in the Terminator movies?

But seriously, I believe that google will have competition in the technology industry.  They are big right now, but before google’s search engine, there was altavista, netscape, lycos, and ask jeeves.  Eventually, someone will produce an Idea that is better than what google has to offer, and this will be the new search engine on the top of the totem pole.

Class Day 3

Class day three was eventful as always.  To me, the most interesting thing we went over was Wikipedia.  I, like many other people, have always used Wikipedia to find information fast.  To me, the greatest advantage that Wikipedia has is that it is user friendly and the fact that anyone can edit it.  This means some one who knows alot about a particular subject can add it to Wikipedia while others can benefit from that knowledge.  I did not know of the oversight that Wikipedia personally employs.  They have a staff that looks for editing changes of certain aspects all the time.  During the video, the rock bands that use the umlaot was a topic that I do not think would attract too much attention, however, it was constantly updatd.  This obvously asks the question on whether all edits are factual and/or useful.  Obviously some of the edits had nothing to do with the content of the article, but still the changes were made.  However, with much of this happening, Wikipedia is still mostly reliable.  I did not know that Wikipedia checks on changes with a type of quality control to make sure that its content is kept to their standards of neutrality.

Great Blog Post

Blog Post

My Comment

Freakonomics blog on the bailout.  The blog contains an open letter from economists to congress about the bailout and its recommendation.  It recommends patience, to clean up its ambiguity and to be more specific on its long term effects.  This is a great post because even though the government has proposed the bailout, it is helpful to know economists’ opinion of it.

Digg

http://digg.com

digg.com is a website where users have the option to “digg” internet content.  Every day, news articles, pictures, videos, blog posts and other forms of internet media are posted on the website.

youtube example

When someone “digg”s the content, is reported to digg and then other useres can also “digg it”.  If enough people digg an article, it shows up on the main page.  Digg Upcoming, now in its beta form, allows people to see stories that have been “dugg” but not enough to make the main page.  Digg specializes in the sharing of content.   Other websites have now started their own form of sharing internet sites.  Myspace, Facebook, stubleupon, and del.icio.us are also sites where information can be shared.

Class Day 2

The second day of class is now over and I am getting a better understanding on what the class will entail.  We talked about the blogs again, but a little more in-depth this time.  There are many little options that can make a blog a lot better.  Characterizing each entry and the way a link is posted make a real difference in the effectiveness of a blog and makes its functionality and the way its presented appear a lot better.   Going over the article “IT doesn’t matter” was interesting.  There are many different perceptions on what and how IT should be used in the workplace.  I believe that how IT is used depends on the nature of the business in which it is used.   Some companies have more use to IT than others.   I believe that IT is important for all companies, and how they utilize it can determine how competitive they are in the work place.

some beginning information for group project

Microsft excel
From the website: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HA101656321033.aspx
Price 229/109

create and format spreadsheets, and analyze and share information to make more informed decisions.
navigate, sort, filter, input parameters, and interact with PivotTable views directly on the Web browser.

* Sorting and filtering are two of the most important types of basic analysis that you can do with data. New options for sorting and filtering, such as multiselect in AutoFilters, sort or filter by color, and “quick filters” for specific data types make Office Excel 2007 the ideal tool for working with large amounts of complex data.

* Create a PivotTable or PivotChart view more easily by using data fields to reorient data quickly to summarize and find the answers you need. Simply drag the fields to where you want them to display.

# Centrally manage sensitive information by publishing spreadsheets to Office SharePoint Server 2007 to help ensure the members of your organization are working with the most current business information and prevent the spread of multiple versions of the same file.

# Protect confidential business information while helping to ensure people can view the data they need with report management features.

# Connect to external sources of information using the Data Connection Library. Quickly connect to and import information from external sources of information like databases and line-of-business systems using the Data Connection Library. Using Office SharePoint Server 2007, your organization’s IT staff can set up and manage “trusted” Data Connection Libraries that enable people to more safely connect to external data sources without assistance.

Google Docs
docs.google.com/
Free

Can upload existing styles
Share instantly
Edit and present with others in real time
Edit and access from anywhere
Safely store work online (has autosave)
Easily save and export copies (in different formats)
Folders available to organize work
Can publish/ unpublish information on the web and control who sees information.

Microsoft workspace office live.
http://workspace.officelive.com/LearnMore
Cost free

Can access and preview docs with out having office installed
Works with office
Export to excel
Main purpose, sharing information.
However only shares up to 100 people.

Microsoft Access
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/access/HA101656301033.aspx
cost 229/109

Track and report info
Collects info through email or import data
Create and edit detailed reports that display sorted, filtered and grouped info in a way that helps make sense of the data.
Can import from Microsoft outlook
files and sorts data
can work with multivalue fields
can group info
collect data with office
web collaboration with windows sharepoint services
improved security