Social Media Project

http://ism3004socialmedia.wikispaces.com/Starbucks

This was the final project for my ISM3004 class. I didn't know what to expect when it came to doing a social media project. But I did enjoy it. There was good team effort and collaboration. I learned a lot about all the different social media engines that are available. The great thing is that they are mostly free. Unless you want to run advertising on thier sites which obviously is how they keep on running.

My portion of our groups project was for Wikipedia. Anyone can edit a wiki and I knew this but not as much as I do now. There is so much information out there and you can reference just about anything on Wikipedia, even Starbucks the company we did our Wiki on.

This was a very enjoyable class and I got to learn more than I expected. I will say getting to use all the Microsoft programs became very useful beacuse they will be needed by everyone once they enter whatever career they choose. I am already along in my career and I use Microsoft Office everyday.

Week 13: "Social Media"

This week was all about social media and it seems like it has take over everywhere. 6 or 7 years ago I remember people starting up thier MySpace accounts and finding long lost friends, then Youtube blew up along with Facebook. There is not a business out there that I could think of that doesn't have some sort of social media type of marketing or other form. Well my buisness doesn't. My company has been around since 1945 doing retirement insurance for non profit organizations all across the US and are always 10 years behind when it comes to technology. You would think they would get with the program when they have 500,000 clients. Who knows they could have 1 million by now...

This weeks topic of social media was very clear seeing how there isn't one person I know who doesn't have a clue what it is. There are jobs now for many organizations that are titled "social media specialist" and others of course. I didn't know the differnce between Web 2.0 and Web 1.0 and even what peer production was or is.. Well, peer production is "the ability for anyone to put content on the web and to work collaboratively to create that content." I thought that was just Web 2.0, I feel I am a little left behind with my company because a year ago when I was taking the business writing class they talked about Web 2.0 and I was like what the heck is that?

I personally think one of the biggest apects of social media is not just sharing pictures and videos. I think marketing is one of the valuable tools of social media. Every time I go to watch a Youtube video there is some 30 second advertisment. Or like when I open up facebook and there are ads all over the page. It seems this is a better way to get products and services out there since all of America records television and fast forwards through all the commercials. Advertsing and marketing is how these major companies stay in business and offer free stuff so its cool. Like Gmail and facebook which I use daily, its nice that they are free and I can deal with the ads and stuff.


I didnt know what Web 2.0 was about a year ago becasue I guess I just paid no attention to it but I found this video on Youtube that might help you with more of a understanding. With permission the standard Youtube license.

Week 12: Telecommunications and the Internet

I will say this is a pretty clear week when it comes to understanding this stuff, seeing that we have already learned a portion of this stuff previously. The big picture is that the internet is a network of networks all connected in some way or another that lets others connect and share data and communicate with one another. There is so much when it comes to the internet and how we all stay connected with URL's and domain names that need to be registered as .com or like our awesome University of Florida that is a .edu, or if you happen to be in other countries that would end in .uk and many more.

One thing that was a little muddy for me for this lesson was cybersquatting. This I will admit was the first time that I have ever heard of such a thing. I liked that one guys site, I think it was Mikerowesoft.com or something similar. So it is definitley illegal to register a domain name that uses a trademark already in use to try to get some cash out of them. Wow is all I can say and I am sure that people actually do this.

Ok ok I also had no clue that we are running out of IP addresses. So IPv4 is eventually going to be IPv6 of is being phased out. There was a picture of IPv4 with colors compared to IPv6 and there was a big difference. No one knew that everything was going to be a IP address from printers to computers to cell phones to every device out there and there are billion of them. Check out this video below on IP addresses that I found on Youtube, licensing with permission the standard Youtube license.

Week 11: "Database 2" Muddy

-There were a lot of things that I learned this week on databases, so once again this is a muddy topic for me. I have heard of previously about 95% of the stuff in this class, however, this stuff is unknown to me because I have never done any research on these topics before. Sure I have heard of data and information, like who hasn’t right? But to learn that information is data just presented in a context that people can understand it. There is use to putting all sorts of numbers into databases like sales and losses, or new members vs. members that left the club, and so on. There are programs that filter all of this information and help companies with marketing and other areas of their business to help with growth and sales.

-I had not a clue what SQL was or is, a structured query language that is used to create and manipulate databases. Microsoft has SQL server which probably costs a ton of money and opensource has MySQL which was noted in a previous lesson, is free for the most part. To analyze the data is just amazing with how much data is out there, it was noted in the book that walmart has more than 125 times the data than the US congress or something in that area.

-There was also talk this week about big companies having a lot of data but nothing to do with it. Like if two companies merge and the data is different or the systems are not compatible what is the company to do? And I have never heard of a data warehouse or a data mart? Definitely a first for me, but all very interesting. Like I said last week, I have only made two databases and this project will be my second one. Not too hard but I guess I will find out by my grade L.  Here is a short video on the basics of data warehousing that I found helpful on Youtube, with permission “standard Youtube license.”

Database Project

I learned a little more about databases this semester with this assignment. I did something similar to this about 2 years ago in my ISM course at Palm Beach State. We did the basics when it comes to Query's and forms and reports. I know I am going to lose points because of lack of understanding when it came to the query and where it said "membership types who have left the gym within the last six months (six months prior to the database project due date)" From what I understand our database project is due April 1st 2012, and six months prior to that date is October 1st 2011. Well the excel spread sheet that was called for on this assingment has the most recent date for someone to leave the gym as 8/5/2011 so I ended up just putting all the members who left. Wouldn't I have a blank database? Or query.

I hope it isn't too many points... :( I did note in my week 10 blog post about microsoft access that I am sure there is a lot more to it then what we are diving into. I could only imagine what the access book is like because the Excel book is over 1000 pages. I have not a clue on how I could enhance the functionality of this database... I know I am still kind of lost when it comes to Microsoft Access but I will keep messing with it until I get it figured out like with most things that I do. Practice makes perfect and this is a great tool especially in the business world. I use it every day at work, just to input data, I by no means create these things.

Week 10 "Database Skills Track"

This is the second time that I have ever made any type of database and I will go with a big muddy understanding of it. Not really easy to make, even though I use it almost everyday at work. When we get jobs that come from New York they can see when we completed the jobs and how long the jobs took to be completed. I update them all the time just never create them.

There are so many features to these programs and I know this because I have the book from 2007 and it was an introduction book to Microsoft Office and it is almost 1000 pages. I mean the features and options of all these programs is amazing. There is so much to learn and when I took ISM2000 at palm beach state college we took a dive into micrsoft office and did a small microsoft access project.

I still feel like I have not the greatest understanding of the database, I think I will crack out the old 2007 book on Office.

Week 9: "Moore's Law"

Moore's law makes a lot of sense, but then again I have never done the math to see if I can get twice the speed at the same price in 18 months from now. But when I did buy my first ipod in 2008 it had 8 gigs and it was $200 and now you can get one with video and pictures and all theses other features and has 32 gigs for about $200. Like how much smaller can we really get when it comes to technology and faster. Well here is a funny youtube clip with the guys from Myth Busters. With permission standard youtube license.

This is why there is talk about the death of Moore's law. Size, heat and power will be the death of Moore's law. Then according to Dr. Michio Kaku we will be living on other planets in 100 years, ok he didn't say that but his clip on the future of technology was a little mind boggling.

Of course we will find new technologies and robots will be smarter than people and Moores law will come to an end, then there will be some other law that people follow and so on and so forth. I think form the lecture the first computer came out in 1944. "Professor Means said we didn't have to remember those dates." But look at where we are now, from bytes to Zettabytes. A zettabyte is what about of data the U.S. consumes yearly or 3 or 4 zettabytes.