Final Blog

Well...it is getting to the end of the semester and I wanted to express how much I enjoyed blogging, even that when first introduced I thought it would be strange to blog, or maybe I wasn't even sure about the concept of bloggin. Throughout this semester I can truly say that I have learned a lot and can take this learning and or experience to a place where it can be useful.

What's next...Once I move to switzerland me and my friend are thinking about opening a company as a partnership and we would like to use blogging as a way to promote our products which will be mainly software. Since the day I started using bloggin, I have started to belive that it really is a wonderful tool to promote new products and a way for your company to get recognition. I am anxious to see how this will work whether it will be successful or not. But I am pretty confident that it will.

Does really "social networking" work?

The article on the CNET outlines the "Five Reasons social networking doesn't work"

The reasons are as follows:

1. There's nothing to do there
2. It takes too much time
3. Traffic alone isn't enough
4. Strangers kind of suck (or, put nicely, the social hierarchy is really not that attractive)
5. We already have the Internet

Well...We might have a different point of view based on these reasons. Those of us who are really into the myspace and facebook etc. would argue that it works and YES, you have lots of friends that you communicate on a daily basis. And yes there is a lot to do there if you really know what you are doing!

Indeed there are strangers, and many of us do not feel comfortable talking to them on the street...then we should feel the same way for online as well. If you have someone on you facebook who is literally asking you to go out etc. and you do not wish to...SIMPLY BLOCK HIM OR HER.

Although, In terms of bloging it is important to stress out that you have to have a purpose for you blog (social networking site) to draw the attention of your audience. However, I think finding the time to get back to read the latest posting would be another issue for the readers.

My point of view is that social networking does work, it might be because I am used to going online and checking my facebook to see who posted a message on the wall. Or simply because I use other networking sites such as linkedin (which I found very beneficial to use) for employers to find me.

Is this really a Shocking NEWS??!!

I was really surprised by and a little bit shocked as where yahoo is posting its own jobs...You might guess newspaper or "HotJobs" ...WRONG! IT IS ACTUALLY ON "CRAIGSLIST"
(check out the link).

We all know that craigslist is free to use, whether you want to sell your car, buy a new house or do whatever else you might want to do...but let's face it, craigslist is not one of the sites that has a reputation unlike yahoo and even google.

So is google using their service because it is free or is it really using it to get exposure to draw attention to of users who might not be familiar with yahoo services (HotJobs). In a way this seems shocking, but in a way it is a great awareness tool for yahoo.

Giving 100% Customer Satisfaction!

With all of the technology out on the market, it should be quite simple to advertise you product and even target your customers; however, what happens if the customers is not happy about your product or services? Well...

The article "Social networks forcing customer service Change" talks about how companies nowadays have to really be careful in terms of how they treat their customers. One of the examples used is how AOL appeared in The Wall Street Journal after a customer was going through a painful process of trying to cancel their internet subscription. To make the matter even worse, the customer decided to put it on the internet.

Now the question here is how can companies avoid this trouble? The obvios answer is, not to make the customer mad and instead make him/her happy. Obviously, the intention is to keep a continuous realtionship with a customer, considering that you have been working hard to develop your product or service and it is not worth it to let it go down. After all, the "customer is always right" no matter what.
At the same time, as a company you would want to establish a good reputation for yourself, and not be on the news because of something that you regret you would have done it before.

Interactions with people of the same nationality

In "The Hidden Power Of Social Networks", one of the things I found to be interesting and to a point where it still exists in some places is where the chapter on page 16 talks about managers using collaborative technologies, such as virtual problem solving to help find coleagues with specific experties.

One of the problems that they found out arises where "People in Different Countries preferred to interact with others of the same nationality" I can see this still happening because of the same understanding and communication, but one of the important thing to realize is that the knowledge comes from diversity and therefore it would important if people interacted with different nationality as well.

Trusting you co-worker

In reading "Building the Bridges" by Parker, Cross one of the intersting things that I came across is the "persona book " (consiting of people, photos, job description, hobbies etc.) that was employed to introduce the workers relationship both on a personal and professional level. Now we all really are familiar with such information like this.

As far as our trust goes, does it really matter?
Well...I certainly think it absolutely does. Trust plays an important role between you and your co-worker (s). The reason being is that if you have established a relationship with someone, and now you and this individual are working on a big project. You really have to make acertain that you can count on this individual in order to complete the intended project. i.e you really need to count on someone when he/she agrees that this is to be done this and this day and at this and this time. Otherwise, if that cannot be accomplished you cannot longer depend and trust you co-worker as it might have an impact on yourself.

It is sort of like a group project in college, where you have members that each were assigned a certain topic but were not able to complete it in a timely fashion. This is where trust would break apart and you no longer would work with some of the team members more likely because you received a grade "C" as opposed to an "A".

Why take Social and Networking class (ITEC 333)?

Well...One of the most interesting and exciting things you will be doing in this class is connecting with, could be your workers or just your friends. In other words "NETWORKING". If you have never ever (which I do not assume) used facebook and myspace, well this will be the class that you will explore and learn more.

What really makes this class so interesting and fun at the same time is the CLASS DISCUSSIONS and LAB ACTIVITIES. You will learn a lot...considering that you will be dealing with a very knowledgeable and skillfull professor who worked for Oracle as the VIP and has a great amount of experience.

Is government open to opinions of its people?

In the article "How the Web PoloraziedPolitics"
(http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1540,2052119,00.asp),
Debra D'Agostino holds an interview with Gerry McGovern along with series of questions. Gerry McGovern is an author of several books such as The Caring Economy, The Content Critical, though his focus is primarily relied on "how internet shapes government interactions with its citizens-and vice versa."

As the CIO Insight Asserts: With all this talk about Web 2.0 and shared, open networks, why isn't the government more transparent and open to opinions of its people?

Well as the article points out, there aren't many blogs on government websites and the big reasons behind is that Government comes up with a policy and issues it, but doesn't like being questioned since "questioning makes their lives more difficult".

Along the same line, my point of view is that when it comes for taxation, citizens do have to pay for what they owe...So in a way government should be open to opinions (bloggin or other means) of its people unless they have their hands full of problems that have to be addressed.

Very Intelligent Guy...visit him @asktom.oracle.com

Well...For meeting Tom the first time, he seems like the ordinary fella... as a matter of fact, this guy is really, really Intelligent. I trully have had the pleasure of listening Tom's great presentations to the class about online "Social Networking" where he has been since the beginning.

Tom mentions that he reads lots of publication every morning to absorb as much knowledge as possible. I thought that was quite fascinating being able to catch up on all of it, as one needs to have a lot of time in order to do that.

One of the most interesting thing I found is where he talkes about pitfalls of blogging, such as thratened lawsuites where this guy tried to sue him over something he expressed his idea about. Even more interesting is where the same guy tries to sue him again, but this time from Australia. I haven't really grasped the entire conversation, but from what I heard Tom was explaining to us apparently Australia has different laws than the US, so this guy goes to Australia to sue Tom over what he expressed about.

The outcome of this was that this guy loses of course since Tom, being popular and smart at the same time working for Oracle-big corporation with offices almost all around the world, not to mention the lawyers who have helped and represented Tom in this matter.

Lastly, Tom had to protect himself against this...In the end, it was about the importance of his name and reputation.

Does facebook have an impact on your career?

We have to be careful as what we say and how we say things nowadays as it can affect our future. The article by Langfit “Startups Help Clean Up online Reputations” is as the title states your “reputations” and how employers can track you down on myspace.com and face book in order to find out more information about you as well as your character!

The article points out that several “College students were getting denied jobs after college because of content about them on the Internet.”(Langfit) Okay, college life hopefully is not all about studying but at the same time having fun as well. Currently there are about 85% of students who are using face book (http://www.techcrunch.com/2005/09/08/wsfinder-a-wiki-for-open-apis/) and many of them do have fun, but do not know about that they can be turned down for a job because of their jokes. I can see this tool being beneficial for the company’s but after students realize that they are being watched by someone, somewhere they have applied for a job, this certainly will change how they will act and what information they will be putting out there; especially if it can be available for public view.

On the other hand, we have to ask ourselves, what information the employers are looking for. Is it just pictures and jokes that you put out there for your friends to view? Or is it about where Mr. Nguyen (in additional reading related to this) was turned down because he published an essay about “Lying your way to the top” (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/us/11recruit.html?ex=1307678400&en=ddfbe1e3b386090b&ei=5090)

I mean, I can see this whole thing as a reflection on your character especially in Nguyen’s case about lying but about drinking and having pictures of yourself in Cancun enjoying a beer does not seem to be relevant to the employer. After all, we all do drink, whether it is at home or friends party.

Digg.com over blogging?

"News you can Use", Economist section talks about "site where readers choose the stories and vote for those they find interesting". In our previous class discussion there were number of students with uncertainties about information that is posted on the blogs. Some believe that the information provided might have not been accurate. However, In reading "News you can Use" one of the interesting thing that I came across is the feature that allows the user at digg.com to "add a warning to an item if they believe it to be biased or inaccurate..."

With over 500,000 thousand registered user, and the fact that it may provide more accurate information as opposed to blogger, eventually will the public prefer to switch over to digg.com as opposed to blogging?

Blogs will change your business

It is truly interesting and quite fascinating in the previous discussion of our class about bloggin whether it is really an effective or ineffective "Advertisement" tool for many businesses. While, some might argue it is and some might argue that it is not, after reading "blogs will change your business" will give you a better insight.

The point of this article is to encourage blogging, but we need to keep in mind that we have to be careful as what we post on the web as all this info is available to the public.

One of the interesting point that crossed my mind is how much of "Freedom of expression" do we really have, especially if we have provided certain information unintentionally and the next day, we realized we had lost our job (like Mark Jen did)

Is this really valid? In the end, it was not like that he provided information from a financial standpoint and I am sure that everybody was excited to hear about GOOGLE and joined in the conversation.

Shouldn't everybody by joining "Bloggin" Conversations?!

After reading Intro. of "Naked Conversations," I found it to be very interesting and convincing at the same time to join conversations, not only for good sakes, but as a matter of fact as a way to benefit and not miss out on valuable information provided at NO cost!

I am sure by now we all know what bloggin is, but what we may or may not know is how is it really used and for what purpose. Well, that's where "Naked Conversations" comes into helping us of grasping a better knowledge. The book explores (pgs.1-6) several elements as to why individuals and businesses should engage in conversations and in what ways it can benefit them.

The book mentions that "If you choose to join conversation, your company will be better for it and your customers will be happier..you also will develop better products and services while saving lots of money by dumping expensive marketing tactics". In another words, you will benefit and gain knowledge that you can take with you.

This intro. is certainly a great way for newly comers to read and better comprehend of what really bloggin is and what benefits come with it.

Bottlenecks within the Organization

In looking over Figure 1-2 "How to read a Network Diagram", it is inevitable that central people tend to be considered "bottlenecks" within the organization if the team members are heavily dependent on them. But we need to keep in mind that, bottlenecks are very good at their profession, but yet are overloaded and busy in their work of line, as Cross mentions. This is true in most organizations and this doesn't mean that they are not connected. Take for example, Paul in the diagram. It is said that his colleagues from Finance, Marketing and Manufacturing come to him, but he never goes to them. He certainly must be well established and holds a great expertise and value to the organization. But what we do not see here in the diagram is where Paul reports to. There is obviously a VP or a President of Finance Department. In a sense, in the organization there is a hierarchy of who reports to whom and that if Paul is considered a bottlneck, then his boss would be considered a bottlneck as well since he would also be occupied with a tremendous amount of work he does. Then this would be a continuous pattern within the organizations.

Identifying Types of Individuals in a Network

We live in an era where social networking plays a vital role in our daily lives, whether it may be personally or professionally. Chapter 5 deals with "Identifying types of Individuals in the Network" by which they are broken into four groups. Central connectors-are generally connectors who represent a direct relationship in the network Boundary spanners-are connectors of a department who connect other departments in the organization.
Information Brokers-are communicators accross subgroups of an informal network.
Peri-pheral people-people who are in need of getting better connected with others. Within the following groups, the author gives us an insight of how managers are assessing peoples position in a network, particularly when they are "Stuck on the Periphery". It is certainly interesting and at the same time true that when individuals join the organization, they find themselves having difficulty of knowing and networking with others. However, the author gives one of the examples, that I have experienced at the personal level while working for an organization. He states that in order to develop connections, it is the best to put individuals with other collegues who are more "networked or experienced". At the time I worked with Raytheon Technical Service, headquarterd in Reston, VA. I was hired as the Help Desk Technicians, not knowing anybody in the company. I found it to be a little difficult to create network, since most of my work was trouble shooting and solving problems over telephone conversation; not to mention being in a cubicle for long hours. At one point, our IT Manager had decided that it would be the best, if he sent one from us (one at a time) to different locations to work with our team-mates and a way to get to know each other; as well as to work on the project during that time. Right away we could tell that our productivity level has dramatically increased and we were able to create even more network with other IT specialist, Engineers, Programmers in which we often were the first ones to know about job openings and other resources. Up to this day, I am well connected with others, both personally and professionally in the organization and believe that it is vital part of my life for continuous network and friendship.

Tryout

Hello Everyone-

I am Benjamin Jazavac, an American University student who will be using blogger as a way to post materials related to my Social and Networking class. With this I certify that all postings will be made by myself and in compliance with the American University conduct code.