Final Quiz Essay Questions

One of the issues raised in class was that we are being forced to tradeoff flexibility and accessibility to information for lack of personal privacy.
1. Site two to three examples why someone might make this statement
2. Indicate whether you agree with this statement (and why)
3. Indicate whether you think it is an important issue (and why)

This issue is an interesting one, which I do have some opinion on. Other people may make this statement because of some things we learned in class. For instance, the first example is that Google stores everything that anyone has ever searched. Because Google is so flexible, everyone uses it, but it is not private, because Google knows who makes what searches. Many people would also say that identity theft or being phished is a problem with privacy, because online banking and shopping are so prevalent, and there are many openings for some people to steal your information. People may also make this statement because nothing on the internet is private; everything you do is logged and the internet companies know who is who. So while you may have access to anything on the internet, people know what you are doing at any time. I agree with the statement that we are trading flexibility for privacy. Everything is so readily availible, but is also closely monitored. Everytime you click a link, information is sent to ad companies and hundreds of other places. Anyone can drop a phishing email on you, or steal your information at any point in time. I do not think this is a particularly important issue, because there are ways around all of this. Real banks still exist, so if you need to do some banking, go to the bank. Don’t send any information over the internet you don’t want people to see. Don’t click on suspicious emails. It is a lot of common sense, mostly. The internet is a public domain, so just be as careful as you would on the street. You’re careful about not dropping your wallet, so be careful about your information on the internet.

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Imagine that you are planning to set up a home business to do event planning. Indicate 3-4 technologies that we discussed in class that would help you to make your business successful. For each technology, explain how it would help the business. Include at least one link to a website that you might use.

There are several different things you can do to set up a successful business using internet technology. You could set up a website, use twitter and social networking, and have a blog. A website could be a source of more “permanent” information, such as contact and location info. It would also be the main thing that people would see, before your twitter or blog. The best idea is to have a professionaly made website if you are serious about a business, and put it on a reliable host. I have heard many good things about godaddy.com and people have suggested it to me. Another idea is to use twitter. Twitter is one of the most popular social networking sites, and if you have people following your account, you can have hundreds of people know about your updates in a matter of seconds. Another idea, which is similar to twitter, is a blog. Since twitter has a text limit, you can only put a certain amount of text on it. But, a blog gives you unlimited writing space, so you can write large news updates or events, and still have people be able to respond. I have used blogger.com in the past, and I am most comfortable with it.

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Explain the meaning of the term: “Digital Divide”, who it is affecting and what the issue is. Identify 2 possible solutions to this problem.

Digital Divide means the seperation between people who have access to technology, and the people who don’t, technology meaning computers and internet. This divide mainly effects areas of the country in poverty or isolation. Places that lack money and have high unemployment rates are less likely to have access to said technology, as internet subscription rates and computers are not as readily availible to those with no money. The issue is that since the internet is so widely depended on by the majority of the country, people without it are being left behind. Much communication is done through email, and more and more companies are now asking for job applications to be submitted online. This leaves the people without internet behind, as they are missing many opportunities that may help their situation. There are several solutions to this, but the two I have though about most are funding more libraries and distributing netbooks. Giving funding to more libraries would allow them to purchase more computers, and giving more access to the people. Using a library is free, and if people can get there then they can use the internet. Another way is offering netbooks to people in these lower income areas for a very low price. Some of these devices are going for less than a hundred dollars right now, and if public wifi was installed in more places, then more people could easily overcome the divide.

Wikipedia Project

Is done. I posted it up on there, but who knows how long itll stay up. So...I took a screen shot of it.

heres the text used for the article:

The Gary Busey Experience

The Gary Busey Experience was a Boston based Thrash/Grindcore band, formed in late 2007 at Emerson College.

History

In late 2007, former band member Roger Tower approached several people about starting a metal band. He asked Clay Lowe on guitar, Leo Lydon on guitar, Nick Vecellio on bass and Danny Joseph on drums. All agreed, and the band began practicing at the Music Gym, in Allston, Massachusetts. After several practices, the band had their first song written, it was named “Penetration.” At this point, the band could not afford to practice at the Music Gym any longer, and were left to practice in one of the dorm rooms at Emerson College. On one of their practice days, someone wandered in after hearing the band from the hallway, and offered the band a slot on an upcoming show with several other Boston bands, most notably The Carrier and Shipwreck A.D. The show was held in the Emerson College Multipurpose Room in Piano Row on February 25th, 2008. The Gary Busey Experience brought the majority of the turnout, mostly friends who were interested in seeing the act perform for the first time. The band wound up playing a 20 minute long set, with only 2 full songs written. The rest of the set was improvisation, but it was said the band performed so well that no one even noticed. However, because of the mosh pits during this show, further bands were banned from playing in the Multipurpose Room, therefore throwing the Gary Busey Experience into the history books. During the next few months, the band began work on a demo cd, titled “Blunts and Blastbeats.” It was never released to the public; the only way people could hear the rough demo was on the bands myspace.

During the summer of 2008, the band remained inactive, due to members spread out across the country, although Leo and Clay continued to write new songs, and brought them back to the table in the fall of 2008. When the band reunited in 2008, they were left without vocalist Roger Tower; he was spending a semester in Europe. The band decided it would be best to move on without him, to continue what they started earlier in the year. Nick Vecellio was moved from bass to vocals, and the band picked up two more members after that, adding Erik Magnus on bass, and Jared Diamond on Vocals as well. This would be the final lineup for the band, sticking until the band dissolved. After adding Jared and Erik, the band began to practice more and more, and began expanding their track offering much more, as well as making the songs much more technical and epic sounding. The band played several more shows in this time, playing shows with bands such as Powernap on Satans Floor, Cirque De Carne, and now signed to Relapse Records, Revocation. The band quickly gained many fans during this time, drawing a large crowd at every show. The band was well known across the area for being serious musicians without the serious attitude, as well as jumping in the mosh pit while playing, and having the crowd name their new songs. Also, during this time, the band recorded a new, more produced demo called “Hotel Thrash Party.” Some of the songs were released again on myspace, replacing the older tracks, but again not produced onto CD. In early 2009, the band began rerecording “Hotel Thrash Party” in the studios of the New England Institute of Art. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen problems, the demo was never finished, and is still being worked on to this day. Shortly after, in the summer of 2009, the band went on indefinite hiatus, as guitarist Clay Lowe went to Los Angeles for a semester, and the band decided that he influenced the sound of the band so much that they could not continue without him.

Website proposal

I am going to make a website for my band, since we never had one more than a myspace.
It will have member info, discography and photos.

Seth Godin Questions

Tribes Project

1. What is a tribe?
A tribe is a group of people, connected to one another with a leader and an idea. They also need two things to be a tribe, a shared interest and a way to communicate.

2.Identify three qualities of a leader
Leaders use charisma to attract and motivate followers.
Leaders commit to a vision a make decisions based on that vision.
Leaders connect their followers to each other.

3.According to Seth Godin – tribes are the new marketing paradigm. The previous two were factories and mass marketing.
A. Describe these two
Factories are what Seth Godin defines as any place that cranks out a product or service, with measurable output and attempts to reduce costs. He then defines it as almost any job where a boss tells you what to do, and you do it. Mass marketing is an attempt to market a product to many people at the same time but without allowing any of those people to band together to support the project. Mass marketing does not create a tribe, it just puts a message out to a variety of people rather than a tribe of people.
B. Do you agree that this concept of leadership and viral marketing is the “new way”- explain or give an example.
I think that viral marketing is the “new way.” Mass marketing is not as effective today, lets use an example of a television commercial. If Burger King puts out a commercial on 30 different television channels, it is likely that many people will see said commercial, but it will not have as much impact as a viral marketing plan. Now, if Burger King also put a video up on youtube with viral intent, it may be more successful. If 10 people see that video, and send it on to ten other people each, and that cycle continues many times, the video will be actively seen, where people have gone in search of it and will be more likely to remember it. So, in my opinion, if one million people see a tv commercial and one million people see a viral video advertising the same thing, in my opinion the viral video will be more successful because of the effort put in by those million people to see it, rather than it just appearing on the tv. So, relating back to Seth Godin, those million people on the viral video are a sort of tribe, they all communicate with one another to get the video out there.

4.How does Seth Godin think massive change happens?
Massive change happens when the status quo is challenged by a leader. Change happens when the status quo is challenged by someone with a new idea about how to do something that has not changed for a long time. For example, the factory analogy that Godin uses, where a factory job is one where a boss tells you what to do and you do it. Massive change of that involves leaders and independent tribes, changing that workflow and doing the same job, more efficiently possibly. Massive change occurs when a tribe and leader take something that has been done, and finds a new way to do it. An example from the book is the rock climbing competition, where instead of climbing the rock wall like the rest of the competitors, the winner of the competition just ran straight up the side of it. That, is massive change.

5. Why was this book selected for this class?
I think this book was picked because it is all about how to lead people, using a new method. The internet makes so many resources available to create and manage a tribe, and able to connect to millions of people, that the internet will be what we are using in our futures, and this class is all about that. It only makes sense to read this book on how to lead a tribe, if that is what we will be doing in the future of business, after we leave college.

Webquest midterm powerpoint

http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0ARV0ctqN1R4sZGY3aHFoajJfMTZkZmQza21oZA&hl=en

Wikipedia Project

For my wikipedia project, I'm going to be doing a page about my old band, The Gary Busey Experience. I plan on talking about CD releases, history and shows. The band was around for approximately 2 years, and went through many significant changes and events that have made history at Emerson college for the years we were around.

some other bands that are on wikipedia from the boston area

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overcast_(band)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftershock_(band)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Black_Church_(band)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slapshot_(band)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Only_Living_Witness
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxic_Narcotic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_Mortem_(band)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Before_Dishonor_(Boston_band)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebadoh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WhipKraft
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomriders
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannae_(band)

Wiki's dont work

How do I know this? Well this wonderful project we just had, I did ALL of the work on. I mean AAAAAALLLLLL of it. I didn't mind though, because that just proves my point. Wikis are not an effective means of communication, because if people dont remember to update them, then no one can communicate. If we had 20 minutes to sit and talk to each other, we could have sat and done the entire project in that time. But instead, we had to do it on a wiki. So I wound up with a ton of extra work, that I shouldn't have had to do myself.