Topic 11- Web 2.0

Select five applications that you have not heard of before from Popular URL's Web 2.0 awards or the webware awards and describe on your blog page how they could be useful to a business.

• Jamlegend emulates console games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band by letting users play the guitar tracks on songs using their QWERTY keyboard. Users can play by themselves or with others, and have their scores tracked on community leaderboards. (webware 2009) Jamlegend.com is useful for a business in the music industry because the website allows any artists to make their music an interactive experience and the service links back to the artist's page/site, or online stores where the track can be purchased. For artists, it is a way to promote their music for free and to develop a fan’s community. 

• Elance is an online hiring and management service. Employers can find people in various disciplines for hire, then use the site to manage their project status, and get in touch (Webware, 2009). This website would be useful to a business thanks to their service they provide. Therefore the website help companies to find someone to hire. It is really benefic for employers in terms of time and money (e.g: training program). The website also allows the business to manage their project status through internet. 

• Mint acts as a financial function system. Mint manages your finances by keeping people up to date on their finances. Mint keeps track of clients spending by sending emails or mobile alerts when ‘bills are due, the clients account drops to a certain level, large purchases paid on credit card or any other high financial transactions’ (Mint, 2009). Thanks to its free online financial management service, Mint would be useful for any companies because it permits to user to stay on track of spending or owing and gives recommendations with its paid advice. By having alerts send emails to the company of money due or transactions this would keep the company more informed. 

• Pidgin is an open-source messaging application that lets you access multiple IM networks from one window, including Google Talk and MySpaceIM as well as lesser-known protocols such as Jabber and Gadu-Gadu” (Webware, 2009). This application could be useful to a business thanks to its convenience to communicate over the internet, that’s means there is no need to create an account on all IM network. Moreover, it is free and the application exists now for mobile phone. 

• Hi5 is a social networking site which has over 60 million users and allows users to create their own profile and upload pictures. This application is similar to Facebook and Myspace which has similar types of functions although Hi5 (Hi5, 2009). This application could be useful for a business because it allows the business to be recognized in another country. Moreover on a social networking sector it is useful to collect database to build up statistics for corporate social responsibilty.

Topic 10 - Trust

1) What does this meant by the following statements?

• Trust is not associative (non-symmetric) means there is no equality between parties in terms of trust. For example, the party A trust the party B at 70% and the party B does not trust the party A at all.
• Trust is not transitive means that trust could vary among different parties and each party has different degrees of trust to the others parties. For example if party A trusts party B and party B trusts party C, then party A does not trust party C because trust is not transitive.
• Trust is always between exactly 2 parties means that a party cannot trust itself. Trust involes at least 2 parties.
• Trust will involve either direct trust or recommender trust means that the direct trust is when a party trust someone or not with radical manner, it is like yes or no. Recommender trust is where party A trusts party B based on another party.

2a) Have a look at the following websites. What are some of the elements that have been incorporated to increase your trust in the sites? If there are also some aspects which decrease your level of trust describe them as well.

http://www.eBay.com.auEbay's website has a Security Centre which allows Ebay's users to learn and have more information on the website security. This security section gives confidence to users that is an important aspect for Ebay. The website's design and the fact that Ebay is a well-known brand makes the website trustworthy.

http://www.anz.com.auThe layout of the website is well structured even at the bottom of the page, users can have access to Security and Privacy Statement section. Furthermore, It has Security alertswhich show any kind of threat towards ANZ customers.

http://www.thinkgeek.comCompare to the two previous website this one looks less trustworthy but the website structure including layouts, payments, etc respect standard. Moreover, customers can leave a feed back through the Bizrate system.

http://www.paypal.com.auAs many well-known website such as Alibaba or Ebay use Paypal, we can deduct that Paypal is trustworthy. Another thing is the inclusion of the VeriSign Identify Protection logo. VeriSign is an organisation that has developed and is promoting a set of principles and criteria for WebTrust.

2b) Find a web site yourself that you think looks untrustworthy.

This website looks untrustworthy http://www.shoeshive.net/

Topic 8 - Online Auctions

Q1: eBay is one of the only major Internet "pure plays" to consistently make a profit from its inception. What is eBay's business model? Why has it been so successful?
According to Rappa, eBay acts as a broker, bringing buyers and sellers together and taking a listing fee on products listed over its site and a commission on things sold. Indeed, eBay’s business model is the broker model.

EBay is the World’s Online Marketplace and created the first online broker business model with a powerful platform for the sale of goods and services by a community of individuals and businesses. The community of individuals deals amongst themselves. There are millions of items across several categories for sale on eBay that enables trade on a local, national and international basis with customized sites in markets around the world. That is the reason why, eBay has been so successful.

Q2: There are a number of other online auction sites in Australia as well. Name two and briefly describe them. Had you heard of them already? Why do you think they are not as popular as eBay?
GraysOnline: GraysOnline is an Australian online retail and auction company, offering a huge range of consumer, industrial and commercial goods, direct from manufacturers and distributors. It offers to customers great value and convenience and to vendors an efficient alternative sales channel.

GraysOnline is not as popular as eBay because their consumers are only manufacturers and distributors although eBay platform enable any buyers and sellers whatever their positions.

Quicksales: Quicksales is an Australian online Auction and Shopping site. Quicksales is dedicated to providing Australians with a safer, affordable and more convenient way to buy or sell virtually anything online at anytime. Quicksales has currently over 500,000 members with over 420,000 items listed for sale.

Comparing to Quicksales, eBay has millions of items across thousands of categories for sale and has over millions members from all around the world.

Q3: What method does eBay use to reduce the potential for fraud among traders on its site? What kinds of fraud, if any, are eBay users most susceptible?
The major method that eBay uses to reduce the potential for fraud among traders on its site is the use of feedback under a system of rating. Indeed, this feedback is produced by the buyers and sellers on the website on every transaction. During the transaction, the buyer will need to leave the seller a feedback and vice versa. The feedback rating system is as follow: it can be positive, neutral or negative regarding the grade average. Another method that eBay has adopted to eliminate fraud is that all members which are selling an item must offer PayPal as a method of payment.

The kind of fraud that eBay users are more susceptible to are:

• When a member buys and pays for an item and the seller does not send the item.

• When a member buys and pays for an item that might not expected.

• When a member has several eBay accounts in order to rate himself and have a “fake” good reputation on the platform.

Q4: eBay makes every effort to conceptualize its users as a community (as opposed to, say "customers" or "clients"). What is the purpose of this conceptual twist and does eBay gain something by doing it?
The purpose of the conceptual twist of conceptualizing its users as a community is that by being a part of a community, members are feeling like a part of a special group in the platform. However, each members of a community share the same values and objectives which are based on open and honest communications. Indeed, eBay gains customers loyalty in order to get more and more users.

Q5: eBay has long been a marketplace for used goods and collectibles. Today, it is increasingly a place where major businesses come to auction their wares. Why would a brand name vendor set-up shop on eBay?
Brand name vendors would set up shop on eBay because more and more people are buying items online thanks to the convenience of shopping online. As eBay is increasing in popularity continually, it would be logical that more businesses would sell on eBay to increase its level of recognition and to increase in popularity. According to Rappa, it can be seen as a “means of expanding their business to reach new customers and to explore different ways of pricing their product”.

Topic 7 - Digital Automata

1. Write one paragraph describing the Turing Test and another paragraph describing an argument against the Turing Test, known as the Chinese room.

The Turing Test is a method for determining whether or not a computer is capable of thinking like a human. The test is named after Alan Turing , an English mathematician who pioneered artificial intelligence during the 1940s and 1950s. According to this kind of test, a computer is considered to have artificial intelligence if it can imitate human responses under specific conditions. In Turing's test, if the human being conducting the test is unable to consistently determine whether an answer has been given by a computer or by another human being, then the computer is considered to have "passed" the test.

However, the Chinese Room argument, devised by John Searle, is an argument against the Turing test. The argument is intended to show that while suitably programmed computers may appear to converse in natural language, they are not capable of understanding language, even in principle. Searle argues that the thought experiment underscores the fact that computers merely use syntactic rules to manipulate symbol strings, but have no understanding of meaning.

2. Can virtual agents succeed in delivering high-quality customer service over the Web? Think of examples which support or disprove the question or just offer an opinion based on your personal experience.

From my personal experience, I was confronted to this situation and I wasn’t disappointed. Indeed, I bought an electronic device for my computer but I wasn’t sure about the compatibility with my operating system. However I use the online customer service of the online shop and they reply me about 10 min after with a clear and simple answer.

I am sure that virtual agents can deliver high quality customer service over the Web because in a real situation you need to search and look around a shop assistant (that most of the time, they are busy). Despite of sometimes you can feel shop assistant’s bad mood, it is something that cannot happens over the web.

Topic 6 - Digital Markets

Question 1

a) What experiences have you had with shopping online?

The experiences that I have had with shopping online are that as I am a shoes addict and collector, I usually purchased my shoes through an online shoes store because they got every week "new arrivals". Furthermore, I often purchase my flight tickets online because with that I can compare the price and buy the cheapest one.

b) Describe a good experience?

First of all, I would describe a good experience as getting a product that we are looking for at a lowest price than any physical store with a quick and secure transaction and an on-time or fast delivery.

c) What did you like about the online store you used?

I generally used online store to buy shoes, electronic product and flight tickets from overseas. The advantages about the online store that I used are that I can compare a product’s price with another and deliveries were always on time. Moreover, about shoes, all the pictures are in 3D (we can see the entire shoes from different angle)

d) Describe a bad experience.

A bad experience would be where you purchased something different from what you though as the information and images were poor quality. It could involve a non respect on the delivery time imposed. In my opinion, the worst experience would be if you pay and nothing arrived in return but it never happens to me.

e) What problems did you have with the online store?

The only problem that I had was about the time of delivery. As few months ago there are strikes in France, my item didn’t arrive on time.

f) What features make an online store more appealing?

The features that make an online store more appealing are that it’s easy to use and that you can shop online from anywhere, at anytime. You can also get all the information you need such as pictures, the origin from where items will be sending, the description of the item and the specific research options.

g) What features make an online store less appealing?

The features that make an online store less appealing is that everything is virtual that is to say that we cannot view, try or touch, in few words, we cannot have a real impression of the product.

h) Should we expect to see the prices of goods and services rise or fall due to the migration of consumers online?

It is mitigates to define whether the prices of goods and services will rise or fall due to the migration of consumers online. However, all depends on businesses which have both physical and online store. Furthermore, I think the price hasn’t change because with a physical store, we have the possibility to try or touch the product in order to define the quality and this fact is an added value to the price. That is the reason why, the price of goods will not change a lot due to the migration of consumer online.

Question 2 – Discuss the following statements and indicate if you agree with them or not. 

a) The dispersion of prices (that is, the spread between the lowest and highest price for a particular product) will narrow.

I don’t believe that the dispersion of prices will narrow because while buying online, there will always be varying price and quality for a particular product, that is the reasons why the price dispersion should be low with digital markets.

b) The importance of brand names will decrease.

In digital markets I don’t think that the importance of brand names will decrease because it is still important for the customer. Regardless of whether consumers shop online or in a physical store they will choose the brands that they are satisfied.

c) Price competition will make all products cheaper.

I personally think that price competition will make all product cheaper depends on the company’s business strategy. However, world leading companies such as Apple don’t need to adopt the price competition strategy as their products answer consumer’s needs.

d) Digital markets will become dominated by a handful of mega-sites, like Amazon.com.

I do not totally agree with this statement. In my opinion, in digital market or in physical markets, if the brand name is strong, they surely dominate the market. Furthermore, all depends on customers’ way of shopping. For example, most of customer prefers to buy a book online than to buy clothes or a car online.

e) How do you think the balance of power buyer’s and sellers will change?

I think that the balance of power will be more in favor of the buyer. However, with more goods and services becoming available online people have more and more choices. In contrary to buyers, sellers have to focus on market competition and business strategies. With the expansion of the digital market we can notice that consumers have the choice to spend whenever and wherever they like.

f) Prices are clustered online.

I disagree that prices are clustered online even physically, because without that there is no objective to trade. However, the price of goods and services is still leaded by the quality, the supply and the demand of a product.

g) Online prices are elastic. (i.e. immune to change up and down with demand).

Regarding a period of time a price and an online price are always elastic because itl vary following the trends of any product, economies of scale, the demand and other external factors.

h) Online prices are generally transparent (the extent to which prices for a given product or service are known by buyers in the marketplace).

I think that online prices are generally transparent but not always because more and more online stores prefer to display duty free price in order to attract customers. In other words, online prices are still transparent to make sure that customers don’t realize the gap between the duty free price and the all taxes included price.

Question 3

a) What type of m-commerce service does your cell phone provider offer?

My cell phone provider SFR offers many online applications such entertainment, news, online top up,….

b) Which of these services for you use?

I don’t use any of these services.

c) What types of transactions do you perform through your cell phone or other wireless device?

I generally buy flight tickets and clothes through my cell phone or my laptop.

d) What types of transactions would you like to perform, but are currently unable to?

There are no transactions that I would like to perform on my cell phone that are currently unable to use.

e) What is your opinion of wireless advertising/mobile marketing?

In my opinion, as mobile phone is the digital technology which has the highest penetration rate, it is the most efficient way to advertize and to have a direct impact on the customer thanks to interactivity.