Advantage and Disadvantage of Web 2.0

SOMETIMES I’m thinking about is everything good about Web 2.0?

Everything has its virtues and shortcomings even though I’m studying and using this. For example, 95% of personal computer operating system on the earth is using Microsoft Windows, but does it mean the product is good? Well my point is not about this, my point is what makes us to use Web 2.0 and how we are pushed to use Web 2.0.

In general, the main advantage of Web 2.0 is that the information flows freely. Everyone can contribute and share the information or ideas without repression. In addition, people are able to receive information from various resources, not only the newspaper and TV anymore. It also means that people are receiving different concepts for one thing. Furthermore, the community makes the use of Web 2.0 growing rapidly. People use the communities to do the communication via the Internet, a variety of ideas, opinions, and news are shared between different countries and communities.

On the other hand, the drawback of Web 2.0 is dependence. For example, cloud computing (Web e-mail, Google doc, Facebook, Youtube) is the hot topic recently, and people and enterprises are currently using it. This means we are relying on the cloud computing vendors to run our business. What if the system crashes? What will happen to our business? How many loss we will have?

More specific example for is Google Gmail. The service has been crashed for a few times (see the news here), since many small/medium enterprises are using Gmail app for their e-email solution, some of enterprises have lost money because the hang of Gmail.

Frankly, the enterprise must think about a backup solution to prevent the loss of the disable Web 2.0 solutions.

The other concerning issue is sharing. Although one of the core values of Web 2.0 is to share things, what if the things are a copyright? Don’t people have to pay for it if they’ve shared or have been shared?

I think some of firms like the movie factories and music companies are gingerly utilising Web 2.0 tools. For example, we can watch videos and listen to music via Youtube, but they may be not authorised to be played by these firms. However, Roadshow Films has deployed a channel on Youtube as a way to broadcast their movies, especially it’s a free service.

To conclude, Web 2.0 is still being adopted from this world, and there are still so many things such as the ethics of Web 2.0 or the health impact of the Web 2.0 users to be concerned. Let’s challenging Web 2.0.

Another micro-blogging tools: Plurk

EVERYONE is just talking about Twitter, however it isn’t the only one micro-blogging tool.

I’m introducing you a different style micro-blogging: Plurk.
Twitter shows the messages like a stack, i.e the newest message comes on the top, while Plurk uses a timeline to show when the messages coming in.

This is how Twitter showing the message:

And this is how Plurk showing the message:

One of the features of Plurk is the timeline, a user can clearly see the time point of an event by the timeline chart as the picture shown. Yes I know that Twitter shows the date & time as well, but the way it shows is just shown on the bottom of the event. Well I can’t say which one is better, but to me, I prefer Plurk way. (because I’m lazy?)

Another difference is the responses. On Twitter, the responses that your friends sent to you can only be seen by you! You followers don’t know what other people have answered to you.

This picture shows the responses after the author posted a question:
(picture comes from the internet)

Plurk is different, you are able to know what others have answered:

This is captured from my Plurk account, ‘stanjuly’ is my username, and I can see my friend ulin’s responses from others. Also, others can see what my friends have answered to me as well!

So what means for this difference?

It means everyone can benefit from the whole conversation. NOT just you.
We may have some experiences that we found the answers from someone else’s Q&A, and we didn’t even post a question!
This is what and how Plurk makes the differences from Twitter. And I would say that Plurk’s conversation style towards to the concept of Web 2.0 more closely.

Try to use Plurk and you may find more interesting stuff.

A long waiting Youtube video

Have you waited a Youtube video streaming?

How long have you waited?

Well, this Youtube video seems will be loading forever…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

because this is a GIF picture……

Further example of a company using Web 2.0 – Eurocentres

Eurocentres is a global language school which located in 31 areas worldwide such as Australia, Japan, South Africa, Europe and the US.

For an educational organisation, sharing information and interacting with students are critical important. Eurocentres  is adopting a social networking  and video sharing platform to improve their business reputation as well as provide a platform for the students. The organisation is currently using Facebook (link here) and Youtube (link here) as their Web 2.0 tools.

Although Eurocentres has had an offical website, it cannot fulfil the organisation’s new business objective: Enterprise 2.0

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Firstly, Eurocentres has built a Facebook Page which owns 1,855 fans by 19 Oct 2009. The page contains several main items: Wall, Information, Boxes, Agenda, Photos, Reviews, Discussion, and About.

1. Wall
This field allows the organisation to post their own messages, and also allows the students/fans/guests to post message, comment and interact with each other …etc. There are too many functions can be used on ‘wall’.

2. Information
Eurocentres just simply places an offical website URL in here. But the organisation puts the introduction on ‘About’, and it is specified on #8.

3. Boxes
The use of boxes in Facebook is to store the Facebook applications (apps). Eurocentres places a video in this field.

4. Agenda
Eurocentres publishes the activities such as trip in this field. Tell the participants about what, when and where of the activities.

5. Photos
It contains the branches photos which come from the different locations worldwide. This also solve the need of photo sharing objective.

6. Reviews
The students (normally the graduated) are free to write and a review and to rate on this field. It can be a natural reference for the potential students.

7. Discussion
The students are also free to create a new topic to discuss with each other. The use is similar to a web forum. Eurocentres has started a few topics such as ‘Tell your thoughts, Visa information, and FAQ”.

8. About
Eurocentres posts the organisation’s introduction in here.

In addition, Eurocentres has also raised some events on Facebook, the function can collect how many people will attend the event and can be connected to the students’ wall.

I can see that Eurocentres is successful to adopt this social networking service. Because their fans (the graduated students) are still increasing everyday. This means that the students would like to keep in touch with the organisation even they are graduated. The further benefit is that it can be a way for the students to find their classmates. And then the community will become bigger and bigger.

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Eurocentres also utilises Youtube Channel as its exclusive video stream centre.  The videos in here differ from the videos on Facebook. Eurocentres puts several promotion videos on Facebook, while they store a series of video called “Video Competition” which come from the different branches.  I think this is an good idea because the purpose of the videos should be separated. However, I feel the number of the videos is too short. It should provide more about the teaching in the class.

In conclusion, although Eurocentres is just using 2 services for adopting Enterprise 2.0, it is fair enough to their clients. This is probably because Facebook provides many useful functions to help the organisation to achieve their E2 objectives. And the benefit for the students who are already the member on Facebook is that they do not need to jump out to the other websites to be participated in multiple communities.

A 13-year-old American kid filmed himself in an Apple store – A thinking of personal branding

A 13-year-old American kid who filmed himself in an Apple store in NY by using iMovie. This kid is super famous now in the US and he has been invited by many TV companies.

Firstly please see this video:

The kid secretly used a camera in the store to clip himself; he played the song but he just simply simulated as a vocalist by various body motions, and then uploaded the video by using the store’s Internet.

I like this video (actually he has filmed several videos in the store) not only his talent of playing but also his ‘thief looking’. He looked at himself in the screen, then looked other people, and then filmed.  I think everyone may be familiar with these actions because many people have played  the camera in a 3C store. I can say that this video could not be fun if lacked these actions.

Moreover, you can see some of the audiences were looking at this kid. Some were laughing, some were confused, some called friends, and some do not interested in this. However, the kid continued to play and didn’t care about others. The faces on the video become the best background of this video.

This video gives me two thoughts:

1. Any camera is the chance to film you: CCTV and camera are everywhere, we may be filmed everyday and many places we don’t know. If we are able to get the videos, we may produce an interesting movie.

2. “Music + Natural Background” seems the formula of becoming famous: We can see so many hot Youtube videos which have the same element: music. Even the author just simply using a cheap camera (like a web cam) and proper music.

The natural is probably the best way to the personal branding.

Utilise Facebook’s high growth to assist the business

THE membership of Facebook is growing rapidly; according to checkfacebook.com‘s statics, the global members of Facebook has reached about 289 millions, and 6.8 millions members in Australia.

So, how does an organisation utilise this number?

If an organisation could properly use this community platform, the benefits such as cost down of R&D, increasing of attracting members, enhancing the efficiency of propaganda, and promoting community cohesion will be obtained.

There are 3 methods can be adopted to utilise Facebook to assist the business:

1. Facebook Page

The first step for the business is to implement its own Facebook Page to attract people. It is very useful to the business to initial the community and branding.  The advantages of this is based on the loyal fans that they can invite friends to visit the page. In addition, the business will be able to broadcast news to fans, and interact with them. (The figure shows a Facebook Page of a language school in Brisbane)

2. Facebook Connect (link here)

The second step to utilise Faceook is to integrate the ‘Facebook Connect’ with the organisation.

Three main benefits of Facebook Connect:

1. It allows the Facebook members to login to the organisation directly. In other word, it saves the users’ time to register a new account which is helpful to attract people.
2. Broadcast the members’ activities in the organisation website to Facebook. It helps the website branding.
3. Get the members’ friend list. This assists building the community and enhancing the interaction between the members and the organisation.

3. Facebook App (link here)

Finally, the organisation can packet its functions into an or more applications. The members can access the organisation’s website or services via Facebook without leaving it.

Reflection of reading 8 predictions for Enterprise Web 2.0 in 2009

AFTER read the ZDNET’s article 8 predictions for Enterprise Web 2.0 in 2009, I have some thoughts of it.

The article points out that the enterprises (finally) try to adopt the concept of Web 2.0 into the employees’ computer. This is the trend of 2009, and the trend is the ability of  gathering people to the enterprise.

I will briefly describe the 8 predictions and followed by my opinions:

1. Tight budgets will drive the adoption of low-cost Web 2.0 and cloud/SaaS solutions.
   This means that the small SaaS (Software as a Service) vendors will have more chances to promote.  According to this article, it deems that under the consideration of cost, the enterprises may not continue to use the huge IT multinationals’ services such as IBM and Oracle. The enterprises will try to seek the low-cost SaaS vendors which are demand-based. However, the article also points out that the enterprises may return to the huge multinational and find their value, because the enterprises probably saw a variety of services. In my opinion, this statement seems easy to say but difficult to be came true, because the enterprise owners normally do not understand Web 2.0. Although the enterprises would like to explore the small SaaS vendors and to use Web 2.0, they do not know how to find the suitable SaaS vendors. On the other hand, the small Saas vendors lack budget to do the marketing, and they can never meet the huge multinationals. So I think ZDNET may indicate that 2009 will be a good chance for the advisers and System Integrator (SI)  companies to explore the great SaaS vendors.
2. Online community and 2.0 technologies become a priority for most organisations.
   The enterprises have set community and Web 2.0 to the top priority in 2009, especially aim at Customer Relationship Management (CRM). The article mentions about ‘Web 2.0 customer service’, and I see many companies and dot com websites simply deploy a forum as the online customer service. I think this part should be considered more about how to enhance ‘the customers answer to the customers’ rates. Because to deploy a forum is very easy, once a user posts a complaint entry, other users may reply and answer the solution. The problem may be resolved before a regular customer service staff to solve it. Therefore, to build a great Web 2.0 customer service system will be valuable to the huge call centre or helpdesk companies.
3. Cloud computing will remain one of he biggest new Internet developments.
   The article deems that cloud computing is no longer a jargon, the new technologies and products are constantly developed . I think cloud computing is already a new way which enterprises cannot neglect it.
4. Internal use of 2.0 will continue growth in large enterprise while the struggle continues with market-facing 2.0 products.
   ZDNET has observed that enterprises have raised more attentions on the internal use of Web 2.0 in 2008. It mentions that the huge IT multinationals haven’t built successful  products as other small SaaS vendors. Nevertheless,the huge multinationals  attempt to use Web 2.0, is it necessary to build Web 2.0 tools by themselves? The multinationals can simply use the current tools. I agree with this statement, however it is essential to deeply understand the internal use of Web 2.0. It may start from the IT department, they shall get familiar with the tools and understand how to use the tools for the enterprise. Thus, encourage other employees to use the tools, then everyone is able to use the Web 2.0 tools.
5. The economic climate will at long last drive major advantages towards aligning IT with business.
   This means the enterprises will be forced to adjust the IT deployment due to cost down. For example, the enterprises may seek the IT outsourcing as a solution.
6. Mobile platforms and devices will become highly strategic in 2009.
   ZDNET thinks that the enterprises will increasingly rely on the mobile platforms for communications. And the desktop platforms may become a backup purpose.
7. SOA goes on a diet, picks up some new tricks, and survives.
   The article predicts that Software-Oriented Architecture) will have a significant change such as integration, but it doesn’t specify what kinds of integration.
8. The massive changes in the business landscape create new 2.0 business opportunities.
   Many online businesses may transform from 1.0 to 2.0.

It is almost the end of 2009, so how many predications above are came true? I don’t know either, but we have to confess that we spend more time to do things about Web 2.0, for instance Facebooking, blogging, twittering and watching video via Youtube. I didn’t say that Web 2.0 tools may reduce the work efficiency, but a enterprise owner would probably like to provide Web 2.0 tools which can increase the work efficiency for the employees to do their work.

Enterprise 2.0 may be starting to consume our working time, but we are still using Web 2.0 after work.

I use RSS Reader

Google Reader

FOR INN346 Enterprise 2.0, the students who enrolled in this unit are required to use a Blog to present the assignment.

There are 63 blogs links posed on Blog list for INB(N) students; if I’m going to read my classmates’ blog, do I have to visit all of these blogs respectively to see new entries? What if the author posted nothing, I’ll just waste my precious time and Internet quota to connect it.

The answer is NO, I can just simply use a RSS Reader to make the entries coming to you.

RSS Reader is used to let a user receiving subscribed information from a web-site by using RSS function. Once the subscribed web-site has added new entries, the RSS will broadcast the information to the user’s Reader. Therefore, a user is just simply waiting for the news/information coming, rather than seeking them by visiting each web-site.

Indeed, I spent a little time to add subscription from every classmates’ blog, but it is worthwhile because I can save much more time compare with visit each single blog. And I recommend Google Reader.

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↓ For more information of RSS, please watch the ‘RSS in Plain English’ video:

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↓ And watch ‘Google Reader in Plain English’ to know how to use this beautiful technology (especially for lazy guys i reckon).

beta forever?

THE term ‘beta‘ has been using on the Internet by several enterprise for many years.

For example, Google’s apps such as Gmail, Google docs and Google calendar had used ‘beta’ label for 5 years, and it finally dropped ‘beta’ label on 8 July in 2009.

But, for what reasons or factors that make Google dropping this label? Well, it is hard to say.  The product management director of Google Matt Glotzbach said that “the products  have all reached unspecified internal metrics in terms of reliability and usability (Krazit, 2009)”.

However, in my opinion, it seems no necessary to drop the ‘beta’ label for these Web 2.0 applications. Because these apps are still continentally updating. The  content of updating includes: new ideas, functions and appearance. This is why O’Reilly (2005) said “the perpetual beta”.

And maybe, the so-called “blah blah blah 2.0” means “beta forever“, because the product will never become a formed product and it will constantly update.

What do you reckon for this statement?

Reference:

Krazit, T. (2009, July 7). Google Apps shed beta label. cnet news. Retrieved October 8, 2009, from http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10280473-2.html

O’Reilly, T. (2005). What is Web 2.0. Retrieved October 8, 2009, from http://oreilly.com/pub/a/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html?page=1