The World of Freebies

Let's face it, everyone loves freebies. The Internet offers many of them, from free movie passes, to free meals, to free music, etc, at a single click.

Is the Internet Making Us Dumber? The answer to this question can be a "yes"or "no" depending how you look at it.

There are certainly many benefits associated with Internet usage. It enables people to:

• pool in their resources and share their knowledge with others,
• develop creative ideas from the suggestions of others,
• find information quickly so that tasks are accomplished more efficiently and effectively,
• expand knowledge base (sometimes out of curiosity) through search engine like Google,
• get connected to one another globally. When people update their statuses on Facebook or Twitter, all of their friends know what they are up to.

However, there are some drawbacks involved if people do not use the Internet properly.

• Lifestyle change may cause loss of culture or tradition. Back in the day when computers were not available, people would spend more time reading newspaper or magazine, allowing them to gain knowledge about the world. Nowadays, many people depend on the Internet for their information needs, and they read only those issues that are eye-catching and quickly get distracted by other information.

• People spend too much time on social networking sites. They are too busy in catching up with everyone's excitement and drama.

• People may not be able to distinguish reliable information from the unreliable ones on the Internet. Many people fall for unknown schemes or scams, and end up giving out personal identification information to strangers or marketing firms.

My view of the Internet includes the following:

• People need to know how credible a source is - whether it is a "user-generated" opinion or a proven or well-supported fact. Thus, they should verify their sources carefully before using them. Even familiar websites like ratemyprofessors.com or fandango.com may offer limited and biased information on students' opinion about a professor (or a class), or viewers' feedback about a movie.

• There is a bright and dark side to the Internet. The bright side is that "anyone can publish, collaborate, and edit others' work" with little restrictions. The dark side is that it is difficult, if not impossible, to control what people publish and edit, which may be offensive or inappropriate at times.

• Technology is constantly evolving. Undoubtedly, people need to embrace this intellectual change so that they do not fall behind. It is important that people be educated on the power and danger of the Internet. This enables them to optimize social media usage while protecting themselves from unwarranted web intruders and identify theft.

• As consumer culture (e.g. ad campaigns) is built in as part of the Internet, it further encourages the additive behavior in people. Thus self-discipline in terms of time and resource management is extremely important to avoid lollygagging (being lazy and avoid work), just like what TV turns people into couch potatoes.
  

Sources:

Keen, Andrew. "The Digital Emperor Has No Clothes - Associations Now Magazine - Publications and Resources -." ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership. Web. 30 Jan. 2010.

Riley, Duncan. "Nobel Laureate Says The Internet Makes Us Dumb, We Say: Meh." TechCrunch. Web. 30 Jan. 2010.

Freebies Digital Image.

The Truth about Crowdsourcing

For this week's blog, I have chosen to comment on the following articles:

1. Is Crowdsourcing Evil? The Design Community Weighs In
2. The Myth of Crowdsourcing

Before reading these articles, I bet many people would have thought that crowdsourcing dealt with a crowd of people collaborating on a project and everyone who contributed would have received a fair share of money compensation. Well, that is hardly the case!

Crowdsourcing is a fancy term for a competition or contest. Think about a food eating competition, a kid's coloring contest, and/or designing a banner to promote a music band. Each individual who entered into the competition or contest may have put forth a great deal of time and effort knowing that he or she has only a slight chance of winning. For the most part, there is only one grand prize winner who gets his or her name recognized and receives the grand prize, usually money or luxury good like a trip for two to a hot spot.

I think crowdsourcing is good for today's businesses but not so good for future businesses. With all of the submissions, not only do businesses gather great ideas for future logos or multi-purpose designs, they also reap tremendous cost savings on the design effort. However, there are two drawbacks for future businesses regarding the disruption to the design industry and the reduction in creative ideas. First, professional designers will lose their jobs to amateurs or recent grads with similar capability (in terms of talent and skill). Some of these designers may even have to change career. Second, when the winner's design is reviewed, many will interpret what businesses is looking for and want to imitate the winner's design style for future projects. In doing so, design ideas will converge and become less creative.

To avoid conformity and induce creativity, one possible consideration is for businesses to make their "competitions" private - soliciting ideas, announcing the winner's name but not displaying the winner's design.

Articles:

Howe, Jeff P. "Is Crowdsourcing Evil? The Design Community Weighs In | Epicenter | Wired.com." Wired News. 10 Mar. 2009. Web. 20 Jan. 2010.

Woods, Dan. "The Myth of Crowdsourcing - Forbes.com." Forbes.com - Business News, Financial News, Stock Market Analysis, Technology & Global Headline News. 29 Sept. 2009. Web. 20 Jan. 2010.


Images:
Crowdsourcing. Digital image. Web. 23 Jan. 2010.

The Truth about Informal Networks

For this week's blog post, I have chosen to comment on the following two articles:
"Six Myths About Informal Networks - and How To Overcome Them" [MIT Sloan Management Review]
&
"The People Who Make Organizations Go-or-Stop" [Harvard Business Review]

The first article discusses how corporate executives fail to nurture informal networks due to strongly-held myths about how to make these networks more effective. A number of interesting points were presented. To build a stronger informal network, people should connect and communicate, not with everyone but, with those who provide relevant information. Instead of changing technical infrastructure to promote collaboration, organizations can assist informal networks by modifying their formal structure, work management practices, employee management practices, and their cultural values. To avoid information bottleneck at a central person, organizations can distribute information and decision-making responsibilities to others. It is also important for organizations to understand how informal networks function to get work accomplished so that corporate executives can strategically support these networks to benefit the organizations.

The second article discusses the importance of social networks and the four key role-players - central connector, boundary spanner, information broker, and peripheral specialist. The central connector, also known as the go-to-person, serves as the main source of information for the whole network. The boundary spanner links the central connector in multiple external networks so that they can share information as well as various types of expertise. The information broker connects various sub-networks within an organization in large information network to promote information sharing. The peripheral specialist serves as an expert for the network in special information or technical knowledge. He or she is not integrated in the network so that he or she can focus on advancing his or her area of expertise.

The thing that sparked my interest the most was the social network analysis - a powerful tool that corporate executives use to identify employees' social relationships within an organization. This allows the organization to help its employees to build more social relationships as needed.

I recommend both of these articles to everyone since it is informative and easy-to-read.

Images:
Social Networking. Digital image. Web. 16 Jan. 2010. http://muktiweb.org/images/social-networking.jpg.

A Fresh Start

Hi all. It's Samantha. I am a sophomore-junior in American University's Kogod School of Business. I am currently a student in Professor Melander's ITEC 335: Social Networking, Social Media, and Web 2.0 course.

Academic Integrity Pledge: On my honor, all posts on this blog are my own.