Publishing your book

Can you imagine publishing your own novel for twenty dollars? Thanks to technology this is now possible. Many people have dreamed of publishing their own novels but never had the resources to do so. Now with the startup company Blurb your dreams can become a reality. You can now create a book with pictures and even sell it. All you have to do is pick out the formatting you would like and decide which pictures and how much text you want on each page. This is quite a laborious activity but once you are done it is quite exhiliarating. Once you have finished decided what you would like on each page you click the submit button and in a few weeks you will receive your book in the mail. You also have the option to sell your book online and you pick the price you would like to charge. This amazing service will completely change the whole publishing industry.

Now those authors who could only dream of having their books published can actually do so. This will completely change the competitive forces for the publishing industry. It will be very interesting to see what lies ahead.

Database Becomes User Friendly

It has been difficult in the past to use databases because in order for them to be user friendly programming skills are required, which most people do not have. Therefore, databases have not been used to their full potential until now. FileMaker, a part of Apple, Inc., developed the Bento to help overcome this problem. It enables users to manage small projects. Rather than having to use excel to tackle projects, Bento is now available. It is more suited for tackling projects than Microsoft Excel or Word, which is what most people use. This database will prove extremely helpful when planning events or when tackling work projects. It allows users to organize information to make it much more efficient. For instance, if you are planning a party and you want each person to bring a particular food item to the party you can use the Address Book library to select the people who will be coming. From there you can develop a collection that identifies which person is responsible for each item. This is done through iCal Tasks. Once you have done this you can choose different formats to display your collection. The different formats are a table, form view, or spreadsheet style. In addition, you can also add additional information from external sources and combine it with the collection you have created. This very useful database is only fifty dollars.

I believe this will be extremely beneficial to many people. This will help organize work for projects and tasks that managers must assign to employee. It is also useful for personal things like party planning. This database will be accepted by not just those in the workforce but those who want to use it for their personal life. I think this will completely change things and make organizing work more efficient.

Yahoo's integrated phone service

Yahoo has stated that it will be coming out with a new integrated phone service called oneConnect. This amazing service will enable integration among instant messaging, social networks (like facebook), and email. This technology will change many aspects of how we live our lives. We will instantly be able to check friends status' on facebook. Instead of having to be at your personal computer to instant message or check status' you will be able to do this walking down the street.

In some ways I wonder how good this will be for our society. Will our society become too dependent on always having to check status' on facebook whenever we want? What will be next? Will it turn into a viscous cycle in which we are constantly checking on updates? I have to wonder how good it is for us to always be available. I remember a time when we did not have cell phones. It was not necessary to be able to get in touch with someone in an instant. Now, people expect to reach someone whenever they need them. It used to be people would go out to dinner with friends and talk to each other. Now, you see friends eating dinner and everyone is on their cell phone. So, how good is this? Today, virtually everyone can be reached whether they are vacationing, shopping, or eating dinner.

Technology will continue to shape our society. We must learn to use it to its full potential but we also must make sure it is changing our lives for the better.

Strategy and the Internet

Today it is better for companies to wait and make sound decisions about how IT should impact its competitive structure. Many companies have rushed to implement IT to stay ahead of others and have found themselves in a trap: They must constantly continue to update their systems. Companies that do not use IT as a strategic advantage will find themselves only competing on price which will utimately prove devastating to them. As seen with the Internet, buyers possess high bargaining power when comparing companies over the Internet. In addition, switching costs are low which allows buyers to find the product that offers the best price assuming all products are similar in quality, performance, service, etc. However, a way in which companies can really help increase switching costs for buyers is by ensuring that they have a strategic initiative when it comes to IT. Rather than rushing to implement IT into their industry they should make sure that they get the right fit for the company. This will prove invaluable. If companies do not carefully consider how IT will affect their industry they will untimately end up with IT being used as a commodity rather than as a competitive advantage. This could have disastrous results for companies including going under.

Web Services

I thought that last weeks class lecture on web services was very interesting. The statement that we “don’t need coders instead we need application developers,” really made me think about how much the information technology industry is changing.

With the development of web services, information technology jobs will forever change. As the article,” Your Next IT Strategy,” stated CIO’s need to be negotiators and relationship managers. This means the command and control leadership style is fading. Just like the law department of a company, IT has always been viewed as a department that can possess control because others do not understand exactly what they do. This has led to IT having much control. However with this new strategy, I anticipate IT’s control to diminish. IT seems to be shifting away from its traditional role and in my opinion this will be beneficial. Other departments will have a better grasp as to what the IT department does. It will be easier to assess how well IT is performing and keep each aspect of the business in line. Therefore, I believe companies will benefit from this change.

IT Doesn't Matter

The discussion from class last week in regards to the article IT Doesn’t Matter brought up some very interesting points. One aspect of this article that stood out to me the most is that even if a company builds a proprietary system in regards to IT, it could easily be replaced. With the rapid advancements in technology, things are constantly changing. In effect, it creates a continuously evolving culture. Even if a company possesses a proprietary system one day, the very next day a new technology could come out that completely obliterates what the company has spent so much money creating. For example, AHS had a competitive advantage with its electronic ordering system, ASAP. However once personal computers and software arrived, AHS’s competitive advantage took a downturn. Therefore, I think it is crucial to be extremely cautious when spending large sums of money on new technological advancements. Companies should make sure they find the right technology for them. Rather than getting caught up in the whirlwind of technology, companies should make careful, cautious decisions and know that being the first to market is not always the best alternative. Sometimes it is better to wait and copy other applications, but with the intent on finding some missed opportunity in the market and making that application better than the competitor. Examples of companies that waited and were lucrative in making this decision are Dell and Wal Mart. Like Dr. Miller said in class last week, it is not the technology that always provides the competitive advantage it is the talent of the people who are innovative enough to come up with ways to improve technologies in order to keep up with current trends. Just because a company has created a fascinating new application that has helped it gain market share does not mean it can stop and just reap the benefits. This company needs talented people who are constantly thinking of ways to improve this application in order to maintain its competitive advantage.

Thus companies really need to think about their decisions when it comes to IT. They must make sure they make the right decisions for their company and they do not get caught up in keeping up with the Jones’. This will help reduce wasteful costs and make IT more valuable.

Developer Competency Questionnaire

1a)
I authored a Microsoft Word Document that was 30 pages. It was for a project and was not team-based.

1b)
I have used excel extensively for work projects. I have used such formulas as v-lookup, min/max, right/left, etc. I used excel both for team-based and individual work.

For personal use, I use excel for budgets, etc.

1c)
I have not developed a database system.

1d)
I did create a website when I took a computer science class in college. I took the computer science class more than 2 years ago though.

1e)
None in the past two years.

2a) 4

2b) 3

3a) 7

3b) 6

3c) 2

3d) 4

3e) JAVA - I took a computer science class in college and towards the end of the semester we started learning JAVA. I took the computer science class more than 2 years ago though.