Reflect upon your experiences with electronic commerce (banking, Amazon, iTunes, etc) in light of these articles.

After reading all three articles, I felt like I was definitely not the only one who gets discouraged when trying to do purchases or ask questions online.  Although, I would rather do what I need to do online because it is more convenient, it can also be a huge hassel when the system gets clogged, or my answers do not get answered.  A key example of this is on credit card company websites like Capital One for instance.  CapitalOne.com is not as easily set up for me (as the consumer) as I thought.  About a week ago I was online and after about twenty minutes of searching for a way to cancel my account, I ended up having to call customer service which was a complete disaster. I was on hold more times than I can count and the representative ask me way too many questions and try over and over again to discourage me from cancelling.

I was most impressed with the Circuit city article because I did not know until I read it that Circuit City has their site set up similar to a MySpace in which customers and employees can interact and respond to one-another by posting to the site.  Circuit City has its own online community and it seems to be working for them because the customers are getting involved and our making suggestions on to how they can better their service.  I think this is what other companies should follow, especially banking and credit card companies.  They need to have an interactive site where customers can ask questions and company workers can instantly reply.  This seems much more efficient than using the telephone, but could also cause an overflow of people using it and not enough workers able to respond to this demand.

My advice and suggestions based off of my own peronal experience with online commerce is that companies should ONLY offer services that they can keep up with.  All too often there are computer errors, long wait times, or no response to emails that I send out.  This can be very discouraging!! 

Questions:

1.  Do you think having real life employees active online supporting / interacting with customers would be more helpful in serving their customers and promote their business?

2.  Do you agree with what Circuit City has done in developing a social website for its company or is this too much like a social service rather than a business?  Is it too much like Myspace, will people begin to meet and interact on this site for other reasons rather than just shopping?

How does Internet technology impact politics? Do you agree with the premise of these authors? Why or why not?

I do agree with the premise of these authors, especially Kath E. Gill’s article “The Race of the Website’s 2004″.  She makes great comparisons between the websites of Presidential Candidates Kerry and Bush and how their websites can either help guide voters or discourage voters accessing their site. 

Having a busy site like the Bush’s site according to Gill, can distract attention from what the voter is trying to find on the site.  Bush’s site was more top heavy, Kerry’s had more direct links to blogs, volunteer, center contribute, links that were easy to access and more pleasing to the western eye! I believe that the easier a political candidate’s website is to navigate the better position they are in and the more support that they will get from U.S. voters.  It is difficult when I search on a presedential candidate’s site, like Obama’s (most recent site that I visited) and it is hard to find exactly what I am looking for.  It makes me frustrated and wonder why it is not more user friendly and more pleasing to the voters needs.  I believe the most important things that I look for, which are very similar to Kathy E. Gill’s are:

1. Navigation and design of site: if it is easy to use and a clean website than I am much more interested in staying on and browsing through.

2. Consistency: search tools, standard left hand text, header, titles, etc. should all remain the same even when you click on something and it takes you to another page.

3. Computer compatibility:  Candidates should make sure that their site is compatible and can be downloaded on all types of computers, whether old or new and big or small.

4. Verbiage:  Whoever is designing the candidates site should make sure to use a universal language; for example, remember that you are speaking to the citizens of America not people in governmental positions. Or not just east coast or upper class. Know and understand the wide range of people that you want to gain support from.  Some people may not follow politics as well and need to be able to read and understand the website.

Furthermore, it wouldn’t hurt to allow voters to make comments on the politicians web blogs, giving citizens the freedom to speak and express their opinions online.  This is something that Kerry allows on his site, which gives voters authority to ad comments to Kerry’s blogs, something very appealing to some individuals. 

The technicality of a website is very important.  It needs to flow efficiently and smoothly in order to gain approval from its audience, who in this case are United States voters.  I feel that having digital media critics like Gill, helps to better improve future campaigns and presidential websites! 

What are the implications of blogging technology on established media? 

In the article “From Tom Paine to Blogs and Beyond” Dan Gillmor presents implications of blogging technology stating that it remains with you forever and the content can and will be heard worldwide.  He references the September 911 attacks and how many people across the nation were typing on their web blogs the day of the event, expressing their feeling of emotions form the attack.  These messages were discovered across the world and embedded into people’s lives forever. Blogs, a type of written journalism, is openly available for everyone to hear and judge or apply to ones own life!   Through this open source, people are able to find out instant information whether accurate or not and can obtain more information instantaneously from the internet through online blogging and online journalism.

NPR’s podcast is a great option for NPR lovers to have right in their hands wherever they go.  Since this 2005 article, NPR has done its research and is making the consumer happy, which is the best solution to this issue of Podcast’s.  Furthermore, getting the public radio information out to its audience without too much advertising in the way is also a plus.  In this article, all the implications for podcast appear to be good and favored by the public.  It is in high demand by the consumers and therefore would be an effective tool to have for the everyday busy person that wants to be able to turn to NPR at their leisure.  Shorter content for the listener will keep them engaged and adopting a philosophy along with the model will benefit both the radio station and audience members.  NPR is making content available by thinking smart and listening to what the consumer wants and needs for everyday convenience.

Questions:

Is Pod Casting the same as Blog TV?  How are they the same or different?

If Pod Cast is used for the Apple IPOD, is there another similar feature that works for MP3 players or black berry phones, etc.?

Do you think in the future of our ever so growing technological society, all small hand held devices will eventually have the option of pod casting or TV blogging?

Online markets have everything that the consumer needs and it is much more creative, fun and simply easier to use. 

People are discovering new ways to share information and it has become a more fun and innovative approach. 

The first article, The Cluetrain Manifesto, differs from the second article in that its main focus is on the market vs. the company.  How much better the market is than the company and how the company gets in the way of its employees and in the way of the market.  This article believes that the company is not needed. The second article talks about the market’s advantages mostly and not so much about the company, instead about a new economic model for the media and entertainment industries.  He talks about the Long Tail model.

This first article compares to the second article “The Long Tail” in that they both recognize the software market and how smart and interactive it is becoming with consumers.  People are making the internet smarter and faster than most companies. 

  In the reading “The Long Tail”, I found myself agreeing with Chris Anderson on his approach to the long tail.  He uses the Entertainment industry, which helps back up ideas presented in both the first and the second reading.  You can find everything you need on the internet: stuff on back catolog, older albums, Tower Recors, Barnes and Nobles, Amazon, etc.  Thousands of books and songs are on sale on the online market that are not even available on shelves in stores.   These online markets not only have almost every available item, is much cheaper according to Chris Anderson, but also you have online help.

A new exchange of knowlege is beginning to emerge. There are creations like pandora that gives you on the spot music when you want it and after listening to your favorite artist, you are able to listen to a list of other artist that are in the same genre that you probably have never even heard of, giving you new choices and ideas.  “Long Tail business can treat consumers as individuals, offering mass customization as an alternative to mass-market fare”.  Who wouldn’t want to be treated this way?

QUESTIONS

Doesn’t it make more sense to use these online markets to purchase items since you are guaranteed to find it online and not always guaranteed to find it in the actual company store?

Do you go out to rent videos or are you a consumer of Netflix?  Is there a reason why you are either one?  Convenience (netflix), don’t watch movies that often (blockbuster / other video stores)

Are there any downfalls to this online market?  It may be easy to browse and purchase items but what about receiving items (shipping)?