Introduction to Management Information Systems Chapter 00 Weblog HTM 304 Spring 06

2 Exercise Read the material “Wikipedia - Blog” and answer the following questions 1. What does the word “blog” stand for? 2. What is a “vlog”? Is it a type of blog? 3. List several popular blog sites. 4. List several subjects people usually blog about. 5. Why blogs gain popularities in the new Internet age? 6. Can blogs be written by a mobile phone? What is it called? Write the answer on a piece of paper for turning in

3 Who blog? What do they blog? 8% of Internet users (about 12 million American adults) keep a blog 39% of Internet users (about 57 million American adults) read blogs Blogging population: young, evenly split between women and men, racially diverse Preliminary topic of blogging Other topics include: a specific hobby, health, opinions, volunteering, education, photography, causes and passion, organizations, … After Class Reading: Pew Internet Report of Blog

4 Growth and business opportunities MySpace.com is reported in July, 2006 to be the most visited website, more than the old Internet Giants Google, MSN, and Yahoo Google and Microsoft are fighting for the blog search engine business with MySpace.com What is blog search egning? Where to collect the money? Ads? Click-through donations? Professional writers paid by journalisms? More yet to be discovered. Discussion: As a web-based method, how Click-through donation can better perform compared to the traditional paid by word method? Discussion: As a web-based method, how Click-through donation can better perform compared to the traditional paid by word method? After Class Reading: Blogging for Dollars

5 Corporate Internal Blogging Read the HBR case and answer the following questions: 1. What are the technology requirements for a blog user? 2. What are some important aspects of blogs on political events? 3. What does RSS stand for? Explain. 4. Do employees in IT companies use blogsphere only to discuss issues about technologies? 5. Do companies normally let their employees to blog about any thing? 6. What is DrKW’s strategy in competing w/ larger rivals? 7. Why is collaboration & information sharing important for Investment Banks in the new Internet era? 8. Is IT support important for Investment Banks? Describe their job. 9. What do internal blogshpere do for DrKW? 10. How did Stuart Berwick, head of IT research, summarize the reasons why blogging is useful to DrKW? Reading Material: Blogs at DrKW (HBS-case)

6 Blog Can Get You a Job? (to be continued) After Class Reading Material: Blog into a job

7 Ethic Issues People being punished by saying things inappropriate (e.g. Mark Cuban) Mis-information (reading: Polluting the Blogsphere) Bad information: Pornography Parental Control – who should be responsible for kids meeting dangerous people online? Plagiarism (reading material) Beyond ethic: bloggers in jail Think Life

8 Lab: Register and Post Step 1: the professor your address Step 2: you will receive an invitation from the blogger.com  click the link to complete registration

9 Register Step 3: You are directed to the site asking you to register. If you already has an account from blogger.com, you can log in If not, you need to register a google account

10 Create a Google Account Fill in your information the you received invitation Select a password and confirm password Choose a Screen name (your nick name online) Word Verification & Terms Acceptances

11 Ready to blog If you succeed the above steps, you are directed to the dashboard. You can post now.

12 Compose Article and Publish

13 A Blog Site Entries Users’ entry: Start from Log in to get to the dashboard for editing Visitors’ entry Start from the page link: fall2007.blogspot.com/ fall2007.blogspot.com/

14 Technology requirements For a blogger A computer w/ Internet Access For a blogsite Hardware Servers, large storage space, Broadband equipments, etc. Software Key: Internet Forum software supporting “threads” Web programming software, such as XML Software that supports other features: video streaming, photo uploading, etc. Networking Internet is the key for the wide spread of blog Some moblog needs telephone networking support Think: Based on the technologies that support blogsite, What is the difference of a blogsite compared to an online storage site?

15 Lab Assignment Internet Research on Blog related issues You would get many Select some article that interests you the most, post it on the site: Briefly describe the issue Add your own comment: Why interesting? What will be the impact on you, others, or the whole society? What can be your response?