Cupcakes and Organized Chaos...

In an attempt to get ideas about a first birthday party decor, I hopped on Flickr to see what I could find. My search returned some amazing pictures such as these cupcakes and farm cake. Just browsing through images of childrens parties gave me ideas such as making my own sesame street cupcakes and setting up an ice cream bar. Flickr came in good use when trying to see what options I had. But I also noticed the tags already associated with each picture. Some made sense but others not so much. For example, one tag was "mmf" for a cupcake. Now what is "mmf"? Maybe people should put a little more thought into tags? Just a thought. Digg is another Web 2.0 place to go to cehck out what hot and whats not. People can "digg" a site and when more people digg the site, it rises to the top of the page. So basically you can see what people are into that day. For people who enjoy baking cupcakes, cutlery, and other party ideas, I found an awesome blog. Its "http://cupcakesandcutlery.blogspot.com/" Check it out. Some of the images are amazing!

On another note, not know what RSS feeds really were, I did some searching and found the following. RSS can stand for Really Simple Syndication, Rich Site Summary, or RDF Site Summary based on who you ask. I like the first one. It’s basically a standard format for sharing content. The content can be news articles, podcasts, blogs, video links, etc. As you may be able to tell, I don’t subscribe to an RSS feeds (that I know of). But when thinking about RSS feeds, the question arises of how much information is too much. Not being a subscriber, I would guess that 5-8 feeds would be plenty but apparently people end up subscribing to as many as 50!!! What are people doing with that many feeds? I would not have time to actually read all of these. In general terms though, we definitely are at a time when mass amounts of information is loaded upon us everyday…there has to be a better way of managing it and taking in what we really need. I found some additional info about RSS but wont go into detail…I think someone in class is going to talk about RSS and I don’t want to step on his/her feet:)

Some cool sites

Some interesting web 2.0 sites I found:

http://www.scrapblog.com/: An online scrapbook site that allows users to post online, share with friends or even print them. Apparently, well-know designers of the scrapbooking world have provided templates that are available for purchase. (I did not know that scrapbooking world had well-known designers!!!) I do some scrapbooking but cant find the time recently...this may be a good option.

http://www.imbee.com/: A social networking site for kids and tweens. Its basically Facebook for kids but has a lot more privacy/security features so not anyone can see a kids information. This sounds a like a good place to start kids off on social networks since its highly restricted and not open to the public. My first thought was to suggest keeping kids off sites such as these but realizing that is not really possible, other than in my head, this seems like a good alterative.

http://letterpop.com/: Ok..this looks pretty cool. Its a site where you can create newsletters, photo collages, invitations, party invites, etc. To start, you can join with no fee but you get limited features like you can only upload about 25 pictures the first year. Which is not a lot at all..but if the templates come out nice...it may be something worth looking into. If you are a small business owner, this look like an easy way to do newsletters, ads, different marketing letters, etc. I think I may try this one out myself.

http://www.wayfaring.com/: Kind of a personalized google maps where you can create maps of your own with your own specifics and then share them with friends. So for example, if a friend is coming into town, you can mark the best places to stay, eat, and see a movie on the map so they can see where everything is. Kind of interesting.

http://www.webkinz.com/us_en/: Second life for kids? This is how it works: purchase a Ganz Webkinz or Lil'Kinz plush toy at your local retailer, or online; and then, use the code number that comes with the toy to enter the online world and play with your virtual pet. It looks kind of cute:)

http://www.clubpenguin.com/: This I thought deserves a mention just because its soooo cute!!! But the idea is the same, as second life but for kids. Downer here is that it costs money to join…nothing seems to be free.

Concepts About Web 2.0

To learn some more about Web 2.0, I visited http://oreilly.com/ to see what else I can find. There is a wealth of info on this site, so I started with one article. While reading an articale about web 2.0, the following was stated, "In fact, the value of the software is proportional to the scale and dynamism of the data it helps to manage." This statement speaks to the current shift towards data management and less of application management. The emphasis is even stronger these days on data and effective use and application of data is what more often determines a company’s success in today’s market. (http://www.oreilly.de/artikel/web20.html)The notion of reaching out to the tail and edge is discussed rather than focusing on the head. This addresses a point that with Web 1.0, the accepted notion was that a few websites would be the center of the internet and individuals would have to visit these sites. But now, the notion of every one person being a "server" ios becoming more of the norm. Where first a central database housed all the necesary data and thus individuals needed to access the database, now people can access eachother to attain whatever they are looking for. Thus the term a social network. Collective Intelligence is used to describe the success Web 2.0 is currently experiencing. One company that has used this concept and thrived on it is Flickr. More about this on a later date. This article additionally goes into programming concepts that are key to successful web 2.0 technologies. They are as follows: 1. Support lightweight programming models that allow for loosely coupled systems. - I am guessing this is due tot eh nature of no longer dealing with one centralized DB anymore. 2. Think syndication, not coordination. - The distribution of info is key, not the management of it at the end user. 3. Design for "hackability" and remixability. - OpenSource is the path to be on.One of the key concepts to understand was that Web 2.0 does not have a boundary but rather is more of a set of principles/characteristics which define it.

More on Facebook

So I did some research and found out some interesting things about Facebook. Facebook is defined as a social utility and was founded by former-Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg. Joining Facebook is free and connects people via internet email accounts. Facebook started as a project within the Harvard confines. It was originally only for Harvard students but its popularity gained momentum and its adoption spread quickly to high school/college students and beyond. These days I feel like everyone has an account. Facebook has evolved in recent years with the addition of new features to profiles so more information can be shared with users. A profile includes: Information, Status, Friends, Friends in Other networks, Photos, Notes, Groups, Chat, and The Wall.

The following are some surveys/study findings[1]:

In 2005, survey showed that approximately 80% of students in supported colleges had a Facebook account, with 60% logging in daily.
It was voted the most “in” thing after the iPod and tying with Beer.
90% of all undergraduates in the US use their accounts regularly
76.2% never click on ads

In my last class, we learned about the technology hype cycle. As defined by Gartner, a hype cycle is “a graphic representation of the maturity, adoption and business application of specific technologies.[2] “ There are various stages a given technology goes through such as technology trigger, peak of inflated expectations, and plateau of productivity. So my question is where on the hype cycle do you think Facebook is? I would imagine that it is currently climbing the curve to the peek of inflated expectations. The popularity of Facebook is still on the rise and as it continues to roll out enhanced and new features, it will continue to up the bar. Its visibility is turning the head of many companies who are trying to implement it within their business solutions. Thoughts?
[1] http://mashable.com/2006/08/25/facebook-profile/
[2] http://www.gartner.com/pages/story.php.id.8795.s.8.jsp

My new class...

I recently started a web 2.0 class in my MBA. This class looks to be very promising. To introduce everyone, the professor “googled” everyone and displayed their info on the projector. It was interesting to see how open we as a society are versus a decade ago. It was pointed out that as the new generation is adopting these new technologies, its very evident of their behavior and patters of interaction. I am unfamiliar with what exactly defines web 2.0 and hope this class expands my knowledge on the topic. Effective use of the technology will also aid in further business development options especially in our current economic situation where consumers are less enticed to spend the next dollar.

Just with the first class I have learned a lot. The cool thing is that I already know some of the Web 2.0 tools such as Facebook and Myspace. Myspace from my understanding used to be popular but is now being crushed by Facebook. I know a lot of people who have decided to move away from MySpace and migrate to Facebook. I joined Facebook last year sometime and actually like the tool (I am usually a little skeptical about such tools.) Privacy is always a big concern and this class will discuss this topic as well. Facebook allows you to create a network of friends, post pictures, join groups, “email” eachother, invite people to events, etc. Facebook does have security options where you can make your profile as public as you like or as private as you would like. This is good for us older people who like a little bit of privacy. Facebook is actually a good way to keep in touch when you are busy with work, school, family life etc. It can server as a central location instead of first sending email, then sending pics, and then creating event invites.