Social Networking Overkill?

Rumor has it that Facebook may be building a phone.  As we’ve talked about in class, Facebook must be feeling the pressure to expand deeper into the IT world. 

Let’s discuss some pros and cons from the article, “The Five Pros and Cons of a Facebook Phone.”

Pros:

·         Everything is already built – I think the author get this one right.  It is definitely true that we love to text rather than call.  This could definitely be the basis for the phone.

·         Social Feeds are Popular – Every phone nowadays has its own form of a social feed.  Why not take the biggest social network of them all and put it into a phone?

·         Facebook has Sex Appeal – Well that’s one way to put it.  I think what’s really going on with this pro is that Facebook is recognizable.  You can look at the format without any text and know exactly what you’re looking at.  It’s reached a level of brand recognition.

Cons:

·         Other Apps Shut Out – The article brings up a good point.  A phone needs apps, something more than just a social feed.  Is Facebook ready to give up that space to others?

·         Privacy Concerns – Facebook has had problems with privacy violations before.  What makes this time different especially if the phone can do a whole lot more than just socializing?

·         Facebook Will Surely Get Old and Tired – I’m already tired of Facebook!  I was on for maybe less than a year and that was that.  I guess I’m an active rejector.

Facebook is trying to open its doors to a new playing ground.  I guess we’ll just have to see how well it works.

Just ‘Tweeting’ Around

How many of you tweet?  I’ve looked into it before and I can’t really figure out what to do or how to do it.  There’s probably some really simple steps that I’m just looking over but in the meantime, I think I’m missing out on something big.

Jack Dorsey definitely knew what he was doing when he started this new fad.  He says he was lucky enough to “recognize a fortunate situation and take advantage of it.”  I think “lucky” might be an understatement.

Dorsey believes that due to the popularity of texting, tweeting was able to take off as users were used to talking in few words and abbreviations.  I’ve never thought of comparing the two but it makes sense. We like to get out as much as we can in as little time as possible.

One thing that didn’t go so well with this new social network was that Dorsey didn’t take the time to gather analytics or data on the system.  As we’ve seen from the past video article, everyone is competing on analytics.  This data helps to make better decisions and allows companies to reach their full potential.  While Mr. Dorsey may have “lucked” out on his product, I wonder what would have been done differently if he had taken a look into analytics on the forefront.  Maybe Twitter wouldn’t have needed a brand new site revamp?

Counterproductive Emails?

Cloud company salesforce.com has found that most sent emails are counterproductive. 70% of workers were sent emails that were irrelevant or of no interest. 38% said they suffered from information overload at work.
This actually doesn’t surprise me. Luckily, I don’t have many friends who send the anonymous chain email that says ‘forward along or you’ll have bad luck for the week’. I do think though that our generation is reaching a place of information overload.

Consider what our parents saw when driving through town as a kid, a billboard of a local establishment, a local dj on the radio, a basic streetlight. Now think about us, billboards that digitally change from one advertisement to the next in mere seconds, XM radio that cuts out commercials, a streetlight that takes a picture of traffic violators, and of course, something that always is next to me in the car, a cell phone.

The amount of technology that accumulates in our lives everyday is amazing. Now we have access to just about anything and everything on the internet. We can prepare a class presentation from a phone. We can video chat with someone on the other side of the world. At what point though, does it become too much? Where does the information stop?

Back to the email topic, I receive so many emails a day, it’s tough to keep track - emails about local events this week in Baton Rouge, easy-to-make recipes, shopping sales, business news and seminar alerts all before 10:30am. I’ve come to the realization that many of them have to be overlooked in order to actually start my day. I’m not sure I’d have it any other way though. Even though I might not open everything that appears in my inbox, I like knowing that I can if I want to. Maybe there is no such thing as too much or maybe we have to become our own filters of infromation?

Intel Inside

I think we all have seen the Intel commercials, “bum, bum bum bum bum”.  I remember about four years ago sitting in a mass communications class and hearing our teacher bring up the company Intel.  At first, no one really knew what it was until he sang those five words.  That year, we studied how Intel, which makes a product located inside PC’s, got its name out into the world.  The idea was that people would ask for computers with “Intel Inside” and it worked.

In reading the Bloomberg Businessweek article, “Intel Wants to Be Inside Everything”, I learned a few more things about Intel and its Atom processors.  As far as I knew, Intel created a chip that worked with computers.  As it turns out, that’s just the basis for it.  Who knew something so tiny could stretch to so many different products? 

With the PC market slowing down, Intel is now looking to “get inside” other things.  Nautilus puts Intel’s Atom chip into its treadmills to stream Internet video and upload the times and distances of workouts.  LG Electronics is using the Atom chips in street signs that will recognize the age, gender, etc. of those who pass by and change the advertising pitch accordingly.  These chips are also making their way across the world.  India banks use them as handheld terminals to serve rural areas without electricity.

Intel is also making it easier for customers to design products that use Atom processors.  In 2009, Intel purchased Wind River systems, a company that designs operating systems for cars, mobile phones and industrial machinery.  These operating systems “are the basic set of programs that control any device with a chip.”  Now, Intel can get into more than just our computers. 

Watch out!  Intel could just be inside your next purchase. 

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_37/b4194029898101.htm