Group Presentation: Online Commnunities

For a group presentation in class, I was part of the group that presented various examples of online communities. Since I'm an avid user of social media, I decided to chose Twitter as the primary focus of my part of the presentation. I showed a video of the history of Twitter, the technology behind it and a quick example how the internet is powerful: #alexfromtarget.

Overall, I was intrigued at just how many online communities there are. Alec and Colin spoke about gaming, Jin spoke about Facebook, Ling spoke about WeChat and Juyong spoke about Online Shopping. These online communities all exemplify this virtual world we live in.

Extra Credit: Gamification & AI

I love my Nike Fuel Band. It keeps me motivated to get moving, specially on days that I just don't feel like working out. The idea behind this amazing piece of equipment is easy: you wear it everyday and it tracks your movement to produce statistics of your overall health and goals. Little did I know that this little piece of rubber I wear everyday is somewhat embedded on me. It's a little piece of artificial intelligence. What I head Professor Fry explain the reason behind this (I believe he used Fitbit as an example), it freaked me out a little. I am one of those who believe that eventually technology will outsmart humans. I grew up watching movies such as A.I., The Terminator and I, Robot. After watching those movies, it creeps me out to think that Cyborgs will soon take over the world. Hopefully I will not be living by then. Anyway, back to my Nike Fuel. I find it fascinating that it truly is a little piece of A.I. embedded on me.

Now, on a more business perspective, I've learned that my Nike Fuel band is used as a form of Gamification. What is gamification you ask? It's the application of typical elements of game playing to other areas of activities, and are used as online marketing technique that encourages engagement with a product or service. Most people do not know but we are using products and services solely to generate more profit for organizations! Is that just not ethical? Watch the video below to get an idea of what I mean:

What's interesting is that about half a billion people do not even know they're using it! Calling all Candy Crush addicts - you're one of the top groups that fall victim into this marketing technique. But no matter how much of this gamification is made known to society, people still use it. Like how I still use my Nike Fuel Band. It's my little piece of A.I. that is providing Nike my statistics for data they can use to generate new innovating ideas and so forth.

What is a community?

The word community can be interpreted into many things. It can be relatable to a neighborhood community, a town or church. Online communities are very similar; in that those who are part of online communities possess some sort of similar characteristics or interests. For instance, I am part of an online community related to health and fitness. Within that online community, people are able to share posts about exercise routines, healthy recipes and motivational stories and photos. Members join because the content appeal to them and the interaction they have with each other are of the same interests. Any idea can be evolved into something that creates a community and any person is able to create it.

Dot.Com to Dot.Bomb

I believe the title says it all. It must've been so exciting for new companies back then to envision their place on the world wide web. A place they thought would bring their creative idea out quicker into the world. A place that would soon bring them lots of profit. Similar to the extinction of the dinosaurs, the extinction of all those who heavily participated in the dot-com bubble quickly too became knocked out by a force that no one saw coming. Unfortunately, that's all what business is. The dot-com bubble sort of reminds me of Facebook's IPO failure. What we can learn from all of this is that although a value of a company seems exceptional, with a blink of an eye, things change and you may end up with nothing.

StartUp - A documented story of the Dot-Com bubble

As I watched the StartUp documentary, I was amazed at how a simple idea - govWorks.com - grew into something extraordinary in a short period of time. What was more extraordinary was how quickly govWorks.com failed. While the internet is something that is encrypted into our everyday lives, it's interesting to see just how a company, particularly a website, is produced.

I had mixed feelings of whether I agreed with the decisions Kaleil and Tom made. Nevertheless, I was rooting for them to overcome their adversities and achieve the successful company they had envisioned. But of course, happily ever afters happen mostly in fairy tales. I mean, I don't think Cinderella's fairy god mother would've had enough magic in her wand to turn things around for Tom and Kaleil. But enough about Disney fairy tales. With every success there is struggle. With the way the Dot-Com bubble turned out, it was obvious how govWorks.com would eventually end in tragedy. Okay, maybe tragedy is a word that over dramatizes the entire documentary. But that's exactly what the entire documentary was - drama. Drama between Tom and Kaleil, drama between their lawyers and even drama with their business partner, Chieg Cheung.

The most saddening, yet not surprising, aspect of the documentary is how the number of employees grew from 8 to over a hundred and back down to about 20 (I don't remember exact numbers). Again, as I said at the beginning of this blog, it's extraordinary to see how quickly the company fell apart. The idea of govWorks.com was something simple, yet, something different. With the amount technology has changed today, I wonder if govWorks.com would've been successful had they waited a few more years to create it. I guess we'll never know.

Teens React to 90s Internet.

(Video source: YouTube)

As a kid who grew up in the 90s, I laughed hysterically throughout this video. I remember seeing this video in the late 90s and everyone I knew - family, friends and classmates - thought it was both informative and exciting at the same time. It's interesting seeing how teens react to the video today and as I look back at this moment in time, I definitely am more appreciative of the technology we have today.

HTML Page Construction

I LOVED creating a web page using simple HTML. As a Junior last year at UWT, I took "Principles of Web Design" as one of my Communication course requirements. During that course, I learned how to use Dreamweaver and the basics of HTML and CSS. Interestingly, I did not know that I can create a simple HTML page using the TextEdit application on my MacBook. Because I had knowledge of HMTL and CSS prior to this assignment, it was easy for me to create this simple webpage. However, before I was a student in Principles of Web Design, I always felt a sense of frustration when I tried to create a webpage design for the very first time.

It's fascinating how far webpages and designs have grown. The design and concept of a webpage is essential when attempting to create a design that is successfully strong in communicating the information.