Vertsol Reader By Andrew Tan

A Vertical Market Solutions For Retail Reader

B y: A n d r e w C . T a n This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Philippines License.

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Table of Contents Chapters

Page

I.

Preface

3

II.

Dedication

4

III.

Cluetrain Manifesto

5

IV .

95 thesis

18

V.

Web 2.0 Heroes: Interviews with 20 Web 2.0 Influencers

67

V I.

Executive’s Guide to E-business: From Tactics to Strategy

108

V II.

The Long Tail

113

V III.

System Proposal

116

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Preface Dear Reader: If you are currently reading this right now, then you have bought yourself one of the greatest soon to be popular books on the web, seriously. No not really, but its something like that. This very first book of mine is all about vertical market solutions and or about ERetailing. With a compilation of 4 books and 95 thesis, this packs quite a nose bleeding book, but do not worry so much, I too do not like such complicated matters and has given my best effort to simplify a couple of stuff. Well, I’m not going to bore you out of your eyes, for now. This whole book, it’s the culmination of my three months of hard work just for this one class I have at college. Though I do not regret creating this book, making this right now was quite an exciting thing for me. Please do enjoy my work, there are some parts that may seem to be confusing, but that is just how it is, or rather how my comprehension was to it. Well, I have now personally run out of any more things to say, so please do enjoy my book. Thank you for reading my book.

Andrew C. Tan -3-

Dedication I would like to dedicate this book to my parents, for the ones who provided me with the education and made me study here at De La Salle College of Saint Benilde. I would also like to dedicate this book to my friends at that said school. I would like to thank God as well for giving me life as well, If I weren’t born at all, who knows what I could possibly turn out to be. I would like to dedicate this to our college professors as well, mainly Sir Eisen Lewis Sy, for being our programming professor. Sir Oliver Liwanag, our project management professor, and a good friend outside the classroom. And our vertical market solutions professor, Sir Paul “The Pageman” Pajo, for inspiring us to create this book in the first place. Last but not the least, I would like to dedicate this to my friends at my guild “Outer Heaven” for being good company during these late nights.

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The Cluetrain Manifesto: The end of Business as usual Book review

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Chapter one Quote: “In this new place, every product you can name, from fashion to office supplies, can be discussed, argued over, researched, and bought as part of a vast conversation among the people interested in it.” – Cluetrain Manifesto

Learning expectations: I expect to learn the most parts of the remaining chapters that I am about to do now.

Review: st

The 1 chapter on this book talks about how short life is. Or rather how the world works in such a way that it can probably drive you insane or kill you in the process. But it’s not all about how short a human’s life is. It’s about business, or advertising business. One of them is the internet. st The internet, at 1 no one really thought of it as a source of market, but that was in the old days in mid 1990’s. Now the internet has become a widely used item for business whether marketing or advertising. Anyone can use it but not everyone can use it correctly. The internet is a source where people could talk ideas to one another and around the world. But it has also become a place where people would fight over one another over things. Such matters of it now are called “Flaming”, those who pick a fight over there beliefs on the matter. Like a debate. Only it involves degrading of the person talking to like, Harassment, and racism. “This may seem rabidly antibusiness. It's not. Business is just a word for buying and selling things.” –From Ancient markets to Global networks, cluetrain manifesto. Yahoo is one of the more famous internet sites that have made a great reputation because of the internet. And is most likely the most used site today. The internet was just like television in the old days. Maybe the only factor differencing the internet to the TV is that the internet is interactive. If I were to watch a show on the net while someone else is also watching it we could talk about scenes from it directly. Maybe it’s so effective because it cost less business wise. A businessman can save a whole lot from resources, transportation and efficient access to it. The market has certainly evolved from its early times. Market used to be only something merchants do, traveling across nations to trade items and such. Now the internet has made it virtually possible for anyone to do business, for either buying or selling goods. One such website is “shopify”. Concurrent Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Total Quality Management. These three are the most effective way on obtaining knowledge on something. There was something about a “panopticon” thing as well. Further research on the word and its definition is. Something about people being able to watch or observe prisoners (?) but they cannot see there observers. But over the years, the mass media has changed all of this. A good example of this panopticon may be the TV. It closely resembles it in some way. Like we being able to watch what is in it yet they cannot see us. Now since the invention of the internet a lot of people can now get together and talk about anything. Large companies know this and somehow fear it. because anyone can talk about them at any given time.

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“See how easy life can be when you loosen up a little? You laugh, we laugh with you. Either way, we live.” -Cluetrain Manifesto. Chapter 1 Lessons Learned: I learned a couple of stuff. But mainly things that are relevant to the current market today, as well as how to make use of the current internet technology today to your own advantage.

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Chapter Two Quote: “In this new place, every product you can name, from fashion to office supplies, can be discussed, argued over, researched, and bought as part of a vast conversation among the people interested in it.” – Cluetrain Manifesto Learning expectations: I expect to learn a couple of important stuff inside this chapter Review: Chapter 2 talks about the web. And what good is it for. Some would say we can manage a business with it, like learning something from a past experience by someone. With that I could learn how to avoid such things, to further improve my business, like avoiding risks and such. Though it doesn’t really mean I will be free from such risks. It would only lessen its chances by maybe a few percent. But it’s better than nothing. This chapter also talks about how we should “act” in business in a professional manner. How the web will be something I as a worker may come to hate in the future, will never know. We may not know what the web is for now but we use it like money everyday. And it’s become quite a necessity in our daily lives, whether for business or leisure. Managing a business is quite simple in its own sense. But chapter 2 takes it to another level. It also manages you’re life and how to manage it efficiently as well. There are tremendous benefits in managing our world. But strangely enough we cannot actually manage business itself, its like business exist in a world totally different from ours. “As flies to wanton boys are companies to their markets. They pull off a company’s wings for sport.” -Cluetrain manifesto, chapter 2. This quote doesn’t really make much sense to me. But it may have a sense of purpose in its own way. The most important fact to manage a business is our voice. Though crazy as it may seem. It is. But it may be true because our voice is the most strongest and direct expression of ourselves. What we are, our character, and poise. The web has a lot of features and is very useful in our business, and management. Basically we can do almost everything we need in the internet. It may be web based but it is still a growing community, a real community. Our voice on that community is a vital aspect to it as well. “The memo is dead. Long live e-mail.” –The longing, cluetrain manifesto.

Lessons learned: if you can’t cope with the internet, you can’t cope with technology. Learning these things could prove to be of some great importance as well, without these kinds of things, you will not be able to progress in business.

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Chapter Three Quote: “In this new place, every product you can name, from fashion to office supplies, can be discussed, argued over, researched, and bought as part of a vast conversation among the people interested in it.” – Cluetrain Manifesto Learning expectations: I expect to learn the most parts of the remaining chapters that I am about to do now. Review: rd

st

The 3 chapter of this book talks about pots at 1 . something about experienced potters and st describing their crafts. I at 1 had absolutely no idea what this meant at all. Later on this pottery thing can also be related to software and stuff. Being a craftsman but on a different type of level. And this is an important factor in business and in the web as well. Chapter 3 also talks about some important web facts like the e-mail or mailing list. E-mail is just like receiving a letter. Only it’s an instant message and is electronic. The mailing list a little bit trickier than E-mail but has almost the same features from the E-mail. News groups are like mailing list in a way as well. But its messages are stored at a “server” something like a forum maybe? Chatting is probably the most popular form of communication to date. It’s easy to use. And pretty much anyone can use it. Hell even I am chatting right now as I’m doing this. But chatting gets a bad reputation for making the conversations “unprofessional” in its own sense. The worse case is sometimes chatting will lead to other topics and not business witch is supposed to be its purpose in some business related tasks. Web pages are simply just blogs of people. Like wordpress or myspace. It shows what that person is doing, the persons expressions on a topic. Etc. All this type of communication is good in its own way. Already information has reached millions of people because of it, truly an advancement Whether it’s talking about a company to employees talking to a customer. But they cannot stop someone from talking about them as well. The only thing maybe is to try to talk to the person earlier. A company can’t own loyalty. It must be earned. Earning it is easy. All you have to do is talk, talk to you’re people, or customer. Silence will lead you nowhere. “People talk to each other. In open, straightforward conversations. Inside and outside organizations. The inside and outside conversations are connecting. We have no choice but to participate in them.” - wired conversation, Cluetrain manifesto The internet has gone a long way to where it’s at today. We can do a lot on it, business wise or just personal leisure. Lessons Learned: markets are conversations. That is the truth. Conversations alone will not lead you to any good material, you have to use it with some originality as well, especially if you want to get your name known by the public.

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Chapter Four Quote: “In this new place, every product you can name, from fashion to office supplies, can be discussed, argued over, researched, and bought as part of a vast conversation among the people interested in it.” – Cluetrain Manifesto Learning expectations: I expect to learn the most parts of the remaining chapters that I am about to do now. Review: Chapter 4 talks about the market. What it was in the old days. Market was market, and nothing else. Markets were filled with people and conversations between them. Some conversations were about goods or some might have been just talk about everyday things. For years this was what market was. Conversations between people that share the same interest, the same hobbies maybe. People spoke directly to each other. Buyers would try to convince those who are interested in their products. Markets ARE conversations. But it doesn’t mean it is just pure noise and nonsense. “Conversation is a profound act of humanity. So once were markets.” – Cluetrain manifesto Then the industrial era came. The industrial age actually improved the industry, or market. The industry was able to produce products more efficiently and cost effective. The management approach and economies of scale was used in every corner of the industry. But because of it the real purpose of market disappeared, and was replaced with substitutes. A man once said that the rise of the industry created an “invisible wedge” between the 2 important aspects of market, the production and consumption. Production was increased ten folds just to sell them. There was no more quality in each of the product. If people were to make pots in the old days none of them would look the same. The industry changed that, they minimized the difference in anything, to maximize efficiency. Now if you were to buy an ordinary pot for example, there are a dozen more look a likes in another place, being sold as well. Now the customers became consumers. An industry analyst, Jerry Michalski, described the term consumer as. “a gullet whose only purpose in life is to gulp products and crap cash.” the rise of mass communication also enhanced the industry’s ability to address an even wider market. Because of larger markets, the benefits also increased in size. But the shipping of the materials was another factor to comprehend. To satisfy the potential market, a transportation system was developed. These transportation systems greatly eased the global system. Now anything could be transported anywhere across the world, wherever there is a potential buyer. It was the most efficient thing one could manage. Marketing is ready to ship and send the message to everyone. But there was one downside to this. People do not want to receive the message. And why must they? It doesn’t involve them in any way. To them its worse than noise. And thus the realization of market came to be. It broadcasted messages to everyone, people who don’t want to listen. “Marketing department is colored by the fact that it’s going to a public that doesn’t ask to hear it.” – Cluetrain manifesto of course marketers already knew about this, and devised something new to the message. So people would still receive the marketer’s message without actually knowing it. They disguised it as entertainment, commercials, plays, movies, anything that has to do with entertainment. They put it in them. But even if market has become more complex, it never eludes the mind of the human. People can still see it. all the nonsense about the message behind all of that. For the ordinary man, he knows. He knows that the market is always trying to get him, to buy there products, even if it’s not really important. That’s how market works. It grinds our mind, making us think that we need some product. Ironically this is what makes the world tick. We as a worker are the ones partially responsible for the marketer’s messages. Yet we as a consumer try to evade it. its like a double edge.

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The world silently turns as this goes on and about. Its like something sharp that’s lodged in your head, like the said axe in this chapter. But there is a force strong enough to take that thing out of our heads. There was one TV spokesperson who managed to do such a feet. But he became crazy just to do so. But the silent market, the industrial era was close to finishing its life. When the internet came, market became more and more natural, its like the real purpose of the market came back to us, and conversations made it possible. Market wanted to talk again, like in those old days.

The internet is like a market, online. We can buy virtually anything found in it. from books to parts for a car. The internet became like a place, we could talk to one another again, learn from experience, and all the things that made market what it was. In this new place, anything you can think of can be a topic for discussion, from something of great importance, to some environmentally friendly batteries. These conversations were usually about a something a certain someone wants to buy. Before buying something, he/she checks the net to see if its worth it. what are other peoples comments about it? and such. “The Net invites your customers in to talk, to laugh with each other, and to learn from each other. Connected, they reclaim their voice in the market, but this time with more reach and wider influence than ever.” – Chapter 4, cluetrain manifesto In a nutshell, the internet became a new type of market. but they are not waiting for some new message to arrive. It is not a passive state. The market was originally a place where one could talk business with one another. But as the distance between the producer and consumer became longer, so did our senses of what’s right and wrong. Market became a profession, one that must be learned to be successful in life. Marketing is not some thing that will go away, it doesn’t have to. But it does need to evolve to cope up with the changing times. Lessons Learned: From what I have learned, market came a long way since its birth. And it certainly isn’t stopping now. As our lifestyle evolves, so does it. The only thing that needs to change in it is maybe its approach. But we as a consumer also need to do something about it as well. Marketers do not dictate what we need or don’t need. It is up to us on what we buy. It just requires some thinking.

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Chapter Five

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Quote: “Somewhere along the line, we confused going to work with building a fort.” cluetrain manifesto, chapter 5

Learning expectations: I’m not really sure what to expect from this chapter, but maybe the continuation of the previous. Review: Business.. It’s completely different from what it was yesterday to what it is now. In those days you must have self confidence in yourself to get you somewhere. It makes people take you seriously. But there is an alternative. Being funny can go a long way as well. And why shouldn’t it? Laughter is an essential part in being a human. Without it, you will be something like a robot, with no emotions. People are becoming more human now. The web is like a string of connections in and out of your company. The web has given the people inside or outside the organization easy access to one another, or even information. The web has not only given information to the people, people can also write on the web. Post about things they like, or commenting to a certain product. They can express literally anything they like. In short, the web has wired almost everyone to the information. But its should be in a way humans can comprehend. Because of such things people can do more, and a business can earn more. But these are only on of the expectations a business will see. Like while a business is doing one thing, it might accomplish something of total opposite. But its not like it’s a problem, its not some trivial matter to think about during in your sleep. All we need is a picture, of the basics. As my quote that I have put on this page, people might have confused going to work with building a fort. Building forts is something kids would do, but what exactly does that term mean? In a business sense, a fort is something like an alternate world, where you work for 12 hours, with no contact on the outside. Within that world you work in, the web has become something like a medium, something to publish information, and to make more sales. But the web is not like that, its not something were you can buy or sell or publish some new product. It’s a place where people meet up with one another, to talk, and have fun. The world of the web is bigger than that of the business world. Whether they know it, I don’t know. And thus hyperlinks subvert hierarchy, though it may seem insignificant. Big businesses are being challenged by a thing called a hyperlink. How? This little thing represents something like a small piece to a much bigger picture. Business may be legal entities, but the real business is somewhere else, its within the people and there connections with one another. Modern business have a specific type of hierarchy, it always has and always will be. There are 2 types of this, the upper and the bottom. Common sense is those who are higher up have the higher power, but as the ladder goes up the width decreases, making the positioning of power clear to anyone. But the internet is not easily predictable by any one man. It’s a vast array of information, where anyone can access. Its potential connection is vast, and hyperlinks are connections made by real individuals based on what they know, what information they have.

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Almost anything can subvert hierarchies, from conversations to hyperlinks. The internet is an important business aspect that must be taken care of, internet can make things a lot easier. And decrease a huge sum of paper work. But just doing that will get you nowhere, there is something else that must be done. While you, as a company have designed a website, with proper distribution on power to who manages it. Your employees might create sites or blogs of there own. Personal use. No one can control them, its there’s to do what they want with it. No one can make sure of anything by just creating a site for your company. Turns out, the web has its own definition or system on what a organization is. So if you want to look at an organization, all you have to do is look at the web. There are 7 basic themes a web has. These are, Hyperlinked, Decentralized, Hyper Time, Open Direct Access, Rich Data, Broken, and borderless. With these 7 characteristics, the web will come to change your business. Hyperlinks are not something we can do anything about it. if you have a business, then sure enough there is a hyperlink somewhere on the web about it. But hyperlinks are a good thing for a business. it gets you closer to your customers, to the market. It enables you to act faster than usual. No one is asking you to do business on the web; the internet has already done all those things for you. Its up to you to meet with those expectations. The web is a sum of all of its connections, it isn’t a medium, or one of them hand radios. It’s a broad, open area where everyone can touch everyone else, and touch every information there is. What connects us to everyone else is the internet, e-mails, chats, blogs. Voices are heard in conversations, that’s why its so important for a business. without it, it will most likely fall in a matter of days. The web is hitting the business like a whirlwind. “The character of business is becoming the same as the character of the Web -- an explosion reconfigured by the intersection of hearts.” – cluetrain manifesto chapter 5 Lessons Learned: From what I have learned from this chapter, business constantly needs to evolve in order to cope with the times. But not only does business need to evolve, so does the people working in it. The web can be 2 things to a business. it can be your friend, or your worst enemy. It depends on the people I guess. But one thing is certain. The web is here and its not going to change what it is now.

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Chapter Six Quote: “Literature is the question minus the answer.” – Roland Barthes Learning Expectations : on chapter 6 I might expect to learn about everything in it, about “EZ answers” whatever that is. And I expect to learn a couple of things that might continue the things on chapter 5. Review: Markets have been conversations. It always was and always will be. From the time they discovered that the world was not actually flat to the present. The trade routes became longer, and it reached the whole world. Such was the trading game. But back then what you made is what you speak. Its like that pottery thing all over again. (Refer to chapter 4) Until it gradually changed into something else, producers gradually lost contact with the consumers, until it totally disappeared in time. During the industrial revolution, producers replaced some workload that normally, we as workers would do and replaced it with mechanized equipment. In short, less employees mean less wages. And because of this, they saw it as a th good way to make more money, around the 20 century. This was improved in a much greater way, in the business sense. They decided to turn humans into machines as well. The workers were only told what to do and nothing else, it’s like a robot factory. Mass marketing led to mass production, and now it has led to mass media. Around this time the invention of spam or junk mail was born as well. The global market has significantly benefited from mass production. Making anything you need virtually possible. You want a car that suits you? Sure! We can make it. that’s how they thought in a way. But to expand these never ending things, new information is needed. The management may have improved on how to order people to do such things, they never really learned how things got made. Like there products I assume. Eventually, companies finally knew that there employees knew more about things than they are actually doing. Maybe because all the employees were only told to do there work and shut up, which may have been a bad move for those companies. Thus crafting was revived, again, and a re-evaluation of communication. “Lead, follow, or get out of the way.” –Cluetrain manifesto, chapter 6. Conversations were now encouraged in the workplace, ideas, everything that can help the company. Because it will help the company in a significant way, like a clue on what to do. Quality was what everyone wants, and uniqueness. While speech was actively encouraged for workers, it is still an unknown concept for those of the customers. most corporations perceived this as a end of the world for them, if things like that were to reach there customers. then of course there is the internet, because of this. Chaos engulfed everyone. The net made it possible for anyone to look for something they want, like something that fits them better than what they have locally. It gave the consumer a much wider choice of products. The internet in its own natural way, encourages freedom of speech. The human voice is a powerful thing, both as a medium and in the markets. But because of the coming of the internet, the industrial has come to the end of its life, which in my opinion is good. The command and control function of any business has ceased to exist, yet there are those who still maintain the old ways. Then again, inertia is a powerful force to be dealing with. Though the internet has brought many evolutions, there are some corporations that still cling to the old ways. In its never ending mission to control employees and continuous spamming of messages. Because of the internet, not only are employees talking with themselves, so is the market. these things are not only needed, but it is inevitable. Market is becoming more and more powerful. If organizations wish to keep up with the times, they must engage in these conversations. Or go bankrupt. Business can still cope with this change, all they have to do is look for the right people within them. There are bound to be at least one or two in a company. The web can either be a good thing of a bad thing for a business, depending on what they value the most, freedom to speak or themselves.

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Asking questions is also a part of conversations, whether it’s nonsense, or something of grave importance, is totally up to the people. I am not the one asking the questions, right? Sometimes asking questions are actually just for talk, when deep in our hearts, we are thinking of something entirely different. “the proper answer to a heartfelt question is a conversation, and conversations make the world.” -Cluetrain Manifesto, chapter 6

Asking questions isn’t all the bad, sometimes its just there so that maybe someone will answer them. Like things on how to cope with the ever changing times. Easy advice is hard to come by. Once it passes you, it might never come back. Some may not actually suit your business, but then again there are a lot more of advice you can see on the internet. But what is important is what of those things suit you the most? Things like that have to come from you, eventually you will know it, I guess. Hell the web was built that way, don’t wait for things to come your way, make it happen. Lessons Learned: From what I have learned in chapter 6, a lot of things can come in your way. What was a working thing in your business might not be suitable anymore in the next ten years. Change is needed in anything. Change is important, in order to keep up with the times. There may be not much you can do as a single person. That’s why talking and having conversations are always good things to do. Conversations are key factors for a business to survive now. Without it, you can be sure it will go down in a matter of days.

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Chapter Seven

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Quote: “What do I know of man's destiny? I could tell you more about radishes.” Samuel Beckett Learning Expectation: being the last chapter of this book. I expect to learn the last few bits of information that I can possibly absorb. Review: Post Apocalypso. What does it tell us? I don’t know, its certainly not telling about the end of the world that’s for sure. But it is saying something. Irony, the internet did not certainly create it, but it came just around the same time irony did, most people would never want to hear any other voices other than there own, why would they listen to the big companies, the media, And the propaganda? What’s the solution? Nothing, its already on going as we speak, I think. in a way, ignorance is bliss. Ignorance is a pretty simple thing, you ignore someone they ignore you back. That’s just how it goes. But in its own way, ignorance is also power. how? The internet is a fin example to date. Since they never paid any attention to its growth, and what it would come to be. Now the internet has become so large it threatens the very foundation of business. people, since the old days have only enjoyed being invisible to the world. but when the internet came around, that suddenly changed, a lot. Everyone was finally connected through the net. Everyone can talk about things. And the best thing about it, you will certainly not get caught for saying anything in the net. Unless maybe its something that could terrorize the earth or something. Other than that. Its cool. But is there a point in any of the things inside the net? Some of the business thinks so. Something about the net being not “organized” and such. But that is the beauty of the net today, there is nothing that supposed to be planned in it. the only thing the net was supposed to do is provide communication around the world. interaction, chatting and stuff. Then again the net isn’t really only for chatting. Its also a place of market. people talking to each other again. like the old days, like the ones the previous chapters were saying. It can organize market in the net. For example, you want to buy a cell phone, a specific cell phone. Search a little thing in the net, there we go someone is selling it, IN JAPAN. That’s how internet works. It connects you to anyone in the world. Now if you were to think that nothing is happening in the world, then think again. its happening right under our noses, or screen. “Stereotyping is a bitch, ain't it? Clichés are so comfortable and easy. Business is fat-cat moguls meeting in posh boardrooms atop steel-and-glass towers high above the jostling masses in the street. Stereotypes usually have some basis in reality, but they're lousy tools with which to frame critical judgments. More often than not, business happens in the streets, not above them. And so do revolutions.” -ClueTrain Manifesto chapter 7 There is another part on this chapter as well. Titled “Demonic Paradox” I cannot fully comprehend what it is trying to say. But its saying something like, even if there would be a revolution underway, no one seems to know about it, or would want to believe about it, which is sad.

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But what is this part all about? I cannot really fully comprehend what it is trying to say. The last thing I read about this part is something about how we work ourselves to the bone on these “jobs” which all of us are unfortunately going to do in the future. Why would one want to continue on these jobs? Simple, to live. It’s all about the money. During these times, a lot of human things disappeared on man. Like talking, emotions. They have seemingly become mindless working machines. Workers were told nothing and just do there job. Kind of like what some of the previous chapters were talking about. The last part of this book doesn’t really talk more about business and such, just human aspects, which for me is the nicest part. Not because it’s the last chapter. always remember to try and speak in a human voice, this is the one thing corporations will never teach you, nor give a damn about it. since the invention of the internet. The voice is slowly coming back to us, the people. But that does not mean the era of corporations has drawn its last breath. Certainly not, all they have to do to survive is to adapt. Adapt to the new market environment. That ends the whole book, or at least my understanding of the book. It was quite a ride, but unfortunately this ride is still not finished.

Lessons learned: People work just to earn money is no better than like a robot doing what it is programmed to do.

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The 95 thesis Reflections

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1.

“Markets are Conversations.” From what my understanding from this quote is. Markets are conversations. It pretty much says it all in those 3 words. People in the corporate world know this all too well. For a company to succeed in business, they must learn to understand the market. Learn what is in and what is not, what is in demand, and what is not. If there is no conversation going on, it would most likely lead to an impending doom for that company. Conversations is key for a business success, is what I’m saying in general. As to why it’s important, there are a couple of pages in the book that discusses this. Like during the old days, people would meet up and talks about things. And trade goods. With it one can be updated on the current events in the time. That’s why media has grown to be such a giant it has become today. A person can control the market if they are well up to date on the goings of market. As for me, I’m not sure if it’s going to be of any relevance to me yet. Maybe in future reference I may, when I become someone in some large corporation. Markets do make the world go round. It’s what keeps the money flowing. To understand business one must get to know their customers. That’s the key in success for a business. For me market is everything for a business. It can make or break it. Streamline something, or make it go bankrupt, It is just how the business rolls.

2. “Markets Consists of human beings, not demographic sectors.” - As what the quote says, humans are the ones controlling the market after all. It may mean 2 things. It may mean about export and import of goods, international trade and such. Business people must know what is in demand on those other countries as well. What may be in demand in one country may not be that hot in another country, thus the quote “not demographic sectors”. People on other demographic areas are also people as well. And where people are, business is sure to follow. Again to understand the business, one must learn about the people, there culture, way of living, what they need. Those are important aspects in conducting a business transaction. People should not judge others based on demographic sectors. Its discrimination and not a good business practice. To ensure the best profit, or to maximize profit. One must look at all of the applicable regions. Also to know the people of those other regions can help a lot for a business. What may be acceptable in our country’s may be taken as an insult or degrading to them. If they are insulted by that product not only will they be mad. They may cut all business ties with you’re company. For me, conversing with people from different countries is important, very important as well. Why? It can ensure future business plans, profits or revenue. Everyone wants to make money. It is no secret, but how to obtain it. is something entirely different. In some cases, close ties to other nations may lead to that success

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3.

“Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice” - For me this could only mean that conversations between two persons sound like they are actually talking! Of course they are conducted in a voice humans understand. Who in the right mind would talk to someone who will reply with something like “Roar” or “meow”. For business to be conducted the 2 parties must understand each other. It’s the rule for the market I guess. Or this may also relate to being sounding like a human being when talking. Like trying not harass the other party with racist or threatening remarks, that would most like discouraged that party to ever make a deal with you ever again. That is not a business type that anyone will want. For a good deal to happen both parties must talk in a sense they can both understand. And not just be one sided in the whole process. That is a good business practice. To ensure both the profit for the company and the satisfaction of the customer. Conversations will be of great importance to a businesses success in the long run. It is important for it and will always be. Without it a business will crumble in a matter of days. It’s really just that simple. The human voice is a powerful thing to use. If there is no conversation going on, it would most likely lead to an impending doom for that company.

4.

“Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives, dissenting arguments or humorous aside, The human voice is typically open, uncontrived.” st

- The1 thing I had to do with this is to learn the meaning of uncontrived. I did try to look for its meaning, but fail to find its meaning. And thus I decided to give up and continue my typing of this report. To me I guess, this quote would mean that we as humans, and our voices, are as the quote says, open and uncontrived. It’s like we talk freely, without hesitation on what we think, and without restrictions. And it should be like that. In my personal opinion. It should be like that, that’s why there is freedom of speech right? The human voice is open to anything, and is susceptible to anything as well; it’s only logic for the voice of a human to be free and open. If it weren’t it would be like someone talking like a robot. The fact is, humans are unique that way. The humans voice, how it speaks, how it replies, and everything it does practically. They may cut all business ties with you’re company. For me, conversing with people from different countries is important, very important as well. Why? It can ensure future business plans, profits or revenue. Everyone wants to make money. Its no secret. But how to obtain it. is something entirely different. In some cases, close ties to other nations may lead to that success.

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5. “People recognize other as such from the sound of this voice” - This is the thing I have pointed out in the earlier topics. People will recognize one another from the sound of ones voice, its personality. Or what it does in general. Or what that person is talking about. People tend to remember other people better that way. Its way of talking or whatever it was talking about. Its impression will make a good advantage as well. The human voice is a very powerful weapon to use, to ensure both the profit of the company and the satisfaction of the customer. Conversations will be of great importance to a businesses success in the long run. It is important for it and will always be. Without it a business will crumble in a matter of days. It’s really just that simple. The human voice is a powerful thing to use. Markets do make the world go round. It’s what keeps the money flowing. To understand business one must get to know their customers. That’s the key in success for a business. For me market is everything for a business. It can make or break it. Streamline something, or make it go bankrupt. Its how the business rolls. They may cut all business ties with you’re company. For me, conversing with people from different countries is important, very important as well. Why? It can ensure future business plans, profits or revenue. Everyone wants to make money. It is not a secret, but how to obtain it. is something entirely different. In some cases, close ties to other nations may lead to that success.

6. “The internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media” - For me this may mean in way like. For example, in the old days, the only way for communication between other people is would actually meet up with one another. That is ok if the one you are trading with is only near you. Or in the same country you are in. but what if there was another person around the world who is also buying something that you are selling. And that person is willing to pay double the original amount you are selling. Of course you would immediately sell it to the highest bidder. Its only natural. Now the internet allows you to do that, AND makes things a whole lot easier for you as a seller and for them as a buyer. Media is truly a powerful thing to comprehend. The part where the quote says that is simply not possible in the era of mass media. It may relate to the fact that mass media was unable to connect to such a wide variety of people across the world. The internet has changed all of that in a blink of an eye. A programmer in the Philippines can have a conversation with his/ her project manager in Thailand while his partner in creating the design is in Australia. That is how global communication as affected the industry today.

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7. “Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy” - For this I have absolutely no idea what this means. How can hyperlinks subvert hierarchy? I cannot comprehend such a thing. In all cases hyperlinks can’t be trusted 100%. There are times were those links might lead to false site. And worse case scenario is that those sites might have viruses, and will infect you’re pc. After some research on the words. I have realized that the quote actually means to destroy or ruin a hierarchy. That is what subvert actually meant. If that’s the case then I believe it is truly possible for something like that to actually happen. A link might contain information that could ruin a company. Or it might lead to another company that offers the same business but at a much lower cost. That is the power of the internet as well. How can hyperlinks can actually subvert a hierarchy I cannot comprehend as of now. But I think what I said has some facts to it. for the meaning of subvert it is. to overturn or overthrow from the foundation or to pervert or corrupt by an undermining of morals, allegiance, or faith. Both may be true in the quote. Links to other sites may contain information that corrupts a partnership and such. And such things like that usually happen in a rivalry. I don’t really see it now. But maybe there are events like these that are happening right now. Its just not shown publicly.

8. “In both internetworked markets and among intranetworked employees. People are speaking to each other in a powerful new way.” - In my understanding of this quote. When people speak, they speak with great importance. Talking is one of the more important ways on how to get things going. Like employees talking about some things about the products they are creating, if the owners of those companies would listen. Some of them might be good points of view, which can help improve a product. Such events can make a product an instant success. In the industrial era, it was completely opposite to what the market is today. People only care about efficiency, talking became almost punishable by law (in the company), Now since the spread of the internet. The industrial era has completely died out, like reaching at the ends of its limits. anyone can gain access to it. anyone can learn from the internet on anything they want to do. From what to do in making a business, to what not to do when you are in a plane that is making an emergency landing. Conversations have been taken to an all new level, one that is worldwide and abundant. People only care about efficiency, talking became almost punishable by law, Now since the spread of the internet. The industrial era has completely died out, like reaching at the ends of its limits.

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9. “These networked Conversations are enabling powerful new forms of social organization and knowledge exchange to emerge” - networked conversations meaning the internet, because of it, it has enabled people to form new groups and able to share knowledge that some time in the past, was unable to do at all. Because of this, information has reached to the very limits of the earth, anyone can gain access to it. anyone can learn from the internet on anything they want to do. From what to do in making a business, to what not to do when you are in a plane that is making an emergency landing. Conversations have been taken to an all new level, one that is worldwide and abundant. . Something you might be wondering about may already have been discussed about on the internet. Just search it and poof, there it is. And chances are, it’s a very detailed documentation as well. Rather than asking some person who will most likely grind your last nerve in waiting. Conversations are the backbone of the markets, maybe. I guess anything the market has done, it can be seen in the employees as well, while doing there routine work and such. The metaphysical “company” thing might mean it’s a place where people or employees gather, and since it’s a company, it’s a business thing

10. “As a result, markets are getting smarter, more informed, more organized. Participation in a networked market changes people fundamentally.” - This is like a continuation on what I said on number 9. the internet has caused a lot of major improvements all over the industry. Such improvements can be seen like, buying or selling things, talking about something, discussing on some product. Having a meeting, in the web (it is possible via webcams). Anyone participating in this new market will be bound to understand it as well, in order to manage a good business, and be up with the latest news. In the industrial era, it was completely opposite to what the market is today. People only care about efficiency, talking became almost punishable by law (in the company), Now since the spread of the internet. The industrial era has completely died out, like reaching at the ends of its limits. people constantly talk about anything, if they talk about a certain product, everyone’s point of view will be heard. And because of it, people will be able to learn from it. and decide a whole lot better, because of the information they gained. Rather than asking some person who will most likely grind your last nerve in waiting. Also, you can search the web on what is selling significantly better than others. And know what price they are on.

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11. “People in networked markets have figured out that they get far better information from one another than from vendors. So much for corporate rhetoric about adding value to commoditized products.” - As I have mentioned before, again, people in the internet can obtain better information on some things globally than locally. Something you might be wondering about may already have been discussed about on the internet. Just search it and poof, there it is. And chances are, it’s a very detailed documentation as well. Rather than asking some person who will most likely grind your last nerve in waiting. Also, you can search the web on what is selling significantly better than others. And know what price they are on. Such things will help a business. Anyone participating in this new market will be bound to understand it as well, in order to manage a good business, and be up with the latest news. Adding humor to your conversations is a great help. Especially for those awkward moments in the conversation, like the silence. No one would like that, and that does not help in sealing the deal on some major contract. Companies may have realized this already, which some big time people have used to its own advantage. You wont see any big company that does not have a good speaker. There is a movie on about that, but I cannot remember its title. But it’s a nice movie, unfortunately, the main character got kidnapped once because of his actions.

12. “There are no secrets, the network markets know more than companies do about there own products. And whether the news is good or bad, they tell everyone.” - An excellent example on what I have been talking about on the last few quotes. People on the net comment about things, they always do. But from those comments something of great value can be seen in it. there, you can see a product as a customers point of view, not just some media enhanced messages the company of that product tells you. Whether if it’s actually any good or not. Whatever the outcome it may be, people will blog or post about it in the internet. That is how powerful it is. It can be a good thing or a bad thing for any given company. it’s a very detailed documentation as well. Rather than asking some person who will most likely grind your last nerve in waiting. Also, you can search the web on what is selling significantly better than others. And know what price they are on. Such things will help a business. You cant have any income if no one buys from you right? The same thing cant be applied in the internet though, as thought to us by our professor a while ago in class. Something about some revenue when people visit your site. If a lot of people visit your site, even if they do not buy anything, it will result in an income as well, though not much, but its good enough. How to do that however, is something I did not understand.

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13. “What’s happening to markets is also happening among employees, a metaphysical construct called “the company” is the only thing standing between the two.” - This quote makes me ponder quite a bit. I’m guessing it means conversations as well but among people in the workgroup. Conversations are the backbone of the markets, maybe. I guess anything the market has done, it can be seen in the employees as well, while doing there routine work and such. The metaphysical “company” thing might mean it’s a place where people or employees gather, and since it’s a company, it’s a business thing. People make things in that company. And such market is automatically involved in it. This one thing that is used in creating plastics has created quite an uproar in the mass, this does not only limit the china area, across the world are in that state of alertness. When I first heard this news, it was sad to hear that those babies are dying and such. And thought, this is a very bad reputation for whoever company that was involved with, a mistake like that will kill a company instantly, for the reason of lawsuits of course. Those things will drive your company to rock bottom. That is another aspect why companies are afraid of their own markets. They make a mistake; it’s the end of their life. But that is only based on my observation, there was this one person who made an insane amount of books, not many people buy them, but its total makes him a lot of money, but that is only due to the fact that he sells a lot of books and nothing else.

14. “Corporations do not speak in the same voice as these new networked conversations. To their intended online audiences, companies sound hollow, flat, literally inhuman.” -as the quote would imply, people and corporations talk in 2 very different languages. One speaks like a natural human being, while the other like a robot man. Also, when corporations try to speak, it will certainly not get a wide audience, most of the time a corporation will only talk about its product. Its like a generic speech. It will only tell you how “wonderful” their product is, and will most likely try to convince you to buy it even if you do not need it at all, while the internet has prevented almost all of this from happening. How? Because of people, people constantly talk about anything, if they talk about a certain product, everyone’s point of view will be heard. And because of it, people will be able to learn from it. and decide a whole lot better, because of the information they gained. The internet for example, you can market there, since a whole bunch of people surf the net twenty four hours a day. Seven days a week. By a whole bunch, I mean the whole world. that’s quite a wide audience, and there will always be a buyer from a distant place, like, if there were 1 buyer of your certain product in each of the different countries in Asia, and there will always be another one once a month, that will give you a lot of money. But that is only based on my observation, there was this one person who made an insane amount of books, not many people buy them, but its total makes him a lot of money, but that is only due to the fact that he sells a lot of books. Nothing more

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15. “In just a few years, the current homogenized “voice” of business, the sound of mission statements and brochures. Will seem contrived and artificial as the language of the 18th century French court.” - This quote seems a little bit mo understandable compared to the rest.. (and there are still 70+ more slides to go too. Hehe) but from what I am understanding on this is, it may refer to the industrial era some time ago. And the coming of the internet, because of the net the industrial age is slowly reaching the end of its life. There is a new voice that’s taking over, one that was long forgotten. Conversations maybe? I’m not quite sure but I’m guessing yes. Once this has fully reached its expectations, the company must adapt to it as well. They cannot use the same old thing they have been doing for the past centuries and such. If they will not adapt the new language, they will most likely perish within the next couple of years. Like that th “will seem contrived and artificial as the language of the 18 century French court.” But its not some incurable disease for a company. All they have to do is hire some fresh new blood in the company. Maybe open some positions that were thought “unnecessary” from the beginning. All that stuff the business has been doing in the past must be renewed. Like a pc. It can’t stay the way it is forever, eventually you have to upgrade it to cope with the evolution.

16. Already, companies that speak in the language of the pitch, the dog and pony show, are no longer speaking to anyone. - This quote I cannot comprehend to the max. what does it exactly mean language of the pitch? Dog and pony? How can that be of any relevance to the cluetrain? If it is speaking metaphorically then it has done its duty very well. The only thing that comes to mind on this “language of the pitch” is that they have either adapted to the changing times, or stick to the roots. But lets focus on the good side then (or for now). Since they have adapted to the new times. Then they have financially secured themselves in business for a long time. If not, then they are more screwed than a college student flunking out of college. At least that college student can still get a job, not a high paying one but more than enough to support oneself and a small family. since the company has most likely adapted to the new language they don’t really need to talk to anyone anymore, like “specialists” on how to deal with such matters, they will only eat up more of the businesses income. Besides, change is inevitable. Its like the course of evolution, it happens and no one can stop it. the same thing can be said in business, no business can stay the same for over 10 years or so, except maybe monopolistic types, like the public transportation and such.

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17. “Companies that assume online markets are the same markets that used to watch there ads on television are kidding themselves.” - Again another complicating quote, (note while typing this I am listening to a song to ease the moment). There was this old saying, that before we had the internet, we were already surfing the web. How you ask? In the form of that little box that’s in every houses living room, the TV. Browsing channels is like browsing the internet, that’s what I heard a long time ago, not sure if there are actually any relevance to it, but maybe there is. What companies do now on the internet, putting ads and such, is no different from putting advertisements on the tv. The only difference is maybe that the people watching the tv might have some interest actually watching the ad, in the form of commercials maybe. Movie commercials are different, in my perspective. Because I check it on the net. How would market “kid” themselves in that sense? Is it any different from the internet to the television screen? Yes, most likely. Only now have I comprehended that quote, if the companies were to only do the same thing they were doing with TV ads in the online market. then they are once again screwed. The online market is completely different from TV. One, people can choose to ignore you ad. And that’s a major factor, so no matter how many ads you make on countless sites, people will not pay attention to it. the word adapting can be used here as well. To better adapt the company on the online scale.

18. “Companies that don’t realize their markets are now networked person-to-person, getting smarter as a result and deeply joined in conversation are missing there best opportunity.” - This can refer to a lot of things, mainly some of the ideas I have been talking about on the past few quotes, the earlier ones. Like slides 1 – 13. its pretty much the most simplest thing one could explain, or maybe it has become simple to me because this is what I have been pointing out from the very beginning of these book reviews and reflections. Its like this, since the internet came to everyone’s life, including I as well. It has been a godsend, mostly because of online games, but that’s not the real purpose of internet no is it? well it is, for having some fun and chatting and stuff. Already that has affected the market, just chatting, it can lead to a lot of things, like chatting about various products of a unknown company to another famous ones secrets. People today are connected to everyone. Companies have probably known this fact for some time now, its necessarily a bad thing. It can be a good thing for that company as well, if they play there cards right. If they can persuade a single person that there product is of excellent service, that single person will tell his/her friends, and that friend will tell there other friends, and so on until it has globally reached everyone. Is it any different from the internet to the television screen? Yes, most likely. Only now have I comprehended that quote, if the companies were to only do the same thing they were doing with TV ads in the online market. then they are once again screwed.

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19. “Companies can now communicate with their markets directly. If they blow it, it could be there last chance.” - This is going to be fun to talk about. Most likely companies have finally adapted to the nd internet. Being able to communicate and such. Its like giving a 2 chance, that’s all there is to it, everyone deserves it. the business has finally obtain that chance, and capitalized on it. now they can directly talk to the market, as the quote has said, most likely talking meaning, communication on a global scale. Now if by any chance they were to accidentally mess this up. Then they are screwed beyond belief, of course such a thing will most likely never happen, assuming the business knows about this and will try to prevent such a disaster. It does not exactly mean as well that if they blow it, its gone for good. There might still be a small chance of being able to bounce back from the impending doom of a business. if by some miracle were to happen that is. Companies and communication in the market were 2 very distant things, in the industrial era this may have been virtually invisible. This was a fatal flaw in market during those times, but the internet has completely changed all of that. Its now back to what it should have been, talking.

20. Companies need to realize their markets are often laughing, at them. - how can this quote be of any relevance to anything, I cannot comprehend. Markets laughing at companies? How? It may mean something about the way a company advertises, that’s the only reason I can see how such a thing would happen and such, another talk about adapting? I don’t think I can take anymore. Something cannot stay the way it is for a long period of time, it will only go obsolete. Once its obsolete, something new will most likely pop up to replace it. that’s the sad yet needed fact everything is based on, like the computer, or any home entertainment product, ps2,ps3 etc. other than that I cannot think of anything else, laughing in a sense is not necessarily a bad thing. If anything, the business might even prosper from it. all they have to do is get the right idea, so that the laughter will either stop or lessen even just for one bit. Since the stuff is on the internet nowadays, relationships can be rushed in a blink of an eye. Smart markets are the trend today. Besides, since new information is feeded on the internet almost everyday, what you want today may be obsolete the next day, or month. That’s how fast trends are. My last assumption on this is that, the companies often try to please the customers they are dealing with, but does not realize that not all of them share the same wants. Most often, some get left behind or unnoticed.

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21. “Companies need to lighten up and take themselves less seriously. They need to get a sense of humor.” - Something like that would only most likely mean something like, “take a chill pill man”. And for those extremely serious types, they should. Life should not be taken so seriously, a fact I know, one should enjoy life, it is short you know. Take a break once in a while and have fun. Rest? Someone told me the rest was for the dead. He’s right, but that’s the case all the time, there should be times to take a break once in a while. Chill, the same thing can be said towards companies, they need to stop taking everything so seriously, people will take a liking to those who are not serious all the time. Another fact in life I think. if by some miracle were to happen that is. Companies and communication in the market were 2 very distant things, in the industrial era this may have been virtually invisible. This was a fatal flaw in market during those times, but the internet has completely changed all of that. Its now back to what it should have been, talking. Just remember to do talk politely to the other, then they will talk to you. And who knows, a chain of business transaction can occur, like a customer telling his or her friend about a said product.

22. “Getting a sense of humor does not mean putting some jokes on the corporate website. Rather, it requires big values, a little humility, straight talk, and a genuine point of talk.” - Humor, just because you put up some pun or funny line in your website, it does not necessarily mean that you are funny. Not in that sense, all you did is just copy some joke of some other site or picture. There are funny jokes on pictures, I search them from time to time. now, having a sense of humor is a little bit more different from just telling jokes. Telling jokes is one side of having that humor, but not all of it. it may mean that you must not take everything in life so seriously, relax a bit. Unfortunately, that cant be applied for every person in the world, ask anyone in a college, they will give you that answer. I share that unfortunate fate as well, but back to the topic, if you can talk naturally to other people, that already makes you an excellent speaker, adding some humor to some of those lines will improve your audience impact significantly as well. All you have to do to get to the customers is have some humor, show some humility, be natural. People like that more than some automated teller machine. Talk straightly, like a professional. And also talk genuinely, whatever that meant. Adding humor to your conversations is a great help. Especially for those awkward moments in the conversation, like the silence. No one would like that, and that does not help in sealing the deal on some major contract. Companies may have realized this already, which some big time people have used to its own advantage. You wont see any big company that does not have a good speaker. There is a movie on about that, but I cannot remember its title. But it’s a nice movie, unfortunately, the main character got kidnapped once because of his actions.

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23. “Companies attempting to “position” themselves need to take a position. Optimally, it should relate to something their market actually cares about.” Companies attempting to position themselves, for a company trying to find such a thing, they need to first find a position most suitable for them. And it should relate to there company as well, and to something actual people actually care about. For example, a food based company will certainly not find its market in an I.T. based market. they should find there place in there own market community, is what I believe. Or what the quote is actually saying. Or it could also say something entirely different. But most likely it meant that it should find there own market that suits there company. Marketing can be a very tricky thing to handle, if not used properly, that is why there should be someone in the workforce who is most likely experienced on that type of business, to ensure some business income and such. Of course there are a lot of other market types that one can enter other than the one that is recommended for your company. The internet for example, you can market there, since a whole bunch of people surf the net twenty four hours a day. Seven days a week. By a whole bunch, I mean the whole world. that’s quite a wide audience, and there will always be a buyer from a distant place, like, if there were 1 buyer of your certain product in each of the different countries in Asia, and there will always be another one once a month, that will give you a lot of money. But that is only based on my observation, there was this one person who made an insane amount of books, not many people buy them, but its total makes him a lot of money, but that is only due to the fact that he sells a lot of books. Nothing more.

24. “Bombastic boasts – “We are positioned to become the preeminent provider of XYZ” – do not constitute a position” - Everything I talked about on the previous quote can be partially related on this one as well, mainly the part on “positioning” for your said company. Boasting, its not a crime, but it will certainly get you in that tight spot. And boasting about something on a product? Saying something that your company will be the most dominant on that product? That will certainly assure you of a seat in the electric chair, metaphorically. There is one important truth in the market world. whatever you have jus thought about, someone has already created it. especially in our time now, where almost everything you can possibly think of already exist. The only thing you can do is maybe make an enhancement to that product, or if you’re a genius, MAKE something actually new, like the “Ruby on Rails” site. If not, why not take something that was not free, do something like that, only its free. People do like free things, like the wordpress site, some time ago there was another more famous blogging site, there was only one thing, the people who created it decided they want to get paid, I would do that as well, money does make the world go round and all. And when those people found out about this free blog site, “Wordpress” maybe around 90% of them changed to wordpress, it gives a couple of good features. And is quite famous now. Anyway, boasting can kill a company instantly. Overconfidence is not a good thing you know. As far as I know, maybe its good for “naruto” but this is not an anime. This is the real world.

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25. “Companies need to come down from their ivory towers and talk to people with whom they hope to create relationships.” - this is something that involves the economy now, and were the status of those people are, it can be said like that in a way because its partially related, in my opinion. Ivory tower would mean rich people, going down would imply something like talking to the lower or middle classed citizens as well. The same citizens they wish to create a good relationship with. That is an important factor no matter what place you are in. it does not matter if you are in the highest part of the ladder, if you cant maintain that. However, unlike people, companies can actually connect to people a bit easier than when actually talking in person. How? For one they themselves are not from those “ivory towers” they are just ordinary people like you and me. Being helpful to you customers will be a great help as well. It is in the human tendency to spread news and all. If one person likes your company, that person will most likely tell his/her family or friends, and they will tell there friends, and so on. Its like advertising, in a human scale. Not being friendly with those customers will most likely result in your company’s downfall. You cant have any income if no one buys from you right? The same thing cant be applied in the internet though, as thought to us by our professor a while ago in class. Something about some revenue when people visit your site. If a lot of people visit your site, even if they do not buy anything, it will result in an income as well, though not much, but its good enough. How to do that however, is something I did not understand.

26. “Public relations does not relate the public, companies are deeply afraid of their markets.” - to prevent some confusion on this, the term public relations is, is the practice of managing the flow of information between an organization and its publics. Meaning, it is related and at the same time not actually related, how? Simple, does the public really need all that information to begin with? Whether or not they need is not up to them. But it is an important thing for them to know about this information, for this will save there lives in future references, take the dilemma of the Chinese right now. A couple of babies have died because of kidney failure, this would not have been quite a big thing, but all of this happened in the same time, the chances of having 3,000 babies being infected with the same disease is astronomical. Of course people would investigate on the matter, later on they found out that there local milk product contained something called, Melamine. This one thing that is used in creating plastics has created quite an uproar in the mass, this does not only limit the china area, across the world are in that state of alertness. When I first heard this news, it was sad to hear that those babies are dying and such. And thought, this is a very bad reputation for whoever company that was involved with, a mistake like that will kill a company instantly, for the reason of lawsuits of course. Those things will drive your company to rock bottom. That is another aspect why companies are afraid of their own markets. They make a mistake, it’s the end of their life.

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27. By speaking a language that is distant, uninviting, arrogant, they build walls to keep markets at bay. -this is something that may or may not happen in a company, depending on what it has done in its time. since I have mainly focused on the “good” aspects that will happen in a company if it has done good things. Allow me to tell what might happen if everything has gone completely the opposite. Like the quote says. First of all, this could imply that, if markets were to speak in a sense that does not appeal to the customers, then they are sure to not have that customers support in future activities, being arrogant will help on that if you desire to not have a business. people will not come to you if you are not entertaining them the way they should be. Giving someone the cold shoulder is not a good thing, for that will come back and bite them in a horrible way. That or it may be an intentional thing, its plausible, if that company only desires business in their local area and no place else, exclude those that are not in the area. Which is a good thing, a little, for a small business, example, a pie restaurant. It can deliver pies at a radius of five miles from the restaurant, anywhere that’s farther from that limit, they have the right to not deliver it at all. However, I can only see that happening in food deliveries, most global market does not have to deal with that, for the main reason that, they deliver anywhere in the world, just check out some auctioning sites. That’s how business is made. The same thing can be said on the other side as well, in the customer side. If they choose not to listen to that company, they will do what they can to ignore them. People do have tendencies to not pay attention to anything they don’t like.

28. “Most marketing programs are based on the fear that the market might see what’s really going on inside the company.” - since this is the information age, a lot of companies use quite the technology and programs, and software. Of course they alone cannot make the desired program they want, that’s why there are people like us. The programmers, we make the programs they want for them. On to what type of it, is entirely up to them, they are the ones paying for it. for some reason, this quote is implying that the company’s would do anything in its power to hide what’s going on inside their company. Why? There could be a couple of factors, like one, they do not want to let people know how they do things, for other rivals of the market can copy this and be a few steps ahead of them. Or maybe they are hiding something that is not generally accepted in the public, like the melamine thing from the milk again, though there are some news that the said company is not actually the one’s putting it there, but its employees. Nonetheless, they are still held accountable for what is happening. But its most likely because they do not want to share their own secrets of success. Or at least, its my perspective on the matter. Whatever goes inside your business, you are not required to tell them the works in your company. Hell, if you will do something like that, and you are a big time company, then chances are, other rivals will steal the things that make your company a success. And such, that will most likely again, bring the downfall of your company, if other rivals were to get a hold of your own methods, they will improve it and use it against you.

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29. “Elvis said it best: we can’t go on together with suspicious minds.” - For starters, who exactly is Elvis? Only the greatest king of rock alive way back when, he made a couple of great songs as well. but died because of heart failure, I think, and at a young age as well. he made a lot of things in his short career. As for what he said in the quotation, it may link to one of his songs in the old days, I wouldn’t know because I am not that big of a fan of Elvis Presley. But it may be able to relate to the current e-business. it can be a couple of things, like a transaction between the buyer and a seller. If one is suspicious to the other, they might not transact the whole thing at all. Like for the seller, they have to be sure if the buyer can pay right? And the buyer, they must be sure that the seller will actually send them the item they desire and such. If both of them would only think about that then there will be no business at all. The only thing the two can do is believe in each other. If the seller wont send the product, then that’s bad publicity for them, it might ruin there business. same goes for the buyer, of course no one will make a transaction with someone who doesn’t pay. It may mean a couple of other things as well, and can relate to a lot more of things that does not really talk about e-retailing. To avoid such a thing, one must build credibility I guess. So that people will trust you a little bit more, and will not categorize you as just another spammer.

30. “Brand loyalty is the corporate version of going steady, but the breakup is inevitable, and coming fast. Because they are networked, smart markets are able to renegotiate relationships with blinding speed.” - brand loyalty, I may know of this, only because my gaming consoles have been made by Sony. Since I stuck with them for some while I’m somewhat loyal to them and their products, don’t really know why. I think that is what it meant when it quoted “going steady” as well. like me I wouldn’t want anything else other than Sony products for my gaming entertainment. Before, when nd the internet was not that popular, this was good. Even when the 2 generation consoles came out. Sure the microsoft’s Xbox was more superior in terms of graphics, but it lacked that one thing the PlayStation2 had, those who used to had the PlayStation1, like me, will opt for the Sony product, because we are more identified on the product, and a couple of other things. Like game titles exclusive for the PlayStation2. unfortunately its lifespan came to an end or will be soon, rd since 3 generation consoles has been unleashed now. Maybe this is what it meant by “break up is inevitable”? aside from the 3 major giants there is in terms of gaming entertainment, there are a couple of small time companies that are rising from the ashes. All they need is the right network, to spread the news of there existence. Since the stuff is on the internet nowadays, relationships can be rushed in a blink of an eye. Smart markets are the trend today. Besides, since new information is feeded on the internet almost everyday, what you want today may be obsolete the st next day, or month. That’s how fast trends are. Or it can be related to mobile phones, at 1 the only brand of cell phone you buy is nokia. But when you access the internet and look at the new stuff, you see something better, a Samsung model. Boom,that will make you change brands.

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31. “Networked markets can change suppliers overnight. Networked knowledge workers can change employers over lunch. Your own “downsizing initiatives” taught us to ask the question:” Loyalty? what’s that’s?”” - is there such a thing as loyalty these days? If you were to ask me, I’d say maybe there’s still some brink of life in it, but its half dead as of now. Why might I say this is simple, if you were given a offer that gives you twice your current salary. Would you take it? of course! What sane man would reject it? in today’s economy you have to look out for only one person, that is you. Sure some people might hate you for that, but who cares? You have money. Loyalty is virtually unheard of nowadays, except maybe on online games, where guild mates stick with each other till the very end. The bond of friendship will only go that far. For a company, lets say for 20 years of its life, it has had only one supplier. But when they found out another supplier that offer the same services with half the price. Would you change suppliers? I would. Money changes people, its not a thing that can be ignored, or for workers, if they can find a better job with better work environment and pay. They will jump ship from your company and move to the other. Its not really a case of no loyalty, its just that a person is given a choice of either stay or move up and get better things. Its not personal, its just business. that’s how it goes. Company’s are partially the cause of this. If they need to “downsize” on costs and such, who will they kick? Workers, then in return they will bear a grudge against company’s and such. Form unions, etc etc.

32. “Smart markets will find suppliers who speak their own language” - You own a company, your supplier has been a pain in the ass for you for more years than you can possibly remember. That would suck now would it? for sure it will, but if you are smart then most likely you will browse the web for a much better supplier that can actually speak the same language with you, and I don’t mean the both of you can speak English or some other language. I mean the language of business. the one that drives your income or revenue. That is one thing the quote might mean. Or it could mean something like I a customer, I want to buy a play station 3 right? But the supplier around my parts are over pricing the thing. What do I do? I go online and search for something a hell lot cheaper is what. Conversations are a important aspect in business, and if you want to stay ahead in the business. talking to other people will certainly get you places, and now with the power of the internet. You can chat with everyone around the world. who knows someone replied to your post on a product saying it actually is bad and recommends to you a much better and cheaper thing? Not only will you save in money, you get a much better product than you originally desire. That’s a win – win situation right there. Just remember to do talk politely to the other, then they will talk to you. And who knows, a chain of business transaction can occur, like a customer telling his or her friend about a said product.

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33. “Learning to speak with a human voice is not a parlor trick. It can’t be “picked up” at some tony conference.” - talking, what is it good for? A lot of things, it can get you places, places you never thought you would ever reach. Well at first, talking will get you a couple of friends, and some enemies. The human voice is quite a thing, most often goes unnoticed. Its not like its some trick of the words. Maybe for some spokesmen it is, they use terms so great that they can turn a bad product revue into something better again. like that one movie some time ago, this one spokesman of a smoking company talked to the people that smoking is just another leisure in life, and the chances of you dying from something other than lung cancer is greater. He was a smooth talker, but it got him kidnapped and brutally beaten. If you cant really talk to another person then you will not go too far, because most or all of the jobs today require some speech skills. When you are presenting something to the board of directors, you must have that confidence when talking. The board will be impressed and poof, you might even get promoted. Now isn’t that nice? It sure would be. Learning how to talk is not a thing that can be picked up just like that, not like picking up a lost handkerchief. If you don’t have it now, you never had it in the first place. Everyone must learn to speak for themselves, without it he or she will not go anywhere in life. Worse case scenario is that person will seclude him or herself in there own little world. like online games maybe? I don’t know.

34. “To speak with a human voice, companies must share the concerns of their communities.” - to speak in a human voice, how can a company know of this “human voice” if they don’t really care about their community? Is it not something that should be treated with respect? You cant really tell someone what to do and when if they don’t want to. That would be disrespectful of you. For your people to respect you, you must first respect them as well. that is how the quote means to me. You have to talk to them, you community. It can even help you in your quest for business. how? Simple, you talk to them, they tell you about stuff, those stuff is life altering stuff that can literally save your business. once you implement them, people will buy them a whole lot more than your last product. If a company will only talk with themselves and not care about there community, then they will certainly have a hard time trying to stay alive. Your community are your customers after all. If you are nice to them, they will be nice to you and will spread the word about your company. Once that happens, it will be smooth sailing for you. That spreading of news will keep going until it has reached everyone around the world. that’s how the online game’s plan is. They wouldn’t really make huge advertisements on your tv screen. They will however, make some open beta testing. With that alone news can spread like wild fire. Especially if that’s a good game. Like the level up game “Perfect World” its one hell of a game. You can do almost everything in it. but I will not talk more about that matter, I would be advertising it. or rather, that’s how people help one another in a way. Like what I just did. they were nice and accommodated to my whim. So I talk about their products.

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35. “But first, they must belong to a community” st

- Of course before actually talking to the community, you must 1 have one. Its like talking to a brick wall, your talking to no one. So what would be a more appropriate way in finding that spot in the community? Conversations is the answer. Talk to people and in return they will talk to you, not only that but they will talk to other people about you. And in return you will gain some sort of popularity. That is a good thing to do in a starting small business, but it doesn’t always end in success. Its like a hit or miss thing, if you hit the right spots then you win, if not well, there are always other jobs to look for. They cant really make any type of business if they are invisible to the public right? A couple of other things can help make you known to the public as well. like flyers, newspaper ads and such. A tv commercial is only a hassle. You can attract a much wider audience online. And it will cost you a bit less. Than a tv commercial. But one of the main things that will help you in finding that community is talking. Conversations are markets. That’s how news spread to other people and back to you. Always was and always will be. If you cant do something like that then you will definitely have a harder time attracting an audience. Once you have found that community, you have to take good care of them, like customer relations or something. A community are your customers for your business.

36. “Companies must ask themselves where their corporate cultures end”. - From my understanding on this matter, what is this corporate culture it speaks of? Is there a form of a community in the corporate world as well? where people look out for themselves? Maybe, if it is, then that is something to be admired about, because, they look out for each other not many people do those kinds of things nowadays. However, this may be a downside for the company as well. since they only look out for each other, looking out for your customers as well is an important factor to ensure a health business life. Corporate culture can be defined as a field of organizational management which describes attitudes, experience, and the values of an organization. If this were to be taken as the exact definition of a corporate culture, then they be at a disadvantage today. Companies need to understand that information is everywhere, it can be passed from every person alive. They have to understand that they may sometimes be not always right on the matter of a product. Where peoples comments are more powerful than the voice of a company. This is the type of generation we live on today. Maybe during in the old days companies did things that worked best for them, however, some of those things today may not be the most recommended thing to do, since if you fail to satisfy your customers, then you fail in business. that is only my understanding on the matter. It could also mean a couple of other things entirely different

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37. “If their culture end before the community begins, they will have no market.” - To what sense does this quote exactly mean? I personally do not know, but will try to explain it in a simple English type of thing. A company’s culture, as I said before, is like a organizational management that describes the company best, from experience to values and such. the community, are the people who are potential customers for their business. a community can be described as, group of interacting organisms sharing an environment. In human communities, intent, belief, resources, preferences, needs, risks, and a number of other conditions may be present and common, affecting the identity of the participants and their degree of cohesiveness. Or in a more normal way of saying it, its like when a person likes something, then surely the others will like it as well. if the company were to give out something that will be liked by at least one person on their tests, then they would have been successful. Since that one person will tell his/her friends about the said product. And income will flow to the company in a matter of weeks. But if not of this were to actually happen in a company, then they are in a very deep dilemma. No community for a company would mean no business. and no company likes that. For a company to be successful, they must understand the importance of their community, because that is where the business is. In the people. If they can listen to the conversations going on around their community, then that is a lot of a better thing to do.

38. “Human communities are based on discourse, on human speech about human concerns.” - A community is a group of people where everything is taken to full effect once it happens. If I were to not like about a product, and tell my friends about it, then I would have already doomed that business because of it. or if I say it was better than the rest, then that is completely different. Though I only say that metaphorically since I’m not an important figure yet. But that is how the community works in a way, people look out for one another. People talk to other people about matters, ranging from what breakfast they had to what are their opinions to a new product by technology. A community is like that as well, its based on human conversations about normal everyday things. To be more specific on what a community is. Its definition is, a community a group of organisms inhabiting a common environment and interacting with one another. You might be surprised as to how strong the human voice is now, especially since the birth of the internet, and online chatting. Where as today, anyone can talk to anyone else across the world. its like the worlds community has been merged to one unified community, where information can be passed to anyone who wants it, these things are important and a company must understand that as well in order to survive in the business world. for example, I a customer would want to buy something, there is a stock of it in the local store here, but it’s a little expensive, I go looking for others on the internet, and to my surprise, I find something better and cheaper, as to how I got it, I learned that the product I wanted was actually getting old. And such a newer better release already came out. Something like that can drive a community.

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39. “The community of discourse is the market” - But what exactly does discourse mean? It means either "written or spoken communication or debate" or "a formal discussion or debate." The term is often used in semantics and discourse analysis. Since its still a form of conversation to the community, then that is the market itself. it has become prominently clear that conversations can make or break a company. Even gossip from one another can do quite a great deal of damage to a company, and they cant do a single thing about it. people are free to talk about their company, and its good sides or bad sides. But that is what makes it that damn important as well. even if a few people were to comment something good about a certain product in that company, then chances are, they will see more and more customers everyday for the rest of their lives. Rather than if they were given a bad comment, then they will have a harder time trying to get customers to buy their stuff. Its quite strange but that’s how market works, its better than what it was un the industrial era, where people were only told to do their jobs and just keep their mouths shut. Those were quite the times as well. you will mostly see some generic mass produced item which everyone has been given no choice on the matter but to buy it, even if there were actually room for improvements. This is what the company didn’t do back then, they only thought that it was a minor thing to be ignored. Little did they know that conversations would overthrow them in the next decade. Its quite the irony, back then they didn’t need their opinions, now they crave for it in order to keep up with other competitors.

40. “Companies that do not belong to a community of discourse will die”. - As per my last review, a community of discourse is like a spoken community, or debate. Either way it makes one thing certain, people in that community talk to each other, everyone is connected from one way or another. That is how important a community is, if you, a company owner can somehow get in to that circle of the community, then they will consider you as one of them and will treat you with equal respect. That is something to be proud of, since you are one of them, you can insert yourself in their conversations, know what is in demand right now. If you know that then your financial problems for your company might lessen. Besides, a community is the most vital part in a company’s life. Its like a humans heart, and the company is the brain. Without the heart, the brain would stop functioning right? Then without a community, a company will fall to ruble in a couple of months. There are a lot of other things a company can do to belong to a community, for example, once they know what the community demands, then they will open up their business that specifically sells that product, then they will awed by your company’s awesomeness of having such a product. Such fame will get you places, especially since people are connected on a global scale. Your small community that you are pleasing are actually connected to all of the communities around the world. add that with online marketing then you will be a big time company in no time. look at Microsoft, and apple.

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41. “Companies make a religion of security, but this is largely a red herring. Most are protecting less against competitors than against their own market and workforce.” - Do companies have a religion of security? If its for protecting their business, then I guess they do. What sane businessman wouldn’t protect their business? its only natural, in order to survive in the marketing world today. But what is the main problem of a business? its competitors? or its own market or workforce? In my opinion, all of these are vital factors that can kill a business, one of these reasons is, because what if you ran a hotdog stand on a corner, right? Then a rival hotdog stand owner takes up spot on the opposite corner, that will hurt your business in a big way, especially if they offer cheaper hotdogs than yours. Then their own market, as to what I said a while ago, if one of them gives a bad revue to your food then most likely lesser people would come and eat your stuff. That is how powerful conversations are, and not just on that small scale, but globally speaking. Your own workforce, is something not to be messed with as well, if you’re a big company, you must also keep your workers happy. If you abuse them, then you will be in a tight pinch, workers will either, protest or rally, or worse, sue your company. They are unified nowadays thanks to “the union”, which demands equality among workers. Most stuff like that are rare to happen in new companies today. But these were a normal thing back during the older times, rich people would abuse their workers, giving them more work they can handle with very little pay. Maybe that’s how the community started, they decided to look out for themselves.

42. “As with networked markets, people are also talking to each other directly inside the company, and not just about rules and regulations, boardroom directives, bottom lines.” - I have actually read about this quote from the book itself. it talks about your people in your company, or workforce. During the industrial era, workers were treated very poorly, only being told to do their jobs and shut their mouths. Those were quite the times. Its like a robot factory, only they are not robots, but similarly act like one. If you were working in a company like that, you might go insane from the boredom. Everyone has unique ideas and such right? Well those time sealed them, prohibiting the workers to do so. Unknown to the company, workers are also their community, and they do have some good opinions that could actually save a company from imminent doom. There are more conversations going on inside a company than what one might think. its not all about business this and business that. Those are corporations talk. Back then, company owners do only look out for themselves, which I’m not saying is a bad thing, looking out for yourself is an important thing to always remember. Never trust anyone. If the conversations that were going on in a company would only be such things like regulations, and such. people will most likely go insane, its not a matter of being crazy. But the workers in your company do have a mind of their own. And they think differently amongst others. If you can capitalize on an idea brought to you by a worker of yours, then your business might skyrocket. And you will most likely promote your worker for giving that idea.

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43. “Such conversations are taking place today on corporate intranets. But only when the conditions are right.” - conversations today, as we all know, are a most vital aspect of one’s everyday life. Where when in the old days, it was “best” practice to just do what you are told to do and nothing else. today its different, time has that effect of changing things really, whether for the better or for worse. Conversations are what drives today’s economy, or is partially responsible for driving it. Why? Simply because markets are conversations. Conversations can lead to various things, from light conversations from normal everyday things, to business matters, like online transactions. Those things are quite hard to do, since people always try to outsmart one another. For me, conversations is something that must be learned, and is essential for one’s survival. If you cant talk to your people well, then all is lost, you wont be able to motivate people well, since they will not take you that seriously. Big companies may already know about this, and have realized that such conversations are taking place right under their own noses, their workers. They may be employed to you, but they are also your own community, they will always converse with one another. But only when the time is right, maybe on breaks or so. Since talking to one another may be prohibited during work, base on the company’s regulations. If the higher ups were to realize this, they may be able to capitalize on it, those conversation can be able to help you own business, since they can lead to comments. Consider it something like this, its like the global community, only miniaturized in your company. They are still part of the community you know.

44. “Companies typically install intranets top-down to distribute HR policies and other corporate information that workers are doing their best to ignore.” - intranet, what exactly does it mean? Well think of it as something like, a local area network system inside the company, or something like that, this is what I understand from the intranet definition. So basically, this is like a hierarchy, where the people at the top are more powerful than the ones below. Supposedly, for a company, this is to distribute equality, or something like, the workers boss is the manager, the manager’s boss is the general manager, and that ones boss is someone higher up. But such things are only a bother to understand, and that is what the lowest ranked workers from a company think. It does not involve them in any way at all, and why should they care? Such things are a nuisance. If I were to one time work at a company and something like that were to happen, my most probable action is no different from the rest. Hierarchy to me, is only something to establish ones seat of power, maybe for bragging rights? I don’t know, and what if let say, the main boss sends a message, and that message is distributed to everyone below him, when that letter itself was only meant for the manager, so the others who received it will only be dumbfounded by it, such things are unnecessary, and time consuming. If the company were to develop something else entirely, that would easily satisfy everyone in the workplace, then that is a much better option than such things, though this also has its benefits, the intranet and such. since everyone is “linked” regulations of sorts can be easily passed down to everyone, announcements and so on. But the same thing still applies, a probable chance is that, half of them will not pay attention to it.

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45. “Intranets naturally tend to route around boredom. The best are built bottom-up by engaged individuals cooperating to construct something far more valuable, an intranetworked corporate conversation.” - intranets again are like a local “local” area network, were one is networked within the company to everyone else. this may seem like a good idea yes? Wrong, such a thing only exist because of the business, now I’m not exactly sure about that but, your workers are humans, and they do have something else to talk about other than just business. if a worker were to be bombarded with only information about the business, no doubt he will most likely go insane from the boredom, no one wants to talk about it except maybe the higher ups who can relate to it. or rather, there is a topic, but the one who created it is the big boss, something like only he or the other higher ranked people can relate to. So the lower ranked person are subject to it, but is only subject to it because it was required for them. There are a couple of known downsides to this as well, such as the lower ranks have no voice on it, so they cannot completely express themselves. If there was an intranet that is built from the bottom-up, then there is something much more worthwhile, since the lower rankers now have a voice to appeal their ideas, ideas that could benefit the whole company. A conversation of sorts, since it relates to them, more of the workers may be subject to interest on it. and the higher ups are not left out as well, since they can use some of those ideas as well for the company’s own gain. In that way, everyone wins like that.

46. “A healthy intranet organizes workers in many meanings of the word. Its effects are more radical than the agenda of any union.” - this is somewhat like a continuation to the past quotation as well, it relates to the intranet, the workers who will be motivated by it if its built bottom-up. And a couple of more other things, those things alone may seem unimportant to most people, but this is what drives the innovative edge amongst company’s in my opinion. Since this intranet for the workers lets it connect to other people, they can relate to anything they want to talk about. From stuff from what happened the day before some day, or maybe something entirely different as well. it depends on them, and that is what may be nice on that intranet, it was made specifically for that purpose. It spreads the word out efficiently to most workers, it’s a hell lot better than the union maybe. Though the union itself is like a human intranet of sorts. Since they created the union for the workers, to help them against employer abuses such as, underpayment, and overtime, the stuff like that, stuff that can make a hefty amount of lawsuits for the company. Its no wonder though, big heads are afraid of the union that much, since they motivate the workers to say, rally because of some unjust doings and such. but if workers are subject to something like a intranet for their own. I think it may be a better option than unions. Since they communicate with one another, conversations can do a lot of thing right? One of them is easing the mind of stress, expressing what you think to others is a healthy thing to do. Especially if someone else thinks the same way as you do, and look at that, a new found friend to talk about. If the higher ups were to pay attention to this as well, and I’m most certainly sure they will be, they can pay attention on the comments and could improve their own company. Improvements that may be able to, increase sales and improve work environment. Now that’s a win-win situation.

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47. “While this scares companies witless, they also depend heavily on open intranets to generate and share critical knowledge. They need to resist the urge to improve or control these networked conversations.” - I understand how companies may fear this open intranet thing gravely, since these type of things could ruin their name, or something else. like, what if there was this one person that were to say how much everyone earns, then they found out everyone earns the same, except for one, though they share the same rank, how did that come to happen? Surely they will revolt about this. Or maybe someone were to say that there is another place that has better pay and a work environment, that could encourage the workers to jump ship. Such things rarely do happen though, but the open intranet is somewhat something of a new vital integrity. How would that have happened? Something involving knowledge of course. Since it is an open network for the workers, they are free to express what they feel, such things like what they think about the company, its work environment, maybe even the food area. If the big guys from the upper heads were to take these things, then they could improve it for the better of everyone. A happy worker does make a much better work output. Since these open intranets are already there though, they must also know not to meddle it, change some thing about it. it was meant for the people, so improving it might lead to some devastating conflicts. And I know no one wants some conflict like that. Hell, worse case scenario might be, they were to accidentally change some vital part on it causing the whole intranet to crumble like a piece of paper. And maybe, the people on that intranet might just get a little upset about it and do something about it.

48. “When corporate intranets are not constrained by fear and legislative rules, the type of conversations they encourage sounds remarkably like the conversation of the networked marketplace.” - up reaching my goal for this part of the reflection, it has come to my attention that almost all of the quotes here are about corporate intranets and such, if it was on the cluetrain then it must be of great importance now is isn’t it? but back to the topic, if such intranets were not constrained with such nonsense, then everyone will be a whole lot better believe me. You see, if such intranets would be free of anything, then people are free to converse in it as well, and conversations still DO drive the business. think of an intranet in a company like a forum, a groups of sorts. In that group, people can talk about, say something of a particular business item, maybe they have comments to how to improve it, change its price because its expensive, the works. What a intranet the business would want is something like that, something that sounds like human conversations. When people are free to talk about stuff, it sounds exactly like the networked market we know today. Networked market being the online businesses that are online today, and everyone knows that is where the new business is at. Now these kinds of conversations are a very important aspect in a business to be looked upon. Since your workers are still a part of your community and all. They may express some opinions about your product, something like what it should have and stuff, in terms will most likely improve your rate of sales in general. But of course they will not speak about it if its mandatory, they must have that freedom of speech, with no restraint in order to act more naturally and be honest. These kinds of conversations not only sound like the networked market, but it is the market.

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49. “Org charts worked in an older economy where plans could be fully understood from a top steep management pyramids and detailed work orders could be handed down from on high.” - org charts, what exactly are they? For those who may not know about it clearly, it is a diagram that shows the structure of an organization and the relationships and relative ranks of its parts and positions/jobs. Now back in the old days, when the internet was not that much famous, this was of relative importance, or maybe it still is today. What the org chart does is hands the structure of things, the ranks and such and the position of any given job, sort of like telling you what to do with your job. Work orders from higher ups would easily be handed down to the lower ranked workers. This would mean easier work output or something. Since orders could be easily passed down to any given worker that is meant for it. and passing the work when finished back may have the same course of how it got there. Since people were more accustomed to it, everyone was able to understand how the system works, but since the coming of new technologies, like the internet. There have been a couple of new things that could help simplify the whole organizational chart to a minimum. When trying to upgrade to that, their might be some difficulty in adapting but when done correctly, it can help improve the business quite a bit. But some may still stick to the old ways, because there is the saying “if its not broke, don’t fix it”, and not all company’s are ready to adapt to such. but its still ok, since it is still best practice. And if they rush the improvements, they might lose more than what they were supposed to gain.

50. “Today, the org chart is hyperlinked, not hierarchal. Respect for hands-on knowledge wins over abstract authority”. - if org charts were in power point presentations, or in paper a couple of years back, today its completely different. Such charts like that are on the internet nowadays, though still on power point presentations maybe, but it is uploaded so that anyone can view or copy it, like the slideshare thing. Stuff like that is more convenient not only for you the up loader, but for everyone else you intended for the presentation, how you might say? Lets say, you are tasked to create a presentation about a future company project with some of the leading investors. But here’s the thing, these investors are continents apart all over the world. arranging a date of meeting will only cost money and be quite a hassle, so why not just do a e-conference, something like a conference on the internet, and with the presentation already uploaded, all of them can just check out the link. Though this is only in the perspective of presentations and such, organizational charts are of a complete different perspective on my point of view, but then again there are some connections as well. like the online information, if they know it and you don’t, then your not exactly on the correct authority now is it? this is the time now, there is no more hierarchy, no such things, people must get the information to quickly grasp the concepts. Understanding on these things inside the company is vital for the survival of the business, and it keeps you that one step ahead of rival competitors as well, that would mean quite a good business for your company.

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51. “Command and Control Management styles both derive from reinforce bureaucracy, power tripping and an overall culture of paranoia.” - what could the word bureaucracy mean? Bureaucracy is the structure and set of regulations in place to control activity, usually in large organizations and government. So on other words, its something like a “my house, my rules” sort of thing. Where everyone must follow what the leader says, though this is practiced in some countries, most countries do not follow this since it violates one of the human rights thing, the freedom of speech maybe? I know its somewhere around there. As the quote said, such things derive power hungry people, people with power only care about one person, themselves. This would not be a problem if only it weren’t stepping on other people, its somewhat similar to an online rpg game, people with higher levels tend to pick on the lower leveled people, just because they can. It sucks like hell, believe me, as a former gamer, it extremely limited my movements and caused quite the vengeful spirit in me. Maybe that’s were the paranoia thing comes in as well, since people with power tend to always do such things, we would already presume all of them are the same, and would most likely keep away from them, or try to outnumber them, or impeach them, in government terms, a reinforced bureaucracy? That is something we as the people of this free world do not need. And besides, with the constant information leek going on every single day, I doubt no one knows about the doings of such people. Command and control is like bureaucracy as well, though its not like a big shock, since it was derived from it to begin with. Unfortunately, its side affects were also drafted in the management as well, making it quite a bit flawed. For now.

52. “Paranoia kills conversation, that’s it’s point. But the lack of open conversation kills companies.” - Paranoia can lead to a lot of things, killing conversations is one of them already. How might this be true? The same concept as the online game from before can be used here as well. though it may be an online game, some concepts of it can be applied in the real market as well. for instance, I a lone player am wandering in the most crowded city of all the world. since there are a lot of people, there are sure to be a lot of merchants. I were to buy some premium stuff from this one merchant, but this one merchant is the only one that is overpricing everything, and another merchant on the side sells the same product cheaper. I would immediately take the cheaper item right? Then I would talk to my people about the sheer overpricing of the other merchant, not only which, my other friends heard a couple of old rumors about the said merchant as well, creating that paranoia distinction. That would most likely ruin the merchant for quite a bit. But what if say, these merchants are actually connected in one company. then they need to be able to converse with one another, to share prices and change them maybe for the betterment of everyone else. conversations amongst customers are an important key as well, and should not be forgotten, without that the company will die. People do hold a couple of great words for a product you know, like that thing should be cheaper since it became less rare, or something like that in general. Though online games may be but a killer for a Childs education, in older peoples perspective. They actually have some real world usable facts.

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53. “There are two conversations going on, one inside the company and one with the market.” - how can I best describe this quote, the only way I could describe it is for it to be something around the line of markets and conversations, since this is what the whole cluetrain is about then maybe it is. conversations inside a company would most likely include stuff like, when is the meeting, how much should we price this, or maybe something in the hierarchal manner, though such thing is obsolete now and should be removed from the company, there could be some that still use the old ways to maintain a business. so the conversation in the company would most likely be among the workers, since they are also a part of your community, they might have some knowledge on some improvements your company can use and such. conversations are a key to success you know. That is what a company should pay attention, one slip and they might lose it all just like that. The conversations in the market world would most likely include the sales and such. like stocking a whole product to sell them. Pretty much the whole markets are conversations deal. People talk to get information, information that could lead to better business investments of such products. And that would most likely alert the other companies to step up as well. though market in conversation would most likely derive from the customers themselves, since they are the ones buying and selling maybe some products. If a company were to combine the two together, something magnificent might show up and would benefit quite a number of people.

54. “In most cases, neither conversations is going very well. almost inevitably, the cause of failure can be traced to obsolete notions of command and control.” - so someone else also thinks that command and control management is something obsolete and should be taken out, since these times no longer require it or it only damages the company today. Though conversations is the most important key in a businesses strive for money. Having those customers are of a completely different level. Customers bring about business, business brings conversation among customers and your people most likely. So what if I a clerk would here from other people that this one product was actually quite a bit cheaper on another rival store. If I were to say this in the old way, it would take quite a while reaching the head and a longer while reaching to the important people that would actually do something about it. lack of such reactions can kill a business. this is were the old way must be changed to something new altogether, whether a new system to pass around information, to maybe something in the internet. And besides, a bureaucratic way of management sucks. Would you want to go to a store and buy some not important things just because they would tell you? Management of the contral and command system is not all that bad in a way maybe, since its goal is to not have a business, or selling items. But they cannot comprehend the human factor that is also key to success. Using an obsolete thing is redundant, if there is something new and improved, use it. it’s a hell lot better than what they had a while back, since it is an upgrade.

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55. “As policy, these notions are poisonous. As tools, they are broken. Command and control are met with hostility by intranetworked knowledge workers and generate distrust in internetworked markets.” - as from the whole quote itself, it can most likely be explained in this manner, the command and control system does not work anymore, using it will most likely damage you, and your goods in the business. bureaucracy is something that should be best left in the past. Why? Simply because it only causes trouble for everyone else, and cannot be used effectively as tools. The internet allows people to be connected with one another right? So this command and control system can be quite the enemy, since it tells something like, they should follow the higher ups. So they might hate that one company for a whole bunch of reasons, like low wages. Something like that stirs the workers soul to fighting spirit you know. So something like the bureaucracy is obsolete already, internetworked knowledge workers know more about your company than you do most likely. Distrust in the market is a killer as well, for example, they may have tasked you to sell a specific product of theres. But your overpricing is off the charts, rendering less sales. Though they may not want to do business with you anytime soon, some might still want to. This is were internetworked markets play along, so if such things happened. They can just tell their fellow marketers to simply just stay away from your own business. that would most likely render quite a number of debts. Since command and control mostly follow the orders of those higher ups. This is were they are flawed, since information is passed to everyone, everyone can know of the things they need to know in order to prevent scams.

56. “These two conversations want to talk to each other. They are speaking the same language, they recognize each others voice.” - the two conversations this quote is possibly talking about can only most likely mean the conversation inside the company and the one in the market. though they may be in different worlds, they speak the same language as of any other humans do. Since the conversation inside the company may consist of conversations between workers, workers tend to be the most valuable source of such things, since they are not only working for your company, but they are also a part of your community as well. Whatever conversations they have, it is the same as the conversation outside the company. Markets are somewhat like the conversations inside the company as well, though they are more free maybe, since they are not bound by the rules and management companies have. They are just free to talk whatever they like, whether it would be something about a product or not, maybe a price difference or something. But the main thing still exist, people talk, and those kinds of talk are universal from both sides. So when the people inside the company talk about something, the people on the market can easily understand them, since the two worlds recognize each other in a symbiotic way. Whatever the two may talk about, one thing is always certain. markets are conversations, they always have and always will be. Conversations should not be neglected just like that, since they may hold the key to ones survival in the competitive world of market, and can be a trump card for your company as well, since it may be able to keep you that one step ahead of other rivals in terms of maybe features or a product.

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57. “Smart companies will get out of the way and help the inevitable to happen sooner.” - the people in this conversation may mean the business, and the customers, or something of sorts. Though I think the business world’s way of talking is still unclear to the Normal mans comprehension. There may be potential or something, what do the big guys want? They want to make some money of course, but in order to do that, they need the support of the people in the community, and they the community need there the company as well in order to support ones family and such. this is what the quote might be talking about, or it could also talk about the conversation between the buyer and the seller as well. since the two always interact with one another to do business and such. because the two have that compatibility, they immediately recognize each others voice in a flash. This is one of the important factors to determine a good business relationship as well. if the two recognize each other well, then there is harmony in trading goods and services. But if there is a single misunderstanding, there might be a big conflict because of this. One of the things the two need to understand as well is, to understand who they are talking to, because you cant always get what you want right? Maybe that’s were the term “bargaining” came from. Buyers bargain sellers to sell the stuff cheaper, and sellers bargain the buyers to buy there products. Its like an endless loop of things and such. but if they both can understand one another, all will be well. and that is one of the important things for change to happen.

58. “If willingness to get out of the way is taken as a measure of IQ, then very few companies have yet wised up.” - there can be a single but intense factor that this could only point out to, The company’s unwillingness to change things. Since the dawn of the industrial era, these big companies have already grown accustom to how the business works. In that time, they are the ones who are followed, they make the things happen, give permission, etc. for a time, it was good, since no one else dared challenge these big people up on the chain of commands. Since the lower classed workers were only told to do things and not to question the orders. Unfortunately, time has changed, and it waits for no one. Now, you can easily see the people are in command now. Information is the key to revolution, it always was and always will be, this is true in our history. The problem is, not many companies still want to change, if its not broke don’t fix it, right? Though it may be a solid ground to stand on, it is completely irrelevant in our time of technological advancements, that’s why if companies want to stay ahead of the business world, they must change as well. However, changing is not necessarily good in it own way. If you rush the process, you will suffer more than what you have intended, another fact history has shown. Everything has its own time to change, all it needs is the right moment. There are some companies today that still thrive greatly even without these advancements, but they are lagging behind. Most companies do not even have there own company blog site yet. It has been proven that companies with blogs tend to get better customer relations than those without blogs. That alone can be a deciding factor in the improvement of a company.

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59. “However subliminally at the moment, millions of people now online perceive companies as little more than quaint legal fictions that are actively preventing these conversations from intersecting.” - one of the many misconceptions of the people today as well, though I do not blame them for saying that these companies are trying to prevent conversations from happening. There was this one person, he was invited by a company in Australia to blog about there site, that he did. Unfortunately, what he blogged about made a dramatic change to the company, whether it was for better or for worse I did not heard, but it must have been a bad thing since they wanted him to change the comment. They even tried to pay the man to change it. but, being a man of great morale, he declined it all, and said that it was not his fault that they had such things back then to comment about. But he is not the only one that has experienced this intervention. Hundreds, even thousands of videos are being blocked everyday, chatrooms being locked. Those factors might spur anger amongst the people that were once viewing there. Though our technology may be advanced, the people still hasn’t. people always try to pin the blame on someone, they are just like that way, they need to establish who was the bad guy. If something was blocked for “legal” reasons, or maybe it was licensed, it is pretty hard to believe it. on the count there has been no announcement on the product ever, nor have they tried to explain the reason at all. You cant exactly blame the messenger can you? So people opt to blame the bigger people behind the scenes.

60. “This is suicidal. Markets want to talk to companies.” - is it suicidal? I don’t really think too much about it, but I guess it is. companies haven’t exactly developed there internal relations with the markets yet. They only perceive them as buyers of there own product. One of the hard things about the companies is this, they have a fixed amount of what they want in exchange for the goods or services, markets being conversations always want to opt for the lesser expensive and would most likely try to bargain with the big heads in the company. this may be the suicidal factor in the quote since the companies still speak in an entirely different language from the market. maybe because companies have not yet been accustomed to be talked back to, whereas the market is all about talking to one another, though I cannot see any good relevance from markets to actually talk to a company, it’s a good step forward to a better relationship between the two, if only the thickheaded companies can learn to understand there own community a little better, maybe they will get a little more business, maintaining a company is hard work alone, so trying to reason with them may sound unreasonable. To them, they may think that “what do they know?” and maybe its true, what does the market know about running a company? nothing I suppose. But then again, without these markets, they wouldn’t have a business to begin with. Though this may be a bad way of handling things today, maybe in the future something will happen about it. but for now, it may be best to leave things as they are now. The two need one another to survive in a sense.

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61. “Sadly, the part of the company a networked market wants to talk to is usually hidden behind a smokescreen of hucksterism, of language that rings false—and often is.” - this may be true today, though not many might agree on this, I believe that the companies only talk what they you to hear. For example, (this is based on a drama show). A big player on a automotive company talks to his future investors about a car they say would revolutionize the way things work, supposedly. However, this new car is a death trap to however rides it to more than 60 mph, while playing the radio, and the headlights turned on. this may mean the immediate downfall of the said company, unless it remains a secret. And that is what companies do today, they sugarcoat things to persuade people into buying there own products, like a deception under corruption. Though they may say one thing about a certain product, it actually gives the opposite effect. That’s why some people have taken upon themselves to share these vital information to themselves, thus creating a world where everyone is connected to one another. If you, a customer want to know the beef on a certain product, you ask the people and not the company. if you do ask the company, it would be like asking a waiter what food is better at a restaurant. Of course they will say something like this and that to persuade the customer to actually order a much expensive yet not really worth it food. Maybe this is why markets talking to companies is considered suicidal, since talking to a company will get you literally nowhere, and is futile in effort, you cant really sell something that is bad can you?

62. “Markets do not want to talk to flacks and hucksters. They want to participate in the conversations going on behind the corporate firewall.” - continuing this from the previous quote, of course markets do not want to talk with the sugarcoating people. They want to talk with the real deal, the real people behind all of that fake stuff. People behind those walls are still part of the community in a way, and they want to talk with them. Though talking to companies is still considered suicidal, they challenge the whole thing, why? I think they themselves know it is time to change the whole way companies speak. People do not want to hear all the good stuff about a certain product when its actually bad, or buying a product that will go obsolete in the coming week. Those kinds of actions is what made the company what they are now, impossible to talk to. Since the only reliable source of information is from someone in your level as well, the level of a consumer. People tend to take those comments more than what companies say, if I were to say that a certain company is actually pocketing some of the construction money of a certain car, then that would most likely make a direct impact to it. On another different note, why would markets want to participate in the conversations inside the company? because they are the ones giving out the products, if markets were able to enter this conversation, a whole new relationship between the two might come out of it, and everyone wins. Since the companies goal is to make money and all, and the markets goal is something like that as well, only they have a small piece of the action.

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63. “De-cloaking, getting personal: We are those markets. We want to talk to you.” - though I am not exactly sure of this, this may mean what the market wants to do with the big guys inside the company, to a company, they may only perceive the whole market as just a place to conduct business, sell wares and whatever. They don’t really need to know how its done, the only thing is important to them is that there stuff is selling. For markets to talk to companies like that, a lot of people consider it suicidal for a lot of reasons, since most likely they will not go anywhere from talking to companies since the only thing you will receive in talking to them is a load of bull. Lies just to satisfy there own needs. If the markets were to actually reach the bosses of these companies, what would they say? Something like, “We know how to make your stuff better”? or maybe not, since the two don’t really have a good relationship with one another, but the strangest thing of all of this is, the markets still persist in talking with companies. Maybe because they have foreseen the future, and it needs the two of them to work together maybe. Or maybe they just want to talk with them for some reason, this is unclear to me for now, there are a lot of things to obtain from this strange interaction from the two maybe. The companies have failed to realize that they are the markets, and they want to talk to them. If these companies would step down in the ladder of power to hear these voices, it might spur a lot of benefits to both parties.

64. “We want access to your corporate information, to your plans and strategies, your best thinking, your genuine knowledge. We will not settle for the 4-color brochure, for web sites chock-a-block with eye candy but lacking any substance.” - they, the market most likely, never really is settled with the sugar coated lie the speakers of any given company say, and why would they? How can a market strike a good business if that’s the case? It is still a suicidal act if the market tries to do any kind of thing like that. Instead, they would much rather want to the real information the company has, that’s why they want to get in on that inner circle or something. One cannot make a good business if any real information is kept secret to one another now is there? Though I can understand why they don’t want to share those stuff to the market. for example, if some vital information were to be leaked outside the company, some rival company might take advantage of that and your company might be at its loss sooner or later, or maybe there are some flaws that still needs working out, if those were leaked as well, then that would most likely degrade the customer level. But if markets are not like that and are only after the information for the business, then all is still well. if the best thinkers in the market part and the best thinkers in the company part meet together, something good might come out of it. some new invention that would change the world maybe. The problem is, the companies today, only release standard stereotypical information, of course its information that would most likely attract customers who are not intelligent enough to know they are being mind controlled by the ads. There may be sites, but it lacks the real substance that the market needs to know.

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65. “We're also the workers who make your companies go. We want to talk to customers directly in our own voices, not in platitudes written into a script.” - as to what this quote might try to make in any possible sense, if any, is that, the workers in your company are also part of the community you have been handling since the time your company came to be, right? So it would make quite a lot of sense that they are also part of that small community, though crazy as it may seems, you the company need them to make your company go, and they need you too, so that they would afford the stuff your company releases, its like that whole economy thing, you give them wages for the work they’ve done, and they use it on the products you put out. It’s the whole circle of life thing if you put it. now that that has been made clear, they, your small time workers, would maybe like to also talk the customers you are handling, not just in scripted form where they just tell the people what you told them to say. That would make a bad revue for the customers, seeing that your company may lack customer services and such, and customer services is the key to a successful career. The best way to go is to let them be what they want to be, if you take good care of your people, they, in return, will return the favor as well, they will most likely go and tell other people of how wonderful you company is, making your company just that little bit more famous then before. Or it could also mean that the market also would like to try and talk to your employees as well, since they are part of the community and whatnot. Telling your people what to say with the market is certainly not a good thing to do, and is most likely, un-cool. If you, the company owner will just allow such things to happen, open conversations, then it will turn out good for you eventually. Since markets are conversations, that is the new thing these days.

66. “As markets, as workers, both of us are sick to death of getting our information by remote control. Why do we need faceless annual reports and third-hand market research studies to introduce us to each other?” - again, this is something like what I have been saying for quite some while now. As both the market and your workers are subject to the sugar coated lie your company keeps telling them. They are sick to the core with it, they know the script of such things, they know how it works and they certainly know what is the output of all of the good for nothing effort your company constantly does to make them look good. For markets to know about this, of course they would know something like that, they are part of the market you know, markets are conversations. For the workers now, they should know the crap going around your company, they work there remember? what a good company should do is stop all of that nonsense and release something more genuine. Real words from real people are what they need, not some script from a studio. And since the markets were already talking to the community to begin with, they don’t really need any more kind of introductions or so called research studies to introduce the two. Markets and workers have been talking since before your company even came to be. If you try to feed them nonsense about your company, then they will also reply with nonsense, or they wont reply at all. Given the right circumstances, they might even not buy from your company at all, given the bad revue and all. Again, one of the best things to do is stay real to oneself, don’t tell them something that is not really part of your company, they will find out about it sooner or later.

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67. “As markets, as workers, we wonder why you're not listening. You seem to be speaking a different language.” - And such this is another continuation from the previous quotes. Now, markets and workers realize the problem of your company, they try to talk to you about it. but you and your company seem to cannot comprehend what they are trying to say. For them, its like your only hearing what you want to hear, most likely because you cannot bare the criticism or something, but nevertheless they are an important part of your company, and such you must take good care of them. Who else will buy your goods? Certainly not animals, and not people out of the country. If your stuff doesn’t already sell locally, why would you sell them globally? Its suicidal for the company’s side now. For them, the markets and workers, they seem to be trying the best they can to try and communicate with you as humanly as possible, some companies, if not all, tend to negate all of this as just nonsense. Maybe because some big heads in a company is too big headed to realize something is wrong with there stuff. People are like that sometimes, they always believe they are always right, even if they are wrong. Though such people may be unavoidable in any time period, its best if they would try to comprehend the times and understand that some things are supposed to change, for the better of all sides. That is what conversation will lead to. But if your company still tries to block those things, there is no stopping you. But think about this, why are these two groups still trying what they can to talk with the real you inside the company? can they not see its futility? Or maybe there is a much bigger reward waiting for the both of you if you 3 were to meet in some point in time and exchange ideas.

68. “The inflated self-important jargon you sling around— in the press, at your conferences—what's that got to do with us?” - this is yet again, something that has to do with the fact that your people, and the markets and employees, lack in the conversation factor. Why would they even try to listen on any type of thing you would try to say when it does not entirely relate to what they are doing in any point? During in these press conferences, your company will almost surely say a lot of big stuff that will get you some audience, if they are oblivious of such crap. But in total overall perspective, what your company is only saying will only be about yourselves. What about the market? or the employees? Hence the part on what does all of the crap got to do with them. When almost it has no connection between the two. One of the important things when trying to establish a good partnership with these markets, if you are trying to anyway, is to always be in good terms with them. They are already giving there best trying to reason with your company right, maybe if you would talk to them, it would give you some important vital news that would actually save your bankrupting company, that or will try to scam you of any remaining value you have. Either way, you have a choice, either sit back and wait for the inevitable doom of your company, or do something about it to save it. so don’t try to make things hard to communicate with the two. They are already trying to talk to you guys right? There is some significant reason as to why is that maybe, maybe a new symbiotic relationship will happen, where both parties will get good benefits from it.

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69. “Maybe you're impressing your investors. Maybe you're impressing Wall Street. You're not impressing us.” - one of the things a self-important jargon crap your company might sling, I do not assume you the reader have a company to begin with, but in hypothetical terms, just to get this thing rolling. Now if you do sling some self righteous crap about yourself and your company, maybe you do it to impress some big time people, those people do have the money and all you know, which in my opinion is not all that bad to do. Sucking up to them is just a small price to pay to step up in the business world, in this harsh world we live in, we need to take advantage of any opportunity given to us, if we have one at all. Investors are the ones that gave you the money in st the 1 place right? So of course you have to make nice with them, they are your source of money as of now in the development stages. You do some bad thing and it might lose you some important investors and all. So its good to suck up to them, there is no shame in doing so, but also try to remember they are not the people that will make your company roll, it’s the workers inside. They are part of the community you know, and the community is part of the market, so it connects together, you have to also impress them in a way, since they will be the ones giving you the income. Try to always talk in a human way so that everyone can understand. You cant talk about stuff that only you know about. So you have to take consideration on who you talk to, besides, if you talk in a human voice that all can understand, that would excel your company greatly and ensure good business relations.

70. “If you don't impress us, your investors are going to take a bath. Don't they understand this? If they did, they wouldn't let you talk that way.” - this would most likely imply that you as a company, if you do not entertain or impress those market people that you have been trying to keep locked out of your circle of connections, your potential investors might turn the other way around your company. why would something like that happen you say? Simple, because they know were the money lies, its within the market. the market are the ones that sell the products, they are the one giving companies the profit they need. So denying the market or your employees of having any kind of conversation to you is like already signing your own business’s death. Another part of this quote may imply that, if you and your company do know all about that, then you might treat your people a little bit different than what you do right now. Treating the market and your people poorly can result into some very bad complications mind you. If I were an investor, and saw that your company had poor communication skills, or do not prioritize customer support, I would be tempted not to fund your company at all, since this may lead to bankruptcy in the future, and cause me quite the backlash. Strangely enough, it’s the market themselves that are trying to establish a conversation with those types of companies, why would they do that? Maybe because those companies supply the stuff they need to sell, and vice versa, though companies are still a little bit hard headed on the matter, the two must cooperate in a symbiotic manner in order to survive, especially in our current economy.

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70. “If you don't impress us, your investors are going to take a bath. Don't they understand this? If they did, they wouldn't let you talk that way.” - this would most likely imply that you as a company, if you do not entertain or impress those market people that you have been trying to keep locked out of your circle of connections, your potential investors might turn the other way around your company. why would something like that happen you say? Simple, because they know were the money lies, its within the market. the market are the ones that sell the products, they are the one giving companies the profit they need. So denying the market or your employees of having any kind of conversation to you is like already signing your own business’s death. Another part of this quote may imply that, if you and your company do know all about that, then you might treat your people a little bit different than what you do right now. Treating the market and your people poorly can result into some very bad complications mind you. If I were an investor, and saw that your company had poor communication skills, or do not prioritize customer support, I would be tempted not to fund your company at all, since this may lead to bankruptcy in the future, and cause me quite the backlash. Strangely enough, it’s the market themselves that are trying to establish a conversation with those types of companies, why would they do that? Maybe because those companies supply the stuff they need to sell, and vice versa, though companies are still a little bit hard headed on the matter, the two must cooperate in a symbiotic manner in order to survive, especially in our current economy.

71. “Your tired notions of "the market" make our eyes glaze over. We don't recognize ourselves in your projections—perhaps because we know we're already elsewhere.” - notice that these quotes now talk about nothing else but the market and the company, and there relations to one another. Now currently, the market has changed and evolved from the previous description it was, what it was is not what it is now. However, the company or business does not recognize this change of character towards the market at all, thus creating catastrophic breakdowns between the relationships of the two. What the company might think about the market may be true some ten years ago, but they have to also understand it is not what it is today, it has made a complete 180 degree change. The market, being a new man now cannot stand this misunderstanding at all, and most likely rages them to a point where they want to beat the companies senseless, but that is only in my imagination. For me, it would only be natural for something like this to happen, who runs the big companies? old people. old people who cling to the ways they already know, and not adapt what the new ones are, and why would they? Older people tend to have less capabilities of using new technology. The same thing could be derived from it here in the market. if the companies had a way of transacting business and it is still good today, why would they change it at all? Changing it will have risks you know, risks that could do incalculable damage to a company. but the new way of the market may indicate it would help the both of them out, given the two would cooperate. The one main problem involving projects, communication.

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72. We like this new marketplace much better. In fact, we are creating it. - this would most likely lead to the last quote from a while ago, where companies do not want to change what they already have now, since its been good for the last couple of years. Changing it would only be troublesome and will take money. However, in the marketplace point of view, this new system is a lot better than what the old one has to give. Maybe more advanced features? Like being able to add a photo image to an item when selling them online, or being able to put the image of an item on a special box that will open when clicked with special zooming capabilities like fancybox. Or maybe the market likes this new system because they are the ones that created it. a self created program does mean you know how it works, if you want to add something to it, just do it, its yours to play with. Companies of old times fail to see this I suppose and has failed epically on adapting to it. given the date today, these companies may be forced to adapt whether they like it or not, since this is the new way of business, it is inevitable and all that. But if its something created by the marketplace, then surely it will increase in revenue, right? Hopefully, if the cost of upgrading is bigger then the revenue, a lot of companies might go bankrupt earlier than anticipated, especially in our current weak economy. So companies decision not to upgrade may be derived from it, if it is, I can see the point as to why they don’t want to change yet.

73. “You're invited, but it's our world. Take your shoes off at the door. If you want to barter with us, get down off that camel!” - again this is still related to the last quote on how companies still do not want to change the way it is since it doesn’t need to, and the new teaching the market has to offer, yet the companies may or does not really want to hear about it yet. Now, since the market, being the most omnipotent beings known throughout the world, being the only people who keeps talking to people that does not want to talk back to them, and is still inviting those said people to this new way even if they do not want to. I certainly will never see anyone like that, an annoying nuisance, or someone who does not give up ever. Though since markets have an open invitation to these business to join them in there new world of marketing, they do have some rules the businesses must follow, something like the businesses are not on the driver seat now, it is the market who drives the car (of business). so most likely when business do try to adapt this new technology, its like they want it there way again. but that is not what markets do now, in fact, they are the ones leading business today. Big guys in the business have been spoiled of being always being followed, its like they were gods but never were. Now times has changed all of that, some people cannot recognize this yet, new world means new rules, the one who created it is the new leader, that is what those companies must take notice maybe. You cant exactly transact a deal when you think you must always win on the debate now can you?

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74. “We are immune to advertising. Just forget it.” - one of the last things markets need now is advertising, on this modern time, the only advertising people need are comments by other people, since these comments are pure and real, not like ads created by the businesses themselves. Advertising, is something that would most likely spur more income for the company, since they get paid for airing those ads on market. but what does the market really benefit from it? definitely nothing I believe, since these ads show false truths, one certain product that you might happen to sell might be of bad customer experience, if that one customer that had that bad experience shares his story to other people, not only will your store will not sell at all anymore, you have to give it on special discounts just to sell them, and making you less money. The most logical thing to do next is to stop any kind of business from the previous company and find something new that people like. This may be the experience market had, since those kinds of things used to happen all the time. so they sell products that has a good revue by other people, and people will buy this supposedly good product in return. That is one part of how the market works now, so companies that try to instill ads to these markets has a better chance of finding a needle in the haystack than having an ad approved by the markets. Though i am not saying ads have completely no effect now, there are still some that are, maybe these are exemptions to the rule? I don’t know.

75. “If you want us to talk to you, tell us something. Make it something interesting for a change.” - assuming that the last quote finally had some effect on these companies, and these said companies finally swallowed there prides, stepped down the camel of superiority, and decided to talk to these lowly but greatest markets ever. There are still a long ways to go before these road blocks are broken, the markets finally got these businesses to talk to them, but what are they supposed to talk about? Certainly what they had for breakfast. This is what the companies may be facing as a dilemma now, they can now talk to markets, but they do not have any idea what to talk about. Or maybe they just cannot express a certain item in a way where at st 1 , the whole thing is consisted of only 3 words, and change it into a 2 page description of what it is. maybe the direct and discreet approach? I certainly go for this approach almost all the time. why must I elaborate on a certain game for the psp when I can just say it in 5 lines of words? It is a nuisance and a brain cells killer since I have to think of a lot of things just to get the work done. Though businesses must tell these markets something good in order for some business to actually happen, maybe what they need is something like a good spokesperson, someone who is good with people and communication skills. Someone that can make a bad product into the next best thing, even though its still a bad product. And besides, businesses must make something new in order to sell. They cant sell something that’s already been made by some other company.

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76. “We've got some ideas for you too: some new tools we need, some better service. Stuff we'd be willing to pay for. Got a minute?” - though businesses and markets are now talking to each other, they still have a lot of ways to go in order to reach the good terms of partnership. If these guys are partners, yet these two are the leader type in a group, there are bound to be conflicts between ideas, since businesses have been in this game of business and markets longer than these new market people, they feel that they must be followed at all cost maybe, however, they have to remember markets now are not what they used to be back in the old days, they have to step down on the camel of nobility maybe and talk to these guys. These guys do have a lot of great ideas for you, for example maybe, you are currently creating the most bought processor for the cpu, surely a lot of people are buying, but these market guys, they talk to you and tell you of a better one to earn money, the same processor, but double the power. surely this will be a new hot trend for computer geeks across the world, since games these days require a hell lot of cpu power. this proves that market has a lot of things going through there heads as well, and these things can be good business for everyone, when everyone makes a lot of money, everyone is happy. I would be. Though if companies were to pay attention to these guys that have the greatest ideas, I do not know, they are making a mistake let me tell you that, but that is how the world currently works maybe, or maybe was. Since these guys are on demand 24/7 nowadays.

77. “You're too busy "doing business" to answer our email? Oh gosh, sorry, gee, we'll come back later. Maybe.” - in my personal point of view, these market guys are already the ones giving all they got to talk to these companies, trying forever to add, even the ones giving out the ideas to improve there business as well, but even though they may be the most persistent people found on the earth, they are still people you know, and they have limitations. They just have this long line of patience, if your company crosses that, then they will leave you for good for some other company that is more “workable”, are companies too busy doing business to answer some emails that will most likely improve there business ten folds? Who knows, that’s what they say, or maybe they just don’t want to talk to market at all. Why? I do not know, but these companies have already been given the golden opportunity, like a once in a lifetime decision, and they missed it. its there bad, but they cant do squat about it now, since these markets moved on to other companies that are more than welcome hearing there comments. If I were in this market, and the people I’m trying to help aren’t even paying attention to me, I wouldn’t even give t a second thought finding other people that will listen to me, its just how the human social pyramid works. too busy to answer because of business? markets ARE the business, you ignore these guys and you wont have to worry about being busy at all for the rest of your life.

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78. “You want us to pay? We want you to pay attention.” - though this may still be relating to the way the market and big corporations talk to each other, just maybe, how would the corporations or big business want the market to pay? Cash on hand? I’m not quite sure on the rules of trade, but I’m pretty sure the market side would not have yet the money to pay if they don’t have anything to sell. Or maybe the market already does have sufficient money to pay, and will deem to earn all of the spent money with the goods they will be selling and such. or on another possibility, how would the market sell such products if they are st never really in demand in the 1 place? Surely no market will sell these said products at all, that’s why communication is best during these times. Corporations, being oblivious to its surroundings only believe what it still wants to believe, despite how the sales are dropping, maybe. Since the market aims to rectify that, they try and make new and better ways of improving a said product at all, for that to happen, conversation is still needed in order to keep the flow of upgrades on a certain product in line. Maybe it also says that how can the market even try to sell a product if they the producers does not even pay attention to there buyers at all, its like giving a canned good to a homeless guy, when that homeless guy does not even have a can opener to open it in st the 1 place.

79. “We want you to drop your trip, come out of your neurotic self-involvement, join the party.” - maybe this is some form of way of building a good relationship between the two people Or any kind of co-worker in the matter. Such activities that are not work related do come in handy from time to time, very much especially if you do not know your group yet. Such social activities establish friendship and camaraderie, building a much better work relationship and environment I believe. Maybe its same method is also applicable in terms of the two people I have been constantly talking about for more than ten of the 95 thesis on this book that is the market and corporations or companies. Though the market constantly opens there arms to the companies, they still don’t seem to want to actually go down there level, maybe because it seems degrading for a noble to talk to a commoner or something like that, but, nobles and such people are becoming ever so fewer in this time of crisis and corrupt governments. The money really lies in the commoners, they may not have a lot of money individually, but they to make it up in numbers, a lot of commoners are better than few nobles in business, since more people will get your place attracted a lot more, and sales would most likely increase because of it. maybe that is what the market wants those big corporations to see in the end, to see who are the people responsible for buying there products. Its not so bad once in a while, getting to know your community. Its better that way even, to let your community see that you as a owner of the company is also just like them, an ordinary person in the community.

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80. “Don't worry, you can still make money. That is, as long as it's not the only thing on your mind.” st

- though as businessmen, they’re 1 priority is always about money, and how such things will give them profit. Its not a bad thing, it is the sole driver that makes a man successful in life. It has been most likely the sole reason why these big companies tend to not talk to these markets at all, because they may fear that not only will it not make them money, but also lose some at the process. Such a misunderstanding is not really all that big of a deal, especially if that company is already making a variable amount of income in its own, but those suggestions from the market might have been something important in the long run. These markets, since they are connected with the people in the community, know better what is hot and what is not. Maybe they have some sort of clairvoyant powers or something, who knows. Sample, what if some vendor told you your product will do ten times the profit you earn currently if you do this one single upgrade that he/she suggested? But, this single upgrade requires quite a sum of money and its useful life is only predicted to last up to 8 years? Surely this is a troubling matter for the businessman, especially since the years it needs just to get back the money is 3 of that 8 years. However, in the long run, it does make a huge sum of money. These businessmen just see the short run of the product, that’s why they cannot cope with the idea of these markets. The markets have other ways of making bigger money, all you have to do is not think about making money.

81. “Have you noticed that, in itself, money is kind of onedimensional and boring? What else can we talk about?” - this could be the markets way of viewing the companies obsession of money and how to earn them like a pig. Well in its own right, talking nothing but money is boring, boring as it may sound, some people derive happiness from this type of conversation, businessman to businessman maybe, or a whole family on a family business talking about business even at home, dinner, vacations. Stuff like that is crazy, is there nothing else these people can talk about? Like what’s been happening with this actor or that actress, what song they like. I have bare witness to these kinds of conversations, and let me tell you, it lets you want to commit suicide just hearing another hour of conversation purely about business and how to make money. This could also be related to business as well, especially on such meetings with important figureheads. When you meet someone you don’t go straight to talking about business now do you? Some light st conversation about an unrelated matter should be the 1 topic, them some jokes, some food maybe, no I am not talking about hot to talk to a date, though this does sound weird. But if you a man talking to a figurehead that is reluctantly a woman, and a young woman at that, maybe it’s a good thing too. Not only will business bloom, but also your love life maybe? In the end, money is not everything. There may be people who still talk nothing but money, but I guess its forgivable, especially in my clan, since they are quite old now.

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82. “Your product broke. Why? We'd like to ask the guy who made it. Your corporate strategy makes no sense. We'd like to have a chat with your CEO. What do you mean she's not in?” - being dumbfounded beyond belief can be hard sometimes, especially if something went horribly wrong on a certain product you were producing. Such things do exist, and are unavoidable at times, a poor strategy can sometimes lead to such things, where do the markets st turn and looks for answers? Of course the ones who gave it to them in the 1 place, the guys that made the stuff, the companies. Companies may or may not at all experience this kind of problem in its life, given the correct countermeasures, but if one does manage to grow, then all hell will break loose. If a certain product that a certain company made suddenly went up and blew up on a customers face, its not the market or the people that sold it that will get a lawsuit for it, but the company that made it. though I am not also saying that the market will not have any downside to this as well, since no business will come to there doorstep ever again after that said hypothetical incident. It is also the markets responsibility to know what something like that came to happen. If something like that did happen, the company might be screwed beyond its wildest imagination, with no one to talk to, people would think they just rushed the product just so they could sell it, with no proper planning, no wonder it would break, and if the CEO of that company was happening to be just on vacation leave during this outbreak, that would not help at all.

83. “We want you to take 50 million of us as seriously as you take one reporter from The Wall Street Journal.” - though the bridge between the market and the companies may have been already established as it is now, companies may or may not take these markets seriously, since they only see them as just people who sell stuff, but as people themselves, the market, they are also actually involved in these kinds of trades personally, since they are the ones selling the products themselves and all that. What if these market guys where to actually have some important information to share to you as the owner of the company? would you take it lightly? Assuming yes, that would be a major step back in the path of to move forward. Companies would rather take priority of a reporter than a dozen market people trying to talk to them, why would this happen maybe? Maybe because reporters report what they see on the television, and they are pretty known to bend fact from fiction sometimes. Giving a company a bad revue by these reporters might stir a problem in the company itself since attracting customers itself might be hard. Though I am not saying prioritizing reporters than your own people in the market is not the best thing to do. Having time for the both of them is a much better decision as well, you don’t know one of those market guys recommendation might prove to have a positive effect on the reporters side as well, that would be a win-win situation I guess. This may seem to be only a pipedream though, since there are a lot of people in the market that are not being taken seriously on these kinds of matters rather than reporters.

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84. “We know some people from your company. They're pretty cool online. Do you have any more like that you're hiding? Can they come out and play?” - this does seem to be a little bit unrelated to the previous quotes as it is right now, its kind of like a shock though but it does have some bit of relation to the others. This could actually mean a lot of things to a lot of people in its own respective right. Like maybe they are talking about the customer services online, since stuff like that does require 1 : 1 live chatting maybe or something in order to satisfy a customers needs or questions on a certain product. Or it could be unrelated to work, and just adding and chatting some friends on some social networking site. Though this may seem irrelevant, these kinds of things could dramatically help an stone age styled company such as, assuming yours maybe, how? Attracting customers in the online world that’s how, and getting to know people online doesn’t hurt as well. or maybe its like, if there are more people in your company that is actually good in using online stuff, like they know how to blog or do e-commerce. That would be a drastic improvement to you and your company as well, maybe that is what the market is trying to imply on this specific block quote. Expanding your point of sales online is a good thing to do you know, and it would cost you a small sum of money compared to the business you would obtain from it in return. In short, if there are people inside your small circle of work that are good and proficient with some of the tools on the internet, especially concerning those of social networks and e-commerce, that would be greatly helpful, not only to you but to them as well, the market.

85. “When we have questions we turn to each other for answers. If you didn't have such a tight rein on "your people" maybe they'd be among the people we'd turn to.” - talking, what is it good for? A lot of things, it can get you places, places you never thought you would ever reach. Well at first, talking will get you a couple of friends, and some enemies. The human voice is quite a thing, most often goes unnoticed. Its not like its some trick of the words. Maybe for some spokesmen it is, they use terms so great that they can turn a bad product revue into something better again. like that one movie some time ago, this one spokesman of a smoking company talked to the people that smoking is just another leisure in life, and the chances of you dying from something other than lung cancer is greater. He was a smooth talker, but it got him kidnapped and brutally beaten. If you cant really talk to another person then you will not go too far, especially if you are trying to ask your work buddies for some answers to some questions that keeps you up at night. Such things like that can make a big difference among the people within the work area, helping one another would be a lot useful for your employees. Learning how to talk is not a thing that can be picked up just like that, not like picking up a lost handkerchief. If you don’t have it now, you never had it in the first place. Everyone must learn to speak for themselves, without it he or she will not go anywhere in life. Worse case scenario is that person will seclude him or herself in there own little world. .

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86. “When we're not busy being your "target market," many of us are your people. We'd rather be talking to friends online than watching the clock. That would get your name around better than your entire million dollar web site. But you tell us speaking to the market is Marketing's job.” - This quote is quite a big one isn’t it? in any case, the definition of “WE” may be us, the ordinary average everyday citizen. You see, these big companies often if not, always see us as the target market. trying to satisfy our needs or wants maybe, though some may be different from others, they try to accomplish the same goal in order to provide customer satisfaction. Though I think the companies themselves fail to notice that they’re own employees are also part of that target market they are trying to satisfy. Old fashion ways of advertising is still effective, in my opinion, but in the ever changing and advancing technological era we are in right now, this may seem to be futile to continue. People are more attracted at sites or blogs nowadays, people would much rather talk to there friends online than watch TV. Friends that are continents away from each other maybe, but these kinds of relation are the key in marketing. If one were to talk about your certain product online that would reach another different land, which would certainly get your name across the international regions. Even if a company was to have a big and spectacular website, it would be fruitless if no one knows about it, a sufficient amount of advertising is required also, but only through the word of mouth maybe, and good comments in blogs. Speaking to the market is everyone’s job. If it were not, then the companies today would still be a little bit in a disadvantage since they do not get the market’s ideas and cannot talk to them.

87. “We'd like it if you got what's going on here. That'd be real nice. But it would be a big mistake to think we're holding our breath.” - the people’s voice trying to tell the companies what their ideas are maybe, though not surprising, people get along better with one another, even if its only in online. Through forums, or blogs, or instant messaging may be, people connect with one another and develop these kinds of bonds together. Those conversations can be able to help you own business, since they can lead to comments. Consider it something like this; it’s like the global community, only miniaturized in your company. They are still part of the community you know. You would be surprised as to how much business happens just by talking through these people who have connections with other people who in return, have other connections to other people. If a product were to be released one month before its advertisement, people in the internet already have their comments on that certain product even before it got released. How is that possible? Maybe some information was leaked from inside the company through some certain friends who just happen to know someone working inside your company, or maybe they just call it how they see it through that ad. Or even if the product is still under construction, they would be more than happy to provide some insights as to what the product would or must have. Thinking that they will just sit back and take whatever the companies give them is a major error in the company’s part. If you want your stuff to sell, then make something people actually want and will buy, in this economy, people cant afford to buy any useless stuff.

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88. “We have better things to do than worry about whether you'll change in time to get our business. Business is only a part of our lives. It seems to be all of yours. Think about it: who needs whom?” - this is quite a perfect example as to what the people really feel about the companies that try and satisfy the people’s wants and needs, but only in futility. you see, this is also in accordance to the last topic I have posted, before a company even thinks about releasing a certain product, people already have comments about that certain product, good or bad comments, these things are supposed to help improve that certain product in time for its release. Though if that company were to actually finally take notice of these comments and tips, it would still be useless if they did the modifications at the last day of its release date. It is not really their business if you actually do improve your product at all, they are only giving their 2 cents on the matter, though you must not forget as well that they themselves are the people that will be buying your stuff. If you not do any improvements in that product, they will not really change their mind on it, its not really there call whether you should make the improvements happen or not. They don’t really need it to live at all, its just a part of there everyday lives. Its like, they don’t really need your stuff to begin with, rather you need them to buy your stuff in order to keep afloat. In a nutshell, taking your peoples advices are a major help in order to ensure success of your product, they know what is best, and they surely know what will sell if it came out.

89. “We have real power and we know it. If you don't quite see the light, some other outfit will come along that's more attentive, more interesting, more fun to play with.” - Information is the key to revolution; it always was and always will be, this is true in our history. The problem is, not many companies still want to change, if its not broke doesn’t fix it, right? Though it may be a solid ground to stand on, it is completely irrelevant in our time of technological advancements, that’s why if companies want to stay ahead of the business world, they must change as well. However, changing is not necessarily good in it own way. If you rush the process, you will suffer more than what you have intended, another fact history has shown. Everything has its own time to change; all it needs is the right moment. There are some companies today that still thrive greatly even without these advancements, but they are lagging behind. Most companies do not even have there own company blog site yet. It has been proven that companies with blogs tend to get better customer relations than those without blogs. That alone can be a deciding factor in the improvement of a company. there are some things in this time that these companies just cannot see quite well without glasses. They must realize that their own customers are not loyal to them, and that they will move to others who do listen to them. that’s why talking to your people is an important factor to be dealing with, without it, the company might fall down on its knees and will suffer gravely for its mistakes.

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90. “Even at its worst, our newfound conversation is more interesting than most trade shows, more entertaining than any TV sitcom, and certainly more true-to-life than the corporate web sites we've been seeing.” - an example as to how the community, even online works. Some years ago, communicating online was only but a fantasy in the minds of young people. Today, in the midst of online technology and capabilities, everything has been made possible by the people. You could finally talk to other people across borders, maybe talk to some distant relative. You could finally browse THE web, and know its wonders. I myself am no outsider when it comes to social networking sites. Such sites helped me find some of my old friends whom I last met at elementary school, and that was quite a long time ago, I was quite shocked that one of my 3 closest friends during that time is now working and living in California. Forums have also made there presence known throughout everything you could think, and talk about any kind of topics you could even think about, whether its about games, or just role playing with other people through forums. It builds relationships and bonds between the people. Watching TV has become a thing for old people, as I am writing this now, I am only but listening to my music through my computer. These kinds of conversations are not only just to pass the time, some of these do have relevance, and any kind of updated news would be quickly processed and obtained through the internet. Such things are true in the business level as well, any kind of comment to a certain company would rue it, whether a good or bad comment. Especially if that said person who made the comment is actually famous in the virtual world.

91. “Our allegiance is to ourselves—our friends, our new allies and acquaintances, even our sparring partners. Companies that have no part in this world, also have no future.” - as I was saying earlier on the matter, people build relationships and bonds with one another just by talking about everyday non-relevant to business things. Not every conversation should be about business, and why should it? you might be crazy if you think it is. a surprising amount of people actually take the word of their friends more than the word of the company or its main site. Why would they pay attention to these companies’s anyway? Their friends tell the truth about any given certain product, and what it does and such, even if you only knew this one person yesterday, you would already have a stronger relationship with that person than a company’s advertisement propaganda. These kinds of conversations are not only just to pass the time, some of these do have relevance, and any kind of updated news would be quickly processed and obtained through the internet. Such things are true in the business level as well, any kind of comment to a certain company would rue it, whether a good or bad comment. Though I am not saying that the companies do not know any of this, if they didn’t, such large corporations today might not even exist anymore. You see, these conversations amongst one another are the most important thing to ensure a good business. corporations may have already known about this and managed to stay alive because of it. some companies that do not however, are most likely buried six feet under. People trust their friends better than some company ad or website, if you are to someday own a large company, remember that and make your company even larger with it.

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92. “Companies are spending billions of dollars on Y2K. Why can't they hear this market timebomb ticking? The stakes are even higher.” - During the year 2000, a lot of companies spent a lot of money during the y2k incident. I was not sure what it was about, but I believe it was something that, the current computers we had during that time did not support a date for 2000 and above, so when 1999 was finished, it would most likely crash and the whole economy would flush down the toilet. Though its been almost 9 years since that incident, nothing really happened, it was all in the hype of the moment. A lot of companies spent a lot of money just to be prepared for something that did not actually happen, but if companies have the time and money to do such things, they should probably pay attention to the markets. It’s a heart attack waiting to happen. You see, these markets are the companies’ sole source of business, if they were to ignore this, they would most probably suffer a major consequence for it. Markets themselves are not the real bad guys here in this particular situation; they have made countless tries to have a good relationship with the companies. If such people in that company cannot pay attention to them even once, there will be consequences on the matter. The markets have other ways of making bigger money, all you have to do is not think about making money. That is what every good businessman’s goal is in life, making money. If they want to make a lot of them, they should probably be friendlier to their market counterparts.

93. “We're both inside companies and outside them. The boundaries that separate our conversations look like the Berlin Wall today, but they're really just an annoyance. We know they're coming down. We're going to work from both sides to take them down.” - this is like what I have said on some earlier discussions on this whole 95 thesis. You see, since the people who are conversing outside the company, they are actually inside your company as well, how is that you may ask? the people that you hire. During work hours they may be just working for your company, but after that, they go home and talk about stuff. Maybe go online, blog about things. Such things like that are exactly what drives the trust among friends. People trust other people they know more than any company, because people who know each other are less likely to lie about something that will not really change their lives at all. Like a new cell phone maybe, or a new plasma TV. Such activities that are not work related do come in handy from time to time, very much especially if you do not know your group yet. Such social activities establish friendship and camaraderie, building a much better work relationship and environment I believe. Conversations happen everywhere and anywhere around the world, whether inside or outside the company they are in. the boundaries that separate the two worlds from one another is really just an imaginary wall constructed by some guy. If this imaginary wall were to finally go down, things like conversations between the insides and outsides of the company would go pretty smoothly along the way. If such things were to happen, a lot of good things might come in handy, things that in the long run, will be the things that change the world.

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94. “To traditional corporations, networked conversations may appear confused, may sound confusing. But we are organizing faster than they are. We have better tools, more new ideas, no rules to slow us down.” - Conversations today, as we all know, are a most vital aspect of one’s everyday life. Where when in the old days, it was “best” practice to just do what you are told to do and nothing else. today its different, time has that effect of changing things really, whether for the better or for worse. Conversations are what drives today’s economy, or is partially responsible for driving it. Why, because markets are conversations. Conversations can lead to various things, from light conversations from normal everyday things, to business matters, like online transactions. Those things are quite hard to do, since people always try to outsmart one another. For me, conversations are something that must be learned, and is essential for one’s survival. If you cant talk to your people well, then all is lost, you wont be able to motivate people well, since they will not take you that seriously. Big companies may already know about this, and have realized that such conversations are taking place right under their own noses, their workers. They may be employed to you, but they are also your own community, they will always converse with one another. Since talking to one another may be prohibited during work, base on the company’s regulations. If the higher ups were to realize this, they may be able to capitalize on it, those conversation can be able to help you own business, since they can lead to comments. Consider it something like this, its like the global community, only miniaturized in your company. They are still part of the community you know. In short, corporations must see and learn the communities’ way of conversation. If they cannot comprehend it at all, they will be at a loss.

95. “We are waking up and linking to each other. We are watching. But we are not waiting.” - this may also hint to the community, or us the everyday people. Linking to each other would most probably mean getting new friends by the day, since the social networking boom, people make dozens of friends almost everyday. So it would most probably mean that information would be passed down by them almost instantly if any were to arise right? Social networking site are not just to socialize you know, some use them for business purposes as well. one such site is LinkedIn, a popular kind of social network media, but there is not about how many friends you have, but how many you do know and trust. That site is specifically built for business purposes, and finding jobs maybe. However it may be, people are still getting connected with one another through other means. So when a certain new product would be released soon, everyone within those connections would already know what to expect maybe, but it does not necessarily mean rd that they are anticipating for that said product. Like the 3 generation gaming consoles today. People will not buy the Nintendo wii if they are loyal to Sony. They would much rather wait for the ps3, or maybe the quote is saying completely the opposite. If those people did buy the wii instead of the ps3, then they would not be able to play any of the games that are affiliated with Sony. Lastly, it might also mean that, they do know of the product, but they are not waiting to buy it since they do not really need it at the moment. You don’t need a new cell phone when your current one is still in good condition.

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Web 2.0 Heroes: Interviews with 20 Web 2.0 Influencers

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Chapter one Quote: “you blur the lines between a desktop experience and a web experience, and that’s really where everything is headed” –Max Mancini

Learning Expectations: Something that has to do with E-bay or rather how it got started and maybe I can understand it and someday use it on my own advantage. Review:

E-bay, when you ask someone about it chances are, they know it. E-bay has become the most popular auctioning site in the world today. Why is that? It has something to do with its auctioning style, how they sell or buy goods. E-bay is not the one selling anything, it’s only like a bridge between a buyer and a seller. All they do is put a small fee for making such a transaction happen. The logic is something like, why sell you stuff locally when you can sell it online? It’s a good deal too, since there is more of a chance of it getting bought. Not only that, but how it actually makes a transaction is also important as well, E-bay can make quite an amount of money just on how people will transact cash, via paypal or credit cards. Because of this, exchanging money between two people is a hell lot more easily than what it used to. E-bay itself is a platform rd for innovation, its an e-commerce system that can be accessed by 3 part developers. Since they can access the site, they can create applications to further enhance the e-bay experience. Or rather, any other developer that wishes to use the e-bay web service, it ensures that e-bay has some ties with it. One of the main things the people at e-bay are concerned at is, the buyer expectations, buyers seem to like stuff that is more friendly or up to date software that can enable easier interaction, like flash and the likes. The second thing that they are closely monitoring is the social commerce, or something that relates to online chatting. Like forums, or groups and such. With it, people can share personal things about oneself. Such things build trust from one another. Something that is very important in order to ensure a good business relationship. With a good relationship between people, commerce flourishes. Social environments are the key to success strangely enough. If one were to compete ebay with a social site, like friendster or facebook. Then it is on a disadvantage. Rather, why not just be friends with them? It’s a much better perspective to do. Facebook provides information on your friends, like what they are doing, and what their friends are doing, to see if it relates to you in any way possible. So what is e-bay’s view on web 2.0? Max Mancini, a senior director of distributive innovations has this to say. “somebody once described it as atomization of the web” or basically, it combines all of the components that were previously unavailable, its only available today because of the web. With those components, people can do things with it, creating something new and exciting. For something like distributing a product, its not solely based on ones individual site or such. Its what value of delivery you can give, and how you take its effect. Another thing the web 2.0 created, it made ads on sites. Advertising among sites has never become easier. Though you have to pay some fee for making ads on that said site. It can bring more customers to you eventually.

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E-bay has become the most popular and successful web site, adding paypal or skype in that and something wonderful comes out. E-bay has capitalized on monetizing things that in the past, were previously cant be monetized. Because of web 2.0, things became a lot cheaper in terms of developing things. Because it was easy to write and develop with a “Rest API”, a lot of things has been made available because of this, like different kinds of tools that enhances the web experiences, drag and drop images and the likes. “if you can create a compelling experience for the consumers, then that’s really important” – Max Mancini

Lessons Learned: E-bay can be very useful in a lot of ways, in buying and selling of any kind of stuff.

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Chapter Two Learning Expectations: I expect to learn the inner workings of the internet on this chapter, and some other things. Quote: “Going back to the 1990’s, I believe that there really were Web 2.0 properties; its just nobody knew to call them. In fact, they were mocked.” - Alan Meckler Review: the web consists of many things you can see, From videos to peoples blog across another continent. There are a lot of things; sites you can view today are up to the millions. But there is one specific site that’s different, “Internet.com”. You’d think it was something about the internet, but its different. And there is only one internet.com across the billions of sites. “internet.com” is only one of the many websites and such that make up “Jupiter media”. In order to fully understand what “internet.com” really is, you have to understand its connections as well, like “Jupiter media”. Jupiter media itself is currently a leading provider of images and information for creative use, or professional use. There are 2 sectors of Jupiter media, “Jupiter Images” is the one that provides photos and/or graphical images online. “Jupiter Online Media” provides relevant information to programmers, developers or professionals through 5 different channels. “Internet.com” is one of the many web pages Jupiter media owns. Currently, Jupiter media owns approximately 150 or more web pages; it can be categorized through the following; 30 discussion forums, and 180 discussion forums. Internet.com itself is like a portal, a portal that lists quite a list of various famous sites today. Alan Meckler, one of the early founders of tapping the internet and CEO in charge of internet.com, had this to say. “I decided at that point in my business career that, as a small company, that I should essentially roll the dice, taking anything I had, sell any products that I had that I could use to raise money, to concentrate 100 percent on the development of the internet, in terms of reporting on it.” that is only one part of the interview they had with him and his opinion on the web 2.0. Truly internet.com and Jupiter media has reached a long way from where it started a long time ago. Alan Meckler, says that the evolution of his company was an accident in its own way. When the internet started to grow exponentially, there company grew as well, and became a dominant trade show producer of the internet world trade show. In 1998 a couple of people from several companies approached Mr. Meckler, to persuade him into selling his business. and he st did, from 1993 to 1998, they took care of it. and that company was the 1 one to successfully st launch a web site, or rather, the 1 one to do so. So yeah, it’s a pretty important company. During those old times, owning a server would cost you a hefty amount of money. Since it wasn’t as technically advanced then to today, today you can create your own website with no payment. Its all free like a bird. In the course of a few months in 1994, Meckler and his other partners were dubbed “masters of the web” since not many people knew how to create website then, so they were approached again to create sites for some big companies. During those times as well, Meckler thought a lot of things about the things he was doing at the time. and so he went back to the drawing board, to create something entirely new again. He wanted to created a new website that would be extremely specific on the matter, so specific that it will cover the topic entirely. So he did, he launched a site that covers the entire growth of the internet today. And other things like, business to business aspects of the internet, I.T. and enterprise issues and the likes.

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Even if the internet was still growing at the time, Meckler already foresaw its potential, and how it will bring about change to the current industry, like investing on a magazine. In the 1990’s that was a good idea to do, but if people would continue to invest on it, despite the growing threat of the internet, then they would be at a disadvantage. He predicted that all information would become online, thus eliminating the need to publish such information on the magazine. during the time as well, he bought quite the number of websites. During 1997, they were given the opportunity to buy the internet.com domain name from a company that was almost capsizing, and changed their name to internet.com entirely. “More than 99.9% of all web 2.0 properties will never make a dime” –Alan Meckler As per his thoughts on web 2.0, he only describes it as, “a continuing evolution of the ability to get information, and data”. Websites will not completely guarantee you of being able to make money as well. your organization may be successful for amazing amounts of money, but you might not make money as well as others. There are thousands of other sites that get venture capital, funding it will never make any money for you. Creating a new site as well will not guarantee you of instant fame at all. If you were to create a site and thinking it will be the next big thing, like facebook. Then you are on a delusional dream. “A web 2.0 property can be extremely valuable if it is tied into a sideline or another companion business that does have an E-commerce offering.” – Alan Meckler Things like technology, software, etc. that were only laughed at in the 1990’s has now turned the tables, and is in very high demand today. Technology is were the business is now. Information is a valuable thing to have. With it, you can do anything.

Lessons Learned: The web can hold a lot of useful things. And these kinds of sites are the ones that makes the internet that just much good.

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Chapter Three Quote: “Web 2.0 brought the learning curve down to a really low level so you didn’t need to be a computer engineer to be able to run your own blog site.” – Eric Engleman Learning expectations: nothing much out of the ordinary, except a continuation to the past chapter maybe. Or something entirely new.

Review: what is bloglines.com? probably only one of the few most popular blog sites known to man today. It was created in 2003, today it bills itself as a free online service for news, information, and other things as well. Eric Engleman, the general manager of bloglines.com, gives some of his past experience from other companies to this site of his. Bloglines.com was something to bring all the bloggers together. The founder, Mark Fletcher, saw how many interesting stories people were blogging about. So he created something like bloglines, so that people wont go to the different sites to look for a specific blog. He created an application the contents of those sites via RSS and feed it on one application. There comments on web 2.0 is quite interesting as well, they commented on “Cluetrain st Manifesto” as one of the 1 conversations that eventually led to web 2.0. since the book itself was published early 2000, around the time were web 2.0 was still under construction. It was quite a controversial book, since it talked about online markets and such which it does talk about, I have personally read the whole book. Bloglines.com itself is all about data, and consuming RSS feeds. One of the many things great about this said site is, you as a person of that site, is free to develop things that can enhance the bloglines.com experience. Like java scripts and such. one of the many things you will see there are the themes. There is one theme that makes the site look like a “mac os” theme. Its not much maybe, but a cool looking U.I. does attract a lot more people than a crappy looking theme. The site also has a lot of public data, so that users can access this data. With this they can do whatever they like about this on their own separate information. they can even set it to a private blog so that not all people are allowed to view it. One of the many great things web 2.0 brought to the world is the ability to drag and drop. Eric Engleman commented, “I constantly reorganize my list because I constantly see new relationships between the feeds that I didn’t see before”. You might think it’s a bad thing, but its not. In fact, it has brought a lot of information together. You can accomplish a hell lot more of things today because it has been made easier. It allows for anyone to be able to handle this information, even for someone who is not as up to date with the times. The web 2.0 has made it so that, everyone can post anything or do anything they want with the web. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to be able to blog, or view someone’s blog. Or post information on the matter. Anyone can customize their own website. All it needs is a little drag and drop. “people need to be constantly talking to their customer base, constantly innovating and coming up with great ideas. “ –Eric Engleman

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So since the web 2.0 has made things easier like hell, is there any chance someone might create a newer “bloglines.com”? there is that chance, yet its that same chance is what makes the web 2.0 such a wonderful thing to appreciate about. For example, If you were to build a site during the 1990’s, it would have like hell for you, because building a website was harder to do than breaking out of Alcatraz prison. But now its totally different though. But even if you were to build such a site today though, there still the matter on how to actually survive business wise. Eric Engleman says that, talking to your customer. That is one of the important factors for survival, no matter what kind of business. If the web 2.0 were to only consists AJAX things, and only focus on designs, themes, etc. then it would be boring, maybe one of the reasons for change, or what it does bring to the people, web 2.0 has made it possible for anyone to do practically anything online, even underground things. But the most important thing the web 2.0 as probably brought is its capabilities, and how it can mold anyone into a someone. but for me its like a hit or miss thing, if you will become famous, is entirely up to the people. “the users are now in control, whereas in the past, they were not in control.” –Eric Englemam

Lessons Learned: Blog sites is a great way of building you own internet credibility.

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Chapter Four Quote: “I think the freedom that is enabled by the internet and what people are doing with it today is just really profound” –Gina Bianchini Learning expectations: I would expect to learn what it truly means to have freedom, and if I actually have this, metaphorically speaking. And I would expect to learn what Ms. Bianchini created that help improve the meaning of the getting in touch. Review: During the spur of the internet era, a lot of social sites were born, to keep people in touch with one another, friends like from elementary school whom in which you have might have never talked to or seen since those times. Such sites like “friendster” or “facebook” provides such means to communicate to other people. And to some, social networks is what drives the web 2.0 to where it is today. But there is one network that was different from the rest, maybe because it was completely user driven that gave it its edge. This site is called “ning”.com. Created by Marc Andreessen and Gina Bianchini, they created a social platform site by not being a social network itself at all. What “ning” does is, it lets the users themselves create their own social network. People can create whatever they like on it. “ning” just provides the platform in which they can create the network. Its something like, do you want to create your very own friendster or facebook? Well now you can, with the help of “ning”.com. if this was a sales pitch for them, this would be a not so good one. But creating such things will only take a person a matter of minutes, since the platform itself supports such great features that can easily lure anyone, even myself. So who exactly is Gina? And what role does she play in all of this, including the web 2.0? but first, how Ning.com got started, Gina herself stated that she and her friend Marc talked about its early concepts before it got launched. With such questions such as “what if everybody had the opportunity to create a social network” and so they did. for the reason as to why they did this is, because they have “Seen” everything one could possibly see in one lifetime, from teachers using such networks to journalist and to other people as well. For the next question, what does Ms. Bianchini think of the web 2.0? She this to say, “I don’t think about it that much”. So in some way, it has from little to nothing to do with her or Ning at anything at all. They created ning to give the people the freedom to create their own things, things that would fundamentally drive ones ambitions of sorts. And that is the only way to get such people involved in such social networks, freedom. Its what drives one to that edge, people tend to be more active when they are given the freedom to do whatever they like, in a way. And in another way, the web 2.0 is also to be acknowledged as a key integrator of such sites. It can only mean a lot of things to a lot of people, but not necessarily mean the same thing to all the people. And as such, Ms. Bianchini also had this to say, “The whole point of having a definition of something is to have something that people agree on.” So defining the web 2.0 would be most redundant to her, since it only means something to talk about on the web, like a topic or so. The web 2.0 itself does not really need a definition, nor is required to have one. “If people can connect with one another, they don’t really need a same understanding on a given definition.” Ms. Bianchini said. a lot of things can be done on the internet, take for example, a music industry of sorts. Since there are quite a few famous sites that provide these, like imeem and.. well I personally don’t know any other else but there are some out there. Mass media today, is slowly becoming irrelevant, especially if you are announcing something like, by the end of this year, their will be an upcoming new “great” site.

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But saying things like that will get you killed in the marketing industry, as such technology constantly move and never stay constant at any given period of time. so what’s new and hot today, maybe obsolete the next day, is what I’m trying to get through. “They’re irrelevant, and if you spend too much time on them, you will become irrelevant too.” – Gina Bianchini. For a company itself to create a social site, is already a challenging feat for them, since it’s a company, it follows some rules like, it has to be approved by the upper ranks and such. such blockades will only falter themselves, since while they are doing all of those meetings to prepare a site, its something like, for every hour of a business meeting passes, there are 10 new websites created by an ordinary person that can be seen on the internet. So the people themselves actually improve the present features, hence the never ending flow of technology. So if you yourself would want to create your very own site, don’t look for anything else other than ning.com. not only is it free, but it provides such cool and updated features today. And will take you less than 5 minutes of your time. Now that is a marketing slogan. Who could resist such an offer? Probably some people. Then again, there is also the killer ads on a mans site. To the creators of ning.com. Gina Bianchini does not find this as much of a threat, for reason that if there are actually a number of ads on a site. That would only mean that there is actually a market in free web services. Though there are some people in the community that still reject such ads, since its only a nuisance to their own site as well. since the creation of the internet, there has not been a sight of such a thing called a “small” community, if you are on a social networking site, such a facebook, or crunchyroll. Then you are connected to that billions of people on the community. The potential of the web is too complex to understand, since its growth is somewhere to unstoppable as of the moment, but so let it be. It’s a good thing for the web and for the people to be connected.

Lessons learned: I learned that social networking sites proved freedom for the people around the world. in this virtual world, everyone is free to say what they like.

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Chapter Five Quote: “For Technorati, a lot of web 2.0 is about authenticity, accountability, interaction, and this idea of the people powered or the social web” -Dorion Carroll Learning Expectations: I would expect to learn what it means to track other sites, like RSS feeds maybe? I’m not sure. But it most likely means something like that on this chapter. Review: Do you know of a site that keeps track of other sites? Probably not, since it poses no to any relevance to us everyday people. But there is still some site that provide such things. One such site is, Technorati.com. their main type of business is specifically tracking, tracking other sites. There are a lot of sites out there currently, and half of those sites are blogs as well. Technorati the site itself currently tracks more than a million sites currently, and is continuing to grow by the minute. So what or how is this related to web 2.0 in any way? A lot, surprisingly. Dorion Carroll, the vice president of technorati.com, has quite the historical background, being one of those people who worked with companies such as, Electronic Arts, quite a popular company in terms of entertainment. And Oracle, one of the leading database management system company. With such a background, that makes him quite a candidate for tracking information in the world of blogging and such. Dorion Carroll himself, deals with database, or the data itself. how? To simply put, he knows the things that needs to be done for database. Mr. Carroll worked at another company not long ago, he worked as an anti-spam engineer in that company, so everyday he manages more than 500 million messages. That’s quite a number of messages. He also ran a couple of other things that in the long run, would actually help the company make a couple of more money. Quite a feet huh? “I like to think that some of my unique talents are being able to understand complex problems on a large scale, and actually matching those to business needs, not just the technological side. But also trying to understand the business application of things.” Mr. Carroll commented. After a couple of years, he was then recruited to Electronic Arts (EA) to build a system that can store data, and other things that would help grow the company into the giant we see now. In a nutshell, Mr. Carroll has a lot of database work experience, and simply applied what he learned to the internet. So now, what exactly is Technorati? For starters, it was founded by Dave [sifry] (not sure of his real last name). he and a couple of other teams he recruited wanted to create something that was different from what was already known, not just another blog site, but something else entirely. For dave, he realized the phenomenon that was called “Blogging” and learned a couple of things. As a blogger himself, he had the idea of creating something that shows all the good stuff, and to not just manually find it by some search button. This is one of the many things the web 2.0 has brought to the world, not only will you be connected with other people, but through that, you can actually build a community. Being able to see who are actually referencing your work as a blogger. So in a nutshell, its very much like RSS feeds, you can find out what other people think about you, and vice versa. Such things can be of great help actually, and can lead to quite the improvements. So it has made connections to people, just that much more easier.

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Blogging is not just some pastime a normal everyday individual does, well it is. but not just them, there are also a couple of people that blog about important stuff. Like politics and such, during one time. CNN, a current leading news group of global scale, asked the creators of technorati that question. Even if it was already 2004 then, blogging was still quite a thing to learn about, since it was still in its starting phase. But a lot of it can be used for politics as well, they can show records of how many people visits the candidates site. The problem is, there are a lot of good people with good comments about politics, they just need that extra push to be heard. And the web along with blogs have given those people that perfect opportunity. Anyone can talk about anything with no restraint, no religious crap to worry about. Just speak what you feel about. That’s how blogging works. So what does the people at technorati think about web 2.0? it can be a lot of things to a lot of people, again. it just means some people think of it as something that another group of people think otherwise on the matter, or something like that, the web 2.0 could also mean of social interaction, via social networking. But the main thing is, Technorati has been part or one of st the things that helped create the web 2.0 in the 1 place. They knew about the power of blogging. There, you can talk to a person that chances are, you will never really meet in real life no matter how many lifetimes you have passed. Its just those kinds of things. You can even talk to a audience of people, like a video stream maybe, of you talking about something, say a site you created. Chances are, there will be people who do know you personally that will see it. but the others whom you do not know will also see it as well. those will be your supporters around the world. though you will not actually see them ever, even if you were to visit their country, chances are still against you. The potential to change the web is seemingly endless, and will always be. Since newer updates will always rise from out of nowhere. Bloggers talking about something, from just everyday normal things to conspiracy’s that will most likely shake the very foundation of a specific government to its core. Its just a couple of things that make the web 2.0 just that much more interesting.

Lessons Learned: RSS feeds and site trackers can be quite useful if you want to be kept updated on the latest news and such.

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Chapter Six Quote: “Enterprises have complex work flows, and I don’t think online applications are ready to fit into the complex workflows enterprises yet. They’ll get there someday, tough” – Raju Vegesna Learning expectations: I would expect to learn things of the working world, such as business, big time businesses, and how not to underestimate underdogs of their own works as well. since it might be the next big thing the next day. Review: Google, Microsoft, chances are you are familiar with those two, since they are currently the biggest and leading company for the internet, or database, and other things. With such big powerhouses already on the mainstream of business, you might think there is no chance for other new company’s that can take them on, you might think that, even I think that, but there are actually quite a few number of business that are rising to the occasion. One such site is zoho.com. So what exactly is zoho.com? its an office productivity tool for the “advent.net”. which makes no sense to a normal man, zoho does provide quite a number of features, such as, a word processor, a online spread sheet, a online presentations tool, and many others. Just think of it as Microsoft office, ONLINE. Because that is what they are. And they have an extra mail feature (like google mail?) so you can create your own account there and send out mails, quite nice huh? And it’s a small time company, not like google or Microsoft. Its not about how big you are, its how good of a service you can give. zoho.com, has quite a number of people running it to make the site run smoothly and efficiently. One of these persons is Raju Vegesna, a spokesperson for zoho.com. Ms. Vegesna has been with the company since it came to a couple of years back, so she is like the brains of the operation, and how it all got started. She states that zoho is not actually a company itself, but a division to the actual company, Advent.net, “Advent”.net was already a well known company since the late 1990’s. making quite a profit even without “zoho”. Advent.net itself has a lot of more brands than just zoho. So much that it can actually streamline them, and give the formidable giants a run for there money. Advent.net has a lot more brands, and with quite a wide variety, accommodating almost all of the age possibilities. However, all the other divisions of advent.net do not actually focus on software, but they sell it. that is not the case on zoho.com, since zoho is focused on software rather than selling them. So how to they define the web 2.0? its nothing of much importance as well, but the grassroots have quite an important attachment, since it gives control back to the users. The revolution maybe? Being able to talk freely with no restraint does have those kinds of advantages. People could now talk to the publishers as well, and vice versa. That is something to be admired about as well. people were part of something now altogether. “wikis are going to die and merge with online word processors” I don’t doubt such a thing, but I think there will be one that will stand out from the rest. The wikipedia, its still a wiki, but it is quite famous for some reason. But in other relations, what does zoho have to do with web 2.0? zoho is anything you can think of, like I stated some while ago, its an online everything for a working man. A online Microsoft office. That’s quite important you know, and you can manage a whole database on it. they set the tools to make a business work online, with such a broad set of applications, it is easily recognizable as a formidable site compared to most, eventually they will also develop something that can further improve ones work environment, constant improvement is what drives technological advancements.

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Back during the older times, work was quite hard to do, since some offline applications require quite a few things, and technical assistance is hard to get. In today’s time, collaboration is the key. It is important. Where back in the old days, where you would only store your files on your document, you can share it to the whole world. who knows, maybe someone might be able to give you some advice on the matter. As of now there 2 types of this, zoho personal and zoho business. Zoho personal, as you might have guessed, is for personal use. And is free, and will remain free to the users. Zoho business now, has 2 divisions as well, a free version, and a pay version. But those business tools contain a little bit more stuff than just the personal, like stuff that will get your meetings done. “Software as a service is the new model, and that’s the future.” These are just the beginning of newer advancements later on, pretty soon, operating systems might be something you do not have to pay for anymore. And things will get much more easier and accessible to the public, to be able to do whatever one likes. For profit or just for fun. Lessons learned: There are a lot of good and productive companies out there other than the already big corporations.

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Chapter Seven Quote: “Whereas the last era of the web was people publishing things and you went on to the web to read it, with the current era anyone can contribute, can write content or can launch applications on the web” –Richard MacManus

Learning Expectations: cooperated works maybe, sharing stuff on the web, and other things that will not only benefit me, but the whole community as well. Review: Richard MacManus, founder of the world renowned “Read/Write” web and web 2.0 workgroup, has done a lot of things in the past couple of years. Like the “readwriteweb.com”. what does that site do, or what is its purpose? For a couple of things, “readwriteweb.com” is a popular weblog, this weblog focuses mainly on news such as, new technology, reviews, and so on, and was ranked as one of the top 20 most viewed or famous blogs in the world. So it’s basically a blog about the latest trends in the never ending cycle of improvements. It’s quite well known site for that one. Mr. MacManus has also created, or in partnership with the Web 2.0 workgroup, this group is originally based to only showcase the most viewed blogs about the web 2.0 technologies today. Now it’s like a link back style, where it shows all of the leading web 2.0 sites. Based on Mr. MacManus’s position, and being one of the key people involved in mainstreaming the web 2.0. he has a lot of things to share about the beginnings of web 2.0. but who exactly is Richard MacManus? In the dawn of 2003, the web was at a slow point, though its there, no one notices it. Mr. MacManus wrote a lot of things that were going into his head in the web, in form of blogs. After a couple of months maybe, he gathered a couple of people with technical knowledge, and started to develop a couple of stuff as well. By the time it was finished, the Web 2.0 concept came about, then the readwriteweb.com and the rest is history. The Web 2.0 workgroup is something different as well. Mr. MacManus developed this with a couple of other friends of his, such as Mike Arrington of “Techcrunch” and Fred Oliveira of “WeBreakStuff”, since they were one of the biggest blogs in the world during their time, they wanted to tell the world about the beauty of the Web 2.0, since not many people knew about it yet. So they banded together to form something like this. The Web 2.0 workgroup had a lot of things in its time, like sharing ones blogs to others through the power of portals or links. Now its still doing that same thing, but since it doesn’t need all that heavy maintenance, it retains some of its original qualities, such as being a portal to other blogs about Web 2.0. Mr. MacManus’s opinion about the web 2.0 can only be defined as something like “It has come to be like a marketing term”. Around 2006, almost everyone already knew about the web 2.0, so giving it a definition would be redundant, or might conflict what other people define the web 2.0. But Mr. MacManus believes that the Web 2.0 is about social networking, user generated stuff, like youtube. All of them are the main properties of Web 2.0, along with a couple of other software’s such as RSS feeds to connect them together, so what one might view on a site, may be linked to another thing on another site as well. “In a nutshell, it defines the era of the web we are in right now, just like dotcom was used to describe the last era” –Richard MacManus.

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There are a couple of other great features on the Web 2.0 today as well, as Mr. Macmanus describes it. in our current era today, almost everyone can contribute to something, like a blog, journal or anything that can relate to it. in the old days, people would only post about their blogs, and other people could only view it. that was the old era, today, with the current power of the web, anyone can contribute to anything they like. The one important thing to always remember when blogging, when it’s about something, like a video on youtube, or to another blog of another site. Always remember to give credit on the content, give them credit from where you found the video, or music, or templates to a site. It’s the right thing to do anyway, and to prevent copyright laws and such.

Lessons learned: When publishing a book online, it helps if you have friends working on the book as well. to improve on some of its content.

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Chapter Eight Quote: “We were about to change the way software was used and distributed. We were going up against 800 lb. gorilla in Redmond, Washington.” – TJ Kang

Learning Expectations: I would expect to learn what the topic of this chapter is talking about, and maybe being free in creativeness. Review: Online applications, such applications are gaining more popularity lately, since these applications allow you to make anything you want. A lot of things can bring a application to good working condition, a little code of java could possibly be enough to support an entire web template. While a couple of big companies are talking about such online applications, “ThinkFree” IS an online application itself, and is Microsoft office compatible, something almost all of us use everyday for things for work. One of the surprising facts about “ThinkFree” is that its history predates even the web 2.0. meaning, it was already there even before the concept of Web 2.0. with the use of “ThinkFree” you can do a couple of things, things you usually do with Microsoft office, since this is online, it eliminates the need for you actually having the Office program in your pc. And you can share your docs with other people, enabling sharing and such. TJ Kang, the CEO of “ThinkFree”, worked with the company since 1999, and his background on manipulating such data leads him to be one of the now prominent Web 2.0 sites today. One of his earlier works was when he was still a college student in Canada, He and a couple of friends created an automated Korean language input. Being a Korean himself, he knows the complications of the Korean language, such as you actually merge to words together to form a new word, or something like that, it had something to do with its dimensions, the Korean language is two-dimensional. When the invention of computers came along, they practically streamlined the idea, and what came out is a full-fledged Korean word processor. That is quite a feet since this was done during 1982. After the whole Korean language translator, this led Mr. Kang to create a software company, a company that would focus on personal productivity tools and such. a couple of years later, he developed a office suite for a networking platform. But he wasn’t the only one doing this, another company in Canada, Corel, was creating “Corel Office” for java, and were the best known company during its time. there were a couple of other company’s as well doing the same thing in their respective places, while Mr. Kang was doing all of these in Korean language. Desktop Java itself, had quite a number of problems during it’s early stages. The once known company of Corel suffered greatly because of this and gave up on the idea completely. Mr. Kang however, had himself the worlds most leading java based project suite known in the world during those times, and they were called because of this, many of its vendors were mainly from japan, such companies like Toshiba. What makes their company different is that they have the network computer prototypes of every company they ever made business with. So what is Mr. Kang’s opinion on the matter of Web 2.0? “To me, Web 2.0 is an application platform, and a vendor- and device- neutral one at that”. He also states that, the Web 2.0 is the platform shift that he has been waiting for, something to be able to challenge the most dominant company known today, Microsoft. Since Microsoft has been known for the longest time, it has become somewhat like a monopoly, people forgot that there were other platforms out there. When windows 3.1 came out, the majority of the people started adopting the whole operating system as a standard. Since if you change a certain platform, then people are forced to adapt to the whole thing all over again. and thus, Microsoft became the global standard.

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Web 2.0 means a lot of things to a lot of people, any given person may have a different definition to another person’s definition on the Web 2.0. so defining it would be redundant. Seeing as there is no correct definition of it. but what is more important in the Web 2.0 is its outputs, people could share or publish any kind of stuff they want, like some documents they want to share, to youtube videos. There is wisdom among crowds, since other people can pitch in their own ideas on the matter. This not only removes any known limit from before, but also allows people to now share knowledge with one another, people don’t just blog because they have time to kill, they want new information, or if they have any they share it to other people. “We’ll see some real changes taking place in an area of market that had been stagnant for the last 15 years.” –TJ Kang

Lessons Learned: I learned a couple of things that would be helpful when designing my own site platform or the likes, and to always make something that has not been made yet. Even if that product will only be in the long tail.

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Chapter Nine Quote: “Web 2.0 makes that whole process a lot more precise” – Patric Crane Learning Expectation: more or less the same thing, but on a different approach rather than the last chapter that I have read. Review: A couple of years back, there this theory that everyone is within six people of knowing st some other person, its like, if I were friends with you, then that is a 1 degree connection, if you had a friend that had another friend who’s friend is famous then I am also friends with them, in the th 4 degree. So its like something like that, or in a friendster definition, “you have friends in common”. This same concept is applied in the site “LinkedIn”. This network can be used to search and expand your own network. You can search for clients, to servers, to subject topics, friends, family. pretty much like that. You can do virtually anything you can professionally do there, rather than having bundles of business cards at your disposal. One of the cool features of this “LinkedIn” is that people are connected with each other, so if I were to know someone that knows the boss of this company I’m trying to impress. Then I can link with that person directly. “LinkedIn” itself is a professional networking site that has all the abilities of a social site as well. though they may have these social site abilities, this is mainly used for professional purposes. Because of this, they are enabled to get information from one another, information about business, market, and so on that could further help their own business. So what does Mr. Crane have to say about the “Web 2.0”? “I describe Web 2.0 as a fundamental course direction for the internet” web 2.0 is something like a mass media of sorts, everyone is free to obtain any information they deem necessary. Where back in the old days a family would read the newspaper and watch the tv, a more high tech family today would probably organize groups and such to form things and then process it in the end to make it into something readable. But this is something more of a global scale rather than just a small family. The Web 2.0 brings about many of the old things back to life. It reestablished offline relationships with online technologies, so it pretty much puts what used to be offline to online. You could now discuss matters previously untouchable because of such boundaries. And then you could discuss them on the web, then it wouldn’t only be something only you were discussing about. It would be something that people would be also to discuss on, maybe clarify a couple of things, this is one of the benefits of web 2.0, were everyone is connected, sharing information has not been easier since. Mr. Crane’s view on “LinkedIn” is somewhat like this, he didn’t created it just to be another social network, we have a lot of that right now. Its not some popularity contest, there is the saying “Quality over Quantity” right? For “LinkedIn” members, this is the concept that drives them. They are connected to the people that they need to be connected with, and nothing else. st the relations you build on the 1 degree level is based on your trust with one another, since you and that person are real friends with one another, that relationship is based on trust or working relationship, something that people build up with one another. Or in another term of this, ACTUAL friends of yours, and not just some person you added because they are friends with your friend. Though having people that only want to connect to have more connections can never be avoided in whatever site there is, there are still some people like that on “LinkedIn” too, though their numbers are few, its still their, though this is something to worry about only slightly, since this may weaken your structure of connections entirely.

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When you are a member of this site, the “LinkedIn”, chances are, you will find people that will most likely interest you, people that you want to work with maybe, or create transactions maybe. Stuff like that. If that person you know does not really have any relations to your own, then that structure of connections might weaken, people don’t really want to get connections just to be connected with one another. People connect with the persons they do business with. You might get that referral you want but that will ultimately lead to nothing at all. To establish such things, only connecting with people you know is a very good decision to do. Since they already trust those people, the fabric of the connection is strengthened because of such things. “One of the interesting things, is the ability to mix and remix” –Patrick Crane Lessons Learned: When you have a lot of friends, chances are that you already know all of their friends as well. Business credibility is built quite steadily like that as well.

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Chapter Ten Quote: “Web 2.0…was sort of the best attempt at coming up with a nice buzzword for a whole lot of new technology and innovative ways that people are using the Internet.” - Shaun Walker

Learning expectations: I would only expect to learn a couple of things from the featured site on this chapter and such, and maybe something that can get me above par against my competitors. Review: Currently in our time, there are two definitions of a website, there are just plain web sites, and there are platform that makes websites. The site, “DotNetNuke” is one such sites that is both of the two. It is a site for a platform that creates websites, whether for commercial or personal use. DNN is free and available to anyone who wants to use it. with over a capacity of 440,000 using DNN, it has become quite the most popular site. In 2006, DNN formed into a company and was provided with a solid foundation for future support. Shaun Walker, President, Chief of Architect, and the creator of DNN continues to be its key players and has been with DNN since its birth in 2002, and also witness of a couple of things that would further multiply the architecture of DNN. So what does Mr. Walker have to say about the Web 2.0? “One aspect of that is usergenerated content, where the public is now interested in contributing content to the Internet as a public good.” in another sense, Web 2.0 is now all about interactivity and not just consuming information. The people can now contribute to any give information they deem lacking. Where back a couple of years ago people was only consuming them. They (the people) want more abilities to interact and to be able to express themselves in a more human way, with all of that in play they would be a part of a much greater experience. Social networks are also to be considered in Web 2.0, since this has brought many people from around the world together with the same goal. These social site, though some are more popular than others, have one thing in common, they allow interactivity amongst there community. But the Web 2.0 is not without its downsides as well, since a lot of sites came up. It has become harder to find what you are actually trying to look for when using the “Search” engine of any type of social site. The DotNetNuke (DNN) is composed of such codes like “AJAX” in order to adapt with the changes that always take place. Because of this, DNN is fully integrated with the Web 2.0 and allows anyone to create a site of their own, though DNN is comprised with a lot of codes and plug-ins. All of them are interlaced with each other and without them, would cause a major structural flaw in the system. “I think that the term itself is the most misunderstood thing, because it can mean so many things to so many people.” Mr. Walker comments on Web 2.0, the Web 2.0 itself means a lot of things to a lot of people, though definitions may be different. It still carry’s the same thing. AJAX, a popular building tool for websites is not the main reason for the Web 2.0’s birth, though it’s a key player. Web 2.0 consists of more intricate networks that in total make it more human-oriented, rather than just some old fashioned way of doing things.

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Though maybe nearing its end of the road, the Web 2.0 is still running strong to most people, but there are already works going on for Web 3.0, a concept in semantic web. This new version might spur a whole paradigm shift, but it will still maintain most of the vital infrastructures it came upon. One of the best features of Web 2.0 currently is, the way it can be used as a mainstream effect to the consumers, or in another term, gives the people a reason to keep visiting a said site. “FaceBook”, a popular social network has capitalized on this and is successful at it as well. With a way to connect people together, and providing fun mini games to play with one another. It has become larger than most of the previous social sites today. A couple of years ago, having something to connect with people across cities was unimaginable. But now, such social sites have already allowed that to happen, truly an advancement in technological engineering. “It’s becoming part of your every day life to be connected all the time.” - Shaun Walker

Lessons Learned: You can do two things on the internet, browse the web, or make your own website. Which is quite nice by the way, you can earn money from that site of yours.

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Chapter Eleven Quote: “The Web is increasingly a social environment and…people are using it to communicate with one another, like they’ve always done—but now in such an open way.” —Biz Stone

Learning Expectation: I would expect to get a better understanding of the term “social network”, and how this can pose as a threat or as a trump card to me for future uses. Review: Have you ever wanted to know what your friends are doing at this exact moment in time? or have you ever wanted to write about what just happened to you a while ago during lunch break? There are a lot of social sites that could provide such needs such as messenger, chat rooms, groups maybe. But non are above “Twitter”. “Twitter” is a global network site which basically lets you put up whatever you just did. and everyone could see it. like a guestbook for the world. “Twitter” is often described as a “micro-blog” kind of site, on the count of its 140 words per input type. But other than that, it has built quite a fan base. Biz Stone, a co-founder of “twitter”, has build up on experience way before the “twitter” experience. Mr. Stone has been a vital part in other well known sites such as, Xanga, and Blogger. He has also created a book about his insights on matters that involve such social networking. Mr. Stone also became part of the google team when google bought out “Blogger” in 2003. how the “Twitter” came to be is another different story. A friend of Mr. Stone’s, Jack Dorsey, loves to blog but pondered if there was a much simpler way of blogging. And thus, “Twitter” came to be, with Mr. Stone being part of its creation as well. Though you can blog about it, you are given a choice as to who can actually see it, whether you want it to be seen by only your friends or for everyone else as well. but the majority of its community prefer there blogs to be public. In actuality, public blogging is greatly encouraged, since this provides a healthy communication with other people, and chances to expand your circle of friends as well. So what does Mr. Stone has to say about the Web 2.0? he also believes that Web 2.0 can be a lot of things to a lot of people, since their definitions may conflict with one another, it is redundant in trying to define it. “For me it’s this big, growing realization that the Web is increasingly a social environment”. “Twitter” is just another way of connecting people with one another, social sites are at its peak currently since an online community spurs as worldwide audience. A lot of things can be done as well in these social sites, like book marking, referrals and such, with these things, people would become connected even further among their own and being able to express themselves freely. Though there may be a lot of tools that comprise the Web 2.0, they are merely tools that are freely shared by everyone to enjoy, creating their own site as well or something else. developers ideas could be freely shared by other co developers, sharing ideas can lead to quite the technological breakthroughs. “The Web is a very highly social utility. If we create more open systems, it will be even more social.” - Biz Stone

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For most people, the term Web 2.0 doesn’t even exist, there is just the Web, nothing more nothing less, though this is a lot simpler definition to the Web 2.0, since it is Web. But there is a reason why it is defined with 2.0, however going any deeper in its context might result in vital conflicts. One of the many things Mr. Stone is quite proud about “Twitter” is the fact that it was one st of the 1 websites that integrated API, though it would not come into play until later on, API would play a vital role in the Web 2.0’s birth, and that API would become the central idea for the “Twitter” site. One of the future change that might occur is mobile phones with API integration as well. API’s and openness has become increasingly important to any company who wishes to be successful in its career. At the moment, “Twitter” can be accessed via sms, and text messaging. So integrating API with mobile phones might not be as far of as a dream as it looks. Twitter has proven that simple concepts can give excellent results, there are a lot more insights that can be gained towards simplicity and the community could easily handle how to use such sites.

Lessons Learned: Instant messaging system can be quite useful and important in everyday lives today. Getting new information on your friend’s everyday will be helpful in its own way as well.

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Chapter Twelve Quote: “If you don’t [innovate], then you’ll lose market share and you’ll wish you did.” - Seth Stenberg Learning Expectations: Unified Wisdom, and something of innovativeness maybe. Overall something that is already created but adding a little improvement to make it better maybe. Review: Instant messaging has come a long way since its popularization in the early stages of Web 2.0. in the midst of this, a couple of instant messaging sites became quite popular, but since these instant messaging programs are not solely created by one company, a lot of competition has risen from it, there are currently 5 most popular instant messaging systems today and each of them provides different installers. “Meebo” has changed all of this. “Meebo” provides all of this instant messaging system in a single site, so that you don’t have to really download all of the programs needed to install an IM system. with this innovative design of allowing you to access the instant messenger without actually installing anything, “Meebo” has taken things to an all new level. The founders of “Meebo” are, Elaine Wherry, Sandy Jen, and Seth Stenberg. Together they created “Meebo” and revolutionized the way instant messaging is. Meebo itself is an instant messaging program with the only requirements it needs is an IM and a browser, it has become so huge it gets 140 million hits a day. only recently the creators of Meebo, created a new feature called “Meebo rooms” which is basically like a chat room, and is embeddable. I think that at a very broad level, it is the interactive Web, Mr. Stenberg’s opinion on Web 2.0. One of the nice things that came out of Web 2.0 is the ability to allow people to make anything they want, with the help of online tools like AJAX and API, anything can be made. Mr. Stenberg also believes of empowerment, empower any given individual, whether it would be in youtube, or facebook, or wordpress, any individual can become a publisher, not only will they become publishers, they will also obtain significant fame if they are found by other people, like a fan base maybe. A lot of this came to be thanks to the search engine on such sites. Searching a specific video for example, if that video is in the niche, then most likely it will be hard to find it. but that one person who does have it, will gain popularity because of it. Making money on a site is another story, advertising are usually the way to go if you want to earn some money, but now almost anyone can put up ads on a site, but in order to make any actual significant money out of it, you either have to have a very large site, or a very directed site base. The concept of advertising itself on a site is too broad in its own perspective. People have to elaborate on what ads they have as well, to decrease confusion. Though Meebo may not have any of this, it still maintains its popularity because it focuses on its customers. it takes good care of them, good customer relations can lead to good things as well. This might come as a shock to everyone but most of Meebo’s codes come from open source, meaning anyone can make a new Meebo too, if given the right passion. The Web 2.0 is responsible for bringing open source up, Meebo is one of its examples of what can be done with codes and improvements.

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Though it may have come a long way, no one really knows what Web 2.0 exactly means. It can be a lot of things to a lot of people, right? “nobody really knows what Web 2.0 is”. Web 2.0 may be just a revival of what was unused, and innovations that would drive its innovation. One of the troubles of web 2.0, since everyone is now online, it has actually become harder to try and find some actual good people to actually join your team. Since everyone else is looking for them, probability are someone has already hired them. For someone who co founded Meebo, you would think that Mr. Stenberg would pronounce it when someone asks him about what is the coolest thing they’ve seen that the Web 2.0 brought, but he said youtube. Youtube, a popular video streaming site, he said this because, “just as Meebo’s goal is to make IM super available, they made web video super available.” Maybe because Youtube had the same goal like Meebo, but before youtube came to be, there was no video streaming site at all. Youtube made it possible for people to put up videos, videos that you would most likely never thought of seeing at all. This is why it has became quite popular, even though it got bought out by Google. These are just some things the web 2.0 brought during its climax of its life, though it may be nearing its end since advancements never seem to stop for even a minute.

Lessons Learned: Unified Wisdom is a great thing to have in the virtual world. a lot of minds working on the same project will streamline that project.

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Chapter Thirteen Quote: “We find ourselves in a world where we have unfathomable riches of which we’ve only scratched the surface. If computer technology stopped advancing for a few years right here, we probably wouldn’t be in terrible shape.” —Joshua Schachter

Learning Expectation: Something that has to do with social networking maybe, and the likes. and maybe how to understand what it means to have a successful life.

REVIEW: st

The chances are, if you are living in the 21 century, then you currently own or have used a computer at least once in your entire life. And the chances are, you have used it for internet purposes, or web surfing. It has come to mind that there may be a lot of sites that you like and proceed to bookmark such things. Now currently, your web browser can do those bookmark properties, however, this is only limited to one computer, so if you reformat your own pc, or use a different computer, your bookmarks will not be saved at all. “De.licio.us” (Delicious) changed all of this, by simply allowing bookmarking online. Basically, now you can bookmark things and can view them on other computers on any part of the world you may be in right now. Joshua Schachter, founder and creator of Delicious, currently manages delicious as of the moment, even after the buy out yahoo did on delicious, he still maintains the site personally, and such has experience on the Web 2.0 As for Mr. Schachter’s opinion on the Web 2.0, “honestly, when I started working on del.icio.us, it was just a thing I was building.” So basically, Web 2.0 is just another thing on the web that is irrelevant, or at least for Mr. Schachter’s point of view. Although it does also has its plusses, it can make a lot of low cost things that, in the past, would be quite expensive, those are one of the good factors it has brought, and the fact Web 2.0 has linked everyone together. Community has played an important role in the success of the Web 2.0 as well, since social networking sites came about, these has been an important factor in the community, they could now share information about one another where some time back, this was impossible to do. One of the important features of the Web 2.0 is also its ability to create such a low cost of implementation and failure, its practically safe to do anything you like to see happen. Its affordable, and you would practically lose nothing if it bombs. Though there are still a lot of confusion happening around the terms and definition of Web 2.0. “If vaguely defined and vaguely used are true, then how can you tell when you’re using it correctly?” the words of Mr. Schachter on his comments on the Web 2.0 definition, also the same thing is applied in the new Semantic Web 2.0. “Semantic Web is about data, not about the Web.” Through such networking medias, it has practically changed the peoples way of living right now. Since the technological advancements we have had in the past years, like the computer and such, and the internet, though it has made our lives a bit easier, it also degrades the performance of the human. Although it will get better in a couple of years from now maybe, the important factor in this is imagination.

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Imagination is the key to major breakthroughs in the Web 2.0, without it, there would have been a lot of things that were not made to be right now. Its not exactly about technology itself, but implementation and passion for your idea. As costs go down, the limiter on those things become almost zero. Since we can do almost anything we like now without costing us a penny, and earning us some money in the process. There are a lot of things that this chapter was talking about, how innovativeness beats the capacity of limitations on ones workplace, or maybe it was imagination. An imaginative mind can bring a lot of things to the world, look at youtube, facebook, and all the other famous websites out there. Someone thought of the idea of making them. And so it came to be.

Lessons Learned: an imaginative mind can make you really famous, if given the right stuff and time that is. Like what Mr. Schachter did with delicious.

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Chapter Fourteen Quote: “That’s where Web 2.0 started; it was to help people more easily get into services like ours, which are braindead simple to use. So, it has allowed people to have conversations that they wouldn’t necessarily have been able to have.” —Ranjith Kumaran Learning Expectation: information that has to do with simplicity of the web 2.0, and other stuff that would help the people in further understanding the diversity of Web. REVIEW:

While some social networking sites are currently the most talked about currently, there are a lot of other important sites as well growing and gaining quite the popularity in its own accord. YouSendIt is one of those sites, the site itself has a primary focus and it does it well. that one focus that it does greatly is transferring and sending files to others. In the past, the only possible way of sending files is through FTP and such. so its quite an advancement right now as to were we are. While YouSendIt has a main purpose on what its supposed to do, it also touches the many problems the people face today, demands and such. it has also developed security in sending files, and trackers as to where it actually got out. As one of the main advancement that led to Web 2.0, co-founder of YouSendIt, Ranjith Kumaran, has this to say with his experience on the matter. But before we get to any of that, Ranjith Kumaran is currently responsible for product management and corporate marketing of YouSendIt. YouSendIt, currently sends large amounts of files through the web, though they mostly cater big business and such, because they make the most money maybe? I don’t know. But that doesn’t mean they don’t entertain the consumers like me as well, they do. Mr. Kumaran also has the same ideas of the Web 2.0 from the other previously interviewed people. One of the important things the web 2.0 has brought is the ability of the web being able to connect people worldwide and enable collaboration of the sorts. We try to provide information around the question, “Is there an interesting conversation going on around that file transfer?” is the sort of thing they entertain maybe. Also, there site tries allow files to move as freely as possible, allowing diversity of such things and the sort. There are a lot of other things that make the web effective as well, like tracking and such that are currently built within some sites, so basically, if you serve a lot of people, the more value the people get out of it. maybe because since they are talking with each other, bonds of friendship can be strengthened, or create new friends across the world. in their site, YouSendIt, they actually allow their customers to interact with there own customers as well. something like a businessman selling his wares on a buyer, where that businessman is part of this big organization as well. one of the important abilities the web 2.0 has brought is its ability to easily adopt services, with this, connection with other people is easily attainable and enabling more conversations. Conversations are markets you know, some misunderstanding about the web 2.0 are still inevitable, though most people think that Web 2.0 just happened all of a sudden, it did not. Old stuff like AJAX has been around for quite some while, so it just got refined and reused in the creation of Web 2.0. or basically something like that.

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Though I myself think that what they do is quite nice in a way, enabling file transfers and such. maybe I’ll try it sometime, maybe I can find what I’m searching, like anime or music and such. I think it should be free though. I think what they are doing is quite awesome in a way really. Though its better known in the business world maybe since I still do not personally know of this website. This has also proved that communication is key to success and is required in any type of business. Lessons Learned: I have learned some things about social networking, and file transferring properties that in the past, were quite hard to actually do.

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Chapter Fifteen Quote: “Web 2.0 is really about the user experience and not the underlying technologies” —Garrett Camp Learning Expectations: something that would most likely help user experience and further advance it to claim world domination. REVIEW: Have you ever found out a really great site by accident? Stumbling upon it maybe? The search engine is quite an amazing thing really, just because of that it has enabled quite the outcome of such previously unknown sites. But, as good as it may be now, there are still a lot of extremely great sites out there that just doesn’t reach the search engine when you type them, (like mine maybe). “StumbleUpon” is one of those great websites that allows you to share the things you have, well, stumbled upon. Great naming on there end right? By using the community, StumbleUpon uses the information, whether positive or negative, to help those sites to become just that little bit more famous. With more then 4 million people currently contributing to it, its not a surprise you wont see results right away, people have a lot of free time. Garrett Camp, founder and chief product officer for StumbleUpon, has been helping others sharing the sites they have stumbled upon since 2001. the results of those experience has led in the result of this interview with him in the Web 2.0. Mr. Camp says that he wasn’t really around during the days of the Web 1.0, if there is a 2.0 then there was a 1.0 somewhere along the time of history maybe. I think 1.0 involved taking traditional business and publishing models, and moving them online. So what the Web 1.0 could have done during its time is, making some things online and accessible as much as it could possibly can. However, these things were mostly extensions of offline things, there were still no social networking sites around during the time. Web 2.0 is more about interactivity, much like social networking sites, or online gaming, whatever suits your definition more. Some of those has more participating users and communities that help the growth of such sites. The Web today has become more interactive than what it was back in the old days, it has come to mind that most of the sites today would like to also try to add this social community in there own site as well. as to what form, maybe forums or groups, to not change any vital part the already existing site has. The web 2.0 has also released a lot of free stuff, stuff like programs and such. open source is its definition. Because of this open source, a lot of things has been made possible by the average ordinary man. As to what Mr. Camp’s opinion on the term of Web 2.0’s definition being misunderstood, he has this to say. “I don’t think so...it’s just a loosely defined term.” Since the dawn of Web 2.0, people have already predicted what would the next big thing be. What will happen in the Web 3.0? who knows, maybe its already out right now, and the Web 2.0 I have been writing upon is already obsolete? Maybe it has from the very beginning. But where would all of this lead? It is very hard to predict such things, says Mr. Camp, creator of StumbleUpon. “I think in general, the whole idea of convergence is definitely happening.”

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As for my reaction on this whole topic, a site where I can find those things that would in ordinary days would pass me like a wind in the park, is quite nice. Maybe my site will be up there one day, when someone notices the greatness I have done, and all of it was just to satisfy the needs to pass a certain class of mine in school. Though I’m not saying any names, it’s the truth. Change is inevitable, that I know, and one day, all of this will change to something else. so sticking with one method is not nice nor advisable to do. Lessons Learned: I have learned the same thing from the other chapters I have previously done before, stuff..

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Chapter Sixteen Quote: “The most important thing is that even though we felt in the ’90s that the Internet was having a big impact in people’s lives, we’re seeing in this decade that it’s reconstructing a lot of industries and shifting a lot of value around while improving people’s lives.” —Rodrigo Madanes Learning Expectations: I expect to learn a couple of things through this chapter as well, maybe in forms of telecommunications of some sorts, but free and on a world wide scale. REVIEW: Have you, the normal everyday working man, ever wanted to try and call someone? or maybe your beloved but he/she is living very far away from where you are? And you don’t have the money to pay a call through that place? Well worry no more, because here is a site that does exactly all of that only without the paying! Free calls indeed, Skype is a website designed to make phone calls to fellow Skype members through the use of peer-to-peer technology. Though you can also pay a small fee to it to allow you to call to mobile phones, but most likely you already do have a mobile phone yourself so its just a gesture for those who don’t have such mobile phones. Since the appearance of this new capability, Skype has single handedly changed almost the face of global communication, with installations similar to most instant messaging programs, its an easy program to use. Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis are the founders of Skype around 2003, along that time, they found a couple of new guys to hire, one of them was Rodrigo Madanes. Mr. Madanes has since worked as a product designer for Skype, or basically everything that would make Skype a little bit friendlier to use in terms of simplicity maybe. “Web 2.0 is such a complex set of technologies and enablers.” One of the things Mr. Madanes remarked when he was asked on what he thinks on the Web 2.0 subject this whole book is discussing about. The Web 2.0 has brought about much great advancement in terms of communications today, I guess one can even say that, without these guys making these things happen, we would still be most likely stuck in the dark ages. Though skype is mostly based via desktop and programs, to install and use them efficiently. All of the main parts still happen on the internet, since talking online needs online connectivity. But Skype is doing something no telecommunications company has done yet, and that is allowing phone calls, video streaming and the likes through other people across other parts of the world, and is totally free. Though I can think of another instant messaging program that can do that too (yahoo messenger), its still quite a big deal to it. even though the internet was already getting quite the attention during the 90’s, only now in our time do we see its true potential. Web 2.0 is reconstructing a lot of industries and its way of doing business, shifting values to improve its lifestyle along with the people as well. innovation is coming quite well in terms of this Web 2.0 innovation, since most substantial innovations would take around 5 – 6 years to actually happen, lots of obstacles and blockades are to blame for that, but in hardship, do such innovations prevail in ways that would change the way the human life would be. Like making things a lot more simpler than it has to actually be, even if its already simple enough to do. Like global communication maybe.

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Though Skype is only one of the many free telecommunications through internet out there, god knows if the other instant messaging sites have also implemented this on there own programs. But what they have in total is different from any we have seen yet. Its not just a change in communications, but an improvement as well. telecommunications industry has only touched the skin of a much bigger objective. As to what Mr. Madanes said. “I think telecommunications is at the beginning of what will be a longer transformation.” This would most likely mean something more is yet to come. Lessons Learned: simplicity of a program can sometimes be the most ground breaking invention the world is waiting for. Like the global communication power via the web.

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Chapter Seventeen Quote: “Web 2.0 is about how businesses are changing, how people are collaborating, and how people are unlocking content to be used in new and innovative ways through customization, at orders of magnitude of less cost than they’ve ever had before.” —Rod Smith Learning Expectations: I would expect to learn the inner workings of IBM corporations, one of our schools many big time partners in the I.T. business. and how they got to be so successful in the business as well.

REVIEW: IBM stands for International Business Machines, and has been around for quite a long time now, some would say IBM dates back before 1911. during those times, computers was not even heard of, let alone such technologies we have now. IBM focuses on many areas, including products and services and it is one of the biggest proponents to such programs such as open source, and linux. IBM has done a lot of things in its almost eternal life span, if I were to summarize all of there accomplishments, I could be able to write my own manifesto maybe. If you want to know the inner workings of IBM then Rod Smith, VP of IBM is the man to ask. Mr. Smith leads the current emergent technology in IBM and hes done it since 1995, those days, the internet and the Web was still in its infant stages. He has also worked as a JAVA CTO, involved in open source as well, and SOA, a loosely coupled programming model. In fact, IBM may be responsible itself for the “ClueTrain Manifesto”. So what does Mr. Smith has to say about the Web 2.0? for him, it is somewhat an intersection of changes, changes to the social, economic, and technology. The whole Web 2.0 is not about one technology, its about how the business we see today is changing, coping with the advancement like the internet. Its also about how people are unlocking new ways to use content, ways to make it faster and simpler than what it was before. A lot of businesses today recognize this potential and seek out potential Web 2.0 stuff that can harness its power to aid them. it can also be used in business, where today, we can quickly converse with vendors faster and talk to them at a business level. And this is also effective in terms of business, where back in the old days, people would tell these types of vendors of something, and these vendors would come back months later. Such old style is obsolete now, today, if you say something you want from them, they will come back to you in less than 30 days and ask you if this is what you are looking for. it might not be the most correct way yet, but 30 days is an improvement from 9 months. IBM itself holds a yearly event called “The Innovation Jam”, something to satisfy those imaginative people who have free time to do such stuff. The whole event is something to share peoples ideas with one another, though this event is only restricted to IBM members, partnerships, and relatives, it is still something big. This may seem futile, but there are some great ideas in those minds, and IBM invested 100 million dollars on the greatest idea they found. Since this will most likely turn out to be an even greater invention and advancement to technology. Consumers today are now driving business more than what they have in the past, where these people would normally receive a reply months later, now businesses ask these same people what they would like from there company, that is quite a leap forward to better customer relations and such.

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IBM itself is the most leading I.T. company today, and most likely will be when I die. Maybe someday I’ll land a job in IBM, though its still wishful thinking in my part, there is still potential you know, that’s how youtube was invented, and other famous sites. Lessons Learned: innovativeness drives advancements to technology, customer relations is key to a good business with the community, and what it needs to be an IBM member.

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Chapter Eighteen Quote: Enterprises want to take advantage of the social and collaborative aspects of Web 2.0 but don’t necessarily want the business models of Web 2.0 shoved down their throat. —Tim Harris Learning Expectations: I would expect to learn some information about Microsoft, how it got started maybe, and how to capitalize in it. Review: st

Microsoft, that word alone is already known across the entire world as it is, being the 1 creators of the leading web browser, the internet explorer, which everyone that uses the computer knows about. Some say if there will be some major change that’s going to happen, they st will be the 1 to know about it, or they will be involved in that said predicament. Microsoft is also one of the key players in Web 2.0, being the developers of such important things like ASP.NET, AJAX control toolkit and much more, maybe the operating system can be included as well? recently, Microsoft has also added a new tool called the “popfly”, its some sort of platform that helps you in making your own site, but in a more user friendly way. They are also responsible in creating “LiveSearch” which lets you find pretty much anything you want to look for. So what does Microsoft have to say about the Web 2.0? I don’t think anything is possible, since Microsoft is the company, though the people involved in such activities inside Microsoft may be able to give light to the situation. Though there may be a lot of famous people inside Microsoft, like Bill Gates and the likes, its better to talk to the people that directly influence technologies and such. Tim Harris is one such individual. Mr. Harris works as a product manager in the developer and platform evangelism. So its like Mr. Harris will be representing Microsoft for the question on what they think about the Web 2.0. “You know that when we go out and talk to customers, ISPs, and all throughout the industry, and every person gives a different answer.” – Tim Harris Giving the Web 2.0 a definition would be hard to do since a lot of people have different insights on its meaning or purpose. When people talk about the Web 2.0, it will most likely fall down to one of the 3 pillars of the Web. One such pillars is the technology pillar, where people talk about pretty much anything involving technology I guess, like RSS feeds, and AJAX and nd such. the 2 pillar would be the business model pillar, though this deals with advertising and such more, and how to deliver the goods to the customers. and the last pillar would be the Social Construct pillar, in this one, people are given complete freedom on speaking what they want or doing anything that is not illegal. So it falls in the social networking media as well. So Microsoft’s point of view on the Web 2.0 is somewhat like, all of those pillars given before, but they combine all of them and look at it on a much higher perspective, which they called Software plus Services. So something like, what you can do on a desktop, you can do on a mobile phone or game console as well, is there way of doing things, if there is something good on the internet, they want to improve it even more. Though there are some that confuse Web 2.0 is literally on the Web, and say that if its not on the Web then its not Web 2.0, this is completely wrong. Game consoles are already tapping the Web 2.0’s capabilities, like microsofts own little gaming console the Xbox and Xbox 360, its Xbox live function is already using the Web 2.0 mechanics, like social networking, instant messaging.

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Microsoft has been around even before the dawn of the Web and internet era, and is the best known computer company in the world. However, even If it is still an older company, it has proven itself that it can keep up with change and even improve on it, and they themselves provide quite the number of developer tools that is useful to a lot of people. Since it is Microsoft we are talking about of course they would be at the forefront of technology, they practically invented the internet way back when. Though I’m not that big of a fan in the console world of there’s, they still make quite the advancement that makes their rivals sweat with fear. That is also good in its own way, since improvements will surely arise from such rivalries.

Lessons Learned: whatever you will make on the web, be it a blog or a personal site, it will always fall on one of the three pillars of the Web 2.0.

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Chapter Nineteen Quote: Anyone with reasonable smarts can have a good idea for a web property on Monday and can have something on the air two weeks from Thursday. —Tim Bray Learning Expectation: I would expect to learn how to fully understand the inner workings of JAVA programming languages and be able to use these JAVA languages in my future works. Review: Sun Microsystems, the company responsible for JAVA programming language, though not many know of this, Sun Microsystems is also involved in matters other than java, such as hardware and operating systems. Though it is one of the biggest companies around, 2 of their finest workers took time to answer the questions that this book had to ask about, one such worker is Tim Bray, Mr. Bray launched on of the 1st search engine in 1995, and also involved in the invention of XML, he now works the director of web technologies in sun. the other person would be Robert Brewin, an distinguished engineer and chief technology officer for software at Sun Microsystems. So what does these two have to say about the Web 2.0? Mr. Brewin, or bob, says that it is internet based on culture of contribution, where people contribute to the total outcome of the social network, something like youtube. Mr. Bray’s point of view on the matter is something about new technologies that would improve user capabilities. There are some sites that are 2.0 but 1.0 based technologies he also said, but overall it’s the total contribution that the people make that makes the Web 2.0 great. One of these more important aspects of the Web 2.0 is its ability to let you in it, let you be part of what is happening. You don’t have to be someone special to contribute to this new society, if you have something interesting, you can put it online. Something like, there is no single entity that controls the foundation of any given thing anymore. Sun Microsystems itself is in the business of providing infrastructure to networked applications, its something like getting more people to view at a specific site, and getting them involve in such things, the more people involved, the better for the company, how is something that is not written. Some of these people though, cannot comprehend that actually establishing a social network, or blog is quite feasible. It will cost you from a small amount to nothing at all, and you can run a full blog in less than a week. Though increasing bandwidth on such things are of a totally different scale now, its still good in its own way, in the larger picture, bigger bandwidth means more people participating, making more revenue. Of the 18 chapters I have read on this book, there is only one chapter that has two people being interviewed at the same time, both of them do have some interesting on the matters revolving the web 2.0. like, web 2.0 does not mean it is in the Web, it can be anywhere you want it to be, proven on last chapter’s review that a gaming console can also hold some Web 2.0 properties. It is also all about empowering the people to contribute to this new era, not only will this be helpful, it also gets people involved in ways they never imagined before. Though there may be a lot of Web 2.0 based sites out there today, most of them use technologies from the 1.0 days, I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but it should upgrade to suit with the new era, I think the 3.0 has already arrived. Though there are some times that implementing Web 2.0 based items will not exactly derive income to you or your company itself, applying something like that is still phenomenally big, that alone might be able to help you in improving business.

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For my brief reflection on this chapter, it was really hard to even try and comprehend this chapter, since a lot of stuff was involved in it, though I guess it was no surprise since it is sun Microsystems. It is probably bigger than Microsoft today, since they do a lot of things that make such great creations. I and the rest of my classmates are actually studying java languages as well, though understanding it is hard, really hard. Its benefits are actually good once you get to the working world.

Lessons Learned: getting people involved and allowing them to contribute on information is the way to go to improve on a site, and a good way of passing information.

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Chapter Twenty Quote: “[Web 2.0] is all about giving a lot of control back to the user and leveraging that infrastructure that we built with “Web 1.0” to enable extremely rich experiences now, that we couldn’t do back in the day.” —Michele Turner Learning Expectations: how Adobe made it big with such a career, and maybe learn a couple of things that I can use in my future exploits.

Review: If you are using the web, chances are, you have dropped by at youtube, or any other video streaming sites, and chances are that you may not know that it is running on flash, and another chance is that you don’t know that flash is created by adobe. Not only is adobe responsible for adobe flash, they are also the only ones that can open a pdf file, you want to read st an e-book? You have to have that program installed 1 in order to use it. though adobe is popular as of those two products alone, they actually have a lot more to give, The products cover a number of different categories including design, publishing, video, and much more. Adobe is just one of those main players in the web, and most likely they will continue on doing what they do. Michele Turner, an Executive of adobe, used to worked for some big companies before adobe, like netflix, aol, Excite@home, and many more. With such experience there is no questioning why she is in this book as well, and on the last chapter. So what is her and adobe’s insight on the web 2.0? it is still a lot of things to a lot of people in the end, Ms. Turner also said that its an improvement on 1.0, which is the most obvious maybe. User generated content is also one of the outcome of web 2.0, and one of the good ones at that, everyone is free in uploading stuff and information that this has become the new trend. Content is key to success, giving users a lot of control lets them be free on such matters. Recently there is a huge concentration on user interface and experience as well, maybe they found out that a good interface can change the persons view of that site? And experience as well is important. In summary, web 2.0 is all about giving people the power that back in the 1.0 times was unable to do, creating blog sites, social networks and much more. Adobes flash player started as just a primary source for viewing animation on the web, now it has become much more, 70% of all videos on the web use flash player. Though people are free to upload videos at there whim, they don’t exactly know that it is flash that is making the video work online, they don’t really have to, but its up there. Flex, one of adobes creations as well, is a programming language with an integrated development environment, it can compile codes to run on flash or air, which is quite useful. Since I and my other classmates are currently studying java at the time, maybe we might be able to use this, though I doubt it will ever be used during class. Adobe is not only helping the web 2.0, it is also partly responsible for it being what it is today, a long with the other 19 chapters from before. Adobe flash player is on every computer around the world, so it is impossible for any given person to not know of adobe. Adobe is enabling a lot of people to make interesting things on the internet, thanks to their applications like, flash, air, flex and much more.

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Though I have known adobe for a long time, since they are the only ones that provide the capabilities of reading PDF files, and maybe they are the ones that make such files? I use them on the anime books I download from time to time. I am also familiar with flash player, since I uploaded some of my videos on a popular video streaming site called YouTube, and I am recently studying its java languages, object oriented languages and such. though I never really thought about its other products, some of them might make one of my class a little bit easier. Lessons Learned: Adobe flash player is everywhere, you cant watch a video without it, it’s a good plan too, since they have no rivals on that market.

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Executive’s Guide to E-business: From Tactics to Strategy

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Executive’s Guide to E-business: From Tactics to Strategy

Quote: “Some Companies will move through the panorama one snapshot at a time to arrive at the final one; others will not” - Executive’s Guide to E-business: From Tactics to Strategy Learning expectations: I would expect to learn some basic fundamentals to E-Business and information that will come in handy in the near future, especially in E-retailing. Review: the chapter in which I will be summarizing this book is its introduction, entitled “A New E-Business Model”. E-business is just like retailing, on a global scale. Its possibilities is virtually limitless to the human mind. E-business reshaped the very foundation of commerce, it requires new options in retailing in the present state that it is in. in the old days, handling information was harder to do than actually telling someone about it, or its like “they” don’t actually want to give out the information that the mass requires. But ever since the invention of the internet, things have gone upside down for the business. since the internet can and has globally connected everyone in the world, information can be accessed by anyone. Among e-business, service, quality, etc. have significantly increased while its price, and time to market a said product has gone down, significantly, and enhances the ability to provide value to the customers while staying ahead on other competitors. But since the invention of the internet, a lot of new things came out on it, looking for a place to be in, in the business world, new competitors, new business, new ways to deal with customers, anything you can think of. To simply put, E-business is the new way of marketing, those who still cling to the old ways might find it hard to make any more profit after E-business has completely reached its full potential, its not a matter of whether you should learn it, its an obligation if you want to survive in the industry. E-business is here to stay for a long while, not learning this is like business suicide. It has become the new fundamentals of business as well. E-commerce, is much like the original commerce, its involved in the buying and selling of good and services, only the part “E” made it in the internet, its still commerce, but on a world wide scale. Since the industrial Revolution, business has used the same basic model to compete in the marketplace, like the things in the price of the product and such, its value added services, etc. but after the impact of E-business, the new market wants this old model to change. Because of some things, but since E-business is less complicated than what it was in the industrial era, a lot of improvements happened, like e-businesses enjoy a much improved revenue and margins, meaning more income. Because of such results, companies today are searching for new ways to embrace the new phenomenon that is E-business. in this every changing times, company leaders must learn this in order to strive for the best, and be a couple of steps ahead of there competitors. “Strategy is require at every level even though the bottom-line impacts are indeed smaller in the earlier stages. Not having a well thought out strategy early on may severely impact later options, leading to additional organizational retooling costs, or total organization failure” - Executive’s Guide to E-business: From Tactics to Strategy Sooner or later, all type of industry will have to move on with this new hype. In order to survive in the every changing state of market and its customers. but where will you actually start in business? business that engages primarily in the “business to consumer” commerce will most likely give more priority to the selling of products, since this will generate more revenue to the business, and reduce costs. Most common users of this are the internet based companies. On the other hand, those who will give more priority in “business to business” commerce will most likely give more priority to reducing its total cost of selling or buying goods or services.

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Executive’s Guide to E-business: From Tactics to Strategy

As the internets growth continues to increase to date, companies search for the next best thing in e-business. to keep them up on that ladder of competitors. in the old days, leaders of e-business connected their companies systems to the customers and suppliers, again for the competitive edge against the others. In the present world, executives have to choose who to partner with supplies in order to keep that one step ahead of the other competitors. E-business has made it that companies will maximize its value’s by completely changing its industry. As the lines between the 2 become less and less pronounced. The internet has made a direct threat to the existing companies that do not use its potential, while the said companies ponder on what to do in order to keep up with the market. smaller more agile businesses will use the internet to there potential, these small business can be anything from just starting up out of nothing to a company that is issuing a new change in there way of doing things. “Convergence is not necessarily just an e-business phenomenon. In theory, convergence could occur in the complete absence of e-business.” As much of what it tells us, e-business is somewhat related to, well anything related to business, like retailing, marketing, and so on. But what it is telling is, in order to survive in the modern world, one must adapt to its terms. Lessons Learned: I learned a couple of things concerning E-business and such that would be very helpful.

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Executive’s Guide to E-business: From Tactics to Strategy

Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Executives-Guide-E-Business-TacticsStrategy/dp/0471376396/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223206383&sr=8-1 Quote: “In the e-nabled B2B world, channel enhancement means using internet technology to enhance sales by adding an electronic sell channel, using the same technology to enhance the corporate buyer’s ability to buy as one consumer.” –Snapshot One: Channel Enhancement.

Learning Expectation: based on the title of the chapter. I would expect to learn how to enhance ones channel in buying or selling. And most likely a continuation to the last chapter.

Review: What exactly is a channel in E-Business? well, a channel is meant to be a connection between a seller to the buyer. This channel concept can be applied in the “Business to Business” context, as to why is because this can be effectively used in areas of business, such as management and control. and with the internet and the web, this can be further expanded controlled more effectively. In the Business to business world, channel enhancing is a necessity, especially now in our current age of technology, where the internet is everywhere and everything. This can significantly enhance a company’s sales as well, if you want to create your own E-business, that is were it is. There are 2 sides of the channel, the buying side and the selling side. However, channel enhancement is a result of gathered information from both sides of the channel. Enhancing these 2 channels are the simplest form of e-business, or e-commerce. Most of the big time companies will benefit more on a web-based buy channel than a web-enabled sell channel. On the sell side, effectiveness is significantly improved to satisfy productions and such, customers can then just buy these online, this will also reduce inventory for the business. since they will only need to produce a certain product if it’s ordered. The sell channel is also a way to efficiently increase the effectiveness and demand management on a business. such opportunities like increased revenue can be obtain because of E-business. since there is no more middle man in the transaction, delivery people and such. Costs can be reduced, customers will buy them a lot more often because its cheaper. This is one of the many advantage of a web based company, and such technological improvements to the business. Companies who are determined about this e-business enhancement, if they are still not technologically advanced, Can do one of two choices. Either they try to migrate all of there present sales index into a web-enabled channel. Or use the internet technology to strengthen their current distribution network. Whichever way the company chooses, it will still amount to an increase in revenue. Many companies are using e-business to sell their products in other areas aside from there own. If I, a customer were looking for a new type car, and this company from across the planet is particularly selling them, then it might spur a business. if you were to transact this business on the ground, the actual business that is transacted is relatively low, due to some legal matters, and tax and such. Serving on a global market also has quite a few complex decisions, like cost. And service warranty, on a global scale. There is also the lack of assurance between the two, the buyers and sellers, since this whole transaction is being done electronically, one cannot assure the total participation of the other, like buyers need to assure that the sellers will actually deliver and sellers need to assure that the buyers can actually pay up.

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In another aspect of this, the economy of the country where the companies are on will have a much faster growth in economy compared to other countries that do not utilize the internet for business, since that is the outcome of such things, those countries that do not have a fully developed web or internet system will significantly lag behind the market. in the short term perspective this will only drive those companies on a competitive disadvantage compared to those who are transacting business on the web. But on the long term process, the demand for conducting business over the net will most likely drive most or all of the companies to adopt the new technology, but the advantage it could have gotten if the company had just upgraded their internet capabilities sooner would have been lost. Here are some components of an E-nabled sell site: Catalogue: this is used to present customers with necessary information about their products and such, and being able to have a search engine is nice as well. so that customers can pin-point there item faster. Merchandising: is a type of sales promotion, but web based. Some of its promotions can occur on other sites as well, if they have some affinity to those sites. Configurator: if some products are simpler, like few features, such as a book, or a simpler item, then a simple catalogue will be sufficient enough to store the information. This is only true on small or light products. Big items, such as a car maybe cannot be classified in this. Shopping Cart: this one I am partially familiar with, the shopping cart is used to store any item a customer is interested on. Its pretty much the same thing from a real chopping cart to an Eshopping cart. Only with a few things different. Payment System: as of now, the current paying system in a “B2C” e-commerce site is via a credit card. In the “B2B” something called a purchasing card is used. Credit card systems are a common feature in a e-commerce system. these are handled with significant care, since this is the part were the transaction is actually taking place. There are some vendors that offer payment handling services, and there are others that provide a fraud detection software. To secure a transaction. E-business is a unstoppable thing, in order to secure your role in the market. you have to adapt to the new technology. Lesson learned: A lot of information on E-business, and helpful things relating to commerce as well.

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The Long Tail

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The Long Tail Quote: “forget squeezing millions from a few mega hits at the top of the charts. The future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream” Learning Expectations: I already have a vague knowledge about this long tail thing. So I suppose I will learn more about what it is. And what it can actually do for me. Review: The long tail, its supposed to be something of great importance as well, and you can make a lot of money on it as well, or so I’m told. The long tail is composed of everything you can possibly think of that is insignificant to you, but significant to someone else on this earth. That’s how it supposed to work, just make everything you can possibly think of, someone will buy it. like the “Touching the void” book that was published in 1988. it was fairly good but not the top ten kind of good. Since it became unknown to the masses, it got bumped down to the lowest parts of the long tail. Until that is, another book called “Into thin air” came out. Then suddenly the “touching the void” book became wildly popular once again. Why this happened is the work of links I think, people who bought the “into thin air” book enjoyed “touching the void”. Based on that reference alone, people who view it will see the comment. And will most likely check the older book out. These two books would have never had any type of connection, had it not for “Amazon.com”. They created something that would revolutionize the book industry, something by combining infinite shelf space with real time information on buying trends. th During the 20 century the system in which how the popularity of something is based was significantly flawed. Like, for a movie theatre to just keep up with its cost needs to find local audiences to just to make ends meat. Most movie theatres will not show new films unless it can attract a minimum of 1,500 customers. a record store needs to sell 2 cd’s in a year of an album just to make it worth actually stocking the thing. Because of that, retailers will only carry the stuff that will surely generate income for them, thus for those who were unknown or unpopular movies, music. They just sit in a corner, being forgotten in history. The long tail comes in exactly at this point, what it does is it keeps tabs of everything, to make it still available to the public, online. Like this one person, in his work span of 3 years or so, he has published 25,000 books. And he is getting richer by the moment, the logic in this is. Once a month, at least 2 of every type of his books are sold, since its 25,000, that’s a hell lot of books. Multiply that by 12 months, and boom. More money than you can possibly imagine. That’s how the long tail works, it focuses on the unpopular things. A surprisingly huge amount of movies out there are actually good, even better than the ones being advertised on your TV screen. All you need to do is look for it. in a estimated survey, there are about more then 800 Indian films being released each year, yet non of them actually reach the U.S. one of the top ten Indian films only premiered in two movie theatres in America. This is the side effect of physical retailing, it can only reach so far, but not all the audiences. Mass media can only put so many ads in the tv screen. It cant possibly put everything ever made in it. but something else can, that’s were the internet comes in. There is something called the 80-20 rule, or better known as paretos principle. Chances are, out of all of the movies that will be released, only twenty percent of those will be hits, same goes for tv shows, the odds are even worse in music were only less than 10 percent is guaranteed to be a hit.

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The Long Tail The other unknown songs are called misses for some strange reason, misses are the same as hits. They make the same revenue and such, but there is another thing that separates the two, misses provide every song there is, or it has everything rather than hits which only carries just a few. There is demand for those other songs as well, say like 10,000 songs. If 2 people demand one of each, that be a lot of money. Rhapsody, a subscription based streaming service knows a lot about this, it has an inventory of more than 735,000 tracks. That’s a hell lot of songs don’t you think? its revenue is the same as an ordinary record store, a store which only offers new hit cd’s. that’s were the difference is drawn. There are a lot of things that can improve the long tail experience, such as the back catalog. Which because of it, gave the “touching the void” book all that unforeseen popularity. There are some rules on the long tail, and how to capitalize on it. 1. Make everything available, because someone out there will definitely buy it, even if there is only 1 person a month. 2. Cut the price in half, now lower it. because people will buy more things cheaper than things more expensive, do you want to buy a whole album when all you really want is one song from that? 3. Help me Find it. no matter what it is, advertising is an essential factor to ones income. You cant expect to earn something if no one actually looks at it, a proper search engine on the matter or links will help. A recommendation by the site itself will be more effective. Look at the “touching the st void” book, it got huge fame today, it even surpasses the book that got it famous in the 1 place. The long tail is definitely a place of good business as well, though I have my doubts, its still good enough, enough to earn some money online. And it cost you nothing. If you put it online, someone will most likely look at it, and that someone will most likely spread the news, and someone will most likely buy your stuff. Lessons Learned: The long tail is where the money is at. If I capitalize in this, then I would be a made man.

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System Proposal

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System Proposal A Systems Analysis Study on the Inventory System of Charmed Online Shop A Study Presented to the Faculty of the Information Systems Program in the School of Management and Information Technology De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde in Partial fulfillment of the Requirements of the Subject Vertical Solutions

Submitted By: Arriola, Marie Antoinette Junio, Jeriza Dana Tan, Andrew VERTSOL – O0B November 2008 Submitted To: Mr. Paul Amerigo Pajo

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TABLE OF CONTENTS: Chapter 1: Business History Mission & Vision Products Statement of the Problem Objectives of the System Tangible & Intangible Benefits Significance of the Study Scope and Limitation Chapter 2: Use Case Diagram of the Existing System Use Case Narratives Activity Diagram Chapter 3: Use Case Diagram of the Proposed System

HISTORY Charmed Online Shop started on the year 2006 when two sisters started making personalized accessories (necklace, bracelets, etc.) and named their accessory line CHARMED ACCESSORIES. Since then they started producing in bulk. They earn loyal customers through referrals. By the year 2007, Multiply.com has become more popular and online shops started to become a typical business online. On July 2007, Charmed Accessories ventured into the online business and chose multiply to host their site. From then on, Charmed Accessories changed its name to Charmed Online Shop adopting their previous business name. As Charmed Online Shop progress their product line also started to vary. Now, their products range from accessories to personal care products and clothing merchandise. After a year in the online commerce, Charmed Online Shop remained to be one of the most visited online shops in multiply and one of the number one provider of quality products. MISSION Charmed Online Shop aims to provide affordable quality products to the online market. VISION To become the leading online shop that offers extensive varieties of products and to empower small businesses.

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PRODUCTS Personal Care •

Body lotion,

• • • •

Body mist Eau de toilette Organic soap Cosmetics

Accessories/Clothing •

apparel

• • •

necklace earrings bags

Number of customers: 20 transactions per month STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM Charmed Online Shop is hosted by multiply.com and because of this; there are only limited features that can be added in the online store. The payment is done only through Globe G-Cash or through the Cash-on-delivery process which makes the transaction and the scope of the market limited. The browsing of products is done by album surfing, to put an order, the customer still needs to sign an order form. The transactions are sent through e-mail. The lack of proper inventory keeping result into: •

unorganized transaction lists

• •

lack of transaction documentation no stock updates

OBJECTIVES OF THE SYSTEM To improve the quality of service and to solve the problems stated above, the group is proposing a domain name that Charmed Online Shop can manage and customize depending on their needs and plans. The new website for Charmed Online Shop will have a payment system that will allow the international and local market to purchase. The proposed system will also improve the service of the business through easy access to the products. The transactions made will be recorded through a database.

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TANGIBLE BENEFITS • Increase the range of market •

Increase sales by using an online gateway for payment

INTANGIBLE BENEFITS • More organized transaction list •

Improve competitiveness by having an increase in sales opportunity

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY The study shows the importance of the different components of an e-commerce site. The study shows that online business should have all the parts of an e-commerce site in order for them to have a successful business. In addition, this study will help small online businesses improve their transactions and services that they are offering in the market. SCOPE AND LIMITATION The study includes the payment process and the order process. We studied the payment process which is done through G-cash or through Cash-on-Delivery and the activities involve in placing and processing of orders. We did not include the activities done during shipping or delivery.

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USE CASE DIAGRAM (Current System)

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ACTIVITY DIAGRAM (Current System) PLACE ORDER

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Process Order

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USE CASE NARRATIVES OF EXISTING SYSTEM Identification Summary TITLE: Place Order SUMMARY: This use case allows to customer to place an order online. ACTORS: Customer, Seller CREATION DATE: October 28, 2008 VERSION: 1.0 PERSON IN CHARGE: Junio, Jeriza Dana Flow of Events PRECONDITIONS: The customer must login first to their multiply account before they can access the online store. MAIN SUCCESS SCENARIO: 1. Customer can browse the products available within the online store 2. The seller will display the products available and check if the products are available 3. If products are available, customer can enter his/ her desired item and quantity 4. Then the customer can pay the total amount ALTERNATIVE SEQUENCE: Incorrect details ERROR SEQUENCE: Internet Connection Problems POST CONDITION: The sales of the online store will increase

Identification Summary TITLE: Process Order SUMMARY: This use case allows the seller to check the pending orders and process the orders. ACTORS: Customer, Seller CREATION DATE: October 29, 2008 VERSION: 1.0 PERSON IN CHARGE: Arriola, Marie Antoinette Flow of Events PRECONDITIONS: The seller must login first to their email account to check if they have a new transaction MAIN SUCCESS SCENARIO: 1. The seller will check their email if they have a new transaction 2. The seller will check if the availability of products 3. If products are available, the seller will deliver or package the product to the customer address, but if not, the seller will inform their customer. ALTERNATIVE SEQUENCE: Incorrect details

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ERROR SEQUENCE: Internet Connection Problems POST CONDITION: Customer will receive the product

USECASE DIAGRAM PROPOSED SYSTEM

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