Social Media Project

Allstate is the company that my group chose for the social media project. The link to the social media's Wiki is http://ism3004socialmedia.wikispaces.com/Allstate.

The social media project is a group project that allow us to do research on the social media policy and practice of a company. As we all know, the social media has transformed into the daily activities in our lives. It is important for all the companies to use different social medias to interact with their customers. Most of the companies now have Facebook, Twitter and an official website on the web. Companies can now get feedback faster and easier from their fans and customers by using these social media.

I can truly say that my group did a great job working with each others. Each group members were assigned with different part of the project. The project consists of research on the different social media that the company has. Each person then posted their work on the discussion board and have their work reviewed by other team members. At the end, everyone's works are post into the company's Wiki page.

Our project is based on Allstate, which is the second largest insurance company in the United States. Allstate is pretty good with their social media, they have a Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, official website, RSS, Google+ and a blog community. On their official website, all the social media has their own icon on webpage. Customers are have easy access through all the social media by clicking the icons.  

In conclusion, I think social medias are vital tools to today's business environment. If a business want to become successful, they will need to use social medias. 

Screen Capture by Yasmin Yuen, Allstate Official Website

Screen Capture by Yasmin Yuen, Allstate Twitter

Citation:
http://www.allstate.com/
http://www.allstate.com?cid=BAC-SN-Twitter

Week 13- Muddy: Social Media

In the week's lesson, the Metcalfe's Law was extremely hard to interpret. The Metcalfe's Law stated that "the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of users (number of connections that can be made)." Most people think that the more people it has in the network, the more value it will have. But then it said "if a network that has too many users for the capacity can also have a much lower value since no one can access it." It was hard to understand the concept because it first stated that the value of a network is based on the number of the users, but it will also have a lower value with too many users.

So how do we use Metcalfe's Law to calculate the value of a network?

Some Rights Reserved by justin.wikinator- Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial- Share Alike

After searching for my answer online, I was able to understand the concept of the Metcalfe's Law with the help of the Wikipedia. Many people have misinterpreted the Metcalfe's Law. Instead of using the number of users to increase the value of a network, it is the connected devices that increasing the value of a network. For example, two cell phones can make one connection, five cell phones can make 10 connections, and twelves cell phones can make 66 connections.This law has led to the concept of the network effects, which is the effect of one user of a good and service has on the value of that good and services to other people.

The picture above is the Metcalfe wheel, it illustrates the fully connected world that we live in today. We are now able to connect to different people in the world by using computer, mobile devices and other social media. It is important for us to learn how this effect can impact our lives now and in the future.


Citation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalfe%27s_law

Week 12- Clear: World Wide Web

"The World Wide Web (WWW or W3) is what the internet uses to share data and conduct business". Dr. Means explained to the class about the World Wide Web in this week's lesson. The World Wide Web is what we use in almost every day of our lives now. We need to understand how the World Wide Web, Internet, and Browsers work.

The Internet is a network of networks that connect computer to another computer. The World Wide Web can access information by using the Internet. The Browsers help us get to the webpage that we want to go by interpreting the address that we enter and displaying it after. We can go to a web page by entering the URL, a unique name of the page that consists of three parts. The three parts are the protocol, the domain name and the last part contains path & file name.

Web contents usually contain HTML language, CSS coding, graphics, pictures and videos. People use web pages because of different reasons, some use internet to trade, connect or feel. There are different types of websites that accommodate to different types of people.

© alles-schlumpf-Some Rights Reserved Creative Common

It is important for us to learn about the World Wide Web because we are surrounded by it everyday. In the future, we may need to use the World Wide Web to promote our businesses or even have our business on the web.

I found a old school video about the World Wide Web from YouTube. Enjoy!!

Week 11- Clear: Database Project Microsoft Access

By the end of this project, I felt comfortable with Microsoft Access. When I started doing the project, I thought I would never be able to finish it. With practice and research, Microsoft Access was becoming easier to use. I learned to use the basic skills for Microsoft Access, for example:  creating tables, queries, forms, and report. Creating a table was a bit challenging because we had to import a text document that needs to be import with special commands. Creating the query was a bit tough for me because I was stuck with one of the last 12 months returned data. It turns out that I did not pay attention to the field data types for the "left data" field. A lot of the functions in Microsoft Access required the user to pay attention and focus on the specific details.

 One way that I think Microsoft Access can do to enhance the functionality of this database is by having a training wheels function in the program. What I mean by training wheels is that every time when a beginner user starts to create a table, a query or a from, instructions will pop out of the program to help you with the function. Overall the program is a bit hard to use if you are a beginner user but like everything else, practice, practice, practice.

I think it is a great program to use because it is very organized. It can our business to growth because all the data for the company becomes easier to read and understand. Information and data can be organized in different forms and functions.

Week 10- Muddy: Database Skills Track

Let's start this blog by saying that: "I Do Not Like ACCESS!" Well, that came out too strong and I once felt the same way towards Excel. Now that I have to use Excel for my daily life, I am used to the program and I actually enjoy using it very much. Access confuses me a lot, I can not see the benefit of using Access yet. It is still a very new experience for me to get used to. I also feel like Access is very similar to Excel, so what is the differences between the two? I am trying my best to be open minded when it comes to this program. One website that I found was very helpful was the Microsoft Office website.

Microsoft Access is a database tool that helps you understand your information and provide a easy way to access, enter, and navigate your data. One of the tool that I have problem understanding in Microsoft Access is the "Queries". What is queries? Queries allow the user to ask questions and being able to answer these questions. For example, if you have a data file with all the cell phone numbers you have on your phone. Input the criteria you want, for example female. All the cell phone numbers belong to a female friends will be listed.

Now my second question is when should I use Microsoft Access or Microsoft Excel since they share so many similarities. To decide which is the best program to use, we all need to answer this question first: is the data relational or not? Data that can fit into a single table of worksheet is called nonrelational data or flat. For example, if you are creating a list with data that can fit into a worksheet, then Excel is the right program. If you are creating a more complex list, then Access is a better choice.

Some Rights Reserved-Creative Common:Attribution 2.0 Generic

Now that I understand a little bit more about Microsoft Access, I hope that I can do good on my project.

Citation:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/using-access-or-excel-to-manage-your-data-HA010210195.aspx?CTT=5&origin=HA010264081
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/access/

Excel Project

The Excel project was a great learning experience for all of us. As we all know, Excel is a very popular application software. Almost all companies use Excel today to manage the company data, numbers, tables and etc. In this Excel project, it is consisted of 1000 subjects with 21 heart rate measurements from time 0:00 to 20:00 for each subject. Using the skills we learned from the lesson videos, we need to format the data according to the instructions that were given to us.

In the Excel project, we learned different types of functions that are needed to become an expert. Well maybe not an expert but having the basic knowledge to perform different tasks. We learned the basic structure of Excel, how to create formulas, the different functions and how to create the pivot tables.

The biggest challenge I had in the Excel project was learning how to use the Pivot Table function. It was a bit challenging for me because it was a new concept. I work with Excel everyday but I never came across using the pivot table. Overall it was not hard to understand as long as you practice using the function. I enjoyed doing this project very much!!!

Week 9: Clear- Moore's Law

Moore's law was a very easy concept to understand this week. The Moore's law stated that the performance of a chip will doubles for approximately every 18 months. This means that you can purchase a computer twice as fast with the same price after the 18 months period. How do we know that this concept is true? Well, let's suppose that you bought a computer 18 months ago or 2 years ago and compare it to the computers in the store today. Notice that the computers in the store today may have higher RAM, or better hard drive than the one you have right now. The difference is caused by Moore's law; chip, computer, and technology today improve their performance over time.

Will Moore's law last forever? Some said that Moore's law can not continue to last much longer due to the three interrelated forces, size, heat and power. These three forces can slow down and stop the Moore's law because as the chip get smaller and smaller, the electrons will get tighter. As the electrons get tighter and tighter, more heat will build up and eventually destroying the chip. Scientists and inventors will need to find a way to cool down the heat to solve this problem.

Some Rights Reserved-Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic

Why is it important for us to learn about the Moore's law? Dr. Means pointed out several good reasons as to why we should consider Moore's law as a very important concept. It is important for us to learn about this concept because the changes that can impact towards our businesses. The rapid pace of the computer's world can impact the way a business needs to be function. As the business managers of the future, there are several questions we need to ask ourselves due to Moore's law. How long will my computer equipments remind useful? How is this going to affect my capital budget? How many maintenance cost? and lastly, how many training cost?
 
I found a funny video about the Moore's law in YouTube. Enjoy!!