Blog 10: Chapter 13: Outsourcing

Within the chapter, I came across a “point of interest” about a World Interactive IT Map on cio.com. I went to the map and clicked around looking at the different countries that performs outsourced work. You can click on hundreds of different countries and view a “scorecard” for each of them. I learned that Ireland’s outsource ranking is declining and its cons are that it’s too expensive, no longer a viable center for labor arbitrage and there is a gap between the labor supply and demand which is a burgeoning problem. India is the leading outsource country. The pros of outsourcing in India are that they are working to stay on top, it has essential resources and a robust infrastructure to deliver comprehensive application, infrastructure and business process services. India rakes in almost $18 billion in IT and BPO annually. Also, it is home to some of the most technologically advanced companies in the world; three out of five of the world's CMM Level 5 companies are in India. In addition, there are 200,000 IT grads per year meaning there is always a supply of workers.

http://www.cio.com/article/123711/Click_and_Save_with_Our_Interactive_Global_Outsourcing_Map

When looking at the map I came across a link to another article about outsource prices dropping in 2010. The author Stephanie Overby writes that outsourcing prices dropped in 2009 and “It's not just the global economic slowdown that's sending IT service prices south, it is also the increased use of offshoring, pricing pressure from customers, and a reduction in vendors' services.” But a quote from Ben Trowbridge, CEO of outsourcing advisor Alsbridge says that “One of the issues we see is that lower prices can also be driven by disaggregated service." For example, lower desktop support prices might be due to a vendor delivering remote infrastructure management support. But they might just as well be the result of a reduced scope of services that leaves the client with a lower level of service or possibly having to retain other costs—which negates or reduces the customer's potential savings.”

http://www.cio.com/article/510271/Outsourcing_Prices_Likely_to_Drop_in_2010_But_at_What_Cost_

Blog 9: Chapter 12: Agile Development

I found an interesting video on YouTube about the benefits of agile methods versus the waterfall method. The video is clearly one sided but I thought it was funny because it doesn’t really explain what agile development is at all. It lists all the reason why this team that uses agile development works better than the other team. They list reasons such as the team who use the waterfall method have a boss who likes to golf and team members who don’t value each others’ time. They constantly emphasize the fact that the waterfall effort takes a LONG time to do and how the client isn’t happy with the results and their work ends up in filing cabinets in the basement. But they then go on to say that with agile development team members work better together, aren’t stressed, and don’t work on the software after they have finished it. I found it funny because a lot of people argue the exact opposite and say that with agile development there is little research done before and that means that after development, creators must go back and improve on it after users request modifications. I just think the video would have been more effective if the creator had actually told viewers what the two methods are and used more realistic reasons for backing agile development.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDDO3ob-4ZY

Blog 8: Chapter 11: Business Intelligence

When looking at the lecture notes, I found an article that interested me. It is titled “Business Intelligence’s Time is Now” and appeared on BusinessWeek.com in March 2009. The article discusses how the recession is fostering interest in business intelligence. The author talks about specific examples in companies such as Chili’s, Welch’s, and Carnival Cruise Lines. During the recession, Chili’s is using business intelligence software to get a better handle on consumer spending patterns to make lots of decisions, like altering staff levels and moving around menu items. Welch’s says although Bi software can be expensive, the ability to reduce transportation costs with its help makes the cost worth it. In addition, they say that now instead of spending 80% of their time gathering information and 20% analyzing it, BI software has switched those numbers around and analysts are able to do 30 hours of work in only 30 minutes! Carnival Cruise Lines has felt a huge lag in people looking to go on cruises during the recession so they decided to focus on those who they know are most likely to go on a cruise whether there’s a recession or not. Because they don’t have an unlimited budget to market to every customer, CCL used BI software to look at internal customer information but also third-party information about household income and composition. With this information Carnival can quickly and easily create marketing campaigns for the right audience.

Clearly, BI software is worth the cost because it allows companies to find the information they are looking for and use it to their advantage. Not only does it help with that, but it also speeds up analyzing time so that work can be done faster than ever before!

Blog 7: Chapter 10: Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The concept that struck me as most interesting in Chapter 10 was the idea of Artificial Intelligence or the field that focuses on methods and technologies to emulate how humans learn and solve problems. When I read that at first it reminded me of a video I watched on YouTube called Shift Happens 3.0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpEnFwiqdx8). In the video, it says that by 2013 a supercomputer will be built that exceeds the computational capabilities of the human brain and predictions are that by 2049, a $1000 computer will exceed the computational capabilities of the entire human species. This fact really scares me! The fact that something that isn’t even human can be smarter than all of us combined is terrifying.

I decided to look more into AI and found an article about how the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has begun a project to re-think artificial intelligence research. In the article, the author states that the Mind Machine Project will return to the basic to examine what lies behind human intelligence. The project will span five years and will bring together successful researchers in the field of AI. They hope to produce robotic companions smart enough to aid those suffering from dementia. Their plan is to go back to some of the assumptions made about AI when research first started and see if they can find any mistakes or blips. The ultimate is to “create a physical system that is smart enough to read a child's story book, understand the context surrounding that narrative and explain what happened.”

(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8401349.stm)

Blog 6: Chapter 9: Glocalization

In chapter 9, there is a small section about glocalization. Glocalization is the idea that organizations must plan and carefully design their global sites so that they also cater to local needs and preferences. The book sites McDonalds as one of the many companies that practices glocalization. I looked into that and found that McDonalds has two websites dedicated solely to African Americans (www.365black.com) and Asians (www.myinspirasian.com). On each website they have a “My Community” link that tells visitors what events and people McDonalds is supporting within their community. On 365black.com, McDonald’s says that “Like the unique African Baobab tree, which nourishes its community with its leaves and fruit, McDonald's has branched out to the African-American community nourishing it with valuable programs and opportunities.”
When it comes to food, I found that McDonalds changes their menu in almost every foreign location outside of the United States. In Asia, they offer a fried shrimp sandwich and a pork patty with teriyaki sauce,; in the Middle East, they offer the McArabia which is a grilled chicken or grilled kofta patty wrapped in an Arabic style pita bread; in Europe, they offer the CroqueMcDo that has 2 melted slices of Emmental cheese and a slice of ham toasted between 2 flattened hamburger buns. In some locations they even offer beer and wine!
Glocalization is an important process because if McDonalds only offered the original menu items in all their locations, they would be excluding certain ethnic groups and alienating themselves to only certain parts of the globe, therefore diminishing business overall.

Blog 5: Chapter 8: Blogs

I chose to write about blogs from Chapter 8 because we are using blogs in this very class! I looked up how often blogs are used in higher education and what blogs are interesting. I came across the website blogged.com. Blogged.com presents of list of many different types of blogs that people may want to view once or even subscribe to.

On the website you can click on “University” and it gives you an extensive list of blogs that all have to do with higher education. The blogs are rated on a scale of 1-10. The top five blogs are (1) The Chronicle of Higher Education (discusses the 2008 presidential candidates' plans for higher education and other issues currently impacting higher education, (2) Lessig Blog (Lawrence Lessig is a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and founder of the school's Center for Internet and Society), (3) The College Puzzle (Discusses the important and complex subjects of college completion, college success, student risk factors (for failing), college readiness, and academic preparation.), (4) The College Kid (Just another tech blog written by a college kid, her Mac and lots of Dr. Pepper.), and (5) Chronicle of Higher Education News Blog (The Chronicle of Higher Education, the No. 1 source of news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty members and administrators, publishes breaking news on this blog, complementing its online and print publications. 5 to 10 posts per day.)

I found the blogs they listed to be incredibly interesting with some being silly blogs about college life while others had to do with real issues within higher education. Clearly blogs can be used for fun or for education!

Blog 4:Chapter 5: Mashups

A mashup is defined as integration of features from two different applications to create new useful applications. I searched mashup on Google to see what came up and I found a pretty interesting website. On www.programmableweb.com/mashups visitors are given a list of thousands of mashups that can provide them with the information or help they need. Under the most popular mashups, some examples include a Google Map Flight Simulator called Goggles that defines itself as “a very fun and creative flight simulator built on top of Google Maps. Pick from one of five cities and go. Change altitude and direction using the arrow keys.” Another example is Sad Tweets which takes tweets from Twitter and illustrates them via pictures from Flickr. “Sometimes the pictures and the text are not a perfect match. Other times the matches seem profound.”
I found this website to be incredibly interesting because I never knew these sorts of things existed! You can find things you want like a Nintendo Wii at the cheapest possible price or tour the 25 most unsafe cities in the U.S.! Mashups can definitely helpful but also can be entertaining.

RFID tags in passports

After reading the information in the book about RFID tags, I started getting curious as to what else RFID tags are in. I found out that RFID tags were put into passports in 2006. I asked my family and friends if they had any idea about this and every single person I asked said no! The article I found on CNET.com stated that new passports (as of 2006) will be equipped with RFID chips that can transmit personal information including the name, nationality, sex, date of birth, place of birth and digitized photograph of the passport holder. Also, they employ a "multilayered" approach to protect privacy and reduce the possibility that passerby can skim data from the books. State Department officials also claim that a layer of metallic antiskimming material in the front cover and spine of the book can prevent information from being read from a distance, provided that the book is fully closed.

I found this incredibly interesting because everyone I asked had no idea about the placement of RFID chips. It is very scary to think that all that personal information is available to people with the capability to scan the chip. It is debatable whether the placement of chips was necessary because all that information is written on the inside of the passport. And owners of passports used to be able to only allow people they want to see their information to see it. Now our information is available to almost anyone with enough incentive to get it.

http://news.cnet.com/RFID-passports-arrive-for-Americans/2100-1028_3-6105534.html?tag=mncol