More energy saving methods are soon to hit the US from China. Novermber 16th in beijing, the company anounced its first american manufacturing plant. The facility is to located in phoenix area and will begin production by next October. Suntech will now become the first major Chinese cleantech player to bring factory jobs to the U.S. This agreement between the Chinese and the Americans is extremely important and could lead to greater things in the future. At first the US was skeptical about having the chinese bring in thier sola panels in, worried about foreing domination witht the US cleantech space. Suntechs first US facility will be modest, it will have capapcity of 3o megawatts of solar panels per year, enough to outfit around 7,500 homes. There will still be the flexability to boost output to 200 mrgawatts in time. US sales peaked at 494 megawatts in 2008, the us solar panels are expected to climb to more than 1000 in 2010.
The staff of 75 will assemble the solar parts imported from china in the facility located in Pheonix Arizona. This will help decrease the cost from shipping the finished products from china to the US. Chin is hoping to boost up sales of solar panels here in the US, and the US are excited to have the chinese here in the US supplying us with jobs and more solar panels. It seems to be a win win situation of outsourcing.
I chose this article because it correlates with chapter 11′s section on outsourcing. In this case it is helping out economy with jobs, and it will also help our enviroment out in the long run.
Aston A (2009) China Solar panel market sets first U.S. Plant
retreived Novermber 16, 2009 from the business week website:
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2009/tc20091115_970512.htm
Many of us have wondered or have even heard that in the future everything will be done with our gadgets, through the Internet and with technology. This reality may be true soon, especially with our payment methods. According to nytimes.com bills, coins, and plastic cards may soon cease to exist. instead of our wallets we may soon be carrying virtual wallets, with their credit card and bank information stored on remote computers that are accessible everywhere and anytime. With this device they could do anything whether its in a store or on the web.
With a new cellphone application called shopsavvy, a shopper can use the cell phones camera to take a picture of the items bar code and see if its available for less online. if it is, you could just click a button and you could purchase it because it already has your credit card information, well if you entered it into pay pals website. “well just have one wallet, and it lives in the cloud” – scott thompson, president of pay pal.
with your cell phone you could pay anything. Many are still searching for a way to read the different patterns in our blood vessels so then we no longer have to use credit card, cash, checks, or cell phones, but just our finger tips. Everything is moving closer to a virtual world.
The reason why i chose this article was to relate it to chapter 12 and the virtual world section. we may now have virtual wallets, whats next?
Miller C .( 2009), At checkout, more way to avoid cash or plastic.
retrieved November 16, 2009 from nytimes website
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/16/technology/start-ups/16wallet.html?_r=1&em
Have you ever wished you could see the person you were talking over the phone, who lived hundreds of miles away? Well now you can. There are now many different ways you can see who you’re talking to. This is possible with skype, and video conferencing. though this is new technology, it just keeps getting better and better. Soon businesses wont have to travel as much due to video conferencing.
The art ice I chose to discuss for chapter 9 is called “realistic conferencing will change everything.” The new halo collaboration studio is changing the way different businesses communicate. Each Halo room is half of a beige conference room and is linked to another identical looking Halo room. This gives the feeling that the people in the other company that you’re speaking to through the screen is really on the other side of the room. Each halo room is equipped with 60 inch plasma screens, an echo free audio system, and a fast data network. There are now 75 halo rooms around the world, though they are still expensive, (500,000) per room, the halo room seems to be spreading at a nice rate. Cell phones and e mail took about a decade to go from novelty to global ubiquity. It wont be long until video conferencing does the same.
This article relates to groupware and the videoconferencing section of chapter 10. With different groupware systems management could communicate more efficiently, and better making business easier. This communication leads to more produtive work, which is what many businesses want.
Do you have so many logins that you forget your user name and passwords constantly? It seems as if now every website you enter, whether its for school, work, or entertainment, you seem to have a combonation of different usernames and passwords lurking in your brain. It takes me a while to log in to sites that I dont frequently visit. This is especiallt true when i shop online. I seem to forget the log in and then have to send it to my email. Dont you wish stores were more conciderate with thier customers and would have one huge data base for all thier shopping in one spot, with one log in? Well now you can, not for shopping but for the gamers there is.
The article i chose. “”Changes coming for World of Warcraft,” is now getting together with other game industries and setting up a one log in step website called battle. net. This website offers a centralized account system that lets layers manage all thier blizzard entertainment games in one place, with out havving to remember multiple log ins.
This will connect all players, and make it easier for them to communicate accross realms. This will make thier playing expereince more enjoyable. The account will also provide more security, keeping out hackers and phishing, with a uique one time code that users must use with thier passwords.
This article related to ch. 9 due to the Customer Relationship manangement. With a new website that makes login easier, and more secure, customers will be loyal to the new website and bring in new people.
Frum L. (2009) “Changes coming from the “world of Warcraft”.” retreived Nov. 2 ,2009 from the CNN website: http://scitech.blogs.cnn.com/2009/11/03/changes-coming-for-world-of-warcraft-players/
Thursday, October 15, 2009 Ch. 8 IS in business
Many of us do not imagine ourselves ridding a bicycle to work, or even to school. We would rather drive and get where we are going faster. What if there was a bike that could get you where you wanted faster than a regular bike, and with less work? There is now, e bikes. What is an e bike you may be thinking? It is basically like a traditional bike but is equipped with a small motor that power the bike and assist the rider with pedaling. These bikes reduce the sweat it takes to go over hills and far distances and is better for the environment too. E bikes are popular in Europe and China, with over 100 million in China, but are new to the United States. Many believe it may take a while for Americans to mentally shift their perspectives of bike riding as a main source of transportation. Ultra Motor US hopes to change this in the near future. They are planning on three types of customers; those active adults who have gotten a bit too old to ride a traditional bike, those who would like to help out the environment, and many who don’t want to pay to fuel up their SUV’s in the future when oil prices are high. Other companies are now jumping on the e bike train, seeing a gold mine in the future. 200,000 e bikes were sold last year. Though sales have dropped this year, because of the economy, many companies still see them as a good idea for future production. There were more than 20 companies producing e bikes this year, which is a jump from only 5 last year. e bikes range from a few hundred dollars, like the E ip Trailz hybrid, which is 398 at wal mart, to more than 13,000 for the top of the line models. Prices increase as battery technology and components get better. I think this article related to the topic of supply chain mainly because these companies are thinking of the competitive OM strategy, making low cost bikes and high cost bikes, seeking out their competition (ordinary bikes) and for seeing the future (oil prices going up) with these factors the e bike business could be very successful. We could all be riding e bikes in the future. Almasy S. (2009) Will e-bikes be the new commuter cool? retreived October 15, 2009 from the cnn.com/tech website:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/10/15/electric.bicycles/index.html
Posted by Angela Barrientos at 9:58
Tuesday, October 6, 2009 CH 7. IS in Business
Have you ever sat there and waited for your computer to start up? It may take only minutes but it may feel like hours to the common person. This is beacuse we expect instant gradification like everything else in our lives. If we pop in a dvd in seconds it comes on, same as putting bread in the toaster. Microsoft has noticed this impatience we all have as is trying to speed up its average boot time. The BOIS is the first code that a computer runs when it is turned on. Before windows can start up the BIOS identifies, tests and gets system devices such as the video display card, the hard disk and other hardware up and running. This could be time consuming and could frustrate many impatient customers. At Intel’s developers conference last month they announced that their lastest version of BIOS could boot in about a second, by cutting out redundant checks and creating a smarter version of firmware. This still leaves the start up time for windows. But Microsoft has also been working on that saying their new windows 7 starts up in about 20 seconds, rather than the 50 seconds for vista. On average it takes about 1 to 3 minutes for a computer to boot. With windows 7 they claim to have a 5 second boot for BIOs and a 20 second boot for windows. This is yet to be an instant “On” but is an improvement to the previous one to three minute average boot. This also depends on how much memory your computer has. Of course the more applications one has the longer the boot will take. Dell has introduced latitude Z which offers instant boot to check e-mails, calandars, contacts and the web as part of the mode called latitude on. When you turn on the latitude on, you never bring up the main operating system , and when turned off goes into suspended mode like that of a cellphone. The latitude z laptop sells for 2000, and does have a side option to return to regular boot mode which will boot the whole operationg system. This may be an expensive alternatice to the 2 minutes of waiting, but i guess some are that impatient. Ganapati P. (2009) Computer makers seek to banish boot-up blues retrieved October 6, 2009 from www. newyorktimes.com/tech
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/10/05/computers.bootup.speed/index.html?iref=nextin
Thursday, October 1, 2009 Ch. 6 IS in Business
Companies are now mining for “emotions” rather than facts. With the growing use of the Internet, many companies are eager to get their hands on the new data provided by the growth of social networks, such as twitter, facebook, and blogs. With More reviews, ratings and blogs, companies could mine the emotional feed of the people.
A new emerging field, called sentiment analysis, is translating human emotion into hard data. This is because online opinion about a new product could make or break the product in the marketplace. With sentiment analysis future companies could search for information straight online.
Scout Labs recently recently introduced a subscription survey which lets customers monitor bogs, news articles, and social networking sites for trends and opinions about products and services. The sophisticated logarithm used evaluates sentiments about particular topics, and identifies the most influential opinion holders.
Financial times recently introduced Newsswift, an experimental program that tracks sentiments about business topics in the news. This allows users to organize their queries by topic, organization place, etc. For example with the use of newsswift feelings towards the company Wal Mart were positive.
They could also search social networks like twitter with tweetfeel. for example they found that 77% of users liked the movie “Julie and Julia.” The only problem is some comments were said to be negative because sentences like: “i was hungry after” were said to be bad. Companies are working on advanced analytics to solve this problem by programing the programs to work more like the human brain, and how we speak.
Wright, A. (2009) Mining the Web for Feelings, not Facts
Retrieved
Oct 1, 2009 from www.nytimes.com/tech Website:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/technology/internet/24emotion.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
Thursday, October 1, 2009 Ch.5 IS in business
Computer software is now mining for “emotions” rather than facts.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009 Ch. 4 IS in business
We are all guilty of being unethical. Downloading music is illegal and hundreds of teens do it everyday. According John D. sutter, the number of teens streaming music online went from 34 percent in 2007 to 52 percent in 2008. Because of this increase music sales in CD’s and downloads has dropped over the same period. Now a days finding legal easy to use downloading methods are easier. The music industry is now relying on revenue from legal downloading sites. CNN has put together a list of ten sites that are rethinking the way we download legal music, trying to raise revenue in the music industry. For example one site called emusic lets its users download a certain amount of music for a monthly price, averaging about 11 dollars a month for 24 songs. Then we have Kaza, which offers unlimited songs from a data base of a million songs for $19.98 per month.
Then we have the sites that let listeners hear the music for free on their websites, but cannot download them to their computers. These Websites include Pandora, the most buzzed about music site at the moment. Pandora lets users create their own radio stations by typing in the artists or songs they love. The site then analyses your choices and streams music that’s similar stylistically. This site pays royalties to musicians and music companies. There are many other similar music sites with different fun features to attract music buyers.
I thought this article was appropriate with ch.4 views of being ethical. Many of us are guilty of downloading free music, or a movie, which doesn’t seem all that harmful, but is still illegal and unethical.
Sutton, J. (2009). 10 sites to help you navigate the new word of music.
retrieved: September 15, 2009 frrom the CNN tech website:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/07/23/online.music.kazaa/index.html
Wednesday, September 9, 2009 Chapter 3 IS in business Some of the most stunning images are created by the universe, and are captured in snapshots with the hubble space telescope, which was equipped with the new imaging camera during a space shuttle servicing in May.
The picture to the left shows the butterfly Nebula, which is 3,800 light-years away in the constellation scorpius and 2 light years wide. The “wings” of the Nebula are made of gas heated to more than 36,000 degrees farenheit, and in the center lies a dying star. According to NASA, “the gas is tearing across space at more than 600,000 miles per hour, fast enough to travel from the earth to the moon in 24 minutes.”
The light of different elements were isolated with the hubble camera, causing the color contrast to be real. The gold dots are stars like our sun, the blue ones are extremely hot and the red ones are cool. An energetic infant stars being formed inside the cloud.
I picked this article, because i thought it is facinating that a camera could take a picture of something so magnificent. We have access to these photos and this information through the internet. With one click of the mouse, I was able to read about this star, and see photos captured by the hubble camera. The hubble camera is expected to continue its mission for another 5 years.
Palowski A. (2009). Butterfly Nebula captures Hubble’s attention Retrieved September 10, 2009 from CNN tech website: www.cnn.com/tech/space/09/10/hubble.images/index.html
Thursday, September 3, 2009 Chapter 2. IS in business.
Would you pay an extra ten dollars to board the plane before everybody else? According to Elizabeth Strott, this is a new idea Southwest airlines is trying out, called the EarlyBird service. If customers are willing to pay ten dollars more each way, they will be reserved a spot in the boarding line within 36 hours of a flights departure time. Because Southwest does not have assigned seating, and instead is on a first come first serve basis, this new idea could benefit the passengers who wish to choose their seats and board ahead of everyone else.
According to Bob McAdoo, the airline analyst for avondale partners, if 25 to 30 passengers on each flight buy the service, the airline could bring in an additional $250 million annually. Purchasing the earlyBird special will most likely get you on board within the first 30 people. The next people to board the plane would be families, and then regular passengers.
Ideas to improve the happiness of customers have proven to work in the past. In 2008 Southwest introduced the select service, which gave passengers a free drink and access to board the plane earlier. The service was successful boosting the revenue $75 million dollars.
I believe this new idea will bring in more revenue for the company. I would pay an extra ten dollars to get the window seat I always desire, and my anxiety would also drop because I would have peace of mind knowing that I have a good seat reserved.
This article was related to chapter 2 in a sense that Southwest is trying to improve their business process system of seating. With this new idea they are trying the goal seeking analysis, and have already calculated an average of passengers that need to purchase the service to get a boost in their revenue. Their goal is to get around 25 to 30 passengers to buy the service each flight, for a $250 million addition to revenue.
Strott, E. (2009). Southwest Fliers can Reserve a Spot for $10 Retrieved September 3, 2009 from MSN investing website:
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Dispatch/market-dispatches.aspx?post=1248420&_blg=1,1248420
Thursday, August 27, 2009 chapter 1. IS in Business
A new status pops up on your screen and reads,”Off to see Final Destination in 3D,” Have you noticed how many 3D movies are coming out in theaters? According to Nicolai Hartvig from CNN, 3D is now in its infant stages, and the U.S. will have around 3,000 3D screens by the end of this year.
As more and more producers step onto the 3D scene, quality and the experience of seeing a movie are getting better. With more 3D movies emerging, hollywood expects there to be less piracy due to the difficulty of copying 3d movies. In addition, 3D movies appear to be a “healthy cash cow,” bringing in more money with their higher ticket prices. With higher the ticket prices comes higher gross sales helping the movie Industry. With the innovention of 3D, 2d movies may likely be a thing of the past. Filmakers are still trying to perfect the 3D technology and capture the emotions in a more realistic way. “We learned to use the technology, then it became an artform.”
3D has come a long way and has already improved from a couple of years ago. 3d glasses used to be cardboard red and blue glasses but have now transformed to a new polorized avatr look. The 3d movies are now easier to view and easier on your brain. With new technology you no longer have to use both sides of your brain to blur the picture together like we did with the older glasses.
With the growing number of 3d movies, theaters have to adjust. Putting in 3d movie screens may be expensive, but seems necessary to bring customers in to view the 3d films. According to Corcorian, nobody knows how big the industry may be.
In my opinion I see future films all being in 3d, or at least all childrens movies and horror films, which are most likely to be in 3D. I believe the corporation who perfects the 3D films will have an advantage over the rest. This could be a gold mine, where many will compete for better quality 3D films. Also piracy issues may temporarily vanish, until bootleggers find out how to copy the films in 3D, which I believe could be done with enough patience and ambition. For now 3D movies seem to be helping the movie industry sell more movie tickets and make more money.
Hartvig, N. (2009). 3D Projects new vision for the movie industry.
Retrived
August 27, 2009, from CNN.com/Technology web site:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/07/23/3D.cinema.business/index.html
