WEEK 12 QUESTIONS

WEEK 12 EBUSINESS QUESTIONS

See if you can find an example of a privacy breach that was reported in the Australian or international news in the last 6 months. What were the consequences? i.e. legal, political, financial, personal etc. What action was taken in response to the privacy breach?

There is one example of a privacy breach which has happened in the last 6 months that i know of and that is where the Playstation 3 Network was hacked into and over 75 million users passwords, birthdays and credit card details were stolen. The consequences led to the playstation network being shut for a period of time while they tried to solve who did this. They have started using limited access again on the playstation network.

Reference: Herald Sun. (2011). Millions exposed By Playstation Hack. Retrieved on the 1^st June, 2011 from http://www.heraldsun.com.au/ipad/sonys-playstation-network-hacked-leaving-up-to-77-million-exposed/story-fn6bfkm6-1226045571195

WEEK 11 QUESTIONS

WEEK 11 E-BUSINESS QUESTIONS

Exercise - select five applications that you have not heard of before from Popular URL's Web 2.0 awards or the webware awards and describe on your blog page how they could be useful to a business.

Picassa – would be good to use for a business that is in the photography sector as they could upload their photos to their website using Picassa to show off their talented photography.

Ehow – would be good to have as a search and reference function as it could give any customers with any confusion a way to follow step by step instructions for certain tasks, such as, how to buy online.

Mint – could be used internally at small business to see where their revenues and expenditures come from. This would be only effective for small businesses as there are fewer transactions to manage and a lower cost rather then seeing a full time accountant.

Paypal – I know of paypal but it is the most trusted way of buying or selling on the internet and every business that has an online presence should have a paypal option available to buy the goods or services.

Google Calendar – could be used internally so then everyone can see when people are on leave and what events are scheduled throughout the year. They could also use it to have deadlines on to make sure these deadlines are reached

Reference: CNET (2009). 2009 Webware 100. Retrieved on the 30^th of May from http://www.webware.com/100/?tag=rb_content;overviewHead

WEEK 10 QUESTIONS

WEEK 10 E-BUSINESS QUESTIONS

1) What does this meant by the following statements?

Trust is not associative (non-symmetric)
This means that if person A trusts person B with a particular subject matter then this does not mean that Person B necessarily trusts Person A with the same subject matter.

Trust is not transitive

This means under general circumstances, trust is always between exactly two entities, is non symmetric and conditionally transitive. If it was transitive everyone in the world would trust each other.

Trust is always between exactly 2 parties
No matter when trust occurs it is exactly between two different parties. For example, person A trusts business B to cut their hair for them in the way Person A wants it.

Trust will involve either direct trust or recommender trust

Direct trust occurs when Person A directly trusts Person B with some matter.  Recommender trust is when Person A recommends Person B to Person C with respect to a certain matter.

Reference: McCullagh, A. (n.d.). E-commerce – A matter of trust. Retrieved on 30^th of May, 2011 from http://www.acs.org.au/president/1998/past/io98/etrust.rtf.

2a) Have a look at the following websites. What are some of the elements that have been incorporated to increase your trust in the sites? If there are also some aspects which decrease your level of trust describe them as well.

http://www.eBay.com.au

I trust eBay as it has a security centre, where it has information on avoiding scams, protecting yourself and how to make safe transactions. This helps by restoring confidence that you can make safe transactions on eBay. It also has a buyer’s protection centre where it assists PayPal with a buyer protection strategy to help reduce the amounts of fake transactions.

http://www.anz.com.au
I would trust ANZ as it has a well known reputation for being a major bank. This is also aided by ANZ’s website have a section on ways to protect your bank with current updates on any security alerts or hoaxes. I have also seen advertised on TV that ANZ have introduced the ANZ falcon program which helps protect you more on the internet.

http://www.thinkgeek.com
I would be a bit hesitant on using this website as I have never heard of it before and there is less information on security and privacy compared to ebay, ANZ and paypal. There is a little bit of security information which makes it seem a little bit safe.

http://www.paypal.com.au
I trust paypal as it is another highly rated site in the world. It has a massive security centre with plenty of information on anything from buying and selling to identity theft. They also have a transaction dispute centre to help deal with any issues.

2b) Find a web site yourself that you think looks untrustworthy.

http://join.homewealthsolution.com/qualified/

This website looks like an untrustworthy site has I believe earning all this money in little time online is too good to be true. It doesn’t look safely set up with a security centre like the previous websites and I think it could be a dodgy website.

week 8 questions

WEEK 8 E-BUSINESS QUESTIONS

1) eBay is one of the only major Internet "pure plays" to consistently make a profit from its inception. What is eBay's business model? Why has it been so successful?

Ebay’s business model is the auction brokerage model.  Ebay has been so successful because it lets other people upload their items to be auctioned off. Whereas, most other companies eg. Amazon, only use there products.

2) Other major web sites, like Amazon.com and Yahoo!, have entered the auction marketplace with far less success than eBay. How has eBay been able to maintain its dominant position?

As explained in the last question, ebay has been so successful due to allowing other users upload their products to be sold as well. They have also built up trust over the years which allows users to breath easier when using ebay.

3) What method does eBay use to reduce the potential for fraud among traders on its site? What kinds of fraud, if any, are eBay users most susceptible?

ebay has no tolerance for fraud users leading to a team of over 2000 trust and safety professionals who work around the clock to protect and assist members in account security and safe trading. There internal systems and technologies monitor the key areas of the site that would be targeted in fraudulent activity. Ebay also has a good relationship with authorites (eg. Police) which can be brought in if needed. The main types of fraud are sellers fraud, buyers fraud, identity theft and phishing emails. (ebay, 2011).

Reference:

Ebay (2011). Online Fraud. Ebay Security Centre. Retrieved on the 8^th of May, 2011 from http://help.ebay.com.au/Help/Security/Avoiding_scams/Online_fraud

4) eBay makes every effort to conceptualize its users as a community (as opposed to, say "customers" or "clients"). What is the purpose of this conceptual twist and does eBay gain something by doing it?

Ebays purpose for the community concept is to incorporate every user together as part of the ‘ebay family’. This led to a increase in trust by users which gains more people to use ebay leading to a bigger marketshare.

5) eBay has long been a marketplace for used goods and collectibles. Today, it is increasingly a place where major businesses come to auction their wares. Why would a brand name vendor set-up shop on eBay?Brand name vendors need to set up shop on ebay due to the amount of users on ebay. This is due to the migration of consumers online. This will  open up another different way to source income for the company.

6) I have a few businesses, and I have used eBay for about 12 years on and off. Currently I have about 600 books listed on eBay (seller name ozrural). I stopped selling on eBay for a few years but they changed the rules this July and it is viable again (for me). What do you think changed?

I could not find anything on the changes in July, however I presume it had something to do with reducing fees that the sellers had to pay for.

WEEK SEVEN QUESTIONS

WEEK 7 E-BUSINESS QUESTIONS

1) Write a one paragraph describing the Turing test and another paragraph describing an argument against the Turing Test, known as the about the Chinese room.

THE TURING TEST

The turing test is a proposal made by Alan Turing back in 1950 coming up with a  way of answering the question of whether machines (eg. Computers) can think. This test is related to two main ways of testing machines. The first is where Turing suggests whether a digital computer could do well in ‘the imitation game’. He suggested in the future that there will be computers that will do in the certain game.  The second way is were behavioural tests are used for the presence of mind, or thought or intelligence.

THE CHINESE ROOM

John Searle has came up with an argument against the Turing test which is called the chinese room. Searle argues against the claim that ‘appropriately programmed computers literally have cognitive states’.  This therefore argues against Turing’s suggestion that computers can think. They way Searle’s argument is structured is where a ‘hand simulation’ (simply a special kind of digital computation) of an intelligent agent in circumstances in which we might be hesitant to suggest there is any appropriate intelligence behind the behaviour that has been simulated.

Reference:

Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. (2011). The Turing Test. (Spring 2011 ed.). Retrieved on the 7^th May, 2011 from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/turing-test/#MeasInt

2) Can virtual agents succeed in delivering high-quality customer service over the Web? Think of examples which support or disprove the question or just offer an opinion based on your personal experience.

The main examples of virtual agents are:

•       Mobile agents can relocate their execution on to different processors)

•       Distributed agents are executed on physically distinct machines

•       Autonomous agents are capable of modifying the way in which they achieve their objectives

•       Intelligent agents exhibit some aspects of artificial intelligence, such as learning and reasoning

•       Fuzzy agents

I believe that virtual agents could deliver high quality customer service over the web, however, there is still the ambiguitious questions which could not be answered by a virtual agent and would need a real life person to research and answer these questions. I do believe that in the future that virtual agents could be used in assistance with real life people.

Knox,I. (2011).  Automata week 7 power point presentation

WEEK SIX QUESTIONS

WEEK 6 EBUSINESS

Question 1

a) What experiences have you had with shopping online?

I have had two main shopping online experiences. I use ebay to buy some stuff randomly and I have used the V8 race experience to buy a gift voucher for me to use at the Sandown track and drive a real v8 supercar.

b) Describe a good experience.

When I purchased my 5 hot laps from v8 race experience, I had a good online experience as It was a very simple and quick process which emailed you the voucher straight away.

c) What did you like about the online store you used?

 It was simple to use, easy form to fill out and wasn’t complicated for new users.

d) Describe a bad experience.

When I first used ebay I had bought an item how ever it didn’t show up within in the time which was estimated. It was a whole week late and because I hadn’t used ebay before I thought that I had bought a fake one.

e) What problems did you have with the online store?

The online store was fine, just a bit complicated for a first time user, however it is easy to use once it has been used a few times.

f) What features make an online store more appealing?

-          Pictures

-          Simple easy to use website

-          Good Security 

-          Lower prices

g) What features make an online store less appealing?

-          Fake items

-          Hard, complicated ways to use it

-          Cant see the physical product in front of you

-          Have to really on honesty from the seller

h) Should we expect to see the prices of goods and services rise or fall due to the migration of consumers online?

I believe we will see prices start to fall as online takes less hassle then a physical store. This will hopefully drop in store prices to help compete against the online migration of consumers.

Question 2

a) The dispersion of prices (that is, the spread between the lowest and highest price for a particular product) will narrow.

In the short term the dispersion of prices is very wide spread however in the long term I agree that the dispersion of prices will become very narrow.

b) The importance of brand names will decrease.

I disagree with this statement as I believe that  brand names will always be a factor in purchase from consumers.

c) Price competition will make all products cheaper.

I believe that eventually this could happen as we have currently seen in supermarktets with milk prices etc. With the migration of online stores with lower prices, it could see all of the prices drop for the products (online or in store).

d) Digital markets will become dominated by a handful of mega-sites, like Amazon.com.

I agree with this statement as sites like amazon and ebay have built up their trust with security issues and until such sites build up this trust, they won’t be used as much leading to sites like amazon and ebay having a greater market share.

e) How do you think the balance of power between buyer’s and seller’s will change?

I believe sellers will hold rank with the power as the make their decisions based on themselves making the most profit, not so much of what the buyers want.

f) Prices are clustered online.

I believe prices online are not clustered. An example is  the price comparision of a ps3 game, on ebay it could be purchased for $50 whereas on the dick smith online store it was $89.95.

g) Online prices are elastic. ( i.e. immune to change up and down with demand)

My opinion would be that online prices are less elastic then in store products. Online prices are generally pretty fixed.

h) Online prices are generally transparent (the extent to which prices for a given product or service are known by buyers in the marketplace.).

I disagree because the only prices that buyers see are the selling price not how much the products or services cost.

Question 3

a) What types of m-commerce services does your cell phone provider offer?

I have an iphone so I have applications for:

-          Commonwealth bank – bill payment, bank transfers

-          Ebay

-          Safari internet

-          Bluetooth

-          Wifi

b) Which of these services do you use?

I use all of these services on my iphone due to ease of use and being able to do it anywhere.

c) What types of transactions do you perform through your cell phone or other wireless device?

I use all of these services especially to pay bills, bank transfers, check bank balances, paypal for ebay and sportsbet.com.au deposits and withdrawals.

d) What types of transactions would you like to perform, but are currently unable to?

I cant perform visa or mastercard/ credit card transactions as I don’t have a card suitable which limits my purchases on the internet

e) What is your opinion of wireless advertising/mobile marketing?I dislike wireless advertising and mobile marketing as it is very annoying receiving marketing messages or phone calls from Telstra, banks, etc.

week five questions

Now look at the list of business models below and describe the features of each of these business models, on your blog page, giving an example of each. The basic categories of business models discussed in the table below include:

Brokerage:

-          Frequent  role in business to business (B2B), business to consumer (B2C) and consumer to consumer (C2C) markets

-          Brokerage models include:

o  Marketplace exchange

o   Buy/sell fulfilment

o   Demand collection system

o   Auction broker

o   Transaction broker

o   Distributor

o   Search agent

o   Virtual marketplace

Advertising

-          The broadcaster, in this case, a web site, provides content and services mixed with advertising messages in the form of banner ads. The banner ads may be the major or sole source of revenue for the broadcaster.

-          Advertising models include:

o   Portals

o   Classifieds

o   User registration

o   Query based paid placement

o   Contextual advertising / behavioural marketing

o   Content targeted advertsing

o   Intromercials

o   Ultramercials

Infomediary

-          Data about consumers and their consumption habits are valuable, especially when that information is carefully analyzed and used to target marketing campaigns. Independently collected data about producers and their products are useful to consumers when considering a purchase.

-          Infomediary models include:

o   Advertising networks

o   Audience measurement services

o   Incentive marketing

o   Metamediary

Merchant

-          Wholesalers and retailers of goods and services. Sales may be made based on list prices or through auction

-          Merchant models include:

o   Virtual merchant

o   Catalogue merchant

o   Click and mortar

o   Bit vendor

Manufacturer (Direct)

-           The manufacturer model, is predicated on the power of the web to allow a manufacturer to reach buyers directly and thereby compress the distribution channel. The manufacturer model can be based on efficiency, improved customer service, and a better understanding of customer preferences.

-          Manufacturer models include:

o   Purchase

o   Lease

o   License

o   Brand intergrated content

Affiliate-

-           provides purchase opportunities wherever people may be surfing. It does this by offering financial incentives (in the form of a percentage of revenue) to affiliated partner sites. The affiliates provide purchase-point click-through to the merchant. It is a pay-for-performance model, if an affiliate does not generate sales, it represents no cost to the merchant. The affiliate model is inherently well-suited to the web, which explains its popularity. Variations include, banner exchange, pay-per-click, and revenue sharing programs\

-          Affiliate models include:

o   Banner exchange

o   Pay-per-click

o   Revenue sharing

Community

-          The viability of the community model is based on user loyalty. Users have a high investment in both time and emotion. Revenue can be based on the sale of ancillary products and services or voluntary contributions; or revenue may be tied to contextual advertising and subscriptions for premium services

-          Community models include:

o   Open source

o   Open content

o   Public broadcasting

o   Social networking services

Subscription

-          Users are charged a periodic -- daily, monthly or annual -- fee to subscribe to a service. It is not uncommon for sites to combine free content with "premium" (i.e., subscriber- or member-only) content

-          Subscription models include:

o   Content services

o   Person to person networking services

o   Trust services

o   Internet service providers

Utility

-          The utility or "on-demand" model is based on metering usage, or a "pay as you go" approach. Unlike subscriber services, metered services are based on actual usage rates

-          Utility models include:

o   Metered usage

o   Metered subscriptions

Reference: Rappa M. (2010). Business Models on the Web. Retrieved on the 10^th april, 2011 from http://digitalenterprise.org/models/models.html

What is the Mobile phone use /100 population - compare Australia, USA, China, India, Your Country

Australia 105

USA 86.8

China 47.9

India 29.4

Internet use (Mb/s) / 100 population - compare Australia, USA, China, India, Your Country

Australia 55.4

USA 111.2

China 4.8

India 0.3

Compare main strengths and weaknesses of Australia or your home country in the survey

Strengths

-          Government usage

-          Infrastructure environment

-          Market environment readiness

-          Political & regulatory environment

-          Network Readiness index

-          Individual usage

-          Business readiness

Weaknesses

-          Individual readiness

-          Business usage

-          Government readiness

What does the survey suggest to you about the Information Technology readiness of Australian business compared to Australian consumers?

The survey suggests business readiness (21) is ahead of individual readiness (31).

Reference: Dutta, S. & Mia, I. (2010). Global Information Technology Report 2009-2010. ICT for Sustainability. Retrieved on the 10^th April, 2011 from http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GITR_Report_2010.pdf