Channel 9

As referenced by Robert Scoble this afternoon in class, here is Channel 9. We will discuss this site on wednesday.
Related articles:

• Microsoft Opens "Channel" for Dialogue
  
• Microsoft Turns On Channel 9
  
• Microsoft's Channel 9 And Cultural Rules
  

Blog Images

For those of you who are considering replacing the blog images from the course blog design to images that align with the theme of your blog, I wanted to let you know the dimensions of the images that you are replacing. You should use images of similar dimensions.
The image in the left hand column: 115 px x 429 px
The image banner across the top: 395 px x 150 px

There is a possibility I may announce a design contest which will include an amazon.com gift voucher for a prize. I have not yet decided.

Cluetrain / Transparency

I am not sure I have yet really addressed the Cluetrain Manifesto in the class. This has been the launching pad for my new realization of what the internet truly does for marketing. Markets are now conversations, and it is up to businesses to get involved in those conversations and not to hide behind sanitized marketing messages. This and more will be explored with Robert Scoble's presentation on Monday. Robert is the 'Technical Evangelist' at Microsoft.

Wiki Project: Contribution and Grading

As I mentioned in class, I wanted to post some additional guidelines for the wiki project and also define how the project will be graded (it is worth 20% of your final grade).
You will be graded on the quality of:

1. each of your three article summaries, in their final form (4 points for each summary)
   
2. each of the four article summaries to which you contribute that were authored by your team members, in their final form (1 point for each summary)
   
3. the final form of your team entry, on the chapter wiki page to which you were assigned (2 points)
   
4. the overall quality of your team presentation (2 points)
   

As I review the final form of your wiki entries, which will be on any date after wednesday, November 30, I will be paying particular attention to the following:

1. That your team entry and each of your individual entries is 200 words + / - 10%
   
2. That the article summaries add value to the learning environment for the class. Examples of this will include identifying new example(s) from the internet that explain a concept that is covered in your particular chapter, and effectively explaining how the example(s) selected tie to the concept you are discussing.
   
3. That the article summaries are well written. Thus effective use of english, lack of typos and silly errors.
   
4. That the article summaries are accessible. Thus they can be understood and be useful for people with different levels of marketing and internet knowledge. This can be achieved by linking appropriate technical terms to their wikipedia entry for instance.
   

Happy Birthday E-mail

E-mail is 34.

Linux Desktop Standards

Having discussed the open source movement in light of new product development, I thought the following article: Tech firms to tackle Linux desktop standards was appropriate for our discussion. By developing standards, that would be overseen by the Free Standards Group, this enables more software development based on the Linux operating system. As quoted from the article:

The goal of the project is to encourage the development of more applications for the Linux platform, the group said. Developing applications for Linux desktops is a complicated endeavor now because of significant differences between two prevailing versions, called GNOME (GNU Network Object Model Environment) and KDE (K Desktop Environment).

"With this complex and costly development and support environment, independent software vendors may choose not to target the Linux desktop, leading to reduced choice for end users and an inability to compete with proprietary operating systems," the Free Standards Group said in a statement.

Original article found at slashdot

Monday's Skype Presentation: Robert Scoble

As we continue to explore Skype as a medium to bring in guest speakers, I am excited to remind you that Robert Scoble will be joining us next monday. He maintains the popular blog Sclobleizer, which I encourage you to subscribe via your bloglines account.

Additional Resources for Chapter 9

For each chapter I will post additional resources. Students who are covering the particular chapter are free to use these links, or other links, for their wiki project.

• Wikipedia: Software License
  
• Wikipedia: Open Source
  
• Wikipedia: Open Source Movement
  
• Wikipedia: Open Source License
  
• Wikipedia: Copyleft
  
• Wikipedia: GNU Richard Stallman
  
• Wikipedia: Linux Linus Torvalds
  
• Wikipedia: Cathedral and the Bazaar Eric Raymond
  
• Wikipedia: Apache Software Foundation Apache Server Market Share
  
• Wikipedia: Redhat
  
• Wikipedia: Firefox
  
• Dell
  
• Microsoft versus Linux: Approach to the Web
  
• Wikipedia: API
  
• Wikipedia: Open Standard
  
• Wikipedia: Network Effect
  
• MadeForOne.com
  
• ToyBuilders.com
  
• iPodlounge
  
• Wikibooks Why Early Stages ?
  
• Report: Internet Brands Reach Public Consciousness (10/98)
  
• Top Ranking Brands and Channels for February 2002 (4/2002)
  
• Study: Google Tops in Brand Loyalty
  
• Top 100 Global Brands Scoreboard
  
• ChapterNineGaites
  
• ChapterNineSabol
  
• ChapterNinePaccione
  

Chapter 9 Slides: Product in the Internet Marketing Mix

Are here. These slides may be updated again before class. If this is the case I will edit this entry to let everyone know. If there are further updates, it will only be small updates so printing these out is fine.
11/2: A slide has been included to discuss standards setting.

Additional Resources for Chapter 6

For each chapter I will post additional resources. Students who are covering the particular chapter are free to use these links, or other links, for their wiki project.

• The Networked Readiness Index (2003 - 2004) pdf
  
• Network Readiness Index 2005
  
• ClickZ: Population Explosion!
  
• ClickZ: Web Usage Growth Flatlines in U.S., Other Mature Markets
  
• TRADOS
  
• boo.com
  
• Google: Spanish
  
• Yahoo: Spanish
  
• OneChoupal
  
• Jhai Foundation
  
• Babel Fish Translation
  
• The Spamhaus Project
  
• ChapterSixSpatola
  
• ChapterSixKosinski
  
• ChapterSixBoyle
  
• StudyLink
  
• Yahoo: India
  
• Yahoo India / StudyLink
  
• StudyLink Solutions
  
• StudyLink Presentation
  

Chapter 6 Slides: Taking Internet Marketing International

Are here. These slides may be updated again before class. If this is the case I will edit this entry to let everyone know. If there are further updates, it will only be small updates so printing these out is fine.

Blog Feedback

Each of you should have received an e-mail with feedback for your blog. The feedback was on a scale of 0 - 10. The range for the class was 6 - 10. Feel free to stop by during office hours if you have questions regarding the feedback. I am now planning on the following:

• Offering one more set of feedback, non-graded, in about two weeks.
  
• Offering to allow you to replace the 'mid term' blog grade with your overall blog grade, if the overall grade is higher than the grade you have received. Thus, with solid blog work for the rest of the semester you can override the grade you received if it was not a great grade.
  

Overall is it clear you all know how to blog. Some of you were let down due to a lack of content in the sidebar, or less than frequent posts for your blog. Some of you have done fantastic jobs all around!

For the remainder of the semester I will also be looking at your efforts to add 'e-commerce' where appropriate (amazon affiliate for example) and advertisements (google adsense).

Blog Design Tips: Weblog Usability

I just came across these blog usability tips from useit.com (Jakob Neilsen's site). For the purposes of our class, pay particular attention to tips: 1, 3, 4, 7, 8 and 9. This is for general guidance throughout the remainder of the semester, not for the mid term feedback.

More on Google: Google Bombing

Yesterday we mentioned 'google hacking' ... a means to discover 'private' information on the internet that has not been properly secured. Recently I can across the term 'google bomb'. This 'tactic' takes advantage of the algorithm that google uses to push a 'site' higher in a search result, by creating links to the site using a particular keyword phrase (the keyword phrase that you wish the site to be listed on the search result). An example can be seen when searching on the term failure. Google's blog explains this outcome.

Additional Resources for Chapter 5

For each chapter I will post additional resources. Students who are covering the particular chapter are free to use these links, or other links, for their wiki project.

• Napster
  
• iTunes vs. Napster found at napster versus iTunes
  
• Peer to Peer
  
• United Nations Commission on International Trade Law
  
• Convention on Cybercrime
  
• 'Carnivore' Eats Your Privacy
  
• Google Hacking
  
• ConsumerSentinal
  
• US Copyright Office
  
• WIPO
  
• PGP
  
• AMA Code of Ethics
  
• Electronic Retailing Code of Ethics
  
• TRUSTe
  
• Legal Status of Internet Pornography
  
• Dubious Katrina Web sites increasing
  
• CSX Sucks (found at *sucks.com)
  
• ChapterFiveBratus
  
• ChapterFiveSypek
  
• ChapterFiveBerglund
  

Chapter 5 Slides: Legal and Ethical Issues; Privacy and Security Concerns

Are here. These slides may be updated again before class. If this is the case I will edit this entry to let everyone know. If there are further updates, it will only be small updates so printing these out is fine.

Editing your StyleSheets

Working with CSS
Update: A couple of examples:

• Bath Fans Abroad
  
• Foods of Europe
  

The purpose of this 'tutorial' is to allow you to better understand how CSS and HTML work together to present web-site content. In order to do this you will learn how to change some of the CSS on your blog and see how this changes the look of your blog.

You will be changing the content between the two tags: <style> and </style>. This code is known as css, or cascading style sheets.

CSS, short for Cascading Style Sheets, is a relatively new feature that is being added to HTML that gives both Web site developers and users more control over how pages are displayed. With CSS, designers and users can create style sheets that define how different elements, such as headers and links, appear, globally (i.e. throughout the web page and the web site). CSS controls the design look essentially taking control of the HTML code it is effecting.

Style Sheets can be applied to any Web page. They can be applied in three ways.

1. as a separate file that each page within a site points (take a look at the source code of my homepage and you will see the code in the header: <link rel="stylesheet" href="http://www.udel.edu/alex/css/css.css"
   type="text/css" /> this signals this page to be controlled by the stylesheet file named css/css.css).
   
2. included as part of the HTML code within each page
   
3. included in the header document of the page (as is the example we are using with this blog).
   

CSS looks really confusing, but with a basic knowledge you could, in theory, amend an existing template to suit your requirements. More knowledge is required for actually writing one from scratch! This is beyond the scope of this course.

Changing the Body

The Body provides base information for the template as a whole, rather than specific areas. In the case of this template it puts in a background (the dots you see across your template) and defines the font and font size used.

This is where you will make your first change.

You will have noticed that the template on the main site for the course (this site) has a different background to your blog site, and it is aligned in the top left hand corner of the screen. To make your site look like this you need to look for the following code in the body element of the template -

Look for the following in the class source code:
/* Body - Refer to note 1 in your lecture notes
----------------------------------------------- */


background:#123 url("http://www.blogblog.com/dots_dark/bg_minidots.gif") 50% 0;

Delete this line and replace with -

background:#1D1F4C url("http://www.stylegeek.net/clients/alex/infotechbg.gif") no-repeat 10px 50px fixed;

The line of text above will not only change the background color (these are examples of hex values - #123 and #1D1F4C and are the means by which designers, especially css designers, dictate the color scheme of a webpage)

Secondly, the amendment will draw in an entirely new graphic and fix it into the top left hand corner of your webpage - other code you will see in this example stops it from repeating (no-repeat) and will fix it into one position and prevent it leaving the screen when users scroll down (fixed). For the purpose of your blog, you may want to use a different image, more aligned with your blog theme. If so, simply replace the URL of the image for the class blog (http://www.stylegeek.net/clients/alex/infotechbg.gif) with the URL of your image. Ir will be important that your image is no wider than the class image.

Page Structure

The section marked page structure does exactly what it suggests, it dictates the page structure of the webpage - it dictates where all the text will go, and how it will look on the page.

Look for the following in the class source code:
/* Page Structure - Refer to note 2 in your lecture notes
----------------------------------------------- */

2a) Content

Look for the #content section

#content {
background-color: #123;
width:700px;
margin:0 auto;
padding:50px 0;
text-align:left;
}

Find the following code -

background:url("http://www.blogblog.com/dots_dark/bg_3dots.gif") no-repeat 250px 50px;

Delete this line and replace with -

background-color: #123;

This removes the background in the main section of the template (where all the text goes) and merely dictates the page to present it in the color #123 (blue)

2b) Main2

You will notice that on the main template there is a logo at the top of the main body section of the template. This is what you will be adding in next. Basically, you have two options when adding a graphic to a webpage such as the infotech one. You can, if you wish, utilise the standard html route, of which many of you are familiar <img src="graphic.jpg"> which will display the graphic quite well in the main body of your posts.

However, when a graphic is part of a template, that is a logo, or a background graphic, css designers tend to place it by using the css version.

Look for the section marked #main2

#main2 {
background:url("http://www.blogblog.com/dots_dark/bg_minidots2.gif") -100px -100px;
padding:20px 10px 15px;
}

Delete the lines -

background:url("http://www.blogblog.com/dots_dark/bg_minidots2.gif") -100px -100px;
padding:20px 10px 15px;

and replace with -

background: url("http://www.stylegeek.net/clients/alex/infotechdark.gif") no-repeat 10px 0px;
padding:150px 10px 15px;

Note, you may wish to replace the logo with your own image. If so, include the URL of your image, which should include the same dimensions as the class logo, as a replacement for the above code.

2c) #sidebar2

Another graphic needs removing from the template - this is for the sidebar - where all your links go

Look for -

#sidebar2 {
background:url("http://www.blogblog.com/dots_dark/bg_minidots2.gif") 150px -50px;
padding:5px 10px 15px;
width:200px;
width/* */:/**/180px;
width: /**/180px;
}

Find the line

background:url("http://www.blogblog.com/dots_dark/bg_minidots2.gif") 150px -50px;

and replace with

background-color: #123;

again, this will merely remove the graphic background and tell the computer to display the color #123

Title & Description

Look for the following in the class source code:
/* Title & Description - Refer to note 3 in your lecture notes
----------------------------------------------- */

Now we are going to change some font colors.

Under section marked #blog-title look for the code color:#abc; - the hex value is currently #8dd; - Change this value to #abc;

Change the same value under description color:#9c7; change this to color: #fff;

Links

Look for the following in the class source code:
/* Links - Refer to note 4 in your lecture notes
----------------------------------------------- */

You may know that browsers as a rule come with standard colors in which they display links. However, as web designers we find this palette very restrictive, as it impacts on our well thought out color schemes! So, again, we have a handy piece of css that forces your browser to display links in the colors we want! (Note, this is not entirely agreed upon from a design usability standpoint.)

This section of code tells the computer we want a standard link to display in hex color value #da7

a:link {
color:#da7;
}

This value needs to be changed to #fce1a4 in your template.

This section of code tells the computer we want a visited link (that is one you have already seen) to display in hex color #799

a:visited {
color:#799;
}

This is to remain the same!

and this final section of code tells the computer we want a link to change to white when you hover over it!

a:hover {
color:#fff;
}

Again, this remains the same.

Posts

Look for the following in the class source code:
/* Posts - Refer to note 5 in your lecture notes
----------------------------------------------- */


This section controls the way in which your actual blog posts are displayed.

Look for

.date-header {
margin:0 0 .75em;
padding-bottom:.35em;
border-bottom:1px dotted #567;
font:bold 100%/1.4em Verdana,San-serif;
text-transform:lowercase;
color:#7bc;
}

This code tells the computer how your entry dates are to be displayed, the only value you need to change here in this case is the font color, which you may recall is dictated by

color: #7bc;

This needs to be changed to color: #fff; - which is white! you can type white if you wish, as some very restricted colors are available in word form, but it is considered good practice to use the hex color values!

You also need to change the following color values in (again to color: #fff;)

- #post-title
- p.post-footer em

6) More Sidebar Content

Like you have done in similar sections you need to change the font values of the following

- .sidebar-title - change this to #7bc

Refer back over these notes if you need assistance, and can't recall this value!


Thats it, all done!

Don’t forget to save & rebuild!
Thanks to Eliza for the above.

You can also work through this simple tutorial to get more familiarity with HTML.

Internet Security: Dave Brown; Perfiliate.com

Internet security

Viruses
Key issues:

• potential damage to computer
  
• how to protect against
  

How the following are different from viruses and how we can protect
against them:

• Trojans
  
• Key stroke loggers
  
• Spyware
  
• Adware
  

Dangers of downloading software from the internet.

Common Spam techniques to trick users into opening malicious code.

• Spoofing email address (very easy)
  
• Phishing (attempts daily)
  
• text links to eg. Http://www.paypal.com which are really images
  going to another site
  
• Social Engineering (eg. Hello, I'm your ISP I need you to download this bit of software and run it)
  

What Norton Security/Zone Alarm does

What Norton Security/Zone Alarm doesn't protect against (eg. Difficulty of Trojans, key loggers)

Cookies. Privacy issues

Third party cookies

• privacy issues (lies with a third party)
  
• enabling/disabling in browsers, security levels
  
• Third party cookies and affiliate networks etc.
  

Passwords, automatic screen locks

General Password Construction Guidelines

Poor, weak passwords have the following characteristics:

• The password contains less than eight characters
  
• The password is a word found in a dictionary (English or foreign)
  
• The password is a common usage word such as:
  
  
  
  • Names of family, pets, friends, co-workers, fantasy characters,
    etc.
    
  • Computer terms and names, commands, sites, companies, hardware,
    software.
    
  • The words "", "sanjose", "sanfran" or any
    derivation.
    
  • Birthdays and other personal information such as addresses and
    phone numbers.
    
  • Word or number patterns like aaabbb, qwerty, zyxwvuts, 123321,
    etc.
    
  • Any of the above spelled backwards.
    
  • Any of the above preceded or followed by a digit (e.g., secret1,
    1secret)
    
  
  

Strong passwords have the following characteristics:

• Contain both upper and lower case characters (e.g., a-z, A-Z)
  
• Have digits and punctuation characters as well as letters e.g.,
  0-9, !@#$%^&*()_+|~-=\`{}[]:";'<>?,./)
  
• Are at least eight alphanumeric characters long.
  
• Are not a word in any language, slang, dialect, jargon, etc.
  
• Are not based on personal information, names of family, etc.
  

Passwords should never be written down or stored on-line. Try to create passwords that can be easily remembered. One way to do this is create a password based on a song title, affirmation, or other phrase.

For example, the phrase might be: "This May Be One Way To Remember" and the password could be: "TmB1w2R!" or "Tmb1W>r~" or some other variation.

Here is a list of "dont's":

• Don't reveal a password over the phone to ANYONE
  
• Don't reveal a password in an email message
  
• Don't reveal a password to the boss
  
• Don't talk about a password in front of others
  
• Don't hint at the format of a password (e.g., "my family name")
  
• Don't reveal a password on questionnaires or security forms
  
• Don't share a password with family members
  
• Don't reveal a password to co-workers while on vacation
  

If someone demands a password have them call someone in the Information Security Department.

Do not use the "Remember Password" feature of applications(e.g., Eudora, OutLook, Netscape Messenger).

Again, do not write passwords down and store them anywhere in your office. Do not store passwords in a file on ANY computer system (including Palm Pilots or similar devices) without encryption.

Change passwords at least once every six months (except system-level passwords which must be changed quarterly). The recommended change interval is every four months.

If an account or password is suspected to have been compromised, report the incident to the IT team and change all passwords.

Credits: This is based on the security templates from sans.org

Wikipedia Interview

For those of you who are contributing to wikipedia, I thought you might like to read this interview with its founder Jimmy Wales. Article found at Collaborative Marketing. Quick excerpt from the article, which gives us some insight into the workings of wikipedia:


LAMB: As I was doing – well, using Wikipedia to do the research for this interview I kept thinking when will Google or Yahoo! put Jimmy Wales out of business. And then I – as I read further, you‘re in business with them in some way.

WALES: Yes, in some way. I think we have – we‘re a non-profit organization that I founded. And we‘ve gotten support from Yahoo! already and Google is very interested in supporting us. We‘re just still talking to them about what to do.

And Yahoo! has donated some servers. And I think what‘s interesting about that is that if you – you know, it‘s almost a joke but it‘s completely true. If you think about well why – why do Yahoo! and Google want to do this and well, their business model depends on the Internet not sucking and we hope the Internet not suck. So it‘s that the Wikipedia for a lot of people hearkens back to what we all thought the Internet was for in the first place which is, you know, when most people first started the Internet they thought oh, this is fantastic, people can communicate from all over the world and build knowledge and share information.

And then we went through the whole dot-com boom and bust and the Internet seemed to be about pop-up ads, and SPAM, and porn and selling dog food over the Internet. And now Wikipedia kind of hearkens back to the original vision of the Internet.

And so it‘s important for the whole business of the entire Internet that there be quality resources that people can turn to and want to turn to. So that‘s – it‘s important to these companies to support us.

More from Google... A News Reader

As heavily reported in the blogosphere and on slashdot google has launched a News Reader (similar to Bloglines). This was launched during the Web 2.0 conference. A review here highlights its usability.

Since our class began, google has launched a blog search engine and a news reader. This is perhaps a clear signal Web 2.0 is a new paradigm ?

Google's news reader was bound to happen, we shall see its impact on Bloglines and other readers in the near future. For now our course requires the use of Bloglines.

Feedback on your Blog

As I noted I will be providing you feedback on your blog project to date, beginning end of day wednesday, October 19. Thus you have until that time to make any adjustments to its overall design and content. For your reference here is the original project scope for the blog project. As you will note in the syllabus, this review will comprise a third of your grade for the overall blog project.

Details that I will be paying particularly close attention include:

• Overall theme of blog: and how it ties to a specific target audience. Thus it should be clear when viewing the blog what the blog is about and who is its potential 'readership'. For some blogs it will be obvious, for others, it may require a little explanation (in the left hand column of the template).
  
• Content with respect to your entries. I will be looking at the frequency of entries, the 'usefulness' of the entries (especially as they relate to the first point above), and the writing style of the entries (use of good english). I will also be looking for relevant links included within your entries.
  
• Content with respect to your template. I will be looking at the resources you have added to your template and how relevant they are to your target audience and the overall purpose of the blog. These resources should include links to at least five of your classmates' blogs and links to other relevant blogs (relevant to your blog theme). These resources should also include links to your contact information and your wiki work (note, I realize your wiki work may be unrelated to the theme of your blog, but nonetheless it should be linked to your blog). These resources should include sitemeter (This will allow you to determine not only the amount of traffic you are receiving but more importantly where that traffic is coming from so you can identify other resources that link to your blog and reciprocate the link, building community.)
  
• Additional Content with respect to your template. As you progress through the semester I will be looking for you to add further resources to your template. You may consider these now if you wish. Google Adsense (if your blog is informational in nature, and it makes sense to offer advertisements to your target audience, then the google adsense program can allow you to do this); amazon associates (your blog can become an e-commerce site quite easily by enrolling in this program).
  
• Overall Design. I will be assessing the overall look of your blog as it stands now. Are the resources you have added to the template well ordered ? Make sure it is clear in terms of their headers and so forth. There are other opportunities for you to add to the design of your blog as we proceed through the semester, but for now I am focusing on how 'clean' the site looks.
  
• I will also be reviewing your bloglines subscriptions. I will be looking at consistency with your links on your blog as well as other outside resources you are subscribed.
  

I will focus on the commenting aspect of the blog project after this feedback. Feel free to use the comments section here to ask questions about this feedback, or e-mail me directly.

Blog Mid Term Feedback

As I mentioned in class today, I will be providing feedback on your blog project, starting the end of day next wednesday. I will post on this blog the criteria I will be using to provide the feedback and assign the grade you will receive at this stage. I hope to post this tomorrow.

More on the Mid Term

Answers to the questions asked here are:
Three click rule: B
Page visit: B
Web 2.0: D

Good luck with the test.

UD goes RSS

Keep in touch with events and news from our University by subscribing to the UDaily news feed.

Mid Term Answers and Questions

The answers to the questions posed here are:
Bloglines: D
GoogleNews: C
Early Sites: A
Zoomerang: D
Small Business: E
Referrer URL: B

We will likely also include a few true / false questions in the test.

A few more example questions:

The 'three click rule' of web design refers to:
a. Designing a site that allows users three options on each page to explore
b. Making sure a user is within three clicks of the content he / she is seeking at all times
c. Creating three distinctive navigation schemes
d. Designing a site that has three levels of heirarchy

The following is the correct term when referring to a visitor who visits a page on a web-site:
a. Hit
b. Page view
c. Site visitor
d. View count
e. Hit count

Web 2.0 technologies are considered a more active version of the web. Technologies that comprise this group include all the following except:
a. Blogs
b. Wikis
c. Sites that provide an RSS Feed
d. HTML only sites
e. All the above are examples of Web 2.0 technologies

Answers will be provided about noon time wednesday.

Example Exam Questions

The following are example questions for the mid-term. I will post the answers tuesday afternoon.

Products such as bloglines, an aggregated news reader, are becoming more popular because of all the following issues except:
a. spam is crippling e-mail
b. being able to read news in your own time, rather than when published by a web-site / blog or e-mail campaign
c. it is easy to view which resources have new updates since you last read the resource
d. all the above are reasons for the popularity of an aggregated news reader

GoogleNews is unique because:
a. It is a paid-for news source
b. It pulls news information exclusively from the blogosphere
c. It only uses computers (computer algorithms) to display news items
d. It offers readers the option to comment on the news in order to create community

Most of the earliest commercial websites were ____ sites.
a. static information-only
b. transaction
c. interactive
d. selling
e. e-mail

Zoomerang is an example of an online survey tool that can be used to perform primary research on the internet. Which of the following is not an advantage of using a tool like Zoomerang:
a. ready access to samples
b. speed and time
c. convenience and cost
d. automatic reporting to survey responders

Which of the following are small businesses NOT doing online?
a. Finding new customers
b. Driving customers to their offline stores
c. Learning how to operate more efficiently
d. Using the Internet to internationalize
e. Increasing procurement costs

A referrer URL is:
a. The web address of the page a browser first accesses on the site
b. The web address of the page that precedes the first page of the site that was accessed
c. The web address of the page a browser accesses after viewing the site
d. A link the browser uses to exit the web site

Mid term Study Guide

What is being tested:

• Slides, book chapters and student wiki entries from 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8 and 14.
  
• Articles that were handed out in the classes.
  
• For readings it is best to try to understand the readings in the context of the ideas discussed in the book.
  
• You do not need to memorize data. Critical to your success in the mid term (and the course in general) will be your understanding of concepts and terminology.
  

Examples of terminology that may be tested:

• Chapter 1: Intranet
  
• Chapter 1: Web 2.0
  
• Chapter 2: Broadband
  
• Chapter 2: VOIP
  
• Chapter 3: Digital Divide
  
• Chapter 3: B2B
  
• Chapter 4: Affiliate Marketing
  
• Chapter 4: SEO
  
• Chapter 7: Focus Group
  
• Chapter 7: Chat room
  
• Chapter 8: RFID
  
• Chapter 8: Collaborative Filtering
  
• Chapter 14: Wireframe
  
• Chapter 14: Web Usability
  
• Blog: Blog
  
• Blog: RSS
  
• Blog: Wiki
  

Examples of blog entries that may be covered:

• Blogs, News Readers and a Wiki ... Why ?
  
• Creating a Link w/ HTML
  
• eBay's Skype Acquisition
  
• We've been Blogged!
  

Examples of student wiki entries that may be covered:

• ChapterFourteenMoore
  
• ChapterEightGahr
  
• ChapterOneShellem
  
• ChapterTwoMauro
  

A few example questions will be posted before monday's class.

Additional Resources for Chapter 14

For each chapter I will post additional resources. Students who are covering the particular chapter are free to use these links, or other links, for their wiki project.

• Pedrera: Pedrera is an interactive communications and technology development agency. We produce online systems for leading brands. (web-site copy)
  
• Zehno: Cross media communications, with a focus on the education industry.
  
• ZeroDefect: Zero Defect Design is a unique interactive media studio. We develop complete creative and technical solutions for all kinds of websites and multimedia projects, from interactive
  learning to e-commerce. (web-site copy)
  
• Useit.com: Jakob Neilsen, who hosts this site, is considered a leader in the understanding of web-site design usability. He also authored the book: Design Web Usability.
  
• Web Pages that Suck: Quoted from the site: One of the best ways to learn is by example. Here's a site, produced by a pair of graphic-designer professionals, that shows you what not to do.
  
• Edward Tufte: All around Information Design 'guru'.
  
• Google Maps: An example of the use of AJAX, which lets you click and drag around the map indefinitely without having to wait for page loads.
  
• 10 Design Tips: A page I maintain.
  
• ChapterFourteenMoore
  
• ChapterFourteenAlvelo
  
• ChapterFourteenWarner
  

Chapter 14 Slides: Marketing Site Development

Are here. These slides may be updated again before class. If this is the case I will edit this entry to let everyone know. If there are further updates, it will only be small updates so printing these out is fine.

Mid Term Preparation

The mid-term, scheduled for wednesday of next week, will comprise fifty multiple choice questions. To prepare for the mid-term you should be comfortable with the chapter materials paying particular attention to the material that was discussed in class and highlighted on the slides. You should also be familiar with content from posts on this class blog and the entries for the wiki project for the chapters we are covering up until the mid-term. You should also review all hand outs from the class and have a good understanding of the blog / bloglines project.

This weekend I will post an entry on this blog than can serve as a 'study guide'. This entry will include (but perhaps not limited to):

• Links to the student wiki entries that will be covered for the mid-term.
  
• Links to wikipedia for keyterms that will be important to understand for the mid-term. These terms will be from the text, and you will be tested on content from the text. Nevertheless having the wikipedia entry to explore can provide reinforcement for your learning.
  

Additional Resources for Chapter 8

For each chapter I will post additional resources. Students who are covering the particular chapter are free to use these links, or other links, for their wiki project.

• Relational Database
  
• Data Warehouse
  
• Collaborative Filtering
  
• RFID
  
• THE CUSTOMER RESPECT GROUP
  
• Competitive Intelligence: Business Schools:
  
  
  BusinessWeek Discussion Boards
  Bloglines
  
  
  
• Google
  
• A9.com
  
• Cookie
  
• ChapterEightRudden
  
• ChapterEightRomig
  
• ChapterEightGahr
  

Office hours canceled for wednesday, October 5

I am giving a presentation at lunchtime on wednesday so will need to cancel office hours. If you were planning on attending, please e-mail me with your questions.

Creating an entry in Wikipedia

I thought I would highlight one of your classmates entries in Wikipedia. Having discovered there was no entry for the ASP World Tour John created the ASP World Tour entry. A small, but meaningful, contribution to the knowledge base of Wikipedia no doubt. It will now be important to edit the surfing entry in wikipedia to include a link to this entry so that those who are exploring the surfing entry are made aware of this entry and can click over easily.

Chapter 8 Slides

Are here. These slides may be updated again before class. If this is the case I will edit this entry to let everyone know. If there are further updated, it will only be small updates so printing these out is fine.

Class Survey

Using one of the 'tools' described in chapter seven I have created a course survey. Please complete this at your earliest convenience, it will provide me good insight as we continue through the semester. I will make the results available to you.

Setting up this survey on zoomerang was free and very straightforward, it only took about twenty minutes to accomplish.

Additional Resources for Chapter 7

For each chapter I will post additional resources. Students who are covering the particular chapter are free to use these links, or other links, for their wiki project.

• VALS Survey. I took this survey, and apparently am an 'Innovator; Achiever' ... it took less than five minutes to take the survey.
  
• Active Group: Internet broadcasting (video streaming) for Focus Groups, In-Depth Interviews, and Web Usability Testing.
  
• Greenfield Online: When you participate in Greenfield Online's surveys your input matters. You directly influence the way companies develop products, policies, and services. Sharing your opinions online is easy and always confidential. (Copy from the web-site).
  
• Zoomerang: Zoomerang Basic allows users to easily create and send shorter, less complex surveys and view up to 100 survey responses per survey online for 10 days after the survey is launched free of charge.
  
  
  
  • Class Survey
    
  
  
• ZoomPanel: ZoomPanel is an online survey panel where consumers, like you, can tell companies what you think about their products or services. You will be rewarded for offering your opinions and can earn valuable merchandise and gift certificates of your choice! (Copy from web-site)
  
• Survey Monkey: Similar to Zoomerang.
  
• Whitestrips: Example of an online test market
  
• WebTrends: Web analytics software. Thousands of web-smart organizations worldwide, including more than half of the Fortune and Global 500, depend on WebTrends to improve their web site conversions and optimize their marketing performance for maximum return on investment. (Web-site copy)
  
• QRCA Qualitative Research Consultants Association: Through QRCA you have access to nearly 1000 Qualitative Research Consultants throughout the world. Our Research Consultants include focus group moderators, facilitators, interviewers, and planners in many types of qualitative research. Their expertise includes focus groups, individual depth interviews (IDIs), ethnography, observational research, usability research, idea generation, and other qualitative approaches in-person and online. (Web site copy)
  
• WETI: Greenfield's Web-enabled Telephone Interviews: Greenfield's Web-enabled Telephone Interviews, or WETI™, uses proprietary software to enable respondents worldwide to view the same visual stimuli during a one-on-one telephone interview. The visual stimuli are controlled within a secure area of the Greenfield Web site. A project can be executed in a fraction of the time, and at a fraction of the cost, of face-to-face-interviews. (Web site copy)
  
• MillwardBrown: a leading and innovative global market research agency, specializing in helping companies maximize their brand equity, brand performance and brand health. And we help them optimize their media, advertising, PR and other communications. (Web site copy)
  
• Google Zeitgeist: Compilation of search behavior of google users for the week.
  
• Epinions.com: Is a premier consumer reviews platform on the Web and a reliable source for valuable consumer insight, unbiased advice, in-depth product evaluations and personalized recommendations.
  
• Amazon.com: Customer reviews.
  
• Pollhost.com: Free polls for your web-site.
  

.

Chapter 7 Slides

Are here. These slides may be updated again before class. If this is the case I will edit this entry to let everyone know. If there are further updated, it will only be small updates so printing these out is fine.