Comments on classes and Article 13.

Hello. Sorry for the late posting. This week presentation about Time Warner Cable was very interesting, but it did not reveal all the possible opportunities of company's expansion. It is not minus as teams agreed on exact problems to discuss, but to mention that there are some more interesting ways of expansion could be useful. But, anyway, I will mention one of them later in the article analysis. It was also an interesting idea for cable companies to merge together to fulfill one very expensive project. Even though some of my classmates doubt that I believe it is possible. We can see the example of railroad companies, which cooperated in building railroad centuries ago. For one company it was impossible option. But lets' come back to Time Warner expansion possibilities.

Article. Time Warner Cable Tries Business IPTV.
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=135542&page_number=1&site=
This article was interesting for me as it talked about expanding into business user sector, which was not mentioned during the presentation. And it is also mentioned Internet TV, which does not require creating separate internal television network. So, Time Warner moved toward business users offering them special BusinessLink.tv, which pipes 10 news channels to the PCs of business customers via high-speed cable modem connections. It is offered only in New York and New Jersey so far, an area with 1.4 million subscribers total. Time Warner Cable Business Class is using a combination of cable modem connections and IP multicast to deliver the service, which requires a "core" LAN bandwidth capacity of 4 Mbit/s. The service is reliable, secure, and provides up-to-the-minute live news without hampering the existing IT infrastructure." I believe that this market segment will develop very fast and rather promising for the company to maintain. Constant and updated information is key factor for each business today and to get it fast and easy without leaving work place and disconnecting from working PC is crucial for modern business people.

Individual Assignment no. 4

Information aggregation.

Suggest two other business cases in which this method can be used to collect information. What problems do you see besides the ones mentioned in the Background information section? What kind of information system do you need to design to support this method of collecting information? Provide a simple hardware/software configuration.

Answer:
There are a lot of different applications possible for using Information aggregation methods. The ones I found most interesting are:

1. http://www.thespacereview.com/article/390/1

One of the most interesting economics technologies that has not yet been widely deployed is the information aggregation market (infomart). These markets support open trading on “proposition bets”, wagers on which of two or more outcomes will occur. Such markets can continuously predict the future with more accuracy than opinion polls. The most famous of the infomarts are the Iowa Electronic Markets (IEMs), which trade various kinds of securities. Winner-take-all markets pay $1 for the winning outcome and nothing to losers so the trade price in pennies represents the percent chance the proposition will be true. Vote share markets pay according to the vote share of two or more outcomes. These two types of securities can be used to answer most types of questions. Adopting informarts for space could potentially lead to space colonization years earlier at a far lower total cost than continuing with poor forecasting leading into more blind allies.

2. http://lessig.org/blog/2005/07/extremism_and_information_aggr.html

Using of Information Aggregation method allowed to discover that: In many controversial areas (eg, affirmative action, campaign finance, sex discrimination, disability discrimination, environmental regulation, and more), Republican appointees show especially conservative voting patterns when they're sitting on 3-judge panels that consist only of Republican appointees. So too for Democratic appointees: They're far more liberal, in their voting patterns, when sitting with two fellow Democratic appointees, than when sitting on a panel with at least one Republican appointee. In other words, Republican appointees look more conservative when they sit only with fellow Republican appointees, and Democratic appointees look more liberal when they sit only with fellow Democratic appointees.

The problems and requirements for this method are complex and they are shown in the pictures below. If the system meets all the requirements below, you can say that the software will work as needed and correct results will be obtained.

Source: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/patterns/bi/select-application-topology.html

One of the software that can be used is i-Fetch. i-Fetch is a feed reader and information aggregation program that enables you to read various RSS feeds on your desktop, so that you can get information from various sources on a single interface.

http://www.sharewareconnection.com/i-fetch.htm

Comments on classes and Article 12.

Hello. In talking about UHC presentations I would like to mention that they were very good in revealing today problems of Health Care system both for the patients and the doctors and I liked some of the solutions offered. Especially interesting for me was Ranking system problem as it had huge effects on efficient physicians' work and patients feedback. The article below will touch upon this problem too.

Article 12. INSURERS RANK PHYSICIANS: WHO IS IT REALLY GOOD FOR?
http://docwhisperer.wordpress.com/2007/08/29/physician-rankings-who-are-they-really-good-for/
As it was very nice described in the article the goal of creating ranking systems for physicians was to provide customers with additional information on people, who treat them and the level of service. “People don’t want to go to a movie or buy a book or buy a car or go to a restaurant without some ability to assess value for dollar. ” Such ranking systems work more than in 100 insurance industry markets or regions across the country. The idea seems to be great, but lets see what is wrong with it and why doctors, who are one day in the top ratings are deleted from the network the following day. Is it possible that their level of service changes so rapidly?
The main disadvantages are:
1. Data often contain errors and that doctors often lack the ability to correct them;
2. The effort is more about cutting costs than raising quality;
3. Doctors are held accountable for whether patients exercise, take their medications or follow their prescribed regimens;
4. Disparate ratings can confuse patients and cause turbulence in group practices and much more.
In my opinion before creating such ranking the insurance company have to double check several times how the system is working because it is very easy to ruin somebody's reputation in a moment, but it takes hundreds of years to build it after!!

Comments on classes and Article 11.

Hello. As from this week we have our projects running I would like to leave some feedback on information received and new CIS applications in real life learned. First two teams discussing Duane Reade made a great job in company and industry analysis. Some of the solutions to the offered problems were really interesting too. Especially I liked one of the teams' offers of micro-marketing - personalized advertising and self-efficient carts, with the help of which you can check out without any lines and other payment complications. I believe this would be a great solution for improving customer service in Duane Reade.

Article 11. Shopping Cart Concierge
http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/shopping-cart-concierge

The article above gives more details about self-service shopping card discussed during the presentation. Integrated into the shopping cart handle, Concierge is an interactive touch-screen computer that uses a wireless in-store network. It can assist with self-serve checkouts and provide shoppers with a wealth of information. It offers the following features:
Personalized Account recognition; Product Scanning; Self Check-Out; In-Store Cart Tracking; Dynamic Advertising; Product Finder; Interactive Shopping List; Recipes. I believe this new cart is really great and will save a lot of time both for the stores and shoppers. It will also keep shoppers more loyal to the stores as the carts will provide them with all personalized information needed and hints necessary. As a shopper myself I am looking forward to using such cars and sure that it will be very good experience.

Comments on Classes and Article 10.

Hello. It was really interesting to participate in the auctions interaction assignment. I did not even know that auctions can be conducted in so different ways: Dutch auction, English auction, etc. And each of the auctions had their pluses and minuses. The thing that surprised me most was that the most imperfect is the auction we use all the time, English one. It is so easy to make secret signs and agree with other participants during it.

Article 10. Build A Niche Store - A Review

http://www.article-tips.com:80/auctions/build-a-niche-store/1976

This article was very interesting for me as it offers using eBay auctions in a little bit different way. To be exact - you can earn additional money using e-bay without having to bid, place an auction or go to the post-office and send your merchandize later. The only thing you have to do is to use the software offered - Build a Niche Store, which enables you to access and sell eBay auction merchandise on your own site, and pocket a commission after the sale was made. Let’s see how it works.
The software allows you to have live eBay auctions running on your site, constantly updating and targeted precisely to the theme of your site. To establish this you have to add a bit of code to your site: you need to be able to create a MYSQL database, but the instruction provided with software makes this abundantly easy. This method works by adding a live selection of auction merchandise to your site from a category you choose, and when the auction ends and there is a sale, eBay shares up to 65% of their revenue from the sale with you.
Advantages: This is an easy way to monetize the sites and diversify the income, simply by providing your website visitors with current, targeted offerings they may well be interested in.The software offered does not require a great deal of effort on your part, thus helping you increase your site's relevance in the eyes of the search engines, and consequently bringing you even more traffic.
Disadvantages: It is difficult to integrate the software into the look of your site.
So, it depends on you whether you want to have an additional income using eBay auctions or just to use it in the old, but well-proved way. Anyway, for me it was pretty interesting as it was another way of using eBay auctions, not participating in it directly.

P.S. Dear Professor, sorry for the delayed posting. I could not do it earlier this week.