To My Classmates!!

This is a post for all of my classmates, those that have loved blogging and  those that hated it. What I've done is added another poll to my blog and I would like to get your feedback on the whole experience.
Votes are anonymous and you can change your answer if you change your mind. I give you until the last day of school to submit your vote.
Thanks guys.

How To Fix Traffic Jams

h man does traffic bother me.

• You have no idea what's going on
• You have no idea how long its going to continue
• You have no idea how late you are going to be
• You have no idea which way will get you out of this mess

Basically traffic jams suck whichever way you look at them. I have done some looking around for smarthphone applications that keep me posted on the latest traffic conditions when I'm driving, but it would be great to avoid them all together in the first place.

Canada has made a small effort to control traffic on the highways in the GTA area with the 407, however, in Sweden they have made the entire city centre more efficient through the implementation of e-business technologies.

Check out this video and see how much traffic has been reduced by implementing the marvels e-business solutions.

GOOGLE

One word says it all, GOOGLE, in my opinion is synonymous with cool.

GOOGLE is pushing farther forward and actually utilizing the internet to the best of its abilities than we could have ever imagined. Know, I'm not saying that google is the only kid on the block, but hey, guess what my spellchecker just told me to capitalize the world google, clearly the company is making an impression.

The company has made efforts to make our internet experience all the more exciting. I have recently got my hands on a GOOGLE WAVE account, and after watching their self proclaimed looooooong video, I was so pumped to get it up and running.

If you are looking for a way to kill some time, check out the video yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_UyVmITiYQ

If you don't feel like sitting through the 1.5hr long video here is a brief overview provided by GOOGLE pm's



In addition to the technologies we are all already familiar with:
 Youtube, Google search, Blogger, Google Earth, they are also getting into advertising and telephone services. The company has already penetrated the cell phone market with its Android operating system and plans to unveil its own phone.

What does this have to do with e-business? Well google is the internet (strong words, I know)

www.google.com

How to crash a White House State Dinner Party

1. Dress up nicely
2. Shmooze with the right people
3. Act with class
4. Take lots of pictures
5. Post pictures on facebook of you crashing party
6. Insist you were invited when the secret service comes knocking

We wonder if the digital world is safe, yet the Americans and their special secret service cannot even keep the party crashers at bay. Here is an article with a picture of the couple at the white house gala.



Polo-playing socialites Tareq and Michaele Salahi posted a pic on their joint Facebook account of Michaele mingling with Vice President Joe Biden among other photos, but a White House official told the Washington Post that the couple was not invited to the dinner and were never seated at a table in the South Lawn tent.

2D Barcodes - Do you Get it?

In this new age of technology there are many ways for a business to stay current and up-to-date with e-business methods.

A new wave of technology that is starting to show its teeth are 2D barcodes.

Now you may be asking youself what the heck is a 2D barcode. Well here is a quick crash course in barcodes, both 1D and 2D.

1D barcodes are you typical barcodes:

Code 39

(For those of you that are interested there is a way to decode what the lines mean in 1D barcodes. Drop me a line and i'll forward you the information for how to do that.)

2D barcodes are new and improved barcodes, of which there are a few types:

QR Code

Aztec Code

Bee tagg code

So above I've given examples of some popular 2D barcodes.

SO WHAT!! you might be asking youself, what's the big deal. Well you can scan these codes with you smartphone and all the information contained in the code will be transmited to your phone.

Check out this free scanner from beetagg.com

Beetagg scanner

Keep your eyes open for 2D barcodes on magazines and other products.

IF IT BLEEDS IT LEADS

People will always say that negativity can bring people down and its bad to surround yourself with negative attitudes and behaviours. But ask yourself this, when was the last time the news had a positive bulletin?

CNN and BBC both are news giants recognized world wide. I was on both sites yesterday and you know what I saw? Not one peace of positive news of their homepage. You had to literally search for positive news stories.

There are so many positive news events circulating that would put perspectives into a much better light. However, these days its H1N1 this and war in Afghanistan that?

What about new discoveries, success stories of athletes, people succeeding over adversity? It is so hard to find, and on the internet we have the opportunity to seek out those positive news stories, but on the television or the radio, you can either listen or shut it off.

I know there are good news stories out there and there are companies making a difference in this world, but we don't care, all we want to hear about is what's bleeding in the news today.

As a request to all readers of this post, do something positive to impact your world - send a compliment, share a joke, give thanks and try to avoid all negativity for a day, I know its hard, but nothing in life is easy.

What makes you a Canadian?

The numbe of races of people around the globe is stagering. Lanugages, dialects they come and go without many of us even knowing it, even with the internet. I heard on the news this morning that Canada is going to lose about 40 languages.

Ah, wait a minute, 40 languages?! Where did they come from? Well the native americans have their own dialect and because they are dying out the language isn't being passed on.

You'd think that the internet would lend itself to broaden peoples horizon and perspective on multiculturalism, yet there is still so much ignorance through the internet. Perhaps more than anything else, the internet hasn't made people more aware of how they should be accepting, but rather its given them a platform to express their racist and narrow minded views.

Case in point: A friend of mine put together a music video capturing the essence of Canada. Entiteld "Canadian, Please"



This great video, which has now recieved almost 3/4 of a million views received great comments of praise, and well shall we say "other" comments.

In response to the "other" comments, the video creator decided to do a little follow up:


So we need to recognize, that with e-business and being online, there is more to consider than our front door, and we need to step out of the proverbial back yard and embrace differences and diversity.

University of Western Police Brutality - YOUTUBE = NEWS

Prior to the internet how long would it have taken to get a news event out? A couple of hours would have been considered fast. In the time of news print, it would require the effort of a team of people to get a story ready and run the printing press to release the 'special edition'. An example of this is highlighted in the TIME article from 1945 . Today however, news can be spread by one individual around the world in a matter of seconds.

The recent incident on the campus of Western University highlights the power of the individual in a world revloving around technology. Of course these youtube news events aren't without its drawbacks. For example, we don't know the whole story, but what we do know is that the police were taking no prisoners when this guy would not "stop resisting".

News can spread like wild fire and eyes are everywhere. The video below is what was released about 20 mintues after the event took place and quickly captured the attention of tens of thousands of people.



Now I am not the biggest fan of authority figures either, but this guy is clearly going to have strong views against authority after this event. There is clearly more to this than we see, but what we can see from the video is how perceptions can be made from partial information. The UWO gazette cover the arrest in more detail.

In the world today it is important to realize how businesses can communicate across borders and retrieve news events relavent to its industry quickly and efficiently. No longer is it difficult to obtain news from any corner of the globe. The internet in all its awesome power has made e-business possible and the possibility for individuals to report their own news events.

I'm going to coin a new term which I think is very true and relates to this post it is e-news. The ability for the  individual to post news electronically from anywhere in the world.

So keep those cameras rolling, because you never know when you will have the next big story.

Let's push things forward

Focus on the future don't dwell on the past, learn from our mistakes and more importantly the mistakes of others. As Issac Newton said "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants". What can we take from this?

Well for starters, there is no way in our lifetime that we can make all the mistakes that we would require to get everything right. What I mean by this, is basically, to learn from the mistakes of others. Whether that be other companies, other friends, our parents or role models. By learning from others we can make improvements on their methods, thus pushing things forward.

Keep moving forward, grow, learn and develop. We are constantly learning in our lives, and if not, you better start. Life evolves and we need to be constantly adapting whether that's in the business world or otherwise.

I recently attended a dinner/awards ceremony for I.E. Canada and they were awarding companies for improving process for export, greening the supply chain and leadership. They are recognizing the individuals who are moving forward.

Life can throw some tough times at us and although living in the present is very important and appreciating what we have, it is just as important to focus on the future and where our hard work today will put us in the future.

So I urge all of my readers, keep moving forward and live in the now, think in the future. 

Human Resources? What human resources?

Human resources, where do I begin????   How about I don't !  Sounds like a good idea to me. I don't want to be one to preach to the masses but as the flobots so eloquently put it in their song 'handlebars' (which you should definitely check out), they say " I can lead a nation with a microphone".  Now I'm not saying I can lead a nation, heck according to my followers only 14 people really care about what I have to say, but I digress.

Human resources, not something we consider all that often, however, aparently HR takes up 70% of the expenses of a company to pay wages. blah blah blah. But seriously, just for a moment, human resources is something that every business needs to consider, especially when sending employees overseas. I am reading a book right now that makes you think about human resources without you even knowing it. On the Wings of Eagles, is a book written by Ken Follett, lately a personal favorite of mine. Without getting into too much detail it's about executives of an american company working in Iran, confusion ensues and the executives are thrown in jail. Then the company organizes a team of people to secretly go and break them out - as a friend put it after my explanation ' it sounds like a guy's book'. I'd probably have to agree. But it makes you think about the elements to consider when working on international assignments which are related to human resouces.

So what do you know, I guess I do have to consider human resouces down the road. But no matter the business, whether online or 'brick and mortar' the people outside - the customer keep you in business and the people inside - the employees run the business. Therefore we can't avoid the human element, thus making HR relevant to all of us.

Oh, and yes I can ride a bike with no handlebars.

Question! How do we feed 9,100,000,000 people?

People say I eat a lot, this could be true, however, I don't waste my food and I live to eat as well as eat to live. I am very fortunate to be living a life where I don't have to question where my next meal is going to come from, even though I am a student, I still get my food. However, there is a growing shortage of food around the world.

Recent BBC reports have suggested that food production needs to increase 70%, WOW. Are you kidding me? Well, no, I'm pretty sure they are not and the people that are suffering from food shortages are the same people who struggle for water. We complain about the price of gas being too high and then we rush out and spend $1.50 on half a liter of water. Have you considered what kind of a mess we could be in if gas prices were that high for us?

What we need to recognize is that those suffering from food and water shortages are also the individuals that we are so keen on getting computers into their hands and the internet at the tips of their fingers. I am all for the development of the web and trying to reach the far corners of the globe and involve them in the tech generation, but first we need to FEED them. Companies need to focus on ways to feed the future. If as much attention that is put towards food and feeding the world as is put on technology and what it can do for us, there just might be 3 billion other people that can contribute to the betterment of the world.

Smart Phones for Smart Companies...coming up next, Smart people

It's a berry good thing that we like technology, because technology, in its own messed up way, has a method to making our lives easier.

Smartphones are fast becoming the way to stay connected to the web. Businesses all over the world are turning to blackberries, iphones and also the windows phone, yes there is a phone with the windows O/S. Even the president of the United States, Mr. Obama has the blackberry to get those important emails when he needs them. We thought that with wireless internet we would always be connected, then they introduced cell phones with web capability. It was the "in" thing - to be able to surf the web on your phone.

Of course we have come along way from checking movie times and the score in the game. Now we have nothing short of a computer literally in the palm of our hand, which we are now sticking into our ear. This is ofcourse in an attempt to increase the handsfree capability. Which is great, because companies are not going to want their employees crashing, trying to reply to emails or make the important call while driving in the rain. Some new technology on the market which has identified this need of handsfree has introduced a nifty product that will read your emails to you via bluetooth and also reads the news and weather and everything the primative web capable phones did, but wirelessly and handsfree. It's the iLane.

The cool thing with technology is that companies can now be even more connected. They can really be an e-business. Technology is great and is helping us in ways we never even imagined, I mean the internet and web are pretty sweet and its off this technology that grew e-business, and the whole wireless world.

TEXTING, DRIVING and $500

We all now how dangerous it is to text and drive. It's almost as stupid as not wearing your seatbelt.
I mean would you ever jump in a roller coaster ride without buckling up? I'm gonna go with NO. But tell me what is the difference between a roller coaster and a car that has just crashed and flipped moving at about 100 kph.
I'll tell you what the difference is - NOTHING. You'd probably get killed in that roller coaster if you didn't buckle up, but you do because you know it's gonna be a crazy ride. Well for those of you who have been fortunate enough to not experience a car accident it is just as crazy a ride. So to cut a long story short (too late I know), we buckle up.

Well to move on to my second point. Why do we think it's okay to drive and not look at the road? Last time I checked if someone is considered legally blind they are not allowed to drive. Well an individual who is legally blind and looking at the road is probably the same as someone is has perfect vision and not looking at the road.
To put it another way, if you can't see what's coming you can't do anything to avoid it. Therefore, WATCH THE ROAD DUMBASS, NOT YOUR PHONE

Finally, the MTO has decided to do something about it (not much). As of October 26th 2009, the province of Ontario and Quebec are making it illegal to use a cellphone or ipod or anyother device that is not handsfree.
Not a bad idea, I mean there will be people who will still try, but at least now they are going to be penalized if they are caught. Oh, but wait, the MTO knows how DUMB we all are and how it takes a long time for us to grasp these complicated concepts of EYES ON THE ROAD, so we have a 3 month 'education' period, and not until February 1, 2010 will we be slapped with a ticket.

But come on folks do we really need the threat of a ticket looming over us to know that we can just wait until we are not driving to check the phone, or for goodness sakes, pull over and do what you need to do.

HOW MUCH IS YOUR LIFE WORTH TO YOU? Be smart and drive safely.

THANKS

So in an effort to create some interaction on my blog I had a poll going. The poll was related to a previous post with regards to backing up your work and I was curious as to other peoples habits.
The resutls came back and although it was hard to imagine the overwhelming response (10 votes total) it still showed that we back up as often as possible.
Thanks again for taking part in the vote.

Britney Spears, Megan Fox and Princess Diana. What do they have in common?

Societies addiction with celebrities is insatiable. We can't have it so we want it even more. Pictures, gossip, anything. Social networking sites has made this common place even within our own network of friends. Almost everything we know is fed to us through the media and online. Now we probably take most of what we hear with a grain of salt, but we still think there is some truth to what is being said.

Alison Jackson, a very well established artists is well known for her uncanny look-a-like celebrity photos. Making people believe that what they are seeing is real.


But what is real? When it comes to media and on a broader scale, the internet it is becoming harder to discern the boundaries of fiction and truth.

We are able to follow celebrities on a daily basis. Where the tabloids once stood we now have twitter, facebook, youtube and personal blog sites that are practically glued to the celebrity. The news tabloids and papers are still around, but its the internet that increasing celebrity exposure exponentially and making it even easier to spread gossip faster than a California forest fire.

According to AOL search terms, Britney Spears was the number one searched female celebrity in 2008. Megan Fox has been making waves with her films and looks. And what about Princess Diana? Well if you believe what Alison Jackson has so say, Princess Diana might be still alive...if you believe the pictures.

So where am I going with this? Well we need to scrutinize our sources and double and triple check our information. Businesses are able to fabricate and lead us to believe something that isn't true through a fancy website or product 'reviews', so don't trust everything you read, and in this age of digital magic, keep your eyes peeled.

P.S. Would you have read this if I hadn't mentioned celebrities in the title? You thought you'd satisfy that craving for celebrity gossip, eh?

BACKUP...SEND BACKUP!!

DON'T FORGET TO ANSWER THE POLL QUESTION :) THANKS

With the revolution of the internet, we are becoming more dependent upon it.We see it all around us and the potential impact it's going to have on the future of businesses is huge. So we better make sure that we can keep up and not get lots in the bites and bytes of cyberspace.

With technologies there are bound to be setbacks and technical difficulties. But we better figure out a way to minimize these 'technical difficulties'. I mean imgaine you are in the middle of a super important web conference or writing a major report or compiling financial data from the quarter and the sh*t hits the fan with the comptuer system-can you say system crash?!

We do what we can to avoid these computer hiccups impacting us too much, with constant backups and the 'crtl + S' feature when writing the documents we think we are safe. But as we become more reliant on the web and business are exposing themselves (in a manner of speaking) to the public what are they going to do to protect themselves?

I don't know the answer to these questions or maybe I do and I'm too tired to include them in this post, but regardless, we need to be vigilant. With technology things will go wrong. So make sure you call for backup BEFORE its too late.

For the sake of interest I'm running a little poll on the side. So you tell me how often you backup your work.

SKYNET is Online...almost

The Terminator movies did a pretty good job of predicting how powerful the internet would be and also of what robots would be capable of. Now I`m sure you are sitting there right now reading this, thinking `what the heck is this guy on about`.

Well without further ado let me introduce to you the dawn of the T-1000 (kind of)



From this video we can see how sophisticated robots are becoming, and to parallel the robotic industry with the internet, if this is where we are today, imagine in 5000 days.

Going back to what Kevin Kelly spoke about in his ted.com talk. In 5000 days the internet will have the equivalent power of 3 billion human brains. Can you imagine if a robot could tap into that kind of power... you know what on second thoughts maybe we should slow down, this internet business might be way out of our control before we know it.

I`m just joking though, I love technology and what its done for the business I`m all for forging ahead and dealing wit what happens when and if it even does.

Do you know the difference between RIGHT and WRONG??

Our lives are full of decisions, what to eat, what to wear, should I do my homework, should I hang out with friends, should I... should I... should I?

What about should I accept a $50,000 bribe to facilitate the 5 million dollar business deal? This is a question that we don`t have to ask ourselves on a daily basis, or maybe we are in a country/industry where we do, but the important thing is; how do we answer? Well Bernard Madoff knew his answer and so did the top heads at Enron. Madoff, made off with a cool billion before his bad luck caught up with him.


Business ethics is a very abstract subject and depending on our backgrounds and motives we have different view points. I thought I was set in my opinion that a business ethics course wouldn`t have much impact on my decisions after school. I thought, I`ve been pretty good up`till now why would I change when I`m working in the real world.
Then today, while doing a presentation on this very topic a classmate pointed out, `we haven`t had to ask ourselves these types of questions before now`, so I thought maybe an ethics course isn`t such a bad idea.

Whether e-business or non-virtual business there are ethical decisions that we need to make. The question I pose to you - my readers, is. Do you know the difference between right and wrong?

A real world case that puts the ethics to test - Enron...check out the clip

Play This and Get Connected !!!

BEFORE YOU START READING: PLAY THE VIDEO AT THE BOTTOM

The new black eyeds peas song called 'One Tribe' of their album The E.N.D. that is the song you should be listening to while reading this.

What does a black eyed peas song have to do with e-business you might ask? Well the song talks about connectedness, and how we are all one. Which in the literal sense is certainly not true but we are all connected through the web in one way or another.

Blackberries, iPhones, Kiosk terminals, even regular cell phones ;anything that has the ability to connect online in a manner of speaking connects us, but more importantly connects business.

Non-profit organizations and charities have so much more potential with the internet and ability to connect to people around the world.

So ask yourself, how many people have you connected with today?

Enjoy.

A wealth of information

There is so so much information online these days, how are we supposed to keep up?

We probably don't even realize how much we are missing out on. Some might say that events and business on the other side of the planet don't affect us, unless of course you are involved or following that business.

But just yesterday, Sydney, Australia experienced the worst sandstorm in over 70 years shutting down all forms of transportation, even diverting planes from New Zealand.

What it all boils down to is are we using the web as efficiently as possible and if we are this overwhelmed with this much information today can you imagine in 2, 5 or 10 years from now.

Don't get left behind and never stop "surfing the web"

Sydney hit by major sandstorm, other parts of Australia by hailstones and small earthquakes

Sydney hit by major sandstorm, other parts of Australia by hailstones and small earthquakes

Shared via AddThis

"Online Gaming"

E-business is making it easier than ever for companies to get out there and join the global market place.

Game4U.com has launched a new game retail website.



Techtree.com India News Gaming New E-commerce Game Retail Website

Limited by age

Just a quick thought here.

With the exponential growth in internet use and the huge reliance on computers these days is the older generation going to get left behind in the proverbial computer dust of the younger generation?

My school library comprises of about 80% computer terminals to do "stuff" online, and 20% books. Even then maybe I'm being too generous towards the books.

However, we (the younger generation) have grown up around computers and the baby boomer generation who were introduced to the wonders of the computer and the web later in their days are playing big time catch-up.

With e-business playing such a major role in the world, these generation-X and generation-Y need to realize the valuable role they play in making e-business possible for the B.C generation. That's Before Computers, for you guys.

Where would we be without - THE WEB?

I was watching a video today on www.ted.com , after hearing about it in where else, my e-commerce class and it talked about 5,000 days on the web. It made me wonder, what if the web wasn't where it is today? How would be manage? We probably ask ourselves; how did we manage? It has become such an inherent part of our daily lives that we don't pay much thought to it and how it has impacted our lives. Like cutlery, what if we never had it, well the fine dinning experience wouldn't be so fine.

So getting back to the web, we now have choice, and have had for some time. Choice as to where we buy our consumable products, where we learn, who we want to talk to. I know it seems pretty obvious, but do we ever give it much thought and think what if it weren't here?

The internet and the web have transformed the world in amazing ways and if you think about what it has done for business in the year 2009 and think about how e-business will be done in the year 2019. A mere 10 years away. Kevin Kelly, predicts that in 5,000 days (a little over 13 years) the web will be more powerful than about 3 billion human brains, which is staggering. Imagine the power and what can be accomplished.

I think we are so luck to be alive at this stage in time to see the development of such a powerful entity and be able to do business ways that will transform the world and hopefully for the better.

Laughing-is the same in every language

Humour can go a long way in every language. Here is a little something.

The power of language- Learn

In the world today, we find ourselves working and interacting with individuals from all over the globe. Business is no longer isolated to local towns. It is international. Being able to communicate effectively with these individuals can sometimes be the difference between success and failure. So, that being said I have added a pretty cool widget that keeps the language juices working.
Make an effort to learn a few salutations in a foreign language, because you never know when you'll need it.
Ciao

One small step into a big pond

In the words of Eddie Izzard on Neil Armstrong srcewing up the first words on the moon "small men take giant steps". I am taking small steps into a big pond, that pond is the world of internet blogging.
We've started this project for an e-commerce class, so I'll be trying to keep this updated and bring the world of e-commerce to you as best as I can.

Stay tuned for more