The Expected Truth of Cyber Land

While reading the articles; “Virtual world, real money in 'Second Life'” and “Why the iPad is a game-changer for virtual environments”, I thought that “Umm, it’s very interesting, but, what’s that?” This is because the concept of “Second Life” is able to merely be considered usually in the real world. Is anyone thinking about it before reading the articles?

I was totally surprised that Yale bought lands in the “Second Life” for the educational purpose, and I thought about my home university in Korea. As my home university, Sunkyunkwan University, it is very historical but the land is so small. In Chosen Dynasty, Sunkyunkwan was the highest educational institution in the nation, and it is the origin of my home university. Therefore, it has more than 600 hundred years of history, but there is one problem; the size of land. It is located many historic buildings, so there is no space to build many necessary classrooms. Around the school, almost all of buildings have historic meaning. They are real palace of Chosen Dynasty and still have unchanged figure from 600 years ago. That’s why people want to broaden the place of school, but cannot do because of severe regulation from government and many people who want to protect old palaces. We cannot dig the land because of the risk of basement of the land, so some people say that “Let’s make a door to 4th dimension and make buildings.”

Considering my home university’s situation, Yale’s behavior is very creative. However, I also think about Money. Is it able to make much profit compare to the high cost? Is it educational and is there any opportunity about any problems? In my opinion, I cannot always say Yes to all of these questions. School should pay money to the builder of cyber land as a lending fee. It means that if the builders want more money for the cyber land as unreasonable price, the school cannot do anything but give them all of money, because all source of the university would be there. Who can pay for them? I think it might be students, and it could bring very high tuition fee. People can say that; it’s YOU who get academic benefit from school, so YOU should pay for it, if you want to learn more!

It is very great idea to buy land Second Life and connect it with real life. But we should be more serious. I heard that many millionaires are buying lands in the universe, like on the moon. It would be possible that the world out of real world and the Earth. But to me, it looks like a Game of Money. That's why I cannot recommend the Second Life to my home university!

Power of Business Networking

After I read these articles; How to Get the Most Out of LinkedIn and It’s Not Just Who You Know , I felt that networking thru Internet is becoming more and more important in the field of business. It means that if we don’t use sites like LinkedIn, difficulty on finding opportunity to make business successfully would be more severe. This is because other competitors will use this tool to make their goal.

Then, why people use business networking even though it would not be the best way to attain their purpose? I think this is because the business networking makes people more familiar. It’s like social networking like Facebook. When people read the expected partners’ profile including photos like something before they meet each other, they feel like they know partners better than reading them by resumes or documentary files. Therefore, if I graduate the university and get a new job, I also might use sites like LinkedIn to make the business successfully!

Social Networking on MoSoSo

When I read these two articles, “Students’ New Best Friend: MoSoSo” and “Thumb novels: Mobile phone fiction”, I thought about Apple’s iPhone and App Store. On campus, subway, I can see many people using iPhone. (It’s very regretful that I cannot have one, because the period I will stay here is too short to buy new iPhone.) The point I thought is not just iPhone itself, but the Apps in it. With Apps, not only we can do many things very conveniently, but also we can be App builder.

Yes, I think App making is an open blue ocean to developers. As smart phones are evolved more and more, the necessity of Apps is increasing. Different from traditional phone, smart phone does not provide many functions for consumers. The important thing is that there is also communication. App developers make an App and upload it on the App store, and App users buy them and write comments. Then, App makers update by referring customers’ response. People talk about the App’s useful thing and negative effect on them, so expected customers also read them and consider whether buy them or not.

I think this trend can be more evolved. As you see on this video, there are many programs and videos to help make Apps on the Internet. Also, making Apps would be difficult and require high design ability, but the important thing is that the opportunity is opened to anyone! I think this is revolutionary evolution on the field of Mobile Social networking Software. Apps are made by customers, reflecting exact desire of users. That’s why when I connect to iTunes store (I usually go there as an iPod user), I cannot avoid buying Apps because almost all of them are very attractive and seem to be useful.

Blog Marketing

After reading two articles, one is On Corporate Blogging: Interview with Don Martelli of MS&L
and the other is World of Mouse, I thought about plentiful ads and promotions of corporate which use the Internet as channel.

I think blog promotion is unavoidable flow in web 2.0 world. It is obvious that companies should use way which is most accessible to advertise their products and service. And as you know, it is the Internet, and especially blog fits to promote company’s new products. This is because many people from all over the world can visit the products’ blog and find all about the item, provided by not only the company but also consumers.

When I was in Korea, I really wanted to get a Hunter’s rain boots, but there was no Hunter shop in Seoul. I visited to its home page to get some information, but I could not, because there was just explanation about products and company, something like that. Therefore, I searched at Google, and found Hunter’s Facebook blog. It was gorgeous! There was almost every day updated pictures, new explanation of items, and the most important thing, there were lots of comments of customers, both already bought people and want to buy them. Therefore, I could get information about my favorite rain boots at its blog more than its traditional home page. If there were no blog about Hunter boots, I could never find that kind of information, in the place without the brands’ sales shop.

In my opinion, blog marketing is very efficient way to promote item. When I visit an item’s blog, I think it is not just a product’s blog, but one of my friends’ blog! It is very smart marketing, due to making consumers being familiar with the item. Also, we don’t consider it as an advertisement, so companies can eliminate rejection symptoms about ads. Even if it was targeted to “opinion leaders,” but it can make synergy effect to create communication between opinion leaders and normal consumers, help customers decide whether buy the item or not, and also make money to company!