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!

Information By Crowds: DC Inside

As I posted on my first blog, it is true that there is lack of specialty on web-based information. Knowledge provided from anonymous people is too huge and groundless, so sometimes unbelievable rumors threat truth on the Internet. However, let me explain my experience. In our class, ITEC 335, we post our opinion on our blog every week. As you know, I am exchange student and my first language is not English, so I cannot write academic essay well. However, blog posting in this class does not require accuracy of grammar and form, so it makes me possible to do posting confidently and freely. I think information on the Internet is same with my experience. We can write and express our creative and different opinions through free way of Internet blogging, and sometimes, it can be theme of academic research.

In Korea, there is a site named DC Inside. At first, it was for exchange information about digital cameras. People could read review and comment about new digital cameras on this site. During writing and commenting about cameras, people started talk about weird gossips, and the creator of the site made several bulletin boards, called Gallery, and it became Korea’s one of the biggest web communities. These days, there are numerous galleries such as digital equipments, game, spots, universities, districts, stocks, automobile, vessel, law, composite photograph, even presidents, politicians, insect and parasites, and the categories are still updated. The main characteristic of this site is creating and culture beyond conception by exchanging information and thinking, with specialty, by amateurs. They use their own languages, like “햏” (it means nothing, and it is not even Korean; they just type it by combining some Korean characters)

However, they make big stream even on academic world. There are many essays and papers about DC inside. Scholars say that it’s so surprised, because people who don’t have academic degrees on fields’ research on their interest, and accumulate lots of database, and exchange them with their opinions. Bulletin board themselves can become books about special themes written by amateurs. It means by using Internet, information saved in everywhere can be gathered together and shown to all over the world, not only by few of elites, but by many crows. Therefore, many people so called elites study about DC Inside’s success case, and their form of cyber community.

I presented unfamiliar site, DC Inside. I don’t’ know well about many American sites, but I think there are plenty of sites based on free opinion of ordinary but different people (if you know that kind of sites, please tell me by comments! I wanna go there.) I think people who insist future of digital world depends on elites are wrong, because every field can be a theme of study, and they are not belong to special someone, but belong to everyone living in everywhere. I believe that strong points based on diversity of source of information and efforts to overcome negative effect of amateurism of Internet are motive power of over the web 2.0 generation.

Open Innovation and Diversity

I am posting it after reading these two articles

NPR: Big Firms Eye “Open Innovation” For Ideas
Social Networking Forces Changes in Customer Service


When I read these two articles first, I thought that it is ridiculous, because most of people who provide answers on the Internet is not experts, but amateurs. It is weird that companies get information from non-experts. This is because it may lead the company to failure. However, I remembered that me, myself also do Googling or search blogs when I have problems in my life.

This is my experience. I am not good at computers, so when I have a problem with my personal computer, and if the Internet is still connected, I search for the problem on the Internet, without hesitation. As you know, many portal sites provide question and answer function, so I can find the solution for my problem. Sometimes, it is much better and faster than asking for people who are very good at dealing with computers, or going to customer center.

I think this is because of diversity, and the Internet made it possible to realize. By using Internet, people from all over the world meet at one virtual place. We can use collection of knowledge experienced by different age and countries. We can use their thoughts and experiences creatively, because all of them have different political, economical, social, and cultural background.

And also, people know many other people. I think it is related to what we discussed about last Wednesday. When we have problem, we can solve it by getting help from people around us. In succession, when we see a person on a web site who have problem I went through, we can give him/she a tip to solve. It is making connection between two groups; it means that the knowledge and information known by our group can be shared to other group by me and other user who is in other group, by Internet. Therefore, without going to go to customer service center, we can solve problems by faster and easier way.

The more social networking, the more neccesity to doubt

After reading "Six Myths about Informal Networks - and How to Overcome Them" and Clive Thompson on Real-World Social Networks vs. Facebook 'Friends'

I read some materials about social networking in business and facebook. According to the articles, informal networks are very important, not only in the field of business, but also on the Internet networking.

We are living in the world with numerous networks. They include not only about the Internet sites like Facebook or networks in the real world like the networking in the business, but also the Internet sites we surfed to fine some information, the people we meet on campus, and the world we live. There is lots of information from anonymous people, just we heard or seen in the Internet or something, and which are from somewhere we even cannot remember.

The problem is that no one can be sure to the information on conversations, on the Internet, in the world. I think this is because there are too many informal networks, and we receive information from them without filtering. In a Korean movie, “Castaway On The Moon,” there is a woman who has many blogs which pretend to belong to pretty girls, in different age, and different face. The girl is not satisfied with herself, so she makes many blogs and fine gorgeous pictures from other blogs to copy and paste to her virtual blogs. All of the stuff in her blogs is not real, from the owner to the pictures. I thought this movie while I was reading the material about facebook, because it is possible to be in the real world. A posting about “I am reading a book” doesn’t mean that s/he is really reading a book. We cannot believe from stuffs in blogs to even the person has it.

It was some drastic example, but it can be occur in the real world. In a company, too many informal networks can bring about grapevine, which means groundless rumor between employees, so that it can affect to them negative effect. This is due to the fact that information from someone can be tortured during it is delivered, or someone can spread intended rumor to other people in the company. By the characteristic of social networking, the final receiver of the information cannot know the first person who gave the information, and sometime, no one can do it. This can be fatal to performance of employees, by affecting on social relationships in the company.