LBS

Foursquare

 

Foursquare is a Location Based Location Service Social Website. It is mostly used in collaboration with smartphones, allowing users to check into places. What differentiates it from other similar apps is the kind of reward/status function where the more you check in at a place the more points you earn which allows you to be mayor of the location because you have checked in the most. There is also a badge system which allows you to earn badges when you check into different places. There is also a superuser function which allows you to edit review and talk about specific places. It is a pull service. Their business model is modelled around loyalty and reward system. Parts of the revenue goes towards the location based service, the location you check into and then foursquare itself. Businesses can take advantage of this system as it allows/raises awareness for business.

SCRNGR

 

SCVNGR is a game all about going places, doing challenges and earning points. The game is played from a custom app on iPhone and Android. It is not a scavenger hunt application. Instead of riddles to guide you to a place, SCVNGR concentrates on completing challenges at a particular location.

SCVNGR’s business model centers on collecting fees from merchants who want customers to come to their businesses to play and receive rewards. In an interview with GigaOM, SCVNGR CEO Seth Priebatsch said that SCVNGR analyzed its data and found that it takes three visits by a consumer before they are likely to become a regular at a business or at least have that merchant at the top of their mind. For businesses, paying SCVNGR is a form of advertising.

Scanveger mostly works as a push system, as people signed up to the service must always accept it. 

Crowd sourcing

Utest is a crowd source site which test software for its clients. The workforce is comprised of professional testers from around the globe and customer base is people and companies looking software products to market. 

Utest provides developers with a simple and cheap means by which to test the many different aspects of their software applications. 

 

Online file storage systems

Today i have looked at three different file storage systems. These are Dropbox, Skydrive and Google Drive. Each of these systems had there pros and cons which i will discuss below.

Dropbox was the first of the cloud storage systems offered on the market. They system provides the smallest amount of storage space (2GB) when compared with the other 3 but it is the oldest and most well established online storage system available. From my experience i believe Dropbox to be the least useful of all the systems available because firstly due to the small storage limit and secondly because of the lack of a collaborative editing tool or even a web based editing system at all. 

SkyDrive is the newest entry to the market and offers the greatest amount of storage. As a student SkyDrive has a huge advantage for me in that it allows the direct editing of MS word and excel of the drive along with the ability to use collaborative editing. This makes Skydrive a hugely powerful tool given the popularity of MS office products. 

Google Drive was produced by the same team that made Google docs and it offers 5GB of storage. The only disadvantage i see in the use of Google drive is that it uses it own editing system separate for MS office meaning that any MS file uploaded will need to downloaded in order to edit. If you are not an MS office user this storage system will be just as useful as Skydrive. A big advantage of G drive is that it supports many different file types making it very versatile.

In conclusion, in my experience as a student using online storage systems i have ranked the following in terms of usefulness 

1. SkyDrive
2. Google Drive
3. Dropbox 

     

Second life

Second life is a virtual word. It is fully represented in 3d with customisable a avatars and worlds to explore.

Second life appears to be virtual word tilted towards facilitating the social communications and interaction of individuals. 

People from many different backgrounds can come together in second life and be free to be who they truly are. The game facilitates many different forms of communication and encourages people to express them selves.  

kari-friends-network.png

This application could likely be used in business context to target advertising and establish how people are connected and hence the best way to get into contact with them.

Friends network

Below is a map showing my friends network from Facebook. This is an amazing tool that truely lets you see what your greater friends network looks like and connects. 

 

The power of blogging

As mentioned before power in blogging comes from the dedication of the blogger. It is unlike without attention that the blog will develop at all or gain followers. A blog must also be regularly updated in order to build and maintain interest

Enjoy this video that examples true power:

Information systems management

There are many features of interest in this blogging tool. Video, pictures and links can all be put up here to broadcast information to the World Wide Web. The true power of a blog comes from those who take the time to develop it.