Nueral Network

A neural network, uses mathematical models to connect by computing the information that it is presented. It can try and learn by using simple connection to achieve the goal. While working on this today the network actually would try and learn the inputs it was giving. It is very interesting way to compute information. I really like how programs can actually learn the information you give it, while forming the network.

Just In Time Delivery Comes to Knowledge Management VS. Knowledge Management's Social Dimension: Lessons From Nucor Steel.

Both of these articles talk about how sharing knowledge and information can be used to save on time and money, and on how if you use this effectively you can increase the money you make. Nucor Steel used the idea of knowledge sharing as a way to keep employees motivated, by giving them incentives to come up with ways to become more efficient. But the focus in the Just in Time article was more on the use of technology to cut down on unnecessary errors caused by doctors, because of the vast amount of information that is needed for them to do their job. The idea behind this is more about cutting cost on unnecessary tests or potential lawsuits.

Twitter 101

Obviously Twitter has become a very effective tool for use in business. Twitter allows people who "follow them" to be kept up to date with company information, such as sales or maybe even recall information. It is also used by radio stations, this allows the name of the radio stations, this allows the name of the radio station or show to be out in Twitter perhaps reaching a larger audience. One radio personality I know that is using this is Dave Ramsey.

Poor Jeff Jarvis

Jeff Jarvis had a terrible experience with Dell. He used his status as a noted blogger to voice his frustration. He bought a new Dell laptop and paid for a warranty were the tech comes to your house in the event of any problems. However, when he began to have problems with his computer and contacted customer service he was told that he would have to send in his computer. Why did he pay for the warranty? That's the question that he asked and vented about on his blog. Jeff finally got a refund but only after a senior marketing executive was alerted about his situation.

Dell's entrance into groundswell

Dell had to enter the groundswell pretty much out of necessity, and began the trial by fire process. Problems really began when they outsourced their customer support. A company once known for its customer service, began to see its customer satisfaction decline. This eventually began to cause its profits to decline. Dell was being blasted by bloggers about their service, M. Dell put together a team to figure out how to begin to address these problems effectively. Eventually they started to enter the blogging world and began to address the problems through that medium. This action had a very positive effect on customer service.

Alpha Moms

Alpha moms are a group of women who are comfortable with technology interested in parenting, and have above average incomes. Targeting these woman can make companies a lot of money, if they target them with technology that they would be interesting in. Also site and companies can target with parenting products, Example in Proctor and Gamble.

Why do people participate the Groundswell?

There are many reasons people are involved in this movements. People like to keep up with friends, Facebook is the best example of this, people can keep up with friends and let them know what they are doing. Some participate to make new friends, online dating works under this 1 in 5 online singles use online dating sites. Succumbing to social pressure, this is what got me involved on Facebook, but people like friends to do what they do so they send out emails trying to get people to join the site they are using. Some people also spend hundreds of hours on social sites because they think its worth while, Wikipedia is an example of this. Creative people have a need to express themselves, social sites gives them this opportunity to showcase on blogs or youtube. The feedback received is very important for the creative person.

fiskateers

This site comes across as some type of social site. I can't say for sure without have to get involved in the site. But my limited research seems to show that this is a site pushed towards women, and gathering thoughts on the products that are sold, such as feedback. I gather this because of the look of the site as well as the fact that there are only pictures of women on the site. When I went to the about section of the site it seemed to focus on working women, moms, etc.. It seems to also be centered around the idea of crafts, and your thoughts about them.

about.com

About.com is an online information source that enables users to use the knowledge of others to help educate others. Upon doing some research I found that About.com is considered to be a top 15 content,as well as being one of the top creators of original content. The content is created by people who are called expert "guides", or just people from around the world who take the time to share their knowledge with the world. The web-site states numerous times that while there is advertising on the site the content on the site is not for sale, this is to help ensure the integrity of the information.

About.com was founded in 1996, but was bought by The New York Times in 2005. And the site has about 60 million people a month visit the site.

Personal Community Experiences

After thinking for a few minutes the only real experiences with a community, that has anything to do with this class, has to do with my experiences at work. I work for a major retailer, and my experiences as a part of that community has not been positive. It is very hard to share information with people at this store. I believe it has to do with the fact that I am younger than most of the people that work with me, and that there is a language barrier between about half of the people that work with me. But I can tell people there over and over again and nothing gets done as I instructed for it to get done. Also as a part of the community I sometimes try to voice concerns about how to improve the community only to be brushed off like I don't know what I'm talking about. Even though I work at a grocery store it isn't exactly rocket science. For example if I tell a boss that we keep running out of chicken I should probably be listened to, since we are out of chicken.

wisdom

A person can be very knowledgeable but can also be very stupid or unwise. Wisdom has to do with knowledge but you have to use the knowledge is a good way in order to be wise. Knowledge is what it takes to solve a problem, but wisdom starts with a perspective of that knowledge. Good wisdom must be a balance between short term and long term wisdom, but you have to keep in mind that priority matters.

2/2/2010

Information and knowledge have not always been easily shared across different organization or even within the organization. However, organizations and companies are getting better and better at sharing their knowledge and information. In some organization the improvements are being made through the integration of application, and in other organizations they are rethinking the ways in which they share information, through many different ways including employee incentives like the Nucor Steel company. Which ever way these companies are improving they are growing everyday and are becoming better in their decision making.

data

Data mining can be used to uncover patterns in data but is often carried out only on samples of data. The mining process will be ineffective if the samples are not a good representation of the larger body of data. Which basically means that the best way discover patterns in data is to make sure that the data that is being mined is from a large section of data. The more data that there is the more patterns there will be and the more accurate the mining will be.

Nucor Steel Vs. Just in time

Both of these articles talk about how sharing knowledge and information can be used to save on time and money, and on how if you use this effectively you can increase the money you make. Nucor Steel used the idea of knowledge sharing as a way to keep employees motivated, by giving them incentives to come up with ways to become more efficient. But the focus in the Just in Time article was more on the use of technology to cut down on unnecessary errors caused by doctors, because of the vast amount of information that is needed for them to do their job. The idea behind this is more about cutting cost on unnecessary tests or potential lawsuits.

Just in time article

This article talks about the problems doctors have in keeping up with all the information that that they need to know, and some of the problems they have with their day to day business such as ordering tests for a patient or for ordering medicine. I really thought the idea of having a patients medical history on file in a system that will alert the doctor if the patient has a history of certain reactions or other diseases that may be over looked without the alert. This has cut down on serious medication errors by 55%. The possibilities of this technology are huge, given some time it has the possibility to significant cut down costs, by cutting down on unnecessary hospital stays and future malpractice lawsuits.

Nucor steel article

This article seemed to really try to show how a company can get ahead by shifting the focus of knowledge sharing to there employees. The company was able to get ahead in a struggling industry when other companies couldn't, this is because of how efficient they were. They were able to achieve this efficiency by having a very motivated workforce. They gave incentives to their workforce to come up with different ways to become more effective in their jobs. I also like the idea that the only way that a person could get a bonus was if their group of employees reached a goal. And the managers got bonuses based on how the plant did, the plant managers bonus was based on how all the plants done in the company. This helped motivate plants to share information, if one plant had a good way of doing something they could share it to improve the other plants. I also liked how when they built a new plant they would use people from the community to build it, and promise them the opportunity to work there after it was finished. This helped motivate the builders to do the best job they could do. I think this is a brilliant way to do business, this will make the employee feel like more than a number. Other companies should look at this as an example on how to keep a motivated workforce.

1/25/2010

The term Wisdom of crowds to me can be a bit deceiving. Not every crowd of people can be wise. There are many things that a crowd must have in order for it to be considered wise. The opinions of the individual must be diverse, even if their opinion may be considered crazy. They must also have independent opinions. A group that allows their opinion to be swayed by everyone around them cannot be counted on for valuable opinions. I believe these are to very important steps in ensuring that a crowd can be more valuable than just a single person giving advice

1/22/2010

Network effects only become significant after a certain number or percentage of users log in, when this occurs it is known as critical mass. This point is reached when the goods value is higher that the price that was paid for the said good. While the growth that has occurred is good it cannot continue indefinitely, because congestion will eventually occur. Another great example of this is Ebay. If it wasn’t because of the large number of users that are on Ebay, the use of the site would not be nearly as value able. EBay also must have a large number of users for it to be profitable for the company.

1/21/2009

The amount of or type of effect that a user has on the value of service or product for other people. In simple words the more people that use the product the more valuable the product becomes for the other users. The most prime example for this has to be Facebook. Everyday more and more people create accounts on the site. This allows more information to be shared between the users. You can find friends, businesses, and even work opportunities. The more people that are on the site, the greater the chance for it to be useful to you. Facebook has became the most popular of the social networking sites, but it isn't the only one, Myspace also has a similar type of effect on users. The more that are on it the more valuable it becomes. Network effect isn't always a positive thing. Sometimes too many users can cause the site or program to run slow. I think MTSU's pipeline is a prime example. When too many students are using the site. It runs much slower and sometimes its overloaded and you can't even log in.

1/20/2010

Well today has been an eventful one, not so much for me but for the nation and the world. First, thing I heard this morning is that Haiti was rocked by another earthquake. Which, I have no doubt has terrorised the people of that country. It is obvious to me and everyone that it will be many years for the people of that country to recover. I just hope that the government for this country gets it act together to help its own people. Also today we here that Mass. state senator Scott Brown defeated Marth Coakley for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Ted Kennedy. This will have huge impact in the senate, because it takes away the 60 Democrat votes needed to pass the health care bill. I'm hoping that this is sending a message to Washington that we will not stand by and not be heard. I also hold out hope that this will kill the Obamacare bill that I think will severely harm this country. Hopefully they will get the message, If you voted for health care or the bailout its time to get the hell out.

January 19,2010

Knowledge economy refers to either an economy of knowledge or a knowledge based economy. The main difference between these is that in the economy of knowledge, knowledge is a product and in the knowledge based economy, the knowledge is used as a tool. And our society is in a transition phase right now towards a knowledge economy because of a push towards globalization throughout the world thanks to the Internet. In this economy, knowledge is considered to be either a business tool or a productive asset.