Weekly+Activities

Online Collaboration
toc 1. What do you think of online collaboration in general, that is, what are the potential benefits, what are the possible pitfalls? How would your team best exploit the possibilities while avoiding problems from escalating? Online collaboration is when 2 or more parties work together on one project/focus, in an online environment, communicating, creating and collaborating often over large geographical distances and time spaces. Siemens (2009) lists benefits of team work as: Richness of interaction and synergies; greater accomplishments that on individual work; social interaction; creates potential linkages for future work. Challanges or pitfalls include: personality clashes; communication, workload, time, participation and funding issues;team members varied skill levels & retention.

2. What are the most useful tips for online collaboration that you feel are most relevant for your team? Discuss with your team. From group Facebook discussion (30 June)

(Theresa) Each person works differently, in that they have different organizational skills, ways of doing things that sometimes don't align with the other team members....so this is where assertive communication practices come into play Ie. having good listening skills, re-affirming points made and communicating uncertainties which I think we as a team have done well considering we don't know each other.

(Irene) No sweat lodges but better compassion and understanding for each persons point of difference in skill and understanding to be able to not only contribute to the whole but compliment it and make it strong.

(Andrea) Open Communication; Listening to others; accepting differences; Clear allocation/distribution of tasks; Timelines & set outcomes.

(Jelena) In my opinion,online collaboration is very useful for our society as it provides opportunity for people to collaborate together online and share their thoughts and ideas with each other. The potential benefits of online collaboration are it allows team members to communicate and support each other, discuss and share ideas and the potential pitfalls could be the absence of the organization structure as everyone works on their own and collaborates according to their time availability. The most useful tips for online collaboration would be that each member should express their own opinion and also be flexible in accepting other members opinions and focus on learning from the rest. The focus on the final goal and teams objective. The collective intelligence is the best outcome in online collaboration.

(Volker) Level of understanding between team members. While skills are an important part of a collaborative project, the chemistry between group members, also referred to as the mental model, is far more important. To meet the criteria of effective collaboration it is helpful to use measures of reactive planning in terms of Mental Modelling (MM). According to Randall, Resick & DeChurch (2011, p. 527) there are two important forms of mental model (MM) similarity that refer to the degree of congruence between group members: MM-accuracy and MM-similarity. Both models have been linked to team effectiveness (DeChurch & Messmer-Magnus, 2010). In particular, MM-similarity makes implicit, non-verbal coordination among team members possible. However, this happens regardless of MM-accuracy (Rico, Sanchez, Manzanares, Gil & Gibso n, 2008).

References Rico, R., Sanchez-Manzanares, M., Gil, F., & Gibson, C. (2008). Team Implicit Coordination Processes: A team knowledge based approach. Acadamy of Management Review. 33, 163-184. DeChurch, L.A., Randall, K.R., Resick, C.J. (2011). Building Team Adaptive Capacity: The Roles of Sensegiving and Team Composition. Journal of Applied Psychology. 2011, 96(3), 525-540. doi: 10.1037/a0022622 DeChurch, L.A., Messmer-Magnus, J.R. (2010). The Cognitive Underpinnings of Team Effectiveness: Effects of deliberate, contingency, and reactive planning on team effectiveness. A meta analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology. 95, 32-53. doi: 10.1037/a0017328


 * 3. What technologies and applications do you think would be useful? What potential problems do you see in taking up some of these? Discuss these with your team. **

The choice of communication platforms is so large now - we have used Facebook, Skype and Wiggio to facilitate group communication and collaboration for assignment 2. Both Skype and Wiggio have caused some technical glitches for some members, but given our reliance on technology we should perhaps expect some disruption from time to time. This could be an important issue if it was not considered, the reliance on internet connection. 3 of the 5 team members have experienced times when power outages or loss of connection has interrupted their ability to connect online with the team. Therefore, ensuring timelines are structured to accommodate possible outages is important in planning/online collaboration projects.

**Amazon SWOT Analysis**

 * **//Strengths;//**
 * **//adding distribution centres in varied states to improve delivery times.//**
 * **//acquiring new technology and distribution centres to streamline it's business function in delivery. Also with lockers for people to collect orders and reducing overall costs.//**
 * **// They have their own team of technology experts to strategically develop online management of their web space. Eg. The Amazon Online store, partnerships and affiliate widgets. //**
 * **//they are super efficient with tracking sales and changes in their business to adopt to current market conditions.//**
 * **//It fairs better, economically and share value, than Apple as it has harnessed the long tail of product distribution through its e-commerce platform. It has diversity. (Eavis)//**
 * **//Amazon values customer experience and it's development focus is always on that.//**
 * **//Diversity in markets - Kindle has 4 different formats, music, home, books, products. It has spread its risk.//**
 * **// The traditional form of retailing requires physical space in which to sell, whereas amazon eliminates this through operating in a virtual space and as a result, reduces overhead costs //** || **//Weaknesses;//**
 * **//being too much of everything hence overwhelment at initial visit.//**
 * **//Small margins on most of its online products which is a highly competitive market and open to smaller companies offering the same in more unique ways.//**
 * **//Kindle makes Amazon no money it relies on book sales and other data bought through this medium to make a profit. (Wingfield)//**
 * **//Finding Software designers and programmers to keep up with cloud demand. (O'Brien)//** ||
 * **//Opportunities;//**
 * **//Investments in new business partners hence increasing income and client base.//**
 * **//developments in cloud technology and networking with subscription savvy businesses like Netflix and Eucalyptus Systems. Increased profits. (Hardy)//**
 * **//producing it's own content for TV and its own set top boxes. (Wingfield)//**
 * **//focusing on large clients - bigger profits//**
 * **//Kindle Fire - allows users to download movies, tv and music. It has allowed Amazon to compete with Apple increasing its market share by 8% in 1 year of music downloads. (Bilton)//**
 * **//Kindle Singles is an opportunity for unpublished Authors to be able to sell their works (345 titles since 2011). It is a selection process and the highest sales by an Author is 22, 000. So good for Amazon not for the authors. (Kaufman)//**
 * **// Unlimited internet space enables a braoder customer base to essentially target new markets via the addition of new products which leads to company growth. //** || **//Threats;//**
 * **//Distribution of product solutions are being copied and utilised by competitors - ebay and other similar businesses.//**
 * **//kindle no longer has the market cornered in digital books. New devices. Authors fair better economically with hard copy books rather than solely digital as there in an increase in sales by going through publishers who market their work. No upfront payments to authors by Amazon and they take 30% of sales. (Kaufman)//**
 * **//Issues with supply from product suppliers further up chain//**
 * **//Speed and efficiency offering unique and personalised service and products.//**
 * **//Staffing issues and pay rates too low = strikes. (O'Brien)//** ||

reference; Bilton, N., 2013. Amazon Gains on iTunes in Music Sales. New York Times, Bits. (April). Retrieved from; http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B00EFD9133EF931A15757C0A9659D8B63&ref=amazoninc

Eavis, P., 2013. //Comparing the Valuation Behind Amazon and Apple Shares.// New York Times. (May) Retrieved from; http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/04/24/comparing-the-valuations-behind-amazon-and-apple-shares/?ref=amazoninc

Hardy, Q., 2013. //Bits; Amazon's boom in the Cloud.// The New York Times. (May) Retrieved from; http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9500E1DC1E30F935A35756C0A9659D8B63&ref=amazoninc

Kaufman, L., 2013. //Amazon Broadens it's Terrain//. New York Times. (April) Retrieved from; http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/23/books/with-kindle-singles-david-blum-jump-starts-his-career.html?ref=amazoninc&_r=0

Wingfield, N., 2013. //Amazon's Profits Fall as it Spends Heavily on Projects.// (April) The New York Times. Retrieved from; http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/26/technology/amazons-profit-falls-as-it-spends-heavily-on-distribution-centers.html?ref=amazoninc

O'Brien, K. 2013. //Amazon, Bracing the Strikes in Germany, Plans to Hire Engineers//. New York Times. retrieved from; http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/03/technology/03iht-amazon03.html?ref=amazoninc

**Attention Economy**
We are entering an age where new economy known as attention economy is becoming new reality and new environment to which we have to adapt and find a way to succeed. As stated by Gauntlett, in attention economy the key to success is to capture someone's attention rather then the traditional wealth (Gauntlett, 2004). He argues that on the internet money is not the only scarce resource, attention is what is scarce on the internet as everybody is struggling to get it.(Gauntlett,2004). In the case with video sharing sites such as Youtube who need the attention in order to triumph, their success depends on the level of the audience involvement and interaction between the audience/fans and celebrities or between consumers of the media and producers. The more the producer interacts and shares the content that audience find interesting, the more feedback they get from the audience and that way more attention. This is called attention exchange system where the videos don't immediately have value, the fans decide weather the video will be a success (Humphreys and Kozinets,2009). According to Humphreys and Kozinets,a research shows that in an ex-change network people are givers and receivers.(Humphreys and Kozinets,2009).For instance there are fans and celebrities who both contribute to the attention economy and can both produce attention or value. The attention produced by fans results in value for the celebrities … ..value is constructed through consumer/producer/fan/celebrity interaction, activity, and exchange (Humphreys and Kozinets,2009).
 * 1.Discuss YouTube in relation to the attention economy and compare with the case study/ies picked by your team **.

The Kickstarter is a crowdfunding website that allows creative people to connect with their prospective clients or fans who might be interested in funding their project weather it is a movie,an album, a product ,etc.. Being a crowdsourcing website a Kickstarter's success just like Youtube's depends on the attention it gets on the internet. The more people visit the campaigns and projects that are waiting to be funded, the more possibilities arise for the projects to come to life. The quality and uniqueness of the campaign is also of a significant importance for the success of the project as it must capture the attention and raise the interest of the audience. Therefore in attention economy popularity and originality of the content available online is more vital than the money itself. As Gauntlett said You can't buy attention … money is less powerful then usual on the web (Gauntlett,2004).

Gauntlett, D. (2004). Basic Web Economics: How things work in the 'attention economy'. newmediastudies.com. Retrieved from: [] Humphreys, A and Kozinets,R (2009). The Construction of Value in Attention Economies. Retrieved from: www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/v36/NAACR_vol36_87.pdf
 * References: **

Question; re Youtube, how do they capitilize on the users' attention to gain $? Is there a broader lesson here about what makes Internet commerce 'tick' ? Rich

The issue is that even though YouTuber ’ s are being paid there is a discrepancy about revenue share and whether the users are earning enough. As Lawler illuminates there is a paradox, the fact that publishing content and linking and ranking your content is cheaper and easier through YouTube. The ecosystem in YouTube is maturing and getting more professional, hence YouTube is not only looking to traditional media players but on producing their own TV content.

But how YouTube capitalizes on the attention of users to gain money is through the way it allows the social aspect to be integrated through likes, shares and YouTube channels created and contributed by core and dedicated users. (Gauntlett, 2004) The popularity on YouTube is based on not only the professional amateur content but on the random and weird. Though it is shown that YouTube ads have low CPM – meaning that the actual revenue for the YouTube channels is low through this avenue. The whole economic structure of YouTube is more eyes on content, gaining attention, this is done through sharing to our social network who we think would find it interesting. As we share more insights into what our social pool is gained and thus the sharing and viewing of videos allows similar videos to come up in our search in an effort to keep us further engaged with YouTube.

Although YouTube still lags behind television in the attention economy field, as “ compared to the five hours a day Americans spend watching television, people spend fifteen minutes watching YouTube videos online ” (Stross, 2010). Through YouTube Leanback, this will allow viewers to continually watch video after video without having to click on the next video. In an aim to improve the time viewers spend on YouTube and to prevent users from flicking to the decision part of the brain to engage in choice and just being able to mindlessly watch as TV allows you to do. J Nowmov already offers this experience, so YouTube is playing catch up here. Although Google is working towards Google TV to begin to capture more of the attention of users from conventional TV producers. Though the culture of YouTube viewing is different to TV viewing, as people are used to watching short on YouTube and long shows on TV. (van Dijck, 2013, p153)

As YouTube is the largest publisher of user generated content, UGC, the ability to learn, admire, publish through this medium has distracted us from normal media. The way to captivate our attention is by the unusual, diverse and creative content. This new culture of ‘ homecasting ’ (van Djick, 2013, p.148) has gained our attention for learning and inspiring us and capitalizing users attention while liaising with large traditional media as seen with Barrack Obama ’ s campaign, Oprah ’ s YouTube channel.

Through YouTube ’ s interface defaults, it is easy for “ YouTube – users massively deploy the platform ’ s distribution channels to open up their private content to everyone who is interested ” (van Djike, 2013, p.150). Through this YouTube allows its users to create their identity on their social network just as other social networks allow.

The new media landscape means that the old media and the new media, YouTube, will learn to work together with the legal parametres of creative commons. As Henry Jenkins discussed “ in the ever more complex relations between top-down corporate media and bottom-up participatory culture ” (Jenkins, 2006, p.243). So YouTube makes sure that it ’ s users work within the legal boundaries to share their UGC as this is part of YouTube ’ s culture of its snippets and videos. The edge that YouTube has had initially is now being incorporated in “ macro-economics of the media industries, who are also updating their approach to include the new digital industries ” (van Dijck, 2013, p.157).

Image Graph of YouTubes Economy. Retrieved from; []

As this graph shows, interactive media is the new attention economy platform of the future. It is no longer about being passive viewers and yes traditional media is catching up with this with Fango and twitter and FB all being intergrated with their media. Though as Goldhaber ’ s discussion illuminates the “ star – fans ” is no longer limited to TV or movies or film, the star is the person who gains the most attention and the platforms in social media means we have a lot more stars who have to share our attention, therefore things are going to get a lot more weirder or mind blowingly awesome. Will we ever reach overload?

Though what I love about social media with directing television or film production is that the long tail economy will allow the more obscure content that would usually never make it to production due to the mega hits rule. This allows diverse communities and identity through not only popular culture that is mainstream but those that is underground and unique and weird. W Woohoo …

Goldhaber, M.H. (1997).//The Attention Economyand the Net.// // First Monday //. 2 (4-7), April. Available: [|http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/519/440]
 * Reference; **

Jenkins, H. 2006. Pop Cosmopolitanism, Mapping Cultural Flows in an Age of Media Convergence. Fans bloggers and gamers : exploring participatory culture 2006 ch. 7 pp 152-172 New York University Press Retrieved from; []

Lawler, R., 2013. //The YouTube Paradox and the off YouTube Solution//. Techcrunch. (June) Retrieved from; http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/16/the-youtube-paradox-and-the-off-youtube-solution/?ncid=tcdaily

Stross, R., 2010. //YouTube Wants You to Sit and Stay Awhile.// Business Day, The New York Times. Retrieved from; []

Vanderbilt, T., 2013. //The Neilson Family is Dead; networks are finding new ways to measure their shows// // ’ //// popularity. Thank God. // Wired Magazine. Conde Nast Media Group. Boone, IA. America.

Van Dijck, J. 2013. //YouTube Beyond Technology and Cultural Form//. After the Break, Television Theory Today. Amsterdam University Press. Retrieved from; http://dare.uva.nl/cgi/arno/show.cgi?fid=483402#page=148

**Ebay**
=Ebay Update 2013=


 * Revenue/turnover for 2012 (December) was 14.03Bn USD, compared to 8.541 Bn for December 2008.
 * The number of employees has climbed from 16,200 in 2009 to 27,770 at the end of 2012.
 * According to the Forbes brand value ranking list, Ebay stands at #274 in the global 2000 and at #74 in the World’s most powerful brands. (Forbes, 2013)
 * As of the end of Q1 2013, Ebay Marketplace as gained 116 million active users (88 million in 2009). A strong growth in downloads of Ebay Mobile apps has pushed the number of active users in Q1 by 2.8 million to over 162 million since the launch in Q3 2008. (BusinessWire, 2013).
 * Ebay operates in over 30 countries.

Three core business streams:
 * GSI-Commerce (acquired in 2011 and recently renamed Ebay Enterprise)
 * Ebay Marketplace (the auction shop)
 * PayPal, which is 100% owned by Ebay

Further details are available from the Ebay SWOT analysis 2013, which is available from the links appendix below.

**References**
BusinessWire (2013, April 17). Ebay Inc. Reports Strong First Quarter 2013 Results [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130417006476/en/eBay-Reports-Strong-Quarter-2013-Results

Demery, P. (2013, June 20). GSI Commerce enters a new era as Ebay Enterprise. Retrieved from [|http://www.internetretailer.com/2013/06/20/gsi-commerce-enters-new-era-ebay-][|enterprise]

Forbes (2013). Ebay. Retrieved 24 June 2013 from http://www.forbes.com/search/?q=ebay

Link
Ebay Inc. SWOT 2013 ([|MS Powerpoint 2010 Slide Show])

**Facebook**
1. Try to list two or three of Facebook's main sources of revenue. (Theresa) Advertising Selling user profiles to third parties for advertising stillis the biggest source of income for Facebook (Reuters, 2012). While Facebook appears to be a place where like mindedpeople can find a happy place - a commonforum to share ideas and experiences, Facebook has grown into a hugeadvertising market. Selecting the 'Cookies'-link from the footer of theFacebook homepage, users are actually informed that ' we may read a cookie so we can show you ads thatmay be interesting to you on Facebook or other websites. We may also use acookie to learn whether someone who saw an ad on Facebook later visited theadvertiser’s site. Similarly, our partners may use a cookie or another similartechnology to determine whether we’ve shown an ad and how it performed orprovide us with information about how you interact with them. We also may workwith a partner to show you an ad on or off Facebook, such as after you’vevisited the partner’s site or app and this may involve the use of cookies,local storage on your device or other similar technologies.' (facebook, 2013).The more frequently Facebook users contribute to discusssion, like comments andpages, connect with special interest groups, the more granular their profilegrows. For Advertising and Marketing organisations this means that instead ofpoking in the dark, hoping to find soeone who would be interested in theirproduct, they have the opportunity to use Facebook capabilities to target veryspecific user types. However, since the IPO of Facebook, investors andadvertisers alike are questioning the impact of advertising on Facebook. Reference Facebook (2013). //Cookies,Pixels and Similar Technologies//. Retrieved from http://www.facebook.com/help/cookies Oreskowic,A. (2012, June 4). //Facebook comments, adsdon't sway most users: poll//. Retrieved fromhttp://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/05/net-us-facebook-survey-idUSBRE85400C20120605 Games Although there is a heated debate about the ups and downs ofa partnership between the NASDAQ noted businesses Zynga (think 'Farmville') andFacebook, Facebook announced a three month record in Q1 2013 for online gaming(Yeung, 2013). According to the Games Industry International blog, theoverall games revenue went up 12% while the Zynga game revenue declined by 37%.All in all, there are approximately 100 games available through Facebook,shared by a gaming community of about 150 million members. In the earnings callon 1 May COO Sheryl Sandberg revealed that the Q1 total revenue was $1.458billion. Facebook recorded 665 million daily active users (DAU) in March, up 26percent over last year, with 1.11 billion monthly active users (MAU) up 23percent. (Peterson, 2013) When a question came from an analyst about Facebook'splatform strategy the lessons the company has learned, Responding to a questionabout the platform strategy of Facebook, CEO Mark Zuckerberg responded:"One thing that I think has actually gone well with platform recently isthe gaming ecosystem. With the exception of our largest partner, Zynga, whosegrowth hasn't been as awesome as everyone had hoped, the rest of the communityis actually growing quite well and is quite healthy. We're pretty happy withthat, and it's a pretty diverse group. We're up to 81 of the top-grossing 100iOS apps, and 70 of the top-grossing Android apps are connected in withFacebook, so we're getting good coverage."(Peterson, 2013) Reference Yeung,K. (2013, June 4). <span class="zw-portion" style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #010101; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 8pt;">Never mindZynga: Facebook claims its last three months of game revenue are a record. Retrieved from; http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2013/06/04/zynga-be-damned-facebook-claims-its-last-three-months-of-game-revenue-are-a-record/ Peterson,S. (2013, May 1). Facebook: Q1 game revenue up 12%, Zynga down 37% [blog post]. Retrieved from; http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-05-01-facebook-q1-game-revenue-up-12-percent-zynga-down-37-percent <span class="zw-portion" style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: verdana; font-size: 11pt;">2. What do you think are the strengths of Facebook? (Irene) What do you see as possible threats to its success? <span class="zw-portion" style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Reference; <span class="zw-portion" style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Buenette, R., 2012.//Facebook; Strengths, Weaknesses,Opportunities, and Threats////.// The Motley Fool Blog Network. (web) Retrieved from; <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Lucida Grande','Segoe UI',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">@http://beta.fool.com/makinmoney2424/2012/10/31/facebook-strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-and-th/15369/ <span class="zw-portion" style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Jurevisius, O., 2012. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">//SWOT Analysis of Facebook. Strategic Management Insight//. <span class="zw-portion" style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Retrieved from; <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Lucida Grande','Segoe UI',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">@http://www.strategicmanagementinsight.com/swot-analyses/facebook-swot-analysis.html <span class="zw-portion" style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: verdana; font-size: 11pt;">3. Do youknow anyone who has deliberately avoided registering on Facebook or hadthemselves taken off? What are the costs of not going on Facebook? <span class="zw-portion" style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: verdana; font-size: 11pt;">My nephew was taken offline by his fatherafter I made comments about his improper activity online. He was 14 at the time and it was sociallycrippling for him as his social pool online after school was based on thatplatform. It was like depriving him ofwater. The problem with teenagers whoget on FB is that they want so desperately to have a large network of friendsonline but without consideration of who they are liking, friending andnetworking with. This is what puts theminto the dangerous realm of identity theft as they quite easily and openly puttheir correct date of birth online. Thisshould be something that FB should remove as it is a high security issue. <span class="zw-portion" style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: verdana; font-size: 11pt;">The costs of not going onFB is keeping up with family and friends as we do our updates on our livesthrough this medium and share family photos and events on there. I know we missed a birthday party of agirlfriends child and forget to set a reminder and didn't get into FB that dayand just got the tail of the party. <span class="zw-portion" style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: verdana; font-size: 11pt;">As we live in theinformation age, FB is a platform that we become aware of social and politicalevents based on how we design our FB page. So we can either be aware of how to raise children, be politicallyproactive and accountable for the decisions we make day to day or remainignorant to what really is happening not only in our city and country butglobally. <span class="zw-portion" style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: verdana; font-size: 11pt;">But the issue that is easily seen in young also happens across all age group as the issues arise though from the ‘when consumers remain surprisingly willing to surrender increasingly comprehensive forms of personal information in response to offers of convenience and <span class="zw-portion spell-error" style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">customisation’ ( <span class="zw-portion spell-error" style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">Andrejevic, 2002, p.233). The likelihood of trolling, flaming and identity theft as a result of <span class="zw-portion spell-error" style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">oversharing and the threat to future employment opportunities is something that <span class="zw-portion spell-error" style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">Milleniums and some Gen <span class="zw-portion spell-error" style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">X'ers have to consider in their openness on Facebook. (Irene) (From Andrea) Found this interesting link - if you decide to delete yourFacebook account - "deletingyour account is very different from deactivatingyour account" <span class="zw-portion" style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11pt;">Steps you should take first. <span class="zw-portion" style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11pt;">1. Check Your Connected Apps <span class="zw-portion" style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11pt;">Pinterest, Pandora, Foursquare, Spotify andInstagram. <span class="zw-portion" style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11pt;">2. Download Your Facebook Information <span class="zw-portion" style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11pt;">SEE ALSO: <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Lucida Grande','Segoe UI',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">8 Reasons to Deactivate Your Facebook Account <span class="zw-portion" style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11pt;">3. Ask for Your Friends' Birthdays <span class="zw-portion" style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11pt;">5. Store Your Facebook Information on the Cloud <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Lucida Grande','Segoe UI',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Backupify.com <span class="zw-portion" style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11pt;"> is a great way tostore consumerweb application data on the cloud. <span class="zw-portion" style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11pt;">6. Optimize Your SEO (search engine optimisation) BeforeYouGo Hartwig, E., 2013. 6 //Things to do Before You Delete Your Facebook Account//. (March) Retrieved from; http://mashable.com/2013/03/01/delete-your-facebook-account/ <span class="zw-portion" style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: verdana; font-size: 11pt;">4. What do you thinkof the criticism that users on Facebook are, in effect, providing free labourfor Facebook and other similar Internet businesses? (Irene) What Facebook is doing, all social networks are doing, it isjust the argument within that platform that what Mark Zuckerburg initial intentfor Facebook is through investors and going public to continue to be aneffective technology in the big 4. Ithas to make money and it has to do it by the easiest medium, marketing. Marketing is based on knowing what it is thatcustomers want, that is how marketing campaigns are driven. The fact that through our monitoring andtracking online behaviour ‘commodifyfree time by transforming it into time that can be monitored, recorded,repackaged and sold” (Andrejevic, 2004) He further discussed in another paper‘thedevelopment of interactive media and of computer processing and storage powerenable the increasing economic exploitation of comprehensive forms of consumermonitoring’ (Andrejevic, 2002, p.231) The goal of this monitoring is an ‘incitement toself-disclosure as a form of self-expression and individuation’ (Andrejevic,2002, p.237) this will also impact the pricing of such programmes andmedia. To remember all these social media sites are designed with agoal in mind, it is not something that is manifested by the technologyitself. So as the technology and devicesliberate us, it is for the intention of the end goal of the designers in thefirst place. Making money. ‘technological developments adapted to acommercial ends’ (Andrejevic, 2002, p.242) . <span class="zw-portion" style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">.[...] Its products are its users and their friends, whowillingly supply personal data about themselves and their habits and tastes ona scale previously unimaginable. Its clients are corporations which can exploitthat information to understand an individual's desires and to sell them thingsbased on that knowledge. Facebook's data bank can in this way do empiricallywhat Don Draper of Mad Men did instinctively – it will reveal its users'moment-by-moment wants, conscious and subconscious, and attempt to satisfythem.[...] (Volker) Reference; <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Grande','Segoe UI',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> Andrejevic, M., 2004. // “LittleBrother is Watching: The Webcam Subculture and theDigital Enclosure,” // In:N. Couldry and A. McCarthy. MediaSpace:Place,scale, and culture in a media age. New York: Routledge. Andrejevic, M. 2002. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Lucida Grande','Segoe UI',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">// The work of Being Watched: InteractiveMedia and the Exploitation of Self-Disclosure // //.//Critical Studies in Media Communication. Retrieved from; <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Lucida Grande','Segoe UI',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">@http://www.tandfonline.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/doi/pdf/10.1080/07393180216561 Adams, T., 2012. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Lucida Grande','Segoe UI',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">// Why Has Facebook’s Stock Market Floatationbeen such a Disaster //. The Guardian. Technology. (web) Viewed 23 <span class="zw-portion" style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 6pt; vertical-align: super;">rd, June, 2013. Retrieved from; <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Lucida Grande','Segoe UI',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">@http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/oct/21/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-shares-flotation
 * Strengths ||  Threats  ||
 * * dismisses the social divide and geographical distance of friends and familiy.
 * allows the citizen journalism to particpate globally and bring attention to a cause or event that would otherwise remain closed.
 * breaks through cultural barriers by allowing users to see through Page likes the cause and effects of social groups, politicians.
 * 600 million mobile users.
 * Brand loyalty.
 * Momentus barrier to entry.
 * FB was the most visited site in 2011 and the most searched term. (Buenette) || * privacy issues - changes in this department make it complex to the young FB users to know how to be social online safely. Identity theft.
 * updates that change the existing layout and the disruption to users.
 * Google is looking to compete in the social networking stream. It’s pace of online advertising will threaten FB’s as they are currently lagging in this department. Google is getting faster at other technologies but other SMN, FB are slower are picking up the pace of what Google does best. Advertising. (Jurevicius)
 * The flop of the recent IPO, has lost confidence for investors, many sold out there investments after the lock-up expired (Buenette). ||

= GOOGLE = You have a thriving blog that is generating decent traffic. Visit Google's Business Solutions site and find out how you can monetise your blogging using Google.
 * Here are the activities to go with the readings:**

The Adsense program through Google allows you as a blogger to simply add code and then Google will assess the content of your page to be able to position relative ads to your content. You can do this for both your mobile website or computer based website. Adding a custom search engine to your site and then generating an income when people click on the results from that search. Woohoo. Google Adsense pays out income from click throughs on ads from your site on a monthly basis provided you meet the minimum $100 turnover of income, for lower traffic sites it may take a while to get a payment. (Grahams, ) To reduce the conflict of design of ads and the overall design of the blog tweaking not only from Google but the customisation of their ads on my site is possible to reduce the impact of the ads. Googles Adsense has an analytics and metric report that allows insight into the demographics and locations of people who use ads on my blog. Retrieved from; []

When you have video embedded in your blogs you can also generate income from that medium. Work out the ways Google generates revenue for itself and find out the top earners for Google

Ways Google generates revenue; Here are the top 20 industries that spent the most on Google advertising last year. (2011) These industries accounted for 70% of Google’s income in 2011. Can’t find anything for 2012.
 * 1) 1.Finance & Insurance
 * 2) 2.Retailers & General Merchandise
 * 3) 3.Travel & Tourism
 * 4) 4.Jobs & Education
 * 5) 5.Home & Garden
 * 6) 6.Vehicles
 * 7) 7.Computers & Consumer Electronics
 * 8) 8.Internet & Telecom
 * 9) 9.Business & Industrial
 * 10) 10.Occasions & Gifts
 * 11) 11.News, Media & Publications
 * 12) 12.Apparel & Jewelry
 * 13) 13.Real Estate
 * 14) 14.Health (excluding Heath Insurance)
 * 15) 15.Law & Government
 * 16) 16.Hobbies & Leisure
 * 17) 17.Family & Community
 * 18) 18.Dining & Nightlife
 * 19) 19.Beauty & Personal Care
 * 20) 20.Arts & Entertainment

Kim, L., 2012. Frequently Asked Questions about the Top Google Advertisers Infographic. The Word Stream Blog. Retrieved from; []
 * Reference;**

Google earns most of it’s $8billion revenue from advertising, excluding Motorola, hence it’s focus on mobile advertising which is where online revenue is going as we own more mobile devices than PC’s or Macs. This is why it made absolute common sense for Google to acquire Waz to foster continuous growth in this market. Google has transformed YouTube One Channel so the programmes are displayed continuously across mobile devices. Also it’s great income is through Google Apps, Mobile Content, Mobile Devices. Zeevi, D., 2013. How does Google Make Money from Mobile, Infographic. (March) Retrieved from; [] The majority of TAC is related to amounts ultimately paid to our Network members, which totaled $2.28 billion in the first quarter of 2013. TAC also includes amounts ultimately paid to certain distribution partners and others who direct traffic to our website, which totaled $680 million in the first quarter of 2013. We expect to continue to make significant capital expenditures. A reconciliation of free cash flow to net cash provided by operating activities, the GAAP measure of liquidity, is included at the end of this release. Retrieved from; [] retrieved from; [] retrieved from; [] original information page; []
 * Paid Clicks ** – Aggregate paid clicks, which include clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our Network members, increased approximately 20% over the first quarter of 2012 and increased approximately 3% over the fourth quarter of 2012.
 * Cost-Per-Click ** – Average cost-per-click, which includes clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our Network members, decreased approximately 4% over the first quarter of 2012 and decreased approximately 4% over the fourth quarter of 2012.
 * TAC ** – Traffic acquisition costs, the portion of revenues shared with Google’s partners, increased to $2.96 billion in the first quarter of 2013, compared to $2.51 billion in the first quarter of 2012. TAC as a percentage of advertising revenues was 25% in the first quarter of 2013, compared to 25% in the first quarter of 2012.
 * Motorola Mobile Revenues (hardware and other) ** – Motorola Mobile revenues were $1.02 billion, or 7% of consolidated revenues in the first quarter of 2013.
 * Other Cost of Revenues ** – Other cost of revenues, which is comprised primarily of manufacturing and inventory-related costs, data center operational expenses, amortization of intangible assets, and content acquisition costs, increased to $2.98 billion, or 21% of revenues, in the first quarter of 2013, compared to $1.28 billion, or 12% of revenues, in the first quarter of 2012.
 * Operating Expenses ** – Operating expenses, other than cost of revenues, were $4.55 billion in the first quarter of 2013, or 33% of revenues, compared to $3.47 billion in the first quarter of 2012, or 33% of revenues.
 * Amortization Expenses ** – Amortization expenses of acquisition-related intangible assets were $315 million for the first quarter of 2013. Of the $315 million, $153 million was as a result of the acquisition of Motorola, of which $116 million was allocated to Google and $37 million was allocated to Motorola Mobile.
 * Stock-Based Compensation (SBC) ** – In the first quarter of 2013, the total charge related to SBC was $697 million, compared to $556 million in the first quarter of 2012. We currently estimate SBC charges for grants to employees prior to March 31, 2013 to be approximately $2.7 billion for 2013. This estimate does not include expenses to be recognized related to employee stock awards that are granted after March 31, 2013 or non-employee stock awards that have been or may be granted.
 * Operating Income ** – On a consolidated basis, GAAP operating income in the first quarter of 2013 was $3.48 billion, or 25% of revenues. This compares to GAAP operating income of $3.39 billion, or 32% of revenues, in the first quarter of 2012. Non-GAAP operating income in the first quarter of 2013 was $4.22 billion, or 30% of revenues. This compares to non-GAAP operating income of $3.94 billion, or 37% of revenues, in the first quarter of 2012.
 * ** Google Operating Income ** – GAAP operating income for Google was $3.75 billion, or 29% of Google revenues, in the first quarter of 2013. This compares to GAAP operating income of $3.39 billion, or 32% of Google revenues, in the first quarter of 2012. Non-GAAP operating income in the first quarter of 2013 was $4.40 billion, or 34% of Google revenues. This compares to non-GAAP operating income of $3.94 billion in the first quarter of 2012, or 37% of Google revenues.
 * ** Motorola Mobile Operating Loss ** – GAAP operating loss for Motorola Mobile was $271 million, or -27% of Motorola Mobile revenues in the first quarter of 2013. Non-GAAP operating loss for Motorola Mobile in the first quarter of 2013 was $179 million, or -18% of Motorola Mobile revenues.
 * Interest and Other Income, Net ** – Interest and other income, net, was $134 million in the first quarter of 2013, compared to $156 million in the first quarter of 2012.
 * Income Taxes ** – Our effective tax rate was 8% for the first quarter of 2013.
 * Net Income ** – GAAP net income in the first quarter of 2013 was $3.35 billion, compared to $2.89 billion in the first quarter of 2012. Non-GAAP net income was $3.90 billion in the first quarter of 2013, compared to $3.33 billion in the first quarter of 2012. GAAP EPS in the first quarter of 2013 was $9.94 on 337 million diluted shares outstanding, compared to $8.75 in the first quarter of 2012 on 330 million diluted shares outstanding. Non-GAAP EPS in the first quarter of 2013 was $11.58, compared to $10.08 in the first quarter of 2012.
 * Cash Flow and Capital Expenditures ** – Net cash provided by operating activities in the first quarter of 2013 totaled $3.63 billion, compared to $3.69 billion in the first quarter of 2012. In the first quarter of 2013, capital expenditures were $1.2 billion, the majority of which was for production equipment, data center construction and facilities-related purchases. Free cash flow, an alternative non-GAAP measure of liquidity, is defined as net cash provided by operating activities less capital expenditures. In the first quarter of 2013, free cash flow was $2.43 billion.
 * Cash ** – As of March 31, 2013, cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities were $50.1 billion.
 * Headcount ** – On a worldwide basis, we employed 53,891 full-time employees (38,739 in Google and 9,982 in Motorola Mobile and 5,170 in Motorola Home) as of March 31, 2013, compared to 53,861 full-time employees as of December 31, 2012.

Who are the top earners for Google;
 * Person of Interest || Website || Income ||
 * Shawn Hogan || Forum.digitalpoint.com || Alexa Rank 286; $500k pm ||
 * Markus Frin || Plentyoffish.com || Alexa rank 274; $300k pm ||
 * Kevin Rose || Digg.com || Alexa rank 185; $250k pm ||
 * Michael Arrington || Techcrunch.com || Alexa rank 6; $240k pm ||
 * Nick Halstead || Tweetmeme.com || Alexa rank 739; $225k pm ||
 * Jeremy Schoemaker || Shoemoney.com || Alexa rank 8508; $140k pm ||
 * Jason Calacanis || Weblogs.com || Alexa rank; 47122; $120k pm ||
 * David Miles Jr. & Kate Leonard || Freeweblayouts.net || Alexa rank 296991; $85k ||
 * Panjak Agarwal || Clickindia.com || Alexa rank 2123; $145k ||
 * Amit Agarwal || Labnol.org || Alexa rank 1562; $100k ||

AQ Forums. Hardly a week goes by without some news about Google. Discuss the latest news about Google, in terms of both business and cultural impact. What do you think of Google's influence? Google App Engine; Cloud computing is the big buzz word and it is apt that Google is staying ahead of the curve in this department. It has security issues that aren’t been clearly addressed but it is something that people are looking into to make using the web and sharing files a lot easier and efficient. []

Internet Balloon Project is Google’s way of being philanthropic as well addressing a well known issue of classed society in the have and have nots of not only access to technology devices but the internet. []

Google is harnessing the long tail of the internet by getting into laptops with Acer Chromebook retail $199 which is a laptop sold with all the Google software/platforms inbuilt in it. Spreading its network through technology, so a tangible product inbuilt with their digital software. []

A good example of Google balancing the war on good and evil in it’s persona. In the past it saw porn as being ok, it did establish the first safe online credit card processing so it may get some wide births there. Facebook has weird rules on what is appropriate and not. But they are doing this move not only to remove this content but also id the computers that are submitting and sharing this content. Google is definitely working on it’s good side. (McHugh) Although as this article outlines, it wasn’t all on Google’s altruistic side to get this ball rolling as there was pressure within the UK for Google to take a more proactive stance against this kind of content being shared and linked to through Googles search engine. Google also donated $2million to child safety organisations, which could make up for it’s lack of paying adequate tax in that country. []

Google’s lastest tech acquisition; Waze is Google’s ultimate goal of making travel through routes easier to advise when reporting on traffic accidents or events that are happening as they happen in every location. This software was designed by an Israeli and Palo Alto developer in 2007. There was a bidding war between Yahoo, Facebook and Google for this, but they sealed it by offering $300k above the others. This allows for ‘real time data and feedback on route’ and is the latest outcome of the ‘map wars’ that is going on through the big tech companies. Being a mobile software it is also appealing to this large aspect of the market they are all vying for in making life easier while being mobile. Apple didn’t place a bid as it’s map software is still no where near operational so they may have been too far behind the game to utilise efficiently. Israel is definitely on the big guys horizon as it is known for releasing some worthy technology development start-ups. This is an example of Google ‘making an acquisition for its users’ something quite common in the race to stay viable in the social networks. Waz has also been looking into making driving social by allowing people to see how their friends are traveling to a mutual destination. Waz also sees itself as a data company, not so much a map company the overall usability of this software and the fact that it will change routes to save the driver time will make its overall use more popular on top of Google Map. It will also advise on how much time was saved as the route is changed as you go. Awesome!!! Within this app advertising, Google’s biggest game plan, can be positioned as the driver gets to the area or even on route to advise of places to see, things to do and sales. Local, mobile advertising is set to rocket in the US in the next few years. This article reviews that Facebook and Apple should have fought harder to keep this technology out of Google’s hands as it makes Google Maps the ideal marketing and navigation tool. []

Penguin 2.0; focuses on good content that works within the boundary of SEO without over quoting key words, and not providing relevant services or content for the traffic they are looking to garner with their knowledge of how to work Google’s algorithm. Branding and that contained within content is King. Ranking through location and keywords that are crucial to local businesses ranking in searches. “applying the real world to the online world’ is refined with listing NAP, to allow people who are searching local find what they need local. Thus content, videos, pdf’s, articles, all optimised SEO so that your online branding is done to captialise on this algorithm. It’s not so much about back links, but more about relative content.

NAP – name, address, phone numbers to be at the top of web pages so the content is easily found by crawlers. ‘branding citations for SEO’ this is seen to make it easier for inbound marketing to design content that will be relative to creating and building the right audience for any business. []

Finally, and on a less controversial note, you might want to think about how Google integrates its various services. What are the threads connecting these services together? This has been incorporated in the discussions above.

Reference; Grahams, A., ???? Pros and Cons of Google Adsense. Opposing Views, Science. Demand Media. Retrieved from; [] No Authors name. 2013. Top 10 Google Adsense Earners of 2012. AQ Forums. retrieved from; []
 * Levy, S. (2009, May 22). Secret of Googlenomics: Data-Fueled Recipe Brews Profitability.** Wired, 17(06). Available: [|http://www.wired.com/culture/culturereviews/magazine/17-06/nep_googlenomics?currentPage=all]

** McHugh, J. (2003). Google Vs. Evil **. // Wired //. 10 (1). Available: []. code to insert it into our wiki page. <a href="http://www.milfordnissan.com/breaking-down-the-google-billions"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/Fh1ws.jpg" alt="Google Revenue" width="500" border="0" /></a> From: <a href="http://www.milfordnissan.com/boston-nissan-dealers">Boston Nissan Dealers</a> Via: <a href="http://www.tkautomotiveseo.com">TK Automotive SEO</a> []