Blog Post #9 Summary

    My original idea for the project came out of frustration of the textbook situation that seems to occur with quite a few students every semester, including my own struggles, as well as the slow process of reimbursement of loan money by the bursar's office, money which students like myself use to buy their textbooks. There is also a problem with book stores making mistakes with the number of books they order, and then class progression is slowed as a result. While students have the option of going to places like amazon to buy the necessary texts, it is inconvenient and often doesn't make it in time putting the student behind academically from the very beginning. Not to mention the outrageous prices charged by the bookstore because they basically own a monopoly on the buying and selling of textbooks. My company would be the trust buster putting an end to the blatant robbery of already financially strained individuals and their families.

     When I started the project I had no idea of the different technical processes that would be involved in making my idea a reality and while I am still in the dark to some of those ideas, I have a better grasp than when I went into this. I also didn't realize how much, technologically that is, that it would take to create a functional site such as the one I'm proposing. I also now realize that it might be a stretch to try and get universities on board with my proposed operation as they are a part of the aforementioned monopoly and they're not going to stop something that provides them with even more money. However, I think I would find no resistance in pitching my idea to students.

     While I now realize that my idea is a little bit more complicated than originally anticipated, I still believe that the main idea is still a good one. As a student I can relate to the issues that students run into, whereas university book stores, and even some professors could care less. This is a major issue that mostly remains as a common complaint among students, but not a priority among higher ups. It hurts students academically, and financially in major ways, and would be a useful thing to put an end to...finally.

These are the urls for the 3 student's blogs that I commented on. I was a little confused before and posted it before as a blog post (blog post number 5), which is why this is titled blog post number 9 instead of 8, sorry for the confusion.

http://jessicagiloley.blogspot.com/2011/01/blog-post-1-january-31st-2011.html#comment-form

http://thefutureof-fashion.blogspot.com/2011/01/blog-1-eye-color.html?showComment=1298947137384#c9208307982231151558

http://theartofperfectinglife.blogspot.com/2011/02/week-1-computing-twitter.html?showComment=1298947726699#c3349386783953013356

Blog Post #8

     For my company to be successful building it up from the ground up I would need people who are just as dedicated to making it a success as I am. Resumes and cover letters can only tell you so much about a person. They may tell you some of their better achievements and their ability to use spell check, but they don't tell you who each applicant is as a person. Thankfully nowadays though, most people make whole web pages devoted to who they are as a person. 
     It would be beneficial to go through all of the applicants web pages and any use of social networking sites such as facebook and twitter. While sometimes I feel that corporations may take their judgment of applicants based off of social networking sites a little too far when looking into their personal life, it can still be beneficial to seeing what kind of worker they will be. I don't want my employees to be soulless automatons and have no social life, but if someone is not a good person to be around or have in the work place, that is usually quite salient from things they may say on such sites.
     As my company will work exclusively and closely with universities it would be beneficial for my company to take on many interns during the summer, and even perhaps during the semester by being close to a university campus. It will be most beneficial to look at their use of socially networking sites, perhaps even more than the normal job applicants as they most likely use them a lot more than the older generation. And if their positions are going to be helpful in any way we can not have interns that are going to be unreliable or destructive in the workplace. Their facebook will tell me more about them in 5 seconds than their cover letter ever will.  

Blog Post #7

     In order for my company to work, we will not just need a computer expert, we will need someone who can physically design our entire computer-based company, and know enough about domain names, and also even just how the internet works, in order to keep it up and running. Without which, there would be no company. We would need someone to get us a domain name that is similar to whatever our public relations team comes up with for our company name, logo, etc.
     The whole premise of my company would involve large files being transferred to students all over the country, and perhaps even the globe taking expansion and study abroad students into account, all day every day. We would therefore need someone on staff that knows about all of the intricacies of where the files are being transferred to, including hosts, and be able to fix any problems that may arise. Our site needs to use a little hosts as possible so that the files can get to each person quickly, so that our company is a convenience not an extra hassle for students.  
     The main designer for our company will also have to get a domain name that is recognizable and set up the whole system. The domain name will have to be something memorable, easy, and simply linked to the name of the company as students will have to use it daily. Getting and transferring the files necessary will have to be made simple and non-computer expert friendly in order to get the company off the ground.  

Blog Post #6

One of the things we learned about this week was security of things such as accounts of people and identity theft as it is commonplace in today's society. As my company will be dealing with payments from many different universities, security is essential, especially since every school has access to all of the information of their young adult students, who we learned are at the highest risk for identity theft. This is what makes my idea of having the payment for the use of my company be a part of the student's tuition the best idea.


If the money is coming in the form of a single payment from the university rather than tapping into the accounts of hundreds of thousands of students if our completely computer based system is hacked into the students cannot be defrauded. If the check is written off in one payment students will more easily have access to my program and a university can't be defrauded the way a person can.

It was explained to us in class that basically universities suck at keeping our private information...private. If the university collected money separately from each student to transfer it in separate payments to my company I would hate to be one of those students having my university transferring such delicate information, because it has been shown that it is not likely that they would do such in a safe manner. One payment from the university=so much safer.

Blog Post #5 Comments

http://jessicagiloley.blogspot.com/2011/01/blog-post-1-january-31st-2011.html#comment-form

http://thefutureof-fashion.blogspot.com/2011/01/blog-1-eye-color.html?showComment=1298947137384#c9208307982231151558

http://theartofperfectinglife.blogspot.com/2011/02/week-1-computing-twitter.html?showComment=1298947726699#c3349386783953013356

Blog Post #4

Kevin Kelly born in Pennsylvania in 1952 is well known for his blog called Lifestream as well as many other projects. He was the original founder of Wired magazine and became the executive editor of the magazine for quite some time after its creation. He was also editor and publisher for the Whole Earth Catalog. Surprisingly, Kelly did not complete a college education. He dropped out of the University of Rhode Island after only one year of schooling. 

In his blog entitled Lifestream Kelly discusses technology and its possible repercussions for the future and how new innovations how and will change our society, including the economy. Innovation is one of his major themes and he discusses the impact that they can have. He talks about not only the steps forward that can be made from innovation, but also the pitfalls that can occur. You can check out his blog at http://www.kk.org/kk/ .

Kelly has written quite a few books, but one of them specifically got some attention in a unique way. It got some coverage as a result of the Matrix film trilogy. The writers and directors of the film made it a requirement to the actors to read three books before they starred in their respective roles. Kevin Kelly's 1995 book "Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World" was one of those three books and Kelly also did a series of interviews for the Ultimate Matrix Collection Set as a result.

Blog Post #3

Since the corporation that I created with my idea will be mainly if not completely run off computers and on the internet, the computers that basically run the corporation will need to be high speed and somewhat advanced. Therefore we will need a computer hardware expert in order to put together such high functioning machines. The basis of our company is getting the information to students in a faster more convenient and less expensive way, if we don't have computers that have high speed internet connections and are of high quality, there is no way we can even consider making the idea into reality.

Based off the same principle, we will need someone that knows the ins and outs of a computer well enough that they will be able to quickly resolve any problems that may arise. The basis of my idea is it's efficiency. It is much easier for students to read the required texts off of a computer than from an actual book and it is easier for the professor as well. Sometimes the bookstore messes up and does not carry as many of the books as they should and sometimes students have to wait for cheaper sites to send them such books, but if the information is already at their fingertips, like most information is these days, life for the average student and professor becomes simpler. However, if a student cannot access the text as a result of a failure of our system, things get quite a bit more complex, which is why someone will need to be endowed with a gross of knowledge about how to fix problems that could arise with such equipment and be there at all times.


Also, like every other company in this capitalistic society, my company will need some way to advertise, and get the word out about our product, specifically to universities who can actually do something with our innovative idea. And while words can be powerful, we live in a very visual culture. My company could make use of video even if it's just a new creative way to get the words we want out there, in order to advertise for the company. If we don't make stellar presentations to a multitude of universities, our company does not get off the ground. Video is definitely a powerful motivator in the medium of advertisement, and my company would be wise to make use of it.

Blog Post #2

Excel Microsoft would be essential to the upkeep and invention of my textbook catalog website. I would use it to organize all of my finances between the website and the universities in which I provided service to. This would be essential to the upkeep of the system and the continued relationship between my company and the universities for which I provide services. If the catalog is not available at all times to the necessary universities as a result of a financial matter this could be devastating to that university as a whole and they would likely, after too many mistakes that could be caused my human error, break off the relationship. That's why instead of leaving it up to chance of human error I would use excel for the upkeep of my company. Especially since payments can get complicated as the money to pay for the services will come out of tuition money.

I will also need to use excel to keep updated lists of the necessary textbooks to be added and to which universities. Obviously each university will have an extensive list of all necessary reading material that will need to be provided by my company, and again if it is not it could be disastrous to that college and our working relationship. They will also need to be updated constantly as the material needed by each university could change drastically every semester.


I will also need to chose the colors of my website very wisely. I need to be able to draw the students attention to the proper places in order to navigate the site easily, but I cannot use anything to bright or busy at the same time. As this will be every student's resource for every text book in every class they will have to be on the site for quite some time, specifically if they are given reading assignments of some sort. I would need to find the color scheme used by kindle so that when they are reading a text, it actually looks like a book instead of a computer screen, so that it won't give students a headache and so that they can read it in natural light.

Blog Post #1

     If you have ever been or ever known a college student, you know how frustrating and costly buying textbooks can be. Bookstores spike their prices to astronomical amounts and students have no choice but to pay those prices, or pay the price for not being prepared in the first week or two of class because they bought it for cheaper at a website such as amazon or ebay. And those students whose only way of paying for college is through scholarships and loans, even if they get enough money from a loan to cover the cost of books: they have to wait until that money is paid to the school and then reimbursed to them, which could take weeks! Meanwhile they are suffering the consequences of not having material read or problem sets finished in their classes. There is, however, a way to prevent all of this turmoil. If universities, such as Syracuse University, had an online catalog of all the textbooks necessary for any course offered at that school that was accessible only to the students, and paid for under tuition, there wouldn't be a problem. Teachers wouldn't have to rearrange their syllabus because students were missing textbooks or because the university bookstore didn't order enough, and students could get their books for much cheaper. And those who pay for college with loans and scholarships would not be put at a disadvantage to their peers.