Week 5

1) What are the Mobile phone use /100 populations - compare Australia, USA, China, India, Your Country

Australia: 104.96

USA: 86.79

China: 47.95

India: 29.36

The above data suggests that the Phone use /100 for every 100 hundred Australian's there is close to 105 mobile subscriptions. Evidently this figure is much lower in countries such as USA, China and India.

2) Internet use / 100 population - compare Australia, USA, China, India, Your Country

Australia: 71.98

USA: 74

China: 22.28

India: 4.38

As it is demonstrated from the above statistics the internet use/ 100 is dramatically different that phone use. Australia still rating the highest, while USA, China and Indian all have a lower amount compared to phones. The main factor that could account for his is that you will only have one Internet connection per household, where you may have a greater number of phones in a household as opposed to people.

4) What does the survey suggest to you about the Information Technology readiness of Australian business compared to Australian consumers?

Australian businesses are lagging behind the consumer in the online world. The survey suggests that not only business but also the government is a long way behind the average user. Australia is ranked 30th in the world for business use of the Internet and 28th in the world for government readiness. 

Week 4

1) Looking at the site usage, what does the terms visits, page views and pages/visit mean? What does the bounce rate mean and does it vary much from day to day?
A single visit or a 'hit' is a user’s complete stay on the website, from the time they load the first page to the time they leave. Websites are made up of a number of different pages, as a user navigates around different pages within the website they generate page views, this statistic measures the views of each individual page. Pages/Visit, or pages per visit measures how many pages a viewer looks at before they leave. This leads onto the "Bounce Rate" which measures how many users leave the website without viewing anything more than the first page.
2) Now look at the traffic sources report. What are the three sources of traffic and where has most of the traffic come from? 

URL - Uniform Resource Locator
Search Engine

Referring Websites

3) What was the most popular web browser used to access the site?
Internet Explorer 3,830 50.32%
Safari 1,547 20.33%
Firefox 1,501 19.72%
Chrome 699 9.18%
Opera 8 0.11%

o   As these statistics indicated internet explorer is by far the most popular
5) Having clicked every possible link on my analytics, make a few comments on (a) What you can track, (b) What you can track over time and (c) What you can’t track. 
This website can track a great deal of things about the user including, their location, Browser type, how long they spend on the website, what they do on the website and many other things. What this website cannot track is user’s age, gender or preferences. This means the data cannot be used to determine if the scope and target audience for the website is correct.

6) What do the following terms mean? These are just a few, you may like to add some more and perhaps include them on the Moodle glossary.
High bounce rate: A lot of users are visiting the page and leaving straight away.

Key words: Stand alone words that are used to describe the website.

Average Page Depth: The average amount of pages a user views in one visit.

Click through rate: The number of clicks a add gets compared to its views.

Click: The action of clicking a link, takes you to a new page

Cookie: A small file stored on the local computer containing information for the website to utilize.

Impression: The effect of a website over the user.

Hyperlink: Used to navigate a user to a new URL

Navigation: The menu system of a website, this is made up a number of hyperlinks that allow the user to move around the website

Page view: an individual view of a specific page.

Session: A single connection to the website, the total time the user is viewing the page.

Unique Visitors (or Absolute Unique Visitors): Each unique visitor to the website, many users have multiple visits to a site. This statistic only counts them once

URL: Uniform Recourse Locator, Allows people to access websites without having to remember the websites digital address (IP Address)

Visitor: A person who accesses the website.

Visitor Session: A Visitor’s total time on the website

Comparison shopping: Comparing prices of different websites to get the best deal.

Week 3

1. In two paragraphs explain why a customer centric Web site design is so important, yet so difficult to accomplish

In order for a website to be effective it must allow for viewers to effectively grasp the information being expressed. If the design of the webpage deters people from continuing to access the page, then this has done little to support the business, however lost potential buyers. Therefore the page must be appropriate and have a very clear target audience so there needs can be met and the webpage can be used to enhance the business.

There are a number of reasons why it is so difficult to get website design right; three specific reasons are listed below

-Colour Schemes

-Screen Resolutions

-Intuitive Navigation

Customers must enjoy and be able to effectively navigate around a webpage. There are hindering factors that affect this, as I mentioned above so therefore if these factors are taken into consideration. However despite this it is still extremely hard to establish.

3. Write three paragraphs to briefly describe the things that Real Estate Agents can best accomplish through (1) their web sites (2) Mass media advertising (3) Personal contact

A website for a real estate business needs to give an effective means to potential buyers to access the initial information regarding the properties they may be seeking. This will allow potential buyers to eliminate properties which appeal to them and those that don’t. This website needs to display current and updated information which reveals houses that have been sold, which agent to contact, a website alone cannot sell something as big as a house, but it can spark enough interest to put a customer in contact with an agent that can.

Mass advertising needs to get spark enough interest in that agency to get a potential customer to look at a website or newspaper to see what properties are available through them. Mass advertising is essential in real estate as it gets that company name circulated.

Personal contact in real estate is where the deal is finalised. The agent needs to take a potential customer from looking at a house online to the point where they want to buy that house. Personal contact is indeed important as a client has to feel comfortable dealing with the agent and agency.

Week 2

Week 2

a) What are the four main points Michael Rappa makes about search? Please write them on your blog page.

Firstly, Michael Rappa acknowledges that there is a vast amount of data on the Internet, the task of searching through all of this is certainly not a small one. There is no need for people to delete inappropriate or outdated information when they update because of the large range of storage now available. This identifying Rappa’s point, that there is excess information on the net.
Rappa discusses an approach that many businesses take advantage of. This involves businesses paying money to have their website display at the top of the list of search results. There is a responsibility with the search engine operator to let users know that these results are paid though, and many users will disregard a website in the paid results area.
Another point raised by Rappa was the question must be raised as to whether the result a search engine is returning is actually relevant. Although Google makes many attempts through the application of money and man power, search engines still have a lot of data to search through to give you your results.
‘Search engines cannot cache everything’. There is just way to much information being created and being placed on the Internet every day for even the world’s most powerful computers with the fastest connections to keep up. The problems that arise from this include, if you are searching for something in particular you may not be able to find it, or finding information that is appropriate maybe almost impossible.

b) Watch or read the Marissa Mayer interview. Write a paragraph or two, on four points made by Marissa Mayer, that you think were the most interesting or significant for business. There are no right or wrong answers here; I just want your opinion.

 One topic I found very interesting was the development of the Google Chrome browser and the Android mobile phone platform. Marissa's comments stating that they had plans for these products for a long time, but would not implement them until they had the right resources and staff. This led to another very interesting point about the type of people Google hire, how they not only look for talented people, but also imaginative people with an X factor.

Another interesting topic was based around Google's search and how different strategies could be used to make money off this service. The concept of paying a very small micro transaction for search is an interesting one, considering how many searches are made per person per day even a cost such as one cent would make millions of dollars for Google. People however do not like the concept of paying for something like that, which is why Google have turned to ad's. Marissa's discussion about advertising and Google's revolutionary approach to advertising was very interesting.

Part 2 - History of the Internet


a) The 6 webs are listed below


Far Web- The web that you see from further away, Such as Internet access on your TV via Gaming Consoles or Internet enabled T.V's

Near Web- The web you access using things close to you, Such as a laptop or desktop machine.

Here Web- This is the web that is immediately accessible to the person.

Weird/Voice Web- This web is probably the one web of the six that has not yet come to be. This web takes the web from something that you go to physically to something you can use while driving, running or riding a bike. This is a web where you can access it using your voice, without the need for a screen or keyboard.


B2B- This web has no user interaction.  

D2D- Device to Device is the concept of machines working together to create a digital version of itself by using sensors and other devices.

b) Could there be more?

I think that the way in which technology continues to advances and revolutionise that there is the possibility for more as we continue to progress into the future.

c) What does it mean for business?

It means that for businesses already using an online presence or entering into to this market they can effectively use each of the webs to target specific audiences. As the presence of the web becomes significantly more apparent it allows businesses to remain competitive an ‘up with the times’.

 

Introduction to eBusiness and Getting Started Online

         i.            Internet risks; give 4 examples that can go wrong with a transactional site?

o   Security breaches

o   User error- Incorrect orders placed by customers

o   Peoples (customers) unwillingness to give there bank details online

o   Computer errors

       ii.            Write down a definition for each

o   E-commerce: All electronically mediated information exchanges between an organisations and its external stakeholders. To types of e-commerce include- sell-side & buy-side.

o   E-business: All electronically mediated information exchanges, both within an organisation and with external stakeholders supporting the range of business processes.  

[Chaffey, 2004]

      iii.            What is the difference between buy side & sell side ecommerce?

Buy-side e-commerce is transactions between a purchasing organisation and its suppliers, whereas sell-side e-commerce refers to transactions between a supplier organisation and its customers.

     iv.            Describe the different types of e-business

1.       B2C: Business to Consumer

2.       B2B: Business to Business

3.       B2G: Business to Government

4.        C2C: Consumer to Consumer

5.       C2B: Consumer to Business

6.       C2G: Consumer to Government

7.       G2C: Government to Consumer

8.       G2B: Government to Business

9.        G2G: Government to Government

       v.            Which digital technology has the highest penetration rate? Explain & source your answer

Mobile phones can be identified as being the digital technology with the highest penetration rate. Statistics from a survey from the United Kingdom show, with mobile, internet and digital TV use, it is shown that 85% of people have mobiles while only 64% have TV’s and 61% have internet.

[Source: Topic 1: Introduction to eBusiness, lecture slides, Ian Knox, pg 14]

     vi.            List; Four drivers to adoption of sell-side e-commerce by business

1.       Larger exposure to potential buyers: A larger proportion of people access the internet on a daily basis, there is a highly likelihood that a business will attract a larger customer base, when able to be accessed online.

2.       Reduced staff costs: less staff required to run the business (i.e. No staff needed to serve customers) which will result in larger profit margins.

3.       Keeping up with the ‘times’: is a likely driver of sell-side e-commerce, because in order to remain profitable a business must adapt to the advances in technology. This is also likely to drive the adoption as businesses must keep up with what is happening around them, and if the type of business can be found on the internet this may be favourable to customers.

    vii.            List; Four barriers to adoption of sell-side e-commerce by business

1.       Technology barrier: Even though the use of technology is widely used and accepted worldwide there is still a large proportion of people who are opposed to using technology as well as the lack of knowledge possessed by people to utilise the technology. People, especially from older generations are opposed to their bank details online to purchase products.

2.       Developing a website: Can be expensive and time consuming. There is options for designing and developing your own website, by this brings about publicity issues as well the development of a user-friendly site, which maybe unachievable by someone with little skill in this area.

3.       Running costs: The costs involved in maintaining and updating the website might outweigh the costs that would be involved in servicing the customers face-to-face.

4.       Appealing to customers: Are your customers going to benefit from and online presence? What will they prefer? This is a barrier as all factors need to be considered as to what can be identified as ‘what customers will prefer’.

  viii.            How might a restaurant in Sturt street benefit from an online presence?

o   Potential for increased revenue arising from increased reach to a larger customer base and encouraging loyalty and repeat purchases

o   Cost reduction through delivering services electronically including; staff costs, and materials costs.

     ix.            What are some examples of digital information?

Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital (as opposed to analog) form. Examples include; digital video, augmented reality or digital art.

       x.            What is the semantic web? Are we there yet?

The semantic web is defined as interrelated content including data with defined meaning, enabling better exchange of information between computers and between people and computers. [Chaffey, 2004] IT would appear that we have some way to go before we reach the semantic web.