Infotech Applications In Marketing

Course Evaluation: Please complete

2006-05-15T09:44:00.000-07:00

You can now evaluate this course. Thanks for you participation in the evaluation process.

Search Engine Marketing

2006-05-15T02:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was updating my friend's site, Tim Woolley, a racehorse trainer. We run a blog, and have been updating recently with the exploits of Barbaro, who is trained at Fair Hill, where Tim trains.

I was looking at the stats on sitemeter (this is a low trafficed site) and noticed there had been a decent spike recently, specifically from May 5 (date of the Kentucky Derby). I looked at the referrer URLs and noticed pretty much all the traffic was coming directly from the Fair Hill Training Center site. This got me to thinking about how to get the traffic to come directly to Tim's site, rather than via the training center, which I assumed is traffic that had come from a search engine for people looking for information on Fair Hill and Barbaro.

SEO
So I decided to 'practice what we preach' and do some SEO work on the site. Make the title tag more search engine friendly, add approriate meta tags and rephrase the H3 tags to include appropriate keywords. These changes will help with the search engine, but will take time to take effect. We have an opportunity now, as Barbaro continues his triple crown effort. So what to do ?

Search Engine Advertising
So I bid on the keywords (from Google) Fair Hill, Fair Hill Training Center, Barbaro. This program began about 3 pm on sunday afternoon. As of monday, 5:30 AM the advertisement has been served 461 times, with 9 click throughs. Barbaro ad was served 412 times, the remainder evenly split between the other two keywords. Lets see if we can build traffic, and then maintain it by having people come back to continue reading about Barbaro and other training issues the blog covers.

Keyword selector tools

2006-05-11T02:48:00.000-07:00

The following are the keyword selector tools mentioned by Dave yesterday in his presentation:

I used Overture's selector to look at appropriate keywords for MBA Admissions Consulting Services, this is what I found:

MBA Admissions Consulting: 0 searches for April
MBA Admissions Consultant: 43 searches for April

Since Clear Admit' site is optimized for the former (see title tags) we obviously need to make some changes to optimize for the latter! This is a good illustration for writing for the search engine versus the browser of the site. We are a consulting service, BUT potential clients are looking for a consultant!

SEO: loocsixela

2006-05-10T10:55:00.000-07:00

The notes are relative to each engine listed, and as of Wednesday May 10.

Google
note: number of inbound links is important, proof: technorati and toby's site are ranked 1 and 2.

Quick explanation from Chris re: How he won.
Yahoo!
MSN
note: anchor text of inbound links is important, proof: packers site is listed first, and does not include the keyword anywhere on its site (and a mispelled packer site is listed number 3).

Monday May 8: Guest Speaker Gary Spangler from DuPont

2006-05-08T08:33:00.000-07:00

Quick reminder we have a guest speaker today, Gary Spangler, who will discuss DuPont's internet marketing initiatives (specifically search engine marketing and word of mouth).

Office hours today are cancelled. Sorry for the late notice.

Final course content

2006-05-05T13:16:00.000-07:00

Given the length and detail of the promotion section I am making this the last set of material we will cover, along with Chapter 5 of Search.

The promotion section is not yet finished, but I am linking to it here as it is good enough to read through at least. I will be editing it over the weekend. Please have this material read before class on monday. Much of the material will be relevant for our guest speaker, Gary Spangler, from DuPont.

MySpace

2006-05-03T07:48:00.000-07:00

A quick reminder, today we have Travis Katz, a VP at MySpace conducting a skype presentation. Come with all your questions about MySpace and social networking sites in general.

We will then take a quick look at Google AdWords as we begin the final element of the marketing mix: Promotion.

Adding e-commerce to your blog

2006-05-01T10:38:00.000-07:00

As we approach the promotion element of the marketing mix I would like you to add some e-commerce to your blog. You can choose to become an affiliate for Amazon (or other retailer) or sign up to host google AdWords.

Final Wiki Entry: Summary

2006-05-01T10:23:00.000-07:00

For each wiki article you are editing, you are required to write a final post, summarizing your work. This summary must include the overall impact you have had on the article, the "communities'" impact on the article during the period of time of your edits, and particularly any direct responses to your edits. You are free to include other insights you think are relevant to this wiki work (how you selected your articles, the research you used to add additional content etc). These posts should:

a. be no more than 200 words
b. include links to each blog entry you created for each edit
c. include a link to the article itself that you were editing

Finally, please add a section to your blog template, titled "Summary Wiki Posts" with a link to each of these final posts, this will make it easy for me to grade the work.

HostMySite; entrepreneurship and Buy.at

2006-05-01T02:02:00.000-07:00

HostMySite is coming in today (Monday May 1) to discuss the company, its growth and successes. Essentially looking at the entrepreneurial side of business. If you have considered starting a business after school, or working in an entrepreneurial environment, come with your questions.

On a similar note, the company Dave Brown (our Skype speaker on security issues) works for as CTO (he was a co founder), buy.at, has just received 7.3 million pounds of investment. Its an affiliate marketing company, which we will discuss a little later.

Search Engine Experiment: We are not the only ones

2006-04-27T12:42:00.000-07:00

Toby forwarded me this story from the Washington Post. The following is an excerpt:

The goal of this contest is to make a Web site that comes up first on the results page when anyone does a Google search for the gobbledygook phrase "v7ndotcom elursrebmem."

"We usually make up a word from scratch just to keep the playing field level in these contests," said the event's sponsor, John Scott, who runs an online forum for search optimizers. "If we did 'Viagra,' " a lot of sites would have a head start."

Sound familiar ? Loocsixela

Deal Catcher has a part-time position available.

2006-04-27T02:34:00.000-07:00

E-mail me if you are interested, once trained, you can work from home. Last semester they hired a student from the class as an intern.

Topic 10: Place

2006-04-26T02:42:00.000-07:00

is available here.

Monday May 1: HostMySite Guest Speaker

2006-04-24T09:50:00.000-07:00

Next monday the CEO of HostMySite will be presenting in class. This is just an FYI.

Topic 9: Price

2006-04-23T06:34:00.000-07:00

is available here.

DealCatcher adds RSS feeds for its Deal Alerts

2006-04-21T12:25:00.000-07:00

Dan just e-mailed me to tell me DealCatcher has just added feeds for their "Deal Alert" service. Now you can go to their site, search on a product keyword and subscribe to the feed. I have tested this by subscribing to iPod. You might want to stay on top of deals that may interest you ? I think this is pretty good use of RSS!

Wednesday: Guest Speaker

2006-04-18T02:44:00.000-07:00

On wednesday we will have DealCatcher founder Dan Baxter present in class. Please take a quick look at their site before class. From their web-site:

DealCatcher is an online community that helps shoppers save money and make educated purchases. On the site you will find online coupons, products, sales, reviews, and rebates. The site is updated throughout the day by its staff and forum members. We are dedicated to providing you with the tools needed to find the best deals online.

Founded in a bedroom by Dan Baxter in July 1999, the site was started as a resource for his friends and family to save money online. With the help of programmer and long time friend Tim Patton they created a site that focused on the consumer. Today DealCatcher receives over 6 million page views per month promoting over 500 merchant’s online deals. DealCatcher has been featured by the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC's The View, PC World, Yahoo Internet Life, MSN, USA Today, and has won numerous site awards.

Topic 8: Product

2006-04-16T08:20:00.000-07:00

is available here and here.

Skype Presentation: Robert Scoble

2006-04-11T15:02:00.000-07:00

Wednesday (April 12) we have Robert Scoble, author of Scobleizer, co author of Naked Conversations, and part of the Channel 9 team at Microsoft (read Channel 9's readme file for information on Channel 9). Channel 9 is a site:

that is designed to facilitate communication between Microsoft and its developer and customer constituencies. from Microsoft Turns On Channel 9

Robert will be discussing topics including:

how microsoft has embraced customer co - creation: Channel 9

new product launch strategies, issues, and challenges

the evolution of microsoft's new product development process as a result of the internet

microsoft's relationship with open source

and any questions you have.

Google Presentation: Monday April 24; 7 PM Gore 104

2006-04-11T10:54:00.000-07:00

On Monday April 24th, at 7:00 PM in Gore 104, Nikola Jevtic who works
for Google.com will be presenting to students here at UD. Nikola
will be talking about a variety of topics, including Google maps,
Google's culture, history, and grand plan for skynet. here is a flyer on the presentation.

Nikola has been working at Google as a Software Engineer for the past
year, after receiving his Ph.D. at UC San Diego and has close ties to
the CISC Department here at UD.

There will be pizza and soda, and possibly some other Google goodies
available at the meeting.

Web Sites from James Cherkoff's Presentation

2006-04-10T13:36:00.000-07:00

The following are some of the links cited in James' presentation today that was based on Open Source Marketing:

Monday April 10: Skype Presentation and Open Source Discussion

2006-04-07T11:45:00.000-07:00

On monday we will hear from James Cherkoff, who runs the blog Modern Marketing, one of our required blogs. He will be presenting on the topic Open Source Marketing. Please review this 'deck' before class. Some of the ideas should be familiar.

I will also be discussing the Open Source development model in general after the presentation (I have updated the economics materials to include more discussion on Open Source). I know this is last minute, but I would really appreciate it if you could read The Cathedral and the Bazaar and come to class prepared with your four key takeways to discuss. As you are reading this paper and preparing for class, consider how the discussion is also relevant for the development of Wikipedia.

Topic 7: Digital Economics and Strategy

2006-04-05T03:17:00.000-07:00

is available here.

Editing your StyleSheets

2006-04-03T07:53:00.000-07:00

The purpose of this 'tutorial' is to allow you to better understand how CSS and HTML work together to present web-site content. In order to do this you will learn how to change some of the CSS on your blog and see how this changes the look of your blog.

You will be changing the content between the two tags: <style> and </style>. This code is known as css, or cascading style sheets.

CSS, short for Cascading Style Sheets, is a relatively new feature that is being added to HTML that gives both Web site developers and users more control over how pages are displayed. With CSS, designers and users can create style sheets that define how different elements, such as headers and links, appear, globally (i.e. throughout the web page and the web site). CSS controls the design look essentially taking control of the HTML code it is effecting.

Style Sheets can be applied to any Web page. They can be applied in three ways.

as a separate file that each page within a site points (take a look at the source code of my homepage and you will see the code in the header: <link rel="stylesheet" href="http://www.udel.edu/alex/css/css.css"
type="text/css" /> this signals this page to be controlled by the stylesheet file named css/css.css).
included as part of the HTML code within each page
included in the header document of the page (as is the example we are using with this blog).

CSS looks really confusing, but with a basic knowledge you could, in theory, amend an existing template to suit your requirements. More knowledge is required for actually writing one from scratch! This is beyond the scope of this course.

Changing the Body

The Body provides base information for the template as a whole, rather than specific areas. In the case of this template it puts in a background (the dots you see across your template) and defines the font and font size used.

This is where you will make your first change.

You will have noticed that the template on the main site for the course (this site) has a different background to your blog site, and it is aligned in the top left hand corner of the screen. To make your site look like this you need to look for the following code in the body element of the template -

Look for the following in the class source code:
/* Body - Refer to note 1 in your lecture notes
----------------------------------------------- */

background:#123 url("http://www.blogblog.com/dots_dark/bg_minidots.gif") 50% 0;

Delete this line and replace with -

background:#1D1F4C url("http://www.stylegeek.net/clients/alex/infotechbg.gif") no-repeat 10px 50px fixed;

The line of text above will not only change the background color (these are examples of hex values - #123 and #1D1F4C and are the means by which designers, especially css designers, dictate the color scheme of a webpage)

Secondly, the amendment will draw in an entirely new graphic and fix it into the top left hand corner of your webpage - other code you will see in this example stops it from repeating (no-repeat) and will fix it into one position and prevent it leaving the screen when users scroll down (fixed). For the purpose of your blog, you may want to use a different image, more aligned with your blog theme. If so, simply replace the URL of the image for the class blog (http://www.stylegeek.net/clients/alex/infotechbg.gif) with the URL of your image. Ir will be important that your image is no wider than the class image.

Page Structure

The section marked page structure does exactly what it suggests, it dictates the page structure of the webpage - it dictates where all the text will go, and how it will look on the page.

Look for the following in the class source code:
/* Page Structure - Refer to note 2 in your lecture notes
----------------------------------------------- */

2a) Content

Look for the #content section

#content {
background-color: #123;
width:700px;
margin:0 auto;
padding:50px 0;
text-align:left;
}

Find the following code -

background:url("http://www.blogblog.com/dots_dark/bg_3dots.gif") no-repeat 250px 50px;

Delete this line and replace with -

background-color: #123;

This removes the background in the main section of the template (where all the text goes) and merely dictates the page to present it in the color #123 (blue)

2b) Main2

You will notice that on the main template there is a logo at the top of the main body section of the template. This is what you will be adding in next. Basically, you have two options when adding a graphic to a webpage such as the infotech one. You can, if you wish, utilise the standard html route, of which many of you are familiar <img src="graphic.jpg"> which will display the graphic quite well in the main body of your posts.

However, when a graphic is part of a template, that is a logo, or a background graphic, css designers tend to place it by using the css version.

Look for the section marked #main2

#main2 {
background:url("http://www.blogblog.com/dots_dark/bg_minidots2.gif") -100px -100px;
padding:20px 10px 15px;
}

Delete the lines -

background:url("http://www.blogblog.com/dots_dark/bg_minidots2.gif") -100px -100px;
padding:20px 10px 15px;

and replace with -

background: url("http://www.stylegeek.net/clients/alex/infotechdark.gif") no-repeat 10px 0px;
padding:150px 10px 15px;

Note, you may wish to replace the logo with your own image. If so, include the URL of your image, which should include the same dimensions as the class logo, as a replacement for the above code.

2c) #sidebar2

Another graphic needs removing from the template - this is for the sidebar - where all your links go

Look for -

#sidebar2 {
background:url("http://www.blogblog.com/dots_dark/bg_minidots2.gif") 150px -50px;
padding:5px 10px 15px;
width:200px;
width/* */:/**/180px;
width: /**/180px;
}

Find the line

background:url("http://www.blogblog.com/dots_dark/bg_minidots2.gif") 150px -50px;

and replace with

background-color: #123;

again, this will merely remove the graphic background and tell the computer to display the color #123

Title & Description

Look for the following in the class source code:
/* Title & Description - Refer to note 3 in your lecture notes
----------------------------------------------- */

Now we are going to change some font colors.

Under section marked #blog-title look for the code color:#abc; - the hex value is currently #8dd; - Change this value to #abc;

Change the same value under description color:#9c7; change this to color: #fff;

Links

Look for the following in the class source code:
/* Links - Refer to note 4 in your lecture notes
----------------------------------------------- */

You may know that browsers as a rule come with standard colors in which they display links. However, as web designers we find this palette very restrictive, as it impacts on our well thought out color schemes! So, again, we have a handy piece of css that forces your browser to display links in the colors we want! (Note, this is not entirely agreed upon from a design usability standpoint.)

This section of code tells the computer we want a standard link to display in hex color value #da7

a:link {
color:#da7;
}

This value needs to be changed to #fce1a4 in your template.

This section of code tells the computer we want a visited link (that is one you have already seen) to display in hex color #799

a:visited {
color:#799;
}

This is to remain the same!

and this final section of code tells the computer we want a link to change to white when you hover over it!

a:hover {
color:#fff;
}

Again, this remains the same.

Posts

Look for the following in the class source code:
/* Posts - Refer to note 5 in your lecture notes
----------------------------------------------- */

This section controls the way in which your actual blog posts are displayed.

Look for

.date-header {
margin:0 0 .75em;
padding-bottom:.35em;
border-bottom:1px dotted #567;
font:bold 100%/1.4em Verdana,San-serif;
text-transform:lowercase;
color:#7bc;
}

This code tells the computer how your entry dates are to be displayed, the only value you need to change here in this case is the font color, which you may recall is dictated by

color: #7bc;

This needs to be changed to color: #fff; - which is white! you can type white if you wish, as some very restricted colors are available in word form, but it is considered good practice to use the hex color values!

You also need to change the following color values in (again to color: #fff;)

- #post-title
- p.post-footer em

6) More Sidebar Content

Like you have done in similar sections you need to change the font values of the following

- .sidebar-title - change this to #7bc

Refer back over these notes if you need assistance, and can't recall this value!

Thats it, all done!

Don’t forget to save & rebuild!
Thanks to Eliza for the above.

You can also work through this simple tutorial to get more familiarity with HTML.

Vanity Searches

2006-04-01T03:04:00.000-08:00

As we have discussed in class, it is important to conduct your own vanity searches to see what others out there can read about you. Here is an example of my search output from MSN if you want to learn more about me.

Thanks Scoble.

Search Engine Experiment: loocsixela

2006-03-30T13:03:00.000-08:00

We will be discussing Search Engine Marketing later in the semester. To prepare for this I would like to conduct a quick search engine experiment. I would like each of you to blog the keyword loocsixela; but I want you to hyperlink that keyword to http://www.packers.com/. Thus the keyword becomes the anchor text linking to the Greenbay Packers site. Like: loocsixela

Feel free to also include the keyword in the subject header, or repeated throughout the blog entry etc. Feel free to use the keyword in multiple blog entries, and on your blog template. The student whose site ranks highest on the keyword search for loocsixela, in google, by May 10 (when we discuss search engine marketing) will receive the book: "The World is Flat".

Quick Update

2006-03-30T01:40:00.000-08:00

I hope Spring Break is treating you well. As I am planning the content for the remainder of the semester it makes sense to discuss "Internet Economics" issues before the Marketing Mix (Product; Price; Place; Promotion). We will thus be discussing Internet Economics on Wednesday, April 5, and begin Product issues on Monday, April 10.

I will be sending you e-mails with respect to your mid-term grade and project work before class on monday.

Podcast Links from Dana at Pheedo

2006-03-20T14:44:00.000-08:00

For those interested in exploring Podcasting, the following are links that Dana noted during his presentation from a resource document he had created:

Example Exam Questions

2006-03-19T07:16:00.000-08:00

The following are examples of questions that might be used for the mid term.

The developing world can clearly benefit from internet access. Keys to adoption include all the following except:

a. cheaper PCs
b. cheaper broadband connections
c. more reliable power sources
d. basic literacy education
e. all the above are important to further adoption in the developing world

The following are examples of internet fraud except:

a. click fraud
b. Nigerian Scam
c. phishing
d. Bush fraud
e. all the above are examples of internet fraud

A referrer URL is:

a. The web address of the page a browser first accesses on the site
b. The web address of the page that precedes the first page of the site that was accessed
c. The web address of the page a browser accesses after viewing the site
d. A link the browser uses to exit the web site

Subscribe to "search output"

2006-03-16T13:57:00.000-08:00

As noted in the syllabus, you are required to subscribe to a keyword (phrase) output from a blog search engine. How to do this is covered in the Marketing Research notes. As I get ready to see the Arctic Monkeys next weekend in Philadelphia (I hope) I subscribed to the keyword phrase "Arctic Monkeys". Two recent blog entries cover this US tour, their San Francisco stop and LA stop.

As you can imagine, without blog search and subscription I would most likely not have seen these reviews.

Topic 5 and 6: Marketing Research and Personalization

2006-03-15T02:35:00.000-08:00

are available: Marketing Research and Personalization. We will be covering both today (wednesday).

Arctic Monkeys and Buzz Marketing: 2%

2006-03-13T14:25:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in class today, I am offering an extra credit assignment for the best blog posting that connects the Buzz Marketing presentation we received today from Mark Hughes, with the success of the Arctic Monkeys. You may want to explore their Wikipedia entry and their own site.

The blog postings will be reviewed after May 8. All team members of the winning post will receive the extra credit, which will be 2% added to your class grade.

Monday: Guest Speaker

2006-03-10T15:37:00.000-08:00

On Monday we have a guest speaker, Mark Hughes, who is author of Buzz Marketing and was Vice President for Marketing for Half.com (which was purchased by eBay for $300 m). To put half.com on the 'map' Mark was instrumental in the renaming of the town Halfway (OR) to half.com, for one year. Renaming towns to acquire corporate dollars has continued.

Mark's presentation will be on Buzz Marketing, and to get some background you can read chapter 2 from his book.

Class Survey

2006-03-09T15:26:00.000-08:00

Please take five minutes to complete the following class survey. Thank you in advance for your feedback, we will discuss this survey on wednesday of next week.

Example post commenting on posts from the "Required Blogs"

2006-03-09T08:35:00.000-08:00

I thought I would link to Steven Schluter's excellent post following the announcement of Microsoft's new search engine. This is a great example of satisfying one of the posts required for your blog assignments. Now lets see if this search engine is truly an innovation.

Adding Content to your Template

2006-03-08T10:01:00.000-08:00

As part of your blog project, you are required to add content to your template. Some of you have begun this process, examples include:

To learn how to do this access how to edit the template.

Skype Schedule continues: Naked Conversations Notes

2006-03-08T03:00:00.000-08:00

Quick update: our Skype schedule continues today, with Toby Bloomberg, who runs Diva Marketing, and is highlighted in our Book as a consultant who gets it! I have also posted notes for chapters 5 - 9 of Naked Conversations along with Toby's presentation "Blogs: A Marketing Tool".

Topic 4: Law and Privacy

2006-03-06T02:21:00.000-08:00

is available: Law and Privacy Issues. We will be covering this material on monday (today).

Search 8 Notes

2006-03-03T15:05:00.000-08:00

are here. They are not absolutely final, but good enough, and include some questions I want you to consider for class and while reading the chapter.

Wikipedia reaches one million articles

2006-03-02T05:50:00.000-08:00

congratulations to wikipedia and to you for your contributions to this milestone! Found at slashdot!

Phishing Example

2006-03-01T13:59:00.000-08:00

here is a Phishing example, I received just after class today. (Note: when placing my mouse over the URL you could see it was an image, and pointed to a non-paypal site: http://24-236-128-36.dhcp.bycy.mi.charter.com:81/paypal.com/index.php?MfcISAPICommand=SignInFPP)

Subject header: Paypal Email ID PP321

Text:
Dear PayPal Member,
Your account has been randomly flagged in our system as a part of our routine security measures. This is a must to ensure that only you have access and use of your PayPal account and to ensure a safe PayPal experience. We require all flagged accounts to verify their information on file with us. To verify your Information at this time, please visit our secure server webform by clicking the hyperlink below:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login

Thank you for using PayPal!
The PayPal Team

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please do not reply to this e-mail. Mail sent to this address cannot be answered. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and choose the "Help" link in the footer of any page.

To receive email notifications in plain text instead of HTML, update your preferences here.

www.PayPal.com Email ID PP478

Hindsight is ...

2006-03-01T11:01:00.000-08:00

Gates predicted, back in January 2004, that spam would be resolved by 2006. He notes a couple of methods that may resolve spam. We realise this has not been the case, yet. Thanks slashdot.

On a related note, I found this article that describes the cost of internet fraud, both the direct cost and indirect costs associated with the business processes used to manage fraud. I found this article from a good old google search.

Internet Security: Dave Brown; Perfiliate.com

2006-02-28T03:14:00.000-08:00

Today's (March 1) Skype Presentation: Internet security

Speaker: Dave Brown is a Co Founder, and Director at Perfiliate Technologies

Viruses
Key issues:

potential damage to computer
how to protect against

How the following are different from viruses and how we can protect
against them:

Dangers of downloading software from the internet.

Common Spam techniques to trick users into opening malicious code.

Spoofing email address (very easy)
Phishing (attempts daily)
text links to eg. Http://www.paypal.com which are really images
going to another site
Social Engineering (eg. Hello, I'm your ISP I need you to download this bit of software and run it)

What Norton Security/Zone Alarm does

What Norton Security/Zone Alarm doesn't protect against (eg. Difficulty of Trojans, key loggers)

Cookies. Privacy issues

Third party cookies

privacy issues (lies with a third party)
enabling/disabling in browsers, security levels
Third party cookies and affiliate networks etc.

Passwords, automatic screen locks

General Password Construction Guidelines

Poor, weak passwords have the following characteristics:

The password contains less than eight characters
The password is a word found in a dictionary (English or foreign)
The password is a common usage word such as:
- Names of family, pets, friends, co-workers, fantasy characters,
  etc.
- Computer terms and names, commands, sites, companies, hardware,
  software.
- The words "", "sanjose", "sanfran" or any
  derivation.
- Birthdays and other personal information such as addresses and
  phone numbers.
- Word or number patterns like aaabbb, qwerty, zyxwvuts, 123321,
  etc.
- Any of the above spelled backwards.
- Any of the above preceded or followed by a digit (e.g., secret1,
  1secret)

Strong passwords have the following characteristics:

Contain both upper and lower case characters (e.g., a-z, A-Z)
Have digits and punctuation characters as well as letters e.g.,
0-9, !@#$%^&*()_+|~-=\`{}[]:";'<>?,./)
Are at least eight alphanumeric characters long.
Are not a word in any language, slang, dialect, jargon, etc.
Are not based on personal information, names of family, etc.

Passwords should never be written down or stored on-line. Try to create passwords that can be easily remembered. One way to do this is create a password based on a song title, affirmation, or other phrase.

For example, the phrase might be: "This May Be One Way To Remember" and the password could be: "TmB1w2R!" or "Tmb1W>r~" or some other variation.

Here is a list of "dont's":

Don't reveal a password over the phone to ANYONE
Don't reveal a password in an email message
Don't reveal a password to the boss
Don't talk about a password in front of others
Don't hint at the format of a password (e.g., "my family name")
Don't reveal a password on questionnaires or security forms
Don't share a password with family members
Don't reveal a password to co-workers while on vacation

If someone demands a password have them call someone in the Information Security Department.

Do not use the "Remember Password" feature of applications(e.g., Eudora, OutLook, Netscape Messenger).

Again, do not write passwords down and store them anywhere in your office. Do not store passwords in a file on ANY computer system (including Palm Pilots or similar devices) without encryption.

Change passwords at least once every six months (except system-level passwords which must be changed quarterly). The recommended change interval is every four months.

If an account or password is suspected to have been compromised, report the incident to the IT team and change all passwords.

Credits: This is based on the security templates from sans.org

What excites me!

2006-02-27T10:43:00.000-08:00

OK, my life is mostly my computer, but I wanted to highlight a post of your classmates' who articulates, much better than I, why managing your reading of web content via Bloglines is a great idea! Thanks for that.

Topic 3B: Organizations Online

2006-02-27T02:38:00.000-08:00

is available: Organizations online: Who are they and What are they doing?. We will be covering this material on monday (today).

Skype Schedule begins: Naked Conversation Notes

2006-02-25T11:45:00.000-08:00

Quick update: our Skype schedule begins on monday, our first guest is Graham Richmond, founding partner of Clearadmit.com I have also posted notes (with questions to prepare for class) for the first 4 chapters of Naked Conversations. Please be prepared to address the questions in class on monday. I will also be posting notes on organizations using the internet, but these will come later this weekend or first thing monday.

Wikipedia work begins

2006-02-22T09:53:00.000-08:00

As you begin to plan your wikipedia work I thought it would be helpful to highlight some of your 'trail blazing' classmates' work. The following are blog entries that cover the wikipedia work of: Hans' edit of Natucket, Scott's edit of Sunday River (Ski Resort), Ryan's creation for UD Football, Stephanie's edit of Garden State (movie), and James' edit of Surfing.

Topic 3A: Consumers Online

2006-02-22T02:46:00.000-08:00

is available: Consumers online: Who are they and What are they doing?. We will be covering this material on wednesday (today).

Topic 2: How the Web Works

2006-02-19T10:46:00.000-08:00

is available: How the Web Works. We will be covering this material on monday as we also review the first four chapter of Search.

Second blog post due Monday, Feb. 20

2006-02-19T04:12:00.000-08:00

Just a gentle reminder, you are also required to have subscribed to all the required blogs, team mates' blogs and this blog via your bloglines account and e-mailed me your username for wikipedia.

Stephanie Webb has a great example of a second blog posting.

Before beginning your Wikipedia work...

2006-02-15T10:45:00.000-08:00

make sure you read:

You must also create a user account before beginning your edits, please e-mail me your username (required by monday Feb 20).

A sign of the times

2006-02-15T09:14:00.000-08:00

As we discuss media convergence in class, I thought this was timely, and reflective of the impact the internet is having on other media: Era Ends: Western Union Stops Sending Telegrams, found on Slashdot.

From the article:
The decline of telegram use goes back at least to the 1980s, when long-distance telephone service became cheap enough to offer a viable alternative in many if not most cases. Faxes didn't help. Email could be counted as the final nail in the coffin.

and

The world's first telegram was sent on May 24, 1844 by inventor Samuel Morse. The message, "What hath God wrought," was transmitted from Washington to Baltimore. In a crude way, the telegraph was a precursor to the Internet in that it allowed rapid communication, for the first time, across great distances.

Western Union goes back to 1851 as the Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company. In 1856 it became the Western Union Telegraph Company after acquisition of competing telegraph systems. By 1861, during the Civil War, it had created a coast-to-coast network of lines.

Topic 1: Background and History

2006-02-12T05:00:00.000-08:00

is available: Background and History. We will be covering this material this week, and also look at the short movie: EPIC 2014

Joseph Biden and Wikipedia

2006-02-10T07:37:00.000-08:00

As we begin exploring Wikipedia and prepare for your project work, I thought you might be interested in this story, from today's Wilmington News Journal: Biden staffers take Web bio entry into own hands.

Why is it so important for the Biden camp to be aware, and on top of this wikipedia entry ? It is ranked 3 in terms of search results on the google search: Joseph Biden. It is also interesting to note that it was easy to identify the source of the editors by looking at the IP addresses associated with the edits.

Editing Wikipedia

2006-02-08T15:18:00.000-08:00

As I suggested, the edit I made in class today was not likely to persist. It has already been removed, and you can see the comment in the revision history. It lasted for less than three hours.

Blogs, News Readers and Wikipedia ... Why ?

2006-02-08T02:55:00.000-08:00

Why are we blogging?

As I am sure you can see, this class relies pretty heavily on the successful use of blogging, reading blogs via a news reader, and contributing to wikipedia.

We are using blogs for this class for three important reasons. Firstly, we are using blogs to introduce you to one of the more recent ‘innovations’ of the web. Blogging has become very popular. Many recent articles on blogging do suggest that it is becoming a powerful marketing tool. Many of these articles are linked to our course blog (under the header ‘Articles on Blogging’). Articles include ‘Chief Humanising Officer’, which highlights Scobleizer blogging for Microsoft and ‘Blogs will Change Your Business’, the title being relatively self explanatory. It is clear this is a new medium that is changing the way we communicate with our customers and the way customers are able to communicate with each other. The book ‘Cluetrain Manifesto’ was the first book to explore this phenomena (pre-blogging) and blogging is now showing how true the cluetrain really can be! The recently published, Naked Conversations, an extension of the Cluetrain Manifesto, is required reading for this course.

We are also using blogs to intruduce you to HTML and CSS in a 'safe' environment.

Finally we are blogging to increase the communications among students within the class.

Why a news aggregator, why bloglines and why make it public?

It is true you can read blogs and other sites by simply visiting those sites. We do this everyday as we browse the web. The advantage of using a news aggregator, such as bloglines, only manifests when you have multiple web-sites that you want to keep up with, sites that update their content regularly. Without a news aggregator it will be up to you to visit each site, individually, and determine if there is new content there for you to read. Many such visits may be simply a waste of your valuable time if the site has not been updated since your last visit. Subscribing to these sites, via your news aggregator, such as bloglines, allows you to easily determine when a site has been updated with new content, and thus you only need to make the visit when you determine it is appropriate. The content from the sites is 'pushed' to your aggregator via their respective RSS feeds.

Bloglines itself is the most popular web-based news aggregator, a site you can use from any PC as long as you have an internet connection (useful if traveling and using cybercafes for example). Other features of bloglines that are useful include the ability to mark an entry as ‘new’, it thus remains to be viewed at a later time. This is great for sites that update rapidly (think of Slashdot.org), a site you may want to check quickly, yet have little time to read important entries. You can return at a more convenient time to read the entry, continue to save it, or trash it at that point.

Bloglines also allows you to make your subscriptions public, for others to view. This is an important part of your class project (that I can see which resources you are subscribed) and thus required.

Why Wikipedia?
Wikipedia is becoming one of the most important resources on the web. It is an open source-type project, in as much as it has been built with the help of its more than 800,000 registered users. By participating in Wikipedia you will learn how to work within a community, online and benefit the online community with your insights.

Be confident!

The hardest aspect of the projects is getting started and the presumption of complexity. I assure you this project is wonderful for those new to web-site development (i.e. no HTML knowledge) so don’t be intimidated by the tasks, embrace the idea that this will be a great way to get your feet wet in developing your first web project and learning web 2.0 technologies by using the technologies!

Adding Blogs to your Bloglines Account and making it Public

2006-02-04T11:15:00.000-08:00

Adding blogs to your account
Once you have set up your account on bloglines:

click on the 'my feeds' tab.
click on 'Add'
key in the URL of the blog to which you are subscribing, click subscribe
click ... again, you are now subscribed

You are required to subscribe to your teammates' blogs. You are required to subscribe to each of the blogs listed on this site under the heading 'required blogs'. You are required to subscribe to a Google Blog Search result. You are also required to subscribe to this blog.

You will subscribe to the RSS feed of each blog. Blogger blogs automatically have such a feed. You only need to copy and paste the URL of the blog in the appropriate dialog box in bloglines.

Make your subscriptions public
To make your subscriptions public (required for this project and allows me, and others, to see your subscriptions):

click the 'share' tab
click the hyperlinked 'profile' (second sentence)
click 'blog settings' (horizontal nav.)
key in a username (note if this does not work, try a different username)
click 'yes' for show my blog
save changes

your url for your public subscriptions will be:

http://www.bloglines.com/public/username

Creating a Link w/ HTML

2006-02-04T11:14:00.000-08:00

Your blog entries should include relevant links. Your blog template also needs to include links.

How do you hyperlink to another web resource ?

Easy!

To include a link to this Site from your blog, simply change this blog reference from:

Information Technology Applications in Marketing (My favourite Class)

to

<A HREF="http://infotechspring06.blogspot.com">Information Technology Applications in Marketing (My favourite Class)</A>

Note: It is not important to know what <A HREF means, nor do you need to remember, whenever you need to create a hyperlink, you can simply view source on a document that contains a hyperlink ... and that is why writing html is not complex!

Note: when creating a 'post' for your blog select: edit HTML option (just above / right of the text box window).

Any questions ? Use the comments area.

How to edit the template

2006-02-04T11:13:00.000-08:00

What is the 'template'
Your 'template' is essentially the code used to display your blog. While a blog is pretty simple to set up and add entries, to actually add links to the left column (for more permanence etc.) does require you to know a little bit about html and the code used in the template. To get you started a couple of quick tips that will make editing your template pretty straight forward.

Log into http://www.blogger.com
Access your class blog
Click on the 'Template' Link.
Scroll down (or use the search function) until you find the 'code'

<h2 class="sidebar-title">Previous Posts</h2>
Copy and paste this line directly above the line so you now have:
<h2 class="sidebar-title">Previous Posts</h2>

<h2 class="sidebar-title">Previous Posts</h2>
Edit out 'Previous Posts' from the new instance, and replace it with 'Required Blogs'

thus you now have:

<h2 class="sidebar-title">Required Blogs</h2>

<h2 class="sidebar-title">Previous Posts</h2>
On the next line below this new heading add in the appropriate link for each of the class'required blogs.

For example:

<A HREF="http://www.clickz.com/">ClickZ Stats</A>
Note you can come back and do this multiple times (thus you can add the required blogs in one session, and return to add a title for your team mates' blogs and add their blogs). You can also repeat this process and create another header (i.e. 'Wikipedia Articles' to list the wikipedia articles you are editing.

How to create your blog

2006-02-04T11:08:00.000-08:00

Setting up the Blog

You are required to use http://www.blogger.com as your blog platform as it is free, easy and hosted. You are also required to select 'dots dark', a template designed by Douglas Bowman, for your blog.

How to set up your blog?

1. Sign up for an account on http://www.blogger.com
2. Create the URL and name for your blog (you can change the name later, the URL is permanent)
3. Select the template 'dots dark'. You need to scroll down the page to find the template
4. Start posting (i.e. it really was that simple to create the blog).