IST195 Blog Summary

Summary:

After all this weeks of blogging and being inspired from lectures, the entrepreneurial idea has still remained pretty consistent - which a traveling system used to improve planning and the traveling experience.

As we went through the importance of social media and security, I have learnt the importance of promotion of brand as well as how to do so effectively using social media. I have also learnt how vital security is to the business and what needs to be done to ensure that the reputation of the business will not be harmed.

Then as we went on to hardware components, storage, input and output as well as operating systems, this made me think more about the hardware side of the business. As we talked about servers and mainframes in the first week, I knew that my entrepreneurial idea would require heavy usage of computers. I knew the business would require a number of servers and mainframes. But most importantly, I was inspired by the usage of RFID. When I first came out with this idea, I was thinking about using either infrared or the internet to transmit the necessary data to customers. But with the rise of RFID and QR codes, I believe the business would greatly benefit from such a technology. I also learnt about the importance of operating systems. I found out how operating systems play a crucial role in the monitoring of the operation, but it also allowed me to think whether the system can be supported by the various operating systems out there. After all, the mobile devices and computers accessing data will most definitely run on different operating systems.

After learning about networks and databases, I learnt how networks work and how an efficient database comes into play in the business. As I was inspired by RFID and QR code technology, the chapter on networking made me think how RFID can be incorporated into networking. After all, the information from the business needs to be transmitted worldwide. The idea itself is possible but such an operation would require a large amount of investment. Moreover, it is important to have an efficient database as well as people to monitor the operation of this database. A lot of things can be digitalized, but I still believe it is important to have people to monitor it as well as tools to monitor the operation.

Most importantly, I have taken comments from my peers into consideration. Being that my business is a globally divorced system, it is important that the application be available to many languages and cultures. This will broaden the market of the product. Also, I have taken into consideration of a help function. I have thought about using a "self-help" function and a dial in function.

Now that the project is coming into an end, I feel that this entrepreneurial idea is feasible. Yet the only limitation is that the business would require a lot of funding and investment to run such a big international business. Moreover, the technology is out there but it is just that there is room for improvement in the technology in order to make the most out of it. I have most definitely learnt a lot out of this project though.

Comments on Peers:
Gaeun Oh
Ellen Spath
Christopher Nemetz

IST195 Blog Review - The Poor Travel Blogger

The blog that I would like to review is The Poor Travel Blogger. Although information of the blogger is not given in this blog, I find that he/she does a very good job in breaking down travel destinations.

The blogger breaks down travel destinations according to continents. They are Europe, North America, South America, Middle East, Australasia, Asia and Africa. He/she then categorizes the blogs according to the destination. Users are then able to search on individual categories the destination they wish to visit or to find out what the blogger thinks of the destination.

This is indeed a very effective way of categorizing the blog, yet I feel there is still room for improvement in terms of categorizing the blog. For example, Europe itself is a big continent. There is Eastern and Western Europe. There are also various cultures in Europe itself, which opens up a whole new area for categorizing blog posts. I think that if the blogger were able to provide more criteria for searching, users will be able to access demanded blog posts more easily.

Categorizing blog posts is important, yet categorizing within a blog post is also vital too. Some users may not necessarily need or want to read through the entire blog post. The blogger makes full use of using headers for the blog post. For example, he/she may break down a blog post on a destination by shopping, accommodations and food. A reader that wants to find out more about food on a destination will therefore have no need to go through the entire blog to find out what he/she wants to know with the usage of headers.

Categorizing is very important in blogging, but the most important thing in a blog is the content. The blogger has very rich content and also posts colorful and attracting photos. Words can be powerful but sometimes words can be spared by using images. The blogger most definitely makes full use of both words and images. He/she also makes a point to keep a balance of words and images. With all this rich content, it is easy to attract users. This is why I believe the blog appears first when you search "travel blog" on Google.

All in all, I believe this is a very successful blog but there are most certainly room for improvement.

Link
http://poortravelblogger.com/

IST195 Blog Post 7

The world runs with information. To effectively management information, there needs to be an efficient system to handle, access and distribute the information. This brings the importance of database. A database is able to store all the information, categorize the information accordingly, and distribute it according to the right criteria demanded by the administrator and the user.

My entrepreneurial idea is based out of the distribution of information, therefore it is important to know how databases work in order to store and distribute the travel information efficiently and effectively. With the many types of databases out there, I believe my entrepreneurial idea will use a digitalized format of database - to be precise, a spreadsheet database. This way, most platforms will be able to retrieve and document the right data accordingly. A database program such as Microsoft Access could serve this function most effectively for it is able to build entities and relationships between data. This makes data retrieval and data editing much easier for everyone.

IST195 Blog Post 6

Networking is basically the backbone of my entrepreneurial idea. Data from my entrepreneurial idea would mostly be transmitted via the internet. Since data needs to be transmitted from the database to our clients, it is very important to understand how networks work so as to make the most out of it and cut time and cost.

Knowing that a packet is just a small chunk of information, it is important to understand how these chunks of information classified. I believe if the information is clearly classified, they can be well organized. I think this should reduce the size and amount of packets per transaction can be reduced. This should cut down time and cost of transmitting data.

With all the transmission of data worldwide, many servers will need to be used to handle all this information. Therefore, IP addresses and domain names play an important role in the transactions and transmission of the business. As the data is transmitted, all these servers will interact with each other to transmit the data to clients. Each server has an IP address and with it, comes a domain name which acts as an alias for the IP address. It is important to know how servers interact, especially the number of relays needed for clients to access information from all the servers. We need to make sure the number of relays is not too long so that it will not be time consuming. It is also important to ensure that domain names are well regulated just in case hackers start using domain names similar to the business, which may affect the reputation of the business.

IST195 Blog Post 5

An operating system is vital to the operation of a computer. Without it, there will be nothing to manage hardware and software resources. Computers are perhaps the backbone of modern systems - the modern world runs on systems and so the world runs on computers. Therefore, it is vital to understand the functions and usage of an operating system.

Since my entrepreneurial idea runs on a very complicated system, the operating system is very important. The operating system processes all the data, archives it and distributes it to appropriate storage spaces or users. A system so sophisticated would most definitely require a pre-emptive multi-tasking operating system. However, since users with mobile devices need to access the data from the system, I also need to ensure that operating systems on these mobile devices are capable of handling the intensive transfer of data between the system and the mobile devices. This may be a huge hurdle to overcome in my entrepreneurial idea. 

My entrepreneurial idea might also require the usage of open source software. Since users need to make use of source codes, which is the template travel itinerary, published and modify it to form their very own itinerary. At the same time, my business will also need to have access to the source code, which is the customer's itinerary, in order to process and transfer necessary data to customers as they travel.

IST195 Blog Post 4

As I previously mentioned in my first post, the world runs in systems - systems that handle information. An efficient system means that the system handles the information quickly and efficiently. In my entrepreneurial idea, my system will have to handle a lot of information. Information on customers, destinations, traveling plans and much more. If all this information was to be accessed and processed by a system, it might take a long time to transfer all this data globally. There needs to make this information smaller in size so that access and process this data. It is also important to know how much data there is, a standard is needed to measure the amount of data.

By using a binary code, the data of my entrepreneurial idea can be shrinker into just two numbers, 1 and 0. By transferring and accessing all these binary codes, information will become less complex. This makes processing and accessing data a lot more easier and quicker. Most importantly, it would make the system a lot more efficient and effective. The margin of error will be very low as well. Binary codes are the answer to the problem of transferring complex information.

Also, it is important to know the size of the data that is being transferred. If the amount of data exceeds the system's capability, the system will most definitely crash. Such things have happened before and therefore, it is definitely important to monitor all this data. Through monitoring the size of the data by using a standard, we are able to tell how much data is used and whether or not the system is capable of handling the amount of data. Globally recognized prefixes such as "Kilobytes", "Megabytes", "Gigabytes" and the like will help give us a standard unit to measure the amount of data. This makes monitoring the data much more easier.

IST195 Blog Post 3

My entrepreneurial idea would really benefit from the usage of near field communications technology. Since the traveling system that I have in mind will need to transport a lot of data within a short amount of time. A NFC chip will be able to serve this purpose. My business can create NFC chip readers around traveling destinations, for example airports, ferry terminals and car rentals. Customers will be able to acquire, access and update information from the system on their traveling documents and itinerary within a blink of an eye using these NFC chips on their handheld electronic pocket devices. Customers could even use their pocket devices to check in to their flight or their hotel. All they need to do is walk to the counter, then the NFC chip reader will acquire traveling information from the NFC chip, such as booking number, passports information, seat assignment, number of baggages, the list just goes on and on. Instead of spending hours queuing up to check in, customers will just need less than a couple of minutes to check-in. NFC is also faster and more secure than Bluetooth and RFID as well, the margin of error will be low.

However, a major problem is that NFC technology is still very new. Most pocket electronic devices in the market right now don't have NFC technology in them. There is a limitation that RFID features aren't available to every available electronic device. This idea may end up limiting the market to people that are tech savvy. The idea may need to be very well promoted in order to broaden the scope of the market of this system.

IST195 Project - Blog Post 2

Security is a very important subject in a business. We always hear on the news about identity theft as well as company data systems being hacked. Both situations may ruin the reputation of the customer of the company. It will require a long period of time to fix this problem, both on fixing the area on how information was leaked, as well as on clearing the customer/company's name. Customers have the responsibility to ensure that their personal information such as their social security number is well protected, but businesses also need to ensure that their data system is secure and free from hacking.

In my business idea, it would require very personal information on our clients. This includes the client's travel documents, phone numbers, bank account numbers and much more. If fallen into the wrong hands, this information may destruct the lives of our clients as well as the business. To prevent this from happening, my business would need to have a system that not only processes and accesses client information quickly and efficiently, but it would also need to ensure that it does so safely and that there would be no way this information is breached out into public. Moreover, my business also holds the responsibility to ensure that our clients know that their information will be safely guarded in our system. We also hold the responsibility to remind our clients to beware of who they give their personal information to. This is the least that can be done from letting the personal information of our clients from leaking out into public.

IST195 Project - Blog Post 1

The world is all about data. To access to data efficiently, there has to be a system that organizes data. Well spreadsheets are programs used to organize data. Information can be processed smoothly and data can be accessed easily with an efficient and organized system. Spreadsheets help create such a system for users to input and organize data systematically. 

In my business idea, it is crossed over with many industries. A travel agency business, has data on destinations, ticket pricing and contact information just to name a few. The airline industry such as airline information, flight times, travel times. The airport industry has to have information on airport locations, airline routes and aircraft information. This is only the surface of the business, there is so much more data to it like financial figures and client information. Using spreadsheet, all this data can be systematically organized. This makes it easy to review, edit and extract this data. Even usage of the application that I suggested, this data will most likely be uploaded into the internet. Data on a spreadsheet system will be accessed through cloud computing where clients can access their data systematically.

IST195 Entrepreneurial Idea

Traveling itself can be a pain in the butt, let alone planning for a trip. Whenever we work on our own traveling itinerary, there are always things that we miss out. The idea that I have is a system that aids and eases the planning and traveling process.

Planning a trip through your travel agent can be annoying. Traveling to the travel agency requires traveling time and most people prefer to do their booking over the phone. Yet it is difficult to be on the same page with your travel agent and to pass on details through the phone over the phone. Other than booking your trip via your travel agent, there are also online travel agencies. Big online travel agency websites like Expedia and Orbitz always throw random links at you whenever you look up plane rides and hotel room vacancies. Rarely are you able to settle on your planning and booking on just one website. 

Most of the time, our traveling doesn't exactly go along with our itinerary. We are unable to find where to checkin, how much time we have to transit, where our transit gate, where we pick up our baggage is and the like. All these can take up time and delay us from our plan. Sometimes we wish we had a "GPS" that tells us what to do and where to go.

I want to build a system that is able to consolidate all the travel planning and travel itinerary all in one go. The system gives you a template and it enables you to makes all your bookings - bus tickets, ferry tickets, plane tickets, hotel bookings, car rental for example, on it. This template forms your itinerary. The itinerary includes directions on where to go, how to get there, as well as things you need to do. For example, someone needs to transit flights. The system will tell you where to clear customs, where you should pick up your baggage as well as where your transit gates is. This itinerary can be printed out or used on mobile devices.