Conclusion about Wiki Articles

I just finished editing all of my wikipedia articles. Here is the progression for each one.

Nordstrom:

I started the Nordstrom article by cleaning up the grammar. It wasn't too bad, but there were certainly some sentences that I changed around and improper punctuation. When I went to edit the article a second time, I was shocked by how much had changed. Someone repeated the history section again but in different words and under a different subheading. Therefore, I had delete one section and I also added some information about how many stores and discount locations are currently in the United States. Lastly, I added an excerpt from the diverstity mission statement because I found it rather interesting.

Jack's Mannequin:

I began by editing for grammar errors the first time around. Next, I did some research on the web and found a link to Jack's official blog. I thought this was so cool because it is exactly what are talking about in class-using blogs as a form of engagement marketing. Therefore, I added a link under the "External Link" subtitle for the blog. Finally, I finished my edits by writing about the lead singer's struggle with cancer. I was surprised that no one had talked about it thus far. I think that I really added a lot of useful information to this article and anyone who is a fan will appreciate it.

Online Poker:

First, I checked for grammar errors on the first round of edits. Next, I added some information regarding online gambling legislation. Lastly, I added the fact that players can find much lower table limits on line versus in traditional brick and mortar casinos. I decided to edit this article because I am an online poker player myself. I learned a lot of new information and hopefully offered some info to others as well.

Pina Colada:

Again, I began the editing process by cleaning up grammatical errors. Next, I wrote about the Pina Colada song in the article. You know, "If you like Pina Coladas, and standing out in the rain." This was important because the song contributed to the widespread popularity of the drink in the United States. Finally, I added a variation of the Pina Colada known either as the Lava Flow or Miami Vice. It is a mixture of Strawberry Daquiri and Pina Colada. This was certainly the most difficult of the articles to edit because there really isn't much to say about a frozen drink. It forced me to be creative.

Conclusion:

I enjoyed the wikipedia project. Previously, I had never edited a wikipedia article myself. However, I frequently use wikipedia as a source of information when I do internet research. Therefore, it was interesting to see how the open-source wikipedia network operates and how articles are constantly evolving. The following are links to the articles I edited throughout the course of the semester:

Nordstrom
Jack's Mannequin
Online Poker
Pina Colada

Online Gambling..The Final Hoorah

I just finished my final edit on the online gambling wiki article. I added a paragraph under the "Differences From Conventional Poker" subheading. I explained the difference in betting limits between online and brick and mortar casinos. Whoever edited this section previously failed to mention this aspect of online poker. In a traditional casino, the cheapest game a player can find is usually $1/$2 limit or no llimit. However, online poker sites have betting limits as low as $.01/$.02. This aspect of online casinos is ideal for someone who enjoys the casual game of poker, but does not want to risk a large amount of money. Check out the online poker article and see what you think.

Jack's Mannequin: Final Edit

I just edited the Jack's Mannequin article for the final time. I was shocked to find that no one had mentioned the lead singer's cancer battle in the article. Andrew McMahon was dianosed with Acute Lymphatic Leukemia in June 2005, and the band was forced to postpone a tour that was scheduled to support the first record release. I couldn't believe that no one wrote about this in the article because McMahon openly talks about it and how it has changed his life in interviews and at concerts. Check out more about Jack's Mannequin.

Pina Colada...what more can I say?

I just did my final edit on the pina colada article. It was hard for me to find much to add to this article because there was already a history of the drink, picture, recipie, etc. There isn't much more you can say about a pina colada. Therefore, I searched the web and found that there is a variation on the drink called a Miami Vice or a Lava Flow. It is a strawberry daquiri and pina colada blend. I had this drink last summer on vacation and it is quite delicious. Check it out.

Final Nordstrom Edit

Hey guys, I just finished editing the Nordstrom article for the final time. Since the last time I edited, someone did a nice job of organizing the history of the company with relevant subtitles. Today, I added the diversity mission statement that I found on Nordstrom's website to the wiki article. I thought that it was cool and showed that Nordstrom is committed to variety within the company. Check out the article here.

Pina Colada's WOO

I just completed my final edit for the day on the Pina Colada wikipedia article. There isn't much I could do with this article, considering most of the information about the pina colada on the web is just a picture with a recipie. However, I did add a line from Escape (the pina colada song). A line in the chorous of the song goes, "If you like pina coladas, and standing out in the rain." This song was extremely popular and became the number one Billboard Hot 100 hit of the 1970's. It certainly increased the popularity of the pina colada drink throughout the country. Check out my edit here.

Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act: Wiki Edit

Today I edited the Online Poker article again. The article is pretty detailed, but I found some more information regarding the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforement Act that I added to it. The article didn't really explain what the act considered "unlawful". Therefore I added that: "According to the UIGEA, 'unlawful internet gambling' means to place, recieve, or otherwise knowingly transmit a bet or wager by means of the internet where such bet is unlawful under any law in the State in which the bet is initiated, recieved, or otherwise made." Hopefully, this will help people better understand the act. It has certainly had a negative effect on many large internet gaming sites. Check out more about online poker.

More About Jack's Mannequin: Wiki Edit

So in case you guys forgot, I chose the band, Jack's Mannequin, for one of my wikipedia articles. For my second edit, I added an external link to Jack's Mannequin's official blog. I thought this was a very appropriate addition to the article, especially since we have been working with blogs for the entire semester. The Jack's Mannequin blog is a perfect example of engagement marketing. The band talks about various different issues and allows listeners and viewers to respond with any ideas. After the Virginia Tech tragegy, the band expressed their sympathy to all those affected by the incident via a blog post. Check out my edit here. Most importantly, here is a link to Jack's Mannequin's blog It's really interesting, be sure to check it out.

Wiki Edit: Nordstrom dos

I editied the Nordstrom article for the second time today. I was amazed by how much the article had changed since the first edit. The first thing I did was fix a typo. The heading "Company History" was written twice, so I removed one of them. Next and most importantly, I was reading through the article and it seemed as though two different people wrote about the company history and repeated the exact same information. I can't believe that no one picked up on this sooner. Therefore, I deleted the information about the company history that was written under the "expansion" heading, and kept the information under the "history" section. Lastly, I added that Nordstrom currently has 99 full line stores and 47 discount stores in 27 different states. If you want to check out my edit, look here.

Inside AdWords: Protecting Your Online Security

Google's AdWords blog highlighted the issue of online security in this article. This is a perfect example of how a company can utilize blogs to maintain open communication with their clients and keep them informed about current events that may affect them in one way or another. In this case, Google is addressing an issue that occured on April 24 when they identified and canceled AdWords accounts that re-directed users to malicious sites. Once the user clicked on an ad, the sites attempted to store malware on the user's computer. Google wants their users to know that they are taking this issue very seriously. The company also encouragers people to continously update their virus software and routinely conduct system scans to protect their computers. I enjoyed this article because it relates to a lot of issues we have discussed in class.

How am i doing on the stiuqxela?

I hope this gets me some google juice. stiuqxela

John Batelle's New Interactive Web Chat

I read an article today in the blogosphere about interactive web chats. John Batelle's search blog is going to be having their first interactive web chat this week. The format will be question and answer, and can even ask the audience survey questions. In this particular post, he asks bloggers that will participating to give him some heads up on what everyone wants to talk about. He offers some ideas for topics including: Can Yahoo pull even or ahead of Google? and What's the Future Interface for Search? Many people posted comments in response with ideas for conversational topics. I think this is a good way to engage people and make sure you are keeping them interested with things they want to see and hear. Good move, Batelle.

Stiuqxela

This is my first post in which I am participating in the class blogging experiment. The word of the day is stiuqxela. Hopefully, stiuqxela will come up first on the google results in my blog so I can win a cool prize. stiuqxela, stiuqxela, stiuqxela. Check out stiuqxela and the green bay packers site. That's all. Bye.

Virginia Tech Article

Today in class we talked about an article regarding the Virginia Tech tragedy. The main idea of the article is that social media tools such as blogs and social networks were not utilized to effectively manage the crisis situation. According to an article in the New York Times, students were not notified about the first shooting via email until 9:26 am, over two hours after the first gun shot occurred. Although students did utilize blogs, phones, and Facebook to communicate with one another, many question why instant tools were not utilized by the university to notify the students of what was actually going on. This is definatley an idea that organzations and universities across the nation should consider factoring into their crisis management plans in the future. Who know whether the proper use of social media tools would have helped during the tragedy? All we can do now is better plan for the future and hope that something this awful never happens again.

Class Today

Today in class we read a really interesting article about Amazon. The main issue in the article revolved around the fact that Amazon's loyal customers are growing angry because it seems that new customers are receiving greater discounts. Old customers found that by making small changes to their computers to avoid cookie files they were offered better prices. Angry discussion forum posts state that Amazon's behavior is "unethical" and "sneaky." Amazon claims that the price differentials do not reflect whether customers are new or old. Rather, the are the result of various buyer behavior tests. The company maintains the sole purpose of the tests is to discover how different price levels affect purchasing behavior. A spokeswoman for Amazon claims, "It's quite a standard procedure in retailing." Regardless of whether the company used cookies or not, the central point of the article is that as technology becomes more advanced and common, buying histories are expected to make a difference in price. How will this affect e-commerce in the future? Time will tell.

Pina Colada anyone?

I wanted to change one of my Wikipedia articles, but I couldn't decide what I wanted to switch to. So after sitting in my freezing cold room for a little while, I found myself wishing I were back in Southbeach in the beautiful 80 degree weather sipping on a pina colada. Therefore, I looked up the famous frozen drink on Wikipeida and decided to edit the article. Since the article is relatively short, there weren't many grammatical errors. However, I did clean up the introduction paragraph and rearranged some of the sentences. The article is not very detailed, so it leaves plenty of room for expansion in my future edits. Check out the article and read more about the pina colada if you love them too.

No, chimpanzees should not have human rights. They're not human!

My awesome teammate, Kerri Angell, had a very interesting post regarding whether or not chimpanzees should have the same rights as human beings. Kerri's post was in regard to an article she found on Slashdot highlighting the story of a Brazillian court that has granted a chimpanzee with habeas corpus. It seems a court in Austria may follow this course of action in the future as well. Habeas corpus grants human beings the right to a fair trial and punishment. What could chimps possibly need a fair trail for? If anyone has any ideas I would love to hear, because this issue has got me stumped. Check out what Kerri has to say and the actual Slashdot article.

Back to Blogging: Wikipedia Edit

Well, spring break is over and it is time to return to the wonderful world of blogging. One of the articles I chose to edit on Wikipedia is "Online Poker." I used to play poker online on common sites such as Poker Stars and Party Poker. Since we've discussed the legality issue in many of our classes, I thought it would be a good topic to research. This is my first edit on this article, so I just did a grammar clean-up. If you would like to check out my edit and more about online poker click here. With the next edit, I will attempt to add more updated information on the legality issues.

Last Post Before Spring Break

Helllo again. Today, I came across a cool post on John Batelle's Searchblog in my newsfeed. He is testing a service with Simply Hired that is going to allow employers to post job openings on Searchblog. I think that is a perfect example of how technology is changing jobs and organizations. It is beneficial to both employers and employees. Employees can do a detailed search and uncover various job offerings in different geographic regions they may be interested in. Employers can view resumes and really improve efficiency in the pre-interview process of finding potential matches for job openings. Check it out here and see what you think.

What was that test?!

Hello, I was just wondering if anyone else was really surprised by the test that we just took?! I felt as though I prepared well for the test and knew a majority of the important information. I feel like it is more important to retain information like how technology affects certain industries rather then statistics pertaining to the annual retail sales. Also, the format was very confusing and I feel that it set us up for failure. It was simple to eliminate most answers, but the all of the above threw me for a loop everytime. I guess that I know now how to prepare for the final. Hopefully, the professor will provide us with a review sheet or something next time to help us concentrate our studying. I think that would be very helpful. It was a ton of material and to expect people to remember small details and statistics is just not feasible. But, who knows? Maybe I'm the only one who did horrible! I guess we'll find out after spring break!

This Week's Class

Our first exam is this Wednesday. I am preparing for the test by studying all of the class notes in great depth and supplementing them with the material from Naked Conversations and The Search. I have found some topics of particular interest. It is very interesting to learn how different organizations have been affected by the internet and the web. The new technologies can both enable industries or disrupt them. A good example of how the internet is disruptive lies with the travel industry. Traditional travel agents are being replaced with sites that are informative and allow customers to book online such as expedia. This is an example of disintermediation. Also, I found Google's China issue rather interesting. If Google were to stay in the Chinese market, it would compromise their reputation. Trust is such a huge issue with companies nowadays, especially with the prevalence of blogging. Google needs to find a way to tap into the Chinese market, though. Time will tell.

Slashdot

Helllllo everyone. Tonight I was looking at some of the required blogs for our class when I found something pretty interesting on Slashdot. It seems that high schools are looking into the use of video games for educational purposes. The rationale behind the idea is that current teaching plans don't hold students' interest. Therefore, video games with real life educational dilemmas will do a better job in capturing and retaining their attention. Some obstacles to this proposed learning style include the issue of video game addiction and the negative public image of video games in general. What do you think?

Wiki Edit: Nordstrom

Hey guys, I just completed an edit on the Nordstrom wikipedia article. This was my first edit on for the article, so I just tried to clean up some of the grammatical errors. In particular, there were some run on sentences that I re-wrote. There weren't too many problems with the article, except that it wasn't as detailed as I would have expected. I did a paper on Nordstrom for a class last semester, so I will be adding a great deal of information about the company in the following two edits. Check out edit #1 for now! Bye!

Roger's Sweet Post

I was just reading Roger's, one of my sweet teammates, post about online gambling. I found this topic interesting in class because I play poker online too. Roger mentioned an act passed by the U.S. Congress in September of 2006 which made it even more difficult for American's to gamble online. I always knew that it was a foggy subject of law, but I didn't actually realize it was considered flat out illegal until this law was passed either. Like my awesome teammate points out in his extremely interesting blog post, many people are still gambling online in the United States and will continue to find ways around the law. If you want to check out what Roger has to say, here's the link to his class blog.

Internet Fraud: Phishing

Hey guys, me again. Today in class we talked about a type of internet fraud called phishing. I actually have recieved these types of emails, but I didn't know that it was called phishing or that it is so prevalent on the internet. Basically, this type of internet fraud is designed to steal your personal data such as passwords, credit card numbers, etc. An email is typically sent to your inbox from a website that looks legit and trustworthy. You then click on it and update you account or provide a password and the phishers steal your information. I found a webiste that might be helpful in identifying phishing scams and different products and services that can help you prevent this type of internet fraud. Check it out.

Wikipedia Edit: Jack's Mannequin

Hey guys. I just completed my first wikipedia edit. The article I edited was "Jack's Mannequin." For those of you that may not know Jack's Mannequin, they are a California rock band. The band is a the result of a solo project by Something Corporate's lead singer and pianist, Andrew McMahon. My edit simply cleaned up some of the grammar and added a few new facts. Most of the grammar was decent, but I decided to change the way some things were worded and fix some run-on sentences. Also, I added that McMahon was the former vocalist/pianist for Something Corporate and that he paid for the production of the Jack's Mannequin album out of his own pocket before he was actually signed to a label. Click here to check out my edit and read more about Jack's Mannequin!

Why We Are Blogging

Hey, it's me again. After a week of class, it is apparent why we are using blogging so heavily in this course. First and foremost, technology and the web are advancing extremely rapidly nowadays. Blogging has changed the marketing field drastically by heavily increasing the amount of interaction level of customers. Companies are beginning to loose control over their customers, and the leading factor to success today is strictly product quality rather than advertising or name brand awareness. Another important reason for blogging in this class is to become more familiar with CSS and HTML. Lastly, we formed a group of three other classmates and are expected to comment and post based on our teammates blogs. This will increase interaction within the class and between the professor and his students. More information about our class and the purpose of our blogging can be found on the class blog.

Introductory Post

Hi, I'm Katie Sandy and I am a senior at University of Delaware. This is my last semester of college and surprisingly my first experience with blogging. I am excited about this course, primarily because advancing technology has a huge impact on marketing tactics. Blogging is used by a wide array of companies in order to engage in word of mouth marketing at low costs. While searching the internet, I came across an article on Forbes.com discussing the importance of blogs in the field of marketing today. I am looking forward to learning more about blogging and information technology in general and how it will impact my career.