The long tail business model

The long tail is a common retailing concept which describes a specific commercial strategy. This niche strategy will focus on selling a large number of products but in relatively small quantities. The opposed strategy is focused on selling fewer products but in larger quantities. People have developed the "long tail theory" which claims that our culture and economy is progressively shifting from a focus on a relatively small number of products toward a huge number of niches in the tail.

The term “long tail” refers to the orange part of the chart above, which shows a standard demand curve that could apply to any industry. The vertical axis represents sales while the horizontal shows the variety of products. The red part of the curve is the “hits”, which have dominated our markets and culture for most of the last century. The orange part is the “non-hits”, or niches, which is where the new growth is coming from now and in the future.

The World is flat : Analysis of Thomas Friedman's book

Thomas Friedman has written a book named The World Is Flat which is a good basis for analyzing globalization in the 21st century. It views the world as a place where all competitors have an equal opportunity. Because of this, countries and companies have to change in order to remain competitive in a global market where historical and geographical divisions become more and more irrelevant. In his book, Friedman describes a journeyto Bangalore in India, when he understood globalization has affected the core economic concepts. He named this period “Globalization 3.0”, distinguishing this period from the previous Globalization 1.0 in which countries were the main protagonists, and the Globalization 2.0 in which multinational companies began driving global integration. In his book, Friedman reports many instances of companies based in India and China that, by offering labor from typists and call center operators to accountants and computer programmers, have become integral parts of complex global supply chains for companies such as Dell or even Microsoft. Friedman always uses lists, usually numbered, as an organizational device to communicate key concepts. Thomas Friedman believes that to fight this crisis of a flattening world, the U.S. work simply force should keep updating its work skills. Friedman argues that making the work force more adaptable will keep it more employable. He also recommends that the government make it easier to change jobs by making retirement benefits and health insurance less dependent on one's employer, and by offering insurance that would partly cover an eventual drop in income when changing jobs. Finally, Friedman also believes there should be more inspiration for youth to be scientists, engineers, and mathematicians due to a decrease in the percentage of these professionals being American.

Google docs

Google Docs is a free word processor that you can use by going on the appropriate website. It can also be used as a spreadsheet or in order to store various data. This system is simply a service offered by Google, it is very useful, easier to use than Microsoft Office one and it allows people to create and even to edit documents directly online.

To explain this system more in details, we can say that documents, spreadsheets, forms and presentations can be created thanks to this application. You can also import them through the web, or even sent them via email to other users. Documents can also be saved directly on the computer which allows people to always keep a record of their work.

Unfortunately, there are some disadvantages. For example, there is a limit on how much a user can store on his account. To give you an example, individual documents cannot exceed 1GB, embedded images must not exceed 2MB each, and spreadsheets are limited to 256 columns, 200,000 cells, and 99 sheets. As you can see, Google docs is a really useful tool available on the net but does not provide as much applications as Microsoft Office.

RSS

RSS is a format which is used to deliver regularly changes in web content. In other words, it is a family of web formats useful to publish updated works in a standardized format. An RSS document, or feed, offer people access to full or summarized texts. This technique is very useful for publishers because it lets them syndicate content automatically, but is also benefits readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from various websites into a unique place.


RSS is also very easy to use; people can read RSS feeds just by using RSS reader software, or feed reader. A standardized XML format will then allow the information to be published and read by many other different programs.

There are many different examples of websites using the RSS technology: many news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers…

There are many benefits and reasons for using RSS. We can talk about the fact that RSS is able to solve a problem for people who regularly use the web. It allows people to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest content from the sites they are interested in. People can also save time by not needing to visit each site individually. Another advantage is that it ensures privacy by not needing to join each site's e-mail newsletter.

Social Networking

Social networking is the new way people can communicate in the 21st century. It involves the grouping of individuals into specific groups. Most of the time it occurs online because the Internet is filled with millions of persons who just want to meet other people, to gather and share information and experiences about different topics, to develop friendships or professional relations, or to find employment. The various topics and interests are as varied and rich as the story of the world.

When online social networking is concerned, websites are the most commonly used tools, and are known as social sites. Depending on the website, many of these online community members share common interests in various topics. Once you have an access to a social networking website you can begin to socialize and to speak with many other people.

The friendships you can create are just one of the many different benefits to social networking online. Another one of those benefits includes diversity because we can have access to social networking sites all around the world. You can also just learn from others' experience and about new cultures or new languages.

While there are many social networking websites focusing on particular interests, there are others that do not. The websites without a main focus are often named "traditional" social networking websites and usually have open memberships, thus anyone can become a member. Once you are a part of this online community, you can begin to create your own network of friends and eliminate members that do not share the same interests or goals as you.

There are also some dangers to use social networking, such as data theft and viruses. The most dangerous danger is the online predators or individuals who says they are someone that they are not. By being aware of who you are talking to, you should be able to safely use social networking online.

Privacy on the Internet

The Internet has revolutionized how we communicate, allowing sharing without limits or boundaries of information. However, with the appetite of new businesses came to enjoy this windfall, it is not surprising that privacy and security were the big losers of this revolution. The considerable increase in acts of violation of privacy and security since the birth of the Internet illustrates this alarming trend.

The right to privacy is not confined to the freedom not to be disturbed and interrupted in its activities. The power to exercise control over our personal information is an essential aspect of this fundamental right. In the digital age, where the collection of personal data is of great value, protection of privacy is more and more important.

For me, there are four things we must give importance when we talk about protection of privacy on the Internet:

- Anonymity is impossible (for other users) to determine the true name of the user associated with a subject, an operation, an object.

- Pseudonymity: as above, except that the user can be held accountable.

- Non-chaînabilité: impossibility (for other users) to link different operations performed by the same user.

- Unobservability: impossible (for other users) to determine whether an operation is underway.

Website using Web 2.0

Proponents of Web 2.0 approach believe that Web use is increasingly moving towards more interaction between users and the creation of rudimentary social networks that can serve content exploiting network effects, with or without actual visual rendering and interactive web pages. In this sense, Web 2.0 sites act more as points of presence, or web portals and user-centric rather than on traditional websites.


General Characteristics:

The precise definition of a Web 2.0 application is still hotly debated. However, it is generally accepted that a Web 2.0 site must show certain characteristics:
- the site should not be a secret garden, that is to say, it must be easy to enter or leave the system information

- the user must retain ownership of its own data

- the site should be fully usable through a standard browser

- aspects of social networks.

 

Regarding all these information, we could say that many websites are using Web 2.0. Some of these are websites to chat with people (ebuddy, emessenger or yahoo web messenger), websites which provide videos (youtube, google video) or networks websites (netlog, facebook)

How does Facebook make money?

Facebook is the most well-known social network online. It allows you to speak with all your friends in live and also to keep in touch with them whenever and wherever you want.

But how facebook makes money?

Facebook use a really simple method: put advertising on the website.

There are many companies which want to appear on the Facebook websites because there are millions users in the world and that is a really good strategy to be seen by many people at the same time.

Advertising is the only method used by Facebook to make money; they don't have any subscription fees and they don't really sell any information because all is free on Facebook.

Hewlett-Packard build intelligent memory: the memristor

The researchers who work for Hewlett-Packard have developed a working unit of a memory circuit that exists already in theory for 37 years. This new technology could ultimately replace RAM and make computers more intelligent by tracking data it has retained. This technology, called memristor, could allow computers to make decisions by understanding past patterns of data it has collected. In other words, memristor would have properties similar to a synapse in a brain.

A memristor circuit requires lower voltage and less time to turn on than other competitive memories such as DRAM and flash, thus it uses much less power. Memristor circuits can also store more data than flash memory. Memristor is the fourth fundamental circuit element (the other three are resistor, capacitor and inductor) and has properties that cannot be reproduced by any combination of the other three elements.

HP is not going to reproduce all the functions of a brain in memristor, but the company tries to build a simple computing machine that operates on a different principle from today's computers. The scientists have created the memory by applying a charge on a circuit with blocks of titanium dioxide. The actual resistance of the memristor changes depends on the amount of current flowing through the circuit. When the current is turned off, the memory retains the information it has acquired.

Although the concept of memristor has been real for some years, the memory prototype is an academic device that will first work its way to academia, but it really could hit the commercial semiconductor market in five years.

New Google for Web 3.0 created by TenForce

Convert information into data which can be read by computers and make such data usable for businesses and individuals is the next big challenge on the net.


The Belgian integrator “TenForce” is working on the use of information on Web 3.0. The goal is to develop a kind of 'Google' to access and view tag information. This project, for which 6.45 million € were disbursed, will last four years, and the University of Leipzig cooperate also to this project.

“The European Commission began gradually to realize the significance of tag data and make them 'machine readable', so that others could access them more easily," adds mister Deblieck, the co-founder of “TenForce”. The purpose is in reality to develop a machine which will index, solicit and combine data. Currently, there is still no software available which include these kinds of use.

In addition to developing a “machine index”, it will also remove remaining barriers between data providers and users, and solutions must be found in terms of reliability. This technology will ensure that end users can be sure that information always comes from and to the right source.

Some parties want to be compensated for the use of data they make available; these data should be traceable, so that you can be paid each time your information emerges somewhere.

"Green IT", or "IT for Green"?

The Green IT concept emerged three years ago as a way to talk about the positive impact that IT could have on our environment. It is possible through telepresence or videoconferencing, hardware virtualization, and highly polluting industries could also install telepresence rooms to speak of their environmental efforts.

 

In some countries there is a carbon tax which force big companies to publish a carbon report, identify the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and take concrete measures to limit these emissions.

These measures will make us move from "Green IT" to "IT for Green" because of a great contribution from information systems to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

In practice, there are three kinds of initiatives:

1) Limiting emissions within IT departments, the main goal is to implement technology developed in the fields of virtualization.

2) Savings in other areas through the use of information technology. For example, a consumer goods manufacturer can cut its CO2 emissions by replacing international flights with telepresence sessions to communicate with its major sites. Another example could be a ground transportation firm which can save in fuel by optimizing logistics.

3) The installation of systems for measuring greenhouse gas emissions.


Green IT has arrived at a turning point. No longer simply something to talk about when discussing sustainable development, it's now becoming a critical tool for companies who plan to set up a coherent and quantifiable strategy for limiting greenhouse gas emissions.


I will conclude by saying that “Green IT” is dead but I hope that “IT for Green” will have a long life!