Week 5 - E-business

Don't you think the internet has advanced so greatly that we can now even do business on the internet! This wonderful phenomenon is known as E-business.

Ebusiness is a term used to describe businesses that run on the Internet,or utilizing Internet technologies to improve the productivity or profitability of a business. In most contexts ebusiness refers exclusively to Internet businesses.
There are many advantages as to running a business using the internet.By selling products and services online, an ebusiness is able to reach a much wider consumer base than any traditional brick-and-mortar store could ever hope for. This function of ebusiness is referred to as ecommerce, and the terms are occasionally used interchangeably.

There is also another term which is closely related to business on the internet. And that term is known as "eprocurement". An ebusiness may also use the Internet to acquire wholesale products or supplies for in-house production. This facet of ebusiness is sometimes referred to as eprocurement, and may offer businesses the opportunity to cut their costs dramatically. Even many ebusinesses which operate without an electronic storefront now use eprocurement as a way to better track and manage their purchasing.

I feel that e-business is a lot more faster and efficient and it reaches a wider range of consumers. All information that you need and want to know about the product is available to you in seconds. For example, on Facebook itself we can find many people running their business there selling things like clothings and accessories. So what happens here is that usually when you are interested in a particular product which you see on their Facebook page, you just need to comment on it and the person would send you a personal message giving you the details and the price. All you need to do is confirm the order, transfer the money and the product gets delivered to you within a few days.

How fast is that? It makes shopping a lot more easier because you can do it while you're on the net surfing, or doing some research paper that is due in time to come. In fact, i have quite a lot of friends who have opened businesses on the internet selling clothings, accessories and nail polish. And when i ask them, many have had positive comments about their E-business. They do mention that they make quite a great amount of profit as their business is exposed to a wider range of consumers and this makes their business a lot more profitable and efficient.

So what are you waiting for?

Go think of a business to do and get it running on the net!

You can be richer than you currently are within seconds!

Week 3-online identity and privacy

As we all know, teenagers and young adults have flocked to the so-called "social networking sites" such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. So much to the extent that kids who don't have a profile are becoming the exception to the rule.

Cheaper, more accessible technologies have not only broken down barriers to multimedia production, but also psychological barriers to self-expression on the Internet. These social networking sites give children the opportunity to share stories, pictures, videos, and other files with friends and acquaintances.

For kids of this generation, who have used Internet-based technologies for many social purposes, posting a profile of one's self and sending messages and files to friends is a natural progression.

As such, parents have started to worry about their kids identity and privacy online. However, parents need to fret not as there are privacy settings on most networking sites whereby you can restrict and control who can or cannot see your profile. And most kids are definitely aware of this tool.

When the hype of this social networking sites just sparked off, parents worry was their child's identity and privacy online. However, that has been countered with the privacy setting tools present in these social networking sites. Now what parents are worrying about is their kids restricting their own parents from viewing their profiles.

There have been many studies done to show the effects of social networking sites on parent-child relationships and many parents have complained that what they see on their kids profiles are not exactly it because they limit the things that their parents can see.

In my opinion, i think parents should give their kids their own space with regards to all these social networking sites. It is without a doubt that parents should be on a constant lookout for their kids to ensure that they do go onto the right path. And honestly, i believe that kids will not limit their profiles and restrict their parents from viewing it so as long as they have open and approachable parents. All kids would desire to be able to talk to their parents just like talk to their friends. Hence, i believe that with this new age of social networking sites, parents should also start to learn and fully equip themselves with the necessary skills of these sites and start spending more time and talking to their kids and ensuring that they educate their kids about the pros and cons of these sites. This will enable their kids to use these sites responsibly. And at the same, it can help improve the parent-child relationship. Result from a study stated that kids do not mind having their parents on their facebook so as long as they do not invade their space. I believe that if parents approach these kind of topics tactfully and make their kids understand and have an open relationship with them, we could possibly see more and more kids adding their parents as their friends on Facebook.