Intro to New Technology - Sean Young - Unroll.me

While in the elevator at work this morning, I saw a blurb about a new application called Unroll.me I have so much email with offers from Groupon, Best Buy, Target, the bank Mary Kay, Art Van Furniture and many more. Sometimes it really gets on my nerves because I'm deleting things, and sometimes I delete some of my good mail because it's mixed in with junk. I thought to myself how I'd love to have something that could help control my email clutter. So I thought it was very interesting and I wanted to take a look at Unroll.me. This free simple tool which you can download from the Google play or Apple App store. It accesses your inbox and syncs the messages to their servers and archive them away from your inbox. It keeps the content but consolidates the emails and sends you a message that has your newsletters and subscription emails into one. Unroll.me has thumbnail renderings of the email messages, so that you can see them at a quick glance. It can cut down on all the mundane emails sitting in your inbox. It supports Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, iCloud and many more. The fun part is you can also unsubscribe from any of the sites that send you all that unwanted emails. Now for full disclosure about this app, I must say in my research, there are some things that can be improved with this otherwise great tool. When the emails are consolidated, the new emails that come into the inbox don't get noticed right away. When using the unsubscribe features, it is not known what happens when the user clicks unsubscribe from a site. When I read the FAQ it didn't really explain that part. But even after all that, I think that Unroll.me is something to at least look into, you might be surprised. I know I'm going to try it and with any luck, I can have a clean inbox.

New Technology-Making Obtaining Information Seamless

 I have met the future and her name is Alexa.  Most of us are familiar with Amazon for their amazing 2-day shipping, and Amazon Prime.  Well, now get ready to welcome Alexa into your lives; Alexa is a hands-free, voice-activated small device with a built – in speaker.

Alexa can do all the things, provide information, play music,  news, sports scores, weather and more – instantly. Alexa can hear your voice commands from any direction, the other side of the room, even in noisy environments. Alexa can hear from just about anywhere in your home or office.  Alexa has not one, but seven microphones that utilize far-field voice recognition software with enhanced noise cancellation software.

My all time favorite feature Alexa performs is her ability to call me a Lyft or Uber.  Additionally, you can order food, ask quick trivia questions and more Alexa has about 8,000 plus commands she responds to.  Alexa has quickly become my new best friend for playing competitive scrabble, she knows all of the double and triple score words.  After the success of Amazon's first model and the advent of Google Home, Amazon is back with a vengeance; so get ready to wake up and say hello Alexa!

By:
Sean Terrell

Technology already in Use - Sean Young

Live Video Streaming is a technology that is a fun and engaging way to get people talking. Everybody whose anybody can host a live show using Facebook Live if you have a Facebook account. It is a fascinating new feature that the innovative folks over at Facebook came up with that is all the rage. People are using this tool to share with the world those important and sometimes less important moments and events in their lives. Businesses, musicians and movie goers journalists to teens, everyone is using Facebook live. When this new option popped up, I was excited about it because I needed a way to be able to share our church worship services. I loved the fact that we can live stream an event from where ever we are. What I really like about using Facebook Live is that we have a lot of older members at the church and if they are home convalescing, they don't miss any of the worship. Unlike Snap Chat, Live stream videos doesn't disappear. This benefits us greatly because most of the congregation will go back to our Facebook page to view the video again. Most will post a comment and that is a great way to engage others in conversation. If we are at a visiting church where our pastor is preaching, we still can stream it live and I think that's fantastic. We've had people visit our church after someone recommended that they like our page. They watched the videos and read the comments, then decided to visit us in person. This makes Facebook Live an evangelism tool as well. The best part is it doesn't cost a thing, but can yield many benefits. If you have not tried Facebook Live, when it's time for your next important event or announcement, try it out and see for yourself.

Best Use Of New Technology-Indoor Mapping

Google has become the leader in mapping the globe.  From just about anywhere, you can find real time directions to the nearest Italian restaurant, hotel etc.  This technology allows people to explore with confidence. But what about an indoor space?

I work on a very large, medical campus.  There are numerous buildings linked through a network of bridges, tunnels and breezeways.  There is no map for the inside of  the building.  Even long time employees get turned around.  Patients and new staff are always getting lost.  A few companies are looking to change that.  Mapspeople is a company that works with Google maps to develop digital indoor wayfinding for airports, universities, hospitals , convention centers, etc.

Imagine that you are going to McCormick Place for the Auto show.  There are multiple floors, multiple entry ways.  Finding your way from point A to point B can be difficult.  You may be huddled up with numerous other people at the large floorplan posted at the entrance to the auto show.  Or you may get a printed map.  But it doesnt tell you where you are at that moment in relation to where you want to go.  By simply downloading an app to your smartphone, you can have a full layout of the convention center.  Location of  the nearest rest room, the food court etc.  With the application of these programs, you will be able to find your way to that new concept car your kids wanted to see, just in time for the spokes person to do their presentation  and you get to see all the features.  All of this in real time, with feedback in case you get lost.

Best Use of Existing Technology — Deborah Hyatt

One of the best marketing approaches utilizing current web technology is GoPro’s use of consumer-generated content to help sell its “adventure cams” and related products (drones, stabilizers, mounts, accessories, etc.). Cannon, Panasonic, Sony, and other video camera manufacturers don’t come close to do what GoPro has done via the huge and ever-changing WATCH section on its website at https://gopro.com/channel/.

There, every visitor can immediately access hundreds of consumer-submitted videos compiled into content-driven playlists. Current categories include “Skate,” “Bike,” “Wild Animals,” “Aquatic Adventures,” “Short Films,” “Flight,” “GoPro for a Cause,” “Furry Friends,” and many more. The result is an enormous, entertaining, and often informative offering of videos that make the quality, usefulness, and durability of GoPro’s products completely clear to site visitors, without ever feeling like a series of product testimonials or reviews.

The playlists compile videos that GoPro has selected to spotlight from among the flood of content created by GoPro users. The company does not pay for submitted videos, but does invite customers to submit photos, raw video footage, or edited videos for judging and cash awards, or to enter Content Challenges in categories that currently include “Action,” “Adventure,” “Motorsports,” “Music,” “Sports,” “Animals,” “Family,” “Travel,” and “Science and How-To.” Additionally, because GoPro’s customers know that the company also looks for videos featuring its products on youtube.com and other sites, many users advertise the camera brand in their video titles, description, subtitles, etc., or produce and post compilations of their favorite GoPro videos. These activities help spread the word about GoPro, drive potential buyers to the GoPro website, and reinforce the value and appeal of the brand.

It’s tempting to think of all this as “free” advertising for GoPro, but that, of course, is not true. The company has to pay for labor, equipment, software, bandwidth, cash awards, etc. But the astounding reach and potential impact of its use of consumer-created content far outweighs the costs involved — and, what is more, achieves a perfect marriage of branding message and medium.

Intro to New Technology — Deborah Hyatt

Traditionally, computers were programmed to respond to a given set of inputs: If the user selects A, do this; if the user selects B, do that. But many human activities — from playing a piano or drawing a picture to responding to spoken requests and providing excellent customer service — are far too complex to be programmed in that manner. Another challenge is that many types of data, such as ticket prices, product availability, etc., are constantly in flux, thus requiring more speed and flexibility to satisfy the consumer or computer user.

The answer is Artificial Intelligence. Once envisioned with the goal of creating a machine that could learn and think like a person, AI has evolved over time. The original objective, often referred to as “general AI,” is still largely hypothetical — but “narrow AI,” which is focused on performance of narrow, specific functions. is already in use by companies around the globe.

Examples of narrow AI that we have all experienced online or with mobile devices (whether we knew it or not) include:

• Ads that appear across a multitude of sites following a visit to the advertiser’s website, or which are based on the user’s search history.
• AI-based ad blocking applications, designed to prevent unwanted ad pop-up/popover/floating ads.  
• “Best fare” searches conducted by travel-related sites including Expedia and its host of brands (Trivago.com, Hotels.com, and others).  
• Digital assistants like Siri or Cortana that utilize speech recognition and natural language to respond to requests, conduct Web searches, etc.
• Banking bots in use at Bank of America, Royal Bank of Scotland, and other financial institutions to answer customer inquiries and perform simple banking operations.
• Concierge bots used by event/concert ticket sellers, flower delivery services, hotels, and more.

Companies are also investing in narrow AI for mission-critical purposes that may be invisible to consumers but can impact the customer experience in a significant manner. These include enhanced firewall/data protections, faster warehouse operations, and improved employee training and empowerment.

It’s important to note that narrow AI is not just for profit-oriented organizations. The public/nonprofit sector is also making increased use of AI. Services that already exist, or soon may, include traffic control, autonomous vehicles, mobile monitoring of hospital patients, monitoring of utility infrastructures, and more.

Intro to new Technology - John Trotz

As stated before, Trello is a web application that can be accesses through you PC or your phone/tablet. It used to show progress on a certain project. It has a similar set up to something like Slack where a group is created and only the people with access can add or see tasks. Once the group is created, you can different boards to separate teams or groups to work on specific things. Then, inside each board you create cards such as "Done, Doing, To Do & BackBurner". Once you have these cards set up, you can then add tasks to the cards. Those cards will then show the task and where the people are on them. 

For example, lets say you are designing a video game. You will need programmer to write code, artists to draw and sound people to create sounds. You can have a board for each of these groups of people. Then inside, lets say, the programming board, you can list a series of task that the programmers need to do such as "code enemy AI" or "code health system" or "code menus". All task would probably start under the "To Do" card. Once there some can grab or be assigned the task which would then move to Doing. Once there, you can place comments on that task like an instant message. You can also recreate a check list of sub task that you may need to do as part of that overall task. Once completed, the task can be moved to the Done card.

This sort of application really gives a good representation of what tasks are needed to complete the project as well as you get to see your progress as tasks are moved from one card to another. It may sound simple but it is being used quite a bit with many different types of groups and I'm sure it can be applied in almost any type of business situation.

Intro to New Technology- Krishna Patel

A new technology that allows businesses and customers to better communicate is called Slack. Slack is a website and desktop app that enables a business to communicate in open channels regarding a project, topic, file, etc. Channels can be open to everyone within the business or private between two or more people.

While this technology can be maximized for internal use, especially between various departments within a business, it may also be used to bridge communication between businesses. During on-boarding, Slack asks you to create a “Team”. A founder of a mobile application (customer) needing to communicate with app developers would be an example of a potential team on Slack. Through Slack, the developers can send files, bits of code, updates, etc. to the customer. Constant communication is essential between the team members as the customer may have a deadline to launch the app or product. The customer is also paying the developers and therefore will want to make sure the end-product meets his/her standards. The developers would add changes and updates to the application to better suit the needs of the customer and the customer would respond positively or negatively. They could then engage in a discussion and sort out any issues via chatting. Due to the nature of work, communication becomes key between the business and customer.

Slack functions similarly to GroupMe, which is used for personal use between friends, teammates, or group members. One simply creates a group chat and begins chatting away. However, Slack operates in a business-to-business space that can be used internally or externally. Slack works well in this space because it allows for fast-paced conversation in real-time while integrating Google, Dropbox, etc. to ease the file-sharing process. This ease of communication ultimately helps streamline business processes while establishing successful business relationships.

Intro to new technology: Alexis Casares

So far in our leaning in this course we have discussed Web 2.0 technologies created for the consumer. Companies then use those web technologies to market to a target audience in the hopes of growing incremental revenue. I am going to be discussing a web application developed for businesses to accelerate market share growth and, in turn, provide better customer service. The technology is called Salesforce.com. It is a technology that allows team members, in large companies, with multiple channel offerings to stay connected to each other.

What are companies with multiple channel offerings? These are companies which have local branches, phone customer service, and an eCommerce solution. How did companies with multiple channels do business before? Before companies had solutions like Salesforce.com team members would be uninformed to daily activities of their customers. For example, if a customer called in for product support and then called back five minutes later there would be no record of the technical call resulting in the new customer service agent having to start all over again. This was not only a waste of time, but it was also an annoyance to the customer. What companies have done is to listen to their customers and implement a solution to alleviate many of the annoying experiences customers go through. The implementation of this solution results in faster growing sales.  

Salesforce.com works to unify the workplace to a common mission of providing the best customer service, and to allow team members to have the information necessary to capture more business. Salesforce.com works by recording every time a team member contacts a customer in every channel. This interaction is recorded to find useful information on a later interaction and/or to capture information that could result in incremental sales.

Salesforce.com also has a chatter function that is almost exactly like twitter. This chatter function allows team members around the world to communicate relevant business information as well as the ability to any team member to forward a potential sales leads to the customer’s account manager. With the account manager being more informed of the customer’s needs, they can offer a more relevant solution and close the sale. 

The Assingment

Examples of Web 2.0 technology being used for social and business application are all around us. New technologies are appearing all the time.Everyone in this course is responsible for writing 2 new blog posts, with each being about 3-4 paragraphs long. Your posts will need to be on the following two topics, respectively (one of each).

• Introduce the class to a new technology as well as its potential business application  
• Summarize and reflect upon an innovative technique using an already established Web 2.0 technology (like the Wheat Thins campaign.)

Be sure to read your classmates blog posts and comment as well!