Computers in Management (IS half) - Fall 2008
Note: Content changes regularly - schedule may also be changed as we arrange for class speakers - check back often!
| Sept. 12 | Assignment Due: WikiHomework-Fall2008.pdf |
| Sept. 17 | Group Assignment Due: Form Project Teams: see MI021 Project Team Formation Guidelines. Anyone not assigned to a group will be placed into one by their TA. |
| Sept. 24 | MidTerm - in class, during class time. |
| Oct. 10 | Group Assignment Due: Post final case or briefing to your topic page |
| Oct. 15 & 17 | Group Presentations |
| no later than Oct. 17 | Also sure to make Exam Question Suggestions and make wiki contributions to the Course Topics Pages (and post both to your own wiki page, too) as indicated in theMI021 Syllabus. You can contribute throughout the semester. Don't wait until the last minute! |
| Oct. 20 | Submit Project Grading Feedback (you will enter your raw numerical scores for each team in an online system in the "Post Project Grades" section under "Contribute" in our course wiki. |
| Oct. 20 - EXAM |
Exam for IS Half of Course (in class, during class time) |
I've asked the TAs to be available the week before the hands-on assignment is due. The TAs are available in the labs at the times below. Feel free to e-mail the TAs if you'd like to make an appointment for help. You can visit with any TA, not just the TA for your section. Note that the TAs are NOT expected to provide help the night before projects are due, so it is your responsibility to start early & see the TA during these hours, if you need help.
Assignment: WikiHomework. Due Fri., Sept. 12 NOTE: if you're seeing a TA regarding the WikiHomework, be sure to have a copy of any images or photos you wish to incorporate into the assignment available on USB, in email, online, or on disc of some sort, so that TAs can show you how to upload this content to your Wiki page.
Each week I will update the list below. You are welcome to read ahead, but be aware that readings will change. Please note that it is common for us to not get to all of the reading listed for a class, and to cover just the first half of a reading in a multi-class lecture or case. We need to 'overplan' rather than 'underplan'. This likely means that you may prepare readings for one week that are pushed to subsequent weeks. When reading, take notes to assist you in reviewing prior to class. Check back regularly for updates & feel free to contact me if you have questions / problems / comments / or if you need clarification of our current point in the reading list. I'm most happy to help out.
Most readings have questions listed after them. These questions are meant to provoke thought during reading, and to focus your attention. You will not hand in answers to these questions, but you should be prepared to discuss answers to these (and related) questions if called upon in class. Many students find it helpful to use a highlighter when reading articles, to prepare notes on the readings and questions prior to each class, and to refer to these notes during discussion. You'll notice that many readings are very recent (less than a year old). This gives our class a currency impossible to achieve through a conventional textbook. When relevant, updated information on firms & technologies will be provided in lecture, or on optional reading in the Week in Geek (WiG).
In most cases, readings listed are draft copies for my forthcoming textbook project "Information Systems: A Manager's Guide to Harnassing Technology". Cases & Chapters are online and available to faculty for non-commercial use (see gallaugher.com/chapter for details). When you click a title, it will load a .pdf. In some cases, I may post links to readings on the web or from within BC's online databases. For those articles below labeled with Business Source Premier or Factiva after them, the direct links only work for computers on the BC network. If you're on campus & are asked for a password when clicking this link, use your BC UserID and Password, not your wiki ID & Password)). If you are having access trouble, see the wikimaster! Occasionally magazines will reorganize their web sites and previous links will become 'broken'. If this happens, please e-mail me about the broken link. I'll be sure to fix the link as soon as I can. Note that most web sites have search engines where you can hunt down the new link, and you can always check Business Source Premier or Factiva for a copy of most magazine & newspaper articles (if these links are broken, you can find these resources in the BC Libraries Online Resources). And remember: this is a wiki, so you can make any changes yourself!
ADD TO OUR KNOWLEDGE! If you stumble across a new, interesting article relevant to one of our course topics, add it to the appropriate Course Topic page (as indicated in the syllabus, everyone in class is required to make at least three original contributions to the Course Topics pages). Links to each topic's Course Topic wiki page can be found after each Topic below, and a link to all Course Topic pages is also on the main wiki page. Remember, valuable contributions to the Course Topics pages (or other parts of the wiki) count toward class participation! By leveraging everyone in class, each Topics page will remain a growing resource of additional information where we can all learn more - and the best of these articles may be used in future classes. When adding an article to a Course Topics page, make sure you get credit for your contribution - be sure to follow the instructions in the syllabus stating you should also post your Course Topic contributions to your personal wiki page.
Read the MI021 Syllabus and become familiar with online materials in the wiki and at your instructor's website. You may wish to start the WikiHomework that is due next week.
Course Topic page for Zara, where you can contribute any interesting articles you come across on this topic.
Zara Case - Fall 2008
Why has Gap struggled in recent years? How does the firm plan, manage inventory, and build it’s brand? What challenges has this presented to Gap? How large is Zara? Which firm is the chain’s parent? Where is the firm based? How is the firm doing in terms of its financial performance and growth? How are product decisions made at Zara? Who makes these decisions and on what information are they based? Where does this data come from (from what kinds of information systems)? How does the design process at Zara differ from that at other retailers? How does manufacturing and distribution differ? How does marketing differ? Do you think Zara customers are more or less loyal to Zara? Why and what evidence do you have to support your claim? How might pricing (and sales) differ at Zara vs. traditional clothing retailers? How else does Zara differ from other large retailers? Do you think Zara has higher or lower manufacturing costs than rivals? What about other costs? Do you think Zara is likely to be more or less ethical than rivals? Why? Do you see limitations to the firm's model? What challenges does the firm face? Can others easily copy its model with the same success? Why or why not?
Course Topic page for*Globalization*, where you can contribute any interesting articles you come across on this topic.
Watch "Did You Know? 2.0" on YouTube.
The video is meant to set the stage for a brief lecture on globalization, as well as to push your thinking beyond the ‘immediate’. You’ll likely find the information both exciting and unsettling. MI021 is a class about possibilities, opportunities, and threats. If you find related, interesting video or other resources you’d like to share, feel free to post them to theGlobalization _ Course Topics wiki page. And for discussion or immediate ‘cool’ stuff to share, or questions to raise, post these to the ‘Class Discussion Blog’ on the main wiki page._
Course Topic page for Strategy & Technology, where you can contribute any interesting articles you come across on this topic.
Strategy and; Technology - Fall 2008
What is operational effectiveness? What is strategic positioning? What is the 'resource-based' view of competitive advantage? What are the characteristics of resources that may yield sustainable competitive advantage? What are examples of these resources? How have firms used these resources to compete with rivals? Do you think it is possible to use Information Technology to achieve competitive advantage? If so, how? If not, why not? Does technology lower barriers to entry or raise them? Is there such a thing as the first-mover advantage? Why or why not? Why did Google beat Yahoo in search? Why hasn't Google won in e-mail? What is the value chain? Which firm should adopt third-party software to automate it's supply chain - Dell or Apple? Why? What are the 'five forces'? What is price discrimination? What is information transparency? How does the Internet relate to these two concepts? How does the Internet shift bargaining power among the five forces?
Course Topic page for Netflix, where you can contribute any interesting articles you come across on this topic.
Netflix Case - Fall 2008
How does the Netflix business model work? Which firms are/have been Netflix most significant recent competitors? How do their financial results or performance of their efforts compare? Which of these firms do you think is positioned to 'win' over the medium term and why? What recent appointment did Reed Hastings accept, in addition to his job as Netflix CEO? What are Netflix sources of competitive advantage? What are the benefits of these advantages? Does Netflix have a strong brand? Offer evidence why the firm’s brand is or isn’t strong. How is a strong brand created? What is ‘the long tail’? What ‘class’ of software does Netflix use to make video recommendations? Think about our prior chapter on strategy & technology: which key competitive resource does this software ‘create’? What kinds of benefits does this provide to the firm? What benefits does it provide to Netflix’s suppliers? What is Netflix churn rate & what are the reasons behind this rate? How has Netflix improved its customer service operation? What results reflect this improvement? What do you believe are the most significant long-term threats to Netflix? How is Netflix trying to address these threats? What obstacles does the firm face in dealing with these threats?
Course Topic page for Moore's Law where you can contribute any interesting articles you come across on this topic.
Moore's Law and Moore: Fast, Cheap Computing, and what it Means for the Manager - Fall 2008
What is Moore's Law? What does it apply to? Are other aspects of computing advancing as well? At what rates? Why is Moore's Law important for managers? How does it influence managerial thinking? What challenges are confronting the continued advancement of Moore's Law? What solutions are being proposed? How do these solutions work? What are the limitations of each? What is grid computing and how does this change the economics of supercomputing?
Morning Keynote Fulton 250, 9am & 10am - Jeff Chiumiento, Vice President & CFO, Digital Media Technology, NBC Universal
Required Reading for Sections 3 & 4 - NBC's Sites Grow by Leaps and Bounds, TechCrunch, Sept. 19, 2008 AND Free, Legal, and Online, Wired, Sept. 22, 2008
Afternoon Keynote: Fulton 511, 2pm & 3pm - Rich Miner, Google's Group Manager of Mobile Platforms and co-founder, Android.
Required Reading for Section 5 & 6 - Google & T-Mobile introduce Phone with PC Features, NY Times, Sept. 23, 2008 AND Android has Arrived, Technology Review, Sept. 24, 2008
Guests welcome - seating is limited
Course Topic page for Network Effects where you can contribute any interesting articles you come across on this topic.
Understanding Network Effects - Fall 2008
What are network effects? What are other names for this phenomenon? Which sorts of products and services are subject to network effects? What are the key sources of value that contribute to strong network effects? What are one-sided and two-sided markets? Can you give examples of each? What are same-side and cross-side benefits? Do network effects help or hurt innovation? Why? If you were competing in a market where network effects exist, what strategies would be available for you to win? Which strategies might apply only to incumbent firms? Which might apply to new entrants? Which of these approaches has Apple, Inc. used?
Guest speaker: Dr. Jim Miller, Sr. Director of Technology Policy and Strategy
Topic: Cloud Computing: Technology, Policy, and Business
How Cloud Computing is Changing the World, BusinessWeek, BusinessWeek, Aug. 4, 2008.
Course Topic page for Peer Production, Social Media, and Web 2.0 where you can contribute any interesting articles you come across on this topic.
Peer Production, Social Media, and Web 2.0 - Fall 2008
What is Web 2.0? What are peer production and social media? Give examples of each. What is a blog? How are organizations leveraging blogs? Is there a danger in staff blogging? Be prepared to provide examples of effective and ineffective/inappropriate use of corporate blogging. What’s a wiki? Why is Wikipedia of increasing importance to firms? How are organizations leveraging wikis and what are the benefits of this technology? What are social networks? What are the ‘Big Three’ in the US, and how does each differ from the other? How are organizations effectively leveraging social networks? What is crowdsourcing? Give examples of crowdsourcing. What are prediction markets and under what conditions do they operate most effectively? Be prepared to give examples of effective prediction markets. What are other key Web 2.0 technologies like RSS, mashups, Rich Media, and virtual worlds? Have you used any of these technologies? What has your experience been?
Course Topic page for Facebook where you can contribute any interesting articles you come across on this topic.
Facebook Case - Fall 2008
What is Facebook? How do people use the site? What do they ‘do’ on Facebook? Who started Facebook? How old was he then? Now? How much control does he have over his firm? Why? As of late 2007, Facebook boasted an extremely high ‘valuation’. How much was Facebook allegedly ‘worth’? What was this calculation based on? Why study Facebook? Who cares if it succeeds? Which is bigger, Facebook or MySpace? How are these firms different? Why would a person or organization be attracted to one service over another? What is the social graph? Why is Facebook’s social graph considered to be stronger than the social graph available to MySpace users? Does Facebook have to worry about copycat firms from the US? In overseas markets? Why or why not? If Facebook has a source (or sources) of competitive advantage, explain these. If it has no advantage, discuss why. What is the ‘lynchpin’ of Facebook’s ability to strengthen and deliver user-value from the social graph? How did users first react to Feeds? What could Facebook have done to better manage the launch? Why did developers prefer to write apps for Facebook than MySpace? What competitive asset does the F8 initiative help Facebook strengthen? (e.g. how does F8 make Facebook stronger when compared to rivals?) What’s Scrabulous? Did the developers make money? What happened to the firm and why? What are the challenges that social networking sites face when trying to woo advertisers? How does Google get paid? Is this profitable? Is Facebook in the same league? Why or why not? What’s CPM and what’s Facebook’s CPM rate? How does this compare to other sites & advertising on other media? Have advertisers ever targeted you when displaying ads on Facebook? How were you targeted? What did you think of the effort? Describe an innovative marketing campaign that has leveraged Facebook. What factors made this campaign work? Are all firms likely to have this sort of success? Why or why not? Why was Beacon thought to have been a good idea? Describe ‘the biggest problem with Beacon’? Would you use Beacon? Why or why not? How big is the predator problem on MySpace? What efforts have social networks employed to cut down on the number of predators online? What is OpenSocial? What challenges does it face in attempting to become a dominant standard? Facebook and MySpace now have global competitors. What determines the success of a social network within a given country? How did Facebook localize its site so quickly for various different regions of the world?
Course Topic page for W.R. Hambrecht's Open IPO where you can contribute any interesting articles you come across on this topic.
Open & Fair – Why Wall St. Hates Auctions, NY Times, March 18, 2006.
Why does a firm 'go public', engaging in an IPO (initial public offering) of their stock? According to the article, how does the traditional form of underwriting IPOs work? What issues trouble firms that are selling stock for the first time? How do OpenIPO auctions differ? How much are firms going public charged as part of the traditional IPO processes? How much does OpenIPO charge? What determines pricing in traditional IPOs? What determines pricing in OpenIPO? What determines who gets access to shares in traditional IPOs? In OpenIPO? How many had the firm handled prior to Google? The article isn't very clear on this, but why do you think this is the case?
Course Topic page for Google where you can contribute any interesting articles you come across on this topic.
Note: at this point we'll plan on using the readings below, however I may update these readings, and even post a Google Case in their place. Expect to hear from me regarding exact readings a week before we cover Google.
Inside the Googleplex, The Economist, August, 30, 2007
How does Google make money? Be prepared to describe the model. What products does Google offer? Which of this would you classify as ‘successful’? Why? Which lead their categories? How does Google’s share, revenues, and rates for its ‘core’ product differ from competitors? Why? What is DoubleClick and why is this important to Google? What is the ‘cloud’ referred to when folks mention this in the context of Google? Why is the ‘cloud’ important to the future of software? What does the cloud change? Who would be threatened if the ‘cloud’ takes off? Why isn’t the ‘cloud’ the primary way to do everything related to computing today? Why concerns has Google raised with ‘watchdog’ groups? Are these concerns valid? How might a firm address these concerns while continuing to delivery utility (or is this task impossible)? Android? How? And how might this impact existing participants in the ‘mobile telecom’ space?
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How Click Fraud Could Swallow the Internet, Wired, January 2006.
Why was search advertising attractive to JetNetwork? How did the firm pay for ads? What determines when ads appear? What determines ad rankings? When does the firm pay? What types of click fraud exist? Which online advertising efforts are susceptible to click fraud? How important is PPC advertising to Yahoo? To Google? How do firms detect click fraud?
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Yes, Google is Trying to Take Over the World, Slate, Nov. 16, 2007
What is ‘android’? How does it differ from competing products? What is it based on? Which firms are threatened by it and why? How will Android make Google money? Do you think this scheme will work? Who else stands to make money from this effort?
you will enter your raw numerical scores for each team in an online system to be provided on our course wiki. The link to this system will be posted shortly after the last presentations in the last section on Oct. 17, but not before this.
Also sure to make Exam Question Suggestions and make wiki contributions to the Course Topics Pages (and post both to your own wiki page, too) as indicated in theMI021 Syllabus. Don't wait until the last minute!
E-mail: john.gallaugher@bc.edu WWW: www.gallaugher.com
© Copyright 1997-2008, John M. Gallaugher, Ph.D.
Page Last Updated: Oct 20 10:17am by Edward Crane
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