Today's lecture was given by Alexis which detail how the web is changing. She started off by explaining Web 1.0 which was all about accessing and reading information which has progressed into Web 2.0, collaboration using a mix of existing and emerging technologies. This has evolved due to web technologies such as WWW, HTTP, HTML and XML. Yip sounds a bit foreign - but on further reading I discovered that actually it was just different ways in which to transmit information and some of the technologies we've already covered (Wikis, Blogs, Pod casts) ...... okay maybe not that simple! | Not this Ajax! |
Application Programming Interface (API) was next on the agenda and by this point I'm feeling a bit bored, hoping that this won't form part of our assessment. I'm a practical person, ask me to do and I can do - ask me to tell you how to do something and you'll get a different result. Further reading and I discovered that APIs can be used to share content and data between communities and applications, for example Twitter comments can be shared on a Business Facebook Account such as City of Glasgow College. So links back to week five - Fishfingers beans and mash - eh I mean RSS, FEEDS and MASHUPS. So I find myself asking, 'Why do we need it?' I suppose the answer is that it forms part of the Web Technology evolution, as more and more people are using gadgets such as SMART phones, tablets, iPads etc and it appears we spend more time on the Apps available for these gadgets than we do surfing the web!
Lots of content in the lecture this week as we then went on to talk about Cloud Computing which Alexis informed us that Cloud Computing together with SaaS are one of the fastest growing segments of the IT industry and allow delivered host services over the Internet. Now believe it or not I had a recent conversation with a good friend of mine who had attended an event in London to contribute ideas in the creation of a Cloud platform which would be tailor made to lettings and estate agents - London Cloud! The idea that the valuers or sales people who are perhaps losing productivity time whilst attending appointments or between appointment times could improve there productivity with the use of an iPad and Internet access is quite liberating! Having worked in this industry as Administration Manager I can see how this would benefit estate agents. Valuers had wasted journeys back to the office after every valuation just to download the images and leave the paperwork for processing. Using a Cloud could reduce costs, time and improve efficiency!In the lecture we discussed Public (sells services to anyone on the Internet) 'V' Private (a network/data centre that supplies hosted services to a limited number of people.Categories are:
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
- Platform as a Service (PaaS)
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
We then went on to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Cloud Computing.
ADVANTAGES
- reduces cost in the long run for hardware, software, networking equipment and administrative costs
- reduces business risk associated with owning and managing computer technology
- existing IT staff can focus on other areas
- maximises business productivity with anytime, anywhere availability for users
- built-in state-of-the-art business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities
- financial flexibility and control over IT spending
- security will be dependant on the provider
- loss of control to the provider
- unstable cost structure
- potentially decreased business flexibility
- integration problems
Talking about innovation, there was no lab this week as Margaret wanted us to watch a documentary 'Mark Zuckerberg - Inside Facebook'. After three pages of notes I feel I learnt a lot, not only about how Facebook has progressed and succeeded where others failed (such as FreindStar, Myspace, Friends Reunited) but also how other companies have been able to grow and succeed through Facebook. Now here's a young guy, a psychology and computer science student who took an idea and ran with it and through his knowledge/ideas and contacts he has been able to change a global culture on how we communicate daily. As mentioned previously in my blog I watched 'The Social Network' movie based on Mark Zuckerberg, but really at this point I don't think it matters whether he stole someones ideas. Is Facebook not just a progression from the likes of Myspace? Surely its how Mark and his team has kept the users interested and opened the boundaries to what we as users and Facebook as an Information Technology company are capable of? Their unofficial motto of 'moving fast and break things', the fact that they all work in an open plan office to improve collaboration and the fact that they have a vending machine which dispenses new keyboards etc. Surely that's not the same as FreindStar, Myspace or Friends Reunited?
Gaming and advertising are ways of making Facebook financially successful to the tidy sum of $100 billion. Other companies are designing games, of which Facebook takes a third of the profit! Mark Zuckerberg poached Sheryl Sandberg from Google, because she had succeeded in the introduction of advertising in Google. Really? How can he be criticised? He has found a way to use his audience to his advantage as well as to the advantage of his users - a true entrepreneur? He has found a way of businesses being able to advertise and narrow their audience to offer them products and services based on the information we provide. Yeah perhaps we haven't asked for it but it can be handy if you've previously stated you like an item and then you have the opportunity to share with your friends and vice versa. As long as the 800 billion users of Facebook maintain the good faith in Mark and his team and they maintain the comfort and privacy of its individual users then how can we not ....
No comments:
Post a Comment