Course Syllabus and Schedule Fall 1 2011

August 17, 2011

Course Syllabus and Schedule Fall 1 2011 MET AD 648 INTRODUCTION TO ECOMMERCE -ONLINE DR. KIP BECKER www.bu.edu/goglobal [email protected]

COURSE DESCRIPTION: MET AD 648 INTRODUCTION TO ELECTRONIC COMMERCE The course provides a detailed examination of how businesses can successfully use Internet and Web technology. Students are introduced to the concepts and problems associated with electronic commerce. Topics include comparison of e-commerce procedures, payment mechanisms, applications in different industry sectors, security, the challenges of starting and maintaining an electronic business site, as well as a comparison with traditional business practices.

COURSE OBJECTIVES: The objective of the course can be summed up quickly as helping you to appreciate the rapid growth associated with internet enabled business as well as some of the difficulties. It is my objective to introduce you to the general issues, technical (security, WEB and Internet systems, payment mechanisms, etc.) and non- technical (strategy, marketing, business development, etc.). In addition, I will want you to become acquainted with some development tools. One such tool is the Blogger which is a general communications tool. Blogger is being used by teenagers and private publishers to discuss everything from a teen’s favorite record to comments by private individuals (and now companies) concerning your company. Politicians, TV anchors and firms have underestimated the power of the Blog. Several have been very sorry for this underestimation. Blogs are easy and kind of fun. They are a rapidly growing national and international communications medium and something you should understand. Throughout the course the student is introduced to the Ecommerce environment relating to B2B, B2C as well as B2G. In pursuing these objectives, the course will employ the following:

1. Online Lectures reviewing text information in a valued added manner with enhanced discussions of chapter topics. 2. Development of a Blog. 3. Interaction in discussion groups to communicate about on-going text, lecture and discussion questions. 4. Development of a functional design which is the first step to designing a web site (for profit or not for profit) with explanations of the design, purpose, audience and interactions. 5. Readings from text, cases, and recent information sources. In an effort to: a. Combine theory and practice. b. Combine the strategic with the tactical. c. Use relevant concepts to analyze and assess complex Internet enabled business situations. d. Gain an understanding of the different areas of the company that are affected by internet enabled technologies.

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KIP BECKER Dr. Kip Becker is an Associate Professor and the Chairman of the Department of Administrative Sciences. He has published over thirty articles and book chapters both nationally and internationally in the areas of international management, Electronic Commerce, strategy, marketing and global service sector issues. He is on the Board of the International Management Development Association and the Editor of the Journal of Transnational Management. He is on the editorial review boards of: Advances in Competitiveness Research. International Journal of Organizational Analysis,PRAGYAA – Journal of Management, Strategic Outsourcing, The Journal of Teaching in International Business, and the Journal of Business and Information Technology. He has owned a waterfront restaurant and is president of Northwind Management International which conducts management training and consulting with companies, governments and associations worldwide. Prior to entering academe' Dr. Becker's experience included positions with: TDX systems of Cable and Wireless Ltd. in marketing, the U.S. Department of Justice, a special task force in the Regan administration and as a U.S. army helicopter pilot during Viet Nam and Desert Storm. He holds a second degree black belt in TKO Karate. For a complete resume with publications see: www.bu.edu/GoGlobal

COURSE MATERIALS: The material for the textbook and cases is provided below and the University Bookstore has the text and cases. I do want to point out a caution should you decide to order a used text online. I have found that ordering times can greatly vary if you are not ordering directly from source. In some cases students have not received text or they have been too late to be of use. Be careful if you select to go to other sources for your text that you are sure that you will receive it in sufficient time for the course. You must have the book the first day of class as we start off with a lengthy reading assignment the first week. No excuses!

E-commerce: business, technology, society (2011) Laudon and Traver 7th edition ISBN: 10: 0-13-609119-9 ISBN: 13: 978-0-13-609119-6

CASES: (COURSE PACKAGE FROM BU BOOKSTORE) NOTE: You MUST have this material by the beginning of the course as # 1 is required reading for the first weeks.) 1. "Blogging: A New Play in Your Marketing Game Plan" (BH 281/0007-6813) 2. "Ford Fiesta Movement: Using Social Media and Viral Marketing to Launch Ford's Global Car in the United States (INSEAD 510-015-1) (01-2010-5664) 3. “Sunsilk Gang of Girls: Crafting a Brand Positioning with Reference Groups” (Ecch 510-123-1) 4. Lady Gaga: Born this way? (Ecch 311-099-1)

COURSE GRADING: Your final grade will be based upon the following: Note: Some weeks have two discussions or assignments and in those cases they will be averaged to provide one discussion or assignment grade for the week.

1. Online interaction, discussion groups, (6 weekly discussions) 30 % 2. Weekly Assignments 24 % (Weeks 1, 2, 3 and 4) 3. Functional Specifications Site Project 10 % (Weeks 5 and 6 assignment) 4. Comprehensive Exam 36 %

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GRADING PROCESS: While there is no fixed absolute number of grades in any one level, it is important to note that high grades reflect an excellence in the understanding of class material and organization of thought. In addition, as an important aspect of any class, whether online or in a classroom, is the shared thoughts and insights of the class members’ grades will also reflect an individual’s contributions to the class. I will follow the Boston University, Metropolitan College, recommendations concerning grading standards. As such, A and A- grades are awarded for superior class work. This generally means that those that receive A (A and A-) level grades have distinguished themselves above others in the class as superior work. This distinction is reserved for the very best.

Timely Presentation of Materials Due Please Note: All work requests from me or facilitators (Tests, assignments, paper etc.) have due dates. These are the LAST DATES that stated material is due. This means that it is a good idea to personally target dates before that date as your personal completion date to avoid difficulties. Please consider this a fact and not a subject for discussion. Dates are often viewed by students as the date to turn in an assignment. I view assignment due dates as the LAST DATE in which to turn in an assignment. With this warning please note that I am not inclined to accept late work and if late work should be accepted it will only be done only after considerable weighting of rationale and with penalty. Please recognize that to consistent in grading requirements that no extra or “outside of syllabus” work can be considered. Your grade will be determined according to syllabus requirements.

DISCUSSION GRADING AND TIME FRAMES:

Class Participation You are asked to keep up on a weekly basis. The essence of this course is learning a set of ideas and knowing how they apply in international business situations. Mastering the material requires you to assess, think, and form judgments, so high quality online participation is essential. High-quality participation includes substantive contribution to case discussions, insights into topics we are discussing, questions regarding relevant topics, and online interactions with others. There is not much time to accomplish quite a bit so it is essential that you do not fall behind. Please see timely presentation section regarding assignments and due dates. I would recommend that you attempt to keep ahead to provide some individual flexibility in case a problem arises during the course. Please note: that we expect you to participate in the weekly online discussions as we would expect you to participate in a classroom discussion. This means, just as in classroom, we look forward to your posting more than one discussion item. Remember that Discussions should be like classroom discussions. That is to say they should be a discourse and ongoing throughout the week. Often students ask, “When should I post my discussion to the board?” The answer to that is you should be active throughout the week and post early(By Wednesday) to stimulate discussion and several additional times (Throughout The Week) to respond to others. If everyone waited until the end of the week or Saturday, there certainly would not be much of a discussion. There would be a list of single postings. It would also not be possible to give much thought to other’s contributions. This would leave the discussion board without much enthusiasm or interactive spirit. I truly want you to be part of the Boston University community and the community of my classroom. I look forward to reading your postings and learning from them. I know that the other students do as well.

On Informed Contribution Informed discussion is not to be confused with opinion. Each student came into the class with an opinion on lots of things. I have rarely found a member of a class not to have opinions on most everything. Some are

of 16 August 17, 2011 even strong opinions. Some of the opinions are founded in fact and some are treated as fact but are really judgments that have been formulated by association with printed or verbal inputs coming from newspapers, magazines, family and friends. Understanding what you believe is one important aspect of maturity. Understanding what others believe, and why they believe it, is equally (if not more) important and may be what education is really all about.

ASSIGNMENTS: You will have weekly assignments that will require you to answer specific questions, do practical assignments or discuss more fully specific aspects of the material that is being submitted that week. Please be sure to be complete in your answers but to the point as well. We are looking for informed responses not just opinions in assignments so back your work with references and data when appropriate and provide an informed discussion.

WHEN ARE THINGS DUE? The first week runs from September 6 through September 11. The rest of the weeks run Monday through Sunday. ALL ASSIGNMENTS AND DISCUSSIONS CLOSE on Sunday midnight ET. To be fair to all students this is set into the software so after that time assignments and discussions will not be able to be posted. We have to end sometime and move on. Since Boston is the home of the Boston University we use ET. Dates For Each Week Week Close of Discussion and Assignment Submissions (Note: all weeks close Sunday midnight EST) 1 September 6 - 11 2 September 12 - 18 3 September 19 - 25 4 September 26 – October 2 5 October 3 - 9 6 October 10 - 16 Final Exam Wednesday, October 19, through Saturday, October 22 (closes 11:59 pm ET)

There will be a comprehensive final exam. The exam will cover information from lectures, discussions, videos, cases and readings. The exam is closed book/closed notes and (please note) closed online material. The exams will be structured to promote and reward learning, thinking and understanding. This will require memorization of important issues and terms as well as the ability to discuss concepts in an informed manner. The test will contain both true/false, fill in blanks and a few very short written responses. Note: Access to online material for the weeks will not be available during the testing period. Please be sure to have taken notes on any online materials that you may need to study from during the exam week.

On Scheduling Your Exam: The exam period is open for several days to provide for different student needs. I encourage you to schedule the exam at the earliest time your schedule permits to assure you do not run into personal problems which might interfere with your completing the exam within the permitted time frame. Remember that several Page 4 of 16 August 17, 2011 schools use these testing centers and some can only accommodate a small number of students at any one time. Sign up early to assure you lock in the time and day you desire. A Note Concerning Proctored Exam: The department requires proctored exams for our online courses. We do this to guarantee that we can offer you the assurance that all students are on an equal playing field during the examination process, that we know who is taking the exam as well as that conditions for the exam are consistent for everyone. Without this it is difficult to answer the question, “how do we know who is really taking the exam and how can we be sure someone is not getting assistance? Because of the proctored process you can feel confident that we have done everything possible to protect the quality of your Boston University degree. It is something that you can be proud of and distinguishes us apart from most other online programs. An additional consideration for you is that, in addition, the proctoring process provides an environment where a second person can attest to technological difficulties that might occur during the testing situation. While we do not experience many difficulties, some have happened and students have found it reassuring when a proctor was available to verify the difficulty and assist in correcting the problem. The department has adopted two methods of offering the proctored exam. One is by attending a proctored test center and the other is by using the proctor cam software which allows you to work from your computer. Check with the Distance Department if you have questions about which would be most appropriate for you. On Memorization: I would expect you to represent what you have learned from this course well (as well as representing me well) in the future. Since I would not expect you to carry notes or the text once you complete the course it is paramount that you either tattoo on your body, or impress in your mind, important concepts in order to speak, and act, intelligently once we have parted. As tattoos are awkward to refer to and often not viewed positively by most business cultures that leave me not many alternatives other than requesting you put to memorization important material. Many students tend to commiserate with each other claiming they will only forget. I can only respond that I admit that I have forgotten a lot of what I learned but know nothing of what I did not learn. Bear with me on this as while you are learning this now - I really intend you to put it to use later. REQUESTS FOR MAKE UP EXAMINATIONS OR LATE DISCUSSION/ASSIGNMENTS: I strongly advise you to avoid requesting a make-up exam as: (1) Our exam can be taken from any location in the world over the recognized time frame and (2) It is a disservice to others in the class who have organized their schedules to assure the timely presentation of materials and examinations. I recognize that, infrequently, devastating situations arise that could make it essential to miss the exam. Any request to make up the examination must relate to a fairly catastrophic event which made fulfilling the requirement impossible. Such requests will be reviewed, by me, on an individual basis and verification of the incident will be expected to be submitted at the time of any such request. I hope that you will understand that I do not do this to penalize any individual student but to attempt to assure that there is a level playing field and the total class feels confident that no one has a unique or unfair advantage. ACADEMIC CONDUCT AND INTELLECTUAL HONESTY: This course will strictly follow the Code of Academic Conduct of Boston University. I do not deal with these issues personally but refer matters to the Metropolitan College Student Conduct Committee. The Metropolitan College Bulletin states: Academic conduct promoting the desired educational environment of the College involves behavior which refrains from cheating on exams, plagiarism, misrepresentation or falsification of data, theft or destruction of examinations or papers, or alteration, forgery, or knowing misuse of academic records or documents or other similar behavior. The internet has made plagiarism even easier, and be aware that text from the Internet is a bona fide form of plagiarism that could result in dismissal from Boston University. This applies in any course at Boston University.

 from Metropolitan College “Code of Academic Conduct”  from Metropolitan College “Code of Academic Conduct” Page 5 of 16 August 17, 2011

Weekly Discussions Are Graded In the Following Manner

Discussion Description for Scoring Each Week’s Discussions Grading Rubric Actively responding to another student’s initial submission means entering at least one response to another student’s initial submission. Short responses such as ‘I agree’, will not be counted as a response. You must provide the rationale on why you agree or disagree with another student’s initial submission. (Additional information can be found in Appendix A)

Exceptional Participation – Met all of these conditions:  Submitted own initial contribution for each discussion topic.  Actively responded to several other students in week’s discussions for each topic of the week and did so in an A engaging and frequent manner. Student is engaged in discussions throughout the week and is commenting on others as well as submitting own work. The online behavior of the A level would be similar to a classroom student that is actively engaged, well prepared with weeks readings and involved throughout the class session. and Exceptional quality of comments – Exceptional level of discussion which brings value to the discussion while building on others insights. It is a highly valued added discussion which brings in new insights, material and many citations with references. A- Of particular importance was that participation was early enough to have been read by the class and provoked others to explore the topic further. Author has explored the comments of many others and made contributions to their postings. There have been made several Exceptional level contributions during the week and student is the top 15% of the section to be considered at the A level. This level may be divided into A and A-. High level Participation – Met all these conditions:  Submitted own initial contribution for each discussion topic.  Actively responded to several other students in week’s discussions for each topic of the week and did so in an engaging and frequent manner. Is involved actively throughout the week building on others discussions and making B+ own submissions.

High quality of comments – Student explored others comments and built on others insights. The contributions are outstanding and represent a highly valued added discussion which brings in new insights, material and references. Author builds on discussions of others and has many several high level contributions during the week. Average Participation – Met all of these conditions:  Submitted own initial contribution for each discussion topic.  Actively responded to a few other students in week’s discussions for each topic of the week. Tended to respond toward the end of the period so that it was more difficult for others to respond to the comments. B Average quality of comments – Author has been quite active in discussions during week and made many valuable contributions building on and enhancing other’s comments by providing contributions which include references and citations to works of others on the topic. These outstanding contributions would be considered to be in the top 70 to 80% of the class discussions for the week. Low Level Participation – Met all these conditions:  Submitted own initial contribution for each discussion topic but was not engaged in others submissions.  Limited responses to other students in week’s discussions for each topic of the week. Would be considered to be generally below the average contributions of the class. B-  Tends to be opinion rather than new material of a value added nature

Low quality of comments– Author has been active in discussions during week and made some valuable contributions building on and enhancing other’s comments by providing contributions which include references and citations to works of others on the topic. Minimal Participation  Submitted own initial contribution for each discussion topic and either of the following: . Did not respond to another student’s submissions C . and/or Low quality of comments

Minimal quality of comments – Author has been in the discussion during the week but tends to repeat others or make opinion related statements. Quite below Average postings. Inadequate Participation F  No participation or participation without contribution or recognition of others and would be considered failing level work.

Minimal quality of comments – Author is not active and postings would be considered to be of a person nature and do not contribute to the knowledge of the course. Postings are well below average as they restate or provide personal opinions.

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WEEKLY ASSIGNMENTS ECOMMERCE AD 648 Course Calendar and Assignments

WEEKLY DETAILED SCHEDULE OF COURSE CALENDAR AND ASSIGNMENTS DUE DATES

From the earlier discussion, please note that these are the LAST DATES that material is due. This means that it is a good idea to personally target dates before these dates as your personal completion date to avoid difficulties. Most activities are due midnight ET on Sunday of the online week. There are some exceptions so note due dates carefully.

September 6 - First class

Assignment 1: "Personal Blog" Your blog posted to Vista Discussion 1 Saturday noon, Sept. 10 so your classmates can get to know you. You may make changes through Sunday, Sept 11 midnight ET. Assignment 2: Sept 18 "Infrastructure and Security" Assignment 3: Sept 25 "Social Networks" Assignment 4: Oct. 2 "Metrics and Measuring Objectives" Assignment 5: Functional Design Assignment Completed Project October 15 (Note due Saturday midnight NOT Sunday) WEEKLY ASSIGHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

WEEK 1 Starts September 6 FRAMEWORK FOR E-COMMERCE, HISTORY AND BLOGS  Online Readings: o History of the Internet o Fundamentals of Ecommerce o World of Blogs  Text o The Revolution is Just Beginning  Blogger Assignment: See Appendix B for detail information on the Blogger Assignment.  Post Your Blog To Discussion “Posting of Blogs”  Discussion Question Week 1 “Blogs And The Importance Of Who Is Talking About Your Company”  Material Online: Developing A Blog With Blogger  Reading Case: Blogging: A New Play In Your Marketing Game Plan (bh 281/0007-6813)

WEEK 2 – Starts September 12 INFRASTRUCTURE AND PAYMENTS  Online Readings: o The Structure and Operations of the Internet o Epayments and Security  Text o The Internet and World Wide Web – Ecommerce Infrastructure o Online Security and Payment Systems  Online assignment (Assignment # 2) Infrastrastructure and Security  Discussion question week 2 “Internet Security Issues” Page 7 of 16 August 17, 2011

WEEK 3 – Starts September 19 BUSINESS MODELS, STRATEGY FORMULATION AND SOCIAL NETWORKS  Online Readings o Business Strategy o Market Opportunity Analysis  Text o Social Networks, Auctions and Portals  Case Reading: Ford Fiesta Movement INSEAD 510-015-1 (01-2010-5664) Sunsilk Gang of Girls: Crafting a Brand Positioning with Reference Groups (ECCH 510-123-1 Lady Gaga: born this way? (Ecch 311-099-1)  Online assignment (Assignment # 3) Social Networks  Discussion question week 3 “Business Continuity Issues of Social Networks”

WEEK 4 – Starts September 26 MARKETING, COMMUNICATIONS, BRANDING AND METRICS  Online Readings o Developing Communication and Branding o Metrics  Text: o Ecommerce Marketing concepts o Ecommerce Marketing Communications  Online assignment (Assignment # 4) Metrics  Assignment 4.2 provide functional design assignment information  Discussion question week 4 “Are New Business Models Needed?”

WEEK 5 – Starts October 3 FUNCTIONAL SPECIFICATIONS AND WEB SITE DEVELOPMENT  Online Readings: o Web design issues o Writing Design Specifications lecture (be sure to note the additional reading in the subsection) . 1.2 summary: Functional Specification Documents: A tutorial for creation and process” by Allen W. Smith . 1.2 summary: Simple eCommerce store simplefakestore.com Functional Specification by Andreas Huttenrauch o Text: . Building an Ecommerce Web Site. This chapter is to be read and used as reference for your functional design assignment. It will not be on the final examination. Assignment #5: Functional Design Specifications Project (See Appendix C for more details) o You will design a functional design specifications document as your assignment for this week. o Note: In grading it is assigned different points than other assignments.  Discussion question week 5 “Web Design Considerations”

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WEEK 6 – Starts October 10 ROLE OF GOVERNMENT AND INTERNATIONAL INTERNET ISSUES  Online Readings o The Role of Government and International Issues o Regulation of the Internet  Text o Ethical, Social and Political Issues in Ecommerce  Discussion week 6 “The International Internet, What is the next chapter?”  Functional Design Final Project due Saturday (note as this is different) October 15

WEEK 7 – Exam Dates: Wednesday, October 19 , through Saturday, October 22 (closes 11:59 pm ET) COMPREHENSIVE EXAM

 There will be a comprehensive final exam. The exam will cover information from lectures, discussions, videos, cases and readings. The exam is closed book/closed notes and (please note) closed online material. The course overall and the exams will be structured to promote and reward learning, thinking and understanding. This will require memorization of important issues and terms as well as the ability to discuss concepts in an informed manner. The test will contain both true/false, fill in blanks and short written responses (no more than paragraph length).  Note that access to online material for the weeks will not be available during the testing period. Please be sure to have taken notes on any online materials that you may need to study from during the exam week.

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Appendix A: DISCUSSION AND ASSIGNMENT GUIDELINES

Over the course of the last several semesters of this course, we have found that discussion and assignment sections appeared to becoming a series of unrelated short papers. When President Lincoln was asked to give an address at Gettysburg he asked how long he would be required to speak. When the response was 20 minutes he agreed to the commitment saying “I can do that. I was afraid you were going to ask me to give a five minute speech and I just do not have the amount of time to necessary prepare for that.” To this end, discussions and assignments should be focused on quality not quantity – thus the following guidelines.

DISCUSSIONS: It has been observed that it seems students have escalated the amount of work in the discussion sections to beyond what was envisioned. Someone has four references so the next person gets six so in comes an eight. In an effort to a focus on an interesting quality based discussion, the following guidelines are provide to make the discussions more meaningful and reinforce that the contributions should be designed around quality not necessarily length.

a) To assure that we have discussions in the discussion section and move away from the posting of papers we will designate 70% of the grade for the first post and reward dialog by awarding 30% to your feedback to the initial posting of others. Note that posting feedback to others is part of the grade as we have seen students making comments to their own post instead to the posts of others. In the spirit of controlling length we are looking for a 250-350 word initial posts. Going outside the length will not enhance a grade. Increasing the quality of the post and response to others will. That is about three paragraphs. Anything longer is heading toward the “short paper” problem and also is really too long for others to read and absorb. Initial posts want to be insightful, present some issues for others to consider and be referenced accordingly. The APA format for references is reasonable and at this point should really be automatic. It just is an accepted standard.

b) In the discussion questions there are often have many different “little” questions. This is done to stimulate your thinking and did not really mean for a student to respond to every individual question within the topic. I want you to think about the topic, select those aspects of the question that are of most interesting to you and develop your respond to those.

c) You are encourages to make your first posting by EOD on Thursday. If you waited until the end of the week or Saturday, it does not allow enough time for your colleagues to have a discussion with you. Also, you need to participate in at least three different threads to meet the minimum requirements. As noted already, the discussions should be focused on quality and value added, not on the number of posting you make.

ASSIGNMENTS: It seems warranted to include a discussion on assignments as they too appear to need of guidance on work load. Assignments lengths are defined for each assignment. The lengths are meant to be reasonable given the time frames. As with the discussion, the assignments should be focused on quality and value added.

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APPENDIX B ASSIGNMENT 1 – CREATING YOUR BLOG WITH BLOGGER

Week 1 you will design a simple personal blog site (a one-page blog) on which you will introduce yourself to your classmates. The purpose of the assignment is to introduce you to the world of blogging. Once you have created your personal site you will understand how simple and thus how elegant a blog site can be— and you will begin to appreciate how powerful they can be as well. This blog experience is a good introduction to simple web design, which we will then build on as we later work on the web site project. By experimenting with fonts, colors, pictures and formats you will begin to think about many of the complex issues that we will deal with later in the course. For this assignment, you should design your blog with an eye to introducing yourself to your group. You may take down your blog after the first week if you desire to do so for privacy reasons. While you do not need to post anything of a personal nature on the blog, if you feel it is preferable, you may design a company-related blog instead of one about yourself. (If privacy is a concern for you, I might suggest that you Google yourself and search whitepages.com, etc. You will, no doubt, find that whatever you might put up for this assignment is less than a person with an hour and $20 to spend could find out about you. For ten dollars I can most likely find out how much you paid for your house!) If you prefer to do a company blog site instead of a personal one that is fine. What I want you to get from this exercise is what a blog is (you could ask a 12-year-old on the street, but this is better for you and saves embarrassment), how they are used, and what their business implications might be. To really "get it" you need to set up a blog and start interacting with the world. You can set one up with your kids—they most likely already have a blog or a Facebook page. The goal of exposing you to the blogging community is not so much to have you to make a personal blog as to set up an assignment that is fun and interesting as you learn the concepts of blogging. Your blog will provide an interesting format for you to introduce yourself to the class—if you wish can provide pictures of your dog or of your kids, so we can get to know you better. Once you have done that you will appreciate how easy it is to blog, and how easy it is to affect a company's image or product status. Your blog will be graded as part of your discussion grade for the week by the facilitator. You will find instructions on how to use Blogger in your class materials. I would also note that the “help” section of Blogger itself is very good and will answer most questions in a clear manner. It is interesting that there are lots of down loads on U Tube about how to do things so if you run into a problem you might want to check there as well.

BLOG ASSIGNMENT:

Development of a personal one page Blog and posted to the internet by Saturday of week 1. You will post your blog address AS A HYPERLINK in the “PERSONAL BLOG POSTING SITE”. PLEASE post as a hyperlink using the HTML and LINK features of the site. If you do not do this your classmates will have to cut and paste rather than clicking on a link to get to your blog. Trust me, this will not be pleasing. While the site must be up Saturday Noon EST, you may make changes as you may desire as a result of student feedback until Sunday Midnight. This is when the site will be reviewed by your facilitator for grading. We need to get the blog up Saturday so your fellow classmates can get to know you personally before the start of the next week.

1. You are to create a BLOG using BLOGER. Why Blogger? Well first it is free and you have used up all your money buying books. Second it is easy and I am sure you will like that since we only have a very few days to absorb BLOGS and move on. Another reason to use a standard application is that I and others in the class can help you if you run into trouble and that by everyone using the same application it is easier to compare sites and discuss pros and cons. I do not want you to use facebook because while Page 11 of 16 August 17, 2011

this is very good for personal information it is not a viable tool to use to tell your story about a product or company you like or do not like to the general public. Blogs are better at that. A truly progressive company wise in the ways of internet awareness might wish to have a website, a blog, a social network action site (such as secondlife as well as a descriptive social network site such as facebook). Each would be designed for a different reason and reach the specific intended audience in a different manner.

2. Blogger is found at http://www.blogger.com and it is pretty much straight forward. Kids are amazed at how even adults can do it! Think I kidding just ask one. You can get a digital address and post a blogger site to a more formal web but why? That is really what web sites are all about and that is what we are going explore later.

3. In order to complete this assignment: a. View the tutorial video to help you get started in signing up and using Blogger. b. Download and open the attached Assignment 1 direction sheet, assignment_makingYourOwnBlog.doc, found below. This sheet has detailed information on the blog assignment objectives and instructions. c. Post your blog site at Blogger.com. i. Post your site as an active link in the Discussion topic "Posting of Blogs and Comments," found in Week 1. This will allow others in your group to go directly to your blog without having to cut and paste in a browser. ii. You will view each of your classmates' blogs first to learn more about who is in your group. This will also help you to think critically about what a good blog is and learn to recognize blogs that could use improvement. iii. The blog will be considered as part of the week's discussion grade by your facilitator who will review your blog, all the comments provided, and provide individual feedback. iv. Review the blogs of classmates and get to know them better. Try to leave a personal note on each site. v. Provide a comment on something you liked about the blog and something that might be improved (and how). Remember you are NOT evaluating the blog. You are simply trying to provide helpful insights. vi. By exploring different blogs, I want you to have an opportunity to really think about what you like and do not like in blog presentations from a more personal perspective.

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APPENDIX C: ASSIGNMENT 5 – FUNCTIONAL DESIGN ASSIGNMENT

A company has hired you to undertake the design of their site; you will prepare a functional design document for the proposed web site. You determine the company that has hired you and its function. It can be a commercial ecommerce site or an informational site (normally would be for a not-for-profit organization). I would like you to choose a company or a not-for-profit organization that reflects your interests in order to make this a personally meaningful assignment. In past courses, I have had individuals plan a site for a new business they are considering, create a new site for an existing company that had a site which did not reflect the company’s mission, or undertake a site for a not-for-profit organization, such as an animal shelter or support group. You will provide a Functional Specifications (FS) document that covers the needs of the project to create the site. Your FS should include designs for four pages of the site, while the written material should discuss your whole site. You should provide drafts and/or drawings of the home page and three additional pages. These three pages need not be the first pages if the site is to contain more than four pages; instead the three pages should be selected to demonstrate your overall understanding of FS documents and provide an mix of page types (home page, information pages, shopping cart pages, etc.). The assignment should reflect the readings of the week about functional design, and should demonstrate that you have a clear grasp of site construction issues and ultimate design characteristics. Your FS document should describe the company, its needs and the purpose of the site. It should then provide written documentation and drafts or drawings with detail for each of the four pages you have chosen to show. We will want to see that the document provides the detail needed by a software designer in order to design the site and the detail needed for the ultimate site user to understand the purpose and actions to undertake on each page. After reading the document a reader should understand what the company is attempting to accomplish and how the consumer/viewer will interact with the site in order to accomplish that. In addition, the document should include issues relating to the "back office" applications, such as security issues, database/matrix design, cookie management and shopping cart needs.

A. PROJECT OVERVIEW

This will introduce your site proposal and set up the objectives. Among the items that should be included in the overview would be:

1. Company information 2. Goal of the site 3. Description of the organization's information culture (attitudes towards information, information sharing, information load, information politics, information norms) 4. Examination of how the physical setting affects information access and use 5. Definition of the primary audience and whether there are potential secondary users 6. Understandable demographics of the audience (age, sex, location if regional) 7. Psychographics (metrics, like behaviors or psychological aspects of consumers) 8. Discussion of the platform on which the site may be viewed (PC, netbook, phone, etc.) 9. Primary use of the product or service 10. Explanation of the role of the company’s current resources (e.g., librarians, records managers, information systems staff) in providing information for the site 11. Database needs of the site 12. Security needs of both the firm and consumer, including: Page 13 of 16 August 17, 2011

 A brief review of what types of content, pictures, links, etc., are planned, to provide an overview image of the site.  A discussion of whether to use cookies. Why would you or wouldn't you? The specific purpose for the cookies needs to be defined, as well as what data will be collected about the viewer. You should also cover how you intend to deal with personal security issues relating to this data.

B. VISUAL & FUNCTIONAL DETAILS

Design the Site map

 Written material and drawings of screens  Pictures of any pop-ups that accompany pages  Provide locations and rationale for links which demonstrate how screens are connected  The site map should depict each of the site paths and how they are linked  Identify sets of major users and their information preferences  Review the work-related tasks and problems, including problem dimensions and information needs

Wireframe

 Each screen element needs needs to have a technology overview which describes the software product needed for design. You should also describe what platforms the viewers will need to open (audio, video, text, links, scrollbars, or static or interactive graphics).  Show each of the user actions and, in cases where user can enter wrong information, what the consequence of this would be.  Give parameters. This is the artistic aspect of the site, and would include the color scheme, dimensions, layout information, and time to open, if music, videos, pictures, or flash, etc., are used.

Drafts of screens

 You should provide drawings of screens which provide a visual depiction of what each page will look like. This is important as it will quickly become clear when you draft screens if their "look and feel" is appropriate, and whether their ease of use, navigation features and usefulness to the consumer will accomplish the intended task.

Helpful drawing suggestions: You can create design drawings for this assignment using the drawing capabilities of any software program that you have access to, including Microsoft Word. Other options include drawing programs such as Inspiration (free 30 day trial at http://www.inspiration.com/) or Visio (more complicated), etc. Please note that the idea of this assignment is not to make you learn a new software program, so there is no need to do so. You just need to include the drawings as part of your functional design document.

Another option for including your drawings is to hand-draw and then scan them (if you have access to a scanner), creating a JPEG image, and then inserting the image(s) into your Word document. Scanning tips and ideas can be found in a special Discussion area of Vista, "Scanning Ideas" (one discussion thread for PC users and one for Mac users.) You can share your own tips or ask questions in those discussion threads.

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Several common mistakes when creating a design document:

Note: Though the thoughts below were originally written for a team project in a game-building environment, they are equally applicable to your project.

According to Tim Ryan in "The Anatomy of a Design Document, Part 2" (http://www.gamasutra.com/features/19991019/ryan_01.htm) there are several common mistakes to look out for when creating a design document:

1. Insufficient details: The descriptions need to be specific enough to convey intent and function. Avoid using vague terms unless you follow up with specifics. 2. Patronizing material: You wouldn't give a chef a recipe that told him how to make a marinara sauce, so you don’t tell artists how to manage their 256 color palette or programmers how to define a particular data structure. Just list the facts important to the vision. Not only does it waste their time (and annoy them), but it wastes the writers' time. Such details are more appropriate for the technical specification anyway, which is written by the programmers. 3. Ambiguous or contradictory material: Watch for this. It clouds the vision, creates misunderstandings, and invalidates the functional specification. 4. The Design Document from Hell: Nothing stupid, nothing ambiguous, nothing lacking – it just is too damn much. Try to keep a mental total of how long the design is going to take to implement when fleshing out the specification. Cut extraneous, non-essential features and save them for the sequel; or be prepared to argue the merits of keeping the features and extending the ship date. 5. Getting too personal with the design: You are not your work. Your personal boundaries should not include the design. As I have stressed throughout this document, game design is a collaborative process. While you want people to take ownership and responsibility for their work, the functional specification should have joint ownership. This keeps people from feeling isolated and more a part of the process, and it makes the documents feel less like marching orders and more like a plan. The team members are also much more likely to read something that they helped put together. Criticism is then aimed at the design not the documenters who put is all together; thus making the team more comfortable and productive in offering their criticism.

6. Wandering vision: This may happen as you write the functional spec. Even with a good concept document and proposal championing the vision, there's still some room for interpretation. Creative folks have a wandering imagination and may be influenced strongly by whatever game they may be playing at the moment.

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EVALUATION CRITERIA:

The web site design will be evaluated according to the extent that it achieves the elements necessary for a successful functional specifications document. In addition to the items discussed above, reviewers will be considering:

1. How well does the FS document describe the company, its goals, and the purpose of the site? How well could the FS be used to provide a web site designer with a road map for site construction? 2. Site structure is logical, clear, and well aligned with the information environment of the organization. 3. Page designs facilitate information access and navigation.  Functional features or applications effectively support major sets of users, their information tasks and behaviors.  You have broken your project down into modules.  You have included a diagram of the technical structure of your project.  The steps that are needed to develop your software are well laid out (e.g., get video, develop quiz template, implement navigation system, etc.) 4. Functional features or applications effectively support the purpose of the site and are logical in their flow, design and application. 5. You have thought about any special considerations that will have to be made to have a successful project. 6. You have included the plans for implementation and anticipated any challenges that should be expected.