Stephanie's Space

Badass Bloggers

2006-05-21T13:23:00.000-04:00

Throughout the spring semester I tried to see what everyone else in the class was blogging about. To be completely honest, not many blogs caught and kept my attention. In light of that, I wanted to give some shout outs to the students whose blogs I thought were worthwhile. All of them are clearly passionate about what they're writing about, which makes their blogs way more interesting than just a post on a ClickZ article. Hopefully, at least some of them will continue blogging in the future.

Hats off to:

Keith
Craig
Rob
Chris - clearly the best blogger in the class.
Scott
Bob - possibly my fav. blogger in the class.
Steven

Best / most hilarious posts of the semester:

Craig's post on away messages
Scott's post about Craig's post on away messages
Steven's post about Ipods <~do your errands really need a soundtrack?

People I talked to...

2006-05-12T00:57:00.000-04:00

Not sure if this is a required post or not... but here's links to all the blogs I commented on throughout the semester.

Ryan's post about the Naked Conversations blog
Ryan's post about blogs getting students suspended
Steven's post about open source marketing
Samik's post about MySpace
Lindsey's post about advertising
Samik's post about phishing

Speaking of Samik...he is a student in another 477 class. Let me just tell everyone how easy we had it (in my eyes). Each of Samik's post had to be 250+ words and had to pertain to legal, ethical, or privacy issues on the internet. He also had to comment on classmates' blogs...but the comments had to be somewhere around 250+ words as well. It does make me wonder what that professor is like...because I'm almost positive one of the key rules in blogging is brevity. And requiring students to only blog on required topics really takes out the possibility that there blog will be interesting because they won't be posting about information they particularly like or even feel like researching. So, although they're utilizing blogs, I don't think the professor is teaching the right principles in blogging.

Dave Matthews Band Wikipedia Summary

2006-05-07T18:09:00.000-04:00

I decided to edit the Dave Matthews Band Wikipedia article because they another one of my favorite bands. The first edit I did was on a link within the article to a listing of their songs. It took me about an hour, but I ended up listing all the songs in order by album with links to lyrics and a music video if possible. Unfortunately, the entire section was deleted. The second edit I did was to add the discography link from the band's official site under the discography section; however, that was deleted as well. So I'm not making a third edit because most likely it will be deleted.

This article, as I assumed, has the strongest community around it. The page is constantly updated and new links to outside articles pertaining to DMB are constantly created and updated as well. DMB has had a strong following so it's no surprise that a lot of them are keeping the Wikipedia article up to par.

Here's all the fun stuff:
Dave Matthews Band Article
1st DMB Edit
2nd DMB Edit
3rd DMB Edit <~didn't happen
DMB History Page
Loocsixela

The Shins Wikipedia Summary

2006-05-04T00:03:00.000-04:00

I decided to edit The Shins Wikipedia article because they have come to be in my top 3 favorite bands this past year. They've been featured on two widely acclaimed soundtracks, Garden State and In Good Company, and are slated to release their junior album in the fall.

For the first two edits I pretty much cleaned up and enhanced information found in the 'other details section'. The 3rd edit I made was adding their MySpace site to the external links section. The article gets an average of around 20 edits per month, so there are a lot of people keeping the information up to date.

For more information see:
The Shins article
1st Shins Edit
2nd Shins Edit
3rd Shins Edit
The Shins History Page
Loocsixela

Garden State Wikipedia Summary

2006-05-03T20:03:00.000-04:00

I decided to edit the Garden State Wikipedia article because (1) it's one of my favorite movies (2) I'm incredibly impressed that Zach Braff wrote, directed, starred in, and chose the music for the film and (3) it's has one of my favorite soundtracks.

The first edit I made corrected a quote from the movie in the music section. The second was to add some content under the trivia section. When I went to make my third edit, the trivia section had been deleted - so I found the section in the history page, reput it in the article, and added some content. Unfortunately, another Wikipedia user deleted the trivia section again because it is "redundant and useless." So apparently there is a strong community of people working on this article.

For more information see:
Garden State Article
1st Edit on Garden State
2nd Edit on Garden State
3rd Edit on Garden State
Garden State's History Page
Loocsixela

Anosmia Wikipedia Summary

2006-05-01T22:46:00.000-04:00

I chose to edit the anosmia Wikipedia article because I suffer from congential anosmia - which means I was born without a sense of smell. During my life, it's become apparent that anosmia is often overlooked and most people do not even realize that such a condition could and does exist. So, as I expected, the anosmia article is grossly underdeveloped when compared with blind or deaf.

Of the 3 edits I made, 2 were purposeful - meaning I added links that would be helpful for someone researching anosmia that were not already listed in the article. The 3rd edit I made was really to see if there was anyone keeping up with the article (I added that body odor was a dangerous side effect). That addition hasn't been removed so clearly there isn't a strong community around this article.

For more detailed information on my edits, please see:
Anosmia's Article
1st Edit on Anosmia
2nd Edit on Anosmia
3rd Edit on Anosmia
Anosmia's History Page
Loocsixela

3rd Wikipedia Edit on Garden State

2006-04-30T15:21:00.000-04:00

I just made my 3rd and final edit to the Wikipedia Garden State article. I tried to add some more information to the trivia section; however, to my dismay, someone had deleted the section altogether. I went through the history, found the original content, and put the trivia section back in the article with some new content. Hopefully history won't repeat itself and the section will stay up.

All Bundled Up

2006-04-30T14:31:00.000-04:00

Recently in class we talked about 1 of the 4 P's (pricing). During the lecture we learned that many companies in the software industry 'bundle' their products together and offer one price. When a consumer buys the 'bundle', he may not need all of the services or programs offered; however, down the road he may need the one he wasn't using and since it's already offered in the 'bundle' that he bought, it pretty much has created a lock-in against him going to other competitors for the same service or program.

ClickZ had an interesting article the other day about how bundled services have gained momentum in industries outside of software. For example, bundled packages that include phone, Internet, and TV services are very commonplace (43% of consumer households subscribe to bundle services). It also says that consumers subscribing to bundled services are less likely to switch to an alternative service provider (lock-in).

Firefox Flicks

2006-04-30T14:08:00.000-04:00

A while back I wrote about a post from a fellow classmate of mine, Steven, that talked about open source marketing and a few companies that were taking advantage of it (MasterCard, Firefox, Nike, among others).

Well, I noticed an article today on Slashdot that said the winners for the Firefox flicks challenge have been picked.

P.S. - If anyone in the class is wondering why I'm posting about kids that aren't in my group... In the beginning of the semester when I was subscribing to all of the required feeds for the class, I misread the syllabus and thought we had to subscribe to everyone's blog in the class - I should have known better after I realized how long it was going to take me. Oh well.

2nd Wikipedia edit on DMB

2006-04-25T19:36:00.000-04:00

I made my 2nd edit to the Dave Matthews Band Wikipedia article. I added a link from their official band site to the discography section. Fun stuff.

Stories that caught my eye...

2006-04-21T23:03:00.000-04:00

1. CNN had a story the other day about how MySpace foiled a school shooting. Apparently a group of teenagers in Kansas had been planning to open fire at their school on 4/20 (which is the anniversay of the Columbine shootings, Hitler's birthday, and a holiday to stoners around the world). The plan, however, was halted when some of the teenagers actually posted their intentions on their MySpace site and authorities caught wind of the plan.

2. Man with 12 nails in skull complains of headache (this one needs no explanation).

Toby gets crazy with loocsixela

2006-04-21T20:26:00.000-04:00

I don't know about you guys, but I think Toby's trying to win a free book by using and abusing loocsixela. In a recent post she talked about how our class is doing some search engine experimenting with the word loocsixela and even linked loocsixela to the Packers site multiple times throughout the post. Why you may ask??

1. Loocsixela will win her a free book
2. Loocsixela will help her business grow beyond her wildest dreams
3. Loocsixela helped her through hard times this past year
4. Loocsixela is sexy

If you don't already know, I'm obviously joking about Toby's plot with loocsixela and free books. It was just a good reason to blog the word loocsixela, loocsixela, loocsixela, loocsixela, and loocsixela.

Have a question? Ask a ninja.

2006-04-18T22:53:00.000-04:00

Robert Scoble had an amazingly long post the other day that I skimmed over. Apart from inspiring me to only surround myself with happy people, the post also guided me to a ridiculously funny site. Ask a Ninja is just like it sounds. People send in idiotic questions (for instance, are there midget ninjas?) and the the Ninja answers them in ways that will make you pee your pants. It's worth taking a look at and watching at least 1 video.

Recruiting Blogs

2006-04-18T22:40:00.000-04:00

A teammate of mine beat me to the punch the other day and posted about an article on the Naked Conversations blog regarding blogs designed for recruiting. The article pointed out 3 advantages of blogs over help wanted ads (more personal, word of mouth, and demystification) and went on to ask readers to join in on the convo about recruiting blogs, success stories, etc.

I looked through some of the comments and one I read was dead on - not surprisingly it was posted by Robert Scoble. It said "Every blog at a company is a recruiting blog." I think this statement is extremely true being that all company blog's are a representation of not only the blogger but also the company they work for. Blogs are a new way for interested job searchers to tap into a prospective company's culture and the actual people that work there.

Wikipedia has enemies?!?

2006-04-18T22:12:00.000-04:00

You would never know from what we learn in class, but Wikipedia has some enemies. Slashdot had an article about some disenchanted Wikipedia administrators that have been recently angered by articles being deleted out of Wikipedia and the apparent censorship that is going on. They've created a protest site, WikiTruth, dedicated to uncovering "injustices" on Wikipedia. It also shows the Wikipedia articles (uncensored) that have been deleted.

A link in the article to The Guardian gave me some more interesting information. First, apparently Wikipedia is defaced 20 times a minute. Second, cheese (of all things) is one of the most popular articles for "creative embellishment."

Holy Blogosphere

2006-04-18T20:50:00.000-04:00

ClickZ had a post today that said the blogosphere doubles every six months according to Technorati. What I found interesting though is that research also shows only 55% of bloggers keep up with their blogs and post new information. It will be interesting to see if blogging will continue in it's growth being that only a fraction of users stick with the program - a slight indication may be how many of us (the students) keep up with our blogs after May.

The Shins - 3rd Wiki Edit

2006-04-18T18:43:00.000-04:00

I made my 3rd, and final, edit to The Shins Wikipedia article. I added their MySpace site to the external links section. Woohoo - making history.

Feeling Lucky?

2006-04-13T14:41:00.000-04:00

So I just recently discovered what the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button on Google does. Basically, you type in your search terms or keywords and if you click the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button Google will automatically take you to the first web page found for your query. One of the blogs I subscribe to, The Onion which is a magazine that reports hilariously on fake stories, had a headline today that said "Google Failure". This caught my eye. The only content of the post was:

1. Go to Google. 2. Type in "failure". 3. Click on "I'm Feeling Lucky". 4. Enjoy!

It'll make you laugh.

Losing Control

2006-04-11T23:48:00.000-04:00

We recently heard from James Cherkoff in class regarding the new phenomena better known as open-source marketing. To my understanding, open-source marketing strays away from the traditional marketing approach where the goal is "command and control" over the message being sent to the public (i.e. a commercial). Rather, it puts the control back in the hands of consumers and allows them to build the content of the message.

A classmate of mine, Steven, had a post today about Firefox's efforts to utilize this new method. Firefox is running a competition to see who can create the best short film promoting the browser and so far 3 films have been submitted - all of which I consider high quality and very entertaining.

Here's some other campaigns that employed open-source marketing. I think it's really interesting to see that normal consumers do as good (if not better) of a job creating ads for huge corporations.

Nike - competition to create films interpreting 'speed'
MasterCard - competition to creat 'priceless' commercial
Coors Light - competition to creat ad for beer

Bullying Wikipedia

2006-04-11T00:52:00.000-04:00

I actually forgot to post about this a few weeks ago... I was looking around on the Bully article and decided to add some things. Bully is a movie based on actual events about a group of teenagers who plot (and actually do) kill a mutual friend who has a history of being abusive, physically and sexually. After watching the DVD I looked around on the extra features and saw that the real participants' names were listed. I was curious and decided to google them and was surprised to find out most of them had already been released on bail which is ridiculous (if you watch the movie you'll realize how brutal the murder was) - so I added some links to their actual court case documents to a new section in the article I made. Side note, Bully was directed by Larry Clark, better known for his work on Kids.

Cascading Style Sheets

2006-04-09T19:51:00.000-04:00

It sounds way more exotic than it is. CSS, short for cascading style sheets, is a new feature being added to HTML that gives Web site developers and users more control over how pages are displayed. For purposes of the class, I changed my blog's template to resemble our class site. Way sexier than before - almost as sexy as loocsixela.

Dave Matthews Band - 1st Wiki Edit

2006-04-07T01:43:00.000-04:00

For some reason I am wired tonight so I decided to do my first edit in the Dave Matthews Band Wikipedia article. There's a link in the article that directs you to a listing of all the DMB's songs. Basically I put the albums in order (most recent showing first), and links to any audio, video, and lyrics that were available. Check out the historyyy . The page had originally been marked as needing "clean-up." So hopefully my edit was sufficient - I took down the tag regardless.

Stop Women's Suffrage!

2006-04-06T01:10:00.000-04:00

My roommate sent me a ridiculously funny video of a prank some male Salesianum students did at Padua Academy in Wilmington. Apparently, the two boys went around (one filming, one hosting) asking girls to sign a petition to end women's suffrage. Not surprisingly, only one girl on the video didn't sign the petition...the rest were unaware of the word's definition.

Crazy Nuns

2006-04-05T23:40:00.000-04:00

I can't resist ridiculous article titles on some of the blogs I subscribe to. The most recent one that caught my eye, Activist Nuns Return to Missile Silo, was an article on CNN about three nuns that protested at a U.S. nuclear missle site. "They said their actions were an act of "civil resistance" to inform Americans their government was violating international treaties and other agreements by continuing to possess and threaten to use nuclear weapons." I just thought the title was hilarious.

3rd Anosmia Wiki Edit

2006-04-05T19:51:00.000-04:00

This is my 3rd, and probably last (hold your tears), edit on the Anosmia Wikipedia page. I added a link to The Smell & Taste Treatment & Research Foundation under the links section. If you so desire, check the history page for my edit.

S0, another day, another wiki edit, still can't smell, but at least I can enjoy my loocsixela.

Loocsixela

2006-04-05T19:39:00.000-04:00

So, our professor asked us to blog the keword loocsixela for a search engine marketing experiment. More importantly, the student who receives the highest keyword search rating for loocsixela in Google will receive a free book (woohoo - sorry Alex). The book, The World is Flat, is a brief history of the 21st century so, if anything, it will definitely be educational and possibly a little loocsixela. Don't be surprised if you see the word loocsixela over and over again in my posts - I like to win.

Google Blog Search

2006-03-17T00:35:00.000-05:00

For my class I'm required to subscribe to a google blog search. I decided to do Top Chef, a new show on Bravo. I'm embarrassed to admit that I watch that show...but oh well.

Shout out

2006-03-17T00:02:00.000-05:00

My teammate Ryan had a really great post about how Facebook is now being monitored somewhat by the university. I recently discovered that a friend of mine who plays for the UD football team was encouraged to change content he had on the web - mainly his Facebook picture that showed him holding a beer. This was all brought about because of the recent accusations against 3 football players. I'm sure you've all heard, but if not, here's an update. It's a pretty serious case so I'm sure the coaches are trying to manage their image as best they can.

You shouldn't blog

2006-03-16T23:49:00.000-05:00

In our class notes about the book, Naked Conversations, our professor asked who shouldn't blog? Oddly enough, the book's blog had a good post about how CEO's sometimes should not blog for various reasons. It's interesting to see that the authors are actually encouraging some people not to blog even they they are so pro-blogging.

Identity Theft

2006-03-16T23:36:00.000-05:00

Slashdot had an excellent article from MSNBC on identity theft. Apparently a man named Rob Cockerham was annoyed at unsolicited credit card offers. He decided to tear up his application, tape it back up, fill it out with the wrong address and his cell phone #, and wait to see if he would actually get a credit card - which he quickly does?! It definitely showed that credit card companies aren't protecting the public as well as they should - which is clear from them accepting a torn up application that had clearly been taped back together. Keep that in mind the next time you throw one away.

2nd Wiki Edit on Anosmia

2006-03-16T22:37:00.000-05:00

I made my second edit in the anosmia Wikipedia article. I added the Congenital Anosmia Forum link to the external links section. You can check the article's history page for my edit. Side note: congenital anosmia means being born without a sense of smell - which is what I am. A majority of anosmics lose their sense of smell from an injury.

The Shins - 2nd Wiki Edit

2006-03-13T18:36:00.000-05:00

I made my second, and relatively pointless, edit in The Shins article on Wikipedia. In the 'other details' section I included some links to outside articles (for some of their songs and the band The Postal Service). I didn't really add any new content, just enhanced existing stuff.

Virtual Parents

2006-03-11T18:58:00.000-05:00

I couldn't resist this headline on the CNN Technology blog - 'Virtual' Visits for Children of Divorce. I know that webcams have been successful in keeping in touch with friends, virtual teams at work, etc., but I never suspected it would help foster relationships between kids and their distant parent. It's an interesting article to read. On one hand, it's building better relationships between families that have been geographically split apart by divorce by allowing more interaction than the telephone...but on the other hand, do you really want to create a relationship with your dad or mom over a webcam??

Taking a piggyback ride

2006-03-11T18:41:00.000-05:00

For those of you on campus that use Comcast, I hope you enjoy the consistent downs in the network that I do. I would say that at least 7 times a week my internet connection is lost, which is so completely annoying. When this has happened in the past and I absolutely needed to be online, I would simply click the available networks button and look for another neighboring network I could hop onto for the time being (almost always I use my neighbor's - whom I've never met). The other day I was looking at a New York Times article referenced on Slashdot, one of our required subscriptions, and noticed that it described my exact behavior. Apparently piggybacking, the usually unauthorized tapping into someone else's wireless Internet connection, is becoming an increasing problem. I'd encourage you guys to read it so that it may shed some light on the importance of securing your own Internet connection to only users that you authorize.

Ew, can you smell that?

2006-03-08T16:20:00.000-05:00

I can't. Sadly (not really though), I suffer from what is most commonly called congenital anosmia, which in a nut shell means that I was born without a sense of smell. I kid you not. Here's answers to the most asked questions to get them out of the way, which I'm sure you're wondering about as well...

1. So you can't like smell farts or poop?

-Nope. And I heard that it's a good thing I'm missing out on those smells.

2. So you can't like smell anything?

-No. That's the whole point.

3. Can you taste?

-Yes, I can definitely taste. The way I heard it described before is like a rainbow. People with a sense of smell can taste and smell the flavor, giving them the whole 'rainbow' of taste. People without a sense of smell can still taste, but a lot of the flavor is lost without a sense of smell...so we can see the rainbow, but only in black and white.

I was in a silly mood today and I figured I would edit the anosmia webpage on Wikipedia. I added the fact that in addition to anosmia being dangerous because sufferers can't detect the smell of gas leaks, fire, and spoiled food...it's also dangerous because we cannot detect body odor (which hopefully, isn't a problem of mine). It's a silly edit, but it was one of those days. Take a look at the anosmia history page if you actually care.

1st edit on The Shins on Wikipedia

2006-03-06T20:43:00.000-05:00

I just made my first edit to The Shins article on Wikipedia. For those of you who don't know them, The Shins are an indie rock band that have been featured on the Garden State and In Good Company soundtracks...and their in my top 5 favorite bands of all time.

My edit just corrected an entry in the "Other Details" section of their article. I made the edit that included listing the name of the song, New Slang, and the character, Natalie Portman, to the first note about the film Garden State. Before that they had simply stated it was a song noted by a main character in the film.

Like a dumbass - I wasn't signed in when I made these corrections. If you click on the revisions made by 68.83.109.231 - that's me.

So, hopefully it'll stay. You can keep up with The Shins history page if you're so inclined...

Searching for myself in cyberspace

2006-03-05T21:15:00.000-05:00

I saw a suggestion from our professor on the class site to do a vanity search of ourselves (searching for your own name on Google). When I did my name, in various formations, I found that I don't exist on the Internet for as far as I ould see :( I don't know if that's good or bad but... I did a few of my roommates and surprisingly some of them had numerous valid links that showed up in the beginning of the search. Although I didn't find anything now, it is suggested in John Battelle's book, The Search, that we should check for our names on the Internet "early and often" - so, it's something to keep in mind.

Delaware News Hot Off The Press

2006-02-28T18:14:00.000-05:00

Sadly, I actually enjoy reading The News Journal. Even more sad for me, I never have time to pick it up during the day or actually read it....which is why I decided to subscribe to it's blog. A couple of the articles from today caught my eye and I figured I'd share them...

The first article talks about a new building project in Newark. Apparently they're going to tear down The Trap on Elkton road and build a new restaurant (still The Trap...new building) and apartments / town houses along with it. There's a pretty cool rendering in the article that shows the proposed rennovations.

The second article is about UD's new web site designed to track hate crimes on campus (which I was unaware was a problem).

Enjoy!

2nd Garden State Wikipedia Edit

2006-02-26T23:38:00.000-05:00

I made my second edit to the Garden State Wikipedia article. Under the trivia section I added the 'fun' fact that the soundtrack's track listing is in the same order as the songs are played in the movie. Feel free to check this article's history page to see all of my edits, past and present.

To blog or not to blog...that should not be a question.

2006-02-26T23:08:00.000-05:00

Prior to taking BUAD 477 I had never heard of blogs or blogging or anything of the sort. I was super bored last weekend and ended up reading the first few posts from my professor, Alex Brown, on our class blog. One of them in particular which detailed the benefits of blogging and news aggregators really caught my attention. It made a lot of sense. Why would someone continually check the same web sites over and over again when this type of technology is available? Not only can you categorize and sort the web sites you're interested in, but you save a bunch of time by only checking them when an update has been made and breeze through a list of article titles rather than the full page...making your time online way more efficient.

So, hopefully you can tell I went full out dork in this class and really got into the idea of blogging. Trust me, I am usually the "as long as I pass" type of student so I'm not normally this involved. If you're interested, I've listed the other blogs I've subscribed to (look to the left and down a bit). I'd strongly suggest them. And, if any one of you guys are getting into it as well, let me know any suggestions you guys have regarding good blogs to subscribe to.

Do you text?

2006-02-22T20:18:00.000-05:00

I follow a few other blogs aside from the ones we were assigned to subscribe to. One of them, CNN, had a funny article I thought might be interesting to you guys. Apparently in Britain (interestingly) there is a problem with too much texting that's leading to actual injuries! Among other things, I thought some of the funny highlights were: 3.8 million people now complain of text-related injuries every year, last March Scottish factory worker Craig Crosbie was crowned the world's fastest texter after he took just 48 seconds to type out a 160-character message, and while psychologists say it is important for people to communicate there is a danger that using arms-length tools like texting and email is making people uncomfortable with more intimate face-to-face conversations. I encourage you to read the full article.

First Wikipedia Edit - Garden State

2006-02-20T16:13:00.000-05:00

So...I'm being a little bit of an over achiever on this blog. I've already made my first edit on Wikipedia in the Garden State article. Basically, I just corrected a quote from the film in the music section. Originally the article had stated that during a scene in the film Natalie Portman's character had said to Zach Braff's character "You gotta listen to them - they'll change your life," referencing the band The Shins; however, I'm a little over obsessed with this movie and I know that in that scene she's actually referencing one of their more popular songs, New Slang - not the band in general. I changed the quote to reflect what was actually said in the movie and noted the song that was playing in her headphones.

You can view the Garden State article's history to see my corrections. Hopefully they'll remain in the article.

Have a purpose.

2006-02-17T20:44:00.000-05:00

My main purpose in creating this blog was to fulfill my project requirements for BUAD 477 - Information Technology Applications in Marketing. I'll be posting at least once a week on various topics that include course material, 4 articles I've chosen to follow on Wikipedia (The Shins, Garden State, Dave Matthews Band, and anosmia), and commenting on teammates' and classmates' blogs.

So...hopefully you'll all enjoy my blog. For now, it's Friday and I need to begin my weekend...

Working hard, or hardly working?

2006-02-17T14:08:00.000-05:00

So...I'm at work and my friend who I work with, Sammy, tells me he found a video on the VH1 Best Week Ever blog that I had to see. I must say, this was one of the funniest (and secretly kind of sad) videos I've seen in a while. If you have a few minutes, you should watch it.

That was easy!

2006-02-12T23:32:00.000-05:00

Wow I can't believe I'm blogging...