Presentation of Analysis of User Relations and Reading Activity in Weblogs

Travel to Beipu

It's on Saturday, May 17, 2008.

I went to Beipu with other International Student of CYCU.
After took a photo at the front of International Office,



we departed from CYCU at 8.30 am and arrived at our destination around 9.30.
First, we went to a tea house called Le Tea. In there, we enjoy the presentation about the Hakka culture and the history of that tea house. Then, we were taught how to make the Hakka green tea by ourselves. I like the taste, but some of my friends said that the taste was weird haha! :D





We also can try the delicious mocchi (sticky rice cake) there.


After we already full with the tea and the mocchi, we visited a historical house of the owner of that tea house. A nice architecture, but too bad they didn't allow us to take a photo inside :p

After that short visit, we went to Beipu temple. Many people went there on that day. Maybe because it was Saturday :p


From there, we rode the bus to have a lunch at a Hakka restaurant, called Lautoubai Restaurant. The foods were so many and tasty.

Then, we went to visit a tea house again, called Emei Tea House. After a short presentation about the kind and the making of the tea, we were given a chance to try several kinds of tea... green tea, red tea, oolong tea and also the famous one, the Oriental Beauty Tea :D

After enjoyed the tea and thanking for the hospitality there, we set up to Naiwan. We went passed the famous Naiwan bridge to reach Naiwan old street.



We walked through the Naiwan old street, buy some goods and have fun :D
After that, we walked through the mountain's path near there to see the fireflies in the evening. It was indeed a beautiful view. To bad, it's already dark so we couldn't take a good picture there. But it's okay, at least I can remember how beautiful the view was :D

It was the last spot we visited on that day. We then rode a bus back and arrived at CYCU around 9.30 pm. A tiring day, but I'm glad that I can go there with all my friends. ^_^

Web Service System Design Homework (May 3rd, 2008)

Read Papers 12, 13, and 14. Write a brief summary within 200 words for each paper.
Paper 12
Paper 13
Paper 14

Web Service System Design Homework (March 29th, 2008)

1. Read the abstract of Paper 3, 6 and 7. If possible, skim the whole paper.
Summarize the papers briefly.

Paper 3
Paper 6
Paper 7

2. According to Chap. 6 of Textbook. what is a functional architecture of e-commerce systems?

A functional architecture of e-commerce systems consists of several components with its own unique functions that linked together. There are four primary components of e-commerce systems:

a. Client: computer system, typically a PC, which is connected to the internet. Usually used by buyer to browsing and/or purchasing. (e.g.: home PC, PC of buyer's company).

b. Merchant: computer system or systems that contain the seller's electronic catalog and, in the case of online goods, products for over-the-Net fulfillment. (e.g.: content servers).

c. Transaction system: computer system or systems that process a particular order and that are responsible for payment, record keeping, and other business aspects of the transaction. (e.g.: application servers).

d. Payment gateway: computer system that routes payment instructions into existing financial networks such as for credit card authorization and settlement. (e.g.: resource managers).

3. Lab: PageRank
Install PageRank on your Firefox. Perform the measurements in terms of PageRank the following websites:

New York Times http://www.nytimes.com - PageRank: 9/10


CNN http://www.cnn.com/ - PageRank: 9/10

Web Service System Design Homework (March 15th, 2008)

1. Read Paper 1 & Paper 2. Provide a summary for each of the paper.
Paper1
Paper2

2. Read Chap. 4 of the textbook. What is the Business-to-business model?
Business-to-business (B2B) is a term commonly used to describe electronic commerce transactions between businesses, as opposed to those between businesses and other groups, such as business and individual consumers (B2C) or business and government (B2G).
B2B is also commonly used as an adjective to describe any activity, be it marketing, sales, or e-commerce, that occurs between businesses and other businesses rather than between businesses and consumers.
On the Internet, B2B (business-to-business), also known as e-biz, is the exchange of products, services, or information between businesses rather than between businesses and consumers.

3. Digital goods can be distributed over the Internet but physical goods have to be delivered logistically. What are digital goods? What are the differences between the two?
Digital goods are bitstrings, sequences of 0s and 1s, that have economic value.
Digital goods can be distinguished from physical goods by five characteristics: digital goods are nonrival, infinitely expansible, discrete, aspatial, and recombinant.

4. Using RSS to track many blogs at one time.
What is the RSS feed that Google Reader takes in?
All of the RSS feed that have any of these formats: RSS 0.9x, RSS 1.x, RSS 2.x (this is the available formats up to this writing). Usually, the URL which use any of those formats have the "subscribe" symbol ( ).

List the URL of these RSS feeds.
iapblog.blogspot.com :
http://www.google.com/reader/view/#stream/feed%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fiapblog.blogspot.com%2Ffeeds%2Fposts%2Fdefault

New York Times :
http://www.google.com/reader/view/#stream/feed%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2Fservices%2Fxml%2Frss%2Fnyt%2FHomePage.xml

osmandp.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default :
http://www.google.com/reader/view/#stream/feed%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fosmandp.blogspot.com%2Ffeeds%2Fcomments%2Fdefault

Web Service System Design Homework (March 8th, 2008)

1. Track your comments at a focal point - Done

2. Using personal portal - Done (see image below)

3. Make your blog organized by adding labels - Done

4. Reading Assignments: Read Chap 3. Answer the following questions:

* What are the commercial values of Internet?

The Internet can be used to transform customer relationships, and it can displace or alter traditional sources of business value.

* List some business strategies for online commerce!

Strategies related to transforming customer relationships:

• Channel master strategy : a customer-centered business organized around the product.
  
• Customer magnet strategy : a customer-centered business organized around meeting all the needs of a particular group of customers.

Strategies related to displacing the sources of value:

• Value chain pirate : focus on the supply chain.
  
• Digital distribution : focus on distribution - reaching the customer.

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Web Service System Design - Homework (March 1st 2008)

Q: According to the book by Treese and Stewart, what is the commerce value chain? Why not see them on an individual basis?

A: Commerce value chain: the chain of adding value in creating and delivering a product.
It can be depicted as in Fig.1.

Fig.1. Commerce Value Chain

In an individual basis usually some component of the value chain won't be founded, since each individual basis company will just emphasize in one or two components and omitting the others, due to cost or human resource consideration.

Q: Is the Internet different from other media? Why?

A: Yes, Internet is different from any other conventional media (e.g. TV, newspaper, radio, etc.). The major difference is that Internet can make the user (or customer) to choose their own interests of information (through browsing and clicking the topics of information they want to find), while other media will make their user to consume the information which they provided already at that time.

Q: Convert one of your Word document using Google docs.

A: Example of document - "Enjoy your coffee".

What Is Web 2.0 (summarize)

What Is Web 2.0

Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software

by Tim O'Reilly (09/30/2005)

Web 2.0 can be visualized as a set of principles and practices that tie together a veritable solar system of sites that demonstrate some or all of those principles, at a varying distance from that core. (see Fig.1)

Fig.1. Meme Map of Web 2.0 that was developed during FOO Camp (2005)

To identify one application or approach as "Web 1.0" and another as "Web 2.0": tease out the principles that are demonstrated in one way or another by the success stories of web 1.0 and by the most interesting of the new applications, which is:

1. The Web As Platform

• The value of the software is proportional to the scale and dynamism of the data it helps to manage.
• Leverage customer-self service and algorithmic data management to reach out to the entire web, to the edges and not just the center, to the long tail and not just the head.
• The service automatically gets better the more people use it.

2. Harnessing Collective Intelligence

• Network effects from user contributions are the key to market dominance in the Web 2.0 era.

3. Data is the Next Intel Inside

• The company that first reaches critical mass via user aggregation, and turns that aggregated data into a system service will be the winner.
• The race is on to own certain classes of core data: location, identity, calendaring of public events, product identifiers and namespaces.

4. End of the Software Release Cycle

• Software is delivered as a service, not as a product.
• Operations must become a core competency à the software will cease to perform unless it is maintained on a daily basis.
• Users must be treated as co-developers.

5. Lightweight Programming Models

• Support lightweight programming models that allow for loosely coupled systems.
• Think syndication, not coordination.
• Design for "hackability" and remixability.

6. Software Above the Level of a Single Device

• Useful software written above the level of the single device will command high margins for a long time to come. (Dave Stutz)

7. Rich User Experiences

• Companies that succeed will create applications that learn from their users, using an architecture of participation to build a commanding advantage not just in the software interface, but in the richness of the shared data.

From the seven principles above, we can highlight some of the principal features of Web 2.0 that can become the core competencies of Web 2.0 companies:

• Services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability.
• Control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them.
• Trusting users as co-developers.
• Harnessing collective intelligence.
• Leveraging the long tail through customer self-service.
• Software above the level of a single device.
• Lightweight user interfaces, development models, and business models.

List the companies Google acquired (2001-2007)

List the companies Google acquired year by year:

(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_acquisitions)

Company / Product	Business Area	Strategic Implications
2001
Deja's Usenet archive	Google Groups	Google users will be able to search and browse more than 500 million archived messages from Deja Usenet with the speed and efficiency of a Google search. (available at http://groups.google.com)
Outride, Inc.	Spin-off from Xerox PARC	Complements Google's technology development to provide search results with greater relevance.
2003
Pyra Labs	Blogger	Secured the company's competitive ability to use information gleaned from blog postings to improve the speed and relevance of articles contained in a companion product to the search engine (Google News).
Neotonic Software	CRM technology	- A step for Google to move into providing services for e-mail discussion groups, in competition with Yahoo. - provide strong support channel for its upcoming webmail service GMail. - Could push Google into yet another field of operations: licensing customer resource management tools to small businesses. (News.com)
Applied Semantics	Advertising technology	Help Google expand its program that links online ads with corresponding Web pages
Kaltix	Search engine technology	Allowing Google to develop personalized search and provide context sensitive search for Google Search.
Sprinks	Paid listings unit of Primedia	Sprinks advertisements, which were distributed over the About.com media network, will be now be replaced by Google Adwords advertisements
Genius Labs	Blogging	Strengthen Google position in web-logging industry.
2004
Ignite Logic	Website creation technology	Google's legally enforced "quiet period," a result of their IPO filing, may have stifled news of a purchase search engine leader Google has made.
Baidu (2.6% stake)	Chinese language search engine. All shares were sold in June, 2006	For Google, which previously faced a great challenge from Baidu in China, the deal will help it ease competition and get to better know the market.
Picasa	Photo management software	Google is acquiring a photographic opportunity; and also all the people looking at photos may likely see Google's contextual ads displayed by their photos. Their integration with Blogger allows them to show a photo and a caption.
Keyhole, Inc.	Mapping software; used in Google Earth	Gives Google users a powerful new search tool, enabling users to view 3D images of any place on earth as well as tap a rich database of roads, businesses and many other points of interest.
Where2	Mapping software; used in Google Maps	The creation of Google Maps by implementing Where2 technology.
ZipDash	Traffic info start-up; used in Google Ride Finder	Implement the technology to Google Ride Finder.
2005
2Web Technologies	Web-based spreadsheet	The creation of Google Spreadsheet.
Phatbits	Widget engine	Allowed for the deployment of Google Desktop Gadgets & Sidebar; become a key component of Google's overall desktop applications strategy.
Urchin Software Corporation	Web analysis	Make web site analytics solution tools available to web site owners and marketers to better enable them to increase their advertising return on investment and make their web sites more effective.
Dodgeball	Social networking	Integrating with Google maps mobile, Google local and also Google’s social networking service (Orkut).
Reqwireless	Web browser and Mobile email	Improvement of Google's various software products for cell phones and PDAs
Current Communications Group	Broadband internet	- The proliferation of broadband. - Make a number of deals with broadband providers for various content and search services.
Android (mobile phone platform)	Software for Handheld devices	Adds to Google's the collection of talent and technology that it hopes to apply to wireless service segment.
Skia	Graphics software	Development of graphic software and Google Phone.
Akwan Information Technologies	Latin American internet operations	Enables Google to provide the best advertising services and search experience to its users, advertisers and partners in Brazil, Mexico and throughout Latin America.
allPAY GmbH, bruNET GmbH	Mobile Solution Provider, Germany	Broaden Google influence in Europe, especially for mobile service.
AOL (5% stake)	Internet	Connect Google users worldwide to a wealth of new content and also created a simple way for AOL Marketplace advertisers to buy and place search-related advertising across the AOL network.
2006
dMarc Broadcasting	Radio advertising software and platform	Create a new radio ad distribution channel by integrating dMarc's technology into Google's AdWords platform.
Measure Map	Blog analysis	Measure Map site put under Google; and a possible improvement on Googleblog.
Upstartle	Writely, online word processing	There has been considerable speculation that Google would look to create a Web-based rival to Microsoft's dominant software suite.
@Last Software	SketchUp, 3-D modeling	Create a plug-in designed to allow developers to export 3D models from SketchUp into Google Earth.
Orion	Advanced search method	A possible improvement on Google’s searching performance.
Neven Vision	Computer vision	A possible improvement in Google’s free photo organizing software.
JotSpot	Website applications	Get the tool for Web-based collaboration needed for online word processing and spreadsheet applications.
YouTube	Video sharing (San Bruno, CA)	Gives Google the ability to tap into the potentially lucrative online video and social networking markets and thus strengthen its dominance in online ads.
Endoxon	Mapping solutions	Enhance Google Earth and Google Maps using Endoxon’s Internet, mapping and data processing business units.
2007
Xunlei (partial acquisition)	Network, file-sharing		May help Google tap growing popularity for online videos in the world's second-biggest Internet market.
Adscape	Video game advertising		Expanded Google’s advertising reach by moving into video game advertising.
Trendalyzer	Software		Trendalyzer will improve any function or application in which data might be better visualized.
Tonic Systems	Presentation software		Integrate a PowerPoint-like tool in Google Docs.
Marratech video conferencing software	Video conferencing (Stockholm, Sweden)		Enable from-the-desktop participation for Googlers in video-conference meetings wherever there's an Internet connection.
DoubleClick	Online Advertising		Enable Google to extend their ad network and develop deeper relationships with our partners.
GreenBorder Technologies	Desktop enterprise security		Provide the Internet giant with a Web "sandbox" for its users (Basically users could enter the sandbox, search and interact with various Web sites, and leave any viruses they encounter back in the sandbox when they exit).
Panoramio	Geospatial Photo-sharing Service		Integrate Panoramio's technology and services more deeply into its products as well as build out Panoramio's infrastructure.
FeedBurner	RSS Feeds (Chicago, IL)		Smoothing Google’s plans to get into the RSS ad market.
PeakStream	Parallel Processing		Use PeakStream’s technologies to make and/or improve Google’s products and features.
Zenter	Presentations Software		Providing Google with source to add presentation-sharing capabilities to Google Docs & Spreadsheets.
GrandCentral	VOIP Phone Aggregation (Fremont, CA)		Smoothing Google's efforts to provide services that enhance the collaborative exchange of information between their users.
ImageAmerica	High resolution aerial cameras		Make contributions to Google mapping services.
Postini	Communications Security (San Carlos, CA)		Postini will become a wholly owned subsidiary of the search giant, and its products will be used on Google's existing services.
Tusli	Google Blogger Api Engineering Team		Improvement on Google Blogger.
Zingku	Mobile social network and communication platform		Second chance for Google at Mobile Service Networking after Dodgeball.
Jaiku	An activity stream and presence sharing service that works from the Web and mobile phones (Helsinki)		Expansion of Google efforts in the Internet communications space by entering microblogging service.

Blog creation - motivation

Actually, this blog was created because I attended the "Web Service and Advanced Internet System" class taught by Professor Yao-Jen Chang on CYCU (Chung Yuan Christian University), Taiwan, and the homeworks are required to be in the blog form.

Created on Feb 23rd 2008, I hope I can use this blog not only for this narrow purpose, but rather I can use this for many other, more useful things.

Wish me luck ^_^