Advertising Companies Fret Over a Digital Talent Gap

Posted by & filed under education, EXAM ARTICLE.

Description: When the Ad:tech advertising technology conference hits New York next week, marketers, advertising agencies and recruiters may spend less time listening to the panelists and more time working the floor to find new employees.

Source: www.nytimes.com/

Date: Oct 30, 2011

A talent gap is growing between the skills that many new advertising jobs require and the number of people who have those skills. The dilemma, one familiar to many industries across the country, is particularly acute for jobs that require hard-core quantitative, mathematical and technical skills.

The talent pool, advertising technology company executives say, is not a deep one. And those who have the skills are in high demand, often fetching annual salaries that can reach $100,000.    READ REST OF STORY

Questions for discussion:

  1. Why is there a talent gap growing between the skills that many new advertising jobs require and the number of people who have those skills?

2.  How would one best attempt to acquire the skills needed in this industry?

Transistors — Any Product Is Better than Nothing

Posted by & filed under business models, disruptive technology, EXAM ARTICLE.

Description: Up through the mid-1970s, most consumer electronics products were built with these devices called vacuum tubes. They’re about the size of a child’s fist.

Source: www.phoenix.edu

Date: Oct 28, 2011

Click to watch the video

A TV had about 20 vacuum tubes inside of it. And as a consequence, the TVs of the time had to sit on, stand on the floor. They’re about this tall. Cost about $4,000 in today’s money. So only families that had big homes and big bank accounts could own TVs. The transistor was disruptive relative to the vacuum tube, because when it emerged it couldn’t handle the high power that was required to be used in one of these big floor-standing TVs. Or the radios of the time sat on the, the, uh, credenza in the dining room.

Every one of the vacuum tube companies, and these are the giants of the electronics industry, RCA, the Radio Corporation of America, Zenith, Westinghouse, Motorola, Philco, they all took a license to the technology, and they carried the license into their own laboratories and framed it as a technological problem. In other words, the transistor just can’t handle the power required to be used in the market. Read the Rest of Story

Questions for discussion:

  1. Why are transistors considered a disruptive technology??

2.  What do feel are some other disruptive technologies?

Google jumps into Canadian e-book business

Posted by & filed under disruptive technology, EXAM ARTICLE, Uncategorized.

Description: Google entered the crowded Canadian e-book market Tuesday, launching an online store that will compete for readers against established giants Amazon and Kobo.

Source: Globe and Mail .com

Date: Nov 1, 2011

Coady’s book was listed at $28.84 through Google, but was more than $10 cheaper on Kobo’s store. Vanderhaeghe’s book was $14.39 through Google, and more than $5 less on Kobo.

Still, Google is counting on the fact that its broad selection and versatility will persuade Canadian customers to give its new service a chance.

“We do offer a massive catalogue of books, so for most people there will be more choice for books, we also support a broader range of reading devices,” Dougal said. “We have every major publisher in Canada and a lot of very small Canadiana publishers. We’re very aggressive about finding every single book that we can find.”  Read Rest of Story

Questions for discussion:

  1. Do you feel that Google has a competitive advantage in this market?

2.  What is Google’s competitive strategy and what is the source of that competitive advantage?

With an App, Your Next Date Could Be Just Around the Corner

Posted by & filed under EXAM ARTICLE, Social Media.

Description: The idea of meeting someone on the fly through a mobile app based solely on proximity may seem, at first, like a risky proposition.

Source: New York Times .com

Date: Nov 2, 2011

On the apps, which use smartphone location technology, users post a simple profile and then broadcast their availability, or scan a list of others who have done so.

They can immediately exchange messages and, if there is mutual interest, decide where to meet.

Some of the apps are stand-alone, while others are new features of established dating sites; there are fewer than a dozen so far, including Blendr, OkCupid Locals and HowAboutWe. They tend to be free, making money by selling ads or charging for extra features.

OkCupid Locals is part of OkCupid, a larger dating site, which says a tenth of its 2.5 million active members use the location features in the mobile app. HowAboutWe began a little over a year ago as a Web site where people post suggestions for dates they would like to have.  Read the Rest of the Story

Questions for discussion:

  1. Are these dating service a good idea? Why?

2.  What are the revenue models for these dating apps and services?

What the Internet in Hiding From You

Posted by & filed under Collaborative filtering, EXAM ARTICLE, Personalization.

Description: Randi Kaye talks to Eli Pariser about why he says web personalization could have dangerous consequences

Source: CNN .com

Date: Nov 1, 2011

Questions for discussion:

  1. Is collaborative filtering a positive feature for consumers?  explain

2.  List 3 positive and 3 negative consequences of information filtering.

What A Newspaper Should Be

Posted by & filed under EXAM ARTICLE, newspapers on-line, Uncategorized.

Description: The newspaper industry is being decimated.

Source: Forbes.com.com

Date: Oct 28, 2011

watch video at this link http://video.forbes.com/fvn/future-tech/morgan-guenther-what-a-newspaper-should-be

Questions for discussion:

  1. Why is the newspaper being decimated?

2.  Where do you see the future going for this industry and how should one position their company to gain a competitive advantage?

Will Siri Bring Back the iPhone’s Wow Factor?

Posted by & filed under EXAM ARTICLE, iphone, siri, voice recognition.

Description: Do you remember the first time you saw the iPhone?
Chances are someone was showing off an application — perhaps using Shazam to identify a song or shaking his phone to serve up restaurant recommendations on UrbanSpoon.
Now, here’s another question. When is the last time someone showed off an app to you?

Source: NYTimes.com

Date: Oct 5, 2011

Apple has long cultivated a devoted following of fans who are obsessed with its products. But as Google and its Android operating system nip at the company’s heels, it becomes ever more crucial that Apple still be able to dazzle consumers — and a new hardware design may no longer be sufficient.

Siri, analysts say, may be the answer. Siri acts as a virtual personal assistant that uses a combination of artificial intelligence and natural language processing to perform tasks like scheduling appointments and helping users figure out whether or not they need an umbrella..  READ THE REST OF THE STORY

Questions for discussion:

  1. Is Siri a disruptive technology for Apple? Explain?

2.  What is Siri?

Apple’s Lower Prices Are All Part of the Plan

Posted by & filed under Apple, EXAM ARTICLE, Supply Chain Management.

Description: Something unexpected has happened at Apple, once known as the tech industry’s high-price leader. Over the last several years it began beating rivals on price.

Source: NYTimes.com

Date: Oct 23, 2011

People who wanted the latest Apple smartphone, the iPhone 4S, were able to get one the day it went on sale if they were willing to wait in a line, spend at least $199 and commit to a two-year wireless service contract with a carrier.

Or they could have skipped the lines and bought one of the latest iPhone rivals from an Apple competitor, as long as they were willing to dig deeper into their wallets. For $300 and a two-year contract, gadget lovers could have picked up Motorola’s Droid Bionic from Verizon Wireless, or they could bought the $230 Samsung Galaxy SII and $260 HTC Amaze 4G, both from T-Mobile, under the same terms.  READ THE REST OF THE STORY

Questions for discussion:

  1. Using Michael Porter’s Competitive Strategy model, which generic strategy do think apple is pursuing? Explain?

2.  Is this a different strategy than apple has pursued in the past?  Explain.

More Jobs Predicted for Machines, Not People

Posted by & filed under Artificial intelligence, Biometrics, EXAM ARTICLE, robotics, white-collar.

Description: A faltering economy explains much of the job shortage in America, but advancing technology has sharply magnified the effect, more so than is generally understood, according to two researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Source: NYTimes.com

Date: Oct 23, 2011

Technology has always displaced some work and jobs. Over the years, many experts have warned — mistakenly — that machines were gaining the upper hand. In 1930, the economist John Maynard Keynes warned of a “new disease” that he termed “technological unemployment,” the inability of the economy to create new jobs faster than jobs were lost to automation.

But Mr. Brynjolfsson and Mr. McAfee argue that the pace of automation has picked up in recent years because of a combination of technologies including robotics, numerically controlled machines, computerized inventory control, voice recognition and online commerce.   READ REST OF STORY

Questions for discussion:

  1. Do you agree with this articles thesis that machines will continue to displace jobs for human workers and that this is a long tem problem?

2.  Do you agree with this statement? Why or Why not?scientific discovery,” they write, “the key to winning the race is not to compete against machines but to compete with machines.”