Richard Lucic lucic@cs.duke.edu Richard Lucic (lucic@cs.duke.edu) This podcast is for the use of the faculty and students in CPS 181s, Principles of Effective eCommerce. http://dukecast.oit.duke.edu/documents/serve/1188/cslogo_square_blue.SMALL.png http://dukecast.oit.duke.edu/albums/show/81 Business en no http://dukecast.oit.duke.edu/installments/show/386 [runtime: 00:13:18, 6.1 mb, recorded 2005-10-05] Hosts Tim O'Reilly and John Battelle introduce the themes of this year's Web 2.0 Conference. In the year since the first Web 2.0 Conference the term "Web 2.0" has definitely become part of the mainstream technological vocabulary. Indeed, it seems that any new Internet offering feels that using the term is an essential part of its product description. Further evidence is given by the ever-increasing number of hits returned by a search on Google for "Web 2.0". Time O'Reilly and John Battelle, in their welcome speech at this year's conference feel that the important thing now is that the focus is put squarely on substance and that the Web 2.0 concept doesn't suffer from a cycle of hype. It's hard to deny that the web is becoming a platform: the evidence is in sites like housingmaps.com, which can be seen as a sort of platonic ideal of the mashup. More than anything, it is mashups that define the new approach to web application development. O'Reilly and Battelle discuss the impact of the new lightweight business models that have arisen, which concentrate on building on top of the platform and using the infrastructure already in existence. This points to a couple of key principles for the coming years: data is the next "Intel Inside"; the web is about the collective. In other words, this is the year of things running on the platform, rather than the notion of the platform itself. [runtime: 00:13:18, 6.1 mb, recorded 2005-10-05] Hosts Tim O'Reilly and John Battelle introduce the themes of this year's Web 2.0 Conference. In the year since the first Web 2.0 Conference the term "Web 2.0" has definitely become part of the mainstream technological vocabulary. Indeed, it seems that any new Internet offering feels that using the term is an essential part of its product description. Further evidence is given by the ever-increasing number of hits returned by a search on Google for "Web 2.0". Time O'Reilly and John Battelle, in their welcome speech at this year's conference feel that the important thing now is that the focus is put squarely on substance and that the Web 2.0 concept doesn't suffer from a cycle of hype. It's hard to deny that the web is becoming a platform: the evidence is in sites like housingmaps.com, which can be seen as a sort of platonic ideal of the mashup. More than anything, it is mashups that define the new approach to web application development. O'Reilly and Battelle discuss the impact of the new lightweight business models that have arisen, which concentrate on building on top of the platform and using the infrastructure already in existence. This points to a couple of key principles for the coming years: data is the next "Intel Inside"; the web is about the collective. In other words, this is the year of things running on the platform, rather than the notion of the platform itself. Audio content provided by IT Conversations http://www.itconversations.com. no Thu Jan 11 12:00:00 EST 2007 http://dukecast.oit.duke.edu/installments/show/388 [runtime: 00:14:32, 6.7 mb, recorded 2004-10-06] James Currier, CEO of Tickle, discusses consumer psychology at the Web 2.0 Conference. Every great consumer business is built around the psychology and emotions of the individual. Come take a deep dive into consumer psychology and its implications for the future of online consumer services. [runtime: 00:14:32, 6.7 mb, recorded 2004-10-06] James Currier, CEO of Tickle, discusses consumer psychology at the Web 2.0 Conference. Every great consumer business is built around the psychology and emotions of the individual. Come take a deep dive into consumer psychology and its implications for the future of online consumer services. Audio content provided by IT Conversations http://www.itconversations.com no Thu Feb 01 12:00:00 EST 2007 http://dukecast.oit.duke.edu/installments/show/391 Disney's Usability Criteria Disney's Usability Criteria Disney's Usability Criteria no Thu Feb 15 12:00:00 EST 2007 http://dukecast.oit.duke.edu/installments/show/849 [runtime: 00:14:35, 6.7 mb, recorded 2006-02-23] Mashups are a good example of what some Internet insiders are calling "Web 2.0," a relatively undefined term that sort of means something like the Web serving as a platform with sites that take advantage of -- among other things -- user supplied content. The best place to find Mashups is at programmableweb.com which currently lists more than 450 mashups, 50 of which are classifies as "popular." [runtime: 00:14:35, 6.7 mb, recorded 2006-02-23] Mashups are a good example of what some Internet insiders are calling "Web 2.0," a relatively undefined term that sort of means something like the Web serving as a platform with sites that take advantage of -- among other things -- user supplied content. The best place to find Mashups is at programmableweb.com which currently lists more than 450 mashups, 50 of which are classifies as "popular." Audio content provided by IT Conversations http://www.itconversations.com. no Thu Jan 11 12:00:00 EST 2007 http://dukecast.oit.duke.edu/installments/show/850 [runtime: 00:38:30, 17.6 mb, recorded 2005-03-17] The Long Tail is a phrase coined by Chris Anderson, the Editor-in-Chief of Wired magazine, for the statistical distribution of sales observed by online businesses. In this talk he explores the economics of the long tail and shares his insight on the effects it might have on future business models. Chris discusses how distribution networks like Amazon, iTunes and Netflix have shown that the right side of the curve which forms millions of niches can be as big a market as the chart toppers. Historically, catalogues and 800 numbers have exposed the long tail, but in the age of the Internet, it's the power of recommendations that drives the long tail resulting in the success of the businesses which cater to it. Chris also delves into the different domains in which the long tail plays a part. The talk by Chris Anderson is followed by a conversation with Joe Kraus, the CEO of Jotspot, in which they discuss how the failure to understand the significance of catering to the long tail of the advertising market led to the downfall of the Excite search engine. Joe also talks about his experience of currently running a company whose products are targeted at the long tail of the market. [runtime: 00:38:30, 17.6 mb, recorded 2005-03-17] The Long Tail is a phrase coined by Chris Anderson, the Editor-in-Chief of Wired magazine, for the statistical distribution of sales observed by online businesses. In this talk he explores the economics of the long tail and shares his insight on the effects it might have on future business models. Chris discusses how distribution networks like Amazon, iTunes and Netflix have shown that the right side of the curve which forms millions of niches can be as big a market as the chart toppers. Historically, catalogues and 800 numbers have exposed the long tail, but in the age of the Internet, it's the power of recommendations that drives the long tail resulting in the success of the businesses which cater to it. Chris also delves into the different domains in which the long tail plays a part. The talk by Chris Anderson is followed by a conversation with Joe Kraus, the CEO of Jotspot, in which they discuss how the failure to understand the significance of catering to the long tail of the advertising market led to the downfall of the Excite search engine. Joe also talks about his experience of currently running a company whose products are targeted at the long tail of the market. Audio content provided by IT Conversations http://www.itconversations.com. no Thu Jan 18 12:00:00 EST 2007 http://dukecast.oit.duke.edu/installments/show/851 [runtime: 00:22:16, 10.2 mb, recorded 2005-06-02] Although 60% of global GDP is based on services, it accounts for less than 10% of e-commerce revenues. For a start, there is no central market place for applications or services on demand. As Grady puts it, there is no Ebay for services. The major reason for this is that providing services efficiently and successfully on the web is hard to do. As knowledge workers trying to handle our own administration, we're confronted by hundreds of web sites that were never designed to interoperate with each other or with us. Even more tellingly, these sites cannot work asynchronously 24/7 and they don't have the ability to work intelligently on our behalf, choosing options based on context, preferences, or schedules. Patrick Grady proposes that the answer to these problems lies in creating a single global e-commerce market place that makes no distinction between types of service. His company has done just that. What differentiates Rearden Commerce's solution from previous "intergalactic" approaches, however, is the network effect caused by creating a personal assistant that can handle the complexity of service administration by integrating identity, presence, and contex [runtime: 00:22:16, 10.2 mb, recorded 2005-06-02] Although 60% of global GDP is based on services, it accounts for less than 10% of e-commerce revenues. For a start, there is no central market place for applications or services on demand. As Grady puts it, there is no Ebay for services. The major reason for this is that providing services efficiently and successfully on the web is hard to do. As knowledge workers trying to handle our own administration, we're confronted by hundreds of web sites that were never designed to interoperate with each other or with us. Even more tellingly, these sites cannot work asynchronously 24/7 and they don't have the ability to work intelligently on our behalf, choosing options based on context, preferences, or schedules. Patrick Grady proposes that the answer to these problems lies in creating a single global e-commerce market place that makes no distinction between types of service. His company has done just that. What differentiates Rearden Commerce's solution from previous "intergalactic" approaches, however, is the network effect caused by creating a personal assistant that can handle the complexity of service administration by integrating identity, presence, and contex Audio content provided by IT Conversations http://www.itconversations.com. no Thu Jan 25 12:00:00 EST 2007 http://dukecast.oit.duke.edu/installments/show/852 [runtime: 00:30:10, 13.8 mb, recorded 2005-09-17] Few aspects of life anywhere on the planet offer as much freedom as the internet. The internet allows people freely to choose the information they wish to see and it offers the freedom to display any information. Therefore, there is an unprecedented amount of choice available to users, but at the cost of a lack of certainty about the source of information. Regulating the Internet is a controversial subject, but Esther Dyson wades headlong into the fray with her opinions in this talk from Accelerating Change 2005. She argues that the best way to regulate systems characterized by freedom is to cede control to the users, and to give them tools to regulate the community; examples of these systems include wikipedia, flickr and vizu. There also needs to be a balance between the ability to authenticate identity and protect the possibility of anonymity. Since the knowledge base of its users varies so much, rules for internet communities need to be carefully designed. More than one system needs to be employed in order to offer security to new users while maintaining robust opportunities for people with advanced knowledge. Regulation of the internet should be, in Esther Dyson's words, a way to empower people to do things without giving them power over each other. [runtime: 00:30:10, 13.8 mb, recorded 2005-09-17] Few aspects of life anywhere on the planet offer as much freedom as the internet. The internet allows people freely to choose the information they wish to see and it offers the freedom to display any information. Therefore, there is an unprecedented amount of choice available to users, but at the cost of a lack of certainty about the source of information. Regulating the Internet is a controversial subject, but Esther Dyson wades headlong into the fray with her opinions in this talk from Accelerating Change 2005. She argues that the best way to regulate systems characterized by freedom is to cede control to the users, and to give them tools to regulate the community; examples of these systems include wikipedia, flickr and vizu. There also needs to be a balance between the ability to authenticate identity and protect the possibility of anonymity. Since the knowledge base of its users varies so much, rules for internet communities need to be carefully designed. More than one system needs to be employed in order to offer security to new users while maintaining robust opportunities for people with advanced knowledge. Regulation of the internet should be, in Esther Dyson's words, a way to empower people to do things without giving them power over each other. Audio content provided by IT Conversations http://www.itconversations.com. no Thu Feb 08 12:00:00 EST 2007 http://dukecast.oit.duke.edu/installments/show/853 no Thu Feb 22 12:00:00 EST 2007 http://dukecast.oit.duke.edu/installments/show/854 [runtime: 00:45:10, 20.7 mb, recorded 2005-03-15] Just how do you go about ensuring that future colonists on Mars can get hold of the books they've ordered online? After all, when space research makes a break-through and space colonization becomes a reality, Amazon.com would like to be the preferred way to order retail products anywhere in the universe. Amazon.com's CTO Werner Vogels takes this lighthearted problem of interplanetary distribution as the starting point for his talk on the issues facing the builders of scalable and robust distributed systems. Amazon.com currently runs the world's largest online retail operation but is starting to prepare itself already for what could be described as a more universal presence. Because the scale of its operations is unparalleled, the software required to run its distributed operation is so complex that no software vendor is capable of delivering a solution of adequate robustness and scalability. This has led to Amazon.com itself becoming one of the premier high-tech companies developing globally scalable distributed systems. Using an array of entertaining metaphors combined with real-life examples, Vogels describes the principles underlying the new technologies at the heart of any attempt to guarantee robust operation on anything approaching a genuinely global scale. The presentation focuses especially on the role played by Chaos, Biology, and Evolution principles in the development of software services that can self-organize and self-regenerate, achieving service stability in a world that is continuously in flux. Vogels begins by explaining how the spread of an epidemic can provide a model for the spread of information throughout a network and then shows how techniques based on that model can be used to create ultra-scalable software infrastructures that exhibit unparalleled robustness and scalability properties. He also explores how, by using viral data dissemination, it has become possible to achieve global data consistency without sacrificing either availability or scalability. [runtime: 00:45:10, 20.7 mb, recorded 2005-03-15] Just how do you go about ensuring that future colonists on Mars can get hold of the books they've ordered online? After all, when space research makes a break-through and space colonization becomes a reality, Amazon.com would like to be the preferred way to order retail products anywhere in the universe. Amazon.com's CTO Werner Vogels takes this lighthearted problem of interplanetary distribution as the starting point for his talk on the issues facing the builders of scalable and robust distributed systems. Amazon.com currently runs the world's largest online retail operation but is starting to prepare itself already for what could be described as a more universal presence. Because the scale of its operations is unparalleled, the software required to run its distributed operation is so complex that no software vendor is capable of delivering a solution of adequate robustness and scalability. This has led to Amazon.com itself becoming one of the premier high-tech companies developing globally scalable distributed systems. Using an array of entertaining metaphors combined with real-life examples, Vogels describes the principles underlying the new technologies at the heart of any attempt to guarantee robust operation on anything approaching a genuinely global scale. The presentation focuses especially on the role played by Chaos, Biology, and Evolution principles in the development of software services that can self-organize and self-regenerate, achieving service stability in a world that is continuously in flux. Vogels begins by explaining how the spread of an epidemic can provide a model for the spread of information throughout a network and then shows how techniques based on that model can be used to create ultra-scalable software infrastructures that exhibit unparalleled robustness and scalability properties. He also explores how, by using viral data dissemination, it has become possible to achieve global data consistency without sacrificing either availability or scalability. Audio content provided by IT Conversations http://www.itconversations.com. no Thu Mar 22 12:00:00 EDT 2007 http://dukecast.oit.duke.edu/installments/show/855 [runtime: 01:43:12, 47.2 mb, recorded 2004-10-27] Sean Fitzroy and Vikki Merriman, winners of the 2003 Boston 48 Hour Film Project competition, explain the role of Mac OS X and Apple software and hardware in making an award-winning short film in just 48 hours. The presentation will begin with a viewing of Pie in the Sky, an 8-minute long mockumentary short about a dot-com that tries to start an automated online pizza delivery service. The filmmakers will discuss the media management and work flow techniques that enabled collaboration between multiple editors and compositors, a composer, and a sound recordist that needed to quickly manipulate and exchange and work with large audio and video files. Learn about the technologies that enabled the filmmakers to log and capture on the set, collaboratively edit the film and create animations on three networked laptops, record music directly into Final Cut Pro in real time, and even create a "mobile unit" so that the film could be output to tape in the car on the way to the drop-off point. The Mac OS X voice "Bruce" even has a supporting role! Vikki Merriman is an award-winning filmmaker and founder of Digital Loom, a multimedia design firm in Camrbidge, MA. She is currently directing Gone Silent, a documentary about the life and work of Gnutella pioneer Gene Kan. Vikki holds a degree in Visual Arts from Harvard University and is currently on faculty at the New England Institute of Art. Sean Fitzroy is an award-winning filmmaker, video editor and technical consultant. He is currently a member of the full-time faculty in the Multimedia and Web Design Department at The New England Institute of Art, where he designed the curriculum for the baccalaureate concentration in Digital Video. [runtime: 01:43:12, 47.2 mb, recorded 2004-10-27] Sean Fitzroy and Vikki Merriman, winners of the 2003 Boston 48 Hour Film Project competition, explain the role of Mac OS X and Apple software and hardware in making an award-winning short film in just 48 hours. The presentation will begin with a viewing of Pie in the Sky, an 8-minute long mockumentary short about a dot-com that tries to start an automated online pizza delivery service. The filmmakers will discuss the media management and work flow techniques that enabled collaboration between multiple editors and compositors, a composer, and a sound recordist that needed to quickly manipulate and exchange and work with large audio and video files. Learn about the technologies that enabled the filmmakers to log and capture on the set, collaboratively edit the film and create animations on three networked laptops, record music directly into Final Cut Pro in real time, and even create a "mobile unit" so that the film could be output to tape in the car on the way to the drop-off point. The Mac OS X voice "Bruce" even has a supporting role! Vikki Merriman is an award-winning filmmaker and founder of Digital Loom, a multimedia design firm in Camrbidge, MA. She is currently directing Gone Silent, a documentary about the life and work of Gnutella pioneer Gene Kan. Vikki holds a degree in Visual Arts from Harvard University and is currently on faculty at the New England Institute of Art. Sean Fitzroy is an award-winning filmmaker, video editor and technical consultant. He is currently a member of the full-time faculty in the Multimedia and Web Design Department at The New England Institute of Art, where he designed the curriculum for the baccalaureate concentration in Digital Video. Audio content provided by IT Conversations Http://www.itconversations.com. no Thu Mar 29 12:00:00 EDT 2007 http://dukecast.oit.duke.edu/installments/show/856 [runtime: 00:49:41, 22.7 mb, recorded 2005-03-17] Culture is remix, and remix, culture. That's the message from an IT Conversations favorite, Lawrence Lessig, at O'Reilly's Emerging Technology (ETech) conference in 2005. Humans have always made new culture by taking and remixing existing cultures, and have always been free to do so. Until recently the written word was the central medium for remix. As technology has advanced the mechanisms by which we remix our culture have changed to keep pace but the law has not. The question at hand is: should our freedom> to remix culture change when the ordinary means we use to remix culture changes? As our technology and our culture become enslaved at the hands of the RIAA, MPAA, and others, Lessig proposes 4 steps we must take to counteract the degradation of our remix rights: 1) connect, 2) teach, 3) punish, and 4) politicize. Following Professor Lessig's presentation, Cory Doctorow of the Electronic Frontier Foundation asks Lessig questions that further illuminate Lessig's concepts. [runtime: 00:49:41, 22.7 mb, recorded 2005-03-17] Culture is remix, and remix, culture. That's the message from an IT Conversations favorite, Lawrence Lessig, at O'Reilly's Emerging Technology (ETech) conference in 2005. Humans have always made new culture by taking and remixing existing cultures, and have always been free to do so. Until recently the written word was the central medium for remix. As technology has advanced the mechanisms by which we remix our culture have changed to keep pace but the law has not. The question at hand is: should our freedom> to remix culture change when the ordinary means we use to remix culture changes? As our technology and our culture become enslaved at the hands of the RIAA, MPAA, and others, Lessig proposes 4 steps we must take to counteract the degradation of our remix rights: 1) connect, 2) teach, 3) punish, and 4) politicize. Following Professor Lessig's presentation, Cory Doctorow of the Electronic Frontier Foundation asks Lessig questions that further illuminate Lessig's concepts. Audio content provided by IT Conversations http://www.itconversations.com. no Thu Apr 05 05:24:00 EDT 2007 http://dukecast.oit.duke.edu/installments/show/857 [runtime: 00:17:02, 7.8 mb, recorded 2005-08-25] We have come a long way since the web revolutionised access to information. Some of the principles of good web-design are fairly well known, but as we browse the web we see the same mistakes committed over and over again. Examples include freezing the font size, bad choice of colours for text and background (such as green text over black background) and playing audio on the homepage. Too many websites have gaudy flash animations and pictures on the homepage which do not convey any information but degrade the usability of the website. To design a usable website, designers need to think how the user is going to use their website rather than present him with what they want him to see. Users will just glance through your page initially so it is necessary to have concise and meaningful headlines to attract the user's attention. All the in-depth information need not be cramped on a single page. The interested user will click on hyperlinks to get in-depth information about the news item. Pictures should be used only when necessary and there should be a balance between text and pictures on any webpage. [runtime: 00:17:02, 7.8 mb, recorded 2005-08-25] We have come a long way since the web revolutionised access to information. Some of the principles of good web-design are fairly well known, but as we browse the web we see the same mistakes committed over and over again. Examples include freezing the font size, bad choice of colours for text and background (such as green text over black background) and playing audio on the homepage. Too many websites have gaudy flash animations and pictures on the homepage which do not convey any information but degrade the usability of the website. To design a usable website, designers need to think how the user is going to use their website rather than present him with what they want him to see. Users will just glance through your page initially so it is necessary to have concise and meaningful headlines to attract the user's attention. All the in-depth information need not be cramped on a single page. The interested user will click on hyperlinks to get in-depth information about the news item. Pictures should be used only when necessary and there should be a balance between text and pictures on any webpage. Audio content provided by IT Conversations http://www.itconversations.com. no Thu Apr 12 12:00:00 EDT 2007