Microsoft SharePoint

Miscrosoft's SharePoint product provides shared content with version control. SharePoint supports documents to allow users to create and manage surveys that one might put out there to get feed back back from there experience with their services. Allow users to have discussion forums, wikis, and member blogs. One feature that stood out to me was the Share Point health Analyzer. This is a program the allows the user to be alerted when a potential threat comes across your computer. SharePoint Health Analyzer monitors your computers health and can automatically fix the problems. This is a great feature to have so you don't have to spend the time and money to get it fixed professionally.

The best part of SharePoint is that is proven to show improvement in your company's effectiveness. SharePoint 2010 provides dashboards and scorecards that help people define success. (Case Study Eastman Company) Eastman a chemical company avoided a $4.3 million capital cost with better asset management. Eastman switched software programs after two months with the old software. Eastman was introduced to Microsoft SharePoint and this helped them avoid spending $350,000 on commercial program and avoiding $4.3 million in annual capital expenses. This is just one out of eighteen companies that SharePoint has helped out in some way. (Customer Stories)

Another company that uses the software effectively is MTV Networks International. MTV uses SharePoint to "deploy a new portal. allowing users to publish their own content"(Pages 171-172). This helped out MTV communicate more effectively.

After taken a look at this software Microsoft SharePoint and all of it features. I believe this is a great software for big corporations and company. Before this post i had never heard of SharePoint, but after learning about the program more i am very excited to use this program in the future.

Google Docs - Allison Souza

Not too long ago I came across Google Docs. I had been logging into my Gmail account and a message popped up asking if I would like to upload a presentation through Google Docs. I clicked no, but didn’t really look into what this meant. I assumed it had something to do with uploading documents.

Looking at the Google Docs website I have found that this program is one that is free.  It has become obvious to me, as well, that this is something that is extremely convenient as well. I can assume, for certain, that this tool is going to be a hit for students, business people, teachers and anyone who works with any type of document. This program is great because it allows you to access your documents from anywhere. For example, if you upload a spreadsheet or power point in your bedroom at home you can still access this information in your school’s library. One of the most exciting parts of this new program or software is the fact that it allows real time collaboration meaning you can get work done more quickly. The collaboration aspect of this program also allows users to send comments to each other detailing what it is they may need to share with their teammate. An example of this is shown below:

               

Another convenient function that this program offers is the ability to print things through “cloud printing” on your mobile device. A picture of this is depicted below:

This whole concept of printing through a mobile device is very interesting to me. My assumption would be that the mobile device would connect to a wireless printer, but I am not completely positive about this. Another mobile device focus for Docs is the fact that Google has developed an app for Android phones for quicker more convenient use of this program. Through your mobile device you are able to edit your documents, which is great for the modern student or professional.

This program is also great because it allows many different options and themes when using the forms software of this program.

This program seems like it would be extremely helpful for me presently as a student and in the future when I am a professional. Now that I know so much more about this program I can guarantee that I will be using it in the near future. This program makes technological life between both one user and multiple users much more effective and accessible.

Google Docs

Google Docs is a collection of products that lets you create different types of documents, like, Excel, PowerPoint, word documents, drawings, and tables. And it is all free! Not only can you create different documents, you can share these with other poeple while collaborating with them. it allows multiple users to open, share, and edit documents all at the same time. Any document can be stored in Google Docs. they make accessing files a breeze. With internet connection, people can access your documents and files from any computer, anywhere in the world.

This website has a Viewer that allows users to quickly view file types, including PDF's, Microsoft Office files, and other image types of files. It offers a link that permits other people to view your document. To directly access the Google Doc Viewer, go to http://docs.google.com/viewer. This viwer supports over 15 different types of files that include; Microsoft Word (.DOC and .DOCX), Microsoft Excel (.XLS and .XLSX), Microsoft PowerPoint (.PPT and .PPTX), Adobe Illustrator (.AL), and Archive file types (.ZIP and .RAR0); just to name a few.

Some of the features that Google Docs provides is creating basic documents from scratch or starting from a template, this is similar to Microsoft programs. As mentioned earlier, Google Docs accepts most popular file formats. This allows people to upload all types of documents easily and makes compatibility with other users and there documents very convenient. One of the more interesting features I thought Googel Docs provided that Microsoft office doesn't, is the abilty for users to publish their work as a web page and post documents direclty to a blog. You can publish documents online with just one click, and it would be seen as a normal-looking website.

Prior to this assignment, I had never heard or seen the website for Google Docs. I think it is something that I would definitely use in the future. It is very convienent for its users in the way that all your documents are in one place! Unlike Microsoft Office where each document is stored in a seperate program. This is a webstie taht would be perfect for businesses and teams that collaborate asynchronously. Google Docs makes things simple, all you have to do is go to one website and all your documents can be easliy accessed via that one site.

The world is flat

Professor Lawson

Management Information Systems

The world is flat: Significant flattener paper

It wasn’t until Tom Friedman’s trip to India where he had discovered the meaning behind the world is flat. Which he used for the main focus point of his book “The World is Flat”. When he discovered this theory on the world is flat he was in India. He was in India because that was the new designated location for him and his employees to write one of their new documentaries. The documentary they had set out to India to write about was how the Indian working people strive to be like our American workers along with the main focus on the olive tree war. Setting out overseas to India for this documentary was post September 11. It was in India because they are the main place for outsourcing.

It was with a meeting with the CEO if Infasis, which is the Microsoft of India that Tom first came across the global economic economy field, is being leveled. The interview with the CEO took place eleven days after his multiple interviews with Indian workers in Bungalow. The CEO informed Tom that his view on the reason for his reactions towards the how the Indian workers want to be like American workers was in his words “the world is flattening”. Tom quickly wrote this down and thrived off the CEO words, and quickly had many views on how the man’s words were true.

Tom Friedman’s vision for people was clear to understand if you weren’t prepared because of the global economic economy field being leveled then you will be left behind and in the dark. Tom knows that our current world and economy is moving far too fast for many individuals to keep up with. Friedman’s views of globalization are a great attempt at explaining and understanding the driving forces which are causing the world to become flatten. Tom also sees possibilities that would slow down the flatting of the world which would be more time for people to keep up with the global economy; this would be a possible threat from a terrorist group such as Taliban.

Netscape goes public

In Tom Freidman’s book The World is Flat he goes into depth on how the world has gone through three stages and now on the third and final stage the competition is now on a level field for everyone. This means that anyone in the world has the same advantages and opportunities you have when it comes to competition in the economy. This makes competition all so much higher now, leading to new and creative ways at trying to succeed. In the first era which was from 1942 to 1800 and the most successful counties were the ones with the most “muscle”, the ones with the most horse power, steam power, and wind power. The second era was different from the first, the companies with the ability to have their headquarters in one country but still operated in others were the ones that were most successful. During this era there were two parts to it, the first half was the ones that had the most efficient transportation were the ones to succeed while in the second it changed to whoever had the best means of telecommunication. This started the third era where the competition was leveled off and where everyone had the same opportunities to succeed.

In the book Freidman goes into detail on how there are ten “flatteners” to the competition. In my opinion I believe Netscape going public on August 9, 1995 was the most important flattener out of them all. Netscape had changed the way the whole world functions that day in where everyone has the opportunity to upload, outsource, telecommunicate through instant messaging and much more at anytime of the day. This gave everyone the same opportunity to use the internet which is no different than the next person to use it to their advantage. It had finally broken all competitive barriers that were being taken place.

Flatteners

Rob Kiwanis

11/13/11

Professor Flurry-Lawson

Flatteners

There are 10 of Friedman’s flatteners that we all know of. The flattener that I found was the most significant to me was Netscape goes public on August 9, 1995. The reason that I believe this is the most significant flattener is because in today’s society everyone in the world uses the Internet. People may use the Internet to do research, look up news, do their job, look at porn, or just waste time. No matter what people just the Internet for it has changed our world so dramatically that we would never be able to live without it again.

Without Netscape going public we might not be at the point that we are at today. I think that everyone will agree to the fact that the world is a lot better with the Internet. Without Internet we would not even be able to do this homework assignment and put it on blogger. That would not be a good thing either because we all are trying to learn and leave Nichols with a great education.

Imagine how the world would still be operating if there was no Internet. People’s lives would be so much different than they are today. Peoples jobs would be a lot harder then they are now because the lack of networking and being able to get in touch with other people.

The way people and businesses market and promote through facebook and other sites would not be able to happen. Netscape has changed our entire world. Put us in a whole new environment.

People take the Internet for granted because now everyone has access to it and because it makes it so easy to look something up on a computer or even a Smartphone. We never were able to have videoconferences with people in other countries or areas. This is a great benefit for companies and people who have families who do not live close to one another. We can stay in touch with people that we would never stay in touch if the Internet were not ever invented.

The internet changed our lives for the best and I would never want to go back to the ways without it.

Uploading

In Tom Freidman's book "The World is Flat", he speaks about the world being flat in the sense that the competitive playing field is leveled. Globalization's three stages overtime has developed society into what it has turned into today. He also speaks of there being ten flatteners of how the world was developed. One of the most important flatteners mentioned is the uploading flattener. It speaks about how you can upload anything onto the web for anybody to view. People have to be very careful what they post onto the internet in this time era because technology has made it possible to access private information that shouldnt be displayed to the public. For example, online banking has made it possible for you to view your account information through the internet. This tool is very vulnerable for people to commit identity fraud and steal people's money with no clue how it was done. This changed a lot of companies strategies in the way they handle business. People in this day and age can post just about anything they want onto the internet. If you want to learn how to do something, you can just go on a search engine and find numerous websites with regards to what you are looking for. Another example is the website youtube, where you can view videos uploaded to the internet for millions of viewers to see. This could have been single handedly one of the most important things to ever happen to the development of society. This has made the world completely connected with each other at all times. Websites like Yahoo and MSN upload new information onto their websites for the world to see as soon as it happens. It also keeps people up to date with each other. If the world keeps uploading new found information onto the internet, then society will be able to constantly develop and advance faster and faster as time goes on.