The Internet: strengthening dictatorships and empowering people since 1990 (Entry 10)

Ever since we started watching TED videos in class for COM 125, and I realized that there are TED talks about almost any topic, I've been coasting YouTube to find TED talks, and I found this one by Evgeny Morozov about how the Internet, instead of liberating people like how we've always observed it to, it can actually continue to enslave people in despotism.

The Internet only fully liberates people when despot governments do not know how to use it or underestimate its influence. However, that's hardly the case these days. There are entire sectors of governments dedicated to figuring out how to best use the Internet, and they've pretty much figured it out by now. Censoring dissident ideas doesn't work. Ideas spread like wildfire, so deleting one comment will not do anything about the other hundred that spring up because of it. Now, the way to go is to use the same channels used by dissident voices to spread pro-government sentiments, sometimes bordering on disinformation.

With this knowledge, our idea on what's true and what's not is now confounded. Of course, I'm sure none of us ever believed that everything on the Internet is true, but we used to have this notion that voices on the Internet that ran against an establishment are usually truthful, because they have a somewhat altruistic, truth-driven purpose for voicing these concerns online. Now we know that governments have the power and the smarts to "turn" dissident voices and to spread their own ideas in the same manner as dissident voices, so once again we have to rely on our own rational logic in order to figure out what's right for us and what is not.

Although Morozov paints a somewhat bleak picture of the current state of cyberliberalism, I think this could be a good thing for us and for anyone who feels the need for any and all governments to be subjected to checks and balances. This would teach us to not be overly reliant or trusting of these "dissident voices" and to exercise our own judgments. In other words, this teaches us to think for ourselves and discern for ourselves what is right and what is wrong, which is a skill we all need to develop. Mindlessly listening to dissident voices is no better than mindlessly listening to the government. There are good and bad people on both sides, and either side has the power to do social good and to become misguided in that effort. We have to discern for ourselves when right is right, wrong is wrong, and right becomes wrong. Only then can the people act as the safeguards and checks and balances to both governments and dissidents as we rightfully should.

This is, after all, as much our world and our Internet as it is anyone else's, and so we rightfully should have a say in it.

How to succeed in business without really getting out of your study chair (Entry 4)

I'll be honest from the get go: I know nuts about e-commerce. The only things I purchase online on a regular basis are my Norton updates and the occasional extra mission packs for a few games I play. Beyond that, I only observe when my female friends borrow my MacBook to "online window shop". However, after surveying a few blog sites about e-commerce strategies and considering what my friends look for when online window shopping, basic marketing strategies and common sense, I believe that I've isolated a few key tips to note when creating a successful e-commerce business.

1. Friendly user interface

This is a given, I think. You need an interface that is easy to access and navigate to what you want. Search bars help here, as to command bars at the top or the side that help navigate. These bars should have as few categories as possible and use dropdown subcategories when you mouseover the button, like:

this.
Personally, I like clean looking sites that grab your attention at the beginning, and then show you where you want to go, like the Prada website (which I know isn't technically a dedicated e-commerce website, but still the look of the site is clean.

I didn't really like Blogshopcity's look. It clutters too much in the front page. People get annoyed and confused especially first time users who don't really know their way around.

2. Don't make website memberships compulsory for purchases

Most sites will have you register or log in first before you can purchase anything. It may seem like it's for security of identity or whatnot, but frankly a PayPal account or a functional credit card can do that. Besides, the risk in the transaction is mainly on the consumer because s/he's the one ponying up the dough. Memberships are meant to get people to return to the site because they already have a membership. Kind of like inducing brand loyalty. However, most one-time shoppers are put off by this and turn away from sites that demand a membership. "I just want to buy a damn dress, and now I have to key in my address and the name of my first pet?!"

One-off shoppers do make up a significant portion of the online consumer demographic, so it wouldn't be good business ignoring them. What should be done is to make sign-ups optional and have the site recognize when purchases have been made from a particular IP address multiple times. That indicates that someone is actively returning to your site. Then ask those people to sign up.

3. Socially moderated user reviews

Saying a product is good because the seller says it is good is just silly. Of course, they're gonna say their product is good, even if it isn't entirely! That's just business. People now recognize that, and now buyers are more likely to listen to people who aren't obligated to say nice things about a product, like previous buyers. Thus, people (or at least members) should be allowed to comment about products, and site administrators only need filter out obscenities and spam messages.

Of course, having a product reviewed by only one very disgruntled consumer might not be the best business. That's why these comments should be socially reviewable, in a "xx users found this comment helpful" and like and dislike buttons.

4. Know the Web

Running an e-commerce business is different from running any other business in that you are in a different environment. In the same way that a shop owner should know the environment that his shop is in (what demographic shops in the area and such), e-commerce business owners should know the environment that their business is in (the Internet). E-commerce business owners should be able to gather info like hits, stickiness, internal site traffic and such. This will give them knowledge about who goes to their site (which could be anyone), especially since you can't judge them by looking at them. Y'know, because you can't see them.

There are, of course, more factors to consider, but this post is quite lengthy as it is, to be honest. If you're still reading, I am touched. So what other factors can contribute to the success of an e-commerce business?


Let me know in the comments section down below!

Interwhuuuut? (Entry 1)

The other day, I was in the school gym and Under One Roof was on the TV. It was the episode that Ronnie acquired a computer and was charging people to use it, eventually running a mini-cybercafe in his kitchen. For the life of me, I can't remember when this aired, but I reckon it was before 2000. That aside, what struck me was the look of wonder and astonishment that everyone had on their faces when they first laid their eyes on a personal computer with Internet access, the wide-eyes "Is that a computer?" look. You'd never get that look nowadays, and it's taken for granted that every computer that we encounter has Internet access.

Everett Rogers' theory of diffusion of innovations talks about the five groups of people that adopt new innovations and technologies in different stages: Innovators, Ealy Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority and Laggards. Laggards are usually the most pessimistic, conservative bunch of people who are usually resistant to change, especially new technologies. Yet, we can clearly see that the Internet is being used by even then. It has become as staple to us as mobile phones or newspapers, and just like those things, there are the very small minority of people who still don't want to bother with it.

I guess some of these people have no use for it, like senior citizens (although some do use the Internet). Some don't use it because of their lifestyle, like the Amish. And some people refuse to use it because they don't want to become enslaved and restricted by technology. That's where we come in and say that not using technology, inclusive of and especially the Internet, is the thing that actually enslaves us because it restricts our possibilities and opportunities in a tech-savvy world.

However, do these people have a point? Are we too dependent on technology and computers, not just individuals, but societies and governments? The 2007 movie Live Free or Die Hard suggests the scenario of a "fire sale", in which computer hackers attack a country's economy, transportation, communications and government, thereby effectively crippling the nation. All this is stated as plausible because all of these systems depend on connections and records that fully utilize technology and the Internet. It's a rather scary concept, everything around you just suddenly ceasing to work.

Let's consider that on a smaller scale: what if Facebook, our beloved social networking site, suddenly and permanently shut down? That is a concept that seems to be very real, considering this message from the hacker group Anonymous:




Quite freaky, to say the least. How does that make you feel?


Let me know in the comments section down below!