COMPANY USE OF RSS

http://www.springwise.com/retail/rss_connects_consumers_online/

Keeping readers informed of new posts has been a great use of RSS feeds for blogs and Web sites galore.  Now, an additional option has arisen, taking RSS and customer communication even further.  Thanks to an upgrade in RSS use from a company known as Offertrax, customers waiting for their wishlist item to go on sale can now rest easy - their RSS feed will let them know the moment it does.

In an article posted on Springwise, the author states that approximately 97% of Web site visits do not produce a sale.  As an online retail store owner myself, this is a very disturbing trend!  Now, however, with the addition of RSS to a product’s page, customers are notified immediately of any change in price, or any other information the retailer wishes to share.  Simply by clicking on the added “subscribe” button, customers can keep updated of product changes via RSS.  Price changes, restocked items and special offer notifications are all just a click away.  And with the deluge of emails the typical user receives, having a feed stream the offers directly to a feed reader would cut through many barricades.  Bringing a customer back to a store, especially with the promise of a “deal” on the specific product they are searching for, may easily transfer a “browser” into a buyer – just the goal every merchant is striving for!

GOOGLE READER

Using a feed reader is new to me.  I have seen them before but never utilized them, preferring the "old-fashioned" method of visiting each site individually. Honestly, my thinking behind that was “if I don’t care enough about the website to visit it, the content isn’t that important to me anyways” – and I save time by my own mental filtering.  So, I’ll give this a try and see how it goes.  A big concern to me, as mentioned in a video we watched for class, is that it will get to be too addictive.  That’s not what I need!  I need dishes and laundry to be addictive, not news feeds – I’m already on the computer a ton!

I have found that having everything right in front of me is convenient in that I can immediately see what blogs have new posts.  Being able to skim the title and bit of content for each post tells me quickly whether I need to spend time reading the entire post or visit the website directly, or neither.  Google Reader also offers suggestions on subscriptions I might like.  Uh oh, treading dangerous waters here…

However, using a feed reader doesn’t give me the full rich experience of visiting a post on a specific blog.  I am not able to view extraneous information, such as links they suggest on their sidebar.  Also, I cannot view comments on a particular post when reading the blog via the feed reader.

XTRANORMAL

A short video about using Wiki for group collaboration.

WIKI

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pablo-mancini/wiki-democracy-begins-in-_b_934331.html

While I realize this post is supposed to be about a company that uses Wiki's for collaboration, I came across this very interesting article and simply couldn't pass it up.   I can only hope you’ll agree.

While using Wikis in a corporate setting to collaborate may not be anything completely new, this is the first I had heard of a group of citizens using Wiki for very democratic purposes - and it is showing results.  Pablo Mancini writes in "'Wiki' Democracy Begins in Argentina", that  Argentina citizens have begun working together using Wiki's to audit their country's election documents.  Already, they have found numerous document irregularities relating to their last presidential election, in August of 2011.  Document omissions, such as signatures lacking, and incorrect vote sums are among some of the errors found.   

To date, Argentina citizens have located errors in over five-thousand telegrams (the Argentina vote summary ballot sent from each polling place).  Five-thousand telegrams equal over one and a half million votes potentially impacted by innocent miscalculations or deliberate fraud.  These calculation and document errors can have a serious effect on not only which person is elected their next president, but how the entire country fares in every day terms. 

To have these types of errors brought to light and available for viewing to anyone and everyone, can potentially have a broad global impact.  I believe Argentina citizens have taken an amazing step in using technology to further their own democracy.  By using a collaborative technology like Wiki, they are able to allow any interested party to not only view the documents posted, but also view the changes others have made, make their own changes, or post something new.  Other countries’ citizens may learn from their example and take government transparency to a completely new level.

PHOTO

Our Latest Family Photo

My youngest was not impressed with the experience at all, and was trying to squirm out of my arms the entire time.  He would have been far more pleased chasing the ducks.  The others were more than happy to ham it up for the camera.

INTRODUCTION

Hello!  I'm Kathy, SFASU senior with many more hours than I should logically have.  I'm majoring in General Business with an emphasis in Legal Studies and a minor in Information Technology.  I’m not entirely sure when my graduation date will be yet, but it’s getting closer all the time!  In the meantime, I’m enjoying learning as much as I can about everything I can.

 I'm mother to five children, which is at the same time both less and more intense than you think it is. :-)  I live in Nacogdoches and along with my children, I share my home with two dogs and three cats.  I’m hoping to start a garden of my own this spring, so perhaps I can share photos of that here as we make progress.

Three of my favorite websites are: 

Facebook - Most of you are familiar with Facebook, but for those that aren't, it's a website where people of all ages (well, 13 and up!) are able to "friend" each other, post about their lives, and share pictures, information, links, and more.  I love Facebook because it enables me to keep in virtual touch with friends and family across the globe.  

9Gag - 9Gag is a collection of user submitted posts, typically in the format of a "meme".  It's not always child- or work-safe, so please use discretion, however, there are at times rather funny, informative or thought-provoking posts.  Other times, it's just... well..  I like the good times. :-)

Coursera - Coursera is a website I found that my eldest son really enjoys with me.  It is a collection of free online college courses that anyone can take.  They offer a wide variety of courses from "Aboriginal  Worldviews and Education" to "Astrobiology and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life" to "The Law of the European Union: An Introduction".  Currently, there are over 200 (free!) college courses available.  They are offered from Universities such as Princeton, Rice, Stanford and many more.