Chapter Assignments Week 3

Timothy Ellison
Chapter 4
4-1. What is EC, and what different business models do companies use to compete in
cyberspace?

EC is short for E-Commerce (Electronic Commerce)

Electronic Commerce is the exchange of goods and services via the Internet among
and between customers, firms, employees, business partners, suppliers and so on.
There are 6 main types of business models companies use to compete in cyberspace:
o Business - to - Business (B2B)
o Business - to - Consumer (B2C)
o Consumer - to - Consumer (C2C)
o Consumer - to - Business (C2B)
There are also two used for e-Government:
o Business - to - Government (B2G)
o Government - to - Business (G2B)

4-4. Describe the effects of disintermediation?

Disintermediation is the phenomenon of cutting out the middleman in

transactions and reaching customers more direct and efficiently
Disintermediation creates both opportunities and challenges.
Disintermediation allows producers or service providers to offer products at lower
prices (or reap greater profits), they also have to take on those activities previously
performed by the middleman.

4-5. Describe social commerce and explain how companies can leverage consumers social
networks?

Leveraging visitors social networks in e-commerce interactions to build lasting

relationships, advertise products, or otherwise create video.

4-7. What is the online consumers hierarchy of needs, and why is it important for e-tailors?

The e-retailers emphasis upon filling the needs of the customers so as to provide
them a good experience while pursuing the websites.
There are 3 needs:
o Structural Firmness
o Functional Convenience
o Representational Delight
E-tailor Importance
o To keep the customers coming back

4-10. What is showrooming, and how has it affected offline retailers?

Showrooming is where shoppers come into a store to evaluate the look and feel of a
product, and then purchase it online or in a competitors store.
There are multiple ways it has affected offline retailers:
o Online retailers are creating apps to make showrooming easier which allows
customers to scan barcodes for product information and prices.
o Consumers go in the store and try out the merchandise and then go and buy
it online.
o Revenue taken away from offline companies.

4-11. Explain the different forms of online auctions.

E-Auctions (Such as Ebay) aka electronic auctions are an e-business between

auctioneers and bidders, which takes place on an electronic marketplace. It is an
electronic commerce which occurs business to business (B2B), business to consumer
(B2C), or consumer-to-consumer (C2C).
Online Classifieds (Such as Craigslist) is classified advertising is a form of
advertising which is particularly common in newspapers, online and other
periodicals which may be sold or distributed free of charge.

Chapter 5

5-1. What are virtual teams and how do they help to improve an organizations capabilities?

A work team that is composed of members that may be from different organizations
and different locations that form and disband as needed.
o Reduce costs
o Easy to use
o More efficient than e-mail or FTP
o No need to purchase software upgrades.

5-3. What capabilities will define the web of the future?

Semantic web - better indexing of websites, topics, and subjects.

The world wide database - ability for databases to be distributed and accessed from
anywhere.
Open technologies - design of websites and software so that they can be easily
integrated.
Open ID - provision of online identity that can be easily ported to mobile devices,
PCs, and allowing for easier authentication across different Web sites.
Integration of Legacy devices - ability to use current mobile devices as credit cards,
tickets, reservations, etc.

Intelligent application - the use of agents, machine learning and semantic Web
concepts to complete intelligent tasks for users.

5-5. Why is social media an important factor for attracting and retaining employees?

You can find out more about employees and customers needs with these
applications. In turn this helps to gain the attraction of younger workers, who grew
up using this software.

5-7. How can social bookmarking and social cataloging help in an organizations knowledge
management efforts?

Contributors build up catalogs regarding specific topics; such as academic citations,

wireless networks, books and music, and so on.

5-11. Why is organizational culture an important factor in Enterprise 2.0 initiatives?

People are able to participate by choice and not out of being forced. (Example:
Facebook)

5-12. Why can social media be both a blessing and a threat for organizations?

Blessing: They give you the freedom of expression

Threat: They are viewed by millions, which means something you say could keep
you from the job.

Chapter 6

6-2. Describe the difference between entities, tables, rows, and attributes in a database?

An entity is something you collect data about such as people or class.

Entities are often thought of as tables, where each row is a record and each column
is an attribute.
Attributes are individual pieces of information such as a name and social security
number being attributes of a particular person.

6-3. What is the importance of master data management?

Because of the importance of a companys master data, master data management is

important because different business units and different corporate levels have to
come to a consensus on the meaning of master data items or how to deal with
duplicates.
Arriving at a single version can be a challenge for large corporations especially since
master data often has to be integrated from multiple systems.

6-4. What are the advantages of DBMS?

The advantages of a DBMS are:

o a DBMS can manage hundreds or even thousands of tables simultaneously by
linking the tables as part of a single system.
o The DBMS helps manage the tremendous volume of complexity of
interrelated data so that we can be sure that the right data is accessed,
changed, or deleted.
o The DBMS also prevents unnecessary and problematic redundancies of the
data and the data are kept separate from the applications programming
code.

6-10. What is a Websites stickiness, and why is it important?

A Web sites stickiness is its ability to attract and keep visitors.

6-13. What is a knowledge management system, and what types of technologies make up a
comprehensive system?

Knowledge management refers to the processes an organization uses to gain the

greatest value from its knowledge assets.
The technologies that make up a comprehensive system are:
o Communication technologies (such as e-mail, groupware, instant messaging)
o Information storage and retrieval systems (such as wikis or DBMSs.)

6-15. What is the purpose of using layers in GIS applications?

The purpose of using layers in GIS application is to help separate information by

letting different layers include different information about an area.
Then by adding or removing those layers can help the viewer to view the relevant
information needed to answer questions that have a spatial dimension.