Torrance Blog

How companies are using avatars

2008-11-30T16:54:00.000-08:00

Until a recent discussion in class, I had never heard of the term - Avatar so I thought I would do a little research to find out how companies are using avatars. I came across this article: "Have your avatar call my avatar: Doing business virtually" http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=Management&articleId=318544&taxonomyId=14&pageNumber=1
It turns out that many companies like IBM (6,000-7,000 employees have avatars), Scion, Xerox and The Walt Disney company are using avatars in many different ways and in many different virtual worlds - Gaia, There.com, Whyville and Second Life.

Ways in which companies are using avatars:
1. Customer Retention - The Walt Disney Company has set up virtual sites like Pirates of the Caribbean as another outlet to keep customers engaged/interacting in their products to retain customers.
2. Advertising - Scion and other hotel & bank companies have established avatars of themselves to market products. Since avatars are essentially alter egos, one problem I see with this type of marketing is how do you know the people you're marketing to in a virtual world are an accurate representation of who you want to market to?
3. Hosting Meetings - Xerox recently hosted a meeting for a product launch at the Xerox Inspiration Island in Second Life. IBM also hosts meetings in virtual worlds. One IBM executive says that "It's' just a very powerful way of meeting, interacting and doing work with other people." Companies could also establish avatars by creating inhouse virtual worlds. One problem I see with this is that an employee could be faking or altering who they are in virtual world.
4. Training - Another useful application for virtual worlds is practice. Companies could simulate real world problems like natural disasters or product launches to train employees how to react.
5. Culture - Utilizing virtual worlds could help companies or departments gain a competitive advantage by creating a certain type of culture that could attract and retain talent.
6. Crowdsourcing - Although its not mentioned in the above article, I think it would be practical for companies to outsource problems to virtual worlds to solve.

Avatars are definitely interesting but how companies are using them is still in its infancy. In fact there were only 850,000 users in the last 30 days on Second Life. Besides finding its usefulness, companies will also need to figure out which virtual world to participate. So...do you have an avatar?

Web Medicine

2008-11-16T12:47:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, last month I ran the Chicago Marathon. Well...this summer while I was doing some sprint training at the Harvard track, I felt a painful tightness in the back of my leg, which immediately forced me to stop running. Not really knowing exactly what happened I turned to WebMD.com. Within minutes I knew that I had a mild hamstring strain and I knew exactly how to treat it. The WebMD.com tools such as Symptom Checker and Blogs & Boards make it incredibly easy and cheap for people to gather information about health conditions. With that said, there are some serious drawbacks to this technology. For example, patients could potentially misdiagnose a lifethreating illness!

This morning I read an article in the Boston Globe and patients have now taken online social networking to a new level with PatientsLikeMe.com .
http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2008/11/16/through_website_patients_creating_own_drug_studies/
Although this website is limited to only a few chronic diseases/disorders, the information is really amazing! I started by searching a treatment for major depressive disorder; Pristiq - I sell this product. The information I found was amazing...patients were regularly posting anecdotal information such as side effects, results etc of their treatment. The information is meticulously organized into graphs and charts. It seems like a useful website but my concern is that people will substitute physician directed therapy and self treat, which could be dangerous for diseases like major depressive disorder.

Also, I think it would be really interesting to conduct a study to see if these web ites have a therapeutic effect that could supplement pharmacotherapy.

Google Flu

2008-11-12T12:49:00.000-08:00

It looks like someone already beat me to the punch by making a blog post related to the CDC/Google collaboration.

This afternoon I was listening to an interesting discussion about Google Flu http://www.google.org/flutrends/ on NPR's Talk of the Nation. Note: To understand what google did click on "How does this work?" from the above link.

There is no arguing that the correlation between the number of people searching for words related to the Flu on Google and the number of people who actually had the flu during the last 5 years is astonishing but what is the practicality of this data?

Currently, the CDC uses a combination of data sources such as phyisician reports and over-the-counter cold medicine sales to track flu outbreaks. The CDC/Google collaboration is attempting to find an earlier way to detect flu outbreaks, which would be useful for preventing the spread of the outbreak. The prospects of the CDC/Google collaboration are exciting but remember that the data analysis was retrospective. Therefore, what happens when the study becomes prospective? Also, could the data be negatively affected by searches related to other types of flu such as Bird Flu? It seems to me that the best way to collect data would be through an electronic medical records system. Why isn't there a universal electronic medical records system?

IT in the Obama Presidency

2008-11-11T19:40:00.000-08:00

Yesterday this article http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/11/10/obama.wired/index.html?eref=rss_topstories came across my Google Reader. As you can see, Obama has launched a new website, change.gov to communicate with followers from now until his inauguration on Jan. 20th. By this move it seems clear that Obama will continue to use technology throughout his presidency to communicate with the general public. It's fascinating because in essence, Obama has established a new way (or perhaps ways) in which the President will communicate with the American people.

I think this will prove to be a huge advantage for the Democrats in the long run because it will corral new people to their party. The conundrum for the Republican party is that they need to embrace/use this technology while not being in the White House. So...do the Republicans become proactive in utilizing techonology or is it wiser for them to sit on the sidelines and observe the mistakes of the Democrats before adopting various IT tools. Regardless of how the Republicans decide to utilitze IT as part of their strategy; it will interesting to see what kind of factor technology plays in the next election.

Ziggs

2008-09-30T13:42:00.000-07:00

For this weeks NML assignment I created a Facebook page but while searching for a social networking site to join, I discovered Ziggs.

See the attached links http://cbs4denver.com/local/ziggs.google.search.2.828962.html and
http://www.ziggs.com/

As you can see, Ziggs is a professional networking site that allows users to track who is googling them. Ziggs pinpoints on Google Map where and when someone Googles your name. I think this is really cool because 1. businesses could potentially use Ziggs to more effectively target/market their products or services. 2. I have always been wiry of sharing information about myself online but with Ziggs, you can "Take control of your online image." This sounds great but what do you do if someone such as an employer has been Googling your name?

Despite the cool features, I don't think that Ziggs will catch on. Facebook is too popular/powerful and what's to say that Facebook couldn't incorporate these features into its platform?

Is anyone a member of Ziggs? If so, any feedback?

Microsoft ads short lived

2008-09-19T09:36:00.000-07:00

See the attached article from the Boston Globe. It appears that Microsoft has ended it ad campaign with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. As stated in my earlier blog, I never really understood the ads purpose but I wonder what really forced Microsoft to stop airing them?

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2008/09/19/microsoft_ends_ads_featuring_gates_seinfeld?s_campaign=8315

Hiring: Employers Use Social Networking Tools

2008-09-14T11:40:00.000-07:00

You can search all you want but I don't have a Facebook page or a Myspace page. I will admit that I have a LinkedIn profile but I set it up years ago and I can't remember the password. Although my fiance, a recruiter, insists that social networking helps find/secure jobs, I have been reluctant to set up and participate in social networking because I fear that employers may misjudge who I am. This morning I was reading the Boston Globe and came across this article that speaks to my dilemma.

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/09/14/working_the_network/

What is so delicious about Microsoft?

2008-09-11T14:09:00.000-07:00

Has anyone else seen the new Microsoft commercial with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld? If not, see the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afR5J7eskno or http://www.microsoft.com/windows/

The commercial is very confusing and left me wondering: What is so delicious about Microsoft? Apparently, Microsoft is launching a new product called Microsoft TouchWall but is this what the commercial is promoting? If so, what is Microsoft TouchWall? I think it's the tool that CNN has been using during the election coverage. Despite not knowing for sure what product is being promoted, it appears that Microsoft is trying to change its boring, out dated, web 1.0 image by potentially taking another idea from the Apple playbook - touch technology.

Are churros really that delicious?