ISO 9000 series

Posted in Uncategorized on 05/31/2009 03:27 am by Lionel

In an effort to find a thesis topic, I am reading a number of articles to find something that can be of great use to my community or country. Prematurely, I can say that my country do not have an enterprise that is ISO certified. However, it is very important to apply this best practice. This is a quality system defined by ISO 9000 series of standards developed in response to the chanllenges of increasing market globalization.

Thus, Consultant Steve Irwin offers reasons why airports can benefit from a new standard. On of the concepts is that Total Quality Management, or TQM, popularized the concept of an organization having a quality culture, though it didn’t provide a specific, quantifiable measurement tool for achieving and maintaining it. TQM’s focus is on the individual within the organization. Originally conceived as a quality system for manufacturing, ISO quality assurance standards have evolved and now include organizations whose “product” is service. The basic ISO methodology begins with an organization documenting its business practices through the certification (or registration) process, and culminating in certification and recognition as  meeting one of the international standards.

Do you see any Knowledge creation practice in this new standard? Don’t you think that knowledge creation goes hand in hand with Total Quality Management? Do you agree?

 

Knowlege Creation is an asset

Posted in Uncategorized on 05/30/2009 01:01 pm by Lionel

The first day I started working  at COCESNA (Central American Corporation for Air navigation services), I became acquainted with several experienced engineers in the field of communications, surveillance and Navigational aids. I was so amazed how these people had achieved so much experience, and I as a junior engineer couldn’t find documented data to help me solve any emergencies that I encountered. There was intangible  or tacit kowledge in the midst.

These senior engineers had knowledge deeply rooted in their actions and experience as well as in their ideals, values, or emotions that he or she embraced.  This knowledge creation was the corporate’s assest; however, I was not sure if the corporation was using it as a management information system to be used to monitor the daily progress of its business.

The article, The Concept of “Ba”: Building a Foundation for Knowledge Creation by Ikujiro Nonaka and Noboru Konno teaches us that knowledge creation is very essencial in a business company.  According to the concept of existentialism, ba is a context, which harbours meaning. Thus, ba can be considered a shared space that serves as a foundation of knowledge creation. Accoding to Nonaka, “Ba” can be thought of as a shared space for emerging relationships. This space can be physical (eg. office, dispersed business space), virtual (e.g., email, teleconference), mental (eg. shared experiences, ideas, ideals) or any combination of them. Ba provides a platform for advancing individual and/or collective knowledge. In this sense, upon entering COCESNA, I would have sensed the atmosphere of collective knowledge; thus, helping me to feel confident to be among colleagues and learn from them.

Nick Bontis in his article, “Assessing knowledge assests: a review of the models used to measure intellectual capital”, explains that having Intellectual Capital(knowledge) would improve organizational performance. The author states that Intellectual Capital equals the sum of human and structural capital. This in return can provide a competitice advantage for any organization in the market.

In a nutshell, I can derive that Knowledge creation is an asset, and should be taken as a determinant to make any financial or investment decision in a company.

 

you guys are doing wonderful in the blog

Posted in Uncategorized on 05/28/2009 09:10 pm by meggie

I like the posts and comments. it makes our course more lively.

 

BA680-James, Between “Herd behavior” & “Information cascades”

Posted in Yuan-Ze on 05/27/2009 10:55 pm by s977116

I’d like to talk some reflections about “herd behavior” and “information cascades.”

 

Form some scholars said, people has a nature that when they are free, they prefer to look for others’ behavior or activities, and try to imitate them, it’s so called herd behavior. In the other side, there exist a theory which is something like herd behavior called information cascades. It’s talking about when people want to buy new things and has to make decisions, they always searching for the ranking about the product, in another word, people hope they can follow the previous one especially the top one. In the process, scholars said that people will follow the rank list to make decisions without personal opinion or information they owned.

 

These two theories have some similar points, but in fact, they do have some differences. First, people who involve in herd behavior will imitate others because of their estimation told them it’s suitable for them. So, people in herd behavior won’t lose their ability of personal judgment. For information cascades, the ranking of the subject means the whole thing; people don’t make any evaluation in the decision making process. They just believe that ranking can reflect subject’s pros and cons.

 

Second, information cascades is focus on the subjects which can be listed, and give them the sequences. The research scope in this theory will become narrower, more specific. In my opinion, it’s a concept after people’s behavior, this effect will happen after people believe that ranking can prove some meaning for them. Herd behavior is different; it’s more likely a kind of natural instinct from human being. People are looking forward to become what this society hope them become, but during the process, people do consider the distance between the things they want to be or imitate and themselves. In short, it’s an innate feature for people.

 

Actually, someone said that information cascade is a part of “herd behavior.” But the issue more interesting me is why people are more rational in herd behavior, and become more blindly in information cascades. One reason I can image is the intensity of information. Because when people want to buy a new product, their less information will let them feel all information for them are means something. And when the information appears through the ranking type, its image is huge, tough, and reasonable for people. This kind of immediately but intensive way will convince people ignore their own information and consideration before.

 

By the way, the connection between these two effect is really interesting, hope can induct more discuss in the future.

 

The rank may be blinded our mind

Posted in Uncategorized on 05/27/2009 10:14 pm by s977137

Article: Informational Cascades and Software Adoption on the Internet: An Empirical Investigation.

 

When online user makes decisions without enough knowledge of the product, they will observe others’ action and follow their decision without regard to their information-called informational cascades. For example, online shopping is convenient for me to buy products and it listed many kinds of product that I can choose. If I want to buy facial care product, I will search the ranking of the product for reference, then top 1 product is often attracted me and it will be added to my shopping car.

 

In this article, I came to a conclusion; the software downloading market provides us with a detail understanding of how information about adoption decisions could influence subsequent adopters’ decisions in the online markets and how it moderates the influence of online product information and user review. In addition, I think that network effects exist for certain products that can generate direct external benefits, while informational cascades have significant influence across all products.

 

Maybe companies will use advantage that informational cascades influence. If there will be a new product to enter to the market, the company may be base on informational cascades efficacy to promote their product. In business point of view, companies will gain more profit because customers will be affected by ranking to choose products and ignore their really requirement.

 

For my experience, I sometimes buy clothes on online shop. The rank of shop always attracts me a lot so I will choose the shop of rank1 or rank 2. However, when I got the package that I bought was over one month, I was not satisfied with their service, and then I give the shop a negative common while I discovered there were many cases like me. Maybe this is their marketing strategy, they just use the rank to attract customer to get profit.

 

I think customers’ satisfaction is more important because it make customers have loyalty for business. If customers have loyalties to the product or company, they will purchase your product again and again and the company will get the profit for long-term. If the company just focuses on attracting customers by ranking to get profit in short-term, they will lose customers quickly. It is not easy for company to trade-off between customers’ loyalties and getting profit quickly because in different position will get different strategy. Maybe it is a good issue for management to think.

 

BA680: Survey of Green IT

Posted in Yuan-Ze on 05/27/2009 01:19 am by s977104

Cutter Consortium study illustrates eco-friendly trends in IT.
The trend toward sustainable, green practices in IT is undeniable. Organizations are discovering that incorporating sustainable and environmentally friendly processes into their business and IT infrastructures can also give them a financial boost. A 2008 Cutter Consortium survey found organizations vary in their green IT initiatives. How does your organization stack up?

What percentage of your organization’s overall waste is monitored through an information dashboard?

11

What are your organization’s efforts to create or employ policies that reduce waste and energy use?

22
Does your organization have a long-term plan/strategy targeted at reducing its overall environmental footprint?
33
When it comes to green IT policies and goals regarding equipment and soft ware, responses varied greatly.
44
Survey demographics

66
This is a survey that comes from a foreign company. And it supports us some data about how companies affected by Green practice in IT. However, Eco-awareness is a trendy all around the world and more and more organizations/ companies focus on it.
After I read some papers about Green practice in IT, there are some points that can help enterprise to attend this goal.
1. Reduce the electricity- To find the problem where spent the most in using electricity.
2. Change the systems- To use the energy saving equipment and systems without original one.
3. Change bad habits- To ask employee with correct concept about using equipment.

Reference:
http://www.teradata.com/tdmo/survey_says.aspx
http://www.zdnet.com.tw/news/hardware/0,2000085676,20124302,00.htm
http://funp.com/t395948
http://book.1111.com.tw/bookviewer.aspx?jNo=560&s=04:27

 

BA680 A digital library

Posted in Uncategorized on 05/26/2009 10:23 pm by s977118

    A digital library is a library in which collections are stored in digital formats and accessible by computers. To build a digital library, some advanced countries had focused on planning and developing the concept and try to set up some centers to take charge of digital library development. Take America as an example, it had claimed the establishment of The National Digital Library Program and Digital Library Visitor’s Center. Also, it spent 2.44 million dollars to research the problems and solutions in applying digital library and 7.3 million dollars to achieve the goal of five million digital data. Furthermore, it cooperated with fourteen research library in universities and information organizations by National Digital Library Federation Agreement. Recent years, digital library developed quickly in all over the world.

    The benefits of digital library are as follows:
1. Barrier-free of time and space: Because the characteristics of digital information, readers could find the information they want via the internet.
2. Flexibility of getting information: Readers could get any information as long as they obey the regulation of copyright.
3. Automatic service all over the world: Through the internet, the digital library could serve all the people worldwide automatically without waiting for the service time.
4. Transparent system with convenience: All the system in different digital library are unified. Therefore, readers could surf the information in different digital library easily.
5. Preserve information completely: Digital information is easier control without worrying about destruction of books and the problem of delay.

    In Taiwan, National Digital Library is responsible for the digital information. It became a partner of World Digital Library in 2008. Therefore, Taiwanese readers could search and get the worldwide information in Taiwan. It is really convenient for us to get information via the internet at home. All these convenience come from the development of internet technology. In the further, Google, MSN and Yahoo! will keep improving in book handling and presentation technologies such as optical character recognition and ebooks. It will bring out new business models and create a new generation in library field.

 

BA680-Bluetooth security

Posted in Yuan-Ze on 05/26/2009 10:17 pm by s977132

In any wireless networking setup, security is a concern. Devices can easily grab radio waves out of the air, so people who send sensitive information over a wireless connection need to take precautions to make sure those signals aren’t intercepted. Bluetooth technology is no different as it’s wireless and therefore susceptible to spying and remote access.

 

Bluetooth offers several security modes and device manufacturers determine which mode to include in a Bluetooth-enabled gadget. In almost all cases, Bluetooth users can establish “trusted devices” that can exchange data without asking permission. When any other device tries to establish a connection to the user’s gadget, the user has to decide to allow it.

 

Service-level security and device-level security work together to protect Bluetooth devices from unauthorized data transmission. Security methods include authorization and identification procedures that limit the use of Bluetooth services to the registered user and require that users make a conscious decision to open a file or accept a data transfer. When these measures are enabled on the user’s phone or other device, unauthorized access is unlikely. A user can also switch his Bluetooth mode to “non-discoverable” and avoid connecting with other Bluetooth devices entirely.

 Most cell phones use a secure Bluetooth connection that requires authorization and authentication before accepting data from an unknown device, the infected file typically doesn’t get very far. When the virus arrives in the user’s cell phone, the user has to agree to open it and then agree to install it.

Problems that are security issues include bluejacking, bluebugging and Car Whisperer.s. Bluejacking involves Bluetooth users sending a business card (just a text message, really) to other Bluetooth users within a 10-meter (32-foot) radius. If the user doesn’t realize what the message is, he might allow the contact to be added to his address book, and the contact can send him messages that might be automatically opened because they’re coming from a known contact. Bluebugging is more of a problem, because it allows hackers to remotely access a user’s phone and use its features, including placing calls and sending text messages, and the user doesn’t realize what’s happening. The Car Whisperer is a piece of software that allows hackers to send audio to and receive audio from a Bluetooth-enabled car stereo. Like a computer security hole, these vulnerabilities are an inevitable result of technological innovation, and device manufacturers are releasing firmware upgrades that address new problems as they arise.

 

Conclusion:

Bluetooth wireless is constantly growing in popularity because of the convenience of

Exchanging information between mobile devices.  As Bluetooth usage rises, so do the

security risks associated with the technology. Advantages to Bluetooth include .the

ability to handle both data and voice transmissions which enables users

to enjoy a variety of innovation solutions such as a hands-free headset for voice calls,

printing and fax capabilities, and synchronizing PDA, laptop, and mobile phone

Applications. (Bluetooth SIG, 2006). 

 

References:

Bluetooth SIG, 2006, http://www.bluetooth.com

Bialoglowy, Marek.  2005.  Bluetooth Security Review, Part 1.  Security Focus.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

BA680 Zaya “Microsoft Responds to Earthquake in China”

Posted in Uncategorized on 05/26/2009 10:09 pm by s977139

This was written by REDMOND, Wash, June 4, 2008: Within three hours of the May 12 earthquake the Sichuan Province of China, Microsoft had several activities underway:

l   The safety and condition of the company’s own employees in the affected region was verified

l   The company’s subsidiary, Microsoft China, had begun contacting customers in Sichuan Province to offer technical assistance.

l   The services team based in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, helped the local telecom authorities restore service.

l   And a team at the company’s Asian research lab had created and posted an interactive LiveSearch map to provide news from each of the villages hit by the quake

Locating the survivors and the victims in Sichuan became a significant problem, so at the request of the Aba perfecture which is near the quake’s epicenter a Microsoft team in Sichuan developed and launched a missing people search site that was ready within 24 hours. On the site, individuals can post their status and whereabouts, the government can post names of known victims and those rescued, and family and friends can list people they are seeking. Thus far, at least 500 people have been found through this site.

Responding to an emergency request for assistance from the China Red Cross Foundation (CRCF), engineers from the Microsoft China Technology Center worked over a weekend to upgrade the foundation’s donation website improving response time dramatically. This was more than a mere convenience. The Web site the CRCF had been using prior to the quake was woefully inadequate for the volume of donations that began to pour in following the event, causing it to crash. 24 hours after the organization requested help, Microsoft, working with several partner companies, had a new web site up and running on new servers. Whereas the old site could barely handle 1,000 transactions a day, the new one is now processing more than 10,000 transactions and millions of hits per day. More than US$10 million has already been donated through the updated Web site.

Cheng Gang, director of China Red Cross Foundation IT Center  said “Microsoft played a decisive role in restoring the function of our Foundation’s Web site and greatly enhanced the performance of the site by optimizing the operating software,” said.  “This cooperation demonstrates Microsoft’s social responsibility.” Individual employees in China also volunteered to help with the rescue efforts by driving carloads of food and other supplies to the earthquake area.

 

From the Web2.0 to view the development of Knowledge Management.

Posted in Yuan-Ze on 05/26/2009 04:22 am by s977109

Introduction about Web2.0:

Web2.0 represents the conception of the second Internet service. Web2.0 is not either a new product or a new service. However, it is a new phenomenon based on the evolution of Internet, and this phenomenon is caused by technology make progress; such as the speed of online become more fast, interaction become frequently and immediately, the variety of services. Therefore, there are many establishments of social network, platforms for some simple and quick creative works, new tools of communication, and users’ classification by themselves. Above-mentioned, which is emphasize the collaboration of Internet and the share of information among users so that the space of transaction from the real shop to the virtual shop depend on the Web as a new platform.

The evolution of Knowledge Management:

During the 2000s, there are some enterprises to take advantage of KM(Knowledge Management) and the achievements were appeared, like the optimal decisions, more quickly responses, employees became more skillful abilities, and high degree of customer management. And lots of enterprises begin to involve in KM so as to discover and manage tacit knowledge. Recently, some surveys display KM is shifting its focus from internal employees to external customers, suppliers, and business partners. It means that KM is going to the direction of openness and share.

According to the medium of knowledge, the range of knowledge, the content of knowledge, the activity of knowledge, the value of knowledge; to divide KM into three periods, which are KM1.0, KM2.0, KM3.0 as follow table and descriptions:

KM1.0

KM2.0

KM3.0

Medium

IT system

Human

Innovative application

Range

Internal employees

Add external customers, suppliers, and business partners

Virtual knowledge and real knowledge manage

in the meanwhile.

Content

The storage of Knowledge files

The linkage of databases and community websites

The KM combines with CRM, SCM, ERP, and intelligent capital.

Activity

Save, derive, utilize

Spiral evolution of knowledge

Deduction and induction

Value

More knowledge is more power

The content of knowledge is abundant and apparent. And easy to get.

Knowledge creation

KM1.0

In this period, IT system was the main medium of knowledge and the range of KM was focus on internal knowledge workers. Besides, more enterprises, which evaluated the KM based on the storage of Knowledge files and the rate of browse, the management of knowledge files was the main goal of KM in this period. Enterprises consider that if they have knowledge, they have more power and more competition.

KM2.0

It’s a period; the development of KM depended on human. Enterprises found the medium of knowledge was not the IT systems but the Human resource and they conducted the range of KM was expanded to external customers, suppliers, and business partners. Through the linkage with database, community websites, and discussion area; enterprises combined the real knowledge activity and virtual IT systems. That made the best efficiency between these interactions, just like the circle of the Spiral evolution of knowledge. The new point of view was the knowledge share on public, knowledge became easier to get.

KM3.0

With the Globalization and Web2.0 coming, the power of individuals and masses becomes more strength and stable. The abilities of innovation and skills of thinking will take the place of IT systems and Human resource that becoming the new application of knowledge. It includes virtual knowledge and real knowledge manages in the meanwhile, and integrates all KM with EC (Electronic Commerce), CRM, ERP, SCM…, etc. KM3.0 emphasize the knowledge is not only share and add value but also get more new knowledge from every aspect and every field. Moreover, everyone could utilize the deduction and induction to create more new knowledge and new business. There is more and more knowledge creation in the future.

Conclusion:

Web2.0 is the core concept and application of mass intelligence, in order to provide a platform, which like the concept of ”Ba” for users to share and create their knowledge immediately. It is bring more new knowledge creation and making the influence and innovation everywhere.

 
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