The real value Apple is creating, however, is not only encapsulated in the hardware. What matters, and cannot be imitated by competitors, is the information exchange platform AppStore through which Apple has earned sweet royalties. Furthermore, while thousands of third-party companies and developers strive their best to be profitable building applications, Apple reaps the reward and share none of the failure.
Same does Facebook. And Wii.
This is the era where hardware has become commodities and information and services bring more value. And revenue.
Social Media is about ease of creating and distributing information at low cost. The market always hungers information.
Investors do not only absorb information from mainstream media and securities companies’ analysis, they expect information from other investors.
Some investors are worth following than others.
Why Vietnam market
Investors are able and willing to pay for information.
Stock market in Vietnam is an unpenetrated niché which global firms have not entered.
The only form of user-generated content in stock websites in Vietnam is forum, which does not support follow and notification features. Users demand more, create a market for it.
The blog craze started in 2004, MySpace came out in 2002. From then till now, Web 2.0 has penetrated deeply into our lives.
You may have heard the buzz: it’s all about communications, exchange information and expressing the ego.
Have you thought of utilizing all those things for learning?
Recently I’ve been very aggressive on the net to see how we can use the applications for learning, and here I am with my key findings:
The requirements
Let’s imagine a very familiar study scenario: you’re assigned into a group to do a research on topic X.
Traditionally, the group would rely on emails, phone calls and IM to communicate and collaborate. Have you found these media difficult to classify your information?
This is how I would use Web 2.0 for learning
1. Search for information with Search EngineS
Obviously, information searching starts with search engines.
I have some hints for this:
Don’t just use Google. Try Yahoo! search, Live search, Ask search and other engines. They give different results and thus, relevant information might be found from ones other than Google
Try Google on different region settings. google.com/ncr (international version) yields different results from google.com.vn
Try different keywords and keyword combination. Also, exploit the operators
Also search for images. At least Google, Yahoo! and Live support this. Images are useful for illustrating your ideas and, in some cases, give you additional information.
Addendum: academic requirements. Some institutions forbid the use of wiki-like sites and dot-com sites.
5. Blog your group’s findings on group-blog powered platform
WordPress supports multiple-author. I would want our group members to blog our research everyday on our blog. This is not superficial. It helps us
Collect information, thoughts, findings, analysis and intermediate conclusions
Track each member’s progress
Present to the lecturer our growth
5b. Share micro details
This is optional though. Some information might be very detailed and we want quick sharing methods. I would connect my mobile phone to Twitter and quickly update my thoughts on the way.
Publish your research as presentations on slideshare or documents on scribd to share your knowledge engage in discussion on the topic.
12. Consolidate them all into one page
There are just so much!
How’re you gonna navigate around them all?
Well, one solution is to use a homepage service like netvibes to put all these services together.
Why all these?
Too complicated? Well here are the reasons why I would do it this way
Better organization of information. No email confusion
Exhaustive analysis. You write on the way so no information is missed
Better collaboration
Man, isn’t it fun?
I know it would be much easier for you just to email. But how much time have you spent searching for information later on? I’d rather spend the time to get things organized first, then make it easier later to focus more on creating contents.
And I’m pretty sure of one thing: just next year, this entry will be outdated because many new services will come out. Semantic web, mobile apps are just a few to predict.
It’s not a fashionable fad or a time-killer, it’s a shift in the way we can be more effective. Do you want to miss the train trend?
Digital Divide
But you know, all these will never happen if digital divide hasn’t been closed.
Technology proficiency and more importantly, community habit is a big gap. I want my team to do so, but other teams may not, so some of my team members may argue “why do we have to!”
With the internet connection speed in Vietnam, using Google Docs et al is insane.
Today, a world that is flat is till a romantic dream for me.
Resources
I’ve already tried out these services. Kindly see mine as example of how things may end up evolve: taitran.com/blog/resources
Six Thinking Hats is an important and powerful technique used to look at decisions from a number of important perspectives. This forces you to move outside your habitual thinking style, and helps you to get a more rounded view of a situation. This tool was created by Edward de Bono.
Motivation
Many successful people think from a very rational, positive viewpoint. This is part of the reason that they are successful. Often, though, they may fail to look at a problem from an emotional, intuitive, creative or negative viewpoint. This can mean that they underestimate public resistance to plans, fail to make creative leaps, and do not make essential contingency plans.
Similarly, pessimists may be excessively defensive. Emotional people may fail to look at decisions calmly and rationally.
If you look at a problem with the Six Thinking Hats technique, then you will solve it using
all approaches. Your decisions and plans will mix ambition, skill in execution, public
sensitivity, creativity and good contingency planning.
You can use Six Thinking Hats in meetings or on your own. In meetings, it has the benefit
of blocking the confrontations that happen when people with different thinking styles
discuss the same problem.
Technique
Each “Thinking Hat” is a different style of thinking. These are explained below:
White Hat
With this thinking hat you focus on the data available. Look at the information you
have, and see what you can learn from it. Look for gaps in your knowledge, and
either try to fill them or take account of them.
This is where you analyse past trends, and try to extrapolate from historical data.
Red Hat
“Wearing” the red hat, you look at problems using intuition, gut reaction, and
emotion. Also try to think how other people will react emotionally. Try to understand
the responses of people who do not fully know your reasoning.
Black Hat
Using black hat thinking, look at all the bad points of the decision. Look at it
cautiously and defensively. Try to see why it might not work. This is important
because it highlights the weak points in a plan. It allows you to eliminate them, alter
them, or prepare contingency plans to counter them. Black Hat thinking helps to
make your plans tougher and more resilient. It can also help you to spot fatal flaws
and risks before you embark on a course of action. Black Hat thinking is one of the real benefits of this technique, as successful people get so used to thinking positively that often they cannot see problems in advance. This leaves them underprepared or difficulties.
Yellow Hat
The yellow hat helps you to think positively. It is the optimistic viewpoint that helps
you to see all the benefits of the decision and the value in it. Yellow Hat thinking
helps you to keep going when everything looks gloomy and difficult.
Green Hat
The Green Hat stands for creativity. This is where you can develop creative
solutions to a problem. It is a freewheeling way of thinking, in which there is little
criticism of ideas. A whole range of creativity tools (see Module 1) can help you
here.
Blue Hat
The Blue Hat stands for process control. This is the hat worn by people chairing
meetings. When running into difficulties because ideas are running dry, they may
direct activity into Green Hat thinking. When contingency plans are needed, they will
ask for Black Hat thinking, etc.
A variant of this technique is to look at problems from the point of view of different professionals (e.g. doctors, architects, sales directors, etc.) or different customers.
Example
The directors of a property company are looking at whether they should construct a new
office building. The economy is doing well, and the amount of vacant office space is
reducing sharply. As part of their decision, they decide to use the 6 Thinking Hats
technique during a planning meeting.
Looking at the problem with the White Hat, they analyze the data they have. They
examine the trend in vacant office space, which shows a sharp reduction. They anticipate
that by the time the office block would be completed, there will be a severe shortage of
office space. Current government projections show steady economic growth for at least
the construction period.
With Red Hat thinking, some of the directors think the proposed building looks quite ugly.
While it would be highly cost-effective, they worry that people would not like to work in it.
When they think with the Black Hat, they worry that government projections may be
wrong. The economy may be about to enter a “cyclical down-turn”, in which case the
office building may be empty for a long time. If the building is not attractive, then
companies will choose to work in another better-looking building at the same rent.
With the Yellow Hat, however, if the economy holds up and their projections are correct,
the company stands to make a great deal of money. If they are lucky, maybe they could sell the building before the next downturn, or rent to tenants on long-term leases that will
last through any recession.
With Green Hat thinking, they consider whether they should change the design to make
the building more pleasant. Perhaps they could build prestige offices that people would
want to rent in any economic climate. Alternatively, maybe they should invest the money
in the short term to buy up property at a low cost when a recession comes.
The Blue Hat has been used by the meeting’s Chair to move between the different
thinking styles. He or she may have needed to keep other members of the team from
switching styles, or from criticizing other peoples’ points.
Key points
Six Thinking Hats is a good technique for looking at the effects of a decision from a
number of different points of view.
It allows necessary emotion and skepticism to be brought into what would otherwise be
purely rational decisions. It opens up the opportunity for creativity within decision-making. The technique also helps, for example, persistently pessimistic people to be positive and
creative.
Plans developed using the 6 Thinking Hats technique will be sounder and more resilient
than would otherwise be the case. It may also help you to avoid public relations mistakes,
and spot good reasons not to follow a course of action before you have committed to it.
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