chloeshepard18-blog

[chloeshepard18-blog]

New Mashup Idea (Final)

I would create a mashup of best restaurant rankings and reviews and Google Maps. When travelling this would be extremely helpful when trying to choose a restaurant to go to. You would be able to see how close restaurants are while reading the reviews of other customers at the same time, as opposed to having to constantly switch between tabs. This would save a lot of time, which is precious while on vacation. 

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Social Media Technologies (Final)

Favorite: My favorite social media technology is Twitter. It is a great place to read news but also keep up with friends and look at funny memes. I also like how there’s text and pictures, especially since they lengthened the character count. (Link: https://twitter.com)

Least Favorite: My least favorite social media technology was Second Life. I have never been into computer or video games. I thought there was a lot of cool places but also a lot of creepy people and places. Some of the people weren’t very friendly and I just couldn’t see myself having fun using this site. (Link: http://secondlife.com)

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Mashups (Final)

Trendsmap is a mashup of tending topics on Twitter and Google Maps. It is a real-time map of Twitter trends across the world. This is useful because it shows the difference between what people in different areas are talking about. It’s so interesting to see the different interests of different people. It also makes it easier to see what is going on in other parts of the world, instead of just focusing on your current location.

https://www.trendsmap.com

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Minecraft (Final)

I had never even really heard of Minecraft before this class so I didn’t have any expectations for it. At the beginning, I thought it was so hard. I could not figure out how to place a block. However, once I figured out the basics it became extremely easy. I understand that is popular because it is a place where you can create anything you want. It’s a place to showcase creativity and just relax. Second Life was much different from Minecraft. It was based more on talking to people and creating connections. I preferred Minecraft because I didn’t care to talk to other people but I can understand why Second Life is so popular. It can be used as an escape and you can transform yourself into anyone you want to be. I think Minecraft will be more popular in the future because it is more appropriate and therefore more people can use it.

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Twitter Tool (Final)

Qwitter is my favorite Twitter addon. This app emails users when one of their followers unfollows them. I really like this because I’m always so curious as to how my followers and who unfollowed me. Only my friends follow me so I get pretty offended when people unfollow me. I want to know who they are. I would definitely recommend this to my friends because they are always curious as to who unfollows them too.

Qwitter is an app so this is a link to an article describing Qwitter: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/qwitter

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The Next Big Thing

A technology that I would like to see be the “next big thing” is an app that uses virtual reality / AI to show what clothes look like on a person. The technology would combine pictures of the person and the clothing and determine the dimensions to show how the items fit the person. I would use this mostly when shopping online, as it’s often hard to determine whether an item of clothing would look good on me over the internet. However, it could also be used in stores when the user is in a rush or the dressing room lines are too long. I would call this Fit Me. This technology is realistic, as there are furniture stores working with Pinterest to create an app that shows customers what a piece of furniture would look like in their house.

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New Technology Current Events

Instagram is facing competition from two similar apps. VSCO has slowly been gaining popularity over the past couple of years and it has just hit one million users. VSCO is not necessarily a replacement for Instagram but can be used in conjunction with it. There are more editing tools and it is less focused on likes. Vero, however, is looking to steal Instagram’s users. It is a very similar app but is appealing because it does not feature ads. They gain revenue by charging users to create an account. However, in order to gain a substantial user base, the first accounts are free. Therefore, people are flocking to the site in order to create an account before they are charged. BitGuild is a company that is creating a decentralized platform for gamers. They recently raised more than $20 million in under 6 hours due to its ICO and private sale. BitGuild has sold more than 75% of its tokens through its public crowd sale. Dropbox just rolled out their templates tool for its paper online document service. This product is directly competing with Google Docs and Coda, which has just received $60 million. Lastly, SmartThings has taken over as one of the best smart home technologies. It has surpassed its competitors despite being one of the later entrants to the market.  

https://cheddar.com/videos/vsco-x-hits-one-million-subscribers

https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/new-product/social-networks/what-is-vero-3675798/

https://venturebeat.com/2018/03/16/bitguild-raises-20-million-in-under-6-hours-to-create-its-decentralized-gaming-platform/

https://www.techhive.com/article/3268991/hubs-controllers/samsung-smartthings-hub-review-one-of-the-best-in-the-business.html

https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/26/dropbox-rolls-out-a-templates-tool-for-its-paper-online-document-service/

[chloeshepard18-blog]

New Technology That Won’t Last

I don't think Crew will be able to stand the test of time. There are already apps that exist that do pretty much the same thing. Additionally, Microsoft and other tech powerhouses either already have or are developing a similar technology. Unless Crew gets acquired by a tech giant that will give them a name brand and good reputation, I don’t think they will be able to compete in this field. 

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Best New Technology

I think Coda has the chance to make the largest impact on society. Once again I don’t understand exactly what it does but it seems to be a revolutionary word processing system. All of the other technologies that I found seemed to be very similar to other technologies that exist and while they have the potential to be successful, I don’t think they will be able to have a large impact on society. However, Coda is completely new.

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Top 5 New Technologies

1.    Roblox – I think this will catch on because it’s so similar to other popular games like Minecraft but it’s designed especially for children which is something that would definitely appeal to parents

2.   Wag – I think Wag will catch on and I already know a couple people who are dog walkers on this app. It’s an underserved but very large market, which makes it ideal for VCs.

3.   Handshake – Although this is similar to Linkedin I think it would be helpful to have somewhere to solely communicate with other college students and alumni. It also seems to have more job postings than LinkedIn, which is very sppealing to college kids. I would have definitely used it if I knew about it sooner but unfortunately, I will no longer be a college student in two weeks.

4.   Fram.io – In my experience, I haven’t come across anything like this. It seems to be a crossover between Google Drive and Flickr/Vimeo. I imagine that this technology would be very helpful to marketing departments.

5.   Coda – I couldn’t find too much about this startup because it’s still pretty new and you have to request to join, which doesn’t happen right away. However, it is a word processor that combines the flexibility of a word documents and the power of a spreadsheet. I can’t even imagine what features this has which makes me really want to try it out.

[chloeshepard18-blog]

10 New Technologies

1.    Smartsheet – A collaboration startup that is very similar to Google Drive. It doesn’t have an obvious competitive advantage but I think it depends on network effects and therefore may be a huge success or fail.

2.   Handshake – A LinkedIn for college students. If this had been more popular I definitely would have used it. It seems like a combination of EagleLink and LinkedIn.

3.   Roblox – A gaming world by kids for kids. It is similar to Minecraft but is specifically for children. This would be good because it hides them from any potentially creepy people. I think this will definitely take off.

4.   Wag – A dog walking app that helps dog owners find trusted and certified dog walkers. This app is appealing to a niche market that is currently underserved. I think this will be a bug hit

5.   Crew – Provides a messaging and communications platform for hourly workers that don’t have a corporate email address. It is very similar to Yammer and other apps like it. I think it’s a good idea but there are already players in this space so it may be hard to get people to switch over to use it.

6.   Keybase – A free app that allows users to encrypt their communications. It is similar to WhatsApp. I think this app is definitely appealing because of the privacy associated with it but there are already players in this space.

7.   Coda – A new type of document that combines the flexibility of a word document with the power of a spreadsheet and the functions of an app. It is a substitute for Google Drive and Microsoft Word. I had to request to use the app and they didn’t get back to me right away so I’m not sure what exactly is different about it but it seems very interesting.

8.   Discord – An all in one voice and text chat for gamers that works on both the phone and computer. I personally don’t play video games but it seems like this would be helpful to gamers.

9.   Frame.io – Allows the user to upload work-in-progress videos and media into a private workspace so teams can collaborate. Seems like a combination of Google Drive and Vimeo/Flickr.

10.Gigster – A platform for programmers to find freelance jobs. It seems similar to LinkedIn but is focused on programmers. I’m not a programmer but finding freelance jobs seems difficult and this would definitely help speed up the process.

[chloeshepard18-blog]

Social Media

Since we have studied Facebook in class, the scandal with Cambridge Analytica came about. This company used a Facebook app to harvest and use personal data. There was reason to believe that this data was used to try and influence the outcome of the 2016 United States presidential election. As a result, Mark Zuckerberg had to testify in front of Congress. Facebook recently changed their privacy policy and the changes have left developers extremely upset. Within the past couple days, it has been revealed that Twitter also sold data access to Cambridge Analytica. 

Wikipedia has recently made the news because they have changed their site to feature link previews. They are hoping this will make it easier for users to go between pages or quickly research a term that they don’t know in an article they are reading.

Lastly, YouTube just announced that they will be towards traditional television audiences. Research showed that adults are rarely watching TV programs but that they are watching YouTube on televisions. Therefore, YouTube has started to develop new TV-specific functionality to its advertising campaign management tools.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/30/technology/facebook-privacy-developers.html

https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/30/twitter-also-sold-data-access-to-cambridge-analytica-researcher/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/meganhills1/2018/04/30/youtube-tv-changes/#2020f8c015f7

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/wikipedia-page-previews/

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/21/facebook-cambridge-analytica-scandal-everything-you-need-to-know.html

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Mashup Current Events

Mashups have been used in a variety of industries in order to make the lives of their consumers easier. The healthcare industry has begun to develop technology that is a mashup of search and automotive safety in order sift through data, identify relevant features, and predict risk early enough to take action. This would cut down on the immense costs of hospitals and therefore insurance companies as well. Companies are also using mashups in order to analyze the data that they collect. Azaka SLT’s cloud platform is a mashup of data analytics and data visualization technology. This mashup will allow for the quick combination and correlation of structured or unstructured data. This mashup will also allow these companies to save money, as the technology is cheaper and quicker than using two separate programs. In terms of mashups created for the broader consumer market, HQ developed an app that was a mashup of game shows and online technologies. Also, Joshua Stevens created a mashup of maps and solar eclipse technology that allowed for eclipse chasers to follow the path. Lastly, ChicagoCrime.Org is a mashup of the Chicago crime database and maps. It allows for users to see on a real map where crimes have taken place.

http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-hq-trivia-app-iphone-2017-11

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/08/total-solar-eclipse-maps-cartography-august-science/#close

http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/SLT-Forays-into-Cloud-based-Data-Virtualization-and-enables-Analytics-as-a-Service--148678.html

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/mashup-approach-how-healthcare-can-save-billions-ai-and-machine-learning

https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/x-mashups/

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Our Mashup Idea

Our idea for a mashup to create is a map of college campuses. The map would show dining halls and it would feature pictures of the food available at the dining halls. This would have been extremely helpful in my time at Boston College. It would be easier than looking up the menus for each individual dining hall. It could even show the lines and could help students plan on when to go to the dining hall based on that.

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Classmate’s Mashup

I hypothetically used Haeseong’s suggestion, Wheel of Lunch. My friends and I can never decide on a restaurant and so we usually go to the same places over and over again. Wheel of Lunch would really help us make a decision and try new things. I’ll definitely try this with my friends in the future.

Haeseong’s blog: https://haeseongshin.tumblr.com/post/173307047816/classmates-mashup

Wheel of Lunch: https://wheelof.com/lunch/

[chloeshepard18-blog]

A mashup is a web application that compiles information from several sources. They are intended to make finding data easier for the user. The 10 mashups I would enjoy are: housing maps, Pounce (app), popurls, twitter answers, broadway2day, cheap hotels, tupejp (if it was in Boston), thisweknow, the tracktor, and hotspotr. My top 3 are: cheap hotels, the tracktor, and Pounce. My favorite is Pounce, as it shows all stores that had an item in stock on a map. I liked all of these because the tracktor, broadway2day, and cheap hotels aggregate data on the cheapest products. Typically, I have to switch between several websites in order to find the cheapest option. This is time consuming and the chances of finding every piece of data is low. Using a mashup would help immensely with this. Housing maps, find nearby, and hotspotr would help to find information that normally don’t have data readily available. Finally, popurls, twitter answers, and thisweknow aggregate large amounts of data to help the user learn new things.

I would use Pounce all the time if I had previously known about it. Many times, I have had to call stores individually or drive to a store to see if they had an item. It takes a lot of time and effort and often turns out unsuccessful. This would be a quick and easy fix to this problem.

http://www.housingmaps.com

http://popurls.com

https://answers.io

https://broadway2day.com.cutestat.com

https://www.hotels.com/de1496137-qu0/cheap-hotels-atlanta-georgia/

https://www.thisweknow.org

https://thetracktor.com

http://hotspotr.com

https://traintimes.org.uk/map/tube/

Pounce is an app (couldn't link to it) 

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Twitter & Entertainment

As Twitter has grown it has become associated with all aspects of life, including the entertainment industry. Twitter acts as a sort of news source for TV, movies, concerts, etc. However, it seems that Twitter is the biggest for TV. Actors, TV stations, and producers use Twitter to promote their shows. Twitter can also be a place where people can discuss big events, like the Super Bowl, the Emmys, and big movie premieres. Twitter has also become a "broadcaster." Twitter recently lost this deal to Amazon, but they had been live streaming NFL Thursday Night Football. They also live stream several award shows, making these shows accessible to more viewers. Lastly, Twitter serves as an interactive way for viewers to get involved in their favorite shows. The Voice allows viewers to vote for their favorite singers using Twitter. Twitter has allowed fans to learn more about things that interest them in the entertainment industry while also providing access to view more shows and events. Overall, Twitter has enhanced the experience of entertainment. However, it is important to stay off Twitter if you haven't seen a certain show, game, or movie, as it is filled with spoilers.

https://twitter.com/nbcthevoice/status/795705130037428224?lang=en

http://fortune.com/2015/09/21/here-are-some-tv-tips-from-twitter-everyones-favorite-second-screen/

http://www.newsweek.com/avengers-infinity-war-spoilers-ending-deaths-twitter-mute-facebook-extension-898098