Q1bi. Is there a common thread and a local community sense in action?

Q1b. Visit the three auctions sites at http://ebay.com, http://ebay.co.uk and http://ebay.com.au:
Q1bi. Is there a common thread and a local community sense in action?

Answer:

The local community means a geographically defined community of place or a group of people living close to each other. (Wikipedia, 2009)

Hence, is there a local community sense in action for the web sites http://ebay.com, http://ebay.co.uk and http://ebay.com.au?

The answer is "YES". From the domain names, we know that ".uk" represents United Kingdom and ".au" represents Australia. Although the domain name of the website http://ebay.com does not show the country like uk or au, the domain name http://ebay.com implies that the website serves netizen globally or the website is hosted in the head office which is located in United States. See the screen dump below and you should know that ebay serves netizen geographically.


Diagram 1 - The Screen Dump of ebay.com


Is there a common thread at the websites http://ebay.com, http://ebay.co.uk and http://ebay.com.au?

Oxford (1998, p.959) states that thread is the connection between ideas. So, we can describe common threads as the things like thoughts or designs which are very similar or the same.

From the design of the websites http://ebay.com, http://ebay.co.uk and http://ebay.com.au, we can obviously found that the websites are using the same layout template. For instance, inside the front page of the three websites, there are a search bar on the top, a menu bar below the search bar, categories on the left... etc. Besides, the purposes of the three websites are the same. ebay (2009) announces that eBay is The World's Online Marketplace®, enabling trade on a local, national and international basis. With a diverse and passionate community of individuals and small businesses, eBay offers an online platform where millions of items are traded each day.

Simply put, the three ebay website are serving the same online communities which are to sell or buy things.

Hence, "YES". There is a common thread at the websites http://ebay.com, http://ebay.co.uk and http://ebay.com.au.

Reference:

1. Wikipedia (2009). "Local Community". Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, Retrieved Mar-8th-2009 from URL - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_community
2. Oxford (1998). "OXFORD Intermediate Learner's English-Chinese Dictionary", New Edition. Hong Kong, Oxford University Press (p.959)
3. ebay (2009). "About ebay". ebay - The World's Online Marketplace , Retrieved Mar-14th-2009 from URL - http://pages.ebay.com/aboutebay.html?_trksid=m40

Q1a. What is meant by an online community and how is it important for e-commerce?

Exercie 1: Analysis of the online communities paradigm
Q1. Visit http://yahoo.com/ and http://zope.org/ as examples of online communities.
Q1a. What is meant by an online community and how is it important for e-commerce?

Answer:

Tavani (2007, p.386) states that the online community is the computer-mediated social group(s) that interacts in virtual space, an contrasted with traditional communities in which interaction occurs in physical space.
A virtual community or online community is a group of people that primarily interact each other through Internet (networks) via newsgroups, forums, emails, online social networks, instant messages, chatroom, website, multimedia ... etc for social, professional, education or other purposes. They need not have face to face interaction. (Wikipedia, 2009)
Among the online communities, people may know each other in real life. Through Internet, they share common interests, communicate & work together or pursue their interests over time. This kind of the online communities becomes a supplemental form of the real-life communication (Wikipedia, 2009) and (Leelefever, 2003)
However, amongst the online communities, people may not know each other in real life. Through Internet, they get their specific needs, for example, Q&A forums or Dating Website. In these examples, the communities' member may remain relative strangers and the membership turnover rate could be high. This is in line with the liberal use of the term community. (Wikipedia, 2009)

Export.Gov (2009) describes that e-commerce simply is the online transaction of business, featuring linked computer systems of the vendor, host, and buyer.
E-commerce can be divided into:
I. E-tailing or "virtual storefronts" on Web sites with online catalogs, sometimes gathered into a "virtual mall". The gathering and use of demographic data through Web contacts
II. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), the business-to-business exchange of data
III. e-mail and fax and their use as media for reaching prospects and established customers (for example, with newsletters)
IV. Business-to-business buying and selling (B2B)
Besides, the Study Guide (2009, p.2) shows E-commerce involve the models of B2B, B2C, C2C, E2C, E2B. All these models may provide Shopping Cart Factilities, Orders Processing, Ease for users to brower and collect prices... etc

The Online Community is important for E-Commerces (Boetcher, Duggan & White, 2002) because

• Socialize - meeting people, playing around, sharing jokes, stories and just taking interest in each other. It seems like the Online Dating or Friendnet in http://yahoo.com.
• Work together for business - Distributed work groups within companies and between companies use online community to build their team, keep in touch and even work on projects together. It can be found in http://zope.org whose business helps people to build web using the zope technology.
• Work together geographically and functionally - Community groups such as soccer teams, school groups and others have used online community to provide forums for information and discussion, helping bring groups together. We can find Groups in http://yahoo.com and http://zope.org
• Work together for issues - Virtual communities have been very important to people who share interests in issues and causes. Support groups for people dealing with certain diseases, causes such as politics or the environment, or people studying together, all can form a nucleus for an online community. We can find User Group for support in http://zope.org
• Have topical conversations - people who enjoy conversations about topics and shared interests. It can be found in both http://yahoo.com and http://zope.com

In my opinion, Internet contains too much information to classify, so the online communities exist and help to categorize such information according to specific needs, purposes or common interests. For example, if I want to know more females in HK, I can join Dating Community in http://yahoo.com so that I can get the updated member list like who joining the community recently, instead of, searching females information in every search engine.

References:

1. Tavani Herman T. (2007). "Ethics & Technology", Second Edition. United States of America, John Wiley & Sons Inc., (p.386)
2. Wikipedia (2009). "Virtual Community". Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, Retrieved Mar-8th-2009 from URL - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_communities
3. Leelefever (2003). "What is an Online Community?". Common Craft, Retrieved Mar-7th-22009 from URL - http://www.commoncraft.com/archives/000208.html
4. Export.Gov (2009). "What is E-Commerce?". US Government Export Portal, Retrieved Mar-10th-2009 from URL - http://www.export.gov/sellingonline/whatisecommerce.asp
5. The Study Guide (2009). "Topic 1: E-commerce, distributed applications and the Internet", E-Systems Infrastructure Development, (p.2)
6. Boetcher Sue, Duggan Heather & White Nancy (2002). "Online Communities: What and Why?", Full Circle Associates, Retrieved Mar-10th-2009 from URL - http://www.fullcirc.com/community/communitywhatwhy.htm

Self Introduction

Dear All,

I am Joseph Cheung from Hong Kong and have been working in IT for 15 years.

In 1994, I worked in a Baby Stroller Manufacturer as a Technician (Computer Department) and this was my first job through which I learned hardware and software things, for instance, how to use computers to automate the daily operation in offices, how to fix hardware and software problems... In 1997, I left this company as the employer requested me to have frequent trips to China. This made me sick and tired. (I like travelling but not for work >.@)

In 1997, My Second Employer was a Ship Management Consultancy and was a Belgium-Based Worldwide Company. In this company, I acted as a LAN Administrator. At that time, Novell Netware and Microsoft Winnt were very popular and we used Groupwise in Netware and Exchange in Winnt as application servers. In this job, I needed to maintain the entire network, including LANs and WANs. In 1999, I resigned as another provided me a better offer (Money is very important @.<) Since 1999, I have been working in an US-Based Worldwide IT Vendor as a Data Warehouse Consultant. The target clients of its are Banks, Casinos and Telecommunications. My main duty is to support all pre-sales & post-sales activities, offer users training, control changes, manage risks and implement & plan for the projects. As the Applications of Data Warehouse is business critical, I am very busy everyday. Luckily, my Classmate Sam Kwong works with me in the same company too, so we cannot only help each other in the company but also in MIT program. (Friends are very important ^.^)

At present, I can say that IT is my career and I love IT very much.

Beside IT, I like sports, travelling and having fine foods. In my spare time, I always go to swim and have a bicycle trip. I like watching football matches but I cannot play balls very well. I have been to China, Korea, Australia and Malaysia. All are nice places. My stomach does not function very well, so I cannot eat Japaness food. Although I like fine foods, I need to eat very carefully.

ITC594 is my third module of the MIT program in CSU. In this module, the assessment requires us to build developer's BLOG. I used to create websites many times long time ago, using LAMP, but my technique becomes outdated. Therefore, it is time for me to refresh my knowledge and build my first BLOG.

The purposes of the Developer's BLOG are to
1. Communicate with Friends.
2. Share the experience and feeling on studies and work.
3. Learn new technologies and use the technologies to build the BLOG.
4. Cooperate and discuss with classmates and learn from others.
5. Keep tracks on the learning progress.
6. Meet ITC594 requirement.

Thereby, the BLOG structure should be user-friendly and should comply with W3C standard, like RSS.

Finally, please feel free to share and discuss in my first Developer's BLOG. =>^^<=

Regards,
Joseph Cheung