Common Sense

Brand Building in the Digital Age by Jacob Chan Image: CC0 License, Pexels.com This week we were tasked to read into brand building. In particular to our learning objectives was the reading assignment “Branding in the Age of Social Media ” by Douglass Holt in the Harvard Business Review. I thought this was an interesting read personally due to the fact that brand building has a tremendous impact on modern day business! With many evolving industries, many new markets have been created in the information economy. Many of these have to do with social media management and involve research and adaptation. On the flip side, corporations are attempting to become less faceless by turning to consultants in this new era of online branding. From what I gathered from the reading, social media itself can be described as a billboard or giant playground for showing the world your own brand/product and it is an amplified system of word of mouth communication. It represents more of a...

Who was Ada Lovelace? Image: Wikimedia Commons Ada Lovelace was born Dec 10, 1815 to Lord Byron and Augusta “Ada” Byron Countess of Lovelace. She was taught an extensive educational background in science and mathematics and built an affinity languages and numbers. She met the inventor Charles Babbage who was a scientist and mathematician. Babbage was known as the creator of the “Difference Engine”, a device designed with the purpose of performing and solving mathematical calculations. Ada was fascinated by the machine and chose to work under Charles Babbage. Ada went on to publish a translation of an article about the Difference engine and its analytical success and put short and concise additions to the literature. So what? Known most famously as the first female coder. She earned her fame through her work and proved that women also belong in the fields of science, math, and computer programming. The legacy of Ada Lovelace culminated with her contributions to t...

Need Some Privacy? by Jacob Chan 10/17/2017 Image: Ruth Suehle, opensource.com In our curriculum we delve into the topics of many issues of the modern condition. Many of these come from the adaptation we have had with regards to digital presence on the Internet. Privacy on the Internet is a topic of contention as it involves many government, corporate, and individual parties, all with different interests and end states. In class one of our readings Daniel Solove (known as the International Expert on Privacy) is also a law professor at George Washington University Law School. In his article for The Chronicle of Higher Education Solove explains that what we believe is private really isn’t and how it got to be this way as well as why we should care. Solove explains that government entities slide by with gross overstep of invasion of privacy under the “nothing to hide” argument. This in recent decades has become more of a reality due to the constant rise of terrorist and oth...

ESOC 211 1000 Word Blog Assignment Analysis of Collaboration By Jacob Chan Image: Wikimedia Commons So I’m pretty new to Information Science and eSociety and the School of Information at the University of Arizona. I have an academic background in finance, economics, and business. I chose Information Science and eSociety because of how it presented a new opportunity to apply my academic interdisciplinary skills to a relatively new major here at the University of Arizona. What I have learned and enjoyed most about switching to Information Science and eSociety is that the material involves a heavy amount of collaborative effort. In fact, if one desires to do well in this area of study, they must be familiar with the social mechanisms dealing with other people of different backgrounds. In my opinion, to be able to work well with others is one of the most important skills in life in general. The ability to interact collaboratively has many benefits including successful profess...

From Group to Team: J Squad plus Bill Group Presentations 10/05/2017 This week we conducted our group presentations within our ESOC 211 class. These presentations were based off of our research and analysis of Bruce Tuckman’s Five Stages of Group Development. Forming- This is the crucial initial stage in which members will come together as a collection of individuals. The “Forming” part comes in when these individuals begin to start thinking of themselves as a group as they proceed to establish goals. How we did it- Our group “J-Squad plus Bill” was formed after we met in the back row of the classroom. Although it was a bit random, we soon found that we needed to accomplish the mission of completing the project on time to turn in and present to the rest of the class. Norming- This stage is the development of rules (formal/informal) to regulate the behavior of all team members. How we did it - We accomplished this by establishing schedules and budgeting tim...