Next New

I have an idea for an app that makes grocery shopping – a mundane task that almost everyone does on a regular basis – much more intelligent (and enjoyable) by saving you time and money.

First, you must create a shopping list, and you can do that in multiple ways:

1) you can manually enter it.

2) you can use voice command similar to Amazon Echo.
3) you can take a picture of it (for example: a carrot), and it will recognize what it is.
4) you can scan the barcode on the packaging of an existing item (for example: yogurt, or dozen eggs).
5) it will add it for you automatically based on your shopping habits. (for example: it knows you’re purchasing garlic every other week, so it will be added to your shopping list based on that frequency.)

Next, it’s time to head to the store. The app will map out the exact location (shelf and aisle) within the store that you can find these products. A floor map of the items on your shopping list helps you avoid crisscrossing the store to find the items so it is a valuable time-saver. It will also highlight the on items on sale so it saves you money. The data that is used to generate the floor map and sale items can come from the store directly or from other shoppers who use the same app.

Once you finish your shopping trip, you will scan your receipts into the app. The app will know what you purchased, so it can check off the items on your shopping list and alert you on the items still outstanding. More importantly, the app will now be able to adapt to your shopping behavior. The app becomes your personal assistant. It knows what you have purchased, the frequency, and the price you paid, so it will automatically build your shopping list for the next trip. 

Last but not least, the app will allow you the share what you purchased, so your neighbors and friends who use the app can enjoy the savings as well. The app depends on an active user base who can contribute to finding sale items at each store and sharing with other users. 

Wiki So Far

I have contributed to several topics in the New Media Wiki, including Crowdfunding, Search Engine Optimization in Web Design, Enterprise Cloud Computing, and Ethics and Guidelines in News Reporting. These topics were relevant to my current or previous studies. For example, I learned about Crowdfunding and Cloud Computing in my Introduction to Information Systems class, whereas Ethics in News Reporting was recently a research topic for the New Media class. I plan to do more additional research in order to expand on these topics in greater detail in the coming weeks.

Working on this Wiki project has been interesting, as this is part of a group contribution to make something great. As a long time Wikipedia reader, I have always been impressed with the depth of information and appreciate all the contributors who have spend countless hours in making it as informative and timely as possible. As a new editor on Wiki, it took me a while to become familiar with the editor, creating new sections, uploading images to the Wiki and creating references. But once I became more familiar with the interface, it was easy to make edits and gratifying to see the contributions that I, and my classmates, made.

P2P

File sharing is sharing of digital content with other users online. File sharing can be done in many ways, from the simplest methods such as e-mailing an attachment or uploading to a file sharing site, to more sophisticated methods such as sending to a server via SFTP or using Apple’s AirDrop feature on supported iOS devices. 

One of the most popular file sharing methods is P2P file sharing, which involves distribution of digital files over multiple connected computers on a network, and is facilitated by a P2P file sharing client such as BitTorrent. When a user joins a P2P network, he/she often shares a number of files on the computer with others, who in turn, shares more files. When a user finds a file on the P2P network that he/she needs, a user simply requests and downloads the file from the host user(s). P2P file sharing often involves copyrighted materials, such as songs, books, movies, software, and even research papers. One of the most popular P2P client was Napster in the late 1990’s, allowing users to share files that were often copyrighted. Because Napster hosted a platform that facilitated copyright infringement, it was later shutdown and forced to turn into a pay service. Nonetheless, it gave people the idea to share files freely across the Internet, and dozens of other P2P file sharing services still exist today, including the popular BitTorrent and eDonkey.

File sharing has raised many legal issues with the copyright owners and the recording studios. In Stelter and Stone’s article, “Digital Pirates Winning Battle With Studios”, blockbuster movies were often available on pirated website on the same day the movies were released in theaters. People have been swapping copyrighted materials on BitTorrent and may not feel guilty about it because millions of others are doing it as well. Even when a court shut down the then-popular Naspter, there were many other similar P2P services available. As the article noted that in 2008, digital piracy led to a sharp drop in DVD shipment in years. Nonetheless, not all developments were bad for the recording studios, as it led to the creation of some legal streaming services as well such as Pandora and Spotify.

Works Cited:

Stelter, Brian and Brad Stone. “Digital Pirates Winning Battle With Studios.” The New York Times, 4 Feb. 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/business/media/05piracy.html.

Privacy

For as long as Internet has been in existence, there has always been concerns about loss of privacy. Every time that you click from one website to another, you leave behind a large data trail which reveals information about you and your browsing behaviors. Companies have been using “cookies” to track consumer’s interests, location, and preferences in everything from favorite products to taste in music, and share this valuable information with other affiliates and advertisers to create a more “personalized” browsing experience. Yet most consumers have little awareness that this is happening. Joe Nocera wrote in an op-ed in The New York Times that data brokers nowadays have been able to identify and track consumers through their social media accounts, mobile platforms, apps and websites they visited, allowing them to build a very rich profile about the consumer. The brokers then sell these information to advertisers who then present targeted ads about products and services that the consumer is interested in purchasing in the near future. Nocera calls more government regulations on unethical business practices engaged by data brokers, more transparency for the consumers, as well as changing business processes allowing consumers to “opt-in” rather than “opt-out”.

In addition, cybersecurity has played in significant role in privacy and identity theft. Recent announcement of data breaches have hurt the consumers and businesses alike. Companies ranging from big-box retailers like Target and credit reporting agency Equifax, as well as medical centers and universities, have been targets of hackers trying to steal personal identifiable information. Millions of Americans’ personal data are affected as a result, and creates a lot of nervousness from consumers who are rightfully worried about loss of privacy. According to Dara Kerr, Target is taking steps to offer security chip-enabled credit cards to better protect its consumers. Nocera also noted that companies were not incentivized to prevent data breaches. He advocated that government should levy a fine against companies that do not adequately protect consumer data. 

Works Cited:

Kerr, Dara. “Target Works on Security-Heavy Credit Cards, after Breach.” CNET, 3 Feb. 2014, http://www.cnet.com/news/target-works-on-security-heavy-credit-cards-after-breach/.

Nocera, Joe. “The Wild West of Privacy” The New York Times, 24 Feb. 2014, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/25/opinion/nocera-the-wild-west-of-privacy.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=1.

Advice

If I was hired by Baruch College, I would make two improvements. First, I would expand Baruch's online course offerings. Baruch has 18,000 students, and for many classes, the class size is very large with 50+ students. More than three quarters of the students are business majors. As an accounting student, I often have difficulty enrolling into my required courses because they frequently reach the class limit.  Therefore, creating additional online sections for these popular courses, with lectures delivered via Blackboard as the learning management system, could be the solution. In many cases, online learning is very effective, can be self-paced, and can be very interactive with discussion boards, etc. Online homework can provide immediate feedback. To protect academic integrity, exams can be taken in-person, or professors can use an online proctoring service such as ProctorU to remotely proctor students during an exam.

Another improvement I would suggest is to make the College’s website more accessible for disabled individuals. As pointed out in a recent New York Times article, providing appropriate accommodations to disabled students has become increasingly important, as some would argue that the online education are subject to the same accommodation guidelines provided by the ADA. While Baruch’s Homepage has a “Make This Website Talk” button to accommodate vision-impaired students, many internal pages, including CUNYFirst and Blackboard do not have this accessibility. I would use technology to help disabled student learn and access the same information that ordinary students can. This could include closed captioning on lecture videos, text-to-speech technology, and creating a version of the website with larger fonts with higher contrast. All these elements are important to create an online learning environment that’s inclusive of all individuals.