Oct. 29

Two words that I received from my friends were : the cello and the Statue of Liberty.
Thanks to: Cuewona Angel, and Aram Sisoian :)

Here are my brainstormings:

Cello - Resin, pine tree, wood, stick, strings, instrument, violin, viola, cell, free cell, orchestra, big, chair, girlfriend, music, classic music, old, bass, low voice, cherry, alcohol, food, cry, sad, promise, contract, college, UT

Statue of Liberty- Freedom, flame, smoke, ice cream, woman, crown, elevator, sight, night, New York, people, tourists, Independence Day, Empire State Building,

And these were the combinations of words that I could think of:

1. Elevator with chairs - Elevator from Statue of Liberty and chair from the cello. I always wanted to take a seat while I'm on the elevator, especially when you live on the top floor. Sometimes I just want to sit in the elevator and relax until I get to the top floor.

2. Ice Cream that tastes like pine tree - I came up with this idea with the ice cream from the Statue of Liberty and pine tree from the cello.

3. Wooden Crown - Wood from the cello, and crown from the Statue of Liberty. It doesn't sound really nice, but at least it can be made into a toy for kids.

4. Charcoal with pine tree scent - I came up with this idea with the smoke from the Statue of Liberty and pine tree from the cello. Meat would taste pretty nice when it's smoked with the pine-scent.

5. Cherry taste ice cream - Cherry from the Cello and ice cream from the Statue of Liberty.

6. Cigarette with cherry taste - Cherry from the Cello and Cigarette from the smoke in Statue of Liberty. There are some cigarettes that taste like vanilla and coffee, cinammon and so on. So why not cherry?

7. Cigarette with pine tree taste - Same mechanism of thought with No.6.

8. Spicy ice cream - This one came from flame(which is hot --> led me to spicy) and ice cream from the Statue of Liberty. I wonder if anyone would like it.

9. Alcohol with the New York Brand - Came up with this idea from alcohol in the Cello and New York from the Statue of Liberty.

10. BGM in the Statue of Liberty - I don't know if they play any music in the Statue of  Liberty because I've been there when I was in 5th grade in elementary school, but if they don't play any music in the Statue of Liberty, it might be a good idea to play some musics for tourists.

11. Seats, or place for lovers in the Statue of Liberty - Came up with the word, girlfriend in the cello, and Statue of  Liberty.

12. Statue of UT - Came up with the idea from UT in the Cello and a Statue of Liberty. Might be a fun thing to watch when you see the Statue of Liberty holding a UT tower instead of a flame torch.

13. Alcohol ice cream - Ice cream with some alcohol contained in it sounds interesting. Not for sale under age 21! Haha

14. Food for Independence Day - Food from the Cello and Independence Day from Statue of Liberty. We eat turkeys and cranberries for Thanksgiving and sweets for Halloween, but I didn't hear anything about the food you eat on Independence Day.

I think about everything I've put up there can all become a product or services
They don't sound bad.
Spicy ice cream, and an alcohol ice cream sounds weird though....

Oct. 11

Facebook as a Social Networking System

Ideas for the topic

1.       How did it come up with the idea of online social networking?

2.       How did it attract so many users?

3.       What’s the difference between blog and Facebook?

4.       How is Facebook different compared to Korean online social networking system, Cyworld?

5.       How is Facebook different compared to Twitter?

6.      Not only does Facebook work as a communication channel between friends, but also between corporate organization and customer. Two-way communication, intimate relationship with customers
→ Is it also a new experience for a corporate organization? Then is corporate organization considered as a customer in this context?

Why is this topic interesting to you? (remember: This is a big goal for the assignment)

I used to live in Virginia for 1 and a half year. Then I went back to Korea when I became a middle school student. I wanted to keep in touch with the friends I made in Virginia. At first, we exchanged e-mails and sent some gifts to each other overseas. However, this hasn’t lasted so long because I changed my e-mail address and deleted their e-mail address by accident. I had no way to contact them anymore since I did not have such things as backup files of their e-mail address or anything. What made it worse was that my family had moved to a different city so there was no way of receiving the gifts my friends sent me overseas. I kept trying to reach contact with them but I just couldn’t. There was no way of getting in touch with them until I found out about this Facebook. Majority of my friends in Virginia were Korean with the US citizen. I tried to reach them with Cyworld, which is kind of Korean version of Facebook, but my friends never made an account. Cyworld was a social network system only people in Korea used. I also tried to use Twitter to find them but failed. Facebook was the only service that fulfilled my needs whereas other social networking systems couldn’t. Therefore, my experience with Facebook was very special to me in a sense that it made it possible for me to reach contact with my friends abroad, part of the reason why Facebook was an interesting topic to me.

What is the connection to the gathering and identification of customer insights and/or the design of valuable customer experiences? (at least, as you see it right now)

I did not quite understand the meaning of the question, but as far as I know, the connection between gathering and identification of customer insights and design of valuable customer experiences particularly in Facebook is quite close. Facebook has identified its customer group as high school students and college students. Therefore, Facebook provides a lot of features that are appreciated by high school and college students. When it comes to designing of valuable customer experiences, Facebook’s one of the most impressive feature, detailed self-profile information database where you can express yourself freely is being greatly appreciated by college students, the age group that is mostly open-minded and seeking for new relationships. The ability to upload unlimited number of pictures, and creation of album is also one of the factor that attracts many students. So design of valuable customer experiences in Facebook was created on the basis of gathering and identification of customer insights, therefore resulting in Facebook to provide several services that are differentiated from e-mails, and blogs. Clumsy analysis, but I do hope that I will find out more as I study and do a research about this specific topic.

Cite and briefly describe at least one article

http://mashable.com/2006/08/25/facebook-profile/

Facebook – The complete biography

This article shows the brief history and the future of Facebook, concerns, surveys and studies done by various organizations regarding Facebook, comparison to other social networking systems such as MySpace, its differentiated features, and the reason why it is appreciated,