Prezi Analysis Assignment

James Catalano                                                                                             October 3, 2013

Mr. Hennings                                                                                                BCA

"Prezi"

            Prezi is a presentation tool program that allows users to create different types of slide shows with the use of unique transitions, 3D effects and the use of zooming in and out of text.  Prezi uses a virtual canvas that allows people to show their creative side by making interesting presentations that they can share with others who have internet connection.  It was created in 2009 and has over 20 million registered users.

            One major use of Prezi is for business purposes.  Many businesses use this site to create presentations.  It is a way for people to create fun and interesting presentations that will not lose the attention of those watching it.  Prezi also makes it easier for employees that are assigned to a project together to communicate with each other.  Prezi is accessible from anywhere with an internet connection.  Therefore, employees can all access the presentation from virtually anywhere at any time.  It also allows them to edit the Prezi from anywhere as well.  Because Prezi is open to the public, business can market themselves through the use of presentations on this site.  The creator of a Prezi presentation has the option to make it accessible to the public.  By doing so, a company can market themselves to the entire web through a detailed presentation about their business.  However, there can be negative effects of Prezi for a business because it can be very difficult to learn how to work.  It can be very time consuming if this occurs.

            There are also many social effects of Prezi.  Prezi does not have to be used only for business purposes.  It is often used by people to express themselves artistically through Prezi's 3D effects, cool transitions and by zooming in and out of text.  People can make a Prezi on anything they would like and share it with the world.  People can also "like" the Prezi.  If a Prezi gets enough likes, it can be shared on the homepage of their website.  However, this can lead to abuse as there is no censor on Prezi.  This means that anyone can have access to any type of negative news and presentations.

            Prezi is also used for entertainment and recreational uses as well.  People can just browse through the Prezi homepage and look up presentations on any topic for fun.  They can learn new information on a topic that interests them and can communicate with others that are also interested in the same topic.  Prezi's are also just more fun and entertaining to look at than the traditional PowerPoint.  The viewers of Prezi's are often entertained by them and cause people to want to create one themselves.  Prezi's can not only be viewed for entertainment and recreational reasons, but can also be created for fun as well.  Prezi has been a way for people to express themselves while also educating others on a variety of subjects.  This can lead to abuse though as many Prezi's created are not good natured and can influence others negatively.

            Lastly, Prezi can also be used for news purposes even though that is not a main function of it.  Prezi allows people to provide information to each other through the use of presentations.  If you want to learn more information on a certain topic, you can search for it on Prezi and watch a presentation on it.  Prezi allows people to access any type of information on their website which can be very beneficial to its users.  However, many presentations are not accurate or true on Prezi and should not be used for professional uses unless you definitely know the creator of the Prezi is a reputable source.  This is one negative impact of news on Prezi.  Overall, Prezi is a great website and alternative to PowerPoint as it allows users to create interesting, informational presentations. 

Links

http://www.prezi.com/

http://thenextweb.com/apps/2012/05/02/prezi-passes-10-million-user-mark-and-introduces-handy-powerpoint-import/

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2057343/prezi-desktop-review-animate-your-presentations-even-when-youre-away-from-the-cloud.html

http://www.statisticbrain.com/

Google Docs Analysis Assignment

James Catalano                                                                                                       October 30, 2013

Mr. Hennings                                                                                                          BCA                   

“Google Docs”

            Google Docs, also called Google Drive, is a large part of today’s society that allows people to interact with each other and share documents over an online open source program.  It was created in 2005 and was only open to select users.  However, now it has about 10 million active accounts and can store/share up to 15 GB of information from user to user.  Google Docs is also extremely helpful for businesses and students.

            Google Docs is used a lot by businesses as it is very beneficial to them.  With the use of Google Docs, businesses now have the ability to share documents, spreadsheets, videos and pictures more easily.  It is easy to do.  All the employees in the business just have to set up a Google account and join the project that they have to work on.  Everyone can edit the project at the same time and see who is doing what work.  This allows workers in a group to collaborate ideas and form documents that is necessary for their project.  Also, workers can access their Google Docs account and files from anywhere as long as they have internet connection.  Google Docs is a way for everyone involved in a project to interact and work with each other without actually having to meet face to face.  However, this has its drawbacks as not meeting face to face can lead to miscommunication among workers and one member doing more work than another.  In a way, Google Docs can hinder teamwork because of its lack of social interaction that is a vital aspect of businesses.  Another negative impact is that other people can erase your work or delete your entire project entirely.

            Google Docs can also be used for social reasons as well.  On this drive, people can chat with each other and edit work together.  There is a chat bar on the side of every document that allows you to comment to other users your ideas about what you are working on.  You can virtually say anything you want in the comments bar, but it is designed to increase teamwork and help people with their work.  You can also leave messages for others that are not currently logged on working on the project.  Google Docs provides a place not only for people to do work together, but also to communicate with one another about whatever they would like.  There is not a huge social aspect of Google Docs so it does not have much of a negative effect on the program itself.  However, one negative is that there is a lack of face to face interaction with the use of Google Docs.  This can lead to miscommunication.

            Google Docs is also used for entertainment and recreational purposes as well.  On Google Docs, people can share media files containing video files and pictures.  These files are often used for entertainment reasons.  By using Google Docs, people can now share these forms of different entertainment with each other as well as talk about it online with each other.  This makes sharing files and forms of entertainment quicker and easier for people.  However, this can have negative effects has Google Docs has no censor and any type of media can be shared even though it could potentially be negative media.

            Although it is not a major use of Google Docs, spreading news is one purpose of the program.  Google Docs is a large program accessible to many people who are looking to share all kinds of information.  Since people can communicate with each other very quickly, different types of news can spread rapidly to many people.  This is one negative impact of Google Docs as any type of info, good or bad, can be spread to millions of people.  News can vary from basic business information shared among colleagues to personal news shared in a chat between friends.  

Links

https://www.google.com/

http://www.statisticbrain.com/

http://www.youtube.com/

Facebook Analysis Assignment

James Catalano                                                                                                       October 28, 2013

Mr. Hennings                                                                                                          BCA

"Facebook"

           

            Facebook is perhaps the most popular social networking website with about 1 billion users currently.  Created in 2004, Facebook allows people to interact with one another by being virtual friends.  You can post on their timelines, play games together, have private or group chat, read their daily posts and view a lot of their personal information.  Facebook has not only grown to be the primary place of social interaction, but is also a useful place for people to gain information on any topic imaginable and for businesses to broadcast themselves to others.

            Over the years, Facebook has become the main website for businesses to market their companies to others and interact with customers.  There are about 1 million businesses and companies that have an active account on Facebook.  If people on Facebook like your business they can "Like" your page to have updates about the company come up on their feed.  Companies then use this account to post different things about their company such as new products and big discounts to alert their customers.  This allows the company to hear back from its consumers and it is a way to improve their company PR by creating a positive image to a large group of people.  However, this can lead to negative effects because now people can post bad things about a company that may or may not be true by commenting on their posts.  This can lead to negative impacts on the business if enough people view these comments.  Businesses can also pay for advertising on Facebook users' newsfeeds, even if the user is not a follower of their page.  Facebook has revolutionized the way businesses market themselves to the world.

            The biggest use of Facebook is for social interaction.  People can friend request each other in order to exchange personal information that they are sharing with the website and in order to view posts.  Also by being friends with others, Facebook users can post on their friends' timelines anything they want such as links, videos, game requests or songs.  They can also directly chat with one another and compete in online games together.  By being friends with someone on Facebook, you can learn a lot more about people and gain a virtual friend that you may share common interests with.  However, this can lead to abuse as their have been many cases of people bullying and stalking others.  This can lead to all kinds of personal problems, crimes being committed and even indirectly related to deaths.       

            Facebook also is used largely for entertainment and for news.  Entertainment and news on Facebook go hand in hand with each one another in that you can find news on virtually anything that entertains you.   There is information about nearly every subject on the website.  People can spend hours on Facebook because of all the news it contains about politics, celebrities, sports, music, pop culture etc.  In fact, many TV channels/shows and news programs have their own Facebook pages and are constantly posting interesting information.  Due to this the average Facebook user spends about an hour a day on the website just browsing from topic to topic and reading their feed containing information about friends, family and world news that interests them.  This type of customized news entertains people and is one reason why Facebook is one of the most popular websites in the world.  However, the availability of all this information and endless entertainment has negative effects.  Sometimes people spend too much time on the computer than they should because they are spending too much time checking and updating Facebook.  This can lead to some people becoming addicted to it.

            Facebook also has many recreational uses as well.  These uses include playing games, watching videos and just reading through your news feed.  Games such as Candy Crush, Farmville and Diamond Dash are examples of ways people can spend their time on Facebook.  By playing these games, people can challenge their friends and other users to beat their personal best scores.  This is another way to socially interact with others on the site.  However, this can lead to abuse as many people get annoyed with game requests that they receive from friends and may even remove them as a friend because of it.  People can also use the site recreationally by just surfing through their newsfeed and looking at friends, businesses, celebrities and other pages full of information for hours on end.  Facebook is simply just a fun site to use for many people; which is one reason why it is among the most popular websites visited in the world.

             

Links

http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2012/10/04/facebook-has-a-billion-users-and-a-revenue-question/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TwKVSOrR-0

http://www.businessinsider.com/what-does-an-average-facebook-user-do-2013-3

http://www.facebook.com

http://www.statisticbrain.com/

LinkedIn Analysis Assignment

James Catalano                                                                                                       October 24, 2013

Mr. Hennings                                                                                                          BCA

“LinkedIn”

            LinkedIn is a social networking website that people use to network, connect and search for jobs with other companies and professionals.  It is a way for people to market themselves to potential employers and to communicate with others in their field of work.  With about 225 million accounts created, LinkedIn is the most popular business networking website in the world.
            LinkedIn is mainly used for business purposes.  By using LinkedIn, companies can post information about job listings, potential opportunities for prospective employees and market themselves to others.  By doing these things, companies are able to hire new employees and advertise their business to others which all potentially increases profit.  Companies can also directly contact people seeking jobs.  This is a way for companies to get to know people searching for jobs in their company without formally interviewing them in person.  This is beneficial for companies as they don’t have to waste time and money to set up interviews that may not be necessary.  LinkedIn is an easier way for companies to connect with the people they may want to potentially hire.  However, this aspect can be abused as companies can often find out too much personal information about people.  Also, sometimes LinkedIn provides too much information about a person without them realizing.  This allows for company access into people's personal information even though they do not even work for the company.  Despite its negative qualities, LinkedIn provides local businesses and large companies information that can help prospective employees have a good chance at finding a job they will want to pursue.

            Another major use of LinkedIn is for social purposes.  By using LinkedIn, people can connect and interact with each other for business purposes.  Companies can look up and search for people that are looking for work in a specific field that the company employs people in.  Also, people can contact and research a company that they could potentially want to work for.  Also, people can contact each other on LinkedIn.  They can share business ideas and concepts and also provide advice to each other.  This can lead to abuse because people may begin to harass and stalk others by finding out too much information about them.  However, this usually only happens if the person is using the site for non-business related reasons.  LinkedIn is a very helpful website in that it allows people to connect with each other in a mostly positive way.

            LinkedIn does not have much of an effect on the entertainment area.  This is a social media network that is not necessarily meant to entertain others.  It is meant mainly for business purposes.  However, LinkedIn can provide jobs in the entertainment industry.

            There are also not many recreational uses for LinkedIn.  However, it can be used to interact with others and view their pages.  This can be fun and also a way to meet new people who share similar interests as you.  This can lead to abuse though as some people use LinkedIn only to be nosy and look up other people for fun. 

            LinkedIn can be used for news purposes.  It provides news on businesses that you are interested in and gives you updates on people you may want to request to learn more information about.  It also provides news on those you are already friends with on the network.  This allows you to stay up to date on how others are doing in finding employment in your area in certain fields and certain companies.  LinkedIn also provides news on companies and businesses in your area.  This allows you to connect with businesses and job availability in your community. 

Links Used

http://www.linkedin.com/

http://jobsearch.about.com/od/linkedin/f/what-is-linkedin.htm

http://www.buzzfeed.com/katienotopoulos/the-11-creepiest-things-about-linkedin

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/linkedin-corporation/

Twitter Analysis Assignment

James Catalano                                                                                                       October 22, 2013

Mr. Hennings                                                                                                          BCA

“Twitter”

           

            Twitter is an online social networking system that allows people to communicate with each other by sending tweets with a limit of 140 characters per tweet.  Twitter was created in 2006 and now has about 554,750,000 users with the numbers constantly increasing.  It is used for many reasons such as recreational, social, entertainment, news and marketing for business.  With 58 million tweets per day, Twitter is developing into a massive online network that society is finding itself dependent on time and time again.

 

            Perhaps the biggest use of Twitter is for recreational use.  Millions of people log in everyday to post about their daily lives and their feelings.  It is a way to tell their followers how they are doing without necessarily telling them in person.  One of the overall goals and recreational goals of Twitter is to gain as many followers as possible.  The more followers someone has, the more people they can directly and indirectly communicate with.  Also, the more people someone follows, the more information they can find out on others for their own personal entertainment.  Another major recreational use of Twitter is to follow celebrities, athletes and political leaders.  Twitter is a public network and many famous people have accounts that other users can follow.  This allows for people to catch-up on the latest news and drama of their favorite celebrities.  Although this is a great way for people to interact and learn about friends and celebrities, Twitter is often abused as people start to stalk or harass others.  This can result in lawsuits being filed if harassment gets too extreme and overwhelming. 

            Along with the recreational use, another big use of twitter is for social interaction.  As previously stated, Twitter is basically a big online network that's main purpose is to allow people to communicate and interact with each other.  Twitter has many ways of interacting with others.  One way is through direct messaging others.  Direct messaging is basically a way for two people to chat with each other privately without the conversation showing up on other's news feeds.  However, the most popular way of directly communicating with others on Twitter is through "tagging" others in tweets.  By "tagging" other people, you are mentioning them in your own tweet which can lead to a conversation that can be seen by all of your followers.  However, this can lead to abuse if people tag others for negative reasons such as making fun of them.  This is a major form of cyber bullying because most Twitter users are from ages 10-25 years old.

            Going hand in hand with recreational and social use, Twitter is also used for entertainment.  With about 9,100 tweets per second, it is easy to see that Twitter is highly addictive as many people just find it fun to use.  It is fun to tweet and to see how others react to your tweets, whether it is positive or negative.  It is entertaining for people to read shorts bits of information posted by friends, celebrities and companies/organizations that they are interested in.  Twitter has about 50 million active users per day.  This number shows that there is potential of abuse on Twitter because so many people are logging on multiple times per day.  People may be too entertained with Twitter and are becoming more and more depend on it and other social media websites.

            Not only is Twitter used by people to connect with one another, it is also used by businesses to promote and market their company.  Both big and small businesses use Twitter to positively promote themselves.  Large companies such as Nike, Coca-Cola, Samsung and Starbucks range from about 2 million followers to 5 million followers.  This means that these companies are spreading information and promotional advertisements to millions of people, allowing them to learn more about their product.  This also allows companies to directly contact customers in a positive way.  This helps them increase profit and public relations due to their great success in marketing their company.  This can bring negative effects on companies as well as people could tweet bad news about the company.  This bad news is now accessible to virtually anyone in the world.  This means it is very important for businesses to stay on top of their accounts and constantly have positive tweets that boost support for them.

            Twitter is also used for news on various subjects ranging from all topics imaginable.  There are millions of accounts that provide news about sports, politics, celebrities, companies, economics, etc.  The list goes on and on.  People can find Twitter accounts broadcasting news on virtually any type of information.  This can potentially bring abuse though as there may even be too many accounts broadcasting news to the world.  This can lead to contradicting reports, unpopular news, irrelevant news and false information provided to millions of people.  However, Twitter is overall a great place to get information and news from credible sources and accounts.

 

Links

http://royal.pingdom.com/2009/11/13/in-depth-study-of-twitter-how-much-we-tweet-and-when/

 

http://perezhilton.com/2012-08-31-leann-rime-suing-kimberly-smiley-for-recording-phone-call#sthash.BUB0dJz6.dpbs

 

http://www.statisticbrain.com/twitter-statistics/

 

http://www.sysomos.com/insidetwitter/

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-top-20-brands-on-twitter-ranked-by-influence-with-customers-2012-7#2-starbucks-19

http://www.twitter.com

1st Blog

Hi this is James Catalano and this is my BCA blog.  This is my first post!