Blog Post #8- March 28th, 2011- "The Orange Bazaar" Final Summary Post

"The Orange Bazaar" is basically a version of the very popular website eBay, where customers can buy or sell any type of product they are interested in from other users for a cheap price. eBay is a very visual website; the website contains pictures of the products being sold, and it also contains profiles of the prospective buyers and sellers. My entrepreneurial idea is another version of that website, but is restricted to students at Syracuse University. The website will gain popularity because students know where the products are coming from, and therefore can trust their whereabouts.

I originally came up with the idea for this website when trying to think of ways to sell textbooks easily and efficiently. I figured that I would feel most comfortable buying a textbook from another Syracuse University student, because I know for sure that the book is the correct one, and that it is coming from a person that I can identify with. However, I decided to not limit the website to just textbooks, and therefore expanded its product base. The website now includes Syracuse University sports tickets, as well as Syracuse University apparel and appliances, such as microfridges. If a student has season tickets to all the home basketball games but has to miss one game, that single ticket should no go to waste, and should in fact go to another Syracuse University student willing to buy it.

Another interesting factor about the website, called "The Orange Bazaar" is that it is not open to everyone. In order to register for the website, students must have a @syr.edu email address, making the website private and only open to current students. This, in my opinion, makes the website safer because everyone knows where the products are coming from and who they are selling to or buying from. It also makes giving or receiving the products easier because everyone is in close proximity with one another, so there wouldn't be a long wait time for delivery after you buy a product. "The Orange Bazaar," Syracuse University's version of the website eBay makes buying and selling products easy and efficient, because the client base is very exclusive and everyone knows where everything on that website is coming from.

Here are the url's to the blogs that I posted comments on:

http://bjkillen.blogspot.com/

http://thektriplerist195.blogspot.com/

http://mcnally-megan.blogspot.com/

Blog Post #7- March 28th, 2011- "The Orange Bazaar"

Since "The Orange Bazaar" is a website only open to Syracuse University students, everyone registered to buy, sell, or trade products on the website is a current student at the University, making all of the transactions completed through the website trustworthy. After a current student sells or buys a product to another student, the two students need to communicate with each other in some way so that the final part of the transaction can be completed. They can do so by emailing, meeting up with one another, or connecting via a social networking site. Social networking sites allow buyers or sellers to put a face on the people they are buying from or selling to. I believe this is a safe maneuver because in order to participate with the site, you need an @syr.edu email address, so one can be confident that they are selling to a Syracuse University student, rather than a complete stranger.

To make sure that the students know exactly who they are selling their products to or buying their products from, the website should be connected to Facebook, since almost every college student at Syracuse University seems to be active on that website. "The Orange Bazaar" should be compatible with Facebook or Twitter so that student buyers or sellers know exactly who they are selling to or buying from. Students can view other students profiles and communicate with each other via the website in order to exchange products bought on "The Orange Bazaar." From there, students can decide where to meet up with one another, or where to deliver or pick-up the products bought or sold on the website, thus completing the transaction.

This would also help with the design and layout of the website. For example, when a student buys a product, he or she is curious to see who the person is he or she is buying from. Next to the product they are selling, the student selling the product should have a link in the upper righthand corner saying "Connect with me on Facebook," or something similar. However, the student looking to buy the product will not be allowed to connect with said student they are buying from until they have purchased the product, showing that they are interested in what that person has to sell, and therefore establishing a connection. Students are welcome to also connect with other students they are buying from via Syracuse email, because the email address will be listed under the buyer's name. Facebook will help "The Orange Bazaar" because it allows students to make connections with one another and to find out exactly who you are buying from or selling to.

Blog Post #6- March 27th, 2011- "The Orange Bazaar"

In addition to creating a viable customer base for the "The Orange Bazaar," Syracuse University's version of the very popular website eBay, as well as lining up essential products for students to buy from other students, "The Orange Bazaar" also needs to be flawless with its technological aspects. Since this website is completely dependent on the Internet, it needs to be able to follow correct protocol to create a flawless connection between the client and the web server. These technical aspects are an essential part of the website because if the Internet fails, the website loses its total value and students have no way of visiting the website. Having a dependent network is the key aspect to running this successful business.

"The Orange Bazaar" needs to follow correct Protocol. This is a four step process, which includes 1) Rules of Communication, 2) Syntax and Semantics, 3) Small Acts, and 4) Protocols can relate to other Protocols in terms of layers. The website also needs to have flawless networks, servers, and packets. A packet is like a digital envelope and contains a small chunk of information. For example, an email requires dozens, or even hundreds of packets if it contains an attachment. "The Orange Bazaar" needs to be able to have reliable packets in case different Syracuse University students communicate with each other about the different products they are selling, or if they are interested in trading products with one another, or if one student is simply interested in buying something from another student.

"The Orange Bazaar" would also have a reliable HTTP, which stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. HTTP is the four step process between the client and the web server. It is the way in which web clients (ie. browsers) communicate with web servers (ie. web sites). The four step process includes 1) Make a connection, 2) HTTP requests, 3) HTML files (response), and 4) Closes connection (most important step). HTTP can handle millions of transaction each and every day. Having a reliable HTTP would be very valuable to "The Orange Bazaar"because if the web clients cannot connect and communicate with the web server, then Syracuse University students have no way of visiting the web site in the first place. Therefore, "The Orange Bazaar" needs to be easily accessible through all web browsers, including Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, etc. All of these web browsers need to be compatible with this website in order for students to visit it in the first place.

Blog Post #5- March 7th, 2011- "The Orange Bazaar"

A very key and essential component to "The Orange Bazaar," aside from the website itself, is computer forensics, also known as how to keep your customers identity safe as well as the websites. Another significant component to the website would be making sure the software and hardware stays as fast as possible. It is important to keep the customers safe and their identity protected so that they can stay loyal to the website and keep visiting us. The website itself if pretty safe as it is because it is only open to Syracuse University students (a Syracuse University email address is required to access the website) so hopefully there will not be much identity fraud, but you can never be too safe.

Some key points that "The Orange Bazaar" can keep in mind to help its customers are to think of some ways to avoid identity thefts. When customers are checking out after they buy a purchase, we can advise our customers to not use their debit cards, and to only stick to using credit cards. The website will also never ask the customers for their Social Security Number to protect their identity. Because "The Orange Bazaar" is very concerned with keeping our customer's credit safe, we encourage the bartering system between customers. Since Syracuse University students are in close proximity to one another, we encourage people that buy from each other to trade with one another, thus their credit will not get involved.

Another idea that will our hardware and software up to date will be to continually defrag our computers. Defrag means to remove all the excess space and files within a computer, thus making the machine more efficient and faster. Our computers could become fragmented if files written in all different types of sectors, thus making the computer slower. This can occur if we do not organize all the transactions our website makes. If we can continually defrag our computers, we can make our software and hardware faster and thus be kept updated and overall a better website!

Blog Post #4- February 21st, 2011 Famous Bloggers

People use the Internet for an infinite number of reasons. They shop, communicate, browse, travel, entertain, share, and read, just to name a few. The Internet's version of an editorial would be a blog, and people look to blog and bloggers for information, advice, insight, or even just a laugh. Blogs give people a chance to communicate their new ideas, offer their opinion, or just to vent or rant to anyone that will listen. Bloggers can blog about anything from celebrity gossip, to entrepreneurship, to financial advice, to world news. Blogs are an Internet past time, and give people a chance to listen to others.

Famous bloggers can have enormous influence over their followers. One very famous blogger is Mark Cuban, an American entrepreneur. Along with his blogging, he is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, and chairman of the HDTV cable network HDNet. In 2010, he is listed as #400 on Forbes World's Richest People list with a net worth of 2.4 billion. The Guinness Book of World Records credits Cuban with the largest single e-commerce transaction, after paying $40 million for his Gulfstream V jet in 1999. In addition, he also co-owns an entertainment company, has produced ABC reality television show "The Benefactor," has spearheaded ventures in the social software industries. He also hosts his own Sirius Satellite radio station, and co-founded HDNet, the first high-definition satellite television network.

Mark Cuban also runs a blog called "Blog Maverick," the name coming from the team that he owns, the Dallas Mavericks. Mark Cuban blogs about everything from sports to finance. He also regularly keeps up with his Twitter account and Facebook account.

http://blogmaverick.com/

http://twitter.com/#!/mcuban

http://www.facebook.com/MarkCuban

Blog Post #3- February 14th, 2011, "The Orange Bazaar"

Even though that the "Orange Bazaar," Syracuse University's very own eBay, is mainly run over the Internet, there should be a couple of people that run the website and oversee all of its productions, including sales, buys, and trades. Therefore, the website will need to have a workspace with the proper hardware and software installed to prevent the system from crashing as little as possible. This would include having stable motherboards, CPUs, RAM, etc. The website's company would need to have top of the line, state of the art hardware to prevent the system from crashing, thus creating a stable website that its users can fully rely on. 

The Orange Bazaar can fully benefit from the use of digital streaming formats. One significant and essential  part of a website is advertising. Advertising can help finance the website and pay for all its debts. It can also help finance the website by providing the right amount of money to help the website further advance its ideas and accomplishments by allowing the website to expand its content and its client base. Video advertisements could also be used before showing a product. It would be very similar to what the website Youtube does; showing a video advertisement before showing the actual video so that funding can be accomplished. 

Another way that the Orange Bazaar could use digital streaming format is by presenting all the products to its viewers. On eBay, clients that are trying to sell their products usually provide other website users with some form of visual medium, such as an image, so that people know and can be certain that they are purchasing the right item. However, why not take it one step further? On the Orange Bazaar website, Syracuse University students can upload pictures as well as videos to the website to show other students what they are trying to sell! The Orange Bazaar would use Adobe Flash Player, since it seems to be the most reliable and does not take up a lot of memory on the website. Students can upload videos of products they are trying to sell, such as tshirts, printers, old computers, microfridges, or hats. That way other students looking to buy the products will have a clear idea of what they are purchasing. It can also be seen as a way for the buyer and seller to connect over the Internet. 

Blog Post #2- February 6th, 2011 "The Orange Bazaar"

The Orange Bazaar's website could benefit from the use of Microsoft Excel to help keep track of the finances of all the products that my website has to offer. This includes textbooks, basketball or football tickets, any type of syracuse merchandise, or any kind of technology that needed to be bought or sold by other students.

Some of the practical uses for Excel could benefit the way that my website would work. For example, I could efficiently manage my finances. I could create a budget and track my expenses (whatever the website buys, sells, or trades) every week, month, or year. You can also use Excel to track your savings as well. My website could also use Excel by making schedules or calendars that accurately and neatly list all of the inventory that the website has in stock and neatly compile all the buys, sells, or trades that the website does.  Also, you can create many different types of lists for the website, including all the products in the website and all the prices that different students are willing to pay for or sell. The website can also use Excel to manage the mailing lists. The website should be able to recognize a certain student as a regular customer if they have shopped at the website more than once. The mailing lists would be able to keep track of all the customers and to make sure that everyone using the website is actually a Syracuse University student.

Another important feature of my website would be the web design, so the right colors should be used in the website so that the viewers and users do not have a hard time accessing or navigating the website. Light, pastel colors should be used throughout the website so that it is easy on the eyes and doesn't give the people headaches. The website would have to be color coordinated to differentiate the different products from one another. The textbooks section of the website would be light blue, the sports section of the website would be light orange, the technology section of the website would be light green, and the appliances section of the website would be light red. That way the website would be kept organized and the students would be able to navigate it easily. Also, big fonts would need to be used so that the website could be read easily.

In general, I think that the use of both Excel and web design would help keep the website organized and efficient and easy to use. It will help make the website navigable and easy to keep track of.