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!