Assignment:
1: Share an example of a company that has network effects (not found in the book).
- Describe the nature of the network (i.e. one-sided, two-sided?)
- Describe the members of the network (who makes up this network?)
- Describe the source(s) of value being exchanged in this network.
- Does this network represent a switching cost for this company? Why or why not?
2: Think about the social media outlets you use (blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc...).
- Which do you trust for information? Why?
- Which do you NOT trust for information? Why?
3: Think about "the sharing economy":
- Which firms are the biggest players in "the sharing economy"?
- Have you used any of these firms?
- Share your experience.
- Would you use them again or recommend them to a friend? Why or why not?
4: Think about online advertising (i.e. banner ads etc...):
- What's the difference between cost-per-impression and cost-per-click advertising?
- Which one is "better" (in your opinion)?
- Why?
5: Think about enterprise software. You won't necessarily find the exact answers to these questions in the text, but you should be able to provide intelligent responses:
- What are the benefits of using "off-the-shelf" solutions? What are the risks?
- What are the benefits of a company building it's own software? What are the risks?
6: Think about Open Source Software:
- Why do some companies prefer to use Open Source Software?
- Why might some companies prefer NOT to use Open Source Software?
- How has Open Source Software changed the nature of the tech startup industry?
7: Think about Data as a source of competitive advantage:
- Name a company (not mentioned in the text) that leverages data as a competitive advantage.
- Is it a sustainable competitive advantage? Why or why not?
8: Search online for a case of domain name dispute:
- Share an (appropriate) example.
- What happened?
- Who won? Why?
9: Research the recent Equifax data breach:
- What happened?
- How did they handle the breach?
- Were you affected? If so, what did/should you do to protect yourself?
10: Think about how we find information on the internet, specifically using search engines like Google. We know that Google's search engine is "self learning", meaning it is software that optimizes its results based on specific actions we take. For example, if I perform a google search for "tent" and click on the first search result, but decide it's not what I was looking for and go back to the search results, Google learns that the first result for that search might not be as good as other results, especially if I end up clicking on the second result and purchase a tent on that site:
- What's good for consumers about this type of search engine optimization?
- What's potentially bad about it?
- Now consider if you were looking for information (not shopping). Familiarize yourself with the concept of an "echo chamber". What are the potential implications on our ability to use search engines to freely find and read factual information?
- What are the characteristics of the information we will get using these search engines?