A discussion on E-learning offered in Malaysian universities: Pros and Cons from the students perspective

Pros
Reduced overall cost is the single most influential factor in adopting e-learning. It is because it can eliminate the rental, lodging, meals and travel costs of students are directly quantifiable. Furthermore, all those traditional pleasantries in the classroom setting are eliminated. Hence, it reduces the cost of the course and students time away from work.

As a student, you can choose what, when and where you want to learn. Hence, you can learn when you need it and your learning options are not constrained by your geographic location. Also, you are not constrained by the arrangements made by traditional timetables, schedules curricula. Therefore, learning can be fit into your busy schedule or you can have a job while you take classes.

You can learn at your own pace. No lecturers or tutors are controlling your work on the spot. Your learning is stress free and enjoyable. Thus, can be more effective for certain types of students, such as shy, reflective, language challenged those that need more time.

Distance learning gives equal chances for all students irrespective of their background and status. Besides, the internet is a provider of diverse learning styles and authentic materials which facilitate the process of learning. On the other hand, it also provides side benefits of learning new technologies and technical skills.



Cons
E-learning can entail significant investment in IT hardware and software if your University is not yet appropriately equipped as well as the students, especially for those poor and do not have computers. For examples, you will need an internet connection, an appropriately equipped PC, sound cards, headphones, and web cams at the least.

Not all regions have constant access to the internet. There are still parts of the world where state of the art technology is non-existent. Also, it requires technical training and support of students as well as the lecturers and tutors. Besides, cultural acceptance is an issue in university where students may tend to against learning by using computers at all.

Reduced social and cultural interaction can be a drawback. As a student, you can become bored with individual work. It is lack of face to face interaction and campus life. Interaction with classmates face to face helps in establishing better social relations. It does not provide many social aspects of a true campus or traditional classroom. Also, spending endless hours looking at the screen can damage your eyesight.

Not everything can be found on the internet, especially books, which are recommended by the lecturers or tutors. Also, it is difficult for lecturers to move traditional content online. Besides, more time consuming for lecturers or tutors to provide individualized feedback because more students are often actively involved. Hence, students may require an effective online lecturers and tutors.


Related Links:
http://www.elearners.com/resources/elearning-faq5.asp
http://writingandsnacks.blogspot.com/2006/08/pros-and-cons-of-e-learning.html
http://www.justcolleges.com/elearn/proscons.htm
http://www.sameshow.com/blog/2008/04/18/referral-the-pros-and-cons-of-e-learning.html

Review a local e-commerce site

There are many popular ecommerce sites around the world. In Malaysia, we have the biggest stimulator of ecommerce site, which is Air Asia. Air Asia started with the sales of air ticket through internet, and until now, air ticket is the top item Malaysians are buying online so far.

Air Asia is a flight company, therefore the top item in their online shop is air ticket. Many people travel around the world from Malaysia purchase air ticket through online. The main factor behind is because buying air ticket online can have discounted price especially during the promotion seasons. Moreover, customers from other countries such as Thailand and Indonesia can purchase the air ticket since internet provides a lot of convenience throughout the world. Besides that, travel accessories such as travel chest set, Air Asia T-shirt, and teddy bear are offered by Air Asia as souvenir for foreign passengers.

When travelers intend to purchase air ticket online, Air Asia also provides post-sale services for them. For example, services such as booking meal to be served on board, and luggage bag carrying services are provided by Air Asia to provide the best environment for their customers. Other than booking air tickets online, passengers can also book hotels and airbus tickets online through Air Asia website. This is to increase the satisfaction of customers since they do not have to worry about the accommodation and transportation before and after their journey especially in foreign countries.

On the other hand, Air Asia encourages their customers to open up a CIMB bank account and pay the fees using CIMB credit card. By doing so, their customers can obtain a free gift from Air Asia company. Other than CIMB bank, Air Asia provides alternatives to other bank account owner. For instance, if customers pay their airfares by using Air Asia Citibank gold card or Citibank credit card, they can obtain several benefits which include E-gift voucher, free travel insurance and others. The main target customers of Air Asia are business men. Therefore, Air Asia also provides advertising board for business men who intend to advertise their products and services either at the airport, or on flight.

Next, to enhance consumer awareness about Air Asia, they remain consistency in the choice of colors of their website, which are red and white. This can help consumers to recognize their website once they access into the webpage. To provide convenience to their customers, Air Asia uses consistent layout for their webpage design. The search engine at the left of the webpage enables customers from different location to search for the departure and arrival time, dates, and location. Dates choices are last for 10 months, which enable passengers to book for their air tickets earlier to obtain better discount. Besides that, location selection is arranged based on alphabetical order which range from Australia to Vietnam. To view different type of services provided by Air Asia, webpage visitor can refer to the top of the webpage for references. On the other hand, Air Asia also provides guidelines for unfamiliar users which located at the bottom at the website. When customers intend to buy air tickets online, they can choose the location, time and dates from the search engine. After they selected their particulars, the total amount payable will be stated at right side, before the buyers make their decision. To confirm the purchase, they have to enter their credit card information, followed by their personal details. The shopping carts are then confirmed from the website and a confirmation invoice will be sent to the customers’ email address.

Due to the features provided by Air Asia, it is believe that more and more people will start using online purchase of air tickets. The website provides a lot of convenience to customers especially for those who always travel from one country to another.

Related link:

http://www.airasia.com/site/my/en/home.jsp

Corporate Blogging: A new marketing communication tool for campanies

Nowadays, blogs have become a popular communication tools on the Web. The main reason is blog provides a forum for individuals to create their own presentation on the Web to the Web audience. Pyra Labs Blogger stated that "A blog is a web page made up of usually short, frequently updated posts that are arranged chronologically-like what’s new page or a journal."Moreover, blogs have involved in the corporate sector as well which is known as “Corporate Blogging”. A company can use the corporate blogging as a communication tool to accomplish business objective. Corporate blogging can help company to get more comments or opinions of customers in the world. If the corporate blog gains popularity, it means that the company could have thousands of people subscribing to the feeds. Based on a market research, 34% of large companies had established weblogs in the first half of year 2006. Another 35% of the large companies planned to create a blog by the end of year 2006. It shows that the corporate blogging plays a vital role in the company’s business strategy.

A company can gain many benefits through corporate blogging. Firstly, the blog create a new opportunity to communicate with new potential customers. It is because the new potential customers may have a chance to know the company through the corporate blog. Secondly, blog is easy to use and easy to update because many blog software companies provide easy blogging tools to get started such as Blogger.com. Lastly, it can be used as an effective marketing communication tools for the companies. For example, when a company launched a new product, it may publish the information to the corporate blog in order to promote it. The company can have a open dialog with the customers. It also can build a community of people who are interested to the company’s product. According to Steve Rubel, corporate blog can be used as a business strategy for a company.

Although the corporate blogging brings a lot of advantages to the company, there are some significant disadvantages of corporate blogging. There are dozens of cases of workers warned or fired due to the “free speech” they wrote on the companies’ blog. In a survey of Proofpoint, more than 57% of executives among the 332 large companies were treated corporate blog as a source of trouble for their companies. Furthermore, blogs are easy to start but difficult to maintain. It is a time-consuming task for employee to update the blog frequently or write coherently. The blog that is not updated might cause damaging rather than enhancing the reputation of the company.

The example of corporate blog will be given is Gizmodo. It is dedicated to gadgets, gizmos, and cutting-edge consumer electronics. Besides, It is a web magazine which is quickly building a specialized audience in consumer electronics by an advertising business model. In the mid-2004, Gizmodo and Gawker were generated revenue of $6,000 per month through the corporate blog.


Related links:
http://www.blogtips.org/does-your-non-profit-organisation-need-a-blog/
http://sbinformation.about.com/cs/ecommerce/a/bblogs.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_blog
http://www.businessknowhow.com/internet/corporate-blog.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Rubel
http://www.enterpriseblogs.info/corporate-blogging/disadvantages
http://apins.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/advertising-marketing-and-blogging/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gizmodo
http://gizmodo.com/

E-Government in Malaysia: Its implementation so far and citizen’s adoption strategies

Introduction
In recent new economy, most of the countries are trying to change their government services into electronic form which is called Electronic Government (E-Government). E-government has been widely adopted by many countries such as Singapore, Dubai, Taiwan, Korea and including Malaysia. In Malaysia, the adoption of e-government started since the initiation of MSC (Multimedia Super Corridor) by Malaysian government. Essentially, e-government is sought to provide effective services to the citizens. However, there are low in percentage of Malaysia citizens using e-government services.

E-government application in Malaysia
Basically, e-government application can be divided into two types. One of the e-government applications is called e-government flagship. Under e-government flagship, there is a series of applications such as Project Monitoring System, Human Resource Management information System, Generic Office Environment, Electronic Procurement, Electronic Services, Electronic Labour Exchange and E-Syariah. Mycard is one of the products that have been provided by the government to enhance the services to the customers. Actually, Mycard provides several applications for example national ID, driving license, passport information, health information, Touch N Go and MBPS cash. Another type of e-government applications is agency-led projects. Some of the examples of agency-led projects are E-Tanah, E-courts, E-perolehan and others. E-Tanah is use to protect land owner right from being cheated during the transfer of ownership is made.

Problems encountered by consumer
One of the problems which has been faced is due to the lack of awareness. Most of the users are not aware the applications offered. Another problem encountered by the consumers is online behavior. Some of the consumers are seldom make the transaction online. They probably pay the bill to the office of the relevant company. Moreover, language barrier also is one of the troubles that confront with the consumer. This is because most of the website right now is using English version rather than Bahasa Malayu version.

Way to encourage citizens to use e-government application
Increase awareness
In order to increase the awareness of user, the government can develop marketing campaigns such as TV advertisement, media relation and so on.

Gather feedback
Gather feedback from the consumers can build e-government services. Such as Dubai e-government has provided campaigns to attract users of its e-services. For any citizens who fill the online feedback is entitled to win various prizes. Thus, it enables the government to create a convenient user friendly channel.

Leadership skill
Leadership skill can provide a power to influence the citizens to change their manual services into electronic services. Government can be a leader to guide the citizens to adopt with the new culture of the country. It can be a best way to encourage the consumer to migrate in to electronic services.

Related Links:

http://www1.american.edu/initeb/ym6974a/egovernment.htm#Quick%20Links
http://www.egovonline.net/interview/interview-details.asp?interviewid=70
http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/2007/11/e-government-malaysia-is-now-ranked.html
http://www.intanbk.intan.my/psimr/articles/Article1%20-%20Full.pdf
http://www2.state.id.us/ITRMC/events/bootcamp/2002/fraser_slides.pdf
http://business.maktoob.com/20050427144708/ArticleAnnouncement.htm

http://www.bernama.com/kpdnhep/news.php?id=303192%E2%8C%A9=en

A review on a post on e-tailing from My E-Commerce blog.

Based on a review on a post of “Digital music sales increase 50%” from My E-Commerce blog, the sales of digital music increase by 50% while the sales of physical album has decreased by 15% as compared to prior year.

Technology improvement has been rapid nowadays, and internet provides several conveniences to consumers. Therefore, consumers will rather shift to online purchase as compared to physically going to the retail shop to buy the products. One example is music. Purchasing a whole physical album from retailers may be costly as compared to digital music online. Moreover, consumers have increase the usage of portable digital products such as iPod and MP3 player has increased their motivation to purchase music online since they do not have to convert into the playable format in the portable devices.

There are several e-tailers available in the market, such as Amazon.com and eBay. These online sellers encourage consumers to purchase legal digital music from their websites. However, there are several disadvantages when consumers shift from physical album to digital music. One of the drawbacks is the illegal download of music. Illegal downloads exclude consumers from paying and they can simply click on the link to download the intended music from some websites.

Next, there are some risks when consumers search for music online. For instance, they might be exposed to the threat of viruses when they access to unknown websites hoping to download free music from the unsecured address. On the other hand, purchasing physical album will not cause this problem. However, most of the consumers will rather be risk taker when buying music since the original album may be costly. Also, some music lovers only prefer single song from an album. Therefore, they will choose to purchase singles from internet instead of buying the album as a whole.

As a conclusion, although there are several conveniences purchasing music online, consumers shall access to legal website when they choose to buy from e-tailers. Entering into illegal websites may cause some risks to consumers as compared to purchasing physical album from retail shops. To compete with e-tailers, retail shop owners can promote their products by giving out free gifts along with the album, as this advantage cannot be obtained from online purchasing.

Related link:

http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/search/label/e-Tailing

Mobile payment systems in Malaysia: Its potentials and consumers’ adoption strategies.

Mobile payment system is a new alternative payment system which allowed the consumer to do payment by using mobile phone. It is a secure and convenient way to transfer the money electronically at anytime and everywhere. Moreover, mobile payment system let the customers to pay for any services such as transportation fare, books, magazines and even the digital goods such as music, ringtones.

Mobile payment has been adopted by many countries such as Singapore, Australia, and Malaysia. One of the company which has been adopted the mobile payment system in Malaysia is Mobile Money International Sdn Bhd. However, user is required to download the “mobile money ATM” in order to create an effective mobile payment. Mobile money ATM is an application that uses in the mobile phone and helps the user to transfer money to an appropriate person. By using this application, user can pay their bills, bank, and friends, reload prepaid, pay merchants, and remit money. As a result, it helps to make the user’s life more easily.

At this point of time, most of the consumers are more preferred to use cash money rather than mobile money. In order to encourage the consumers to adopt this payment system, awareness of the consumers is one of the important elements. The government should try to introduce the usefulness and way to use the system. This is because most of the consumers have zero knowledge with the mobile payment system. Furthermore, we should improve the security of the mobile payment system in order to prevent any fraud which will be possibly occurred. Others than that, supporting regulatory and legal framework should be provided toward the payment system in order to improve the reliance of consumers. As a consequence, it will increase the trust and confident of the consumers toward the system. Other than that, the infrastructure of the payment should be widened. It will make the consumers to be more convenience in assessing to the system.



Related links:
http://www.liewcf.com/blog/archives/2007/05/m-money-by-maxis-and-maybank/

http://www.mobile-money.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_payment

http://www.bis.org/review/r080605d.pdf

Credit Card Debts: Causes and Prevention

Financial illiteracy
Many people get their first credit card as soon as they are allowed to. They don't understand how money works and grows, how to save and invest for a rainy day, especially teenagers or sometimes even younger. The schools don't teach about it, parents also seldom ask you sit down and explained about it. Many teenagers treat credit cards as "free money" and buy anything that they want without showing any concern of how they are actually going to pay for it.
Prevention:
You are responsible for your life and your money anyway. Get educated and get in control. You will be surprised at how powerful you'll feel when you are making thoughtful decisions about where and when to spend your money.


Emergence of online shopping
Online shopping is become more friendly and convenient to the user. Whenever the users have possessed a credit card, they can just buy the things through online and treat credit card as a useful leaner wallet. This will result in overspending while surfing on those online shopping website. Furthermore, if you are involve in gambling websites. It can be addictive, hard to stop and loans are freely available by using credit card.
Prevention:
Do you really require such a high credit limit on your card? Know your limits and you will automatically spend less. Keep a running tally in writing of your weekly or monthly spending versus you budget, and update it before each purchase. This will help you to eliminate the risk that you overspend during the month.


Lifestyle maintenance
Expensive cars, luxury houses and etc are the big expense along the way. They treat credit card as money from windfall. Furthermore, spending tomorrow's money today is very tempting, especially if you believe that tomorrow will come no matter what. Therefore, people may then rely on credit card to get by.
Prevention:
It is important to communicate with your spouse or significant other and your children about finances. Keep the lines of communication open and discuss financial goals and spending styles. Spending less than you make is what's important.


Encouragement of credit card companies
Even the credit cards have encouraged you to spend money with no worries wherever you go, but the credit card companies have always sent the advertising to assaults you. Credit card companies often tell us that spend more earn more because of the rewards and privileges provided by them. These things are often hamper our ability to save our money.
Prevention:
Actually, spend more earn more doesn’t make sense because spend more sure lose more money that you have, right? Therefore, cut up your cards so that you are not tempted to use them. Save one card for emergencies. Lastly, remember to pay your credit card statement due on time.


Related links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/debt/debt_manage_2004/top-10-causes.asp
http://www.mozdex.com/prevent-credit-card-debt/
http://www.indiastudychannel.com/resources/53476-Credit-Card-Debt-Prevention.aspx

Electronic Currency

Electronic currency is the money which is exchanged through electronically only. It can exchange through computer networks or digital stored value system. It is also known as electronic money, digital money, or digital currency. The examples of electronic currency will be given are electronic fund transfer and direct deposit.

In 2nd June 2005, Firstgate’s Click & Buy was launched by Apple and accepted in European iTunes. It allows customer to purchase music, audiobooks, and gift certificates via debit card, invoice or bank transfer.

Besides that, peppercoin system provides service that can process small payment. It allows the merchants and financial services companies to grow revenue and profits through the sale of low-priced offerings. Peppercoin provides payment solutions for various market and transaction type. Thus, it can help merchants increase revenue and decrease costs at the same time. It also enables profitable small payments by growing both a merchants’ top line and bottom line.

Additionally, paystone technology provides a low price online payment method without the risk of charge back from the fraudulent credit card use. It can efficiently process the micropayments. Therefore, it provides a wider range of market for the businessman or individual. Paystone technology also provides an email money transfer option which allows paystone account holder sends fund to email of anyone globally.

Flooz.com was a company which established a currency unique to internet merchants. The word “flooz” is an Arabic word, means money. Individual can directly purchase from the flooz.com which can be redeemed for merchandise at a variety of online store. In August 26, 2001, this company announced its closure. It may be due to the limited adoption by both merchants and customers.

Related links:

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-132944345.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_currency
http://www2.computer.org/portal/web/csdl/abs/html/mags/co/2004/08/r8019.htm
http://gold-pages.net/Peppercoin.htm
http://gold-pages.net/Paystone.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flooz.com

Phishing: Examples and its prevention methods

Phishing is a form of fraud designed specifically to steal your identity. Usually, a phishing email will have a fake story that’s designed to lure you into clicking a link or button in the email or calling a phone number. The sender is trying to steal your identity by tricking you into revealing your password or other personal information.




Examples and Preventions:

1.You cannot think that an email is valid based on the sender’s email address. It’s pretty easy to alter and is not an indication of whether the email is real or not. Hence, just keep yourself up to date with the latest news and information on phishing in order to spot the fake and the differences.




2.Some phishing emails will ask about your account numbers and passwords. However, many companies or financial institutions have mentioned that they will never ask you for the personal information such as IDs, passwords and credit card numbers in any email. Thus, just remember to guard your privacy.




3.Sometimes, phishing emails will come with threats or warnings that your account is in danger of being deactivated if you don’t confirm your user information. Therefore, if you are in doubt then just call your customer service representative before you do anything foolhardy.




4.Many phishing emails have links that look valid, but send you to fraudulent sites instead. Therefore you better open a new browser window, then type the actual URL of the company or financial institution's website and log in to your account directly instead of clicking on those links provided by the email that typically ask for credit card and account numbers.


Useful tips:
Sometimes the easiest way to check is to enter a WRONG password. The fake site will accept it, and then you’re usually redirected to a page that says they’re having technical difficulties, so could you please log in back and check later?


Related links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing
http://images.google.com.my/images?hl=en&q=phishing+examples&gbv=2&aq=0&oq=Phishing+example

A review on a post of Internet Security from My E-commerce blog

Based on a review on the post “Favorite passwords used online”, it indicates that most of the online users always like to choose a password which is short and easy to remember. However, the password that they have chosen might not be secured. Sometimes, it can be easily stolen or used by unauthorized person without the users’ knowledge. Yet the users still tend to do so. The reason why they want to choose password which is short and easy to remember is because they want to avoid any unnecessary problems which will be faced to them. For example the problem is forgot the password. Whenever the online users forget the password, they are required to request with the related website to send the password again to their email address. Though, not all online companies will have such services. Thus, online user will prefer to create a new account.

Online users are advised to use more complicated passwords when creating their account. It is safer to create a password that is longer than 8 characters with unique symbols or capital letters in between the passwords. For example, a password of “longlong123” can be changed to “lonGloNg@123” so that it is not easy to be traced by hackers. Moreover, online users are recommended not to use same passwords on different accounts created. This is because whenever a lost of password happened, then the other accounts will be potentially lost too. Another way of better protection is to change password after some period of time. This can help to avoid the passwords being randomly tested by unauthorized users.

Although using or changing password is a way of safeguard, users shall aware of some disadvantages of these protections. For instance, frequently changes of passwords may lead the owner to forget their own passwords. At that time, complications can be happened and this is often not favored by any users. Moreover, users may mix up their passwords if they create too many “unique” passwords in different accounts. In some companies, random trying will result in block of account. Therefore, passwords owner must be aware of these limitations before creating excessive passwords.


Related link:
http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/search/label/Internet%20Security

How to safeguard our personal and financial data?

In today’s world, computer has been very important in our daily life. Almost everything surrounding us is computerized, and everyone around us is equipped with knowledge of information technology. Computer becomes necessarily important especially in working places. Works done by computer includes accounting, auditing, storing information of company, and sending information to related users. Due to the improvement in technology, computer crime becomes one of the ways for hackers to obtain unauthorized data without prior notice of the owner. Therefore, safeguarding our data in computer is the only way to prevent lost of data.

There are several ways to safeguard our data from unauthorized access by intruders. The most common ways that intruders use to steal data is to steal information in the sending process when we are trying to transfer our data to intended user. Therefore, encryption becomes one of the best ways to safeguard our data during the transferring process. When we send information through email, we can encrypt our email before sending to recipient, and the recipient will use decrypt software to read the information that we are trying to inform them. Encrypted email is done by transforming words to unreadable icons or shapes before sending, while decrypt software can help to scramble the icons back to the original words. By doing this, even the email is interrupt by intruders during the sending process, they will not be able to read the information.

Next, we can set up user names and passwords in our computers and office. These user names and passwords must not be accessible by anyone else, including close friends or colleagues. This is to prevent our data being unauthorized access by others when we are away from our keyboard. Besides that, we should set up different usernames and passwords in order to further protect our sensitive information. However, we must ensure that we must not forget our own usernames and passwords so that complications can be reduced to minimum. Changes in usernames and passwords after some period can also help to ensure that unauthorized users will not be able to access our information.



Besides that, we can also deploy firewall in our computer. The main purpose of firewall is to block unauthorized access while allowing authorized entry. It is a part of a computer system that can help to permit, deny, encrypt or decrypt access based on certain criteria. Firewall can help to block intruders from access into our computer through network, and they will require obtaining permission from us before accessing our personal and financial data.

Every computer users are fear of viruses. This is because viruses can be created by any virus writer to spread through network, computers or removable devices. Therefore, updated antivirus software shall be installed in every computer before the operating system is infected by any viruses. There is some free antivirus software available in the market, such as avast! antivirus and AVG scanner. Computer users also can purchase original antivirus software from retailers to obtain advanced protection against viruses, worms, and Trojans on disk, CDs, in email, and during browsing.



Last but not least, users of computer shall backup their data in different devices and locations especially important data. Whenever there is a lost of data, they will still have a backup copy to trace back the information. Users also advised not to store all data in one particular place so that they can minimize the effect of lost of data. Storing data in different devices also helps to diversify the risk of lost of data.

Related links:
http://www.aetna.com/members/safeguard_data.htm
http://www.ehow.com/how_2065985_safeguard-personal-information-work-computer.html?ref=fuel&utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=ssp&utm_campaign=yssp_art
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewall
http://www.consumersearch.com/antivirus-software/review

The threat of online security: How safe is our data?

Nowadays, people heavily relies on the internet by using computer. Increasingly developed technologies bring many benefits to people. However, there are some threats which will affect the safety of our data.

Firstly, computer crime is a criminal activity which occur in the network by using computer. Computer crimes have become high profile due to the high technologies that we are using now. It includes hacking, copyright infringement and so on. The data inside the computer or on the network is becoming unsafe since it can be unauthorized access or hacked by people. When the user's data is hacked, they can steal or destroy the data, and do illegal activity. It is very dangerous to user because the user's information is not protected and reliable.

Secondly, laptop is a portable computer device. It allows user can easily take to anywhere. Since it is capable of being carried or moved, it provides a chance to the laptop theft. Accodring to the FBI, losses due to the laptop theft more than $6.7 million dollars in year 2005. Another example will be given is the cases happened at Chicago. Two laptops had been stolen from the office of a public school. The laptops contain the information of teacher. The informaion might potentially been abused.

Thirdly, computer virus is also a harmful threats of data's safety. Virus is a program that can copy itself and infect a computer. Besides that, the virus can spread to another computer through internet, USB drive, hard disc and so on.

Addtionally, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process to obtain the private information of user via electronic communication. Normally phishing can be carried out through email or instant message. Furthermore, it will direct user to enter details at a fake website. The information could be misused by people and might bring the damage to the user. According to a research, it is estimated that 1.2 million computer users had suffered loss caused by phishing in United States between May 2004 and May 2005, totally approximately US$929 million.

In a nutshell, as the technologies are deveoping rapidly, it can help people in the daily life and also business world. Users must be clearly understood about the threats of online security and the effect of crucial damages caused by online security threats.


Related Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_virus
http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/search?q=stolen+laptop
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing

An example of an E-Commerce failure and its causes

The example of e-commerce failure is Pets.com which is running the business through online. Pets.com is the latest internet company which had shut down. The business which is carry out by Pets.com is selling pets such as puppies and cats. Everyone can choose the type of pets they want and even the age and gender of the pets.

However, Pets.com is making a failure in running the business through online. This is because Pets.com does not offered a convincing reason to buy pets through online. Moreover, the buyer who wants to buy a pet can be more easily find pets in any pet shop which is nearer in their place. In addition, the delivering and the supplying of the pets food to the consumers is not convenience since they can buy the pets food from the grocery.

Another reason that the consumers do not prefer to shop online is because of the time consuming in receiving their pet. The consumers can only receive their pet after few days after they make an order. As if the pets cannot be received on time, it may reduce the trustworthy of the company on their services they had been provided. From this reason, consumer will be persuaded to buy pets from shop rather than online.

Other than that, it is not a good environment for business to customer (B2C) for Internet companies. Furthermore, it is difficult for Internet companies to provide a convenience place for the consumer especially Pets.com. Whenever the consumers would like to request about the problems that have been faced by their pets, they probably cannot get the answer directly from the supplier or seller. They may be required to contact them through online and get the reply from the supplier.

In conclusion, although doing business online has a great prospect, a company still has to consider various matters before conducting business through online.


Related links:
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1017-248230.html

http://www.pets.com/

An example of an E-Commerce success and its causes

There are several websites operating e-commerce business in the world. Among them are eBay, Amazon.com and others. Basically, these websites provides a space for buying and selling products through internet. However, not all website commencing online trading business is successful. Being ranked the top e-commerce website in the world, Amazon.com has several key strategies that lead to their achievement since the beginning of this website.

Amazon.com was started by selling only books through online. However, in 1995, they started to change the variety of their goods from books to other types of goods such as DVDs and electronics as required by customers. Since then, they started to sell various categories of products through online which include books, electronic products, home products, grocery, and others. Until today, they have 31 products categories which fulfill 49 million active customer’s needs.

Besides the variety of goods available in Amazon.com, they also provide clear and user-friendly features for sellers and buyers. Amazon requires sellers to post high-quality images of their products to attract buyers from viewing, and selection of product can be done by choosing from the catalog provided in the website. A 12-Digit Universal Product Code (UPC) helps their customers to accurate allocate the products of their favorite.

To provide convenience to their customers, Amazon requires the sellers to submit keywords and a title for their products before the items are posted on the website. Keywords can help buyers to search for the products they desired. After the selection process, buyers can add the items to a “Buy Box” and the total price of the items will be computed by the website.

Reliability is one of the main factors of success in business. Therefore, Amazon provides order and shipping confirmation to ensure the orders are shipped on time. Moreover, this can help to improve their reputation and reliability of sales. Buyers can also rate their experience in the feedback system in the website. This system ensures Amazon improves their services at all time and makes correction whenever there is a complaint from buyers. In addition, Amazon requires all sellers must accept returns from their customers if there are material differences between the items and the descriptions provided in the website. Sellers are also required to respond as soon as possible to claims and a refund is issued if necessary.

By having all the mentioned features, Amazon ranked the top of Internet Retailer’s annual top 400 lists, ahead of their competitors which includes Dell Inc, eBay, and Office Depot Inc.

Related links:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/05/tech/main706351.shtml
http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/600-secrets-to-amazons-success
http://ssc.channeladvisor.com/strategies-amazon-success
http://www.amazon.com/

Revenue Model for Google, EBay & Amazon.com

The 5 Revenue Models

Sales : Revenue from sales od goods or services.

Transaction fees : Commssions paid on volume of transactions.

Subcription fees : Monthly or yearly fixed amount paid to get some services.

Advertising fees : Payment from advertisers.

Affiliate fees : Commisions for referring customers.


Revenue model of Google

Google is a search engine which focuses on the internet search solution and advertising solution. Google’s main revenue engine is online advertising. It generated itas revenue more than 90% from advertising fees. According to the research, Google reported that the revenue increased from USD 5.2 million to USD 5.51 billion in year 2009’s first quarter if compare with the first quarter of year 2008. In year 2009, Google’s net income is $1.42 billion. It has increased 8.4% if compare with the net income in year 2008 which was $1.31 billion.

Basically its main products or services included Google AdWords and Google Adsense. Google AdWords is a “pay per click advertising program” which will show the sponsored links of a particular product on the right hand side of screen if a user searches Google search engine. Google recognize the amount charge on the advertisers as revenues when their advertisements are published in the magazines. Besides that, Google Adsense is an advertising serving program which implement by the Google. It allows the owner of website to post the text, image, and video advertisement on their websites. Revenue is counted base on a per click per-thousand-ads-displayed basis. This program consists of Adsense for search and Adsense for content. Google advertisers have to pay Google each time once the advertisement is clicked by users which is displayed on the Google Network member’s site. Another service is Froogle which is easier to search information of the products for sales online. It is a price engine website launched by Google.


Related links:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/163306/google_profit_and_revenue_up_in_q1.html
http://organicspam.com/google_revenue_model.asp




Revenue model of Ebay EBay’s revenue model is transaction fees. It is an online auction which allows the businessman or individual buy and sells products or services in the whole world. EBay has more than 2 million items for auctions daily. EBay generates revenue based on transaction fees such as insertion fees, promotional fees, and final value fees. When individual post an item on the EBay, he or she will be charged a fee from EBay as insertion fee. If that item is sold, the individual will be charged by an additional fee which is final value fee. Promotional fees are charged for additional listing option in order to attract the buyers.

In addition, half.com which is a subsidiary of EBay offers items at a fixed price. The items include books, music, movie, video games, and video games consoles. EBay is generated revenue through sales revenue model because it charges 15% commission of the completed sales. Furthermore, EBay is also generated revenue from advertising fees. It draws user’s attention by posting advertisement on the website.

Related links:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.htmly.com/help/sell/fees.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebay#Profit_and_transactions


Revenue model of Amazon

Amazon.com is a well known online shopping. The Chief Executive of Amazon, Jeffrey P. Bezos said that Amazon contains 16 million items for sales. The items included books, movies, music, computer, electronic, toys, sports, and so on. Amazon.com is generated revenues through sales revenue models because it can make the sales of products or services from users. Moreover, it also is using transaction fees because it allows individual sell products directly by using Amazon.com. Amazon.com will charge a fee on the sales price as commission.

Furthermore, Amazon.com earns affiliates fees because it is pioneer affiliate partnership marketing. A website owner can create an online store to sell the products of Amazon.com. The website owner is not allowed to sell their own products. Website owner will sell the products from Amazon.com’s store and earn referral fees on the products purchased by the website visitors. That fee normally is in the range from 4% to 10% of the product price.


Related link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.com

The History and Evolution of E-Commerce

E-commerce is the process of buying, selling or exchanging products, services and information via computer network. As a result, the trading activities are available at anytime and anywhere provided you have the computer and the internet connection.

In the late 1970s, the process of commercial transaction was being executed electronically with the help of the technologies such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT).From the 1990s onwards, enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), data mining and data warehousing were included in E-commerce.

In 1991 Tim Berners-Lee wrote the first web browser, WorldWideWeb.In 1994 Netscape was arrived, which allowed easier access to electronic commerce.The year of 1995 could not be forgotten as it marked the beginning of two giants in the E-commerce business - Amazon and eBay. Often, many sellers use eBay and Amazon to take advantage of the exposure and setup convenience of such sites.

Indeed, E-commerce has evolved from online billboards to a fully functional, personalized shopping experience over the past decade. While there were admittedly a few bumps along the road, the holiday shopping season from 1994 through 2004 is full of crucial milestones of Internet pioneers and technology innovators.

The web is changing from a document delivery system to an application platform. Thus, Web 2.0 was introduced in 1999 and it refers to a supposed second generation of internet based services that emphasize online collaboration and sharing among internet users.

Today, as we are the online users, the E-commerce has allowed us to carry out the exchange activities without the barriers of time or distance.From E-commerce's history and evolution, we know that as technologies change, E-commerce has attracted a lot of people make use of the internet and the web to transact business conveniently.

Additional source:

Source from: http://newmedia.medill.northwestern.edu/courses/nmpspring01/brown/Revstream/history.htm

Related links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_commerce
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2
http://www.flysyk02.netfirms.com/Ecommerce/History.htm
http://www.ecommerce-land.com/history_ecommerce.html
http://www.ecommerce-journal.com/articles/electronic_commerce_aka_e_commerce_history
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Evolution-of-E-Commerce&id=1517989

Introduction of unpredictable group members

My name is Tee Hoh Geap, Year 3 Sem 1 BAC student from UTAR, Sungai Long campus. I come from Puchong, Selangor. I love football, and playing computer games. However, there is less time for all these activities because the school work is flooding me all the time. Therefore, to reduce stress in daily life, we always have class gathering for movies or singing. Assignments and Mid-term tests always fulfilled my time nowadays. To cope with studies, I would have to go to some search engines to obtain information. Therefore, the websites i have visited the most would be search engines such as Yahoo, Google, and wikipedia. Moreover, i also always go to my online game website, which is Chibi online, to obtain the latest updates of the game features. I am addicted to this online game, therefore I do spend a lot of time in it.

My name is Lee Yuang Zheng, Year 3 Sem 1 BAC student. I come from Johor Bahru, so I do not know how to speak cantonese. My hobby is eating, I like steamboat and seafood very much, so I always spend a lot of money for it. I like to sing k too because it can reduce the stress and enjoy with friends.

www.facebook.com

Nowadays facebook is very popular, so the top website I have visited is Facebook. Facebook has a lot of activities and games, so I am addicted to it.

www.sinchew.com.my

Sinchew is also one of my favourtie website because I can get the latest news from it.

cforum3.cari.com.my

Cari is the forum I most like to go, I can get many information of different categories such as car, sport, entertainment, and tourism.

www.youtube.com

I am also like to watch youtube because it has the new mtv or other interesting video.

www.google.com

It is my favorite search engine because it is very popular and easy to use. I always use Google to search information when I do assignment.

My name is Chin Sin Pei. I am currently studying at UTAR in Bachelor of accounting. My hobbies are swimming, watching movie, playing game and i love to study. However, when i am studying at UTAR, my life is changed. I became hate to study. This is because the subjects are becoming more complicated. I love to swim very much. Can wear sexy clothes. WOW!! But, my body not sexy enough lar. sad~ sad~ T.T. Zorpia website, did you heard that before? Its seems very popular. You can get your new international friends from there. Ohya, did you know that lastime got an african guy find me through zorpia. WOW, very leng zai(handsome). But... not my type lar. If you wan I can secretly introduce to you. Muahaha~ Other than that, zorpia also has forums. You can join it if you are interested. Anybody who is willing to make friend with me can add me ya~. OPPS, don't talk too much, lets move to my friend's introduction.

I am Tan Chin Kok. I am 21 years old this year (2009). Until this age, my English is still broken. Maybe it is because I did not put effort when I was young. Now I feel regret since I was so playful last time and did not appreciate my time to study more for my future. Anyway, I am so glad that I can study at Utar because my home is nearby Utar. Furthermore, I found out that people who speaks poor English is not only me because I knew one new friend in Utar, “Nicson”. Therefore, we have promised each other to struggle extremely and never let others look down on us. My hobbies are eating, sleeping and playing. My favorite website is Friendster. Thank you for visiting our blog. You won a bonanza prize because you are the 1000th visitor of our blog. Please contact me at 0123456789 to redeem your prize.
(Just kidding, laugh off!)