December 05, 2007

you think you know, but you have no idea

Dear wide-eyed and bushy-tailed juniors (and seniors),

Are you sick of supply, demand and net present value? Accounts receivable and bad debt expense? Well, you'll love BIT330. Because it's actually useful in the real world. No theories, formulas or foreign professors. To better prepare yourself for the class, I have highlighted my thoughts and reflections, to ensure your experience reaches its fullest potential.

Rule #1: Don't be a know-it-all

Just because you've used Google and/or del.icio.us doesn't make you an expert web searcher. I also came into the class with very basic knowledge of web information retrieval and came out a (close) expert; teaching my friends and family about new tricks I learned. My favorite is to enlighten people about RSS feeds - it blows their mind!
Specifically, I entered the semester as a self-proclaimed "Google Genius". I had used Images, Maps, GMail, Finance, News, Scholar and the basic web search and I used simple queries.
After taking this class, I have a much deeper knowledge of the search engine.

Things I Learned About Google:


Rule #2: Keep an open mind: What you don't know will HELP you

Before coming to the class, I had heard the term "RSS" thrown around, but didn't have the faintest idea what it meant. I thought it had something to do with E-mail alerts. I learned that RSS uses a special type of language called XML that reads web pages and notices changes on them such as new blog entries or news articles. Subscribing to a web-based feed reader such as Bloglines, I have created an organized set of RSS feeds that track my favorite websites regarding news, sports, health and technology. I am now more efficient in the way I gather information because it's what you DON'T know what you're looking for that is best in this case. The information on a general topic such as "Google News" will come to you, straight to your RSS feed reader - you don't have to mess around with detailed search queries or have anything specific in mind at all. The RSS feeds do all the work for you! :-)

Rule #3: Apply what you learned in the real world

See below for my blog about this class and the interview process.

I will definitely use RSS feeds after the semester is over. I love getting news and deals from woot and slickdeals.net straight to my Bloglines account. I definitely won't use e-mail alerts because I already get way too many messages.

Rule #4: Be Brave!

One of the things I would omit from this class is the second term project. I feel that I have learned and applied enough information in class through exercises, guest speakers, tutorials, news-of-the-day's, etc that I don't think it's 100% necessary to have a term project - much less two of them. Just my opinion though.

To wrap up, I really enjoyed BIT330 with Professor Moore. I learned a lot of useful information that I didn't know before and that I can apply to the real world. It should be interesting to see how much technology will change in the next year for you students. Anyway, I hope that you have the same learning experience and I wish you the best of luck!

Posted by rohdec at 10:49 AM | Comments (0)

November 08, 2007

RSS Feeds

Click for my personal Blogroll

I hate to admit it. But I check Bloglines religiously. My friends may call me a loser for my structured use of the Internet, but I'm not sure how they live in a non-RSS feed reader (also called aggregator) world. I'd call myself efficient.

Get Recommendations
When I began my quest for an all-encompassing RSS feed reader, I turned to the masses. I did a simple Google search for "popular RSS feeds" and was directed to a website with the top 100 most subscribed-to RSS feeds. I scanned the list and subscribed to feeds that seemed interesting enough to track on a daily basis. This included Dictionary.com's Word of the Day, BoingBoing, Wired News, etc. I started categorizing my interests and decided to keep my eyes open for additional interesting websites.

The Orange Button - CLICK IT!
The second part of my RSS feed search included the brainless task of acknowledging that a website is useful to me. Then, I would hunt the website for the ubiquitous orange RSS icon and subscribe to the relevant feed. For example, I read the WSJ every day. However, I particularly value certain columns and types of articles including Market Updates, Technology and Health. I found that the WSJ Online offered a variety of feeds to subscribe to including News, Blogs, Videos and Podcasts. I subscribed to the interesting ones and have enjoyed waking up to my Market Updates straight to my Bloglines.

Subscribe to a Search
The third step in my RSS feed retrieval has come from looking for very specific information. If I know exactly what subject I want to track (i.e. for our term project), I will do a search for RSS posts in Bloglines and subscribe to that search. Or, I will search for feeds, scan the results and subscribe to the most relevant blogs.

Categories of Feeds
Like a snowflake, everyone's RSS feed reader is unique. The following are the categories in which I have RSS feeds:

Weird Blogs ...Of the Day Environmental Facebook Google Health and Fitness News Shopping Sports Technology UofM UBS Vegetarian

I find the technology feeds to be particularly interesting because there is ALWAYS something happening and there is ALWAYS a blogger willing to write about it. I also like checking slickdeals.net and Woot for shopping deals - (I'm always hunting for a bargain). In general, my RSS feeds have saved time and have provided information that I would never have found on my own.

Criticisms
Though I <3 Bloglines a lot, using RSS feeds isn't for everyone. In fact, it can be an inefficient way to spend time. Sometimes, I find myself wondering how broad and encompassing my feeds are. What am I missing? What can I add to my Blogroll? What else is out there? These questions are constantly flowing through my mind and keeping up with an active and effective blogroll is hard work. Interests change.

Also, sometimes the amount of information is overwhelming especially if I go 2 or 3 days without checking my Bloglines and all of a sudden there are 1000 new feeds! I end up hitting "Mark All Read" and starting from scratch. This sub-optimizes the purpose of the aggregator.

I have successfully converted at least one of my friends to start using RSS feed readers and hope to continue the trend. I think Bloglines is a great place to begin an RSS feed even for my "technologically illiterate" parents and friends. (No offense guys).

Posted by rohdec at 02:43 PM | Comments (0)

October 31, 2007

E-mail Alerts

In order to stay up-to-date with my personal and business term project, I have set up two E-mail alerts through Google Alerts (google.com/alerts, not the paid service Google Alert). E-mail alerts allow for efficient information trapping and time savings as changes from a site is sent straight to my inbox. Below are the two alerts I have set and an analysis of their usefulness.

Google Blogs Alert for: vegetarian

I've done my extensive, "hard facts" research on vegetarianism. What I need now, are opinions and personal experiences. I want to learn more about recommended recipes, restaurants in the area, personal challenges, etc. The blog alert perfectly catered to my searching need. I received blogs daily (as opposed to as-they-happen as to not be overwhelmed with results) to my GMail account.

In the process, I learned quite a bit about vegetarianism from bloggers all around the world. Most days, I don't have time to read through every single blog that gets sent to my e-mail, but I usually open the message and scan through the titles to see if anything pops out at me. If a blogger sounds educated, interesting and/or useful, I will subscribe to the RSS feed to be sent to my Bloglines account.
There is really nothing I would change about this service. It's very comprehensive and can be manipulated to retrieve any information using special search syntaxes.

I also like the formatting of the alert. The subject lines are clear and the E-mail contains the top 5 blogs for the day, with titles, links to the entry, a short description, author and the blog name. It even bolds the search word "vegetarian".

If you start to get overwhelmed, you can change the alert at any time, or even set an easy E-mail filter to have the messages sent straight to a GMail label.

Google News Alert for: facebook

Google Blogs Alert for: facebook

The other e-mail alert I set up was for news AND blog articles with the word "facebook" in the entry. I received these messages every day, with 5 news and 5 blog stories in every e-mail. I really like this style because I receive facts on the company and recent developments, but also the opinions on these news stories via blog entries. Like the vegetarian alert, I usually scan the titles of these articles and pick out the most interesting ones to read and subscribe to.

Overall, I think news alerts serve as a great information-retrieval tool because ALL of the work is done for you. Now, it's up to you how you want to use that information. The only drawback is that sometimes the e-mails get lost in the shuffle of iMpact messages and can be time consuming to sift through.

Posted by rohdec at 09:54 AM | Comments (0)

October 16, 2007

BIT330 and Interviews


This weekend, I had the opportunity to interview with UBS in their Technology Investment Banking Group for a full-time analyst position in San Francisco, CA. From the on-campus interview to Super Saturday, I had 7 interviews with a total of 12 or so people in the tech group ranging in seniority from analysts to directors. I wanted to use this blog entry to share my experience in the interviews and explain how taking BIT330 helped me land the job.

“Tell Me About your Coursework”
Though each interview was unique, I was asked the following question in each round: “Tell me about your relevant coursework” or some variation of this. I would typically start off with a discussion of my accounting and finance classes and how they can directly be applied to the job. Then, since this was the tech group, I would delve deeper in to my Business Information Technology experience in the B-School. I was enthusiastic to describe the work we have done in BIT330, particularly how we have collaborated to produce a Wiki page that is constantly edited to reflect news and technology discussions. Additionally, I talked about my blog that critiques new information-retrieval technology such as RSS feed readers and blog searches. Finally, I talked about my personal and business Wiki that incorporates all of the lessons learned in the class that is applied to an online term project. The recruiters are particularly impressed by the business Wiki because it shows an interest in exploring new technology while researching a business topic. One of the older guys in the office was particularly intrigued by the blogging aspect of the class which led him to explain a deal they are doing for a photo blogging website. Sounds pretty cool.

“Tell Me About Recent Technology News”
Another very popular question was intended to gauge my interest in technology. They wanted to make sure I was up to speed with the latest news surrounding the field and that I really had a passion for learning about this fast-paced and innovative industry. After a few weeks in BIT330, this question was a cinch. I talked about Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! a lot. I mentioned the controversy regarding Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick; its rumored undersea multi-terabit cable; and its $700 stock price prediction for 2008. Also, I had subscribed to several Technology RSS feeds during the semester including Engadget, Boing Boing, Wired Top Stories, and Google Blogoscoped which helped me understand tech. The ability to talk intelligently about these events gave me a leg up on the competition and showed that I was keeping up with relevant news.

“Why Do You Want to Work for UBS?”
This popular question was important for weeding out the kids who interview with every single investment bank and don’t understand the unique qualities of each firm. To get smart on the company, I set up an RSS feed on Bloglines two weeks before the interviews. I subscribed to the search “btitle:UBS” and received a couple dozen feeds per day. I also set up a daily Google Alert for “UBS Investment Bank” in the news. Here I was kept up-to-date on the latest information on their recent deals and the company as a whole. I gathered a lot of information and was able to talk about the 3Com LBO that they are currently doing. I also formulated intelligent questions to inquire about their recent write-downs, layoffs and how the terrible market conditions have impacted their deal exposure.

The skills learned in BIT330 helped tremendously during the interview process. I was able to efficiently learn about the company through information-retrieval techniques such as: detailed search queries, RSS feeds and e-mail alerts. This provided me with a lot of information to work with when separating UBS from other investment banks. During the interview, I was able to show a genuine interest in technology by highlighting major news events which we have discussed during class in addition to describing my blog and Wiki term project. They were impressed both by my knowledge of their company and the technology industry. Needless to say, I got an offer.

Tips for Preparing for Interviews Using Information Trapping:

Posted by rohdec at 02:36 PM | Comments (0)

September 23, 2007

RSS: Rohde's Search Study

As a curious, busy, college student with many interests, I have thoroughly enjoyed experimenting with RSS feeds as a means to save time finding information on my favorite topics. RSS is a type of XML and stands for "Rich Site Summary", "RDF Site Summary", "Really Simple Syndication", or for this blog entry, "Rohde's Search Study". I have set up an account with Bloglines and have tracked over 50 RSS feeds that cater to my everyday interests such as Michigan Football, Health and Nutrition, Technology, Cooking, Environmentalism and Business News. By having the RSS reader do all of the information-retrieval work for me, I not only save time but I read posts that I otherwise may not have found on my own. I enjoy Bloglines because of the user's ability to subscribe to feeds, as well as the search itself.

For this assignment, I experimented with the following 6 searchable feed databases: Blogdigger, Google Blog Search, Technorati, Blogpulse, Rojo and Ice Rocket. I searched for something that I can relate to and am very passionate about: "vegetarian". I have been a vegetarian for 11 years and am constantly looking for new recipes, nutrition articles and opinions regarding the subject. After using the 6 databases to find information about vegetarianism, I think the best three were Google, Technorati and Rojo.

First Place


Google's Blogsearch earned the coveted first place ranking for several reasons:


Second Place


Everything in the known universe about vegetarian


At first glance, I was turned off by Technorati's homepage full of advertisements and distracting text. However, after utilizing this blog search, I found it to be one of the best for the following reasons:


Third Place


Blogpulse earned a spot in my top three of blog feed databases because of several unique features:

Conclusion

Each of the blog search databases were useful and saved an enormous amount of time. They contained functions to add the search to your RSS reader and most results were sortable by date or relevance. The search sites each had their unique (but sometimes useless) qualities, but at the end of the day, Google trumps all - followed by Technorati and Blogpulse.

Hate Reading? Watch this very simple video describing RSS readers and feeds.

Posted by rohdec at 03:06 PM | Comments (0)

September 21, 2007

Google Docs

In my "Boing Boing" technology RSS feed, a link to a YouTube video for Google Docs was featured. I watched this fun and easy-to-understand skit about the free program and was very impressed. I have not personally used Google Docs, but after watching this video, I will use it in the future for school projects and possibly in my career.

I highly recommend subscribing to Boing Boing. It's an award-winning blog about personal and consumer electronics.

**UPDATE** 12/5/07

Google Docs has made group projects SO much less painful. Before using this product, my inbox would overflow with minor edits to group papers. Talk about inefficient!
We used Google Docs for our Strategy group paper and our LHC group memo. For both of these projects, Google Docs enabled us to make the best paper possible. Anybody could edit the paper at any time, without having to open it from e-mail, save it down, make the changes, save it and send it back. Additionally, we could share the document with ONLY our group members - as opposed to a public wiki that anyone can see. (I guarantee nobody else wants to read our LHC memo.)
The only problem with Docs is the text display. We encountered problems when determining how long our paper was, because exporting to Word was timely - you have to change the font and margins to see the length. Hopefully Google Docs will become more comprehensive and offer features comparable to Word 2007 (or at least 2003). I will definitely use this in future group projects and hope to experiment with the presentation and spreadsheet feature.

Posted by rohdec at 04:08 PM | Comments (0)

September 16, 2007

The Deep Web

Looking for more information on something specific? Head straight for Google, right? Well, most of the time, this is a valuable source that will provide organic listings which will cater to your information-retrieval needs. But what if you're doing research for a paper and need more data than is available on Google or Yahoo? How about surfing the web without a specific destination in mind? Or, what if your topic is science-related? Then, there may be a resource that is better aligned with your objective.

Below is a critique of seven different sites when searching for "timber industry California" (without the quotes):


The Good

The Ugly


The Good

The Ugly



The Good

The Ugly


The Good

The Ugly


The Good

The Ugly


The Good

The Ugly


The Good

The Ugly

Just for fun, check out this skit about the frustration of search engines:

Posted by rohdec at 03:10 PM | Comments (0)

September 09, 2007

Goals for BIT330

What do you want to get out of this class?
The Internet is flooded with useful (and useless) information and there are thousands of ways to retrieve it. Unfortunately, I typically resort to one safe and idiot-proof method: Google.com. Through BIT330, I hope to gain a depth and breadth of information-retrieval knowledge to more efficiently use the vast resources that the Internet provides.

What effect do you want it to have on you?
This summer, I worked in Investment Banking and I plan to continue this career full-time upon graduation. One of my responsibilities was to create reports detailing the functions of specific companies and industries. I used Google quite a bit and a few company-specific search providers, but I am confident that there are better and faster ways to find information that will add value to my reports when I continue working next year.

What do you want to learn?
I want to learn how to gain in-depth knowledge of companies and industries of my choice. This skill will be beneficial during interviews, on-the-job, and in everyday life.

Anything specific that you want covered?
I would like to learn more about RSS feeds and e-mail alert options.

Posted by rohdec at 01:09 PM | Comments (0)