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October 26, 2006
Blog 7 - Online Gambling, Where Now?
The information revolution of Internet and World Wide Web in the mid-1990's redesigned geographic markets for many industries. Retailers could sell to the entire world via internet instead of relying on physical locations. Furthermore, the internet introduced a new market for online services such as VOIP communication or information search.
The gambling industry has also been turned around through the introduction of the internet and its creative entrepreneurs. There are hundreds of online betting sites online allowing web surfers to bet on almost anything.
Although gambling is addictive and has negative social effects such as increasing crime, it is legal in many states. In these states, gambling is highly regulated by the government and most important of all, it is taxed heavily. Therefore, allowing the public via the government to take advantage of the larger profits casinos produce.
What makes online gambling so unique and disturbing, from the government's point of view, is the fact they cannot tax it. Most online gaming sites are located in tax shelters such as the Cayman Islands and they are not regulated. Furthermore, the internet allows users to gamble from anywhere at anytime due to its high accessibility. This gives politicians to have a unique political incentive to stand against the industry.
In 2005 two IPOs of huge gambling giants 888 and PartyGaming portrayed the peak this industry was at. However, the US government was not ready to give up revenues from gambling and allow the continuation of the cash flows out of the United States.
On Sep. 30 the US congress passed a bill ( click here ) that tries to eliminate online gambling of US citizens. The ban limits the transfer of money from US credit card companies to the operators of the websites. Analysts predict this act would effectively bar online-gambling companies from operating legally in the United States, changing their business models and perhaps forcing some companies out of business.
The recent act has caused gambling sites significant losses of revenues and large decreases in the prices of the stocks ( click here ). This stock crash caused industry leaders such as 888 (loss of 26%) and PartyGaming (loss of 58%) billions of dollars in market value. Both online giants stated they will suspend their US service if President Bush signs the new bill. However, they will be looking into changing their collection strategy. In an attempt to recover losses and reorganize their businesses for the battle against the US government, both gambling giants are considering a merger). This merger will allow both companies a better financial structure to combat US legislation and reenter the US market.
Recently the UK announced that it will host an international conference to discuss regulation for online gambling ( click here ). The British wish to seek regulated online gambling through international agreements. This will allow each country to collect the tax and prevent the destruction of the industry. The United States refused to attend this conference.
We believe that gambling should be limited and regulated in the United States and throughout the internet. The move by the US congress to ban online gambling by passing on the enforcement to the credit card companies is a right move. However, we think it is not a smart decision. Instead of finding a way to collect taxes, like the British, the US is declaring a war on online gambling. It is a matter of time until the operators of these websites figure out a new sophisticated way to collect payments.
For example, online gambling companies can simply relocate their main operations to a different country, where online gambling is allowed (i.e. off shoring). In fact, many of the top companies are already on the move of doing this. Empire Online, for example, have said that it had “terminated its US operations, and…planned to develop its non-US operations� (( click here to read the article). Because internet is not “located� in a physical area, it is simply too hard to regulate. This being said, politicians do not make their decisions based on economic analysis – political processes are determined by the amount of political capital that politicians can capture. Given that November elections are around the corner, it would have been detrimental for any politician to take a stance against banning online gambling.
Where do we stand on the issue? The demand for gambling is very inelastic, especially in a rich developed country, like the United States. Online gamblers are not going to quit gambling because U.S. companies move to a different website based on a different location. The government needs to recognize this need and instead of fighting it, they should accompany and limit it with economic methods such as a high tax. They must remember that trying to regulate online gambling simply encouraging offshore business, which only makes it even harder to hinder its operations. And perhaps they need more advisors who can advise them on internet technology.
Posted by orshotan at 12:34 PM | Comments (2)
October 23, 2006
Blog 6 - Fantasy Politics: Who's Your Pick?
Internet is frequently used as a way to recreate fantasy environments. It can give you a chance to do things you cannot do in real life. Such notion is demonstrated by EA’s success in launching “reality� games like Sims and Sims Online. Another example is fantasy sports, which allows users to draft and manage their own team of real life players in all major sports, and compete against others for prizes or pride. Now, this phenomenon is carrying over in to the world of politics.
Just as millions participate in fantasy sports every year, college students in California have created a “Fantasy Congress.� Drawing much of its influence from fantasy sports, participants draft a team of real politicians and actually compete against other teams.
Fantasy sports, especially fantasy football have grown to such a staggering number that the growth of fantasy congress may not be out of the question. “A recent study found that fantasy football costs employers as much as $1.1 billion a week in lost productivity during the National Football League regular season, when nearly 37 million people spent an average of 50 minutes per week at work managing their fantasy teams.
Fantasy Congress has grown to include 6,000 participants from many US States and overseas. The point is to help draw more attention to the political elections and to politics as a whole. This has a huge potential to satisfy the political needs of many. According to a recent poll by AP, “some 35 percent of Americans, or 43 percent of likely voters, go online for election information.� (click
Fantasy Congress could have huge impact on the political landscape of this country by bringing more attention to politics and make people care more about issues and elections. Just as many people watch or care about a football game just because “this player� is on my fantasy team, now propositions and politicians will become more important to many people. This is extraordinary, when you factor in the fact that the game targets internet users, who tend to be young. This could play an integral role in solving a notorious epidemic called “Political Apathy.� This could drive the younger generation to the polls.
Such interests also creates political transparency. The expansion of this idea will help make more people aware of new issues and what politicians are currently involved in. The fact that it is competitive will make people care more about what is going on and follow political issues more closely. This could, partially, serve as a potent force that could counter the recent decline in government transparency established under the banner of “USA PATRIOT Act.�
However, the main issue is to make sure that the point of the game is not lost. It is to gain awareness and expand interest. If this idea were to grow it is important it does not reach the point where people vote on propositions or politicians based on their “team.� The idea is to make people aware by creating a fun and stimulating environment, and it seems as though this new idea can definitely accomplish what it sets out to do. It is also important that such game could bring dramatic power shift in the American government. Because most of the younger generation leans towards the liberal camp, systematically compelling them to vote, could potentially end the Republican dominance. The problem? While this “enhances� the functioning of a representative democracy, this also affects the welfare of many. Here’s a list:
- Corporate America: Democrats tend to favor unions and higher taxes. That means the cost of operating business will go up.
- Senior Citizens: If younger people vote, the leverage that senior citizens enjoy will marginally decrease accordingly.
- College Students: If college students start voting, their voices will be heard. This could potentially lead to lower tuitions among public universities (like the University of Michigan, where a fine education at the Ross School of Business will cost more than $30,000 a year for out-of-state students).
Figure – We do not want people to confuse politics with fantasy. After all, politics is a potent tool that can affect the welfare of many. With the first pick in the 2006 Fantasy Congress Election, I will select...let’s just hope a scandal doesn’t break out because I need a win this week! Let’s also not hope that gamers will not confuse fantasy with politics.
Posted by wienma at 12:40 PM | Comments (0)
Topic Announcement
We plan to spend the remainder of the term discussing the social, political, and economic ramifications of technology in the contemporary era. These issues will include facets of the political spectrum, including issues concerning privacy rights, copyright laws, and technology’s role in shaping our “way of living.� Such discussion will include issues which have become headline news across the nation in recent weeks.
Posted by wienma at 11:26 AM | Comments (0)
October 18, 2006
Search Tip (3): Blog Searches
What do Bill Gates, Mark Cuban, and Professor Moore have in common? Blogging. Clearly one of the fastest growing “fads� in the IT world, it allows people worldwide and of all demographics to update people on their lives, their businesses, and their opinions.
Blogging has become a way to reach out to numerous people on current events, news, and stories—whether it be friends and family regarding school, shareholders regarding company objectives, the general public about new directives, or even just to voice your opinion. As more and more people begin to subscribe and rely on blogs it is becoming more and more important to conveniently be able to search through databases containing various blog entries.
BlogPulse is one such site which allows you to search and browse the blogging world by keyword, URL, or topic. It allows you to customize searches to meet particular needs, and offers other options to help you customize searches. Blogline Search, Blog Catalog and Feedster all offer similar services. Each site aids in locating blogs of interest using a variety of similar searching techniques.
Figure – This is What BlogPulse Site Looks Like. All of these blog sites have one major setback: the searches are not as extensive as they could be. Each site does not allow you to search by publisher, and limits you in the detail, criteria, and complexity of each search. While all provide great links and options to search by topic, date, and key word, it is very difficult to find a blog written by a particular person, or with multiple different search criteria. Once again, Google dominates in this regard.
BlogSearch provides the most efficient and effective blog search engine of all. If unable to find anything of interest off of the main site, a simple click on advanced search opens up a whole new organized database. You can search by title, with or without certain words, by date, or author. You can search using a combination of these criterion as well. Searches can even be filtered.
Google’s service is further enhanced by the "preferences" menu. This enables users to customize search criteria and interface languages, to anything from Arabic to Estonian. The user-friendly site makes blog searching convenient, easy to use, and customizable for everyone.
Try it yourself! While spending countless minutes searching the competing blog sites for articles on BIT 200, a simple advanced search on Google Blog Search with the words “Bit 200� and written by “Moore� immediately produce results.
It appears as though once again Google maintains an advantage over its competition. Google’s BlogSearch is efficient, easy to use, and the most comprehensive of all. Have fun Google-Blogging!
Posted by wienma at 10:41 AM | Comments (0)
October 15, 2006
Blog 5 - Corporate America Turns to Blogs
BLOGGING (n.) = A FORM OF A NERDY ACTIVITY Does the equation above hold?
Perhaps – but you are going to have to argue with a lot of people. Blogging was primarily started by the so-called “geeks� (otherwise known as online journalists) who wanted to voice their opinion through a channel called internet. It was an effective method of communication because it gave them access to millions of people (i.e. the world) without having to go through the financial burden attached to traditional media. What started out as small scale online journals eventually drew thousands of internet users, and become political powerhouses– literally. Early popular blogging sites included ones by Andrew Sullivan, Ron Guzburder, and Taegan Goddard, among others, who aimed at influencing others with their political ideologies. These popular websites were not only able to influence others, but also figured out ways to collect sizable revenues through online advertising.Here’s a trivia question. Who gets involved if something is economically and socially profitable? Bingo! – Corporate America. We have now entered a stage where business giants started to pay attention to blogging. In fact, thirty of the Fortune 500 companies have already started blogging. CNN recently had a special news coverage entitled, “CEO Bloggers Communicate to the Masses,� which features the story of Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystems. Click here to read the article. According to Mr. Schwartz, corporate blogs is,�the single most effective vehicle to communicate to all of our constituencies -- developers, media, analysts and shareholders.� It is an effective means for CEOs to bypassing public relations departments, thereby having a more “personal� relationship with consumers.
Figure – Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Suns Microsystems, writes a corporate blog that generates around 50,000 viewers a month. Click here to view his blog So what? We have generated a list of Goodies that blogs can do:
- Cure for the Agency Problem – One fundamental problem that exists in any publicly traded company is something known as the agency problem. Such problem arises when the interest of management and interest of owners (i.e. shareholders) do not align. CEOs may try to maximize the welfare of themselves (e.g. using corporate jets for personal travel), which may not necessarily serve the interest of shareholders. Current HP scandals and the prevalence of CEO resignations is largely a symptom of the underlying disease called the agency problem. What can corporate blogs do to alleviate this problem? Blogs provide a mechanism for shareholders to communicate with CEOs. This means that CEOs are under closer scrutiny of shareholders and the public. Essentially, CEOs will take the heat if they underperformed. That should provide an incentive to not screw up.
- Cure for the CEO disease – the interactive nature of blogs frees CEOs from isolation from subordinates and shareholders. The feedback, theoretically, should allow CEOs to be aware of pressing issues.
- Increase Corporate Transparency – CEO’s can have a more personal relationship with its constituency. Many potential consumers, who do not necessarily find it entertaining to analyze 10-k’s and other financial statements, now have access to a source that talk about corporations. This can help build goodwill and enhance corporate image to the world.
There are, of course, downsides:
- Agency Problem – while blogs provide another means for CEO scrutiny, it also squanders the time of management. In fact, according to CNN, “Sun's annual revenue has declined in four of the past five years, and shares have plummeted from a high of about $64 in September of 2000 to around $5 this year.�
- Miscommunication – most CEOs do not have an advanced degree in English. In fact, many of them are horrible writers. They inherently bear the risk of ruining the goodwill of the company, which can spillover to negative publicity.
- Insider Information Leak – It is in the nature of Journals that people talk about things they don’t necessarily talk about in public. Crucial information leak for corporations can cost corporations millions of dollars. For example, wouldn’t Yahoo want to know about what the CEO of Google has to say about its future growth strategies?
We believe that it is not in the interest of most corporations to allow their CEOs to spend hours in writing corporate journals. It bears too much risk of ruining company image relative to the potential benefits it can generate. This is, of course, not a per se recommendation. Some CEOs, with the help of eloquent writing and clever strategies, can utilize blogs to accomplish many different objectives. However, we recommend an alternate blogging strategy for most corporations – corporations simply using blog sites to promote their goods and services, just in a more informal way. Such approach to blogging will save CEOs time, personalize the corporate image, and still allow corporations to capitalize on the benefits associated with new method of communications.
Posted by willmoon at 11:47 PM | Comments (1)
October 08, 2006
Blog 4 - Computer Translators
As the world becomes more globalized and accessible to more people, language and communication barriers tend to stick out as a hindrance to further integration. Such barrier was fueled by America’s reliance on English as the “global� language, which failed to notice the importance of learning different languages. What’s the result? When Bush sends troops to Iraq, he needs to equip them with people who are fluent in Arabic and English. The problem? There aren’t that many Arabic interpreters who would serve the job. Ramifications? Law of Supply and Demand tells us that they are expensive. Solution? The United States Joint Forces Command teamed up with IBM to deliver MASTOR - Multilingual Automatic Speech-to-Speech Translator. Click on the following links to read further about this new technology
Essentially, this new laptop software, which has already been deployed to Iraq for testing, allows for easy communication between people of different tongues. Essentially, Soldiers will carry around laptops. The speaker will speak into the laptop, which will than translate and say aloud what is uttered by the speaker. The laptop will also translate the other party’s response into the holder’s language to allow for easy communication. This is all done by the use of ViaVoice technology, which recognizes words. In the event of an unclear response, choices will appear to help make the translation more clear and avoid confusion.
Figure – The system has a vocabulary of 50,000 English words and 100,000 Arabic words. Lets get down to what this technology really means to the world:
- Security Concerns – You are looking at an example of a corporate-state relationship, where the state (i.e. U.S. army) allies with a corporation (i.e. IBM) to deliver security. While the program may not be completely fluent, it will serve as a non-bias interpreter. This eliminates trouble that can be derived from using native speakers, who may have an interest against the United States. This allows for efficient operations and missions via avoiding miscommunications.
- Cost-Efficiency – Arabic linguists are rare, and it’s even rarer to find ones that are good at what they do. If the age-tested Law of Supply and Demand holds, we should note that utilizing these scare resources will be a financial burden upon the United States.
- Technology Spillover – MASTOR could be a great asset to the military. But it could be used for other activities as well. Let’s enter in our good old buddy, Corporate America. MASTOR can allow for a more personal “touch� to meetings. It can allow for meetings to take place with people speaking their own native languages but allowing for everyone to understand without going through a translator. This will result in a more personal and friendly setting, and easily allow for dialogue to take place between different business parties. We do acknowledge that people who make living off of translating will be economically hurt by the rise of this technology. Yet, it will be a tremendous cost-reducing phenomenon for most businesses.
Mascot could further reduce cultural and language barriers, and unite people in a new way. It can take away the need for translators, allowing for a more intimate and personal discussion to take place. It can also help avoid miscommunication problems that can regularly occur in everyday life. Imagine that one day when you might be able to communicate with those servers at Pancharos! In essence, it has a potential to fundamentally alter the rate of global integration, where language has historically served as a major barrier.
Again, never underestimate the power of Information Technlogy!
Posted by willmoon at 06:45 PM | Comments (0)
Search Tips (2) - Why Choose a Search Engine?
Google is by far the most popular search engine available today on the net. Nevertheless, the competition does exist and has been increasing in the past few months. Microsoft recently launched its new search engine called Live Search. Furthermore, competition from Yahoo and Ask.com has also heated up. Some of Google's competitors claim to produce better results than the leading giant from California. And frankly, the definition of “better� depends on the needs of different people. So instead of the “one-size-fits-all� attitudes that other search engines advocate, we came across a great tool that gives you the option of “not choosing,� which still allows you to extract the fruits of everything that is out there.
Dogpile a new website that offers a great search tool for those who want the best results from the leading search engines. With its “Metasearch Technology,� Dogpile combines the best results from the 7 leading engines to supply more complete results on your query. That means that when you search for a word on Dogpile, it will automatically analyze that word for you so that you will only get the best aggregate results from search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN.
What does this mean to you? Well, have you ever had a huge research project that required you to search through almost every search engine sites out there? The proliferation of new search engines definitely didn’t help you, because there were a lot of search engines to browse through. And why did you do it? Because it is very much true that the exact same word you search on Google retrieves different sources than that of Yahoo or Altavista. So in the end, you end up with a bundle of useful information, but you’ve squandered 10 hours doing it. Look no further than Dogpile to solve that problem.
Dogpile only offers the best – what’s most clicked out there by internet users like you – in its search results page. For example, when you search “University of Michigan� on Google, Google will spit out 73 million+ websites for you to surf through. On Dogpile, you only get 93 of the most clicked websites related to the University of Michigan. That may be good for time-savers, but what if you want more than 93 sources?
DogPile allows you to customize your search experience. This is great leap forward from the “one-size-fits-all� search experience, in that users are allowed to:
- Customize the level of filter
- Reorder search engines
- Retrieve links to more results from each search engine.
What does this mean for you? If you like doing a surface level search on a topic, you may want to adjust your filter to “high� so that you will only get the most related sources that you need. But if you’re a professor who may want to know everything about a given topic before you write that thesis, you may want to turn your filter down so you will collect most of everything that’s out there.
Posted by orshotan at 11:44 AM | Comments (0)
October 02, 2006
Blog 3: Rise and Improvement of Google Earth
Google Earth has been a major growing service in recent years. Using satellites, it offers views of most countries, towns, and even houses around the world. Recently, members of Google Earth’s technology team have been working on ways to expand the program by offering more in-depth and high-resolution satellite images (Click for article.). In addition, the team is also trying to develop more local additions. They also hope to expand their worldwide audience by offering Google Earth in even more languages..
Developers see Google Earth as becoming more of an asset with these improvements. Michael Jones, Chief Technology Officer of Google Earth, believes that improvements such as adding local data can create a, “second wave of interest from those who want to use this in useful ways, like plan trips.�
Google hopes, that by improving their site, it will create a greater market for advertisements, both locally and nationally. By creating more local data and improving the program it will create new advertising opportunities and a great potential to increase revenue. Namely, it will drive millions of additional users to Google Earth, which translates into higher banner fees for Google Earth. It can also increase the brand name value of Google, building goodwill in the business community. With these improvements, the advertisements can be specific to areas and countries, and vary with searches.
These improvements will also provide new opportunities and further services to individuals. They will expand on the already free service which enables you to search the world by offering new services along with it, and providing greater detail. These new services include offering directions and sorting searches by purpose (sightseeing, area of interest, home). They also store previous searches and enable you to view and search for businesses.
Google is also developing a new product called “Google Earth for Enterprise� which was created to “help[ing] governments and many other international organizations…which let experts take their own data and organize and analyze it themselves.� This is just another segment of Google Earth that can directly translate into an increase in sales revenue.
We find Google Earth to be a very interesting and valuable program. It enables you to view your home, your town, or any place that interests you around the world with few limitations. Up until now, many areas of the world were seen as “green areas,� where no satellite images were available. The improvement of this already impressive program would provide only a greater benefit to all of its users. For example, it will allow the world an insight into the world’s most mysterious areas (ex. area hit by tornado storms), where resource limitations inhibit humans from traveling to such place. This could lead to breakthrough discoveries and research in the science fields, which could benefit the society in many ways. Or, it could just enlighten a fifteen-year-old, who will have access to how an Egyptian town looks like within a click of a mouse.
To be able to surf the world and see places you have been is truly incredible. Currently, people frequently use Google Earth to see their homes and towns. It provides a sort of comfort when away from home to be able to get a close and in-depth view of places familiar to you, and is a great way to show people places you have been or where you are from. In other aspects it has always been a great way to view places you may be going, but is limited in how far you can take it. You literally have the world at your fingertips and just a mouse-click away. This also translates into a greater access of information for more people, which has generally been linked with direct and indirect economic growth.
The new opportunities that would be created by these improvements, such as to help plan trips, aid in assignments, and get a better perspective of the world, is something that cannot be imitated. These improvements would create a completely new market and use for Google Earth users by aiding them in new ways, while improving the service for past users. To be able to plan trips, see images of hotels, and get high-resolution images of places people are going would provide a new benefit to all. Since Google Earth is free and attracts millions of people, the potential for advertisements is clearly great, and it seems to be win-win for all parties involved.
On the other note, “freedom of information� always clashes with issues of privacy and security. The main issue arises with countries that are not willing to provide images or remain closed. For example, would Pentagon want North Korea to know where all its H-bombs are stored? After all, Google Earth is available to anyone! Another example…would you like you and your room to be viewable to the whole world? That’s what this new technology, unregulated, can essentially do. What are the constitutional and international laws that help protect people from violation of privacy? These are the questions that the Supreme Court, the FBI, and numerous international organizations should be asking, with the rise of this new technology.
Figure - Would the White House Appreciate Terroist Organizations Having Access to These Kind of Pictures? Technology, if fallen into the hands of wrong people, could have disastrous effect on the welfare of the society. Indeed, many heroic stories that we grew up reading dealt with “evil enemy� gaining access to power through the use of new technology, trying to destroy the world. Similarly, unregulated access to Google Earth could provide information to terrorist organizations and subversive groups that could have serious ramifications to the society. However, even given those risks, we should not forget that Google Earth provides a valuable resource which, with its improvements, will be a great asset to society.
Click to go to Google Earth Homepage
"A map can show you what you're looking for and put it in context. That very sense of place is everything Google Earth is about.�- Michael Jones, Chief Technology Officer of Google Earth
Posted by wienma at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)