Week 7: Muddy. Open Source Software

Open source software seems to me that it's just software you can get online for free.  If this is the case, then I completely understand it.  If not, then it needs to be made a little clearer.

Is it alternatives to programs that you have to buy?  For instance, Microsoft Office's open source competitor is Open Office.  Is this what Open source is?  Just an alternative to something you have to buy?  Or is it something like Firefox, where it's the standard?  This could probably be made more clear in the videos.

Also, I have to bring up the copyright stuff.  I'm still not fully grasping that fact.  Every time I place an image in one of my blog posts, I'm getting blasted for it being copyrighted.  Even when I get it off of the Public Domain.  So, I'm boycotting using images in this post and instead I will draw you a puppy in Paint.

Copyright of Chris Guderian.

Week 4: Muddy: Porter's Five Forces

As I was watching the video, it was hard to distinguish what exactly Porter's Five Forces were.  The lesson was rather hard to follow.  I actually had to look it up on Wikipedia to figure them out and they seem more like what I heard in Micro/Macroeconomics while I was at Santa Fe College:

The Threat of New Competition
Threat of Substitute Products and/or Services
Bargaining Power of Customers (Buyers)
Bargaining Power of Suppliers
Intensity of Competitive Rivalry

These five things are rather simple to understand, I suppose.  The threat of new competition is that things that are highly profitable will create high demand and open up new businesses that wish to jump on the bandwagon.

The threat of substitute products and/or services can be rather difficult to understand.  It's not products that are similar to your product, but products that can replace your product.  For instance, the ability to order your plane tickets online has negated the need for a travel agent.

Bargaining power of buyers is another that can be simplified.  It's the ability of the customer to put pressure on the company to change prices.  How could this happen?  Well, we've just seen it with the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).  People believed that it was an unfair act and let their Senators know and the act was placed on the back burner to be re-reviewed.

Copyright of Memebase.com: http://verydemotivational.memebase.com/

Bargaining power of suppliers is pretty much the opposite of bargaining power of buyers in that the suppliers of the raw goods/services needed for your product can affect the price of your product.  Say you're a plumber, if the price of PVC pipe increases, it causes your service price to increase so that you may pay for the PVC pipe in order to fix your customers' plumbing.

Finally, intensity of competitive rivalry is another one that I had to delve a little deeper to get a better understanding.  I suppose the best example, though, are any type of political campaigns that you see online.  They attack people's character and want you to NOT vote for that person and vote for them.  This area of business has a high intensity of competitive rivalry.

So, in the end, I had to teach myself this instance, but it wasn't too difficult to understand.  The videos that I watched in the lectures were good, but they didn't seem to delve too deeply into the definitions of the separate factors.

Week 1: Muddy

Hi there.  My name is Chris Guderian.  I am 27 years old and currently engaged to my wonderful fianceé, Julia.  I am in my second semester at the University of Florida and I recently graduated with my AA from Santa Fe College.  I've started this blog for my ISM 3004 class, Computing in the Business Environment.  I was in the United States Army from October 2002 until October 2008 as an Information Systems Operator-Analyst, or to put it in simple terms, I was a computer administrator.  I will more than likely make some reference to my military time in one form or another in every single one of my posts.

Like this:

Video by Chris Guderian.

Yes, that is me and yes, that is Iraq.  I've served overseas in Iraq three separate times for a total of  22 months.  It's probably as hot at that time as it looks in that video.  I was wearing gloves because the weapon was scalding skin.

So far, this class has been rather confusing to figure out.  It is a much different format than other classes that use the Sakai system.  I think I've finally figured it out, though, with going through the Lessons tab and just viewing the links on there in order.  I'm hoping tonight's (1/11) Live Meeting will help me a lot more.

Well, I believe that's all I can think of to put into this blog post.  Thanks for reading.

-Chris Guderian