Selling on TikTok and Taobao

Posted by & filed under Marketing, TikTok.

As fashion shows go, the one that took place on Facebook Live in April 2021 was unique. The first model to strut down the catwalk was Cindy, a seven-month-old puppy wearing a green and blue canine flotation device. Next up was Mandalay, a tan dog wearing a fleece hoodie with built-in backpack. The omnichannel team at Petco, headed by chief marketing officer Katie Nauman, organized the livestream event, which highlighted canine outfits from two of its house brands. Each item modeled was featured prominently at the bottom of the screen. “If you see something you like, you can just click it and immediately make your purchase,” the host explained. “Get your wallets ready!”

Consumers responded. The event, which lasted just 22 minutes, drew 200,000 live viewers; six months later, nearly 1 million people had watched clips from the show. Sales from the event were twice the cost of producing it; engagement was 2.6 times higher than organizers had expected; and all seven models (provided by a rescue shelter) were adopted afterward. The doggy fashion show was Petco’s first foray into livestream commerce but not its last: Three months later, a livestreamed sports competition for dogs, Petco Field Day, drew 2.4 million viewers and generated twice the return on investment as the fashion show did.

Source: Harvard Business Review (HBR)

Date: October 28th, 2022

Link: https://hbr.org/2022/09/selling-on-tiktok-and-taobao

Discussion

  1. This article is a good combination of MIS with marketing. It could easily be discussed in a section on MarTech. In my own Intro to MIS class I first had to explain what MarTech was.
  2. “Livestream commerce also creates a sense of community. While traditional online shopping is solitary, livestream commerce has a communal feel—similar to watching the Super Bowl. Consumers are able to see and be seen in what might be thought of as a meaningful social moment. Moreover, they can gain social currency with friends for attending a novel event. Or they may develop friendships by participating in livestream events. “
    There is a traditional notion that the internet isolates. This context and information suggests that the internet is a way to connect. How is this useful for Marketing?
  3. “TikTok, for instance, uses an algorithm to connect people with similar interests.”
    What roles are there for MIS majors in this world?

The power of automating everyday processes

Posted by & filed under Digital Transformation.

Canadian small businesses are struggling in the face of rising costs, creeping debt, and a phenomenon known as the Big Quit. As organizations of all sizes look to control expenses, engage employees, and prepare for a future that includes flexible work, process automation offers a light at the end of the tunnel.
“Leaders know flexible work is important to employees, yet rarely are expense processes optimized for the hybrid workplace,” says Brian Veloso, Managing Director of SAP Concur Canada, the world’s leading provider of integrated travel, expense, and invoice management solutions. “Despite rapid advances in digital transformation, the majority of small businesses continue to rely on cumbersome manual processes.”

Source: IT World Canada

Date: October 21st, 2022

Link: https://www.itworldcanada.com/sponsored/the-power-of-automating-everyday-processes

Discussion

  1. “First, manual processes open the door for human error and leave gaps for fraud to fall through. Second, they are incapable of capturing a true picture of spending, which obstructs any informed management. Finally, they do nothing to fuel business growth.”
    This is a good list of issues, and is worth discussing with students when you cover process automation and Digital Transformation in class.
  2. Where do MIS majors fit into the digital transformation aspect of this?

Tesla boss Elon Musk presents humanoid robot Optimus

Posted by & filed under Robotics.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has presented the latest prototype of a humanoid robot being developed by his Tesla electric car company.
Optimus appeared on stage at a Silicon Valley event, where it waved to the audience and raised its knees.
The CEO said the robot was work-in-progress but could be on sale to the public in a few years’ time.
Tesla’s mass-market robots will be tested by working jobs in the car factories, company engineers say.
The prototype was wheeled on stage during an annual Tesla AI [artificial intelligence] Day presentation.

Source: BBC

Date: October 20th, 2022

Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63100636

Discussion

  1. “Mr Musk said the robots would be produced en masse, at a cost lower than $20,000 (£17,900), and be available in three to five years.”
    Why is this a game-changer for businesses?
  2. In what ways does Management Information Systems factor into robotics and robots like Optimus?

Bruce Willis denies selling rights to his face

Posted by & filed under Deepfake video.

Bruce Willis’s agent has denied reports that the film star has sold the rights to his face.
Last week, it was widely reported that Willis, in the first deal of its kind, had sold his face to a deepfake company called Deepcake.
However, a spokesperson for the actor told the BBC that he had “no partnership or agreement” with the company.
And a representative of Deepcake said only Willis had the rights to his face.
Willis announced his retirement from acting in March after being diagnosed with aphasia, a disorder that affects speech.
Deepfakes use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technology to create realistic videos – often of celebrities or politicians. For actors that can no longer act, the technology has the potential to be game-changing.

Source: BBC Technology News

Date: October 20th, 2022

Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63106024

Discussion

  1. Chris Anderson (author of The Long Tail and Free!) has said that the ability to custom generate videos based on search would be the next game-changing evolution in advertising. Do you think deepfake technology allows this to happen?
  2. Why does it matter that famous actors can “sell their likeness”?

New smart cities can’t escape the same old problems

Posted by & filed under Green Technologies, IT Governance.

Quayside, Toronto

What it promised: Sidewalk Labs, a subsidiary of Google, proposed a high-tech and sustainable neighbourhood on Toronto’s eastern lakeshore. Among the ideas were heated pavements to encourage year-round walking, trash-collecting robots, winterized outdoor spaces protected by plastic “raincoats,” self-driving delivery vehicles on an underground tunnel network, traffic sensors and adaptable street layouts.

How it’s going: Quayside is still deserted. After three years of controversy over data protection and governance issues, Sidewalk Labs walked away from the project in 2020 citing pandemic upheaval. Waterfront Toronto is now working on new designs for the site.

Moser’s take: “The key takeaway is that our elected representatives and city officials have very low data literacy. They are easily seduced by futuristic ‘smart city’ visions and by the prospect of outsourcing city building and governance to big corporations. Our data protection laws are woefully behind, and we urgently need to craft legislation that will secure our rights as citizens, rather than hope that tech companies will opt to look after our best interests.”

Source: Toronto Star

Date: October 14th, 2022

Link: https://www.thestar.com/business/mars/2022/10/14/new-smart-cities-cant-escape-the-same-old-problems.html

Discussion

  1. What does “our elected representatives and city officials have very low data literacy” mean?
  2. “Our data protection laws are woefully behind, and we urgently need to craft legislation that will secure our rights as citizens, rather than hope that tech companies will opt to look after our best interests.” What sort of legislation might help “secure our rights as citizens”?

Pacific Island Fiji aims for a high-tech future

Posted by & filed under AWS (Amazon Web Services), Career, SalesForce.

Mr Bradley’s most recent venture is a forthcoming travel app called Bula Fiji, which translates as “welcome Fiji”. It will allow holidaymakers to book flights, accommodation and activities all in one place.
Looking forward, Mr Bradley hopes that building a larger tech sector in Fiji will mean that more university graduates are able to stay and work in the country rather than leaving to work abroad.
Fiji’s main university, the University of the South Pacific, is the premier institution in the region.
Top students travel from across Fiji and other Pacific Island nations go there to study. But after they complete their degrees there has traditionally been a brain drain, with many leaving for more developed economies like Australia and New Zealand in search of better job opportunities.
“We have a university here that’s creating graduates, and they’re not really finding where they fit [in Fiji],” says Mr Bradley, who was previously head of Fiji’s foreign investment office.

“So then they all leave. Why can’t we work with those graduates, and then try and enable them to build applications and opportunities?”

Source: BBC Businessw

Date: October 10th, 2022

Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62830770

Discussion

  1. I work at the University of Montana, in Missoula. When I came here 20 years ago, the only way for Management Information Systems graduates to get a good career was to leave Montana. Since then we’ve worked to bring tech consulting firms into Missoula. The biggest of these is ATG (www.atginfo.com) which does Salesforce implementation consulting. They have over 300 employees, over half of which are from the University of Montana.
    In what ways does the curriculum in Management Information Systems make local technology consulting a viable option for MIS graduates?
  2. Why is technology consulting, which includes Salesforce, AWS and Microsoft implementation, not geographically constrained?

Why ‘digital literacy’ is now a workplace non-negotiable

Posted by & filed under Career.

Digital skills once meant having a basic grasp of computers. Now, it means being able to work adaptably and strategically across tools, devices and platforms.

Digital literacy used to mean being able to send an email or type using a word-processing programme. It was a skill largely required of knowledge workers – people who might use specific software at work, and need to be fluent in how to use it accordingly. 
But the phrase has evolved significantly. Now, digital literacy means having the skills to thrive in a society where communication and access to information are increasingly done via digital technologies, such as online platforms and mobile devices. The concept encompasses a broad understanding of an array of digital tools that enable in-office, hybrid and remote work across all types of workplaces: think real-time collaborative software, live workplace chat apps and sophisticated asynchronous work tools. 
Today, digital literacy is no longer a functional proposition, it’s a mindset. In the modern workplace, there is a greater expectation for employees to nimbly adopt whatever technology comes with their job as well as adapt to ever-changing tools and approaches. Workers are also expected to use technology strategically: from working off their personal mobile devices, to leveraging collaborative workflow programmes. 

Source: BBC Worklife

Date: October 10th, 2022

Link: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20220923-why-digital-literacy-is-now-a-workplace-non-negotiable?utm_source=bbc-news&utm_medium=right-hand-slot

Discussion

  1. What are you doing to make sure that you meet the “greater expectation for employees to nimbly adopt whatever technology comes with their job as well as adapt to ever-changing tools and approaches. Workers are also expected to use technology strategically: from working off their personal mobile devices, to leveraging collaborative workflow programmes”?
  2. Does your major help you “adapt to ever-changing tools and approaches”?

Proposed data privacy law favour industry over individuals

Posted by & filed under Privacy.

The stated objective of Canada’s private sector data protection law reform bill is to balance the privacy rights of individuals with industry’s need to collect and use their personal data. In other words, it is about the vulnerability of individuals in the face of the desire of industry to get the data it wants within a data-lustful economy.

There is no level playing field between individuals and organizations when it comes to data. In order to access many of the services we depend upon (including banking and telecommunications) and increasingly across every human activity, our data are collected and we are tracked and monitored.

We sometimes “consent” to take-it-or-leave-it privacy policies, but there are fewer and fewer contexts in which we have meaningful choices. And our data are used in ways that go beyond providing basic services. Absent adequate data protection law, we are vulnerable

Source: Toronto Daily Star

Date: October 7th, 2022

Link: https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2022/10/07/proposed-data-privacy-law-favour-industry-over-individuals.html

Discussion

  1. “strong regulatory frameworks are argued to slow down commerce and innovation, and Canada’s data users have lobbied hard for a soft, flexible approach to data protection. It is an approach premised on the idea that, by-and-large, industry is composed of good actors who have our interests at heart.” Does this make sense
  2. Why is personal data privacy so important?

Take a ride around San Francisco in a driverless taxi

Posted by & filed under Self-driving vehicles.

In San Francisco a futuristic pilot is taking place – fully driverless robo-taxis are being allowed at night for paying members of the public.
The company Cruise, says the cars will revolutionise transport.
But critics say putting fully autonomous taxis on urban streets is premature and dangerous.

Source: BBC Technology

Date: October 5th, 2022

Link to 5 minute 10 second video: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/technology-63077437

Discussion

  1. Why are we so amazed by a car that has no driver?
  2. What are some technology arguments against driverless cars?

EU Parliament approves common charging cable from 2024

Posted by & filed under Consumer Technology.

European MPs have voted for a law requiring all new portable devices to use the same type of charging cable.
Smartphones and tablets, including the Apple iPhone and iPad, would have to use a USB-C charger from 2024, while laptop manufacturers would have until 2026 to make the change.

Source: BBC Technology News

Date: October 4th, 2022

Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63132831

Discussion

  1. Apple says of this new law: “”Strict regulation mandating just one type of connector stifles innovation rather than encouraging it, which in turn will harm consumers in Europe and around the world” In what way does requiring a phone or tablet to use a USB-C interface “stifle innovation”?
  2. The new law is focused on  “small and medium-sized portable electronics”. Why only these?