Week 10: Clear

           The concept I found most clear this week was the section in Chapter 10 of the textbook on Qualities of Valuable Information. There were seven qualities discussed that describe valuable information: accuracy, verifiability, timeliness, organization, accessibility, usefulness, and cost-effectiveness. Accurate information lacks errors and prevents incorrect decisions. Verifiable information can be backed up as either right or wrong. Timely information describes the fact that the value and time of information are for the most part inversely related (though this is not always the case). Organized information is arranged to meet the decision maker's needs. Different people may require a different organization of information. Accessible information is readily available so the decision maker does not have to wait for information. Useful information has meaning to the decision maker and may not be useful to everyone else. The audience is important to consider here. Lastly, cost-effective information provides higher value than costs to produce, and it should be reviewed occasionally to make sure it is still cost-effective to produce.
         These qualities are essential in the business environment because people make decisions daily using a variety of information. For example, on a single day a person might make a decision from a receipt, bank statement, pension plan summary, or credit report. As a student at the University of Florida, I might look at my grade report or degree audit to make a decision. In a business environment, a manager constantly makes decisions looking at sales trends, competitors' products or services, profitability across the different products, or employee skills. People want to make sound decisions off of valuable information, so it is vital that information meets these seven criteria to make that decision.
          Here is an article listing the top five qualities of good information as accuracy, completeness, relevance, timeliness, and clarity. Two of these precisely match the lesson from this week: accuracy and timeliness. Clarity is somewhat close to organization because information that is clear to a decision maker is arranged so it meets the decision makers needs and thus is clear. This is a random slide I found (clearly from a powerpoint slide for a class) listing the seven characteristics of valuable information as accuracy, completeness, economic factor, flexibility, relevance, simplicity, timeliness, and verifiability. This list matches this week's lesson with four of the qualities: accuracy, timeliness, verifiability and the economic factor (which is basically the same thing as cost-effectiveness). As I have noticed looking on the Internet, the list of qualities describing valuable information changes somewhat, but it seems that accuracy and timeliness are on most of the lists I discovered. Some of the other characteristics that differ are actually very similar but just use different wording.


Works Cited:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Top-Five-Qualities-of-Good-Information&id=3873113

http://www.jkang.com/CIS110/Lecture%20Notes/ch_01v4/tsld007.htm

Presentation and Web 2.0 Project

           Here is the link to my presentation. I think my presentation is clear and serves it purpose of soliciting donations for the American Cancer Society. I filled out the Presentation Evaluation Rubric for myself:

Presentation Evaluation Rubric

Name of Presenter: Grace Byer               

Your Name: Grace Byer

	Missing or lacking	Meets the minimum but could be improved	Excellent
Is there a logical flow and sequence of content? How could it be improved?			Yes, there was logical flow and sequence. I started by talking about cancer and how it affects almost everyone, which is why it is such an important cause to support and donate to.
Does the presenter anticipate questions and answer them in the right place? At what points did you have questions that were not answered?			Yes, I feel like I anticipated questions. For example, I anticipated if people were wondering where the money from their donations goes.
Did the presenter grab your attention in the first 30-60 seconds?			By asking these questions at the beginning, I wanted to draw everyone in by making them realize that cancer affects almost all of us.
Did the presenter ask questions and spark your curiosity?			I asked questions at appropriate times that I thought the audience might be thinking.
Did the presenter set the context with a concise explanation? Is it clear what the presenter is trying to share?			Yes, I think I made it very clear that this presentation was to solicit donations for the American Cancer Society.
Did the presenter validate any claims?			I put my resource for the statistics from my slide.
Did the presenter avoid inconsistencies and errors, typos and unbelievable claims?			I didn’t find any typos or errors. My statistics were from the American Cancer Society website.
How well did the presenter avoid clutter?			I don’t think there was clutter.
What did the presenter do to ensure readability?			I made the text large and clear so it was readable.
Did the presenter say it, and then show it or did he/she read the slides?			I did not read off the slides.

           I critiqued someone else's presentation on the Animal Rescue Foundation, and I learned that everyone will have an entirely different presentation. These presentations involve creativity, and I think that's the best part about this project. I love seeing how everyone thinks differently, and my favorite part is seeing the opening to different presentations. Although I only critiqued one presentation, I looked through many of them, and since it is important to use creativity to grab the audience's attention in the first 30-60 seconds, this is most interesting part to me. For example, I began my presentation by asking questions, but Amber's project, the one I critiqued, started by playing a Michael Jackson song and showing pictures of animals that will melt your heart. Though completely different, I thought both of these openings grab your attention.
          I thought this project was very interesting, and I learned a tremendous amount about presentations that will help me in business. I learned the importance of the opening, which I had no clue was 30-60 seconds to grab the audience's attention. I learned that it is important to find a medium between too lengthy and too simple for the text on each slide. Additionally, the white space on a slide can be filled by using pictures, audio, and video. I had never recorded my voice for a presentation, so that was an entirely new experience for me. I know that any project I do in the future will encorporate this feature because I think it really adds something to a presentation to hear the person actually narrating along with the slides. I also learned how share my presentation online. I used http://www.sliderocket.com/ for my presentation, and I thought it was very simple and straight forward to use. I learned how to incorporate a YouTube video into my presentation so that when the presentation is played, it will automatically play the video. I know that with any presentation I need to complete in the future, I will incorporate all of these new things that I learned because they enhance a presentation. They make a presentation seem more clear and professional, and in the business world, these skills will be crucial since I will probably have to make many presentations.

Week 9: Clear

             The concept that was most clear to me this week was Wi-Fi crimes. People break the law with Wi-Fi by accessing someone else's Internet, otherwise called "Wi-Fi tapping" or "piggybacking" someone else's Wi-Fi signal. This might even constitute a felony. "War-driving" is another Wi-Fi crime where someone drives around to find a wireless signal to use. According to the provided Sophos 2007 online survey results, more than 50% of people have used someone else's Wi-Fi connection without their permission.
            Wi-Fi crimes strongly impact the business environment because hackers can access personal information, and it is important to educate people on how to prevent this, for example, by changing your wireless router's default password. There are also ethical implications to using someone else's Internet without their permission. By doing this, you are slowing down their connection.
           This website explains Wi-Fi crimes very clearly. It talks about what "piggybacking" is and related law enforcement. The article stresses that simply using someone else's Internet may be considered a crime. It also goes into detail about specific laws related to Wi-Fi crimes. For example, one of the laws discussed is NY Penal Code Section 156 (6) that says the goverment must prove the owner gave notice to potential hackers or trespassers orally or in writing before the owner can be prosecuted for this crime. Here is an article from a local paper, The Gainesville Sun, regarding how to secure your Wi-Fi connection to prevent "piggybacking."








Works Cited:
http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/237


http://www.gainesville.com/article/20080727/NEWS/613053815

Week 7: Clear

           The concept that was most clear to me this week was making ideas that stick to create an effective presentation. A sticky idea is one that strikes a chord with its audience, one that is unforgettable, one that people won't stop talking about, and one that is everywhere in the media. The key to finding success is starting with the unexpected, adding in a catch phrase, and mixing it all around for a sticky recipe. Chip and Dan Heath wrote a book called Made to Stick about sticky ideas.  The brothers discuss two different examples of sticky stories. The first is the boy who cried wolf, and the second example is an urban legend about a business traveler who accepts a drink and wakes up in an ice filled bathtub without his kidneys. Both of these stories have a set of principles and provoke emotions and surprise. Stories and examples allow people to connect and remember.
         Sticky ideas are vital to success in the business world. Every company wants a sticky ad that creates a buzz, and consumers who spend time watching will hopefully spend money.The IPod is one of the stickiest products and has consumers lining up for more. A few other examples are the caveman in Geico's commercials and the animal commercials for American Express with Ellen DeGeneres. JFK's speech about putting a man on the moon is one of the stickiest speeches in history because it challenged us to put a person on the moon and bring him/her back. This speech was unexpected yet concrete and allowed people to work together to have a consistent vision. Sticky ideas are important because a good idea isn't enough. A great story is necessary, and the idea needs to stick. In order to influence the public, whether it be to buy, vote, learn, diet, give to charity or initiate a revolution, an idea must be sticky.
         This website talks more about the Heath brothers' book, Made to Stick. They explain that there are six main parts of stickiness that can be remembered with the acronym "SUCCES." These six main criteria for making an idea sticky are that it should be Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotion-evoking, and embedded in Stories. This website serves as an additional resource and adds that important principles of modern psychology come into play. The organization of memory, the effects of emotions on actions, and excess knowledge can serve as barriers to effective communication. Ultimately, sticky ideas are key to successful ideas and products in today's market, and this book provides a formula for creating a sticky idea and an analysis of what specifically makes an idea sticky.

Here is the American Express commercial with Ellen Degeneres. As an animal lover, I found this commercial funny, adorable, and more than anything else, memorable.

Works Cited:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/16/AR2007011601625.html

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1552029,00.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5LR-IZbbc0

Excel Project

            Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet application with a grid of cells (numbered rows and lettered columns) that is used to organize, manipulate, and graph data. This Excel project used data from 500 subjects to analyze the effectiveness of a particular workout. The 500 subjects had a starting heart rate taken, a heart rate taken each minute throughout a 15 minute workout, and a heart rate taken each minute during a 5 minute cooldown. The spreadsheet provided raw data, including the age, sex, and 21 hear rate measurements. This project was about manipulating and formatting data given. I added new columns, used new formulas, formatted the worksheet to print according to specifications, and created pivot tables within new worksheets.

            Before beginning this project, I knew some basic Excel functions like how to add new rows and columns, how to adjust column width, and how to create a simple formula starting with an equal sign. Until doing this project, however, I was unaware of just how much Excel has to offer. The Freeze Panes capability is very useful, and with all the projects I have done in the past using Excel, I cannot believe I never used this function. If there is a lot of data with row titles in the first one or two rows, the Freeze Panes capability can be used to make sure these rows are always displayed. I also had no idea how many formulas Excel can use, and I found it very useful to use the AVERAGE, MIN, and MAX functions. In this project, we also used the IF function, which I found very difficult to understand at first, but once I learned how to apply this function, I realized it is simply plugging in =IF(logical test, “what to put if the test is satisfied,” “what to put if the test is not satisfied”).

            The most difficult part of the project for me was the pivot tables in Step 2. I had never used a pivot table before and had no idea what it was used for or how to create one. After watching the Excel videos, I was able to create my pivot tables and drag over what I was using for columns and rows. Now, I can create a pivot table and format it in any way necessary. For example, now I understand how to change the pivot table so it displays count or sum, one decimal place versus two decimal places, and grand totals for columns or rows or no grand totals for columns or rows.  Here I have included a screen capture of the AvgIncrease pivot table I created for the project.