Becca's Blog

fraternity and sorority wiki summary

2006-05-19T13:04:00.000-07:00

Since I am a member of a sorority, I felt this page might be interesting to read. I am only familiar with my sorority so it was interesting to ready about this history of other fraternities and sororities that exsist. The first edit I did on this page was about the movie Old School. It is a popular movie that portrays Greek life so I figured this would be a good contribution. My second edit deals with initiation and how this effects the new members. The final edit I did for this page was about Greek houses. I mentioned how the houses usually have commercial kitchens with chefs and have guest bedrooms. Once again my edits remain. The Old School edit has actually been expanded on so I am proud that I was able to start another paragraph on this page. This article has been my favorite because it has taught me so much. I think it does an excellent job explaining Greek life to those that are not so familiar with it.

Summary of swimming

2006-05-19T12:09:00.000-07:00

Swimming has been a love of mine since I was 8 years old. Since I have so much experience I thought this article would be one that I could contribute to. Unfortunately this article is also very thorough so it was a little hard to find things to add/change to it. My first edit was about tankinis, a type of bathing suit. This is a very popular style of bathing suit for women so I figured it would be important to include. My second edit talked about a British swimmer who has recently swam all 5 Oceans, quite an impressive feat. The last edit for swimming was about my favorite stroke, backstroke. My first and final wiki edits still remain on the page -the second one got deleted. The wiki community seems to agree with the majority of my edits which is appreciated. An article such as swimming could cover so much information; I think it currently exhibits the most important topics about swimming today.

Wiki Summary: The O.C.

2006-05-19T11:38:00.000-07:00

The O.C. is one of my favorite shows so I thought it might be fun to edit this page. Although I am not a die-hard fan, I felt that I would be able to find out more information and add some informative posts. My first edit had to do with the total amount of episodes aired. I then added information about Summer and Seth breaking up and Sadie leaving Ryan so he can go to college. My final edit included information on how American Idol Star Lisa Tucker would be appearing on the show. For this article none of my posts remain. This article was very thorough before I began and still remains this way. Apparently my edits were not exactly what the Wiki community was looking for. Choosing this topic however taught me about how Wikipedia monitors and edits things to keep the article as current as possible.

Conclusion of Olympic Games

2006-05-19T11:12:00.000-07:00

When we had to pick four wikipedia articles to edit, the Olympic Games were currently going on. I figured that this article would be easy to find edits. The first edit I did was about how Olympic doping has been becoming less of a problem in recent years. I then added a second edit which included information on how the United Stated led a boycott against Afghanistan in the 1980 Olympics. My final edit was about how women were not allowed to compete until the 1900 Olympics.
The Olympic Games article itself is very informational. It was hard at times to find things to add to this article. I am happy to say that the Wiki community agrees with the information I have added being that none of my edits were deleted. The amount of edits that are made to this article are impressive. The community likes to keep the article up to current speed and take out unnecessary information. Picking this article has taught me more about the history and meanings behind the Olympic Games than I ever knew.

Teammates blog

2006-05-17T16:02:00.000-07:00

While scanning Brian's and Meagan's blog, I realized they both did a blog posting on studylink. Studylink is a website where students can search for courses to take and study anywhere in the world. Brian and I both find StudyLink’s directory of 80,000 courses very impressive. And I agree with Meag that this site seems like a wonderful opportunity for students around the world to study wherever their heart desires.

Erik's blog is unfortunately in shambles, but I am sure he would have very interesting posts to read if I was able to.

fraternity and sorority edit

2006-05-14T17:00:00.000-07:00

My third fraternity and sorority edit included information about Greek houses. As I currently live in my own sorority house I felt like I knew a little bit to add to this section. The article already mentioned that most houses have commercial kitchens; it did not mention that most of these houses have chefs as well. I personally think it's one of the best perks of living in the house! I also added that most fraternity/sorority houses have guest bedrooms for its visitors. The image I added with this article is my own sorority Alpha Phi!!

Advertising Forecasts

2006-05-12T08:15:00.000-07:00

When checking out ClickZ, I found an interesting article about new media and how it is profitable for advertisers. The Internet is the strongest growing advertising sector followed by satellite radio and interactive t.v. Kagan Research found that ad revenues should hit about $400 billion by 2015. Many traditional advertising sectors such as television are finding ways to get on the Internet to keep their advertising profits. If a traditional ad media can expand to the "new media", they will be able to continue to be successful in advertising. If not, they will continue to experience slow rates of increase.

swimming edit

2006-05-10T10:30:00.000-07:00

For my final swimming edit I added a sentence to the history section. It had included every stroke except for backstroke so I wanted to add some information about it. Wikipedia already has a backstroke page so I added that link in there as well. I mentioned that backstroke first appeared as an Olympic Event in 1900 and now you can click to read all about my favorite stroke.

TiVo

2006-05-09T16:16:00.000-07:00

While reading ClickZ, one of our required blogs, I came across an interesting article about TiVo. TiVo is now offering Product Watch, a way to let consumers pick what advertisiments they see. Users are now able to subscribe to specific brands appear on their "Now Playing" list where all the shows they have recorded are located. To find what advertisments appeal to you most, you can shuffle through five different categories including: Automotive, Entertainment, Financial, Lifestyles, and Travel and Leisure. The ability to subscribe to a brand is truly a new and innovative idea. TiVo says that this is the first time ads have been targeted to users who choose to recieve these messages. Seventy advertisers including GM and Sony have signed up to to run 1-60 minute long product demonstrations. TiVo is excited to have the opportunity help advertisers and consumers at the same time.

Olympic Games

2006-05-03T17:35:00.000-07:00

I made a quick edit to the Olympic Games site. Under the Revival of the Olympic Games, it mentions how the games were reinstated in 1896. It talks about the number of athletes but never about women. I was curious to see when women were allowed to start competing. Women were able to participate in the 1900 Olympics which were held in Paris, and that's my edit!!

MySpace

2006-05-03T13:02:00.000-07:00

Today Travis Katz, VP of myspace spoke to us over skype. Although I am more of a facebook fan, it was interesting to hear about a site that I am not as familiar with. Myspace is the second most trafficed website behind Yahoo and should probably surpass them during this year. It is basically a website for everyone to create a profile about themselves and meet people. A unique part of myspace is having a section for bands. Bands can register as a band, let people know when their shows are, and interact directly with their fans. The website also has premiered many albums including Arctic Monkeys. There is also a section for independent film makers and stand-up comedians to promote themselves. As the website says, "MySpace is an online community that lets you meet your friends' friends." Go sign up today!

Hostmysite.com

2006-05-02T19:06:00.000-07:00

Lou Honick, CEO of HostMySite.com came to speak to our class on Monday. He was also a student at University of Delaware and started this company in 1997 while still in college. It owns and operates datacenters and networks that are monitored 24/7. They currently host more than 40,000 websites and that number continues to grow. Lou said one thing HostMySite prides itself on is customer service. Having a strong support team that is available to help its consumers in all aspects keeps them ahead of the game.

Deal Catcher

2006-04-21T19:16:00.000-07:00

Deal Catcher is an online business that was created by Dan Baxter who was actually a student in this class. Dan created this website in 1999 as an online tool to help his family and friends save money. It now attracts about 6 million views a month. The site provides coupons, rebates, and sale items- anything to save the consumer money!
They are also starting a pretty unique project called Kolinka. It is a search engine designed to search web forums and message boards.

O.C. edit

2006-04-18T12:15:00.000-07:00

I just added some up and coming news to the O.C. page. In the prom episode scheduled to air April 27th, Lisa Tucker will have a small part. Lisa is a former American Idol contestant who was eliminated during this season. She is actually a native to the Orange County region of California. Coincidence? I added her scheduled appearance under the notable guest stars heading season 3. The edit includes a link to her very own Wikipedia page.

Olympic Edit

2006-04-16T16:20:00.000-07:00

An interesting part of the Olympic Games website is the boycott section. I never knew much about them until I started to research information to add to the article. In 1980 the United States led a boycott refusing to compete in the Moscow Summer Olympics. This happened because the U.S. was against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan . The boycott reduced the number of participating nations to 80, the lowest since 1956.

Frat and Sorority Edit

2006-04-16T15:53:00.000-07:00

It's time for the second edit of the sorority wikipedia page. Under the joining a fraternity or sorority heading, I added some information about initiation. I mentioned how initiation involves sacred rituals and ceremonies that are taught to the new members. Also that being initiated requires a different level of responsibility from the new member. The newly initiated member is now associated with being a brother or sister in this organization and must represent them daily by their actions.

O.C. edit

2006-04-10T13:55:00.000-07:00

On Thursday I sat down in front of my TV to watch the O.C. I was excited because I needed to make an edit for this page and thought that I would be the first one to update the article. Before the show was over, someone had already edited the page! These people are fanatics. I added a few more sentences about what happened in Thursday's episode. Summer and Seth broke up because he is too scared to admit that he didn't get into Brown. Sadie left Ryan so he can go experience college on his own. Thursday's episode looks intense so stay tuned.

loocsixela

2006-04-10T13:16:00.000-07:00

Loocsixela is a made up word used as an experiment to teach our class about search engine optimization. Loocsixela is the anchor text that links to the "best football team ever" according to Alex. Whoever’s site ranks the highest on google by May 10th wins a book!!

New Face for the Blog

2006-04-03T19:22:00.000-07:00

Today in class Alex started to talk about CSS or Cascading Style Sheets. He then instructed us how to make appropriate CSS changes to make our blog resemble the class blog. I decided to try it out and fortunately it wasn't too complicated. Now my style sheets are edited and looking better than ever, enjoy the new look!

The O.C.

2006-03-28T18:32:00.000-08:00

I finally found something I could add to The O.C. page. It is a tiny edit but necessary to keep the page up to date. The box on the right side of the article contains general information about the show. I adjusted the total number of episodes, which has currently reached 69. Tune in to watch this fabulous show on Fox @ 9p.m. Thursday nights.

Google Search

2006-03-22T12:29:00.000-08:00

Two of my teammates have preformed Google Searches to see where they end up on the search results Erik and Meagan. If I search myself, my blog comes up as being fifth on the list. I did have to add Delaware to my name because it is so common. Erik and Meagan have had much better luck than me. Information on Erik's blog comes up as the first three search results on google. When I did my own search of Meagan, her being on my blog was the second search result. Making these blogs has really helped us become hot commodities on google :)

Swimming Edit

2006-03-20T14:13:00.000-08:00

For my second swimming edit I found an interesting tidbit to add to the article. British swimmer Lewis Gordon Pugh just completed his fifth and final long-distance swim of all the oceans in the world. He began this task in 1992 when he first swam the English Channel. He started again in 2003 when he swam in the Artic Ocean followed with the Southern Ocean in 2005, the Indian Ocean in early January 2006 and two weeks later completed in the Pacific Ocean. This type of accomplishment would be hard for most normal swimmers to achieve in just a Speedo according to Professor Tim Noakes, Director of the Sports Science Institute of South Africa. Noakes, who helped train Pugh, said that Pugh has the ability to raise his core body temperature. Doing this helps keep Pugh's body from disabling as soon as he enters the frigid water.
Lewis Pugh is now writing a book on his adventures and most recently won the gold medal for the 500 meter freestyle in the World Winter Swimming Championships.

Genealogy DNA on the Internet

2006-03-20T13:19:00.000-08:00

Reading Robert Scoble's blog, who just happens to be the author of a book we are reading in class Naked Conversations, I came across an interesting article. Genealogy through DNA is about how people are able to send their DNA to this online company. The site Family Tree DNA then finds your ancestors and links you to other people with the same results. You are also able to find the countries your ansecstors originated from. It's amazing that we are able to do something like this and that it is now open to the public. Furthermore, for the prices of $129-$289, it sure beats months upon months of finding the information digging through old documents. This site amazes me, if anyone knows of someone actually doing this please let me know!

Top 50 Advertisers

2006-03-16T11:37:00.000-08:00

While reading ClickZ News today I came across an interesting article. Top 50 Advertisers gives a list of the top Internet advertisers by media value. For the majority of the names on the list, I have seen online advertisements for their company before. Just while checking the news, I saw an ad for the University of Phoenix online. Most of the time I never pay attention to these advertisements but the money they are spending must be working if I am familiar with so many online advertising companies.

VALS Survey

2006-03-16T11:19:00.000-08:00

Yesterday in class Alex talked about a popular online survey called The VALS Survey. VALS is a marketing and consulting tool looking to help businesses achieve more effective strategies. Through their survey they are trying to explain the relationship between personality traits and consumers. It is a 40-question survey that takes about 3 minutes to complete. I ended up being an experiencer/striver. Apparently this means that I am motivated by self-expression. I am a young, enthusiastic, and impulsive consumer. Strivers are trendy and fun loving, and motivated by achievement. I'm not sure if I agree with their analysis of me completely but try it out for yourself!

Buzz Marketing

2006-03-13T16:03:00.000-08:00

Today we had a guest speaker, Mark Hughes, who is the author of Buzz Marketing. He defined buzz marketing as two way discussions. It's people talking about your brand or product, word of mouth. Consumers and buzz make all the difference when it comes to success of a product. This only occurs if marketers are willing to give. They must give empowered interactivity and consumers a great story which helps create the buzz. Companies must embrace customers so that the brand becomes theirs. It is about making connections, not impressions with consumers. If you would recommend a product to a friend, then that is buzz marketing. Millions of dollars in advertising will not attract people if the product is bad or if people have had an unpleasant experience with the company before. Blogs have created an opportunity for people to give opinions and feedback on all sorts of things including products and companies. It also gives companies a change to see what they need to change in order to satisfy consumers as well as possibly defend themselves.

Skype

2006-03-05T19:36:00.000-08:00

Skype, by far, has to be one of the most amazing things I have ever dealt with in a classroom. Skype's mission is to connect people, at a lower price, and with better sound quality. The best part about Skype, it's free! All you have to do is download it, then you are able to call someone else who has Skype ANYWHERE in the world and talk. In my last two class sessions, we have had guest lectures over Skype from Europe. Our teacher, Alex, connects to our guest through the computer and they begin giving the lecture. We do not see their faces but the sound quality is amazing. Knowing that they are half way around the world and giving a lecture to my class over a computer, is such an interesting concept to me. We have a few more Skype lectures planned throughout the semester and I'm excited to see where they are calling from.

Wikipedia edit

2006-03-05T13:37:00.000-08:00

I just did my first Wikipedia edit for swimming. In the clothing section of the article, they already mentioned bikini and one piece but not the tankini. Tankinis are an important option in swimwear and I felt it would be a good part of the article to add my insight to. The coolest part about this edit though is that I added a link to the tankini page on Wikipedia. So when reading my edit, you are able to then click on the word tankini for a more descriptive definition. I am actually really excited that I was able to do such a different edit to Wikipedia. Maybe blogging isn't so bad after all!

2006-02-28T17:13:00.000-08:00

In response to airmonkeys comment about my Feb. 18th post decribing the class, as much as I wish this would be an easy A. I am almost positive that I will be working very hard to make sure that an A does (hopefully) happen.

I am very happy that Meagan likes my edit to the Olympic Games Wikipedia page. It's a little scary editing a page that you think is pretty informative to begin with, it is extremely reassuring to have my one of my team members approval :)

2006-02-27T17:28:00.000-08:00

For another article change to Wikipedia, I did an edit to the fraternity and sorority page. The article talked about fraternities and sororities in popular culture, the last movie being Animal House. I just wrote a short little blurb about Old School because it is a more recent movie portraying fraternity life and much more funny! I have discovered that the articles in Wikipedia are very thorough and it is sometimes hard to find things that need to be added or changed within the page.

2006-02-26T18:57:00.000-08:00

So I just did my first edit on Wikipedia. During this semester I am responsible for editing 4 different articles on this page. They include sorority, swimming, The Olympic Games, and The O.C. For my first edit, I just added about the drug testing that went on during the Winter Olympics to show that drug usage has decreased. You can hopefully click here Olympic Games to check out my wonderfully informative edit.

2006-02-18T16:52:00.000-08:00

For my BUAD477 class: Information Technology Applications in Marketing we have to make a blog. This is to help us become more familiar with information technologies and their impact on marketing strategies, (straight from the syllabus). I do not consider myself very computer savvy so this should be an interesting task.

2006-02-12T13:36:00.000-08:00

testing this blogging thing out.