MBA 734 Discussion Question – Google’s Prediction Markets

Is it a good idea to encourage ALL employees to trade in these markets?  Should insiders and/or highly uninformed people be allowed to trade?  Do they help or hurt the market?

MBA 734 – Threadless Discussion Question

In what other industries or areas would Threadless’ community-driven product development model work well?  And not so well?

MBA 734 – Social Networks Discussion Question

Online social networks have become ubiquitous in the past few years. What forms of value do users get from these services and who is most likely to sign up on LinkedIn versus other sites?

MBA 734 – Wiki Discussion Question

How do Wikipedia’s processes for creating and modifying articles ever lead to high-quality results?

Pomegranate Phone

Sarah Flynn posted a link to the new Pomegranate Phone, which takes technology convergence to an extreme!  Pomegranate is no longer just a $5 bottle of juice you buy at Whole Foods, it’s also a do-everything handheld device…

Apparently, this thing is an ad for business development in Nova Scotia (click on the release date link once you “explore” the phone), strange.

Edit: I’ve noticed a lot of people reaching this post through searches for Pomegranate Phone.  Just in case my sarcasm isn’t apparent up above – this is not a real phone.  It is a “concept” video used as an advertisement for doing business in Nova Scotia and it is apparent the viral buzz of this thing is working.

MBA 734 – Blogging at DrKW Discussion Question & EconTalk

What are the advantages and disadvantages of implementing internal versus external employee blogs in a corporate setting?  Are there certain industries where one of these strategies makes more sense?

A side note.  Since we’re starting our module on the social web and will be talking about Wikipedia in a couple of weeks I highly recommend listening to a couple of interesting and relevant podcasts from EconTalk, a great and well-recognized podcast about important issues and ideas in economics hosted by GMU economics professor Russ Roberts.  You don’t need an iPod or iTunes to listen to these podcasts; you can stream them directly from the EconTalk website.

The first podcast is with Clay Shirky who is the author of Here Comes Everybody and an expert on the economics of social media.

The second podcast is with Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, who discusses how Wikipedia started, how some of the social aspects of Wikipedia work, and where Wikipedia is heading.

MBA 734 – iPod/iPhone Discussion Question

Has the digital music market irreversibly tipped in Apple’s favor?

MBA 734 – Brightcove Discussion Question

What are the strengths and weaknesses of Brightcove’s business model?

MBA 734 – DoCoMo & Google Case Questions

1. Is DoCoMo wise to offer its existing mobile phone rivals access to FeliCa?

2. Is search a winner-take-all business?

Netflix Continues to Grow

Thanks to Michael Kahl for pointing me to this story at CNN Money about Netflix’s continued growth through their early prepartaion for demand of video-on-demand services.  It looks we’re actually learning some stuff in this class!