Blog 7.1 - IS Security

   Our company (Ferrum Cinema) can face five main IS threats to our security system. Accidents and natural disasters cannot be prevented. A flood might completely wipe out our systems or a drink might fall onto the keyboard of the computer thus causing a malfunction with the system. The best way to protect ourselves from this kind of threat is to have a back-up on hand. Another threat to the security system is an employee or a consultant. An employee or consultant might want to change how much they are getting on their next paycheck or they might want to get even with their boss by altering the current shows and showtimes. A way to prevent this is to implement physical access restrictions using biometrics and/or access control software. Links to outside business contacts can hurt a company severely. One way this could hurt our company is if we use a wireless LAN with Pepsi Company, someone could intercept our messages and possibly cause harm to our company. To prevent this act from happening, we would implement encryption codes and passwords on the VPN. Another way links to an outside business contact can hurt a company is a rival company could erase important information on the Ferrum Cinema system or even change financial documents stored on the system, thus shutting us down. Firewalls, authentications and encryption codes are good ways to protect the company from outside business contacts. The same goes for hackers and crackers also known as outside intruders. They might want to snoop around the system with malicious intent. Firewalls, authentications and encryption codes are ways to keep intruders out. Computer viruses can shut a company's system down in a heartbeat. So, a way to protect the Ferrum Cinema systems from this is by implementing encryption codes, authentications and having a strong firewall.

Blog 6.1 - Web 2.0

   There are four Pillars of Web 2.0. The first Pillar is utilizing the web as a platform. A simple definition of this is making use of the capabilities of the Internet and putting everyone on the same platform to perform operations the same. The second is harnessing collective intelligence. The definition for that is improving web content as a whole by contributing thoughts and ideas together. Pillar number three is leveraging the data which is storing data records on powerful databases for outside uses such as making decisions. Finally the fourth Pillar is implementing web capabilities which is implementing online services (web services, widgets, mash-ups).
   Ferrum Cinema can use each of these Pillars of Web 2.0 to its advantage. Ferrum Cinema can implement peer-to-peer software on its Web site to improve the download performance. This would reduce the load on the Ferrum Cinema server which would make the site faster than before. Implementing this would utilize the web as a platform. To harness collective intelligence, Ferrum Cinema put aside space on its Web site for visitors to type a blog for suggestions and comments about the Web site and cinema. The blogs will help the staff know what they need to improve on. The cinema could add a space for a Google or Yahoo search bar to leverage data. A search bar could help the visitors to the site find out where a particular movie is showing if Ferrum Cinema is not showing it at that time. On the Web site that Ferrum Cinema offers, we could implement innovative web capabilities by allowing our customers to access the site from a mobile device. The content would be minute compared to the actual Web site, but all of the essential information, like which movies are showing and at what times, would still be displayed for the customer.

Blog 5.2- B2B Electronic Commerce

Ferrum Cinema is a client to Ticket Co. which would be a server. These two companies formed an extranet to perform business transactions more properly. In order for the two businesses to conduct a business transaction Ferrum Cinema would first need to decide what product from Ticket Co. they would like to purchase. Once that is decided, Ferrum Cinema would then connect to the internet through the VPN (Virtual Private Network) after getting through the firewall of their computers. The VPN will allow the Cinema to place an order through the internet because the now have access to do business with Ticket Co. The information will be sent to Ticket Co. and received after the data passes through Ticket Co.'s firewall. The firewall acts as a security guard and protects Ticket Co. from getting unwanted data like a virus. After the information is passed through the firewall, it will go into the server's data files. Ticket Co. can then give Ferrum Cinema their purchased product.

Blog 4.3- Packet Switching Technology

Packet switching allows users to send large and small chunks of data across the Internet concurrently. That is what computers A and B (servers) are doing in order to send data to computers C and D (clients). In order for the packet switching to work the transmission control protocol (TCP) has to break the info into data packets and manage them when they transfer from computer to computer. The internet protocol (IP) defines how a data packet must be formed and to where a router (connects two or more individual networks) must forward each packet. Each packet will then conform to the IP specification. When it conforms it is known as an IP datagram. Each datagram has its own unique IP address which makes the routing and delivery to and from a computer possible.

Blog 5.3- Intranet Diagram

Ferrum Cinema implemented an intranet system to offer services to its employees. An intranet works almost like an extranet, but instead of conducting business between two businesses, the business does its business with the employees of that company. A manager, who would be the client inside corporate network, can set up a schedule for example for the employees to look at. The manager can sit at a designated computer within the company and connect to the server to input the data that is necessary. The data can travel through the firewall which is like a security guard to make sure only certain things can get in and come out. Once the data is through the firewall, it can then process through the internet. When the employee, who would be the corporate client outside local network, logs onto the VPN (setup to ensure that only the employees of Ferrum Cinema and Ferrum Cinema owners can do work on the network) they can then see their upcoming schedule.

Blog 5.1- Critique Your Competitor's E-Commerce Website

We used http://www.cinemark.com for the company Cinemark Century Theaters as one of our competitors. Cinemark's website has 24/7/365 access to it and is a 1-way communication network. From this collected  information Cinemark's website is in the E-Information stage of B2C Commerce. Since a person can purchase a ticket online or physically at a theater, Cinemark is using a Click & Mortar strategy.

Rules: rating 1- 5
1) Unique - 5
2) Easy to use and fast - 4
3) Pleasing - 4
4) Motivating - 3.5
5) Advertising - 3.5
6) Learn from your website - 5

We ranked the rules the way we did because we felt that was the way they seemed fit. The site was unique in the way that it has companies all over the world and some of their companies offer $1 theaters such as the one in Lynchburg, VA. This website was very easy to use and had a quick refresh rate. Creators of this site had easy navigation and the wording was in everyday plain language. So therefore it hit two birds with one stone; it was easy to use and pleasing. The color scheme along with appropriate pictures of new and upcoming movies made the site a pleasing one to look at. Motivation seemed to be all around the site. The cinema offers different discounts, a way to stay socially connected to them, shows upcoming movies, and even a way to purchase a ticket in advance to avoid a long line. Their motivation techniques are good. Cinemark was one of the top choices that popped up on different search engines. Advertising did not seem very big on their to do list but there were some advertisements out on the web for Cinemark Theaters. This theater can easily learn from their website. The information is easy to ready and they can see what they need to do to make their site even better than it is. They can tell they have a lot of viewers visit their site, how fast the refresh rate is (one of the top refresh rates), and how their competition is doing. All together we gave this site a 25 out of 30.

Blog 4.2- A Basic Network

A basic system has a client, server, and a transmission medium. The client will send the server a request for a service in which it provides through the transmission medium. The server will then send the client a response back through the transmission medium. However, the transmission medium has to follow certain protocols (rules) which dictate the communication that is being passed through. Information like a song or photo in which a client might want has to be converted into digital information. This process is called digitizing, but depending on how much bandwidth (the transmission capacity of a computer or communications channel) is needed the picture or song might not be able to fit onto the location in which it it destined. Information that is being passed through the transmission media can travel through two forms of media; cable media or wireless media. Cable media is used when a transmission has a likely hood of having interference. Cable media runs a less likely risk of an outside source interfering with communication. Wireless media is used when a person needs to be mobile.

Blog 4.4- Entity Relationship Diagram

This ERD shows the relationship between three database tables. Each table has a different number of attribute types relating to a single entity; such as the attribute type: customer key relating to the entity: customer. Each attribute has a data type like the attribute type: name would have the data type: text and the attribute: phone would have the data type: number. An attribute of an attribute type would go into more detail; for example name would have an attribute of Tom. Once a entity is complete, the table is called a record. An invoice has many records within it. 

Blog 4.1- IFS H/W Infrastructure

The input technologies that are depicted are the mouse and keyboard. With this technology a person will input the word "HELLO". The computer will then transfer the information to the processing technology which is essentially the system unit which contains the CPU (Central Processing Unit). This includes the control unit (schedules the words into data) , ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit- does the math), and registers (internal memory). These will turn the word that was typed into a binary code consisting of 1's and 0's, but the only language the computer truly understands is machine language. Each letter that is in binary code is in a sequence of 8 bits or 1 byte which is known as ASCII(American Standard Code for Information Interchange). After the binary code is set, it is then stored and manipulated inside of a database. When the word "HELLO" is typed and stored the computer immediately displays the information on some sort of output technology such as a monitor or printer. This whole process, of converting an input technology to processing technology and eventually displayed on an form of output technology, only takes a split second to do. Computers are just that fast!

Blog 3.2- Building A Business Case

Faith: "We believe that this information system will serve every customer. The system will help us better serve our customers, resulting in us beating the competition through customer satisfaction and beyond. You just have to take it on faith."

Fear: "Our competitors are installing and implementing this information system. If we do not do the same we will go under and eventually go out of business. So, either we implement the system and stay on the top or we stay how we are, system-free, and fall to our competitors on our knees."

Fact: "As our analysis shows, implementing the functional area information system will improve the work quality of our employees by over 45%. They facts show that with this system the training and work production is of a higher value quality. Errors will be significantly reduced as the stats have shown. They have dropped from 60% down to 12%. So in the long run, the system will pay for itself within the next year."

Blog 3.1- Value Chain Analysis

Blog 2.2- Automobile Industry

This case study was about Globalization 3.0 has affected the auto industry worldwide. Automakers have tried to find solutions to the problem such as making a "world car", but several reasons why that cannot happen are in place.

1. Globalization 3.0 is fueling change in the auto industry by helping the industry "move beyond geographic boundaries". The industry are moving companies over seas to other countries and automakers are building networks of suppliers, globally.

2. Americans like big cars and aren't thinking about gas prices first, while Asians like more compact cars to move around crowded streets. The cultural differences that the world faces makes it impossible to make a "world car". Some key factors which make creating a "world car" difficult are taste, infrastructure, gas prices, and different political systems.

Blog 2.1- Globalization Enablers

Flickr offers many different services to its users. Their services include online photo sharing (upload and share pictures), "Tags" (label photos to a category), clustering (putting multiple tags together to see multiple photos), "interestingness" (rate pictures), photo manipulation (cropping the photo), "creative commons" (copyright protection), Application Program Interfaces (uploading apps for different devices), and OpenID (saves IDs and passwords).

There are 3 enablers that allow Flickr.com to provide the services they do: Uploading, In-forming, and Steroids. Uploading is the enabler that Flickr.com revolves around. Flickr needs uploading in order to have pictures posted up on their website. The second enabler is In-forming. Yahoo! purchased Flickr and helped it grow to what it has become today. Yahoo! uses Flickr sometimes to bring up images in its search engine. The third enabler is Steroids. The APIs develop uploading applications so multiple devices can upload pictures.

Blog 1.3- Organizational Chart

Ticket

247831965 can be defined as raw, unformatted information for a ticket code. The information would be the code number 247-831-965, which gave meaning to the numbers and would be put in place for the ticket code as an identifier for a specific ticket to see which movie the ticket was purchased for. Knowing that these numbers put into a code for a movie ticket would show that knowledge was gained from the information. A person could gain wisdom from this knowledge by learning what specific movie was purchased, that day's date and time, the cost of the ticket, the payment method, and what kind of ticket was purchased such as a child or adult ticket.

Employee

12345 can be defined as raw, unformatted information for. 12-345, however, is information that would have meaning to represent a code for a specific employee. Knowing the employee number would be knowledge gained from knowing the employee number. A person could gain wisdom from this knowledge by learning that specific employee's name, employee position, sex, age, social security number, phone number, and address. So basically, this employee number could give the employer of each employee that works for Ferrum Cinema access to personal information.

Popcorn

678910 can be defined as raw, unformatted information for a tracking number. 678-910 can be information that is a formatted tracking code for a specific product, such as popcorn. An employee for Ferrum Cinema could identify this product number as popcorn, so they would have knowledge for this specific product. The wisdom they could obtain from this code is the product name, item number, cost, number purchased, payment method, and size purchased.

Blog 1.1- Fictional Company Intro

The new movie theater has been named Ferrum Cinema and it is located in Ferrum, Virginia. It has 7 employees and is obviously a small business because of the small town. We make our money from ticket sales and we offer reasonably priced concessions as well.