ICS 691 News, 3(3)

[Philip Johnson <johnson@hawaii.edu>]

ICS 691 News, Week 3, Issue 3

In this issue:
* New Look and Feel for ICS 691 Home Page
* Mette's lecture in streaming video
* Downloading PP docs: IE vs. Netscape
* Graphics in business plans
* Copyrights
* Online surveys
* Group participation
* Reminder: resources/homework due the week *before* your
presentation!

---
New Look and Feel for ICS 691 Home Page

The ICS 691 home page has a brand new "millennium" look and feel. Let
me know if you have any problems with broken links.  One improvement
is that the schedule page now includes links to the slides and so
forth.  Further improvements will occur later on.

---
Mette's lecture in streaming video

We are experimenting with streaming video this semester, and Mette's
lecture from last Friday is our first effort.  Due to the lack of a
mixer, the audio portion is way too high, and you have to turn down
the sound to almost nothing. But, you might find it quite useful to
review this material.   Let me know if you would like more lectures
provided in this format.

---
Downloading PP docs: IE vs. Netscape

A student writes:
> When using Netscape 4.0, I had a similar experience to my classmate.
> However, I was able to download the Word and Excel documents by
> using Internet Explorer 5.0.

Another student reports that by using right-click to save the target
as a file, they were able to get the files without a problem.

---
Graphics in business plans

A student writes:
> I noticed most business plans don't contain any
> graphics or logos to liven them up and/or make them
> more readable. Are graphics considered distracting
> and/or inappropriate (i.e. would you not recommend
> them)?

No, I definitely recommend them!  The Pizza Portal business plan
would definitely be improved by including graphics such as screen
shots, or tables, or charts.   However, I would avoid spending your
precious time on "gratuitous" graphics (i.e. graphics that make the
plan "pretty" but do not provide any *content*).   A logo does
provide content (it's a primary symbol for your business), so I
wouldn't call that gratuitous. 

---
Copyrights

A student writes:
> If you have time, will you please address copyright issues (images,
> audio) with the class?  For example, if I'm selling books, can I
> include an image of the book cover that I copied from Amazon.com's
> site?

Excellent question!  I expect everyone to observe all copyright
protections in this class.  In other words, if you are using material
from somewhere, you need to gain permission to do so.  Note that you
can quote or use small amounts of material as part of an educational
presentation without obtaining permission, so don't worry about
getting permission to use a screen dump of a web site for your group
presentation.  However, if you're using images from another site in
VCommerce, the safest thing to do is contact them and ask permission
to use the material for educational purposes only.  This is typically
granted easily and quickly.  (Of course, once you go into business
after the semester ends, you'll have to revisit this issue :-)

---
Online surveys

A couple of groups have distributed online surveys to the ICS 691
mailing list as a way to gather market data.  That's fine with me,
but I want to make it clear that you should not limit yourself to
collecting data in this way.  The ICS 691 class represents a far too
narrow spectrum of college students for the data to be indicative.
Instead, I expect that most companies are going to have to do some
primary market research by actually interviewing students picked at
random at Manoa or some other college campus.  

---
Group participation

Two members of a presentation group came to my office today to get
some advice about their presentation.  When I asked them where the
other two members of their group were, they said they didn't know:
they had emailed them about this meeting(and they hadn't responded),
and they had arranged to meet them after class on Friday (but they
didn't show up).  

At this point, I want to just point out that I expect all of you to
participate in a mature, respectful, responsible manner within your
companies and groups. That means responding to emails in a timely
manner, attending meetings, and participating fully in the process of
your VCommerce companies and class presentations.  I believe that the
majority of you are doing just that.  If you find that members of
your group are not participating appropriately, please let me know.
It is possible that some members of groups will not receive credit if
they do not pull their weight. 

---
Reminder: resources/homework due the week *before* your presentation!

Note that the Internet Databases and Multimedia groups need to be
providing me with resources and homework *this* Friday!