The Development of Currency

At the very moment that I spotted the word money in Chapter 3 of "Who Own's the Future", I instantly thought back to how currency is developing. For example, last week an customer paid for their items with the new one hundred dollar bill and at first sight it appeared to look like something someone printed in their basement. The customer instantly recognized the suspension on my face and explained to me it was the new hundred. Not really taking his word for it, I wrote a few lines on it with the counterfeit marker and indeed it was real. So I gave him his change, receipt, and allowed him to proceed. I don't understand why the bill needs a reflector strip on it with a repetition of small 100 stamped on it, or even an even bigger 100 printed on back than in front. Eventually monopoly money will look realer than the real money. I know this might be a drastic conclusion, but in all honesty how can we expect to stop people from printing fake currency when the real currency has an synthetic concept?

The Challenges of ICRH

Everyday I walk to and from class, I see a man collecting cans out of the garbage. Ironically, a great deal of the homeless people in Mount Pleasant are CMU graduates. This community struggles with the ideals of wanting to improve the community, but not wanting the homeless shelter near them. In a way, they defend them, but leave them with no place to stay. I have been thinking of different ways to get the community okay with having a stationary homeless shelter and all I can really come up with is having set guidelines. Honestly there's no way for us to help them if we're constantly worried about helping ourselves. Yes we live in a "dog eat dog" type world, but I'm guessing it takes a little more than feeling bad. It takes the ability to feel sympathetic....maybe if they were aware of the fact that most of the homeless population included CMU graduates, then maybe we'd be on the right step to getting them to open up more and then maybe the homeless shelter can be more tangible than an epiphany. Simply because it's more of a "wow that could've easily been me" reaction rather than a "I'm thankful it's not me". All in all, it's about getting the people to be a tad more selfless than selfish.

Does technology define you?

One thing that I realize is that we've replaced the criticism of peoples clothes to their technology. We judge people based off how up to date they are with technology, by simply noticing whether they have an smartphone or not. Then if they have the iPhone the question is whether they have a 4 or 4s. My best friend is technologically indifferent, so she isn't really into the latest things especially since she doesn't know how to work it. She does have an iPod touch, but her latest phone is the rumor (a slide up phone). I remember when we went into Verizon for her to get some assistance and when she showed the man her phone he stifled a laugh. Since she's use to it, it didn't bother her, but I bring this up because does it really matter if you have the latest gadget? There's so many out and they continue to come out to the point I can't even keep up. It's just silly to me because people know the latest technology, but were unaware of the government shut down. So my question is does technology define you? Are you allowing yourself to be so entrapped in it that you are unaware of your surroundings?

Online Banking with Independent Bank

Let me start off by saying that I wish there was a chase in Mount Pleasant so that I wouldn't have to have an Independent Banking account. Independent Bank is only made convenient by Central Michigan University mainly by making it the main bank on campus, but is it convenient beyond location? I can say from experience that it isn't. For one they charge you per month to have the online app. The app itself is "free", but once you start using it, it's $3-$6/ month. Yeah that's not a lot, but it is when you didn't even know you were being charged to have it. The processing of your account is also slow over the weekend, so even if you checked on a saturday where your account was at, the true balance won't be available until monday. Being that Independent Bank is considered CMU's college bank, it would behoove them to be slightly more convenient so that it is more accessible and accurate for students.

Monitoring Social Interactions

Chapter 8 of "The Social Organization" reminds me of the discussion we carried in class on Thursday about the cons of having a Facebook page where we would have to deal with the customer's comments and complaints. It's important for every business to have a social media connection of some type because we live in a technological era. Similar to anything someone does, there will always be something for people to say whether negative or positive. When it comes to the customers comments it's all in the way you handle it that you'll end up benefiting from it. If you deal with a complaint properly you might end up with proper feed back that'll allow you to improve your business and learn from era in the customers eyes.

Cyber War

When they mentioned cyber war in chapter 3 of "The New Digital Age", it simply reminded me of how powerful and valuable the cyber world is to our world. The fact that our connection is so strong, still surprises me because I know that years ago if Albert Einstein would've predicted cyber warfare, they'd deny him his "genius card". It also reminded me of the season finale of season 2 of Revenge where this cryptic software was released to strip business of their money and the ironic thing was someone did that to their own company. Being that it's obvious less than what other countries will be capable of doing, we have some challenges ahead especially since our day to day routines include technology.

Explore the Participant Experience

In chapter 7 of "The Social Organization", the author explains the importance behind knowing and understanding the customer's/participant's wants and values. You must identify their wants in order to build a successful community and this got me thinking to how in business classes, they give out assignments to conduct surveys. I feel the best way to get a well balanced opinion is to conduct a survey that hits every aspect of what you would like to offer. Of course the main challenge would be getting willing people to participate in the survey, but like any other human they wouldn't mind the opportunity cost of time in order to receive some type of reward. So I guess the best way to appeal to the customers is to reward them for allowing us to know their preferences.