Campus Special To Go

It's no secret that college students are always looking for ways to save money and do fun activities on tight budgets. Coupons are an old school idea, but with the Campus Special mobil application students don't need to carry around their cut-out coupons with them...only their cellphones. The Camups Special is a company whose mission is to work with local businesses in college areas to offer discounts on the products and services used by college students every day. From food, to clothes, to auto repair shops, the Campus Special offers a variety discounts for those of us who need to save money.

The genious in the mobil app is that people constantly have their cellphones on them at all times, which means that college students will constantly have the discounts in their pockets and therefore be more likely to go to the businesses offering discounts through the Campus Special (its win win for everyone!). Along with the coupons, there is a food ordering section which allows the students to actually place food orders right from their phones while still using the discounts! This portion of the app is also equipt with a gps locating service that pulls up all of the food ordering listings (as well as all the other businesses with listings) on a map in order to make it easier for the students to find the business.

This app is SUPER simple to use and practically self-explanatory. As discussed in the article "Building Trust is Key to Promoting your Organisation Online" by Kathy Cowan, a key element in the success of a webpage or electronic median for communication is easy navigation. The user can not be lost in a cluster of information or a sporadic layout, this app is organized in to 4 easy categories 1) featured (located on the opening page of the app), 2) Food (a list of places offering take-out or delivery options), 3)Deals (discounts from the local businesses), and 4) the Map (a way to use the gps locating services to find the business you're searching for).

*The Campus Special app is available to Apple and Android markets. *

Are you there God? It's me, Steva.

The title of this post is exactly how I've been feeling these past few months. Being a senior in college and barreling down the slopes towards graduation, like so many of my fellow soon-to-be graduates... I can not stop thinking about what the next step is going to be. I know only 1 thing: I NEED A JOB. I know where i would like to end up (Boston) and areas that are of interest to me (Marketing, Advertising, Sales), but am i doing enough in the meantime to assure myself a position in the "real world"? How prepared can any of us really be?
This Blog Post is to others out there who are in my shoes right now or will be in the near future. I personally have done a few internships in different fields and done my best to network with whoever i can. But for those of you who may be just starting the internship process here are a few things i found helpful:
1) LinkedIn - this Site is amazing for getting your professional profile out there. I know many people close to me who have actually found employment through this site (#winning). LinkedIn is like a virtual brag book, you can display your resume, projects, and network connections as well as search for job/internship opportunities. But remember, its not like facebook. Keep it professional and all about your accomplishments thus far.
2) Use a college/university's Job center to your advantage! In many cases you can sign up to be on a email list to be notified of job opportunities, get help with practicing for interviews, and have someone look over and critique your resume. Chances are you're already paying for these services, use them to your advantage!
3) Don't rule out good ol' fashioned  search sites like Craigslist, they can be extremely helpful with finding opportunity's in your are. Hey, it worked for me! I found a full-time AND PAID internship opportunity through Craigslist.
4) Ask around! As parents/friends/family if any of the businesses they work for offer internships or jobs in the area you're interested in. Networking at its finest.
5) Stay in connection/ on good terms with past employers and co-workers. You never know when you may need a favor or who could turn out to be a vital reference. 

Twitter Lists

Twitter Lists help the user to measure and keep track of the twitter feeds of selected friends, businesses, and influences on twitter. Instead of posts that might be important to you being lost in a see of hundreds of tweets, Twitter Lists help to sort out the tweets that are of interest to the Twitter user and moves them to a smaller and more tailored list of select twitter accounts. You can use Twitter lists with any program/app version of twitter on any electronic device (although the ability to create a Twitter list may vary from device to device). When referring to a Twitter List as a tool, they are key to collecting data that is important and of interest to the user and helping the tweets stand out to the user. Upon using and creating a Twitter list i have found that it is extremely easy to both create, use, and to both add and drop members to and from lists. All of the data that is brought to me though my Twitter list is of relevance to me because i have already selected these accounts as important and worth following and paying close attention too. There is no cost to use Twitter, being as such there is no cost to create and use a Twitter list within your own account. However, a weakness of Twitter lists worth noting that that one can not send direct tweets to member of the list, the Twitter list is for reading followers tweets only.

Best ways to categorize information

When searching the internet for information, the best ways to filter down all the information and get to the specifics of what it is you are looking for is to use specific KEY WORDS in your search. For example, when searching for a good pasta recipe one would want to use words such as "pasta" "sauce" "recipe" and "easy". This would suggest that you are looking for an easy pasta recipe and you would greatly increase your chances of finding what it is you're looking for within in the first few search hits. Key word searches are also a good rule of thumb to remember when searching for information.

Another key factor in finding information is being able to then hold on to that information once you've finally found it. Some of the most common methods of information extraction are tabs, tags, and bookmarks. But in more recent development websites are creating specified ways of holding on to a searchers information directly through the website. Example: Pinterst is a website that allows its users to find massive amounts of information on an area of interest (mostly visual), and then allows the user to "pin" the information once they've found it to there specific boards created just to hold information related to the topic. Once an item is pinned, it is forever saved under its category and the user can then easily refer back to it whenever they need to.

ShakeBee

Making Communication easier, one shake at a time.  

With each passing day technology continues to amaze us. As if it isn't impressive enough that we can constantly be in communication with our friends and colleagues around the globe, technonolgy enables us to do it in a matter of seconds through numerous different virtual mediums. The business world in particular has greatly benefited from such technological advancements such as texting, video chatting/ conferencing, instant messaging, and much more. And now, thanks to ShakeBee, business meetings may never be the same.

ShakeBee, Developed by Social Objectives Software, is the next wave of virtual communication. Users of the app have the ability to communicate with each other without actually texting the message out, but instead use a set of pre-programmed finger gestures that dictate a sentence or idea. Using a touch-screen phone, one user may run his/her fingers in a circular motion over the touch-screen, which would then send a message to a specified user such as "this meeting is the worst!" or run his/her fingers horizontally a few times to say "i think he's bluffing, lets not agree just yet". Using ShakeBee allows co-workers discretely communicate with one another allowing everyone to be on the same page and appearing more professional attentive, instead of coming across as distracted or rude to another member at the meeting.

I believe that in order to properly write about an app, one should be familiar with it. So i downloaded ShakeBee, here are my findings:

- In order for ShakeBee to work most effectively, it must be pre-programmed.
-Using your address book, ShakeBee locates other phones who also have the ShakeBee app and sends them requests to join with your device.
-Pre-Programming is super easy. Just text what you want a motion to be then make the motion you want associated with that you texted.
-Voila!!! You can now have secret conversations.

Although ShakeBee was created for the professional world, it is important to note that ShakeBee is not just limited to business-related situations. ShakeBee could also be used in social situations or while driving so a driver does not have to take their eyes off the road in order to send a message.

http://shakebee.me/

http://appadvice.com/appnn/2012/04/send-secret-messages-with-shakebee

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/shakebee/id505795084?mt=8

http://shakebee.me/media/shakebee_media_pack.pdf



 (this a mobil App is available to Apply and Android markets)

1.0, 2.0, 3.0 (Steva Jeremias & Jessica Chinnici

1.0 - http://www.psychdaily.com/article/11/demos/guestbook.php?tpl=plebius


2.0- http://www.wikipedia.org/


3.0- http://www.google.com/ig (igoogle)

comparing the frequency of computer mediated communication

For this assignment my partner was Jessica Chinnici. When we compared our notes we found that we were actually on our cellphones more then we realized. Personally, I found that i text/ IM my friends almost consistently through the day. I also realized i would text my friends even if they were in the same house as me. But i do not think that that is becuase i prefer the computer mediated communication to face-to-face communication... i am fairly confident i can just chalk that up to laziness and im sure my housemates would say the same.

I also found that the person i was having a conversation with greatly affected my frequency of communication as far as timed responses go. For example, when my boyfriend texted me i was quick to answer and we had a very fast-paced texting conversation with almost no time lag in between texts. Where as when my father texted me i wasnt necessarily in a rush to respond right away.

It is my belief that the frequent use of technology to communicate is mostly due to convenience factor, not the desire for one to shy away from face-to-face communication. Technology allows us to get answers to our questions in seconds, aids us in our ever-growing need to multitask, and communicate with ease. FaceTime by Apple (for example) allows one to have the best of both worlds; one can communicate with technology AND have the face-to-face interaction at the same time. Such technology would not have been invented or used to such an extent if people did not desire face-to-face communication.