eBay and reputation

Reputation is the general opinion of the public towards a person, a group, or an organization. Building a positive reputation is a very important factor in not only improving your social status but also in fields, such as business and online communities such as eBay, Amazon and all sorts of other customers’ feedback oriented websites.

As it was mentioned in the book “Smart Mobs”,

“Reputation marks the spot where technology and cooperation converge”. Today’s technology and its rapid growth open up new opportunities in doing business online. To cooperate online could interchangeably be used as a way of building up trust and developing a high reputation while billions of dollars worth of transactions are facilitated through the websites between people that do not even know each other.

eBay is using a reputation system by providing feedbacks for the buyer about the seller reputation and specific product. Sellers can build up their high status through positive sales in the auction business. Constant demand for the people that wanted to share their reputation status continues to grow; that said it also shows that there is a lot of value for those people that want to extend their reputation to the other sites.

A small portion of people have still disagreed with the fact that using a reputation system through many different websites could negatively affect the overall e-commerce. There are a number of websites that have been known for providing the best online service and in fact there are many more people that agree with the usage of a reputation system in the different sites. Reputation systems will become more portable in the near future, it’s just a matter of time. eBay could be one of the founders in creating and building up your reputation which eventually could help to move out to the other websites. eBay created its name as one of the finest services which uses a system of customer’s feedback to publicly rate each member's reputation.

Skype

Skype

Being an international student requires a lot of searching on the web, or simply reading through some of the IT magazines about the best way to communicate with family and friends that have been left abroad. I do not even know how I found out about Skype, but I was extremely happy about this discovery. I have been using Skype for five years and it helps me with the updates of the events that happens in my circle of friends.

After reading “Naked Conversations” I got really interested about Skype’s development through the years and the steps they had to take to become the most popular internet telephone survey in the world.

Skype uses word to mouth method to put themselves out into the market. Skype also uses similar tactics that ICQ used back in 1996. One of the ideas that Skypes uses from their competitors was “tell-a-friend’, which I thought was a very interesting idea.

“Whenever a new IM software version was ready, they’d contact 1,000 randomly selected users, giving them each the same “secret password,” and urging each to reveal it only to their two best friends” –Naked Conversations

By doing so, Skype made their customers feel that they were the part of the company, more like an insider and the part of something big that was about to happen. Instead of telling the “secret” to only two friends, word spread out fast, putting Skype at a 30-million-user mark. Big, did happen, everybody loves Skype, and everybody is waiting for new innovations. The method that Skype used to promote was quite unique. There were fractions of pennies spent on each customer, comparing to a 125 dollar that was spent to acquire new customer for a wireless telephone carrier. Skype is extremely efficient for those who use it and has proven to be very profitable for it’s investors.

Collective action dilemma

“Collective action dilemma” based on the “Mob Smart” book is simply a perpetual balancing of self and public good. Most of the people tend to lie back waiting for somebody else to do the job in order to benefit from it later. The main reason for this silly phenomenon is a lack of cooperation. People tend to be more isolated and more distant from one another; they are more likely to lock themselves into their own little world and do things on their own.

On the way to class, how many students do you see, just cruising along and listening to their headphones? This is one of these hints, reminding me everyday that people do not want to be involved and simply want to avoid any kind of human contact. Day after day, the repeated action occurs which later could be defined as a way of life; isolated and uninvolved. There is nothing wrong with liking and listening to the music, but doing it consistently could lead to seclusion. People are isolated and alone, they have no interest to cooperate or in fact to be a part of the group or the team. A common vision or goal that most of the teams are reaching for is simply a mystery to them.

Social networking with the help of the technology is helping people to be more connected and involved in every day life. The more we get involved the less “free riders” we have. Having every one on the same page, working as a one could make the world, overall, a better place.

Informal structure and bottlenecks

For privacy purposes I do not want to use the company name or my friend’s name.

I would like to talk about the informal structure of the company. After reading the assigned readings I realized that I was actually involved in a similar situation. I once had a friend who started a company. As the company grew he became a bottleneck. After a year it was difficult not seeing him and talking to him the way I used too, it was also hard to see him becoming a bottleneck.

Informal structure usually happens in recently formed companies. When his company started to operate he knew everyone that was working for him; his friends were his only employees. While the company started to grow more rapidly, he became more and more distant from his employees.

A year went by, and I had free time to go and see him. After I entered the building I could not sense the feeling of community that was once there. It was strange walking in and not knowing anybody, things had changed.

My friend was the most important part of the company, his knowledge and determination were a way of linking the network together. Becoming a bottleneck was not easy for him, being under a lot of stress and constantly feeling pressure, the company operation started to go down. He started to lose some money, until he figured that he could just not do it by himself. He hired some people to help him out. After making these decisions the profits started to increase again.

After creating a company, informal structure comes in to play, and after the company progress’ executives become bottlenecks. Realizing that to manage and operate the company takes a lot out of you, and that having somebody on your side that could help everyday tasks is not such a bad idea. From what I know, my friend wanted to make as much money as he could therefore he did not consider spending extra money to hire someone else, and instead he took the entire load upon himself. It hurt him and his company until he found someone to help him.