 |
Hello! My name is Chelsea Harrison and I'm 24 years old. I was born in Gainesville and now live with my boyfriend, Jeff, in a little beach town on the east coast called Indialantic. I work full time at Space Coast Credit Union and am taking three classes at UF. Like most of the working students, I'm extremely busy! My entire family graduated from UF and my grandfather taught Agricultural Engineering at the school, so becoming a Gator is a family tradition! |
A. Businesses with websites have the ability to turn a small "mom and pop shop" into a hugely successful business. Consumers from all over the world will have access to the store, rather than just the local market. Shoppers could see current inventory, shipping details, and store policies on the website.
Before this project, I had never listened to a podcast. So I was nervous about trying to create my own podcast! The podomatic website makes creating podcasts very easy. With so many companies having websites, it seems inevitable that these same companies will begin to have podcasts. It is a fast, reliable way to get information to consumers. Companies could give their customers up to date information about sales and promotions.
Although customers love to get fast, reliable information, they want information they can use. I believe if consumers are bombarded with "spam" from the company podcasts, they will be less likely to listen to it in the future. The podcasts should be short and to the point. They should provide useful information without sounding like an infomercial. As long as the podcasts keep the customers interest, I think it could be a valuable asset to any website.
To listen to my podcast, click here ---> 
Before this project, I had heard of digitally signed e-mail and encrypted e-mail, but never paid attention to the subject. I didn’t think it pertained to me since I never sent confidential and secret information to the group of friends I e-mail with. I don’t think that any hackers care about what my friends and I will be doing this weekend.
However, after looking further into the topic, I realized that it could pertain to me. For example, if you make a purchase on-line and need to e-mail the company about billing information or any other question, you are sending all of your personal information (address, credit card numbers, etc.) over the internet. This could be “picked up” by hackers and your identity could be stolen before you know it. All of the frustration could have been avoided if the e-mail was encrypted.
I believe certain businesses should always send encrypted e-mails. One of these businesses is financial institutions such as banks and credit unions. An employee in one department could e-mail a co-worker in another department a simple question about a customer. This e-mail could have account numbers, social security numbers, and other personal information. The customer could have their identity stolen and the bank would have some explaining to do to not only that customer, but account holder. The confidence of the customers would be gone and the bank could take a financial downturn.
It is always “better to be safe than sorry”. As I learned, encrypting an e-mail takes only seconds. This is becoming a necessary precaution.
Collaborative computing can be a tremendous asset to companies. This communication would be particularly helpful to businesses that have multiple branches, spread throughout the country or world. With employees working in different time zones, it could be hard to have everyone in the office at the same time to have a meeting or conference call.
I have experienced this first hand with the Collaborative Computing Project. There were five students in my group. I work full time and am taking three classes at the University of Florida, so my schedule is not very flexible. With the SharePoint Services, we were able to come together on our own time and create an ad for our “DVD store”.
SharePoint Services has many different features. The team members can have discussions, set up surveys, and add announcements. So that team members are not checking the website unnecessarily, alerts can be set. Members have the option of having an alert sent to their e-mail when new discussions, announcements, or documents have been posted. With so many customizable options available, collaborative computing could help any company or business with projects.
To take a look at our project, click here ---> Collaborative Computing
Once again, this class has taught me something new! I decided to go with Excel 2007, which turned out to be a little bit of a headache. I have used Excel 2003 a little at work, but had never used 2007. During this project, I created functions, a pivot table, and used the goal seek tool. Now that I know the basics, I am ready to put together a monthly budget worksheet!
Here's a little sample of my work
The final part of the Computer Portfolio Project was using Microsoft Database. At first, this was becoming a major headache and I was very frustrated having to teach myself Microsoft Access. Fortunately, the students are very helpful on the dicussion board, and Microsoft has great tutorials on-line. In this project we learned how to create and modify tables, create queries, and create reports.
If I work for a company after graduation that uses Microsoft Access, I will have the basic skills necessary to create tables and reports. The types companies that use Access will need to provide their clients with layouts of what products they offer, and be able to sort the products by price, describe the benefits of products, and sort them by relevance to the client. Microsoft Access is an "end user" program, which means we were creating reports for outsiders to look at, and to organize their thoughts with.
My favorite part of this project was creating the report. This part seemed to be the most relevant when looking at the database from the outside. We created a report with only the outlets with PG movies. If you were a potential client, you could see which outlets carried PG movies, the titles of the movies the outlet carried, and who to contact at the outlet if you needed more information. I sorted the movies in alphabetical order, so the client could easily find a movie they were looking for. With a litte more "real world" practice, I think I could grow to like Microsoft Access.
This is an example of the relationships I created between the DVD outlets, movies, and Outlets with DVD's tables
