yOuThGenEraTion @ BAC 5

One of Malaysia’s E-commerce sites that I found is http://www.bpfair.com/. This is a site which I fascinated on it. Some reviews been done for your reading.

E-catalogue – A list panel of various categories of items will found in left side. They are arranged according to different categories.

Search Engine – You know exactly what you item but lazy find through e-catalogue? Search engine can ease you burden. Just type in the item name, and result will come out in few seconds. Result can too be shown either in tiles, thumbnail, or list, according to your preference.

Top Sales – In the right side, there is a column for displaying the rank for top sales items. If you wish to be one of the fashions, you may refer to the top sales rank there.

Description – After clicking the item you like, you will able to see the details, description, and price of that particular item. You can also read the comment given by user or seller before buying it.

Bonus – Every item will have its own reward point. The more you purchase, the more points you collect. Points can be used to enjoy a discount up to 10%. (Click here)


Shopping Cart – For the items you like, you may just add them to the shopping cart. After done, all you need is just a click, and then all the transactions will complete at once.

Payment – User can do the payment through CIMB Bank, Maybank2u, Public Bank, or RHB Bank. These banks are the popular bank that most Malaysian familiar with.


Forum – This is a place where user or customer can leave down their message or question, and they will get reply as soon as possible.



Customer Service – Two floating windows will appear in left side when you scrolling down. For online service, you may access to it during working hours, through calling, MSN, or Skype. After working hours, you may access offline service by leaving message or call for it.


P.S: Logo and pictures being protected. For more details, please make yourself available at http://www.bpfair.com/

After discuss few topics with all of you, today I will like to share with all of you, what is corporate blogging. Corporate blogging is published and used by an organization to reach its organizational goals. It is used by a company to produce and support a blog to achieve business objectives and to be known with their services. Although there is few types of corporate blogging, but typically it is can be categorized as either external or internal blogs.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_blog
http://www.idynn.com/archives/05/corporate-blogging-secrets-revealed/
(paragraph 5)

1) Internal Blogs
~ Is a blog that can be view by every employee and is generally accessed through corporate intranet.
~ It encourage
- employees participation
- free discussion of issue
- collective intelligence
- direct communication between various layers of organization
- a sense of community

Further explanation:
http://www.brookgroup.com/Resources/Internet-Marketing/Corporate-Blogging.html (Internal Communication)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_blog
(Internal blogs)

2) External Blogs
- Is blog that is publicly available for company employees, teams, or spokespersons share their views.
- Also can be treated as public communication blog which it is used to communicate to prospects, clients, employees and the media. Press releases and project updates can be posted, as well as job opportunities or information that the company wants to distribute outside of the normal news channels.

To read more detail about external blogs, you can click the link below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_blog
(External blogs)
http://www.brookgroup.com/Resources/Internet-Marketing/Corporate-Blogging.html
(Public Communication)

Typically there is some famous type of corporate blogs, which is:
1) Company Blog
2) CEO Blog
3) Industry Blog
4) Department or Product Blog
5) Customer Service Blog

For further explanation and also example for above those famous types of corporate blog, you can access to this link for some further reading:

http://mariosundar.wordpress.com/2008/05/19/the-5-types-of-corporate-blogs-with-examples/
(The 5 Types Of Corporate Blog – with example)

Why we have corporate blogging?????
1. Become the Expert
2. Customer Relationships
3. Media Relations
4. Internal Collaboration
5. Knowledge Management
6. Recruitment
7. Test Ideas or Products
8. Rank High in Search Engines

Explanation of about can be access through this link
http://www.corporateblogging.info/basics/why/
(Why blog for business)

There is some practices need to be account to make the corporate blog is being useful and benefits, which is:
- Fine print
- Know what you are doing
- Create blogging policies
- Avoid the marketing blog
- Keep it fresh
- Reinforce the company core value
- Encourage employees to use it

Explanation of the practices above can be found in:
http://www.brookgroup.com/Resources/Internet-Marketing/Corporate-Blogging.html
(Secrets of Corporate Blogging)

Top 15 sites of corporate blogging (Sept 2008)
1. Google
2. Adobe
3. Yahoo! Search
4. Facebook
5. Dell
6. Yahoo!
7. Linkedln
8. Southwest Airlines
9. General Motors (wound up)
10. Flickr
11. Mint
12. Marriott
13. Lenovo
14. Kodak
15. Delta








Link:
http://mariosundar.wordpress.com/2008/09/09/top-15-corporate-blogs-technorati-rankings-sep-08/

E-learning is a type of learning that used technology(software, application, computer) to support the learning process. The delivery mode of e-learning will be lack of face to face interaction due to the use of computer in conducting the learning. It usually will use by universities as a tool to offer their courses to student or it also used by an organization to provide training to their staff.

Nowadays, Universities in Malaysia become more attentive to this type of learning. In the old days, television, transperancy and projector is used as a teaching material. However, with the introduction of the excellent software and hardware, e-learning has been gradually accepted by the public and become a convenient tool in pursuing their studies.

Many universities in Malaysia start to offer this type of learning method as they not only can take in more student either locally or internationally but also have income to maintain their position in this competitve world. This usually will happen in the private universities as they do not need a huge campus to allocate their students. Due to the competition, more and more universities nowadays are providing e-learning in conducting their course.

Ther are several advantage of e-learning which are:

a) Foster the interaction among students and lecturers, normally a lecturer cannot pay attention to everyone of the student in a lecture class as it was too big and due to time constraint. Besides, some students may also shame to post question when they do not understand the lecture.Thus, by using e-learning, lecturer can deal with that student individually and students will also be more comfortable in asking question.

b)Self-paced learning, This mean that students actually can learn at the rate they prefer. In the case where a students is a slow learner, they can absorb the knowledge slowly whereas if this happen in traditional teaching method, the teaching pace would not be change just because you are a slow learner.

c)Reduce costs and time, Students can learn from anywhere without travelling to the universities as they can conducting the lesson from their home. This can save the travelling costs and time especially for the student who do not has enough budjet to further their studies in overseas.

d)Gain diversify knowledge, By using e-learning, we are able to learn different knowledge from different country. Thus, this can inspire the students to came out with creative or innovative ideas which it may be useful when they work for their organizations.

On the other hand, e-learning also has it disadvantage which are:

a) Reduce social and cultural interaction, The impersonality of e-learning will let the students feel they are being isolated because lack of face to face communication. Instruction will not always help the students to solve the problem they face during the studies, but somestimes they also needs realistic assistance from the lecturer which they can feel they are being attach by the lecturer.

b)Low motivation, Student must be highly motivated and responsible in doing their work since this is a self-paced learning. In such case, those student with low motivation will not be able to catch up the lesson and fall behind.

c)Access, since e-learning need an internet access, students sometime will feel frustated when the internet connection is slow or having a problem in accessing to a particular websites. Besides, they may facing a problem to deal with the complex learning application and difficulty in manage the computer files.

d) Practicability, Because the lesson is learn through internet, so it is impossible to conduct practical work such as experiments through internet. Sometimes, students may feel boring and do not have a better understanding of the subject they learn.

Again...everything in this world has two aspect!!Although the conduct of e-learning in universities seem like constituting benefit to the students but in my opinion, it also act as a tool to increase their income in this competitive world where many universities are starting using e-learning in conducting the courses. If any of them fall behind, they may not be able to sustain but being kick off from this realistic world. So, is it e-learning brings more benefit to the students or the universities? Let you be the one who determining it.

Journal about fulltime students' and working adults' perception of e-learning in Malaysia.

Reference:

1. http://cai.au.edu/concept/benefit.html

2. http://www.1stopbiztro.com/_mgxroot/page_10752.html

Hey, do you still remember those days we get some coins to buy our first bread or roti canai? The day we get the notes rather than coins, just to buy some fried rice or noodle soup? And now, using Dad’s, or maybe own credit card to purchase movie ticket online? These are some of the evolution of how we spend our money.

Credit Card, if you used it wisely, of cause you can experience the convenience it brought. However, to prevent from bearing a big burden of debt, Debit Card now exists to solve the problem!

Both the credit card and debit card give the same concept of not to bring too much money inside one’s wallet or purse. However, credit card is in a postpaid method, which means after you swipe, you will only require to pay back a month later. On the other hand, debit card which is the prepaid method, will straightly deduct your card’s money that had reload to it.

From a study, it discovered that there is a transaction growth of 8% by using debit card in the second half of 2008. In 2009, there will be further growth despite of recession.
(Further information, please click on http://www.atmmarketplace.com/article.php?id=11024)

The growth of debit card should not be doubt on, because the used of debit card is too broad. Below are some of the examples where debit card can apply on:

1. Purchase petrol, groceries, or fast food
2. Purchase movie ticket
3. Purchase theme park ticket
4. Withdrawal of cash
5. Online bill payment or online purchase
6. Student bill payment
7. Replacement of traveler cheque, cash
8. Toll payment
9. Public transport fare
10. Parking fee

Mobile payment (m-payment) systems have been developed in recent years to facilitate purchases of products, services and content in mobile and electronic commerce and also at physical points of sale. It is a point-of-sale payment made through a mobile device, such as cellular telephone, smartphone or personal digital assistant (PDA). Instead of paying cash, cheque or credit cards, a consumer can use m-payment to pay for a wide range of services and digital or hard goods.

Examples of M-payment systems that available in Malaysia and its potentials are:

Mobile Money
Hong Leong Bank has teamed up with a Malaysian company, Mobile Money International Sdn Bhd to bring its customers this innovative payment system. It unlocks the power of the mobile phone to make payments and allows card members to pay for goods and services using a mobile phone coupled with a 6-digit security PIN (Personal Identification Number) via SMS. This unique method of payment is called as “Mobile Money”. It is secure as the mobile phone is linked to the Hong Leong Mobile Credit Card account and the security PIN is set by the customer which used for approval of each payment. Its convenient will encourage more consumers to shop online which will definitely be a great boon to the e-commerce industry in Malaysia. For details, please refer to http://www.hlb.com.my/news/2005/corn148.jsp?flag=102005 and http://www.neowave.com.my/mobilemoney_overview.asp


TeleMoney
TeleMoney is Malaysia’s first mobile payment service via multi-channel access for Internet and wireless transactions that launched in November 2001. Through TeleMoney, Malaysians can enjoy a secure and convenient method to conduct mobile commerce using a GSM cellular phone. It is a service free of banks and telco dependence. A consumer with a credit card or debit card with a cellular phone can register for this service. To register, a consumer only need to have a GSM phone and a TeleMoney personal identification number that connecting it to a credit card, debit card, stored valued card, bank account or even the phone account.

Maxis FastTap
Malaysian mobile operator Maxis launched the world’s first contacless mobile payment system based on NFC (Near Field Communications) technology on April 2009. This m-payment system is called as Maxis FastTap. It is an integrated mobile payment service established under a partnership with Nokia, Visa, Maybank and Touch ‘n Go and available only on the Nokia 6212 classic device. NFC is a short-range wireless technology that allows communications between devices at close range. It offers high levels of interoperability between devices and readers and global standard for contactless mobile payments with a wide range of features that allows credit card, debit card, ticketing and transportation payments to be integrated into a mobile phone. For details, please refer to
http://www.telecoms.com/10397/maxis-brings-nfc-payments-to-malaysia and http://mis-asia.com/news/articles/worlds-first-contactless-mobile-payment-system-launches-in-malaysia

Mobile Wallet
Mobile wallet is mobile phone that has functionality to replace a traditional wallet and more. It stores personal and sensitive information like passport, credit card information, PIN codes, online shopping accounts, booking details and insurance policies that can be encrypted or password-protected. This technology aims to reduce the number of items that people need to carry around. With mobile wallet, consumer can use their mobile phone to pay transactions at merchants that accept mobile payments. The user just needs to upload digital cash from a credit card to their mobile phone and swipe their mobile phone at payment counters. For details, please refer to http://www.mobileworld.com.my/v1/content/view/219/62/

Hello, it has been one week time I never update my blog, last two week I have share with all of you about revenue model of some e-commerce website and discuss with all of you whether there are some threat of internet or how safe of our data is. I think it make all of you understand even more how online transactions work and how we can be safe by using it. Today, I will like to share further with all of you again, which it is about how actually those payments being make for those transactions online? If all of you still confuse how online transactions make the payments and receive the payment, here got some useful information for all of you. Actually those payment make or transfer is calls Electronic Currency.


Electronic Currency (also known as electronic money, digital currency, digital money, electronic cash, digital cash, and digital money) is the money or scrip which is exchange electronically, which is through use of computer network, internet and also digital stored value systems. In more detail, e-currency means the money that can use for shopping, do investment via internet by through credit card payment or some other payment methods. There are few popular example of electronic currency which is:


~Webmoney
~1MDC
~ e-gold













~e-bullion
~ Pecunix
~ Liberty Reserve


Typically it has two major types of electronic currency, which major different is the backed base, the types is describe below:

1) Backed by Precious Metal – such as e-gold which it is backed by gold
2) Backed by Hard Currency – example like Paypal



This is the link that got further explanation of the type of electronic currency:


http://www.giexc.com/

There are some major characteristic of electronic currency which is:

• The transfer of electronic currency is instant and ‘real time’ and cannot be reversed. It is just same like when you have purchase a cup of drink from a restaurant and you had pay for it, after that if u suddenly feel regret and would want to refund back for the payment, it is impossible because the transactions are final and not reversible in this kind of situation, so same situation apply by using electronic currency.

• Secondly, the transfer of electronic currency is private and anonymous for the sender and receiver, it means that normally it would not show the real identification of the sender and receiver and generally the account titles shown during transaction are numbers, nick names or email addresses. Additionally, just like actual cash, the source of the funds is never disclosed to the receiver.

Further explaination:
http://www.nowpublic.com/what_is_digital_currency_digital_money_real_cash

Requirement of Electronic Currency
1) Security
2) Anonymity
3) Scalability
4) Acceptability
5) Off-line Operation
6) Transferability
7) Hardware Independent

For the explanation and example of above requirements of electronic currency, you can refer to this link file:

http://clifford.neuman.name/papers/pdf/9311_netcash-medvinsky-neuman-cccs93.pdf

After share with all of you about the types, characteristics and requirements of the electronic currency, now I would like to share about benefits and limitation or disadvantages using electronic currency.

Benefits
1) Convenient
- provides users a quick, simple and safe way for shopping instead of showing their credit card information to merchant who they do not know
- offer a variety of services without having to handle physical cash or checks. Customers do not have to wait in lines; this provides a lower-hassle environment.
- Debit cards and online bill payments allow immediate transfer of funds from an individual's personal account to a business's account without any actual paper transfer of money. It saves up the time of process and doing paper work.

2) Low Transactions Cost
- Unlike other businesses that eat up your profit with exorbitant fees, electronic currency trading allows you to do business with minimal fees giving you more profit and more money for you.

3) Anonymity and Detection of Double Spender
- Highly confidential for users ID and also information and real-time checking of all transactions make the possibility of multiple expenditures negligible.

4) Globalization
- allows access to a global market where not restricted and controlled by local currencies.







Disadvantages or limitation:

1) Fraud or Criminal Activities
- hacking into bank accounts and illegal retrieval of banking records has led to a widespread invasion of privacy and has promoted identity theft.

2) Failure of Technology
- such as network breakdown, defected by virus or worm, power failure that cause loss of data and record may be one of the issue of electronic currency.





3) Privacy
- it is still an issue of how safe the confidential information of a credit card or debit card holders to be protected and personal information will not be misuse.


4) Costly to Implemented and Massive Databases
- Additional required of hardware is quite costly for installation and the bank have to maintain a detailed and confidential database which required them to have massive databases.

Below are some link that describe further about the Advantages and Disadvantages of electronic commerce, anyone interest can surf for it and understand it further.

• http://www.romow.com/business-blog/benefits-of-e-currency-trading/
• http://www.iit.edu/~peacjen/cs485/ecash2.htm
• http://www.buzzle.com/articles/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-electronic-cash.html
• http://www.businesspme.com/uk/articles/trade/90/Electronic-money---advantages-and-disadvantages.html
• http://www.learncurrencytradingonline.com/electronic-currency-trading.html