Week 9: Final Blog Post

After eight weeks of posting on my idea of a virtual wedding planning site and relating it to the topics covered in IST 195, the project is finally coming to an end.

Overall, this project helped me relate the topics we were discussing in class to subjects I was interested to (because technology is not necessarily my strong point) which in turn helped me get a better understanding of what we were learning.  Throughout the eight weeks, my idea of virtual wedding planning as evolved into an idea that could actually be put into action.  I know have a better technological sense of the necessities that would go into it, which would be key in a technologically based business.

Even after completing this project and seeing it come better into fruition, I do not believe that this is ever something I would consider doing.  First off, I do not have enough knowledge of interest in technology to create a business that directly relies on technology.  Without this, I would not be able to be as successful or invested in the company.  Also, even through just writing some of the blog posts, I was bored and dissapointed by the lack of personal interaction in my idea.  I enjoy working with people and like to have impacts on them throughout the process.  With my idea of virtual wedding planning, I do not see myself getting what I want out of being a wedding planner.

I commented on Reijie Lou's third blog and the first blog posts of Yiyoa Zhou and You Jin Jeong.

Week 8: Blog Review Post

This week, instead of relating my entrepreneurial  idea to the topics discussed in lecture this week I was challenged to find a well-known blogger in the technological or entrepreneurial fields.  Because entrepreneurship is more related to my course of study in school, Hospitality Management, I began researching these bloggers rather than technologically related bloggers.

In my research, I cam across Anita Campbell's blog.  Anita Campbell is the founder, CEO and executive editor of Small Business Trends, a website that updates readers on the current trends that are impacting, both positively and negatively, the small business segment.  Although studying law in school, Anita has been an "entrepreneur at heart" all of her life.  She has become a well-known speaker and also has her own radio show.

With a very extensive background including studies and interests in banking, information technology, human resources, marketing and eCommerce. Anita is able to share a lot of information on a varied array of subjects.  While her main topics include entrepreneurs, the trends in the small business segment and trends in technology, she also covers many other subjects.  As trending right now, Anita discusses how to use social media properly and in an effective way to help a start-up and growing business. Recently she has gone into a lot of detail about how trends are affecting  the way consumers buying behaviors. Anita also discusses the expectations business owners have.  Combining both the entrepreneurial spirit and techology, Anita often discusses the creation of online business communities.
If you want to know more about Anita Campbell, or read some of her posts, go to http://smallbiztrends.com/ . 

Week 7: Operating System and Colors

During this week's lectures we talked abot operating systems and colors.  Both topics are related to my idea of virtual wedding planning and have a large impact on the success of the idea.

Because an operating system is the most important piece of software in a computer, it is important that the computers used by our planners have very high functioning operating systems.  There will be quite a bit of information being stored on each wedding planners computers, as they will probably be planning several events at one time.  Because of this, I feel as though pre-emptive multi-tasking would be useful in our company.  With the number of events being done at once, file creation and storage will be a huge key to the success and organization of our company, a task that will be done through the operating system of our computers.  It is very important that all of the information we give to and get from brides is safetly stored on our computers in a very easily accessible manner. 

When creating a website, the outline and design of it plays a huge role in it's success.  On our main web page, it will be important that we show pictures of many of the events we have done.  These pictures need to be of high quality and accurately displaying the colors.  Pictures that look foggy or blurry and have a drab appearance of color will not sell our company as well.  Pictures need to accurately display the work of our wedding coordinators and amazing work they do.  As discussed in Week 6's blog, a lot of the information shared between coordinator and couple will be shared via pictures.  Because of this, it is very important that the pictures being shared are portraying colors accurately.  Many couples use colors as the theme or basis of their events, so it is important that these color choices can be easily identified and remain consistent throughout all of the details of the event.

Week 6 Bits and Bytes

This week in lecture, after taking our exam, we discussed bits and bytes.

Knowledge about these two subjects wold be very important in the digital wedding planning business.  Much of the informtation that wedding planners will be sharing with their clients and vice versa will be through the use of video, audio clips and photos.  Wedding planners main way to connect with their brides, other than impersonel email, will be through the exchange of video.  To look pprofessonal and put faith in a couple, the video sent has to be one of good quaility.  Because of this, a planner must unterstand the data it takes to send a video message of good quality and be using a computer that is equipped to do so.

There are many small details that go into planning parties, from decorations like tables settings and floral arrangements, to selections of attire for the bridal party and more.  It is important that the wedding planner and the coule are well aware of the decisions being made by each other.  Because this is a virtual process, the bride and planner will not be meeting with vendors and there to make decisions together.  The exchange of photgraphs will play a huge role in the planning process.  Planners would send pictures of venues, decorations and many other things to their couples in order for them to make a decisions so a planner can crate contracts and make purchases.  Like wise, a bride may want to send pictures of her dress or samples of the colors she has choosen to her wedding planner.

Bits play a huge role in the color depth of photography.  A one bit depth picture is in grayscale, while a sixteen bit depth picture is in bright colors.  In between, the shades and intesity of colors are shifted.  This would play ahuge role in the exhange of pictures between a planner and his or her couple.  While one shade may not be a difference to everyone, it could be the difference between the bridal parties shoes matching their dresses or not.  In the planning of events, matching and coordination is a huge focal point.  It is important to keep this in mind when taking and sharing pictures.

Week 5: Input/Output

In this week's lecture we focused on input and output.  During our lecture, we discussed RFID.  I believe that RFID would be a great benefit to my idea of creating a virtual wedding planning site.

Although the brides who would use our services are too busy to do the work on their own,  we still want them to feel as connected with the process of their their wedding and  their wedding planner as possible.  In order to do this, we could have planners take RFID chips with them, as they go throughout their day.  This way, brides could check what their planner is up to, almost as if they are tagging along.

An RFID system would be relatively inexpensive for us to you.  Our headquarters would have to purchase the RFID reader and have a host computer, but the chips themsevles are fairly inexpensive.

Not only would this system allow our couples to be more involved in the wedding planning process, but it would allow our management team to keep an eye on what our planners are doing.  Through RFID, we would be able to track exactly where planners go while they are on the clock and how much progess they are making on our customers events.

Week 4: Hardware and Privacy

This week in lecture we continued on discussing privacy and then went on to dicuss computer hardware.

Knowing the inter workings of a computer would be very important in my business idea.  Our IT would be one of the greatest assets to our staff.  In order to ensure happy customers and successful wedding planning experiences, we would need to try and avoid as many technologial flaws as possible.  My business idea includes many services all running through a computer, from simple things such as email and instant messaging, to more complicated services like virtual tours and video chatting.  It would be important to have a strong network for our planners to use in order to provide the best service to our clients.

Week 3: Social Media Privacy and Excel

This week in IST lecture we discussed safety in regards to the use of social media websites and Excel.  Proper use of social media websites is very much related to my idea of virtual wedding planning.  We would have to have many safety and privacy precautions set up to ensure that our users were using the website for the proper goal, to find a wedding planner.  We wouldn't want any problems with stalking, harassment or content of a sexual nature to occur.  But, we also would not want our user to drastically limit the amount of information they put on the website.  In order to properly match couples with wedding planners, we would need quite a but of information from both parties, but would want the viewers to this information to be very limited.  It is important that we find a balance between enough and too much information.

Knowing how to use excel properly would be a very important skill of our wedding planners.  Not only would it be a good way to keep an updated database for all of our planners and couples, and their contact information, but it's a very good organizational tool for wedding planners to use.  Excel is a great way to create budgets, keep track of figures and spending, lists vendors and their informations and create production plans and schedules for events.