Steven L. Johnson

Major thanks to the editors — Natalia Levina (SE) and Jonathon Cummings (AE) — along with three anonymous reviewers at ISR for your valuable feedback and guidance. The final version of the paper is greatly improved thanks to your input. Thank you.

Thanks for your questions Michael. The data was from a randomly selected set of online communities that use vBulletin discussion board software, discuss technology-related topics, and have full message history publically available.

Yes, prototypical language use is based on how similar someone’s language use is compared to everyone else’s in the same community.

As a general answer, in a public forum there is no expectation of privacy and observing behaviors is “fair game” for research (although all sorts of caveats still apply). For the participant survey portion there was an IRB-approved process for gaining informed consent as part of survey completion.

The participants were offered a $10 amazon gift certification for participation–I can’t remember the exact percentage, but my recollection is that about 20-30% of those who responded did so without accepting that offer.

In terms of students and research studies, I’ve had good participation when students are offered extra credit (generally 1% of final grade).

Most advanced technology developments have been in response to fraud. Advancement in technology such as iris detention, biometrics, CCTV cameras and spyware has led to improvements in identity protection and fraud prevention. However, technology has made fraud sophisticated because fraudsters such as computer hackers are constantly creating ways of hacking into systems. They are always on the counter attack to gain access, just as engineers and scientist are working hard to protect access to sensitive data and Information. Fraudsters change caller identities by using technologies such as voice over Internet protocol. For instance, a fraudster in one state can choose to call with a caller identity of a phone number in a different state.

The age of agents and publishers is far from dead. While I don’t claim to be an expert on the process, the formal system seems to offer a lot to authors, from access to editors, to marketing that comes from a publisher. Certainly, the traditional paradigm will be disrupted, but great publishers will also look for new ways to remain relevant to authors and their potential audiences. I would absolutely look at self-publishing a book. More and more, with the services available through Amazon, the lines between traditional, and self-publishing are being blurred. One would expect that the self-publishing movement will force publishers to reinvent themselves, adding value for authors by taking over marketing and distribution functions (which still take time and expertise in a digital world) and allowing authors to focus more time on the areas they might prefer, like writing and holding readings.

It’s clear that the Internet has opened up a new path for authors to bring their material to market in a way that was otherwise unavailable to the public. In the past publishers acted as gatekeepers, seen as those who sorted good writing from bad, now taste making has fallen in part, to the public — we have the option of “grading” literature, so to speak, through online reviews and purchasing behavior which determines the rank of the book on an online store.

If I were to publish a book, I would certainly consider self-publishing as an option. Though, to be frank, this would be a secondary route. I fall in to the camp of people who believe professional management for authors is not dead – nor will it be for some time. Likely the role of publishing companies will change, as would-be authors don’t require them for advances or marketing services quite like they used to. Still, for a lot of authors, leaning on their publishing company for access to expert editors, illustrators, marketing and promotion, and legal services is a key part of the publisher’s offering and something an author, myself included, would not want to coordinate — or likely be able to afford — if managing alone.

I did self-publish my first book, a Kindle-single legnth humorous essay about my trip to Scotland (http://ebook.vickiboykis.com) a couple years ago through Amazon’s Createspace and wrote a tongue-in-cheek blog post about what I learned doing e-publishing: http://blog.vickiboykis.com/2012/05/i-basically-just-paid-myself-eight-cents-an-hour-to-learn-that-i-dont-need-an-mba/ .

In summary, yes, you can make a lot of money doing it, but, just like in traditional publishing, you have to be very good. So the authors you usually hear about who make a lot of money with self-publishing, like JA Konrath (http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/) are also very good at marketing their product online and writing a lot of niche books like romance or mystery, etc. It’s still very hard to make money in poetry or general fiction because readers don’t know you and aren’t sure if they want to read you yet.

Even with my e-book experiment, I ended up making only 30 cents of a dollar from Amazon. So, yes, with self-publishing you do have more opportunities, but it’s not like you’re releasing to the open market, you’re still releasing through Amazon or Lulu, etc. It’s just a different intermediary who is less discriminating. I definitely never would have been accepted by an agent so I’m very happy for the opportunity to get my writing out there, but serious novelists and writers still rely on the approval of the mass market, which still relies on publishers and agents, and as long as it is prestigious to be published by Knopf, etc, that model won’t change. It may erode over the next 10-15 years, but there is SO much writing being put out every year that someone has to be an intermediary. The shape of the intermediary will change, for sure, but not the fact that one will exist.

I do not think that the age of agents and publishers is dead, however, I do believe that the landscape for media of all types has changed dramatically over the past several years and will have a significant impact on the way various industries operate. With the advent of many new technologies and methods of delivery, artists have options that they simply did not in the past. Previously, where it may have been necessary to have an agent or manager as a writer, filmmaker or musician in order to broker deals to get your work distributed to a large audience, the average artist no longer needs to rely on traditional channels in order to make their work available to the general public. To me, the real value in having agents/publishers/distributors for your work lies in their expertise and access to larger, established channels with a wide customer base. My undergraduate degree is in Film and Media Arts, so I have some personal experience using newer methods of distribution to publish some of my work (most recently a podcast) and while today’s technology makes it extremely simple to produce something and make it available via the Internet, finding your target audience is a daunting task in and of itself. The marketing and advertising of works are where the help of agents and publishers comes in very handy, and are the main reasons why I do not believe that there is no longer a need for these middlemen. So for now, I see things such as self-publication an excellent option for an artist who is looking to have their work made available by any means necessary, but that the established hierarchy within the publishing and other media industries is still the most reliable and likely way for an artist to find success with their work.

My husband has actually written a couple of novels (not yet published), and says he will never self publish. He started writing as a hobby when he became a stay at home dad 4 years ago. He isn’t ready to publish yet, he is in the editing phase thus far, and the two books are part of what he thinks will be at least a trilogy. There are a few challenges with self publishing, some have been mentioned already. First, you have to hire an editor, or be an excellent editor yourself. I have served as my husband’s first round editor, but I am an engineer (by schooling), not an English teacher! When I am reading a book, even one published by one of the big firms, and I spot a grammatical error, I cringe. I can only imagine what errors / mistakes would end up in a book that wasn’t professionally edited. Next challenge: marketing. How do you get your name out there when there are a 300,000 books published every year? Even traditional publishing houses do not help with marketing, unless your name is Steven King or James Patterson. Today’s key marketing tool is social media, no matter which path you take to publish. Third: distribution. If you publish only on Amazon, how does your book end up in Barnes & Noble? It doesn’t. I know, you are thinking to yourself, those stores are a thing of the past, everyone has a kindle nowadays. But, there are still consumers out there that like the feel of a book in their hand (myself included), and want to spend hours wandering the rows of books to find the best one. Publishers can help with distribution. They negotiate with brick and mortar stores for you, however, to get your book on the shelf, along with other books they are pushing. They will help you get it on Amazon too, and into the kindle, nook, or other reading devise. Another challenge: trends. The publishers have their finger on the pulse of what is selling, and what isn’t. Maybe my husbands fantasy series about some teenage boys whose lives are turned upside down when some mythical creatures attack their town isn’t going to sell in today’s market. Perhaps if we wait for the Hunger Games or the Hobbit interest dies down, maybe then is the time to act. We would look to a publisher to help make that call. I see it sort of like delaying the release of a movie because of the others scheduled to premiere that same weekend.

I do think there is still a place to traditional publishing housing and agents, though as in many creative industries people are looking for a variety of options and want to the ability to consider what would be best for them. Some writers will choose to go with a more traditional model, where earnings may be different but all the auxiliary needs of publishing a book are met (such as marketing). Others will choose to self-publish or work with agencies who can offer some of the services they need. In the music industry, the landscape of creating music has changed tremendously. Musicians can work with labels, start their own label, self-produce just one album, crowdfund an entire project and so on and so on. There is no longer just one path to success. The same options now exists for authors and with ebooks and ereaders the barrier has been significantly lowered to do so. I have two friends who have self-published, both more as a hobby than a livelihood, which will saturate the market for those looking to self-publish as part of their career.

I think, just like in the music industry, there is still a place for the “old way” of doing things in this digital modern era. Like what was said by many of the posts so far, there are still a lot of pluses with going with a traditional publishing house and agents: editing, marketing, and distribution. All of these things you can do on your own as a self publisher, but the effort level on your end is going to have to be exponentially higher than someone who has professionals doing these things for them. Someone who is writing and thinking about self publishing needs to be real with themselves about their ability to tackle these tasks, when it comes to both finances and time. For myself if I were to write something worth publishing I would go the traditional route, getting it out to the broadest possible audience in the best avenues.

Along with theme of above, I do not believe that professional management for writers and artists is dead. I’ve never been much of a writer so haven’t ever tossed around the idea of self-publishing; but I have done some things with a former venture in the media and advertising space and getting your message in front of your target customers is extremely difficult. I think that would translate to this industry. I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to market and distribute your self-published works to the masses where you’d be able to make a significant amount of money. What will likely happen for the professional management is the need to pivot and determine how they can get a piece of the self-publishing market. If I were to do it, I’d like (need) to have some sort of intermediary to help me with editing, marketing, distribution, etc.

Since there is such a wide variety of types of published content that also differ in purpose, I think there will always be opportunities for agents and publishers to provide services to authors and artists. In some instances, industry or audience may dictate the method used for publishing and in other cases it may not matter as much.For example, a person looking to publish historical accounts for consumption by the masses may have different concerns than someone looking to simply get one of their works “out there”. Essentially, agents and publishers bring experience in content delivery and distribution to authors and artists who in turn have more time to focus on their craft. On the other hand, there are a number of reliable tools for self-publishing that offer more flexibility than the traditional process. Although, I’ve never written a book, I would hope to be able to take advantage of a hybrid approach to publishing so I could leverage my strengths along with those of the publishing house. This may involve a change to the traditional business model but I imagine I might enlist the services of a major publishing house for the editing process or perhaps for the marketing and distribution. This kind of approach would be a step away from the all or nothing approach, allowing for client relationships to be evaluated on a case by case basis, resulting in more wins for both parties.

I do not believe that the the age of agents and publishers are dead, but I do definitely see a trend not only in this little blurb, but from other readings on various articles recently in the news. Self-publishing is becoming more common now more than ever, and I think there are some advantages that outweigh some of the pros in signing with professional management. One for sure is the ability for the author to be relaxed and not feel pressured or feel a time constraint on publishing a book. Being your own boss is always the end goal and in this sense you can really work at your own pace and put out the work that you feel is most indicative of your true self. While signing with a publishing company certainly has its perks (experience, established brand, more exposure, and less work that you have to do) I really do believe that it is a personal preference. If you want some guidance and someone to really hold your hand through the entire process, then it would be better to sign with a management company; but it you feel as if you are an independent worker and you can deliver your best work on your own, I really do not think this hinders performance or end book sales in the slightest. Personally, I would have to consider a management company if I were to publish a book for their experience and expertise, but I would have to really think hard about signing with a company (and giving away commission) where I could work by myself and feel less pressured and stressed if I work independently.

Like all others that have responded so far, I think that agents and publishers will continue to play a role in the publishing world. With the rise of self-publishing, I do think the role of agents and publishers will change. Because they presumably have expertise and understand what readers are looking for, there IS a place for them in the writing and editing process – even if their role changes into a consultant role throughout the pre-publishing stages.

I am certainly not an expert on this matter, but if I were writing a book myself and wanted to publish it, I would look for some guidance prior to publishing. Even if self-publishing is relatively easy, I would prefer to have a second set of unbiased eyes on my material.

As many of the others have said, agents and publishers will still be relevant. I do think that that relevance will dwindle as time goes on as accessibility goes on. What I mean is that with all the resources available to us via the internet nowadays a lot of the old fashion ways are becoming obsolete. For instance you can create a startup company with kick starter rather than trying to give a sales pitch directly to an investor. There are many other examples of this as well. The bottom line is that a person can easily research the self-publishing process and look up other authors that have done the same, as well as find guidance for the whole procedure. The resources are endless. Certain authors will still use publishers and agents because they feel comfortable with them. Also, authors whom are much more famous like J.K. Rolling and R.R. Tolkien have a much larger “product” to manage so a publisher would be beneficial. However, a starting writer who may not have the time (probably has a full time job) would most likely, myself included, look towards self-publishing. This also applies to authors that want to have a quick turnaround for profit if this is their only source of income. Personally, I would definitely go with self-publishing for convenience, time, and so I can manage my own product as well.

From the perspective of a reader, I agree with all of the other students that there are advantages to formally publishing a book and that society is not ready to completely move away from consuming materials from publishing houses. I still prefer books and I know that I’m not alone in this choice, which means there is still a demand out there for professionally published material. Although I’m sure that there is very good self-published material available, it is unlikely that I would seek it out. It is more likely that I will pick-up a recommended book at the local bookstore or borrow something that a friend suggested. Also, it is important to me that books are professionally edited as numerous grammatical errors would be frustrating.

If I wrote a book, which is very unlikely, it would probably be about travel or something light and fun. Because of this, I probably would self-publish, as I’d just want to get my material out there for viewing, but it would not be important to me to generate a profit. Furthermore, I’m sure my material would never be accepted by a publisher!

I think this is already an evolution in books publishing. It’s like development on any other system in a certain period time of time and it is the right timing. There are several on line websites like Amazon, Lulu, MagClound, GoingDigital, CreateSpace,Xlibris and etc where you can publish your books. Those websites are good base to test the ground by connecting with supporters, future readers to explore the market and see is there any interest in your idea before you publish it. You can get very low cost if you publish electronically (eBook, MP3, video) or traditionally (print, CD, DVD). People who can really write well, do not have the necessary skills to market their own product, the on line publishing Xlibris has a very extensive marketing plan for their customers. I think the websites which provide self publishing and the networking with future customers are great help for developing and pushing any new ideas by authors who are not known to the public or even famous authors. Through Amazon’s independent publishing services you can reach millions of readers worldwide and keep control of your work.

Self-publishing has been more common nowadays. With increased access to the internet and streamline process for self-publishing, a lot more people are jumping on this bandwagon. Self-publishing cuts off the middleman (publishers) and give the author full control over the distribution, marketing and finances of the book. With increasing technology improvement such as online retailing and print on demand, books are only published when they are ordered. This is a huge cost saver for self-publishers. Self-publishing has also afforded an opportunity to authors who are not well known. The unrestricted nature of self-publishing makes it attractive to more authors. I believe that there is still a need for agents are publishers. With years of experience in the industry, they are able to create marketing opportunities for authors. They also give the authors peace of mind by managing the marketing and distribution process. However, it is difficult for an unknown author to get a contract with them since they have to pay authors a percentage of the sale. With more added on services the agent and publishers would become more attractive for the ever-increasing number of authors. Being a new author, I will self-publish if I wrote a book. This would is cost effective and also allow me to be able to create footprints in the industry.

When starting to think about how to respond to this post, I realized I didn’t know much about the publishing process at all. I found this website to be helpful in quickly explaining the differences between self-publishing and using a publisher: http://www.scribendi.com/advice/traditional_versus_self_publishing.en.html

From the consumers’ perspective, I think continual use of publishers depends on the appetite of the audience. As individuals move more toward the online, kindle platform of books as opposed to a hard copy, I can see this this break from traditional publishing taking off. Personally, I still enjoy a book over reading anything online.

From the writers’ perspective, I think the move to self-publishing depends on their personal need for money and control. One of the benefits, as stated in the aforementioned article, is that publishers typically grant writers cash advances for their work as opposed to self-publishing where you pay for all expenses out of pocket. Many people have already mentioned the editing process, which can cost a large amount of time and money.

While I don’t believe that the age of publishers is dead, I do believe that the model of their business will by necessity have to change and evolve. With the advent of “globalization,” the “Average Joe” now has much more power and a far greater tool set to reach a wide audience with far less assistance than was required before. Publishers used to be the only channel through which an author could submit a work, have it professionally reviewed, find willing distributors to the target audience, and manage the details of revenue and costs. Now an author can self-publish using any number of technological tools to print, distribute, and sell. In addition, the proliferation of public/peer reviews has provided a nearly automatic quality assurance mechanism that used to be unique to established review groups, also tied in through traditional publishers. I believe that in order to remain “in the stream of business,” publishers will need to adapt to fit themselves into these new technology-driven business flows and provide much more specifically targeted and value-added services (e.g. editing/reviewing, established networking, expert advice, etc.). Rather than being the only gateway to publishing, their business model may need to look more like a premium service in the realm of navigating the publishing process.

In my opinion it depends on published material. Internet provided ability for people to express themselves without spending a lot on professional services. In most cases it is very cost effective and fast. For material such as love stories, cookbooks, memoirs, poetry there is no need for high-end professional publishers. On other hand, profession of publishers is far from dead. There is still need to publish educational materials, high end art catalogs, and best sellers (possibly previously published on Internet). For certainly, Internet is changing playing fields and making life more efficient. In future publishing book may mean something different as everyone switch to electronic versions. Publishing need to evolve as all other professions to keep up with new trends.

The internet provides a new form of retail services. This includes book distribution, book publishing, and book marketing. Due to this trend, if I had a choice between publishing through a paper source versus an internet source, I’d have to choose an internet source. This leads to greater exposure capabilities, availability to use advanced metrics to track various KPIs, and condenses the supply chain process from many entities to a single streamlined process. Thus profits go directly from one source to another without complications to pay a third party or even taxes in certain circumstances.

I do not think the age of agents and publishers are dead. The virtual marketplace, created by the internet and leveraged by Amazon as an example, created an outlet for the masses to express and package their ideas more freely. If an individual has the talent to write, illustrate, market, and distribute the book without professional assistance, then self-publishing would offer better returns and freedom of expression. But is self-publishing through an individual marketplace truly publishing? One placement in one market is not the same as larger expansion into additional retail outlets. This is the role I believe professional agents and publishers can continue to serve, but in need of an evolution toward providing stronger online distribution and marketing services.

I don’t think the age of publishers and agents is dead. However, I do believe it is no longer a necessity across many different industries. There will always be a need for expertise, but the landscape for that expertise has changed with technology. We can easily search the internet for advice or guides on how to publish, whereas I imagine years ago this information was simply not as accessible. Individuals can now attain a certain level of expertise, and not need or want to seek it elsewhere. Still, some may find this task too daunting or time consuming and opt for a professional to assist.

In some industries, having an agent or manager would open many doors for an individual, and I’m sure this also applies to some authors. Professional management may be more successful at marketing your book, or arranging events associated with your book such as personal appearances or release parties, which are not required these days to raise awareness around a publication. Having the assistance of an expert can mean the difference between success and failure for some people. Others may be much better off on their own with full control of the outcome.

I don’t plan on writing a book any time soon, but being new to it all, I imagine I would certainly consider seeking out professional help, especially if I thought self-publishing presented too much of a challenge for the amount of time I had available. First, I would research how challenging self-publication would be and then go from there.

With Amazon Kindle, I do strongly believe that the age of traditional agents and publishers are dead. One of the major reasons people love to write is to connect with readers, not publishers or agent . And most writers find it very difficult to be accepted by traditional publishers or editors. They want to write for their fans and not for these people or companies. Another strong argument why I feel the age of traditional agents and publishers is dead is that readers don’t care that their favorite Author’s book is not published by the major publishers. All they want is the content of the book and not the publishing house.

I do not believe that the old way of publishing is dead. I believe there is still a market of writers that want to reach a large volume of consumers and do not have the resources to disribute. If I wrote I book, I would seek out a publisher rather than self publish.

I think there will always be room for professional expertise in this area (as well as nearly all fields), but I feel that with the plethora of information available to the average American, we are enabled to DIY for so much! It would depend on my goals whether or not I would seek out a publisher. If this were a career path, I would seek on out. If I were expressing thoughts that did not necessarily have a huge market, I would self-publish.

Hi Professor, I wasn’t sure the best place to share this, but I heard something interesting on CNN on my way into work this morning. Thought you might find it interesting…

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/cnnmoney/2014/11/14/ivory-coding.cnnmoney.html

One of my favorite apps/sites that I’ve discovered over the past couple years has been Pinboard. It was started by someone who noticed the decline of social bookmarking after Yahoo discontinued development of Delicious and sold the company, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without the bookmarks they’ve collected over years and years.

I love a couple things about Pinboard. First, it’s very easy to use, by installing a bookmarklet in your browser. Second, the developer and sole owner, Maciej Ceglowski, emphasizes that it’s more about keeping track of your own bookmarks rather than socializing (although you can see the stuff people bookmark the most, and they’re often the interesting tech stories that get picked up a couple days later in the popular press). Third, he charges money for it (I think I pay something like $7 a year, or it’s a one-time charge), to ensure that it won’t go away or that you’ll lose your archives.

He wrote about why it’s bad to be a free user (in some cases) in this post: https://blog.pinboard.in/2011/12/don_t_be_a_free_user/

So I love both how easy to use it is, and the philosophy behind it, which is that you’re the user, not the product, as is the case with a lot of free services. I keep a lot of links for work (stats/data analysis) on my Pinboard site, if you want to check out how one looks: https://pinboard.in/u:vko

I have never used Pinboard Victoria, I am going to have to check it out.

I am addicted to Pinterest. I use it to get inspiration for home décor, and most recently for my basement renovation and backyard usage. I have found a lot of creative ways to use the dead space under the basement stairs for additional storage. I also have a very steep hill in my backyard, and had found pins that could lead to possible solutions so my children have more space to play. Its also a great place to find new recipes, since a lot of what inspires us is in the visual.

There is a socializing aspect to the site too, in that you can follow your Facebook friends and folks in your contacts list. Its always interesting to see what inspires the people you surround yourself with.

Happy Pinning!

One of my favorite apps right now is Microsoft One Drive. There are plenty of available alternatives, and I guess I only started using this because it was installed with windows 8 on my laptop. Using a cloud drive has saved me a lot of time, and has served as a last minute backup plan when I don’t have a hardcopy of a document. I use it to save all of the various cases, articles, and other print-worthy materials for classes. If I forget to print an article or case for class, I can easily pull it up on the cloud drive, view it, share it, email it, or print it. Sure I can use a USB drive, but that doesn’t help me if I only have a phone or tablet handy. I have the app on my laptop, my iPhone, my iPad, and I can even log in to it directly through a website. It’s been a pretty valuable resource while undertaking this program. if you ever find yourself without the document or file that you need, considering using a cloud drive.

My favorite website and gadget is Tableau. This application allows converting any data in great visuals in spilt seconds. The website http://www.tableausoftware.com/ is very helpful to explain software functionality and teach basic and advance strategy to analyze data. We all know that it is important to have plan in place and be able to measure it with data. This tool allows easy conversion of numbers into story. It is like Excel on steroids.

Recently I’ve fallen in love with a collaboration tool called Trello.

Trello is a free site that aims to help you organize anything you’d like – through the tool projects represented by boards which allow you to break down trips, papers, presentations, etc. into multiple lists and cards (cards are the basic unit of a board).

If you’re collaborating on something – you have the ability to add people to cards so they’re looped in as you start conversations or create checklists within the cards.

By setting up tasks within Trello I quickly get a sense of what’s being worked on, who’s working on what, and where something is in a process. It takes a bit of work to get yourself set up on, but once you begin the tool is pretty intuitive.

One of my favorite new gadgets is my “Fitbit”. I purchased a Fitbit Flex about 2 months ago. Each day, it measures the number of steps taken, total distance walked, “active” minutes and calories burned. It can also help monitor water and food consumption along with exercise if you choose to enter that information. The device sits inside a comfortable wristband and needs to charged every 4-5 days. There are a number of wristband colors available, but Tory Burch recently came out with fashionable bracelets to hold the device, so you can still track your steps even if you’re dressed up – http://www.toryburch.com/tory-burch-fitbit/

The reason I like this so much is that after a long, busy day of work, I sometimes realize that I’ve barely moved all day. Even though I feel really tired (from sitting or driving), it encourages me to take an extra walk when I normally wouldn’t have. While it isn’t life changing, it does provide me with awareness around my activity level after seemingly active days of getting in out and of my car while visitng customers.

You can also compete with friends / co-workers (I don’t currently do this). This gadget certainly has an addicting quality to it!

My current favorite gadget is my new iPhone 6 Plus. I have only had it for roughly two weeks, but I was immediately appreciative of both the design and size of the phone, as well as many of the new features included with iOS 8. I’ve typically been an early adopter of new technologies, so it was almost a given that I would follow suit when the 6 Plus was announced. I’m a big guy with a large pair of mitts, so the increase in the size of the phone was an immediate selling point for me. The screen size was also appealing to me because I use my iPhone to consume a lot of media (movies, TV show’s, etc.) and wanted to enhance the viewing experience as much as possible. I’m also really enjoying the new camera and features associated with it such as slow motion and time lapse recording modes. I have my BA in Film and Media Arts, and have been making films for quite some time, so it is a lot of fun to experiment with the new features. It’s pretty amazing what a tiny cell phone camera can do, and certainly something I would never have been able to imagine 9 or 10 years ago. I’m also looking forward to Apple Pay, although I am a little cautious about the security measures given the amount of credit card data breaches in recent memory, so I may wait a little while before starting to use it after it’s released with the next iOS update.

Personally, I am not a big app user. My apps are downloaded for functional purposes only.
I.E. :::
-Fantasy Sports Apps
—>Yahoo! Fantasy Sports and ESPN Fantasy Football
-Music Streaming Apps
—>Spotify, SoundCloud, and Songza
-Stream TV/Shows Apps
—>DirecTV, HBOGO, Cinemax OnDemand, Showtime Live, Netflix
-Alternative-to-the-Internet Apps
—>Venmo and Google Drive

And obviously I use a heavy dosage of my TUmobile and BlackBoard Apps.

I try to stay away from social media Apps as they do not apply to my lifestyle.

While I enjoy using gadgets I do not utilize them as often as others, but I do enjoy using apps on my smartphone quite often. My favorite apps are usually social media (twitter, instagram, and snapchat) and I use them for a few different reasons. I usually just use twitter now for getting up-to-date sports information, as I have found that twitter usually has the quickest updates on my sports information. Instagram and snapchat I use to connect with my friends and it is a simple way to either 1) see what my friends are up to without texting or calling and 2) interact with my friends and letting them know what I am up to in a quick manner that does not involve me directly having a conversation with them. I also simple apps such as the weather, movies, and sportsscore app to find out information very quickly. I rarely play games on my smartphone and right now my favorite app is Venmo. It allows you to pay your friends if you do not have cash on you and makes things extremely easy when splitting a bill. This is very helpful to me because I am terrible with always keeping some cash on me.

As some of my colleagues have mentioned, I don’t use many apps, particularly ‘fun’ ones because my life can be chaotic between a demanding job, too many classes and other obligations. For Christmas, I got a Surface tablet which has been a lifesaver for my coursework & reading materials. I use a few different ‘post it note’ tools to help manage the mayhem but my favorite ‘fun’ app is probably the free AllRecipes.com app. There are thousands of recipes available with hundreds of reviews, making it easy to pick a winner every time. Of course, it lets you store your favorites which is infinitely better than the assortment of emails to myself with old recipes, some dating back as far back as an AIM conversation in high school. This makes it easy to repeat favorites and share with others. It also has ‘shopping list’ functionality as well as a ‘search by ingredient’ option. Whenever I have too many eggs or tomatoes, -voila- new awesome recipes to use them up! If you enjoy cooking, you should definitely check it out!

One of my favorite app is WhatsApp. It allows me to stay connected with friends and family around the world but most importantly Ghana. It is a service that allows free text messages to any user on the platform. There is an annual service charge of ninety-nine cents. The text messages are sent thru the internet and so it requires the user to have access of the internet or wifi. It allows for group text for up to a total of fifty people. This app allows me to stay in touch with various groups such as middle school, high school and college mates as well as other social organizations i belong to.

Although I work in IT, I am not a very “techie” person who is interested in the latest and greatest technology, software or apps. Overall, I’m probably a couple years behind most other people in my demographic on this front. I do not own a tablet or a personal computer, so I rely on my smartphone and work computer (not really the best idea) to meet all my technology needs. As far as apps are concerned, the thing that I use the most is Google Maps. I am directionally challenged, so I have no idea how I ever survived without a map app. I also really like Spotify and I think it’s genius to be able have any music that you want at your fingertips. I run Spotify off my work computer and occasionally listen to music throughout the day, but I have not paid the monthly fee to use Spotify on my phone.

Unroll.me is one of my favorite tools to keep my inbox in check. It compiles all of the emails that come from lists I’m subscribed to into one daily email that I can read quickly. I love reading Fast Company to see what’s up and coming in all things apps and tech devices.

I’m also trying to become a more educated Evernote user, but it seems like a lot of work! Anyone swear by it?

One of my favorite tools that helped tremendously in personal activities is “Lose it!”. It is a nutritional tracking app that is above others in my opiniont. You use the app as a food log, depicting what you ate for each meal. Depending on your weight loss goal, it communicates how many calories you have left for the day, surplus calories for the week, and provides daily and weekly aggregate data breaking down fat, carbs, protien percentages. It separates iteself from competitors by its usability, food item library, and ability to make custom recipe entries.

When reading all the blog comments, I will be checking out Trello! Thank you for mentioning the app.

The App I truly love the most is Blackberry Messenger. Though it have gain less popularity in recent years, as far bach as 2008 I used the BBM app to stay connected with friends and families all over the world. BBM’s key features includes one-on-one messaging, group messaging, photo attachments, basic “status” messages you can display and other cool features. One best thing with BBM “Ping” which is a functionality similar to buzz where someone’s phone will vibrate or make a sound when you trying to get their attention. BBM used to be part of my daily life and to some extent still is because most of friends and family still use it now that its also available for Andriod and iOS users.

My favorite app is my iPhone banking application. The closest branch of the bank is like 40 miles away and it saves me time to deposit my checks by scanning them and entering them to the banking system. My favorite gadget is the shopping cart of any eCommerce application for example Amazon it gives a good look what you have so far no matter where you are on the website. I like some sports websites where you can see the life updates of the scores like the tennis site http://www.atpworldtour.com .

I just started using the website “Doodle” at work. For those that don’t know it is a scheduling website. It is relatively simple, but as I supervise student workers it is a great resource to see what dates/times work best for them rather than the endless and at times confusing email chains.
The apps on my phone are pretty basic, but I do utilize my Septa app for times/delays, and The Weather Channel app.
As I go to conferences and hear about social media being utilized in the workplace that is something that I would like to look into further, especially since I work with college students, its an area I am a bit behind on the times with.

What a great discussion thread! Hearing what my more “in the know” acquaintances are using is how I discover most new apps and devices I try.
Two things I’ve been into lately: strava, a social bicycle and running app, uses gps to plot your rides/runs, and lets you see where and when friends are riding, as well as compete with them over various “segments.”
While it’s not perfect, I’ve also been using tripit a lot, and it makes organizing my travel a lot easier. I’m thinking about upgrading to Tripit pro, and using it to track airline miles toward status, etc.

One of my favorite apps is Spotify. It is a music app that lets you search by artist, song, etc as most do. The beauty of spotify is two fold. First, you can create a custom radio station based off a song and spotify will play other simialr artists and songs. Since I have started my new job I find it very hard to research and identify new bands and music. With this app I can do this on the run now and always be up to date. The second unique thing about spotify is that you can save the music you find. Once saved spotify adds it to a folder for you and you can create custom playlists of your new found music. The pro version is also very cheap and allows you to save the songs locally as well.

One of my favorite apps is Mint.com. It allows me to set a monthly budget, view my spending habits and trends, and allow to me to monitor all of my accounts in one place. It’s really helped me get a better view of where I spend most of my money and places I can cut back to save.

My dream list includes two products that are supposed to hit the market in the next year or two. The first one is Jibo, the personal robot – looks pretty cool and is estimated to run about $600 (YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N1Q8oFpX1Y). It was developed by a professor at MIT and should sync with devices currently on the market, such as the iPhone.

The other one is a “kinetic charger for phones that we can power up while exercising”. It was developed by PhD students at Northwestern University and is essentially a self-charging charger for anything that goes off of USB (phones, tablets, etc.). It uses the same theory as self-winding watches and is supposedly going to be built out as substitute or possible replacement for these fitness trackers with an App that monitors your movements throughout the day (http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/money/2014/04/10/no-pain-no-gain-trio-northwestern-students-develop-phone-charger-powered-by/).

I recently purchased my iPhone 6 as an upgrade from the iPhone 4s. I love this gadget. The screen resolution, camera quality, the smooth interface transitions, and its user-friendly operating system makes the iPhone 6 hard to put down. I also like the additional security of the fingerprint recognition software that allows only my scanned fingerprints to access the phone.

I recently stumbled upon a site called Chegg.com. What i found it intriguing is that they are a company with many subsidiaries and Chegg is worth over a billion dollar.
It is also a public company listed under NYSE as CHGG. Founded in 2005 and has over 300+ employees globally. Chegg specializes in textbooks rental and online tutoring. Chegg is direct competitor with Amazon and B & N in terms of textbooks is concerned. Chegg has over 300 millions invested by VC.

One can say Chegg is the leader in textbook rentals business. The founders see Chegg themselves as Netflix in video streaming and rentals business but in textbook field.
I am deeply amazed and intrigued by what Chegg has accomplished from a couple of undergrad and 1 mba grad at Arizona State University.

I really enjoy using Pinterest. It’s definitely an app/website that I use on a daily basis as I’m always in search of new ideas and ways to categorize them. I mostly search for pins related to home decor, cooking and baking and most recently sewing. I’ve also used Pinterest to help with concepts in planning for events and to help find new ways to do things more effectively. I sometimes find it more helpful than Google because it accepts very specific search criteria and returns directly related and immediately useful content where Google might return anything and everything that falls into the category of being closely relevant and those results often require additional clicks to get to content that I can use.

One of my favorite websites is Lean Canvas (now at leanstack.com) — it is a simple, visual, 1-page, step-by-step business model construction application to map out a business plan quickly and concisely in a format that is easy to read, update, and share. I was introduced to the platform in MIS5108, and have since used it for several business ideas, both in and out of class.